Cleopatra’s contemporaries Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro; October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC) and Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC) demonstrate this view of Cleopatra in their epic poems. Historians like Josephus, Plutarch, Appian and Dio Cassius, from the first and second century AD, portrayed Cleopatra as a strong political women/figure. Shakespeare’s influence on the story of Cleopatra was of a much more passionate and heartbreaking depiction than views of other historians. Today, Cleopatra is depicted by many films and stories as a manipulating woman, known for her beauty and love affairs and ability to seduce every great leader she encountered. However, depictions of Cleopatra are always susceptible to change, as the production by Mankiewicz in 1963 suggest.
Chopin, Kate (1851-1904). Writer. Born in St. Louis, Mo. Regular contributor of feminist short stories to literary journals. Her novel `The Awakening' (1899) shocked many people with its portrayal of a young woman's sexual and artistic longings.
Both of these stories focus on the horrid state of women during the late 19th Century and subtley push for feminism. Before examining the specifics of feminist literature, we must explore the situation these women lived in. In her article "Women's Roles in the Late 19th Century" Dorothy Hartman writes, "It is evident from the conflicting opinions offered in literature of the period that women’s lives were fraught with tensions. How-to manuals, magazine and newspaper articles set high, if not impossible, standards for moral rectitude, cleanliness and cheerfulness. The realities posed by the sheer number of tasks to be completed daily, monthly and yearly stressed even the hardiest of women."
1. “Both ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and ‘The Bloody Chamber’ deal with the perennial feminist theme of the confinement of women in particular rooms, chambers, houses and roles”. Discuss. This is essay attempt to discuss the role of the women in literature, both about the protagonists and the authors of the stories. As an example two influential short stories will be discussed in depth in order to shed light into the lives of the two authors and their stories.
The cooperation between the two camps with opposing ideologies and ways of life never lasted for long, leading to several bloody and extremely costly wars for both sides. One of the most important writings of this period was Mary Rowlandson’s “The Sovereignty and Goodness of God” from 1682, which presented the account of an English Puritan woman of captivity among Indians during Metacom’s or King Philip’s War. Often named the first Indian captivity narrative, Rowlandson’s work is a powerful rendering of a cross-cultural encounter in which the limits of the protagonist/author’s identity are thoroughly tested. The outcome reveals just what the limits of toleration of different peoples and cultures actually were for most of the settlers. Concerning this crucial aspect, Rowlandson’s narrative offers little insight into Native American perspectives upon the conflict, a fact which is crucial in understanding Puritan and American ways of thinking and the victory culture which characterizes past and contemporary America.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter – Critical Analysis Essay One of the most recognized poets of the nineteenth century is Emily Dickinson. Her unique style is what makes her different from every other poet (Haung). Her use of wording is what helps her place meaning into the poems she wrote. Such as, “Much Madness is divinest sense”. When reading this poem it seems short and a bit confusing to the reader, but once the reader finds something to apply it to, doors open to many new meanings.
Lastly the actual phrases represent a feminist perspective, all phrases are extracts from some of the most renowned feminists to date, these include Harwood has written the poem under the pseudonym of Walter Lehman This suggests that Harwood had a considerable political temperament as well as an ability to poke fun or mock the social constraints of her time. Her point was about editors' prejudice against women poets, thus emphasizing her intelligence at the time, and the frustrations she must have felt within her context. In “Triste, Triste”, Harwood explores the tensions between the creative spirit and the limitations of the temporal. The concept of the artists’ imagination as a separate entity, able to transcend the
In presenting her heroine's path to poetic and personal maturity, Ms. Browning not only explored the Victorian relation between gender and genre, but she also created a female literary tradition that alluded to her predecessors. Her work draws upon novels written by women, such as Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847), where the female protagonist's status as an orphan with a cruel aunt, proposal by St. John River, and Rochester's blindness appearing in both pieces. Another contribution to female tradition is the use of gynocentric, rather than andocentric, imagery. Barrett Browning's poem substitutes female, rather than male, types from the Old Testament, and even when describing men, uses female mythical figures for her analogies. These images and comparisons, that are driven by the poem's most serious concerns, represent an important imaginative achievement in themselves for the time.
Although the archaic scriptures of the Holy Bible are highly controversial and continue to be interpreted from countless perspectives, they are often found to be inspirations for several authors and poets. Emily Dickinson, an acclaimed poet of the 1800s, is one of these writers who have found incentive in passages of the Bible. In her poem, “Eden is that Old Fashioned House”, Dickinson limns the neoteric paradise, which we fail to find, in comparison to Adam and Eve’s experience in God’s Garden. In the classic poem “Eden is that Old Fashioned House” by Emily Dickinson, the ostensible ennui of our everyday life is metaphorically represented as a hidden Eden. God’s Garden of Eden is the legendary paradise, unsullied by corruption or maliciousness and in this poem Dickinson defines modern day Eden as what “we dwell in every day”.
Nick Kernan- A.S English Lit “The collection suggests that history should be her story, how far do you agree?” The poem History is a metaphorical poem in the way it presents Women’s history through the life of a single female protagonist who is never truly noticed and is just a bystander to the greatest feats in history, which in this poem Duffy has chosen the ones that were realised by men. Anon is another poem from the collection that also shows the same themes as History in the way that the protagonist is a metaphor for a wider group, woman, and is struggling for any recognition or identity. Beautiful is also in relation to History in the way that the Woman tracked through the poem are female icons controlled by men and their ideologies, making woman want to be them and men wanting them yet not being who they seem, not having their own identity but one thought up by men for the cameras, one in particular, Marilyn Monroe. History uses a extended metaphor that the protagonist in the poem is woman’s history “she was History” the woman is shown to be “half dead”, “alone” and “smelling of pee” these descriptions could represent the way woman’s history has been portrayed through time, not being taken seriously, nothing of importance and short lived when recognised. The house ‘History’ is in is vandalised with “bricks through the window now” this could represent how the idea of woman’s history has been soiled by men over time, leaving it a worn down, trashed old derelict house with what remains of woman’s history inside.