Perhaps the most absorbing and first-rate film of all time, Crimson Peak, was released in 2015. The film’s director, Guillermo Del Toro, selected the most talented and suitable actors for his characters. Toro’s renowned actors include familiar faces such as Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, and Charlie Hunnam. This film breaks the boundaries of classification, and sets the precedent for future films in its newly-crafted genre. The film is a clash of horror and romance, which is often not seen on the screen, and when it is, is not often popular. Rather than adding to the list of poorly developed horror movies, Crimson Peak offered a refreshing take on the genre. The story transpired in the late 19th century, and the majority …show more content…
Edith, as a young child, has a strange experience with an apparition, who tells her to “Beware of Crimson Peak”. Then, about thirteen years later, we learn that Mr. Cushing’s’ now grown-up daughter is an aspiring writer, who is having difficulty beginning her career. Her father hopes that she will wed her childhood and family friend, Dr. McMichael, but Edith has other plans. When a mysterious young English man, Thomas Sharpe, takes interest in Edith and her writing, she falls in love with him. This is unacceptable in Mr.Cushings eyes, and he threatens to reveal to Edith that Mr.Sharpe is bankrupt, unless he accepts a check, breaks Edith’s heart and runs away, along with his sister, back to England. This is closely followed by Mr. Cushing getting murdered by a mysterious, unidentifiable, figure. Edith is then further wooed by Mr. Sharpe, and agrees to marry him and move with him, and his sister, back to their home in England. Once they arrive at Allerdale Hall, a dilapidated and crumbling mansion atop a red-clay mine, Mr. Sharpes sister, Lucille Sharpe, begins to act cold and hostile to Edith. Another apparition appears and delivers the same message to Edith from when she was a child. It is then revealed that the nickname for the Sharpes’ mansion is Crimson Peak, because of the clay mine that is sits on top of. When strange things begin to occur in the mansion, Edith
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen” (“Brainy Quotes” 1). In Edith Wharton’s framed novel, Ethan Frome, the main protagonist encounters “lost opportunity, failed romance, and disappointed dreams” with a regretful ending (Lilburn 1). Ethan Frome lives in the isolated fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts with his irritable spouse, Zenobia Frome. Ever since marriage, Zenobia, also referred to as Zeena, revolves around her illness. Furthermore, she is prone to silence, rage, and querulously shouting. Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causing his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night. Unfortunately, the night turns out to be a disastrous and uncomfortable evening. Neither Ethan nor Mattie speaks a word regarding their love for one another. Additionally, during their dinner, the pet cat leaps on the table and sends a pickle dish straight to the floor crashing into pieces. To make matters worse, the pickle dish is a favored wedding gift that is cherished by Zeena. Later, Zeena discovers it is broken and it sends her anger over the edge. Furious, Zeena demands for a more efficient “hired girl” to complete the tasks ar...
In the small, desolate town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan Frome lives a life of poverty. Not only does he live hopelessly, but “he was a prisoner for life” to the economy (Ammons 2). A young engineer from outside of town narrates the beginning of the story. He develops a curiosity towards Ethan Frome and the smash-up that he hears about in bits and pieces. Later, due to a terrible winter storm that caused the snow itself to seem like “a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer” (Wharton 20), the narrator is forced to stay the night at Frome’s. As he enters the unfamiliar house, the story flashes back twenty-four years to Ethan Frome’s young life. Living out his life with Zenobia Frome, his hypochondriac of a wife whom he does not love, Ethan has nowhere to turn for a glance at happiness. But when Zenobia’s, or Zeena’s, young cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to care for her, Ethan falls in love with the young aid. Mattie is Ethan’s sole light in life and “she is in contrast to everything in Starkfield; her feelings bubble near the surface” (Bernard 2). All through the novella, the two young lovers hide their feelings towards each other. When they finally let out their true emotions to each other in the end, the consequence is an unforeseen one. Throughout Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton portrays a twisted fairy tale similar to the story of Snow White with the traditional characters, but without a happy ending to show that in a bleak and stark reality, the beautiful and enchanting maiden could become the witch.
