Prose Study " The Withered Arm And Other Wessex Tales" By Thomas Hardy

Danielle Lant Friday 25th February, 2005 Prose Study " The Withered Arm And Other Wessex Tales" By Thomas Hardy Relationships Between Men And Women Are Central To These Stories. How Do They Reflect The Time In Which The Stories Were Written And What Effects Does Hardy Intend His Characters To Have Upon The Reader? I am going to be writing about " The Withered Arm" By Thomas Hardy. There are three main characters in the tale, Gertrude Lodge, Farmer Lodge and Rhoda Brook. The story begins twelve years after Farmer Lodge gets Rhoda Brook pregnant. Farmer Lodge and Gertrude are married much to the dismay of a bitter Rhoda Brook and her twelve-year-old son. Farmer Lodge is the proprietor of two dairy farms but they also deal in agriculture, the women living on his estate work on the farms. When Farmer Lodge brought Gertrude home, Rhoda Brook felt unwanted, it was as if the door that linked Rhoda to Lodge's relationship together had permanently been shut, there was to be no hope of a reunion. Realising this Rhoda starts to develop an obsessive interest in Gertrude, ' Well did you see her?' ' Yes; quite plain.' 'Is she ladylike?' ' Yes and more. A lady complete.' These questions asked by Rhoda are to determine in her mind who the better woman is between herself and Gertrude. Hardy contrasts the

  • Word count: 4316
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

First Love' and 'How Do I Love Thee?' are both very personal experiences as they are written in the first person narrative. I believe that the two poets

"Love Is An Abstract Emotion And Can Produce Conflicting Feelings." Love is an abstract emotion, untouchable even though it dwells in our hearts. It can have many faces creating conflicting feelings; yet each time it is immeasurable and its reach limitless. Love can be radiant and a source of joy and happiness for the possessor, altering ones life to such an extent that it can never be the same again. However, love's path is not always smooth for it can produce as much pain and sorrows as it does happiness. Even though it may create mixed feelings, love itself is not always the same. It can vary from person to person and the emotions that it creates within people also differ. We can acknowledge this through the first two poems which I have studied. Although they both convey feelings of intense love, John Clare in 'First Love' attempts to show the doubtful stages of love at first sight, whereas Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sonnet in 'How Do I Love Thee?' portrays the intensity of her long-term love in a very celebratory manner. 'First Love' and 'How Do I Love Thee?' are both very personal experiences as they are written in the first person narrative. I believe that the two poets, Clare and Browning, use this tense to create a greater impact on the reader. One example of first person narrative is as follows: "I ne'er was struck before that hour" (Clare) "I love thee to

  • Word count: 4309
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

The Analysis of William Blake's 'The Tyger and the lamb'.

The Analysis of William Blake's 'The Tyger and the lamb' William Blake lived 1757 to 1827 and was born and lived in London. As a young boy and throughout his later life Blake experienced many strange and unusual vivid visions, claiming to have seen Angels and ghosts. This I feel has a great relevance in his decision to write poetry about God and mystical beings. From the age of 10 Blake wanted to be an artist and after training continued mainly engraving. Throughout his life Blake was mainly renowned for his art but later became famous for his poetry .In 1782 he married a woman called Catherine Boucher who introduced him to famous literary figures where he learnt about philosophy and started writing his famous poetry. In 1789 he wrote his first book called the 'Book of Thel' an illuminated edition with pictures. He also wrote and published a poetry collection called 'Songs of Innocence' (which is where 'The lamb' was written.) Then in 1794 he wrote the 'Songs of Experience', which was written to be the second part to his poetry collection with the 'Songs of Innocence' in this 'The Tyger' was written. And, within both poems 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger' were coupled. 'The Tyger' by William Blake st stanza: Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright. The first line of the poem is very powerful, with the use of the first syllable emphasis (trochee) and the second word being repeated. On

  • Word count: 4288
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

The Metaphysical Poets: John Donne and Andrew Marvell.

