LADY MACBETH AND MISS HAVISHAM ARE BOTH PRESENTED AS BEING DAMAGED AND DISTURBED COMPARE THE WAYS THAT DICKENS AND SHAKESPEARE PRESENT THESE DAMAGED CHARECTERS. In the following essay I shall analyse various quotations from both Charles Dickens “Great Expectations (1861)” and William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth (1606)”, to compare the way in which the main female characters have been presented as damaged and disturbed. The two main characters of which I shall be making a comparison of are Lady Macbeth from Macbeth and Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Both characters have a reason to be presented as being damaged and disturbed, whether or not the reason is valid for the presentation is for you to decide. The play of Macbeth was set in the reign of two different monarchs these were Elizabeth I and James I.
Through any and every writing, an author has a point hidden within literary elements. With literary elements authors develop a style to their writing to prove the point they intended from the beginning. There are many various literary elements to make up a rhetorical situation, to develop a side of ideas, some very commonly used in especially rhetorical situations. Like allusion, hyperbole, rhetorical questions, hypophora, and commonly simile. Mohandas K. Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau speak of and develop similar government opinions and points, through their interpretations of Civil Disobedience through literary elements; they prove similar points of civil disobedience but with their own style of writing and use of rhetorical devices.
In this assignment I will be arguing the effects of degeneration in Fin de Siècle novels, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray I will explore the relevance of the Victorian ‘Double’ or duality of the soul in relation to my chosen texts and also the ambivalence of homosocial desire and how the lines between close bonds of men blur into the idea of homosexuality, also providing contextual references to the views of homosexuality in the Victorian age. The year Robert Louis Stevenson published The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, French Scientists were studying a patient at Rochefort Asylum, whom displayed a case of multiple personality, and suffered from “Male Hysteria.” Elaine Showalter states in her article “Louis V’s hysterical attacks had begun in adolescence… having been a “quiet, well behaved and obedient” street urchin, he abruptly became “violent, greedy and quarrelsome,” This quote could tie in with the creation of Mr Hyde, for Showalter dubs Stevenson’s novel ‘a case study of male hysteria’, in the way that the story is written about male bonds, and the men are seemingly abstinent from the relations of women. Jekyll states in his confession “man is not only one, but truly two… If each, I told myself, could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable.’‘ This could translate to a dichotomy of ‘good versus evil’ for Emile Batault, a scholar of male hysteria observed that hysterical men were “timid and fearful… soft, poetic and languorous. Coquettish and eccentric, they prefer ribbons and scarves to hard manual labour… the male hysteric is seen as expressing his bisexuality or homosexuality through the language of the body.” It can be questioned that the Duality of Jekyll and Hyde, is an allegory for male/female desires, Showalter also
Jane Austen's Emma, written in 1816, reflects a period of historical, social and industrial change in Britain. The era in which Austen writes Emma, has been termed the "Romantic Period". During this period, literary authors portrayed and questioned the evolutionary changes that were taking place at the time. The novel depicts various themes, the most prominent being social status and class. The importance of societal structures will be addressed by analysing the explicit and implicit references relating to characters and their relationships.
‘Why is Sixty Lights worthy of critical study and inclusion on the HSC Prescriptions List for module B- Critical Study of Text?’ The novel Sixty Lights has been included on the HSC Prescriptions List for Module B because it is worthy for critical study as it is a diverse piece of literature covering significant topics that have been ignored in the modern world. We enter the lyrical and image-laden world of Sixty Lights. It’s a tale, resplendent in colour and imagery, set across two worlds - the constrained and stilted world of Victorian England, and the chaotic danger and abandon of India. Gail Jones creates literature, like Shakespeare, but in this particular piece explores the significance behind photographs and what they represent.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells was published in 1895 in England, during the time called the Victorian Era. The ideas about evolution called Social Darwinism along with Marxist ideas of class-consciousness became very popular in English society. Those ideas find reflections in The Time Machine, bringing up the questions of the directions of social development and the problems of capitalist influence on human personality. The picture of society set in 802,701 A.D. encountered by the Time Traveller on the surface seems very different from the modern England the protagonist is familiar with.
The presentation of society and social class are significant in Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest', written in 1895, and George Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion', written in 1912. Each author uses a variety of techniques to explore the extent in which characters and events portray society and the social class in the era of which they are written. Morality in society is a significant aspect in which both Wilde and Shaw present through characterisations.Wilde uses Algernon’s character to make witty comments such as “more than half a modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read”. This suggests the restrictions and assumptions which create a strict moral code existing in Victorian society; furthermore, this use of epigram allows Wilde to emphasize the mockery towards social morality. This view is supported by David Parker, who establishes the play as “Restoration Comedy”, implying Wilde does not deal with the problems of society in an orthodox manner as most plays do but
“The Awakening” By Kate Chopin Kate Chopin uses many different situations and different settings in the novel “The Awakening” to get her points and aspects of the story across to the readers. Throughout the story Chopin also uses many different literary techniques and situations to explain the characters and their place within the story. Chopin seems to be very specific at points, but also very vague when brining new characters into the story and the meaning behind such characters. From the many different aspects of the story the significance of the ending of the novel seems to be the most important and most interesting within the works writing. Chopin seems to use many different themes and symbols throughout the story to portray Edna’s character and way of life that causes the many problems and difficulties for her.
Class: The Very Nature of Identity Whether a person comes from the rich, moderately rich, middle class, or the very poor, class distinction is extremely prevalent in Victorian literature, especially as to what one is worth in society. Characters from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations are at the heart of this statement and, with the help of James Eli Adams’ article, on The boundaries of social intercourse’: Class in the Victorian Novel, I will discuss social classes represented by Dickens. This will show how the audiences is motivated to think about the effects social position has on individual identity by illustrating the different lifestyles and behaviors associated in Victorian society that depict a clear separation of social class. First of all, social class is a central theme of the social order illustrated in Great Expectations. Social class determines the custom for how one is treated in society.
As the contemporary influences of time affect the idea of the texts, in this essay I will be comparing how scientific advances affected literature. Firstly, John Donne, who is frequently referred to as the dominant figure of a school of 17th century English writers known as the metaphysical poetswhose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion included controversial opinions of science which questioned the legitimacy of religion. Secondly in the novel, “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy, which presents complex pictures of the importance of social class in nineteenth-century England and the difficulty of defining class, writing at the time of the industrial revolution. And finally “Wit”, a play written in 1995 by Margaret Edson whose main protagonist was a professor of John Donnes’ poetry, (tying in with his metaphysical style and how a modern professor interprets them).The relative ideas are therefore different because of the time the play was written in. John Donne was born a Catholic and gained notoriety with a small circle of admirers for his controversial poetry and later in life became an Anglican priest.