Fear and anguish brought out some of the worst qualities in the villagers causing them to turn against one another creating anger, conflict and damage unto one another. In turn these actions fueled by superstition, hysteria and ignorance could become just as fatal as the plague itself. The bubonic plague attacks many individuals in the village as it delivers continuous grief and loss to the whole town. Brooks structures her novel as a non-linear timeline as it jumps backwards and forwards starting after the events of the plague giving hints of what has caused the change in the community. Undoubtedly, the plague causes the disintegration of families in the town.
‘Year of Wonders’ by Geraldine Brooks which is a historical fiction and circular structure form of text, explores the horrific ways the villagers in Eyam respond to a crisis by revealing the darker side of human nature. As the plague outbreaks, the villagers are faced with immense challenges and as a result some of the villagers are seen as selfish and uncharitable. “These times do make monsters of us all”. However Brooks also wants us to recognize that some are forced to show courage and compassion. Brooks contrasts a strong feminist theme and positions us to see their heroic gestures to the weaknesses of men as the villagers are faced with great tragedies.
‘Michael Mompellion’s most unsympathetic character flaw is his chilling lack of passion.’ Do you agree or disagree? Geraldine Brooks’ historical fiction ‘Year of Wonders’ explores the impact of adversity on the individual and social structure. Brooks’ novel takes an introspective insight into those affected by the Great Plague of mid-seventeenth century England. We enter the cyclic novel after the plague had run its course during “leaf-fall”; the season that signifies loss of innocence, foreshadowing death and the defeat of moral virtue. As the plague manifests through the village, so too do the hidden inner qualities of individuals.
In chapter five of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the creature is given life. The opening paragraph makes excellent use of pathetic fallacy, using the weather to set the scene. The first lines of the chapter “it was a dreary night in November” and “the rain pattered dismally against the windowpanes” make obvious use of traditional gothic horror scenery. Victor Frankenstein seems to have mixed emotions at the time of the creature’s birth. He is nervous yet scared and disgusted at the out come of his long toil.
The reader is plunged into a dim and melancholic atmosphere. Starting in the midst of things promotes a curiosity within the reader and seeks to contrast mood. The novel soon returns to the start of its chronological order and there reader is left to ponder how a character such as Michael Mompellion, who is seemingly likeable, can display such bitterness and contempt towards God despite his glorious reputation towards religion. It can be seen how the catastrophic nature of the quarantine that Eyam is placed in is testing of the community. We see a variety of responses but it is the inability of the majority to understand the roots of the plague that prevents them from undergoing personal transformation.
The repetition of question marks and dashes illustrate the confusion and frustration witnessing Owens fellow comrades, it is a demanding tone begging for explanation for the entrapment of victims. And as a result, it encourages the reader to consider the impact the war had on both, the soldiers who survived, and those who didn’t. Dulce et Decorum Est brings to reality that war is not what people say it is. Given by its very title, ‘It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’. Although, it only an illusion reinforced throughout the poem, along with its irony and sarcasm that is ‘The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori’, it is not sweet and fitting to die for ones country.
It shows that he is willing to go through lots of stuggle in order to achieve his goal. Once he found out the bad news of Rosa’s untimely death “he had a vision of anger spreading through him like a malignant tumor, sullying the best hours of his life” (Allende pg 36). Trueba decided to leave to the countryside after Rosa’s death. Heading south indicates that Trueba is “digging deep into his own subconscious,” (Foster pg 170) trying to escape the city and all the bad memories he has there. “Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces that inhabit humans” (Foster pg 166).
Those with the stubborn spirit of carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. Nonetheless, they softened and became weak after being subjected to the boiling water. In comparison with the others, who have the invisible volition of egg, they strengthen and confront bravely against the changes. In the novel, the Road to Chlifa, while many people are trying their best to survive during the inhumane war, the others are encountering the tremendous changes, which always come along with the war. These changes alter their goals for a normal life and help them to develop rich personalities, as well as revealing the innate savage instinct of human.
People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years (McCourt 11; ch.1). Laced with multiple humorous endeavors of childish antics to lighten the severity of this gripping story, McCourt’s work captures his audience from cover to cover while also relaying an intense message. Throughout the novel, McCourt creates irony to convey the blatant hypocrisy of his family, of the Irish Catholic church, and of his father’s Irish nationalism. Surprisingly, quite a bit of the hypocrisy McCourt’s irony portrays is within his own family, beginning with two of Frank’s mother, Angela’s cousins, the McNamara sisters (McCourt 15; ch.1). Chapter one in the novel explains how Angela comes to America, meets Malachy, Frank’s father, and soon becomes pregnant with Frank.
He sees that he did not pay enough attention to the peasants. He also realizes that he made a rash decision when he banishes Cordelia. Exile allows Lear to realize that he is wrong. It humbles him and eventually allows him to ask for forgiveness; “Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish” (5.1.98).