Mildew and spiders’ webs grow within, and unpleasant smells manifest themselves within root cellars. From the first glance at the title, the reader instantly gathers that the tone is one of being displeased and somber. The diction unveiled the tone, and the grave detail protruded it. The grave detail throughout the poem displays total disgust for the root cellar which distracts the reader from the hopeful ending.
In The poem “Root Cellar”, Theodore Roethke describes the environment inside a dark, wet, and unkempt root cellar in which you would not expect life to be able to thrive. He describes this environment using a variety of descriptive words throughout the poem which would indicate a particular distaste for the cellar in all its filth, but it is not until the final lines in the poem that the reader learns that the speaker is, in fact, amazed by the existence of life in this place. Roethke uses imagery, alliteration, and personification to portray his attitude that although he indicates throughout, a thorough dislike for the cellar, life in the cellar, amazingly, is surviving and thriving despite deplorable conditions that would suggest the opposite result. Roethke uses imagery to show his attitude that life in the cellar, is defying the odds by describing the cellar and its inhabitants in the first eight lines of the poem as something repulsive indicating that the cellar is “Dank as a ditch” (1) with a “Congress of stinks” (6) and plant life that is “Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates” (4) thus creating a scene in which everything is at its most undesirable state through the use of negative verbs such as dank, stinks, lolling, obscenely, and mildewed, all of which bring to mind the worst possible environment one could be in, and makes it seem to the reader that Roethke does not have a very high opinion of the cellar. The speaker also uses alliteration to show his attitude toward the cellar as being that of loathing but amazement by using the hard sound of the “D” to show the filth of the cellar.
The novel has a main focus on poverty and crime. The people that live in the underworld in the novel represent the outcasts of society who lurk inside crumbling ruins, striving to survive. In Dickens's descriptions, the words "neglect" and "decay" insistently reoccur throughout the novel. And it has been the need to survive that has fostered the decay that is so often reflected in the loathsome surroundings. Generally the images described to us about the criminal underworld were all portrayed as very deprived and foul.
Heather Harris English III Mr. Reeves 31 March 2011 Roderick and His House Edgar Allan Poe is the master of the macabre. His stories are well-remembered for the images of darkness and death they all contain. As a romantic writer, Poe focuses on the emotion and the imagination of dismal situations. In his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” Edgar Allan Poe personifies the dark decaying “Usher” house as a manifestation of the deteriorating mental, physical, and emotional state of Roderick himself. The story begins with a striking example of personification as the narrator comes upon the “Usher” house.
I am familiar with the ax and hoe, the obdurate silence of dirt that blisters my working hands. Each wound in me is a niche where icon saints champion pain, offering no way out but dreams of heaven. I caress the shovel handle as if it were a child’s head whose hair I lightly tousle.” Pg.28 “And this dark destiny formed my character. I am the man who didn’t want to come home because domestic life was bad, the bill collectors waiting, the future bleak; and I drank to get the devil out of me. And when I spoke, my words left a dark mist on the air.” Pg.28 My interpretation about what a truth-teller means is when a person, in this case Baca, states his life history through writing in specific methods to his audience.
In the opening paragraph he depicts Scrooges personality as ‘wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching.’ Dickens uses these descriptive words in an elongated list, to emphasise powerfully the callous personality Scrooge has. By Dickens using this technique of a long list of off-putting language, it really makes a horrible impression and sticks in the readers mind. Dickens also uses similes to illustrate the character of Scrooge, ‘as solitary as an oyster.’ An oyster spends its life isolated from everything, as does Scrooge. Dickens also compares the inclement weather as if it was Scrooges personality, ‘no warmth could warm him, no wintry weather chill him.’ This leads us to believe Scrooge has buried his emotions so deep that nothing can break through and that he is .............. Dickens also shows us how people react to Scrooge hoping that we will react in the same way, ‘no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what o’clock it was’. This shows us that Scrooge has a threatening presence so people would try and avoid him.
Hill continues to describe the fog “ It was a yellow fog, a filthy, evil-smelling fog, a fog that chocked and blinded, smeared and stained” The word “choked” personifies the fog and makes it appear as a murderer. Furthermore, the fog suggests that Arthur Kipps vision of the future is blurred and little does he know what may happen when he sets off for Eel Marsh House. In addition, the gothic element is another theme which illustrates fear and isolation in the novel. Hill re-works this element of having a woman in distress who is usually being threatened by a cruel male, however in contrast, we read about Arthur Kipps in distress, threatened by the oppressive woman in black. She is portrayed as the more dominant and powerful one because of the effect she has on his emotions, for example, “for a moment I was as near to weeping tears of despair and fear, frustration and tension as I had ever been since my childhood” (p.125).
In chapter 5 the birth of the “hideous fiend” is the sign that his life will change in a bad way. The monster’s ‘black lips and yellow skin’ ‘ugly’, so he rejects it. The weather is important as it informs us of the emotions and the mood of the characters and surroundings. Dull and dark weather reflects the dismal mood of the novel, the; ‘dreary night of November’. This is known as pathetic fallacy.
The danger shown by upsetting Medusa is emphasised by the metaphor of "bullet tears", since tears are commonly seen as weak and fragile, but bullets are shown as cold violent and deathly. The title medusa shows that the whole poem is an extended metaphor. Although jealousy makes Medusa dangerous, she also loses a lot: her hair turns to "filthy snakes" and her breath "soured, stank". She is aware of the change in herself, by the end of the poem the rhetorical questions "Wasn't I beautiful? Wasn't I fragrant and young?"
Alyxandria Quinones Frankenstein Motif Essay AP Lit Pd. 8 12-13-11 Alienation: The Real Pandora’s Box An innate craving for companionship and compassion is a quintessential element of human nature. Consequentially, a denial of these cravings results in a slow descent into an exceedingly miserable and unfulfilling existence. The demoralizing effects of alienation are a reoccurring aspect of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein. As exemplified by both Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, prolonged estrangement from society essentially rips the lid off Pandora’s notorious Box, prompting self-destruction and magnifying the human tendency to harbor resentments towards a society that has become foreign to them.