I quote: ‘‘The last word he pronounced was—your name. (Conrad, 2003: 161)” He told her that Kurtz’s last word was her name, instead of: “The horror! The horror! (Conrad, 2003: 145)” Maybe he’s trying to protect the woman from the cruel reality of the world, like the imperialism or the slavery. Kurtz’s fiancée represents the innocence of the Victorian society, its ideas and personality, she ignores what is happening in the African continent and she believes in the good deed of the civilizing mission.
A detailed physical description of Justine is never provided, but her personality is captured when Elizabeth writes how she can change Victor’s despondency into joy from a simple glance. “Justine, you may remember, was a great favorite of yours;and I recollect you once remarked that if you were in an ill humor, one glance from Justine could dissipate it.” (49) Justine was rejected by her mother and taken into the Frankenstein household by the loving Caroline. Justine is rescued from a bad family environment and brought into the home of people who love her. After five years of happiness living with the Frankensteins, Justine returns to her now repentant mother, which is the first occurrence of her role as the object of undeserved blame. “She sometimes begged Justine to forgive her unkindness but much oftener accused her of having caused the deaths of her brothers and sister.”(50) Madame Moritz alternately asks forgiveness yet still dispenses blame upon Justine, accusing her of being responsible for the deaths of her brothers and sister.
In The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards and King Lear by William Shakespeare, the saying of time heals all wounds is proven to be false as seen through the lack of forgiveness, the tragic endings of the novel and the buildup of guilt. In both The Memory Keeper's Daughter and King Lear, the characters of David Henry and King Lear prove that with time they cannot forgive themselves for what they have done, nor can they have others forgive them. In The Memory Keeper's Daughter, David Henry gives away his new born daughter who is born with down syndrome. This is a “secret that stood in the middle of their family; it shaped their lives together” (Edwards 193). This situation is a very heavy weight for David to carry.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, repainting the image given to the reader of Rochester, Rhys characterises him as the antagonist rather than the hero portrayed Jane Eyre, sympathetically transcribing Bertha’s stream-of-consciousness as the oppressed wife sinking into the madness he helped to cause. The first comparison to be made, therefore, is that the reader has a possible pre-existing knowledge of some characters and issues present in Wide Sargasso Sea. In Jane Eyre, the madwoman in the attic was given no voice, incapable of uttering any intelligible speech. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys gives her an entire perspective and narration. This raises the possibility of an allegorical reading: the reader learns that Antoinette is the descendant of a Creole Caribbean family whilst Rhys also draws on an understanding of the position of plantation families following Emancipation.
In comparing both “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” you find both stories contain a woman repressed by her circumstances. From an emotional standpoint, you could say they are the same, but in reality their situations couldn’t be more different. In “A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson leads a life of conformity, loneliness, and desperation; while in “Hill like White Elephants,” “Jig”, may too be desperate, but her repression is not caused from loneliness like miss Grierson, but rather by her questionable freedom. Although repression takes on different forms, it is all the same and can eventually leave you consumed and breathless. In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily Grierson lives a secluded, and turmoil filled life which has revolved around inexplicable loneliness characterized by the harsh abandonment of death being that of her fathers.
Title: My Daughter The Racist Writer: Helen Oyeyemi Publisher: BBC Year: 2010 Number of pages: 19 1. Main character(s) and characterization • The main character in this short story is the women. She is the narrator of the story, but her name is not mention in this story. What I found by reading this story is, this women is really love her daughter also her mother-in-law. She is afraid if the soldier harmed her daughter.
A modern audience may perceive Jane marrying a disabled Mr. Rochester means the loss of her independence. However the Victorian context of this novel illuminates the normality of a wife committing and obeying her husband. When Jane marries Mr. Rochester she commits to to being “(his) neighbour, (his) nurse, (his) housekeeper”. This indicates complete devotion to Mr. Rochester; putting herself in the position of his “housekeeper” immediately rejects all independence she recently inherited. Jane’s new wealth, due to her uncle’s death, allows Jane to be truly independent, “I am independent, sir, as well as rich: I am my own mistress”.
In Jane Eyre not much happens by the way of love throughout the opening half of the story before Jane meets Rochester. Once Jane and Rochester are seen slowly but surely falling into love it seems as though nothing, bar perhaps Blanche Ingram, could stand in their way. That is partly what adds to the shock when we’re told that Rochester is already married to Martha Rochester, the crazed, lunatic living in the attic, guarded by the drunkard Miss Grace Poole. This, much like “Wuthering Heights” taints the ideals of marriage before there had been any significant marriages in the story. This is especially true because of the nature of the two’s meeting; Rochester and Jane have admitted there is minimal attraction by appearance alone and so it seems their supposed marriage was built on love through other, more meaningful,
Aaron B PPSA: The Awakening and Song of Solomon The ending passage of The Awakening by Kate Chopin is written in a resigned tone, in contrast to the ending passage of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, which is written in an elated tone. The ending of The Awakening—Edna's apparent suicide as she finally realizes she cannot live as an independent woman in late 19th century society—reflects Chopin's feminist feelings, and it represents her conviction that women were confined by the norms of society. The ending of Song of Solomon—Milkman's ambiguous leap to either his death or to “flight”—reflects Morrison's feelings that life or death is unimportant so long as one succeeds in his/her quest for self-discovery. Chopin uses formal, abstract diction in The Awakening, while Morrison uses informal, colloquial diction in Song of Solomon. In the passage from The Awakening, Chopin uses formal, abstract words such as “sensuous” (133), “traversed” (133), and “despondency” (132).
Emma Baird Dr. Meredith McCarroll English 232 25 September 2010 The Death of Edna Pontellier: A Rebellious Defeat Even from its first publication, Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening has caused controversy. While today The Awakening is praised for its feminist undertones, the piece was first criticized for its lack of representation of American values. Instead of depicting a main character that embodied the Victorian ideal of a woman fulfilling the role as an “Angel in the House” which was the norm for American women during this particular historical period, Edna was a rebellious wife and an adulteress, whose desires and yearning for independence lead her to make many radical decisions throughout the course of the novel¾ from inwardly