University Degree: Charlotte Bronte
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Jane Eyre, its film and sequels whatever their differences- always return to the eternal struggle between male dominance and female victimhood
We see throughout this section, Jane, Helen, and Miss Temple all fight against patriarchal authority. It is Miss Temple who we see first fight for dominance by telling Brocklehurst that it was she who gave the orders for the children to have "two clean tuckers in a week", and to have a lunch of "bread and cheese". When he asks "who introduced this innovation? And by what authority?" Miss Temple simply replies "I must be responsible for the circumstance". Here she is clearly trying to gain authority, but Brocklehurst throughout the rest of chapter 7 shows Miss Temple who is boss by appropriating "Christian spirituality to justify the physical starvation and regulation of the female body.
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The Role of Education in Charlotte Bront(TM)s Jane Eyre
Education there was not concerned at all with the abilities and talents of individual students. They were all taught strictly the same things to give them the kind of education that would prepare them for their limited future job options. Pupils were rewarded and moved up in the class when they did well, and they were punished if they didn't learn. Moreover, pupils were expected to memorize many facts in order for learning to take place. The novel portray the girls of Lowood being forced to recite facts they were to have memorized, reflecting the Victorian teaching methods of memorization through repetition and testing.
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How is happiness conveyed in Jane Austen's Emma and Charlotte Bronte's Villette?
Emma on the other hand, appears to take pleasure in helping others to be happy; often to their detriment! What can be said, nonetheless, is that both novels convey moral journeys towards a greater understanding of self and society. By looking at a few specific incidents in each novel, the methods with which the authors explore the feeling of happiness can be uncovered. Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her (Emma p.5).
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Moral Conscience vs. Church Doctrine
The character of St. John Rivers embodies another fundamental Christian view--that man must sacrifice on earth in order to reap his rewards in heaven; this view, Jane also eschews, as she is resolved to find happiness here on earth. She detests Mr. Brocklehurst, and, although she has warm feelings toward Helen as well as St. John, she clearly challenges their religious philosophies. In the interest of space, I will focus solely on Jane's opposition toward the doctrine held to by Mr.
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This essay attempts to examine and analyze the autobiographical links in Kafka's fiction Metamorphosis and The Judgment, with particular focus on the techniques employed by the author to execute this feat.
The exploitation at the hands of the oppressive bourgeois culture of his world, robs him of his humanity, thus turning him into a creature devoid of thought and feeling to the point that he might as well be an insect since he has long ago ceased to be human. Family relationships with Gregor have been corrupted as the bourgeois mentality has ripped away the hymen of sentimentality, thus causing it to be a victim of capitalism, reducing family relation to a mere money relation.
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Compare and contrast the representation of femininity in Pygmalion and Wide Sargasso Sea
WSS is set in the Caribbean of the 1830's, and was written for a primarily English audience. The author might therefore be expected to emphasise or exaggerate certain aspects of the story to increase the dramatic effect of alienation between the reader and the faraway subject and so the depictions may not be entirely accurate. Both of these works manifest stereotypes of passive women and male figures of authority, as might be expected from works set around the Victorian period.
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How does Charlotte Bronte build up tension? Using chapter 23 to illustrate.
There she passes six years as a student, then two as a teacher. After that Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield, owned by Mr. Rochester. Jane falls in love with her master and Rochester asks Jane to marry him, she agreed. On the day of their marriage Jane discovers that Rochester is already married, she then refuses to be Rochester's mistress and leaves Thornfield. Later she becomes a teacher at a new local school; she also meets her three cousins. St John [her cousin] proposes marriage to Jane; however she refuses as she still loves Rochester.
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Essay on the key theme of alienation in the first two parts of the novel.Wide Sargasso Sea
All three facets of alienation are present on the opening page of the novel. Firstly it is clear that the family has been socially ostracized by white Jamaican society. The military metaphor, "they say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks..." suggests that they are living in a society at war with itself but the Cosway family has been alienated from any form of group protection. We learn that the family is alienated because Annette is not Jamaican (and is very attractive "pretty like pretty self", and therefore disliked by Jamaican women)
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Pygmalion's title harkened from its predecessor, Ovid's Pygmalion which accounted a woman-hating sculptor falling in love with his own sculpture of his desired image. Wide Sargasso Sea referred to the sea surrounding Dominica, the setting of Jean Rhys's
(Block 5, page 14-15) Secondly, Shaw reflected on serious moral issues in Pygmalion. He likened Eliza's physical uncleanliness to Higgin's personal uncleanliness to exhibit his distinctive Shavian paradox. Then he introduced a more unwashed character, the cockney dustman, to embody another Shavian paradox (Block 5, page 27) to mock the audience's association with only the same class and social status. The third realism was that of dialogue. Though heightened and poetical language was one of the most durable and pervasive legacies of the classical tradition, Shaw challenged the tradition with characters speaking in recognizable everyday speech to relate to audience's familiar language.
