Explore the ways disturbed characters are presented in Shakeapeare’s Macbeth and Browning’s My Last Duchess, The Laboratory and Porphyria’s Lover. This is essentially a “use of language” essay, you need to show HOW the disturbed natures of the characters are conveyed, not just say how they show themselves. The essential point of this essay is to demonstrate what Shakespeare and Browning DO to convey the disturbed nature of the characters – not just saying what disturbed things the characters say or do, but what poetic and dramatic techniques the authors use to show their distrurbed natures. You MUST use quotations to back up every point you make. If you are hoping for the highest grades (B and above) you must make comparisons between the characters in the poems and Lady Macbeth.
Miller takes the “woman scorned” approach to his character of Abigail. Abigail’s assertiveness is observed early when she tells her uncle “the rumour of witchcraft is all about; I think you'd best go down and deny it yourself,". This remark, within the confines of a deeply hierarchical and patriarchal society, shows her to have knowledge of social situations and also that she does not conform to the Puritan society, which has already been evidenced by her affair with John Proctor. She is spiteful which helps to build the classic “woman scorned” role which Miller moulds her into: “Oh, I marvel how such
Despite being written during patriarchal Jacobean society, the protagonist is a female, which is was highly unusual in those days. Of course this protagonist is Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play, through Lady Macbeth's actions we are forced to believe that she is evil. In contrast, the novel John Steinbeck tells a story of dreams, hopes and loneliness. We are introduced to a majorly significant and complex character, named Curley’s wife.
During this phase the perpetrator gains access to the child, engages him or her, and conveys to the child that the behavior is acceptable. The engagement phase occurs in Bastard Out of Carolina because of Glen’s marriage to Bone’s mother Anney which gives him access to Bone. Glen’s lack of love from his own family and his desire to have Anney all to his self is what leads him to abuse Bone. Glen has always had a temper but his temper changes to rage which fuels the abuse. What conveys the behavior as acceptable most to Bone is the way her mother learns about the abuse and refuses to leave Glen.
Bradstreet’s use of metaphor allows her to relate the complex relationships of being a parent to being an author. When the narrator calls her creation her “ ill-formed offspring of [her] feeble brain” she draws parallels between how parents can feel about their children when frustrated (line 1). The narrator refers to her work as a “ rambling brat” to show how difficult it is to accept something she has created (7). The narrator seems to feel this difficulty not only as an author but also as a mother. As a frustrated parent feels the narrator once again uses the metaphor of a child to describe how an author feels when their work does not turn out how they wanted.
Motherhood and marriage is seen to be a key factor in the society of which The Bell Jar is set ,and is portrayed as one of the things that supresses female identity when Esther is asked to be “Mrs Buddy Willard” as if she is owned by Buddy and not her own person. Even though Top Girls is set in 1980’s England while Margret Thatcher is Prime Minister, it shows direct correlations to the ideas shown in The Bell Jar. Just as the bell jar itself portrays motherhood and marriage to be a hindrance to Careers In the form of Dodo Conway, Top Girls protagonist Marlene symbolises the other option women have in the choice between a career and a family. Marlene, unlike her sister Joyce, is shown to have given up her child for the chance to pursue a career as if having both is impossible; a lot like Jaycee is in The Bell Jar. This essay will argue that In both texts motherhood and marriage is shown to be a hindrance to both women’s careers and their female identity.
In response to the breaking of the teacup Nana calls Mariam a harami or bastard. Mariam describes her encounters with Jalil, her father, and how he treats her with love and compassion. Throughout this chapter Nana seems to be very negative about everything. She says that every story that Jalil has told Mariam it not real and she thinks that she and Mariam would be better off dead. Chapter 2 Nana describes her side of the birth of Mariam.
‘Women must creep’ (Elaine R. Hedges) illustrates the thought that women shouldn’t be heard, but do only what they’re required to do, reinforcing how women were demeaned. The lack of power women had was not only present within their marriage, but also in society as males were perceived as the more significant gender, so women were patronised and dismissed by patriarchal control. Patriarchal control is represented clearly by John, the protagonist’s husband, which increases complexity within the novel as the isolation and ‘The resting cure’ he enforces upon her, causes her mental state to degenerate further, despite John believing it is helping his wife. There are a number of methods used to increase the characters complexity in The Yellow Wallpaper. For example, the use of epistolary displays a 1st person narrative and is in the present tense, “I never used to be so sensitive.” This is present when the protagonist writes to herself, Gilman uses this technique in order to show the
Her unsuccessful and violent father moved the family many times, and her older brother was favored by her grandfathers’ will. By growing up in this type of household, she thought that marriage life was dangerous for women. As she grew older, events in the lives of her family and friends only strengthened her views that marriage was often hazardous for women (Miller par 3). This influential time of her life proved to be for the better: this pushed Mary toward self-educating and to write. In her novel, “Mary: A Fiction” (1788), a women dies from fever after she accepts the hopelessness of her life.
Euripides' portrays Medea as both a weak and strong woman, being able to stand up to some of the male characters and simultaneously succumb to their presence. Jason is illustrated by Euripides' as a stereotypical male in a patriarchal society, convinced that his choices are for the best while completely disregarding Medea's opinions on them. As a woman cast into the patriarchal society of Corinth, Medea is at first portrayed as powerless, a feeble person who was 'scorned and shamed' by her husband. In the opening sequence of the play, the Nurse's prologue characterizes Medea as heartbroken as well as 'raging, illogical and suicidal'. Euripides' use of extended descriptive sentences in the prologue allows him to portray two sides to Medea, a fragile woman and a strong-willed one.