Frederic Chopin.

Frederic Chopin Some regard Frederic Chopin as one of the greatest composers of music for the piano. Even though most of his output was confined to relatively short pieces, Chopin poured out a steady stream of wonderfully inspired music distinguished by exquisite melody of great originality, adventurous harmony and subtle rhythm. No one understood the piano better than Chopin, who could make it sound more truly romantic and poetic than anybody else. Frederic Chopin, born in Poland, February 22, 1810, was the second of four children. Months after his birth, his family moved to Warsaw. His musical talent became apparent extremely early on, and it was compared with the childhood genius of Mozart. He began to study piano at the age of four. His first professional piano lessons lasted 6 years, when, at age 12, his skills surpassed that of his own teacher. Young Chopin had a good education and studied music privately with Joseph Elsner, founder and director of the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1826, Chopin became a full time student at this conservatory. Elsner, after recognizing that Chopin's style was too original to force into traditional patterns, granted him the freedom to develop along is own distinct personal lines. Without a doubt, Chopin is one of the few composers whose style took shape in his formative years and remained very much the same throughout his lifetime.

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Examine the Conflict that Arises in the Stories "Desiree's Baby" and "Crackling Day".

Examine the Conflict that Arises in the Stories "Desiree's Baby" and "Crackling Day" Racism has been an issue throughout time, and in some societies it is still present. The belief that an individual of a different race or colour is not equal to an individual, who is "white", has caused many fights, arguments and deaths. In the nineteenth century, the slave trade was at its height, as we see in "Desiree's Baby". The conflict between different races is also shown in "Crackling Day". Although both stories were written at different periods and set in different continents, both challenge the idea of racism. "Desiree's Baby" is set in the deep south of Louisiana. It shows prejudice against the "blacks" by Armand Aubignys , a cruel plantation owner, "Young Aubigny's rule was a strict one, too, and under it his Negroes had forgotten how to be gay". Armand is a very important man, as he owns a plantation, this also means that he has power over "his Negroes". Armand is full of self-importance, "what did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?" and very proud of his family and his origins. Within this society it is important to know a person's background, as there was an order within the society. For example Armand would be one of the men at the top of this order, whilst "his Negroes" would be at the bottom. As Armand

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Discuss the role and character of the two women in 'The Story of an Hour' and Desiree's Baby'.

Kate Chopin Assignment Kate Chopin, born in 1850, was an American writer who lived in New Orleans and then in rural Louisiana. Her father died in a train crash when she was very young and she was brought up in an all female household. In 1870 she married Oscar Chopin and had five sons and one daughter. She enjoyed a happy marriage and was seen as a loving wife and a devoted mother. After her husband's death, she took over the running of the cotton plantation that her husband worked in. After having started her literary career she published two major novels and nearly hundred short stories, essays, poems, plays and reviews. She died ten years later after writing her last novel, 'The Awakening', when published in 1894. Two of Kate Chopin's short stories, which are 'The Story of an Hour 'and' Desiree's Baby were set in the mid 1800s and both were also set in Louisiana. 'The Story of an Hour' is about a woman, Mrs. Mallard, who her husband was believed to be in a train crash and after all the excitement of feeling 'free' her husband shows up unexpectedly and was awfully shocking for Mrs. Mallard to handle! 'Desiree's Baby' is about Desiree who Armand, a rich slave owner, falls in love with. When Desiree was a girl she had been abandoned as a baby on a neighbouring plantation and brought up as a daughter of the house of Valmonde. As no one knew her true origin, after having a son

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Desiree's baby

Ben Adams 24th October 2001 DESIREE'S BABY This story is written in the turbulent times of the 19th century in the southern states of America, an area renowned for its plantations and slavery Although Desiree's appearance at Valmondes is a mystery she may have been abandoned by a Texan wagon train or she may have roamed away, she was found sleeping in the shadow of a large stone pillar. Desiree may have had a turbulent start in life but she grew up to be "beautiful, gentle, affectionate and sincere". Armand fell in love with her almost at once that day. He had known her since he was 8 yrs old when he had returned from Paris he likened falling in love and described it like "an avalanche" or" a prairie fire". On wanting to marry Monsieur Valmonde reminded Armand that Desiree's origins were a little obscure and she was also nameless Armand looked in his eyes and did not care he was about to give her one of the oldest and proudest names in Louisiana. Armand house was certainly not a home it lacked the touch of a mistress as his own mother had died in France many years earlier when he was eight, Armand like many of his era treated his slaves badly they were property to him not human beings. Just after the birth of Desiree's baby she tells Madame Valmonde that Armand had mellowed out and had not punished a slave since his son's arrival she also expressed that "Armand

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Response to “The Awakening”

Response to "The Awakening" Kate Chopin uses a dreamlike realm in order to better describe the enlightenment that Edna Pontellier experiences in "The Awakening." She uses this technique throughout the novel to enhance the reader's perception of the surreal experience engulfing Edna. In chapter 10, when Edna first begins to feel this strange empowerment over her body, Chopin incorporates fantastic language. "A feeling of exultation took over her, as if some power of significant import had been given to her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim out far, where no woman had swum before...She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, meeting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself (567)." Chopin is clearly describing a surreal occurrence here. This is also one of the most defining moments in the story, when Edna realizes that she can swim, sanctioning her with a new sense of worth and being. She is overwhelmed with a desire to let the ocean fulfill her needs of her senses being awakened and her wishes discovered. Furthermore, in this supernatural chapter, Robert describes a

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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To what extent do you consider the protagonists in 'Story of an Hour', 'The Kiss' and 'The Unexpected' to be courageous or heroic?

