Through representation of symbols in their stories Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Margaret Atwood describe what madness feels like and how symbols can make the invisible visible. Symbols in literature serve as representation of something by association or resemblance. Symbols can further mean, in psychological terms, an object or image representing thoughts, feelings or impulses. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s main character is a young married female, circa the late 1800’s telling the story of her depressive state. The first description she gives of her environment “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house…” suggests a gothic-like setting seemingly dark, gloomy and old (73).
- Title is generalized (doesn't actually state the name of the museum): this creates a sense of personal detachment from the museum which reinforces Skryznecki's apathy towards the place. This could also be double entendre/pun with the reference to 'folk' possibly meaning his ancestors. - The references to darkness personify it as a pervasive, harmful entity - to use a cliché, his past is coming back to haunt him. - Skryznecki denies his past, believing it is irrelevant. This is coupled with the fact that the imagery of the museum is particularly tedious and monotonous [e.g.
These individuals are uneasy and uncomfortable in the acting as if they belong in a world that they distain and one that looks down on and despises them for not belonging. “This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me” [poem 66] This quote is of individuals who as a result of them failing to conform to the social pressures of contemporary have gained the status of outsiders, not belonging to the greater populace and ignored by it. Dickinson also has conveyed the message of those individuals that are introverts or for other reasons that labels them as outsiders that are tortured and killed from the inside when they are force to belong that of which they so clearly have no part of. Dickinson conveys her message with dark, death focused imagery that reflects the attitude of society towards her, individuals like her and the harm of forceful belonging. This quote identifies that message of harmful force of belonging, that of which is out of place “The plenty hurt me ‘twas so new.
This also emphasis the strong essence of fear in the poem as it strikes fear upon the reader knowing that this could have happened to them! Fear, suffering, and death are all main themes of the poem emphasized by the techniques used throughout the poem. These techniques include: repetition ‘waving, waving’ links to suffering as they show that that the victims were hopelessly waving for attention to be rescued but they knew this would never happen, they would could only stay and bear the heat of the fire or jump. Rhetorical questions ‘So when will you come?’ and ‘Does anyone see a soul worth saving?’ these link to both suffering because it’s basically asking a question to yourself, they did not expect an answer but they still hope someone would. This is also a good example and how alone people were in the burning buildings.
The Conversation’s absence of sound in many shots represents the ambiguity and absence of the reality in the line “He’d kill us if he had the chance” and the lack of love and emotion in Harry Caul’s life. Sound and speech is incredibly subjective and is very dependent on perspective. For example, screams can often be interpreted in two ways; one being out of fear, and the other being out of excitement. This sort of misconception is extremely similar to that of which occurs in The Conversation. The misinterpretation of the line “He’d kill us if he had the chance” causes an extreme amount of confusion and drama.
At first, the image is one of stillness, harmony, yet there is an edge of suspense as the language evokes a world dominated by dark colors, water, sorrow and sleep. "The grain of his wrists/is like bog oak" begins a list like description of the exhibit, for this victim is not a victim but a work of art. There is no commentary on these images, human feeling and empathy are noticeably absent, leaving just an attempt to accurately define the beautiful horror the viewer seems to see. The body has been established as art, and the viewer describes it as such. There is less myth-making, the terror here, unlike Tollund Man, comes as the peaceful image of sleep is turned into a fearful picture of violent death.
In the beginning of Penelope’s narrative, As Penelope often reminds us, she is a ghost speaking from beyond the grave, trapped in her ‘state of bonelessness, liplessness, breastlessness’(p. 1) and trying to make herself heard as she tells her tales about ancient Greece and about the other ghosts down with her in the Underworld, ‘But when I try to scream, I sound like an owl’ (p. 2). This obsession with the transgression of boundaries between the living and the dead, which is one of the markers of Gothic
ISOLATION IN MARIANA The main female character which features in Tennyson’s ‘Mariana’ is one which embodies melancholy isolation. The poem is based on Shakespeare’s play ‘Measure for Measure’ whereby Mariana is waiting for her lover, Angelo, who has abandoned her. The poem is set within a ‘moated grange’, which immediately gives a sense of loneliness; a despairing woman lying within a landscape of decay. The ‘moated grange’ is not a specific location, but a one which appears to occupy a liminal place outside of normality, contrasting to its normal association with fertility and growth, which only emphasises what Mariana doesn’t have. Descriptions such as ‘thickly crusted’ and ‘thickest dark’ suggest a heavy, almost chocking sense of seclusion, creating layers within the poem which line the physical and mental landscape.
English Essay To what extent is the future doomed in Eliot’s poetry? T.S Eliot’s poems “The Waste Land”, “Hollow Men”, and “The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock” explore the sense of doom and failure that existed in the desolate perspective of life after World War I. Eliot believed that modern society lacked a vital sense of community and a spiritual centre. The poem, “The Waste Land” presents a series of conversations or scenes that lead through the wasteland to a moment of hope, the expectation of rain, at the end. The poem expresses the disillusionment of the post war years, the anguish and barrenness of modern life and the isolation of the individual. It deals with the decline of civilisation and the impossibility of recovering meaning in life.
White Noise is based on a depressing world view. Jack asks: “why do these possessions carry such sorrowful weight? There is a darkness attached to them, a foreboding” (6), why would this view be interpreted over possessions like boxes? That is a very disappointing outlook on life! This dreadful view throughout the novel is also expressed when Murray explains that “once you are out of school, it is only a matter of time before you experience the vast loneliness and dissatisfaction of consumers…” (50).