Description In Siren Songs: Gender, Audiences, and Narrators in the Odyssey, Lillian Eileen Doherty shows us that the attitude of Odysseus, as well as of the Odyssey, is highly ambivalent toward women. Odysseus rewards supportive female characters by treating them as privileged members of the audience for his own tales. At the same time, dangerous female narrators--who threaten to disrupt or revise the hero's story--are discredited by the narrative framework in which their stories appear. Siren Songs synthesizes audience-oriented and narratological approaches, and examines the relationships among three kinds of audiences: internal, implied, and actual. The author prefaces her own reading of the Odyssey with an analysis of the issues posed by the earlier feminist readings on which she builds.
Do you agree that Shakespeare presents Beatrice and Katherina as “offending against society’s expectations about women”? The idea that both Beatrice and Katherina offend against society’s expectations of women in the plays Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew is open to personal interpretation. We must take into account which society it is we are suggesting they are offending against, if we are judging it on Shakespearean society’s expectations we could, in theory, agree with the statement, due to the fact that at that time, women were largely expected to be submissive, quiet and respectful to the superior sex, males. However, it would not be correct to say that Beatrice and Katherina offend against modern day expectations of women. Further to this, it would also depend on at which point in the play we are making our judgement.
Both Auden and Watson effectively form representations and perspectives through the implementation of techniques within their texts. Auden actively uses poetic techniques to display his own negative perspective regarding the power of dictators in "Epitaph of a Tyrant". Auden immediately creates an ambiguous environment as the first line states how dictators are after "perfection, of a kind". The slight pause after perfection satirises its positive connotation casting doubt upon the reader questioning what type of perfection that the dictators wanted. In addition, Auden further demonstrates his negative perspective through the comment on the amount of knowledge the dictators know; "[Dictators] knew human folly like the back of [their] hand".
mankind’s experience of evil, experience of guilt and separation. • Psychological study of typically romantic characters, e.g. Victor, Walton, Clerval… • The ‘monster’ himself has been studied in connection with Rousseau’s theory of man’s natural goodness perverted by a hostile environment. • A sociological approach to the novel stresses its importance as a social document, giving evidence of a woman’s role /family ties/ education, etc.. in the first decades of the 19th century. • Feminist critics are especially interested in issues concerning women’s culture.
However, not everyone agrees with the heavy stereotypes laid down by the social order such as male dominance and proper courting. Marie de France is one of these people. She depicts her views of gender expectations through literature. Within the poem Guigemar, Guigemar and his lady fulfill and contradict what would be considered as gender norms within society: female inferiority, traditional courtship, and male dominance. Marie de France does this to criticize and combat the societal expectations and inherent inequalities in Norman England.
Consider the effect conventional society has on the protagonists within both Wuthering Heights and Tess of the d’Urbervilles. In both “Wuthering Heights” and “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” the female characters are seen as subservient to their male counterparts and characters such as Heathcliff and Tess are treated as inferior as a result of their lower status. Both novels were considered to be unconventional because the authors explore taboo subjects such as ghosts, child abuse, rape and murder. The Protagonists are affected by societies expectations of the Victorian era that are forced upon them, which affects their actions; preventing their happiness and true love from flourishing. Victorian society held strong, conservative religious views.
English IV. Honors summer reading assignment Choice 1. Choose a complex and important character in Wuthering Heights who might—on the basis of the character's actions alone—be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.
Through the use of conventions such as characterisation we find that the theme of prejudice is explored in to kill a mockingbird. Innocence is represented through symbols and literal meanings. the use of innocence in the novel highlights the theme of prejudice and influences the response from the reader. As the story evolves we find that maycomb is not all that it seems to the protagonist scout and her brother jem, as they grow older they experience the harsh reality of prejudice and eventually see the unjust end it takes on Tom Robisnson we find that prejudice is an integral part to the structure of "to kill a mockingbird" The idea of innocence is conveyed through the characterisation of Boo Radley, Boo Radleys innocence in the eyes of maycomb influences main ideas and meanings. Innocence is shown through the characterisation of Boo as a harmless man, he lives with his brother and leaves the house rarely he has little protection from the outside world, this can be related to a section of the book where Atticus says to scout and jem "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
Analyse a text connected with your degree subject by applying the ideas of either: (a) Marx AND Althusser, or (b) Freud AND Lacan Repression according to psychoanalytical theory is the pushing down or holding back on one’s desires (wishes or even feelings) from the conscious mind. In this essay I will be applying this branch of theory to the novel ‘A room with a view’ and the characters in them. Language and imagery will be used to support or be used to disagree with the theories and ideas of Freud and Lacan. In the novel there is a strong opposition between society and sexuality, and in psychoanalytical terms can be read as being conscious and unconscious. This is in seen in the main protagonist of Lucy where she struggles to find middle ground for her desires and social acceptability.
How a Marxist Reading of Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover identifies social inequality in Victorian England. Marxist paradigm focuses upon the realm of economics; proposing that history has been shaped through the struggle of the working class to achieve equality and fairness. Marxism then is often applied to literature; demonstrating how authors explore equality and inequalities in society. An effective and diverse application of the theory is seen within Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue, Porphyria's Lover, in which Browning illustrates a love affair between people of different social groups and the role of ‘the artist’ in capitalist and patronage context. Marxism identifies the inequality in Porphyria’s Lover through sociological symbols.