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The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte-present an indispensable contribution into the world literature of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
Gregor may be in separation emotionally from his family before his metamorphosis even takes place. Gregor's locked door indicates that Gregor was previously removed from the Samsa circle of family union. The physical aspects of Gregor's room, such as the confined feeling that the furniture creates, is a microcosm of Gregor's life. The furniture traps Gregor in his room, just as the Samsas have trapped Gregor for financial stability. The only source where Gregor receives love after his metamorphosis is from his sister.
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The function of landscape or the environment in Jane Eyre.
We must remember that she is actually recounting events from ten years hence; her time at Gateshead and Lowood are an adult's recollection of events. The chronological attribute of 'Bildungsroman' novelistic style as employed by Bront�, allows Jane's personal and emotional development to be regarded in conjunction with her surroundings at five key stages in the novel: Gateshead Hall, Lowood School, Thornfield, Moor House and Ferndean. These five key settings represent different stages in Jane's development: as a child, girlhood, adolescence, maturity and fulfilment.
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The Women of Shirley.
The title character, Shirley Keeldar, is introduced relatively late in the novel in chapter eleven. From the moment her character appears on the written page, it is obvious what role she will play: the strong independent woman. There is an aura that separates Shirley from other women during the nineteenth century in Europe. She is confident, not solely due to her heiress status but also because, as Bronte states, "Shirley Keeldar was no ugly heiress: she was agreeable to the eye" (211). In contrast to Caroline, Shirley seems slightly brighter in many ways; she is slightly taller, better looking, better off financially, and last but not least, not an ordinary woman of the time.
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Discuss the role of the narrator in Die Verwandlung.
Nun, ruhig hatte er ja nicht geschlafen, aber wahrscheinlich detso fester." This shows that the narrative is still in the 3rd person but takes the form more of Gregor's flow of consciousness than a traditional narrative. This form has a somewhat disjointed effect in reading; it is slightly disorientating to be introduced to the story through a narrator but for the narration to be disrupted by the flow of consciousness of the main character. However, the narrator is necessary in order to bring certain perspective to the reader, otherwise the reader would not be able to gain all the information needed to ascertain what is actually happening to Gregor.
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In Sons and Lovers how does Lawrence challenge conventional attitudes towards social and sexual relationships and what effect does this have on the narrative?
This is illustrated when a violent, drunken Mr Morel, locks his pregnant wife outside in the cold. However, more objectively, both parties are bitter and violent to one another, '"Ah, wouldn't I, wouldn't I have gone long ago, but for those children"' (p. 22), however Mrs Morel is instantly made the victim. Keith Sagar makes an interesting point regarding the subjectivity of Sons and Lovers, The question is whether Lawrence was in sufficient command of his experience, had come to a sufficient understanding of it, to be able to present it adequately in a novel. The charge against him is that, consciously or unconsciously, he distorted the story in order to make Paul and his mother come out of it better than they should, at the expense of Miriam and his father (Sagar 1981: 11)
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Through her stories, "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Making a Change," Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrays two contrasting views of women in similarly restrictive circumstances.
Although Jane is "on vacation" with her family, she sees little of her husband. He is a doctor and spends most of his time out of the house, working with his patients. In the meantime, Jane stays in the house, seldom even venturing downstairs or into the garden. The only people in the house with her are her own young baby and her sister-in-law, Jennie. Jane writes that she "cannot be with" her baby. It is obvious that she loves the child, but she has little desire to care for it and nurse it.
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In the light of these two critical readings, discus the presentation of the unnamed Rochester in 'Wide Sargasso Sea'.
The presentation of Rochester is ambiguous and therefore we are unable to form a clear and definite opinion of him. Neither a sympathetic or unsympathetic view is dictated to us. Rhys guides us through the novel and allows us to see the arrogant and proud side of Rochester as well as his vulnerability, which we may sympathise with. We must form our own opinion of the character, disregarding some of the things they say, as a person telling their own story can be considered unreliable.
