Major Themes Appearance vs. reality This issue is especially relevant to Iago. Although he is called "honest" by almost everyone in the play, he is treacherous, deceitful, and manipulative. Also applies to Desdemona, as Othello believes that she is deceitful and impure, although she is really blameless and innocent. Race Race is an extremely important theme; it has a great amount of influence on how people regard Othello‹for those who distrust black people merely on looks never like Othello, like Iago. Race also determines how Othello perceives himself as a rough outsider, though he is nothing of the sort.
Through his conversation with the Bennets, Jane Austen portrays the way in which Mr Collins is pretentious and pompous. Elizabeth and Mr Bennet make clear to the reader the fact that he is conceited; yet he still maintains a sycophantic behaviour where Lady Catherine is concerned. Mr Collins is shown to be superficial and pretentious; it is done through his conversation with the Bennets and Mr Bennet and Elizabeth commenting on his behaviour. When asked by Mr Bennet whether his “pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment”, Mr Collins replies he “always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible”. Mr Bennet purposefully asks such a question in order to satirise Mr Collins and due to this, it shows that Mr Collins prepares compliments and tries to not make it known that it is rehearsed, portraying his pretentious nature.
Elizabeth is one character that has very few thoughts on money and social positions, and because of this is able to rely her own judgements on characteristics and personalities. Elizabeth’s misconceptions of characters are clearly shown with Darcy and Wickham. At the beginning of the novel she is anything but fond of Darcy and believes that Wickham is a good man. She then goes to state… “There certainly was some great mismanagement I the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.” It this Elizabeth is stating that Wickham is basically evil and that Darcy is not.
However I feel like the most important is “You seem to be under the impression that there is a special breed of bad humans. There is no such thing as a stereotype bad man in this world. Under normal conditions, everybody is more or less good, or, at least, ordinary. But tempt them, and they may suddenly change. That is what is so frightening about men.” There are many themes that the story deals with.
Blanche is likely disliked for being prejudiced, and Stanley garners some favour for being the classic hard-working American. The nuances of speech cement class context, illustrate the differences of social status and education. The very marked differences between Stanley and Blanche are stressed by Stanley's ‘ straight, simple and honest’ non-grammatical, coarse, often slangy speech as against Blanche's high-flown rhetoric often comes across false, ensuring one doesn’t forget of her education. Blanche speaks with an undeniable lyrical quality, although often melodramatic, emphasis largely on her own emotions. Blanche is aware of her aging and fears her fading looks.
“Here you get hacked into pieces just for wearing glasses!” (Babel 231), the commander’s response to the fact that the narrator was an educated person who could read and write unlike other members of the Sixth Division and consequently did not fit in with them. The quartermaster warns the narrator, “a man of high distinguishings they’ll chew up and spit out - but ruin a lady, yes, the most cleanest lady, and you’re the darling of the fighters!” (Babel 231). This gives the Lyutov a clue about the fact that people in the Sixth Division value violence and cruelty and they only treat
Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty”(Baldwin, 496). Most readers will probably fall somewhere in the middle of these two extreme opinions. No matter if one enjoys the book or loathes it, it can’t be denied that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a very influential American Classic. Some people even go as far as to speculate that Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped prompt Abraham Lincoln to start the Civil War (Ohio History Central). Even if the influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the civil war is just a blown up myth, the book definitely had an impact on how people thought about how their religion and slavery were related.
Dickens castigates this class system through the foils of Estella and Biddy, Magwitch’s generosity, and Jaggers’ coolly indifferent ethics. The drastic differences in social status of Biddy and Estella molds them into very different people, with conflicting values and traits. Biddy is compassionate and approachable, Pip “repose[s] complete confidence in no one but Biddy” (95). Biddy, being raised lower class, is shocked at first to discover Pip’s desire to become a gentleman, “Oh I wouldn’t, if I was you!” (128). A working class citizen is no less respectable than a gentleman in Biddy’s eyes, it is the character of the person that truly matters.
Although his actions are very insane, they can be seen as rational to reader considering hedonism. Devotion to pleasure, hedonism, makes Dorian be deceitful about his true self by deflecting the attention of the public from the mad man to the beautiful and intelligent gentlemen. Dorian is, young, sensitive, and emotional, meaning that he is susceptible to manipulation. Lord Henry takes advantage of that opportunity and gives Dorian the yellow book; this book opens up the world of hedonism and aestheticism which eventually turns his young life into an eternal oblivion of misery. Dorian develops a fear of aging so he tries to live his life as if it was his last day on earth.
“his heart was pure and terrible”. His strictness can be shown through his censorship of reading materials. Walt Whitman, for example, was considered “too inappropriate” and novels had to be smuggled into the house. In response, Emily was highly deferential to her father and other male figures of authority. But in her own way she loved and respected her father, even if at times, he appeared to be unfriendly.