She certainly did not “pass in silence without matching wits”(292) with Swift. She gives him a taste of his own medicine. While Montagu’s retort was humorous and insulting, she seemed to miss the point that Swift was trying to portray. She merely counterattacked him for writing such a disgraceful poem. It went right over her head that Swift was trying to say that everyone has at least a few less-than-winsome qualities or that the reason he used a female character was only to emphasize this fact, to show that, while men may put women on pedestals, that does not
One can see the beauty in a women’s eyes, but not like they can in Shakespeare’s mistress. “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is a man explaining his lovers looks compared to other items. At first it is hateful things, but towards the end he writes about how much he loves her. Shakespeare’s sonnets show quatrains/couplet, words being stressed, and rhyming patterns. “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is an easy sonnet compared to other love poems.
In Christina Rossetti’s poem “Cousin Kate”, there is a theme of commitment. It is mainly about how one man shows his loyalty towards two women, “Cousin Kate” and the speaker. The lord shows no commitment towards the speaker and uses her for his own sexual pleasure. “He wore me like a silken knot,” in this quote the verb “wore” is comparing the speaker to something that can be used. Also the simile “like a silken knot,” the use of this simile is comparing her to something soft and fragile, therefore there is a theme of possessiveness and this shows that lower class women in the Elizabethan era were easily manipulated by higher class men.
Gwendolyn in particular is fond and proud of her education yet in the end she easily forgives Jack for lying to her throughout the play underlying a sense of stupidity. This easy acceptance of liars by the characters highlights Wilde’s disregard for the flaws of both the characters and society therefore
The constant use of "I" puts us right in the narrator’s head and allows us to empathize with her. Ironic Indirection If we took the narrator’s words at face value, we would believe that her husband is kind and loving, that she really is physically ill, and that women really do get trapped in wallpaper. All of this is questionable at best and mostly dead wrong. This is part of the fun of first person narration – you’re never quite sure if the narrator’s perceptions actually reflect what’s going on. The narrator's tone also clues us into her character – her uncertainty and hesitation at the start of the story, and her determination towards the
One of Gerald’s early lines is: “I drink to you – and hope I can make you as happy as you deserve to be.” Gerald’s tone here is warm and affectionate; it seems that he wants the very best for Sheila. It is unthinkable, at this stage, that he would ever do anything to hurt or betray her. Similarly, Sheila jokes about going shopping for “[Gerald’s] benefit”. Sheila is naïve, quite immature for her age, and impressionable. She desperately wants to please her husband-to-be.
Pride and prejudice is a beautiful, semi-epistolary romance novel about the love and relationships in Regency Britain, set in a fictional town called Meryton in Hertfordshire. It also tells a story about how even the most perceptive people can quickly and wrongly judge people as proud or unloving, when in fact, they are just shy and unable to cope with difficulties. Most people think that there too much amatory and womanish themes, and it is a romance novel for ladies only. But I think this novel nurtures both male and female, it has a great influence on the developing one’s character, so it is good both for teenagers and mature people. Firstly, Austen helps us to distinguish what is appearance, and what is reality.
For critics, such as Peter Forbs, believe that poetry should be challenging: “by employing simplistic language and overstated imagery, Duffy is perfect for those no longer accustomed nor inclined to close reading”[2]. However, in ‘Mrs Beast’ the reader should see past the “unpoetic” diction to the more serious and melancholic conclusion: “Let the less loving one be me”. Mrs Beast acts in an unfeminine manner because she is parallel to many women of the past who have been hurt by men: “words for the lost, the captive beautiful”, which she refuses to be. Duffy’s choice of diction and lexis are both based upon her attempt to portray strong women, as well as transforming mythological and historical characters into modern archetypes. Furthermore, her
Othello as admirable, blameless to an extent and not naturally jealous A.C.Bradley 1903/4 Bradley’s view centralises on the admirable upstanding nature of Othello ( and Desdemona). He defends the scrupulousness of Othello and argues that he was not naturally jealous. Naturally this view places most of the blame on Iago as a Machiavellian evil genius. Bradley sees him as a, ‘most romantic hero’, a ‘great poet’ and a man of ‘great openness’ possessing great ‘trustfulness of nature’ He suggests Othello, ‘is ignorant of European women’ and ‘ his trust where he trusts is absolute’ and ‘hesitation is almost improbable to him’ Quotes from the play to support this view ‘Noble moor’ ‘Whom the senate called sufficient’ ‘Whom passion could not shake’ ‘solid virtue’ ‘Valiant Othello’ ‘my heat is turned to stone, I strike it, and it hurts my hand.’ ‘Put up your bright swords for the dew will rust them.’ Othello as blameworthy F.R.Leavis (1953) Leavis claims that the potential for catastrophe and tragedy were intrinsic in Othello’s character in the form of self idealisation and poor self knowledge. He claims Othello was responsible for his own downfall and demotes Iago to the role of just catalyst.
It is Duffy’s intention to provoke sympathy in ‘Liar’ and she aims to show us that society has no right in judging those who openly act in a way that others would deem incorrect, even though they are no difference between them in private. By showing Susan to be a lonely and pitiful person who is unduly judged, Duffy is able to achieve this. In the opening stanza, ‘Susan’ claims that “she was really a man” and that “after she’d taken off her cotton floral day-frock she was him all right, in her head, dressed in that heavy herringbone.” She has a daytime persona in which she is feminine and harmless however the herringbone opposes the femininity of her daytime persona; she believes that she is a man and so in the evenings wears male clothing. The outward signification of physical clothing points towards inner confusion, however the line “The eyes in the mirror knew that” shows that although she is trying to suppress herself, she is aware of reality and knows things, meaning that she is not mad, she is simply a woman who cannot accept herself the way she is and craves to be someone else. Also, the fact that she believes herself to be a man is not a lie, she does not intend to deceive anyone and does not desire to harm those around her by dressing as a man, it is simply a personal neurotic tendency that she has that has no affect on others.