Especially when she reminisces in the final stanza about the time she was young and beautiful, illustrating her complete lack of confidence. Nevertheless, she is still presented as a foul character who threatens the reader, with the line ‘Be terrified’. The poem also ends with the line ‘Look at me now’ which has a double entendre (double meaning). It could be read as a cry of despair or, as a threat – if you did look at Medusa you would die! This leaves the reader feeling conflicting emotions for the character, probably similar to how Medusa herself feels in the poem.
The first refrain, “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead”, both contrasts and shares parallel structure with the second line, “I lift my lids and all is born again” (1, 2). By purposefully creating a structural contradiction, Plath draws focus to both a theme in the poem and a view of her own: people see things not as they are, but as the people themselves are, the world is a reflection of the person observing it (Buckley). This obscurity in reality is what creates the conflict for the speaker. The second refrain, “I think I made you up inside my head”, brings instability and self-doubt into the poem as the speaker questions if the one she loved so much, the one who still gives her so much pain, ever existed to begin with. The fact that this line was chosen as the second refrain, reappearing at the end of many stanzas including the first, and is always surrounded by parentheses seems to indicate that it is meant as a second thought for the speaker, a doubt of sanity always present and something thought only to herself, not to the “you” she is addressing, who is likely the one she
Two Beats One and Three Lorrie Moore writes an extremely maddening short story in the few pages of How. She quickly enrages the reader with the subject of the directions she gives in such a way that in How most readers would tag on the end of the title to not Behave in a Relationship. Moore gives directions in second person where to find a man as a romantic partner, fall in love with him, have a few affairs, and then leave him while he is undergoing a cancer diagnosis, with a few less meaningful events in between. Though who is at fault for the break-up is a point of contention in the analysis of How, the far more prominent issue is discussing whether or not second person is effective in making How a successful piece of satire and a generally good piece of literature. And through even relatively shallow literary analysis, one would be able to see that such a story as this is better off in second person as opposed to third or first person for a few reasons.
The narrator’s obsession with the wallpaper that surrounds her bedroom begins merely as intrigue and climaxes to a point where reality and what she imagines within the wallpaper becomes blurred. This climax represents her journey from rationality to insanity as the wallpaper becomes more twisted and alive around her. This wallpaper ultimately represents the oppression of her mind that is being caused by her post partum depression, as well as her husband’s ineffective healing methods. At first she finds the wallpaper being “one of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Gilman 988). This could be a representation of the beginning of her depression which was initially just an annoyance to her which she does not fully understand.
She makes clear that she believes her position as a woman during her time is unfair, and that she feels restricted because of this. She states this in her poem when she says, Virtue and custom are at odds, and deep within my heart contend, my anguished heart will agonize until the two their combat end” (Sor Juana, 145). Here, Sor Juana references both “virtue and custom” and how they are forces that act against each other; they work inside of her, pulling her in many different directions. She feels restricted by what she is expected and required by society to do and how she desires to live and act. She furthers this idea by playing with the imagery of light, dark, and shadow.
Alcoholism, Dysfunction, and Mental Illness in Modernistic Writers The Era of modernist literature would seem to be a part or a side of life that most everyone has or will experience. While we may not fully understand what is happening or why we are experiencing these things I personally believe these experiences are what lead to being a talented and appreciated writer. One of the more prominent themes we see in modernism is alienation or estrangement. This can often lead to the feeling of being extremely alone, which can lead to an individual acting out, which in turn leads to being misunderstood and wrongfully judged. The feeling of being alone is a desperate loneliness, you feel lost and at times it can feel as if you are drowning in a sea of nothingness.
The constant reference to this mercenary language makes it clear that the speaker feels that belonging is not a positive, warm and joyous experience for her, but rather, a cold and clinical one, that leaves her ‘insolvent’. I had been hungry all the years: Explain how Dickinson employs contrast in this poem. Emily Dickinson takes the reader on a journey over the course of this poem, from an initial desire to belong, through the experience of belonging, and finally to a reflection of how she feels about that experience. There is a clear contrast between the language at the beginning of the poem and the language at the end. This poem employs the allegory of hunger to describe the speaker’s initial desire to belong.
Staci Whitten Kamrar Writing 115 4-20-11 My Response on, I want a Wife, By Judy Brady The article I Want a Wife, by Judy Brady was a very up- setting, heart racing and a very mind boggling article to have to read. I thought this essay was a piece of crap. I thought it was very sexist, and is very degrading on women. If I would be able to say a few words to the author I’d tell them that they should be a shamed of writing this. When I first started reading this i started getting upset than my feeling of upset went to mad, then that went from mad to beyond pissed off.
In the beginning, you immediately feel the isolation of the room in which our character lives, but you quickly figure she is there for a reason. In her writing in secret and disagreeing with physicians at all cost, you feel sorry for her, but also question if she is of right mind. There are times you are angry with the husband, but you know that is how it was at that time with how he treats her. I would agree most people reading would assume she is crazy and then see the clues that lead to postpartum depression and see the husband as not all bad. You cannot trust that her view of any reality when she seems most lucid is even clear enough for anything when you realize her state of mind.
This gives me the image of Plath standing in front of the mirror and crying, rubbing her hands uncomfortably. I feel this reflects how the poet is truly feeling and how unhappy she is with her life, thus revealing a tormented and anguished persona. I believe we have all felt like this at one time or another when we have stood in front of a mirror. It may have been a physical defect or an internal unhappiness, which torments us and leads to anguish and despair. In the poem “The Times are Tidy” which is about the loss of imagination and excitement, Plath laments the loss of legendary heroism, medieval dragons and wicked witches.