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The narrative of popular romance simultaneously challenges and reaffirms traditional male-female rel
In older publications such as "Sonora Sundown" by JanetDailey (Mills and Boon 1978) the heroine is identified as a virgin in the first chapter whilst her prospective lover is an actor, well known for his "success" with women. His physical domination of her is one of the very first scenes in the book as she tries to escape from him, believing that he is going to kill her. The scene concludes with a threat of rape in the immortal lines "I ought to make love to you; it's what a hellcat like you deserves!"
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Do the texts wide sargasso sea and pygmalion seem to present a straightforward contrast between male figures of authority and passive women ?
His appearance and character are described in the stage notes to act 2 , which become clearer throughout the act. It states he is a bully, and can be petulant. His manner is robust and direct, and upon meeting Eliza in his house he becomes abusive , referring to her as baggage. This shows he is somewhat dominant and arrogant. Bullying and directness are factors which make up a dominant character . Shaw portrays Higgins as a man who says aloud whatever he is thinking with no care of peoples' feelings around him .
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Compare and Contrast the Techniques Used by Bronte in Describing Thornfiled Hall in Chapter 11, with those used by Woolf in Describing London in the Early Pages of Mrs. Dalloway
The phrase 'separating' used in the passage exemplifies the secrecy within Thornfield, which also intrigues us. The use of semicolons and commas in the passage, adds to the appeal of Thornifield, illustrated when Bronte writes, "the third story; narrow, low, and dim". These techniques disrupt the flow of the sentence to show the fascination and anxiety that she has for the attic. This allows the structure of the sentence to be sharp, with short gaps to keep the reader curious and interested.
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Enacting of modern themes and literary devices in To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.
The characters may often seem to be dissolved into little more than ciphers, what they come to signify is part of complex iconographic discourse. In the instances of "To The Lighthouse" the glancing insights into the identities of characters are complemented by larger symbols (a flickering lighthouse) which is allowed to be both temporary and permanent, both real and resonant, both constant and fluctuating. The fictional whole thus becomes a normative expression of certain Modernist themes and modes. She founds new methods to say what she has to say.
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How viable is it to read Moll Flanders as a feminist text?
Has Defoe given himself no choice but to try to be feminist? Moll Flanders, which is a name given to her through her partners in crime, is surrounded by women from the start. Indeed, there is no real male influence in her life for her first few years. Born in a prison in Newgate, there is no real mention of her father and her mother gives her away almost immediately. After passing through the hands of a group of gypsies, she ends up in the custody of a Nurse where she is treated and brought up well and receives a reasonable education.
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The Image of the book in Jane Eyre is associated with power and possession. John Reed asserts his authority and property rights over Jane and rather surprisingly the objects he focuses on are his books:
(p.9) But the Reeds deny Jane access to books and even attack her with them (p.11). The reader is aware that Jane has much to fear but lost in her fantasy world, she feels secure and in control. Conspicuously, throughout the novel books either work "for" people or "against" them, echoing moods and acting as enemies or allies. Jane is again threatened with a book when Mr. Brocklehurst arrives to speak with Mrs. Reed about school: Read it with a prayer, especially that part containing "an account of the awfully sudden death of Martha G___, a naughty child addicted to falsehood and deceit."
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In the beginning of the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Grete plays a very important role in the life of Gregor.
However as the novel progresses Grete becomes more and more distant and begins to drift away from her brother. One can notice that Grete seems to have done all this work and cared for Gregor only out of family duty rather than for actual human relations. It is almost as though she has to pay back Gregor for all he has done but money is the only reason she is doing this. This shows us one noticeable theme in this novel: how money drives us as people. Our whole world is based around money just as the case for the Samsas.
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The Men of Jane Eyre.
I will specifically analyze Jane's relationships early in the novel with John Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester. The aim is to show the male influence to deny Jane's desire for equity and dignity. The first relationship the audience views Jane have with someone from the opposite gender is with her cousin, John Reed. Jane's relationship with John can be described in one word: intimidations. Early in Jane's life it is evident that she can be intimidated rather easily. Let she had enough intestinal fortitude to lash out from time to time when she felt the line had been crossed.
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Discuss the image of the doubled female in Charlotte Bront's Shirley, Villette and Jane Eyre.
Shirley, for example, beautifully parodies the curates at their meal, literally devouring everything that the housekeeper brings them. In itself, this is a terrifying picture of the male appetite, a picture that is to stay with the novel, in characters such as Robert Moore and Mr Yorke, throughout Shirley. John Reed establishes male rule at Gateshead, in Jane Eyre, as does the fact that Jane is locked into the room of a dead male relative, suggestive in itself that it is the male figure of authority that instigates punishment. 'There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired,'3 says Jane of John Reed.
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