The dark setting and the little contrast of the painting leads me to think that Wyeth thought of Christina as a sad older woman slowly dying from polio. Just from the lack of distinction from the foreground to background, it could be told that the artist was trying to convey a certain mood. It was the lack of color and the subtle transitions in the tone that makes me think he was trying to convey to us that she had a very dull life and not a lot to do in her daily routine. The kitten also leads the viewer to believe that Christina does not have much time, told by the way the kitten is being grasped as if it is the only valuable piece of life left. Looking deeper into the picture the viewer is only able to see one empty clothes line hanging in the background, as it crosses the cracking and peeling walls, making it seem as if nothing could be a bother to the
Blanche’s body language also suggests an ambiguous manner- she sits completely upright very stiffly, with her shoulders slightly hunched and her legs pressed close together. She seems very nervous and cautious, and clutches her purse as though her life depended on it. Williams has purposely made her laugh nervously a lot, and seems to lie about herself a lot to her sister. She is an obvious alcoholic, but seems to resent this fact, and tries very hard to keep this from Stella. There is also a lot of symbolism in everything about how Blanche is described.
Psychological Reading Throughout The Girl Who Played with Fire, abuse and psychological dysfunction is used as a device of motivation. Although violence and abuse is prominent throughout the text, the psychological aspect, mainly associated with character Lisbeth Salander, is merely hinted at both visually and through dialogue. During the text, psychological damage is used an excuse for the way both the way that Salander looks and for her intentions. This is shown through costuming and dialogue. A stereotypical view point of a person who psychologically impaired is that they are socially awkward, destructive; they lack remorse and are private.
Gilman uses symbols to explain the how women are trapped in domestic life. The symbol that Gilman uses the yellow wallpaper in the room she is confined in. At first, the wallpaper is just awful as she says “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow.” She is disgusted by it and understands why children, who have been in this room, would want to tear it down. Then, the wallpaper becomes a point of curiosity as she wants to discover the organization of the pattern. She said, “...and I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion,” as if the wallpaper was made with symmetry in mind.
We see this throughout the play. When we are first introduced with Blanche she is described as ‘there is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes that’s suggests a moth’. This already highlights to the reader that she is different, and stands out. Also ‘moth’ could represent that’s Blanche doesn’t like the light so by describing her this way could be hinting to the audience what she is like, and that she doesn’t like being in the light or being seen in the light. Also Stanley and Blanches conflict is very noticeable to the readers, the conflict between them is a big part of the play.
The social norms during this period were for the women to do as their told, to be seen and not heard from. In “The yellow wall paper” this reader’s perspective is she is very depressed and looking for a way out of her locked room. Miss Brill is also very depressed to the point where she doesn’t know how to associate with people evidence is in the way she is very nosey, lonely, and bored. In “The yellow wall paper” it almost seems as if she has become part of the imaginary characters in the wall paper dying to get out a feeling of not being lonely within. For her becoming part of the wall paper is her way of avoiding the feelings of abandonment.
Especially when she reminisces in the final stanza about the time she was young and beautiful, illustrating her complete lack of confidence. Nevertheless, she is still presented as a foul character who threatens the reader, with the line ‘Be terrified’. The poem also ends with the line ‘Look at me now’ which has a double entendre (double meaning). It could be read as a cry of despair or, as a threat – if you did look at Medusa you would die! This leaves the reader feeling conflicting emotions for the character, probably similar to how Medusa herself feels in the poem.
This poem expresses the pain and sorrow of a battle that someone is fighting against themselves. Someone who is tore between her aging self and her youth. The woman knows that she is no longer a child but she’s having a hard time letting that part of her go because she feels that her youth is the only good thing about her. “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon,” indicates that the woman turns to those who only throw lies at her, the lies that she wants to hear. Candles and the moon don’t swallow the image of what stands before them yet they reflect off a brightness, a lying goodness.
In the beginning the girl see herself like a trashy whore and she don’t love herself. She also doesn’t like other people and her whole world is very dark. She is not nice to other people and she answers back when she can, but that changes in the end. The girl doesn’t see herself as special she says: “you know, ordinary people just like you.” She sees people and herself as ordinary people. In the end of the text, she starts to see the world as a pretty place.
The things that Sethe experienced made her feel less of a human and caused her to be filled with self-loathing. In many ways Morrison shows how women are being objectified in both novels. In A Mercy and Beloved both Sethe and Florens experience situations where they are marveled upon and observed in a degrading manner. In Florens’s situation she said “They are looking at me my body across distances without recognition. Swine look at me with more connection when they raise their heads from the trough” (113).