The Metaphysical Poets: John Donne and Andrew Marvell All three poems are about love, passion and romance; they are by two metaphysical poets, Andrew Marvell and John Donne. Both these poets wrote their poems to try and successfully seduce a woman. All three poems have different styles and techniques that the poets think will appeal to the woman of their lust and desire. The poems that I have chosen to compare are, 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell and 'The Good-Morrow' by John Donne. The first poem I will study will be Andrew Marvell's 'To his Coy Mistress'. Andrew Marvell's poem 'To His Coy Mistress', uses flattery throughout the first stanza, for example he begins by trying to gently ease his beautiful lady 'out of her shell', for she is young, timid and shy. Shyness is shown in the title of the poem 'To his 'Coy' Mistress', coy meaning shy, and she is also still a virgin so Marvell uses a 'softly softly' approach trying to cajole his fair dame. He knows if he opens softly and slowly he can build up to the climax of his flattery as he slowly does throughout the poem. In lines 5,6 and 7 Marvell talks about two rivers, "Thou by the Indian Ganges' side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain..." He is talking about the Humber and then the Ganges, the Humber being dull and plain and the Ganges being holy and exotic. Marvell compares the woman

  • Word count: 4273
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Battle of Britain.

Battle of Britain Introduction Battle of Britain was the aerial conflict between British and German air forces in the skies over the U.K in which the RAF defeated against the German Luftwaffe in southern England in an attempt to eliminate Nazism. The battle was very important as this time as Germany tried to crush the British fighter power by targeting the air fields, if Germany had won this battle than Britain would have been wide open to German attacks with little resistance The battle took place from July to September of 1940. The myth of the battle was the importance of the pilots and these 'few' saved the world from Nazism, but was the pilots the sole reason for defeat? Could the importance of radar, spitfire, and great leadership from Dowding contribute to it? Whatever the reason, this battle certainly had a long-term significance and it re-shaped the outcome of the 2nd world war. What was the popular interpretation and why did it become so quickly established during the early part of the war? All of the early interpretations of the Battle emphasize greatly on the popular myth i.e. the battle saved civilization from Nazism and the brave few pilots who fought in them, and without those pilots the battle wouldn't have been won. From my knowledge I know that well over 500 soldiers died in this battle, this suggest that there is a core of truth in the myth of the

  • Word count: 4259
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Compare the way the theme of love is viewed and conveyed by the author in the poems 'My Last Duchess', 'How Do I Love Thee' and 'A Woman to Her Lover'.

COMPARE THE WAY THE THEME OF LOVE IS VIEWED AND CONVEYED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE POEMS 'MY LAST DUCHESS', 'HOW DO I LOVE THEE' AND 'A WOMAN TO HER LOVER'. As a part of my English lessons, I have been doing a lot of work on pre-1914 (in 1914, World War I began, causing a big change in literature) poetry. There were three poems I have been focusing on, each written by a different author: firstly, the poem My Last Duchess, written in 1842 by Robert Browning (1819-1889); secondly, A Woman to Her Lover by Christina Walsh, whose life is little known and it is only sure that she'd lived and wrote the poem in 1800s; and finally poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) in 1846, called How Do I Love Thee, affected by author's relationship with Robert Browning. In this piece of coursework I am going to use the knowledge of the poems I gained through working with them and compare them with regard to how the theme of love is expressed and what type of love is shown in each of them. I will also take into consideration how the poems' aspects affect the reader (where I speak about how something is supposed to make the poems sound/seem like something, I refer to the impact on the reader as it is the reader who recognizes this) and my personal feelings. The first thing I want to compare is the content of each poem; that means what the poem is actually about. In contrast to My Last

  • Word count: 4229
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning - an Analysis and exploration of the poem and the issues it raises.