To what extent do you consider the protagonists in 'Story of an Hour', 'The Kiss' and 'The Unexpected' to be courageous or heroic? Analysis of 3 short stories written by Kate Chopin What it means to be 'heroic' is to be brave, courageous or noble. Courage is a "quality shown by someone knowing there are dangers or difficulties lying ahead". A 'heroine' is a woman who is brave or shows these qualities. The protagonists in these stories may be considered to be 'heroic' or 'courageous' at this day in age, as back at that time it would have been unforgivable for the women in the stories to show this kind of independence or feelings. At this day in age I can see all the women in the stories thought of as courageous for their own battles to show women are an equal class, and their struggles to get what they wanted. What I have learned from these stories, is that Mrs Mallard (to some extent) is a courageous woman. 'Story of an Hour' is the first story, in which I believe courage is displayed by Mrs Mallard for giving up her dreams for her husband's happiness. In the beginning we learn of Mrs Mallard's heart trouble, and, that her husband has died. "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Men Through Women’s Eyes.

Men Through Women's Eyes Kate Chopin's Desiree's Baby and Elizabeth Gaskell's The Half Brothers, are both vividly poignant stories, -each encompassing an intensity of drama that captures the emotional response of the reader. Incorporating powerful and in places, controversial themes such as loyalty, betrayal, racial prejudice and self-sacrifice, the stories are a testament to their authors; in many ways reflecting their own personal experiences. About Kate Chopin Although an American by birth, Kate Chopin was of mixed French and Irish ancestry. She was born in St Louis in 1850, the daughter of Thomas O'Flaherty, a prosperous merchant who had emigrated from Ireland, and Eliza, the descendant of an aristocratic French family. Her upbringing was affluent and strictly Catholic- her later controversial works may have been an unconscious rebellion against this rigidly austere core element of her childhood. Aged 20, Kate married Oscar Chopin, a cotton trader. They lived first in New Orleans, then moved to their own cotton plantation on the Cane River in Louisiana. Kate devoted herself to motherhood, producing six children, and to caring for the less well-to-do plantation workers in the district. It was a happy and contended life. Her husband's sudden death from swamp fever in 1883 left Kate devastated. It is largely in this way that the story of Desiree's Baby relates so

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Compare 'The Woman's Rose', 'The Story of an Hour' and 'The Necklace'.

GCSE: Pre Twentieth Century Prose Essay. Compare 'The Woman's Rose', 'The Story of an Hour' and 'The Necklace'. In a time where woman's views were seldom heard Guy de Maupassant, Kate Chopin and Olive Schreiner give life to three woman's struggles against the patriarchal society they live in. The writers three different views, which are compared in; 'The Necklace', 'The Story of an Hour' and 'The Woman's Rose' help shed light on the experiences of women in the nineteenth century. I will focus on comparing the treatment of love and romance, the way society is structured and the way it looks upon these three women and their personal expectations at the time. I will look at how the writers develop hope and surprise in their stories, how they use symbolism and to what affect is it used. Then I shall compare the writer's styles and the purpose to which they use literary techniques. I shall finally conclude my essay by stating the main arguments of my essay and what the reader learns about the percentage of women in the nineteenth century. The theme of love and romance is prominent in all three stories however there is a negative view on it in each one. In 'The Woman's Rose' the unnamed woman does not like the way women are proposed to without being in love and is completely dissatisfied with the way in which the romantic attention she gets is superficial as the reader can see

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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When it was first published, 'The Awakening' shocked contemporary critics - Explore Chopin's presentation of events in the society of the novella, which might have shocked the critics.

Claire Gittoes When it was first published, 'The Awakening' shocked contemporary critics. Explore Chopin's presentation of events in the society of the novella, which might have shocked the critics. Kate Chopin presents the audience with a many concepts and ideas, which may have made them, feel uncomfortable, at least that is what they would have felt at the time. Most critics did not like the fact that "The Awakenings" main character, Edna Pontellier, went against the socially acceptable role of women at that time. At that time in history, women did just what they were expected to do; be good daughters, good wives, and good mothers. Edna's gradually defies all of the social restraints placed on her and this received a great deal of criticism. There are many points in the novel, which one could understand would have shocked contemporary readers, for example, Edna's adultery and her rejection of her 'mother woman' role. As Pamela Knights suggests, "It took tremendous daring to choose a heroine who was not 'a mother woman' in a society where many held the same view, 'there are women lacking the maternal instinct as there are claves born with two heads, but for the purpose of generalization theses exceptions may be ignored.'" Throughout the novella Edna is presented as a distinct contrast to the other Creole women, " she made no ineffectual effort to conduct her household

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Compare the ways in which Chopin and Morrison present the subjects of racial prejudice and slavery.

Compare the ways in which Chopin and Morrison present the subjects of racial prejudice and slavery. Desiree's baby wsr written by Kate Chopin (1850 - 1904). Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850 of an Irish and French descent in St. Louis, Missouri. When I first read the extract from Desirees Baby I understood it instantly. Unlike beloved it is a very straight forward and direct chain of events which is easy to follow. I think this is because in Desiree's baby the characters are able to communicate freely and discuss matters of importance which makes the plot far easier to follow. Whereas in Beloved the main characters of the book have no simple form of communication for example talking. Instead they use eye contact and movements through a chain, which is very hard to portray in text. However Morrison has managed to get the slaves which feature in Beloved communicate very well through what enslaves them "One thousand feet of the best hand forged chain in Georgia". I think this is significant because this is one of the few touched of sarcasm or humor wich occur in either of the extracts. In beloved an obvious and explicit form of racial prejudice is being displayed. I come to this conclusion by examining the language which is used. Words such as "nigger" are used to describe black people in beloved where as in Desirees Baby the baby who is black is

  • Word count: 570
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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