Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton, is a marvelous novel that contains countless numbers of themes that touch the lives of people even today. Set in the odd, gloomy, desolate town of Starkfield, Ethan Frome explains one's need for affection, and belonging in society, sometimes only brought about by tragedy. The themes of the novel solely surround the main characters of Ethan Frome, Zeena Frome (Ethan's wife), and Mattie Silver (a distant cousin of Zeena's). The most important theme in this novel deals with the emotional status of Ethan Frome. The appearance, character, and actions of Zeena Frome and Mattie Silver provide an emotional rock for Ethan to stand upon, as well as base his decisions upon.
In pre-civil war Mississippi, this may have been a normal occurrence but in civil rights movement Mississippi, this definitely would not have happened. Much of the racial bias was portrayed with accuracy but Haynes missed the mark with the degree of cruelty and violence. The normalcy surrounding the two Lesbian women, Bea Godnst and Neva Landry, daily lives being accepted into the narrow-minded culture borders absurdity for that era and for their sexual orientation. Mississippi in the 1950s was an unaccepting culture unto its own narrow-minded way of thinking, even to the blacks desperately wanting change. The audience witnesses this when Canaan Mosley, an older well-read black man speaks about
A difference of opinion or a clash of personality is bound to occur every now and then. In Bloom’s How To Write about Tennessee Williams, scholar Jennifer Banach gives the reader an insight into the Wingfield family when she notes, “…the characters are deeply complex, round characters. They are not only individuals with their own personalities and flaws, but they are also able to represent something greater” (89). In Tennessee Williams’ acclaimed drama The Glass Menagerie, Tom Wingfield is pushed to the limit by his overbearing mother; as a result, he makes a life-changing decision which affects the entire family. Tom serves as a round character.
During the time that Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper women were expected to fulfill their duties as wives and mothers and spend there lives at home. The story expresses the differences and hardships women went through. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a “middle-class wife driven mad by a patriarchy controlling her ‘for her own good’”(Lanser 415). But this is just a reflection of how society was. Women were trapped in a male-dominated world.
I think Ms. Kim may have experienced “culture shock” when she arrived to Queens and realized this was not a dream, but her horrible reality. Ms. Kim no longer had the safety net of a wealthy family that secured her thoughts, dreams and actions. All she had at this moment was nothing compared to how she was accustomed to living. Another part of this essay that I found interesting was the language barrier that affected Suki Kim’s mentality when she first arrived to Queens. I thought it was amazing how unfamiliar she was with cultures outside her own.
Unsex Me Here In her essay Shakespeare’s Sister, Virginia Woolf analyzes the reasons behind the lack of female authors in Elizabethan England despite it being such a prominent time for literature. She discovers that, according to the history books, women at the time had very little rights and were tragically mistreated members of society. On the contrary, the women pictured in the works of art at the time were smart and cunning, or at the very least had strong, influential personalities. One of these women being Lady Macbeth from The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Woolf interprets the contrast between the women in fiction and the real women of the period as evidence that the famous characters are nothing but impossibilities imagined upon by men.
Not only does the alternate ending fail to depict the message of liberal feminism that is shown through the original ending, the alternate ending is not consistent with the direction of the rest of the play. For example, Nora’s reason for staying in the alternate ending is her children. However, she shows little evidence of strong maternal instinct throughout the play. Indications of this can be seen much earlier in the action, when Nora is talking to her Nurse about her own childhood: “NURSE: Poor little Miss Nora, you never had any mother but me. NORA: And if my little ones had no one else, I know you would
The Invisible Cage Pride and Prejudice In the nineteenth century society, the options of choosing husbands for unmarried women are limited due to the reason that the society has prescribed a set of values for them. The English society associated the entrance of a woman into the public with a reprehensible loss of femininity. Jane Austen, the author of the novel Pride and Prejudice herself suffers in this era by not allowed to be acknowledged as the author for her books. In Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice, she depicts how young men and women behave in the society and how they set up their life and social position for their own desires. With this background, Jane tries to deliver the message that the people were restrained and they suffered by the rules set by the society such as family reputation, women’s position, and class division.
Jane goes against many traditional female archetypes by developing great psychological, intellectual and moral behaviour that is not typical of a woman growing up during these times. Charlotte Bronte exhibits her understanding of the situations and hardships that everyday women as well as Jane, had to face living in the Victorian oppressive society. In the introductory setting of the novel, Jane Eyre resides in Gateshead; an estate now owned by her aunt and inhabited by Jane, and her spoiled cousins. It becomes clear within the first few pages of the book that she is residing in an incredibly hostile environment. Jane goes into great detail to describe her unfulfilled and discriminated life living with her relatives, and one altercation of many, is highlighted to great significance in the story.
It’s is amazing that the facts he refers to from the 19th century that were actually accepted as scientific evidence are laughed at today. Nobody in today’s world would say that women are less intelligent then men, simply because their brain is smaller in size. Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House also shows this how women were seen, however Ibsen also helps to change the way that women were perceived. The story centers around a young girl named Nora Helmer, who is constrained to society s view of her gender’s role, and desperately tries to find herself in the midst of it all. In the attempt to save her husband s life and pride, she secretly borrowed money to use for his recovery from a deadly illness.