Selen Yılmaz 20801395 Third Essay Outline OUTLINE The Climax of Madness Essay Topic: Compare and contrast the treatment of the theme of madness in “The Fall of the House of Usher’’ and “The Yellow Wallpaper’’. Thesis Statement: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher’’ and “Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper’’ are stories which totally include madness, fear and dread that are products of human psychology. While Poe’s story is completely immersed in madness, Gilman’s story limits the element of madness to the imagination of the narrator. In Poe’s story, madness exists in the Usher’s house and its environment, however, in Gilman’s story, madness completely in the mind of the narrator. It shows that both stories handle the subject of growing madness, however, in Poe’s story, the madness surrounds all characters, whereas in Gilman’s story the narrator is the one who is the victim of the madness.
Symbolism in the Scarlet Letter: The Threshold "But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghostlike, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it." (Hawthorne 83).With these words, this was the life of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.” Hester Prynne has committed the sin of adultery and becomes pregnant with her lover’s child. She has to live and wear the letter a, which is embroidered on her clothing. Because of the symbolism of the threshold in “The Scarlet Letter,” Hester Prynne’s life is doubled by the actions she has done. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” Hester Prynne is sent to prison for her sin.
He forbids the villagers to use the school compound and he compromises nothing. Mr Obi is a passion yet immature young adult. His passion leads to his hopes fulfilled earlier and he becomes a headmaster of a school. His passion also has influenced his wife, Nancy, to help him to manage the school, especially the garden. His passion for 'modern method' makes him an immature person though.
Hawthorne uses the story of Hester Prynne to exemplify this. An ambiguous woman, who accepts and rejects at the same time the cruel and strict character of puritanism. . The book, from the start to the very end, presents us a sequence of symbols. The use of those symbols gives to the novel a fanciful style, transforming characters or simple objects on a figurative representation to understand the context and the author’s view point.
One well-known example in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is where the scarlet letter "A" pinned to Hester Prynne's breast represents adultery. The scarlet letter also has other, more subtle meanings. Also, the thesis investigates the main resources of Hawthorne's symbolic images. 1.2 Background of the study Symbolism in literature is the deep and hidden meaning in a piece of work. It is often used to represent a moral or religious belief or value.
The scarlet letter which stands for the ignominious Puritan punishment for Adultery is skilfully used by Hawthorne to denounce their rigidity. It is used as if it were a magical mirror, it magnifies the protagonists’ stances on the Puritans’ creed and judgement and has a deep impact on the characters’ development and how Hawthorne has lead them on different paths. First and foremost, the scarlet letter, as the symbol of the Puritan rigid conception of life, enables the narrator to depict the Puritans’ punishment as overreacting to a so-called sinful behaviour. As far as Hester Prynne is concerned, the scarlet letter, which first symbolises her sin, enables her to become, in the end, the embodiment of virtue and freedom of thought and to lie in sharp contrast with the Puritans. On the contrary, imprisoned in the Puritan way of thinking, the scarlet letter leads Arthur Dimmesdale to his fall.
The theme is expressed in three characters: Hester Prynne, Reverand Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Each person's response to his or her sin is different; therefore, the alienation is different for each individual. Hester's alienation is purely physical, Dimmesdale's alienation is emotional and spiritual, while Chillingworth's alienation is both physical and emotional.Isolation and alienation, two forms of torturous estrangement, add to the overall gloomy and cynical atmosphere of the work. Hester, the main character of the book, is most evidently alienated from society for her sin. The most important symbol in the book, the embroidered "A" on her bosom, sewed on as punishment for adultery, is also a symbol for alienation.
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.
This is because when people abide by some traditional taboos and practices, certain species are likely to be saved (Philander et al., 2011). However, these traditional interventions are challenged by limited authoritative decisions and enforcement based on local knowledge and traditional leadership. For example, traditional regulations may prevent the cutting of certain important trees through a taboo, while the government has no empirical evidence to classify it as endangered and protected. Correspondingly, Faria et al. (2011) highlight the importance of taboos and traditional practices in the sustainable use of some wild resources in Botswana.
Browning’s dramatic monologues are often narrated by very sinister characters, and the reader must piece together what the truth of the story is. Porphyria’s Lover was the first short dramatic monologue that Browning wrote, and was one of the first of his poems to feature a character with psychosis. The woman in the poem is named after a disease called Porphyria. It is a rare type of disease, which can result in madness of some kind. This has led some people to interpret the poem as a metaphor for dealing with this disease.