Edited by CURRER BELL’, for this presentation is highly significant for a contextual appreciation of Charlotte Brontë’s first published novel. There has already been some work on the names of characters within the novel, looking at possible symbolism (e.g. ‘Eyre’, ‘rivers’, ‘reed’), literary allusions (‘Edward Fairfax’ and ‘Rochester’), biblical allusions (‘St John’) and the ordinariness of the name ‘Jane’.2 A focus on the framing provided by the title page with respect to name will offer further insights into the importance ‘names and naming’ have for the author, and insights into how ‘names and naming’ are being carefully handled in this mid-nineteenth-century context. Following on from this, we can see how such an
Texts are often reshaped and appropriated to relate to the modern context. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen is an example of this, as Fay Weldon’s expostulatory novel, Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen, analyses the central themes and values of the text and creatively reshapes them to make it more relevant for the modern audience. Values presented in Pride and Prejudice such as morality in marriage and the value of education. These values have been creatively reshaped in Letters to Alice, thereby allowing a wider audience to comprehend the themes presented. 09 concept, but is still presented in Pride and Prejudice.
How has the study of Emma and its appropriate clueless developed your understanding of how context influenced values? -Select at least 2 significant moments of Austen’s Emma and analyse how these moments are considered in order to create meaning in Heckerling’s Clueless. In your response focus on ideas, context, values and language. Heckerling’s Clueless (1995) is transformed through Austen’s 19th Century novel, Emma, where the plot and characters have been transformed to suit Heckerling’s context and contemporary audience. Despite the shift in context from 19th century England to late 20th century Beverly Hills, Austen’s main plot and ideas have been retained to a great degree.
Vincente CHAUMONT Literature | “At the end of the novel, however, she [Bathsheba] has learned through her suffering account of Boldwood and Troy how to value Gabriel so Oak’s patience is rewarded at last.” (BABB)Is this an over-simplistic view of character in Far From the Madding Crowd? | N.B: In order to facilitate the reading, references to the source book will be inserted into brackets whereas references to literary criticism will be inserted in footnotes. In 1859, George Meredith, one of Hardy’s contemporary poet and novelist, remarked in his novel The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: “I expect that Woman will be the last thing civilized by man.” Although “so monstrous a scorn” must have produced more than “some excitement […] in the bosoms of ladies”, such statement still splendidly reflects common thought on women during the Victorian Age. As a matter of fact, women held a second-rate position within British society during the whole of the nineteenth century. Yet, by the end of Victoria’s reign, industrialization, urbanization and the development of new theories on biological evolution fostered radical changes.
Austen achieves this purpose through the themes she portrays throughout the novel. Courtship and marriage play major roles in “Emma.” All of the conflicts throughout the novel also revolve around these topics, particularly finding appropriate matches. In this way, Austen presents marriage as a fundamental aspect of society during the time period the novel was written. While marriage does provide romantic purposes, it also upholds the class structure of the community by ensuring that individuals marry appropriately and into the correct social class. In the novel we see that Harriet and Mr Martin would be a suitable match, however Emma guides Harriet against marrying Mr Martin, as she believes that Mr Elton would be better suited.
These genres, popular in the Victorian times, were created inter alia with a view to describing and understanding reality and history. In such works verisimilitude was one of the crucial features. Thus, the realism and detailed descriptions of well-known places led to confusion between the real and the fictitious. As Linda Hutcheon claims in her essay, the clear division between literature and history appeared only in the twentieth century and was soon blurred by the postmodern writers. The current tendency of historiography is to stress the similarities and common features of history and literature (71 – 6).
Abstract: This article intends to analyze the critical realism writing style in J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy by focusing on the narration of Chapter One and the first part of Chapter Two. Combining with a brief review of the theory of critical realism in fictions, which debuted in the 19th century English literature, the passage finally gives a personal understanding of the writing style. Key Words: Critical Realism, Characteristics, features, society 1. Preface As J.K. Rowling's first novel for grown-ups, The Casual Vacancy is an impressive work with adult features. The novel can be regarded as a major turning point of Rowling’s writing career, for she took a giant step to move beyond the magic, after the big success of the Harry Potter series.
What is special about this novel is that the title of the novel indirectly signifies the themes of the story. Pride and prejudice are the two major themes portrayed in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. These two themes are actually exemplified through the main and minor characters in the novel. As mentioned by Mary at the beginning of the novel, “I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it.” (Vol. 1 chap.5, pg 14).
Favourite comparative text essay: Mod A Essay: Pride and Prejudice + Letters to Alice An examination of Austen’s 1813 social satire, Pride and Prejudice and Weldon’s 1984 epistolary novel Letters to Alice enriches the reader’s understanding of the effects of contexts and questions of values, by the consideration of their attitudes to marriage and theories about a moral education. Through their texts, they critique and present the views they feel are detrimental to their society and seek to encourage their audience to question their values, leading the reader to a new appreciation of each context and of the texts themselves. Despite the shift in context from the 18th to the 20th Century, the role of marriage for women remains a common connection between the two texts. Women in Georgian England were bound by restrictions such as law of primogeniture to marry. This was considered “the only honourable provision” for a woman to retract a potential husband, to supply her with stability, and economic continuity.
As the context is altered from Jane Austen's 19th century novel, Emma to the late 20th century film, Clueless directed by Amy Heckerling, the initial attitudes towards the existence of patriarchy in society remain of concern but adjust to their new backgrounds. Austen’s novel, through Emma’s self-improvement shows the notions of the importance of marriage, as a subjectification of women and also uses the characters of Emma to challenge society’s patriarchy and Mr. Knightley as the male archetype to whom Emma must impress, whereas Heckerling transforms these ideas to the importance of dating, and Cher’s need for Josh’s approval, with the remaining of both their requirement of improving themselves. Emma makes a statement on the notions of female independence, and subtly confronts the values of her 19th century patriarchal context. Women’s roles in society at this time were solely marital and maternal, with writers such as Rousseau stating the idea that women must be subservient, dutiful and devoted to the men in their lives. The book firmly projects the patriarchal society as the context: “A young woman, if she falls into bad hands may be teased…but one cannot comprehend a young man’s being under such restraint.” This language, although satirical reaffirms a main attitude existent in the context of Regency England.