Edith Wharton’s brief, yet tragic novella, Ethan Frome, presents a crippled and lonely man – Ethan Frome – who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a hypochondriacal wife, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome. Set during a harsh, “sluggish” winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan and his sickly wife live in a dilapidated and “unusually forlorn and stunted” New-England farmhouse (Wharton 18). Due to Zeena’s numerous complications, they employ her cousin to help around the house, a vivacious young girl – Mattie Silver. With Mattie’s presence, Starkfield seems to emerge from its desolateness, and Ethan’s vacant world seems to be awoken from his discontented life and empty marriage. And so begins Ethan’s love adventure – a desperate desire to have Mattie as his own; however, his morals along with his duty to Zeena and his natural streak of honesty hinder him in his ability to realize his own dreams. Throughout this suspenseful and disastrous novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton effectively employs situational irony enabling readers to experience a sudden shock and an unexpected twist of events that ultimately lead to a final tragedy in a living nightmare.
Alan Bradley’s novel, entitled Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and Edward Estlin Cumming’s poem, somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond, both underscore the thematic concepts of mystery, adventure, and love, but are shaped from different standpoints. The novel is an old-fashioned whodunit set in a 1950s English countryside filled with odds and ends. Taking inspiration from the illustrious Sherlock Holmes, Bradley features Flavia, an eleven year old aspiring chemist who singlehandedly solves a murder case. The poem, written in 1931, details the intense affection that the poet feels for his beloved by using simple prose to express the abstract complexities of love through imagery and symbolism. The three underlying themes are essentially presented physically in the novel, and mentally in the poem. When the inquisitive prodigy stumbles upon a mysterious dead man in her garden, her unique advantage of age propels her on a thrilling journey through various people and places, and while her love remains fixed on chemistry, her interpersonal relationships fall short. On the contrary, the poem portrays the speaker marvelling over the mysterious power his beloved has over him, as he contemplates the inner adventures he will take with her through an exclusively interpersonal love journey. While holding one’s true passion and love close to heart, a wild adventure that stems from the wonders of the unknown offers insightful reality and meaning into both brilliant pieces of literature.
Richard Ford transforms Earl’s tone from compliant to dissenting by exposing his loneliness, which leads him to leave Edna, to highlight the cause of their evidently dysfunctional relationship through the characterization of Earl in his short story, “Rock Springs.”
Finally, horror became ‘Slasher.’ The 1970’s became obsessed with realistic news stories and characters and films became more stylize and followed similar storyline conventions. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978) and Night Mare On Elm Street (1984) where full of psycho villains, teens in danger and the sole survivor leading to plenty of sequels. The only other horror genre or thriller genre focused on suspense, movie...
She tried to do many things to be “better” than she had been. Showering everyday to be the cleanest version herself made her feel that it enhanced her quality of life. She was doing this day in day out and even sometimes twice a day as part of her “cleanliness”. While she did not have much money, she spent her extra cash on what she felt was its place to be spent in. Herself. Her appearance. Edith had bought the nicest and most soothing scent of perfume along with a flashy wristwatch and admirable dresses in an attempt to boost her self-esteem and self-image. Amidst the scent of roses and nice clothes Edith tried to change her attitude. She refused to gossip anytime Mrs.Henderson would endeavour at gossip. Edith read beauty magazines and books about proper etiquette one of many customs she had adopted. She did this daily and accustomed to it believing that she needed to it to be the more proper version of herself as the way she wanted to execute her plan of a changed woman. Edith altered herself and the way she did many things. Although she still knew who she really was and where she came from, she refused to accept it. Along with many things were done Edith’s decisions were overthrown by her self-image on her role of a daughter
Edith Wharton, a famous author of many outstanding books, wrote a chaotic love story entitled Ethan Frome. The story took place in the wintery town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Wharton was a sophisticated young woman who found love in sitting down and holding people’s attention by way of a pen. Wharton wrote yet another thriller that told the tale of two love stricken people that barely found it possible to be together; which later forced them to fall into the temptation of love that cannot be controlled. Wharton had many different writing styles but for different books meant different needs. In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, frustration and loneliness play roles in disappointment while imagery, symbolism, and individual responsibility provide the novel with a tortuous plot.