Ryan Mullally 10A - Unit 3 English Coursework - Wilnecote High School - April 2002 Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning - an Analysis and exploration of the poem and the issues it raises Overview of the poem Porphyria's Lover, which first appeared in 1836, is one of the earliest and most shocking of Browning's dramatic monologues. The speaker lives in a cottage in the countryside. His lover, a budding young woman named Porphyria, comes in out of a storm and proceeds to make a fire and bring cheer to the cottage. She embraces the speaker, offering him her bare shoulder. He tells us that he does not speak to her. Instead, he says, she begins to tell him how she has momentarily overcome societal strictures to be with him. He realises that she 'worshipped' him at this instant. Realising that she will eventually give in to society's pressures, and wanting to preserve the moment, he wraps her hair around her neck and strangles her, apparently she 'felt no pain', the speaker is 'quite sure' of this. He then almost plays with her corpse, opening the eyes and propping the body up against his side. He sits with her body this way the entire night, the speaker remarking that God has not yet moved to punish him. We see that this poem takes place in a cold, dark cottage during a violent storm. We know also that Porphyria comes to see her lover and tries to make his room more

  • Word count: 4212
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Compare and contrast Keats 'Ode of Autumn' with Heaney's 'Death of a Naturalist' bringing out clearly the poet's attitudes and techniques

Compare and contrast Keats 'Ode of Autumn' with Heaney's 'Death of a Naturalist' bringing out clearly the poet's attitudes and techniques By Rachel Miller 4H Ode to Autumn by John Keats This ode is a song to Autumn, and is a classic English poem, with that 'old authentic' feel to it. In it Keats manages to create a beautiful picture of what autumn is for him. Unfortunately Keats died from consumption in 1821, and so this was one of his last poems, written in 1819/20, after 'The Fall of Hyperion'. Some people acknowledge this ode as Keats' most perfectly achieved poem, and so this time was Keats' autumn of his life, when he came to produce his best. This typical English poem follows the rules of metre, and characteristically uses Iambic pentameters, as with most good traditional poems. The landscape is also typically English rural countryside, and the side of autumn, which Keats chooses to include, is the custom of the Harvest. Where all the fruits of autumn reach maturity - the farming tradition of autumn. This is a through and through English poem. It was composed soon after a walk in the fields near Winchester (S. England), September 1819. A letter sent to a friend (J.H Reynolds) shows just how much of the poem was written from experience. In the letter Keats makes reference to Diana, goddess of the moon and of chastity, but she is not apparent in the poem, except the

  • Word count: 4209
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Comparing the way two different authors portray love and saying which one was the most effective and why.

Comparing the way two different authors portray love and saying which one was the most effective and why. In this essay I will be talking about two different ways in which authors portray love. In my conclusion I will be talking about which one I found the most effective and why. The three poems I will be looking at are- "My last Duchess" By Robert Browning, "Porphyria's Lover" By Robert Browning and "Ballad" which is written by an anonymous person. There is a difference between love and attraction, love and sexual desire, love and infatuation, love and friendship, between a good relationship and one that is only pleasurable. Fundamentally, love is a strong positive emotion of regard and affection. All relationships involve three key elements, emotion, how we feel about each other, ethics, how good or bad we are for each other and joys, how much we satisfy and dissatisfy each other. "My last Duchess" by Robert Browning is a poem that is seen from two perspectives, male and female. The duke sees the possession of art as love. We know this because lines 1-3 illustrate that- "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive. I call that a piece of wonder." This quote also tells its readers that the painting of the duchess looks as if she were alive and that the painting itself is a piece of wonder, therefore it is a possession to him. The Duke

  • Word count: 4183
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Romanticism

"God made the country, and man made the Town" (William Cowper). With detailed reference to at least four poems you have studied, compare the ways in which the Romantic poets explore the impact of industrialisation upon people living in the countryside and towns of eighteenth-century Britain. London, by William Blake, Composed on Westminster Bridge, by William Wordsworth, The Green Linnet, also by William Wordsworth and Work, by Charles Lamb are poems that explore the broad changes that occur during the Industrial Revolution. They expose the true affects of the revolution and what it has caused upon social, economic, and spiritual values. By studying these poems it is clear the Industrial Revolution has made a hectic and busy life style for the people of Britain. Industrialisation mixed the whole hierarchy system in Britain. The middle class could own factories and make more money but one person's heaven is another person's hell. The lower class worked in dangerous, cramped, squalid working conditions enduring long hours of hard labour. But this is what inspired the Romantics. The Romantics were artists in different forms such poetry, novels or art. They believed that emotions run deeper than cold hard logic and that peoples opinions should be expressed to the fullest. As long as someone talks through their emotions and what they truly feel instead of what society wants has

  • Word count: 4180
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
Access this essay