The Big House

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Explain the different ways Elizabeth Bowen portrays the decline of Big House Society in the novel “The Last September”. The intention of this essay is to examine the decline of Big House Society in the early twentieth century in Ireland as portrayed in the novel “The Last September” by Elizabeth Bowen. The decline will be defined from three different aspects. First examined will be the physical decline which will look at the buildings, their contents and their surroundings, the decline of the people and their relationships and lastly the psychological decline. This novel appears to mirror Bowen’s own life in Bowen’s Court, which was her own family home in Co Cork. She could be compared to Lois who is the protagonist of the novel, in many ways. The Last September is set in 1920 in the middle of the Irish War of Independence, a war between the IRA and the British Army. Close reading of the novel suggests that in the 1920’s the Anglo Irish people were losing power in Ireland and this essay will examine the proof in this. The physical decline is explained quite early in this novel. The opening chapters tell the story of the arrival of Mr and Mrs Mountmorency. This couple spend their time going around friend’s houses and staying for long periods of time as they have no home of their own. When describing ‘Danielstown’, home of the Naylor’s, Bowen describes the exterior of the house as having blistering paint and the windows upstairs having no dressing. “The high windows were curtainless; tasselled fringes frayed the light at the top. The white sills, the shutters folded back in their frames were blistered...” (Bowen, E., 1998, Pg 9). This gives the impression that the house is dying from the top down.” As the demise of ascendancy life set in, houses and demesnes, once thronging with guests and busy with social events and hunting parties, became ghostly

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