Precious No Matter the Price As time goes by, few events in life have the ability to be slowly forgotten, dismissed from daily remembrance. Although, some events remain stuck to the mind, attached like glue, unable to leave and forever staining memories of the past. In the novel Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë, characters uncover the power of nostalgia and regret, physically representing its effects. Wuthering Heights is a unique novel that can be considered gothic literature because of its eerie and dark nature, but can also be classified as realist fiction for its detailed plot and intricate character relationships. Nevertheless, Wuthering Heights is respected by many and remembered to be a timeless tragic love story.
Kate grew up around several smart, independent, single women. To further the analysis of Kate Chopin, we are going to look at two of her most famous works, the novel, “The Awakening” and her short-story, “Story of an Hour”. Kate Chopin has interested me ever since I studied “The Awakening”. Her work was always very controversial because of her characters and the ideas they pose to a nineteenth century society. Even though Chopin’s work always has to do with the issues of females, I have always found it interesting because I am always surrounded by very masculine and male dominance or equal relationship and it is intriguing to me to see the other side of it and really learn how females lived in her contemporary times.
The Wife of Bath, without a doubt is Chaucer’s most memorable character. In the General Prologue, long before her tale is presented Chaucer provides us with insight about her personality while painting a vivid picture of this aged, but lustrous woman in our minds. The Wife, as a storyteller in the Canterbury Tales represents only one of two females, which is a separate estate of its own. She wastes no time in contradicting the proposed stereotypes of what women of this time should think, feel or even how she should present herself. In her own words she suggests even during the middle ages women then, may have wanted the same thing that many women strive for today; to be known as a woman of strength, that is not only fierce because of her words, but because of the power of her sexual instrument.
The first two scenes of the first act of Hamlet highlight Horatio as the character who is most in touch with reality. When Horatio is first introduced into the story, he refuses to believe in these sights that Bernardo and Marcellus claim that have witnessed. His loyalty to the age-old adage “I’ll believe when I see it” is a testament to his awareness of reality. Moreover, when the figure does appear Marcellus tells Horatio to talk to it because he is a “scholar” (I.I.42). His recognition as an educated individual reinforces the claim that he is the most in touch character with reality.
Yusuf Yazıcı İstanbul Şehir University 16.07.13 “A Respectable Woman” is a short story put on paper by Kate Chopin who is an American author living between 1850 and 1904. The story tries to help the reader to question how a respectable woman needs to act, whether in accordance with the desires of society or only herself. The protagonist of the story, Mrs. Baroda, “falls in love” with her husband’s friend Gouvernail, and she has to repress her emotions, for she perceives herself as a respectable woman. Even though she then tells her husband that “she has overcome everything”, it is crucial that one needs to think what “overcoming everything” means. In the very beginning of the story, it can be understood that Mrs. Baroda thinks that she really loves her husband since “she was looking forward to a period of unbroken rest, now, and undisturbed tete-a-tete with her husband”.
Ultimately Antoinette has a fate quite similar to her mother. Unlike the classical bond between mother-daughter bond, Rhys makes it fragile and breakable to symbolize the “lack of sustenance and definition offered by the motherland to its dependencies” (Ranjan, 49). Like the legendary Phoenix, Antoinette rises from the very ashes of Bertha from Thronfield Hall to tell her version of the story which was so ever denied in Jane Eyre. Gayatri Spivak generously speaks about this resurrection in her essay by contrasting Rhys’s novel with Bronte’s. She praises Rhys for not sacrificing Antoinette, a woman from the colonies as in insane animal.
It could be deduced that Mary Shelley presents the female characters in ‘Frankenstein’ stereotypically. Caroline Beaufort, the first woman we as readers are introduced to, is presented as a strong female through the way Shelley has characterized her. For example, even after the death of her father, we are told that ‘her courage rose to support her in adversity’, and that she ‘possessed a mind of uncommon mould’. However, her roles in the novel could be criticized from a female perspective as being stereotypical due to the excessive description that could connote women to be soft, vulnerable and purely for maternal purposes. The use of the superlative ‘greatest’ in the quote ‘his daughter attended him with the greatest tenderness’, to describe the scale of tenderness whilst caring for her father and emphasizes the idea of women being extremely kindhearted and comforting towards their loved ones.
Cristian Longoria “THE STORM” – AN ANALYSIS Kate Chopin was a 19th Century American author who was considered the forerunner of feminist novelists. As evident, in her short story “The Storm”, Kate Chopin was clearly ahead of her time. “The Storm” is a story of complex emotions as experienced by Chopin's protagonist, Calixta, a married woman who has a brief sexual encounter outside of her marriage. Chopin’s ability to write with empathy not only brings her characters to life but also allows the reader insights into the characters’ emotions. It is clear from Chopin’s writing style that she sympathizes with her female character, makes no moral judgment regarding Calixta’s actions, and leads the reader through the action so as to come to a similar conclusion.
Biography of Kate Chopin Kate Chopin was a famous author during the late eighteen hundreds publishing many famous short stories and novels such as The Awakening and Bayou Folks. She has often been referred to as “a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman’s urge for an existential authenticity” (Seyersted 1). She led the way for feminism and was praised after her death once her style of writing became more accepted. Chopin wrote about the passion that other authors during her time would not dare to speak of. Her life greatly influenced literature today and the censorship that follows.
Charlotte's acceptance of Mr. Collins’ proposal is a prime example; “marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want” (p105)1. Austen makes use of Charlotte's character to illustrate the social norms for women of the time. Charlotte's reaction to Collins' proposal is cleverly juxtaposed with Elizabeth's own values and more romantic views on marriage, as she is offered his proposal first; “You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world that could make you so”(p92)2. Elizabeth's concerns are predominately her overall happiness and mental wellbeing, as opposed to her anxieties about her future financial security. These oppositions of values offer the reader a chance to balance their own views on the sanctity of marriage.