Dorothea Brooke is a very bright and beautiful young lady that does not much care for frills or getting ahead in society. She wants more than anything to help those around her, starting with the tenants of her uncle. She desires to redesign their cottages, but Arthur Brooke, her elderly uncle with whom she and her younger sister Celia Brooke lives with, does not want to spend the money required. So Dorothea shares her dream with Sir James Chettam, who finds her fascinating, and encourages her to use the plans she has drawn up for the tenants on his land instead. He falls in love with her, but does not share his feelings for her quickly enough. Edward Casaubon, an older scholarly clergyman asks Dorothea to marry him, she does not accept until she finds out Sir James means to seriously court her, then turns around and tells Casaubon yes. What she does not te...
Set in 1881 Starkfield, Massachusetts, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome reveals a recurring theme in literature: “the classic war between a passion and responsibility.” In this novel, protagonist Ethan Frome confronts the demands of two private passions: his desire to become an engineer that conflicts with his moral duty to his family and his love for Mattie Silver that conflicts with his obligations to his wife Zeena. Inevitably placing the desires and well-being of his family before his own, Ethan experiences only “‘[s]ickness and trouble’” and “‘that’s what [he’s] had his plate full up with, ever since the very first helping’” (12). The reader understands Ethan’s struggles when he abandons his studies at Worcester, when he considers running
Edith Ewing Bouvier-Beal and her namesake “Little Edie” Bouvier-Beal live in a dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons in squalor. “Big Edie” rarely leaves her bed which is surrounded by trash and refuse. She even cooks using a hot plate from her bed. Little Edie reluctantly serves her mother, and feeds the multiple cats and wild animals such as raccoons that populate the filthy flea ridden house
“Editha” is a story about a manipulative woman named Editha Balcom and her suitor, George Gearson. The plot of this story is focused on a war and whether or not George will join the fight. He is conflicted between his pacifist nature and social conditioning and what he knows Editha wishes for him to do. Editha is determined that George will fight in the war, even if she has to manipulate him into doing so. George does join the fighting and is immediately killed. In the end of the story, Editha visits George’s grieving mother and is met with resentment and contempt.
She is only characterized by her past and by her mother’s religion that her mother, Hortense, forces her to spread its news at school. Therefore, Clara struggles to find herself an identity that does not include her religion or her mother, which touches the defining line that separates identity from heredity. Although her mother wants Clara’s religion and past to define her, the girl resists this identity and struggles to find her own. Finally, the events of the novel lead Clara into Archie’s arms which allows her to begin a new and different life than the one her mother wanted for her: “Clara saw Archie through the gray-green eyes of loss; her world had just disappeared, the faith she lived by had receded like a low tide, and Archie, quite by accident, had become the bloke in the joke; the last man on earth” (38). Both Archie and Clara were in thirst to find each other, Archie found his new direction in life and Clara found a different life than her previous “preset”
The setting for this novel was a constantly shifting one. Taking place during what seems to be the Late Industrial Revolution and the high of the British Empire, the era is portrayed amongst influential Englishmen, the value of the pound, the presence of steamers, railroads, ferries, and a European globe.
As the story opens, it is November fifth, in the early winter. The beginning of winter is also the beginning of a troubled time for Thomasin. She goes with Wildeve to Anglebury to marry him in the morning of November fifth, but returns that evening, unmarried, in the back of the reddleman's wagon. Mrs. Yeobright, Thomasin's aunt and guardian, expresses her grief -- "When it gets known there will be a very unpleasant time for us" (49). Though it was not Thomasin's fault that she did not marry Wildeve, as there was a problem with the marriage license, people still consider it a scandal and a great disgrace to her and her family. This time of depression, in which Thomasin does not even leave the house out of shame, lasts until Thomasin finally does marry Wildeve, after an extended period of waiting. It is not until after Christmas that they finally wed. The depressing quality of the winter season reflects this dreary and disheartening time. Nature and seasonal changes reflect human nature and situations on the heath.