Control can be described in many ways, as freedom or restraint. Without the restraint that stability can offer, a person could easily lose direction in life. But a loss of control can also result in anger at those who are perceived to be responsible. In many cases this loss can give rise to a need for revenge without thought for the consequences. In the stories, “Old Mother Savage”, Trifles, and “Wedding at the Cross”, the psychological effects of the loss of control over one’s life manifests itself differently in different people, but ultimately it always results in an attempts to regain a semblance of control through desperate actions which often prove costly. In “Old Mother Savage”, Mother Savage experiences a loss of control when she receives …show more content…
Wright, in Trifles, has lived a very isolated and lonely existence experiences a loss of self-control at the death of her bird; she then commits a desperate act in the hopes that it will bring her the sense of equilibrium that was taken from her. Glaspell explains, “MRS. HALE [Her own feeling not interrupted] If there’d been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful—still, after the bird was still.” (Glaspell) The bird holds great significance in the life of Mrs. Wright, serving a dual purpose as a friend and entertainer. Without the bird she has only the chores of a farm and her husband who is depicted as a cold and hard man. The bird was perhaps the one bright spot in the life of Mrs. Wright who’s care for it is exhibited in the careful handling of its body. When Mr. Wright kills the bird the slight sense of equilibrium that she had in her life is gone, and without the bird Mrs. Wright is forced back into a life of solitude. The thought of returning to her monotonous and lonely existence without the color that the bird had contributed to her life might have been too much for her to consider. In Glaspell’s depiction of Mrs. Wright after the crime, “” Can’t I see John” “No,” she says, kind o’ dull like. “Ain’t he home?” says I. “Yes,” says she, “he’s home.” “Then why can’t I see him? “I asked her, out of patience. “’Cause he’s dead,” says she. “Dead?” says I. She just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin’ back and forth. …show more content…
This results in him sacrificing his identity in order to conform to a traditionalist ideal in the name of regaining the dignity he has lost. Thiong’o writes, “They made him stand at the door, without offering him a chair, and surveyed him up and down. Wariuki, bewildered, looked alternately to Miriamu and to the wall for possible deliverance. And then when he finally got a chair, he would not look at the parents and the dignitaries invited him to sit in judgment but fixed his eyes to the wall. But he was aware of their naked gaze and condemnation.” (Thiong’o, 1040) It is here that Wariuki suffers incredible embarrassment and, feels for maybe the first time, ashamed of who he is and where he comes from. Wariuki is not a man who has at this point found great worth in material things and instead finds joy in entertaining people. For Miriamu’s father, a well off man, Wariuki is not enough for his daughter. Thiong’o then describes the hold that this experience took on Wariuki, “Wariuki had the one obsessions: to erase the memory of that interview, to lay forever the ghost of those contemptuous eyes.” (Thiong’o, 1042) In response to his embarrassment Wariuki becomes fixated with exacting an emotional revenge on his father in law. Wariuki, all in the name of success and retribution, turns his back on his people in order to
The character Mrs. Wright is portrayed as a kind and gentle woman. She is also described as her opinion not being of importance in the marriage. It is stated by Mr. Hale that “ I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John” .(745) Her neighbor, Mrs. Hale, depicts her as “She─come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself─real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and─fluttery. How─she─did─change”. (752) It appears that Mrs. Wright is a kind and gentle woman, not capable of committing a murder. But, with the evidence provided and the description of Mr. Wright’s personality it can also be said that the audience will play on the sympathy card for Mrs. Wright. She appears to be caught in a domestic violence crime in which she is guilty of, but the audience will overlook the crime due to the nature of the circumstances. By using pathos it will create a feeling that Mrs. Wright was the one who was suffering in the marriage, and that she only did what she felt necessary at the
Wright also ultimately loses control over her destiny after gaining it for a moment when she kills Mr. Wright. The drugs take control of Sonny, while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are the ones who take on this role and in a sense sway the path of Mrs. Wright’s life. The dead bird is an important aspect of this. It is the main component of evidence against her that the men are looking for, and is what shows her motive for the murder that she committed. Being abused and controlled throughout her marriage with no say in anything and finally having this pet bird that she could connect to and saw herself in meant a great deal to her, and when her husband took that away from her it was the last straw and brought her to end what was controlling her so that she could take on that role herself. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters realize this, and they end up protecting Mrs. Wright from the men. They know that she was abused and they pity her and believe that she had a right to kill her husband, and they feel sorry for her and do not want her to go to prison for it, so they hide the evidence from the men. This is the women playing the part of what the heroin is to Sonny and being the ones who start to control Mrs. Wright’s destiny and to keep her out of jail so she can live her life in
Perhaps one of the most profound needs of humans is having control. Control gives not only satisfaction but also a sense of relief that things are going to go the way one has planned. In the evolutionary perspective, having a control for one’s environment results to better survivability. The loss of control on the other hand provides a cramped stress to gain control. It proves to be one of the needs that certainly ranks in the top of the hierarchy. Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, and Steven Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo, shows the human struggle for control and what they would do to grasp it. Both literary pieces show that inclination towards having control. Humans, although impossible, have an inner desire to control everything.
...comfort he’s having with adapting to the idea of Alice being “old enough to go courting,” and contemplates life without belonging. “Then, clenched in the pain of loss, he lifted the bird on his wrist, and watched it soar,” reality seeps in as he realises that one day his granddaughter must leave it’s the nature of life. This parallels Emily Dickinson’s underlying ideal in The Saddest Noise, The Sweetest Noise as life must be endured without the ones we love.
House birds are normally kept in a cage, which can cause them to feel enclosed and trapped. Mrs. Wright’s home, was her confined cage. The bird cage signifies Mrs. Wright’s perspective towards her married life. She was unable to escape the abusive relationship with John. Before her marriage, Mrs. Hale speaks of Mrs. Wright, “She come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself. Real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery. How-she-did-change” (179). The bird expresses Mrs. Wright faultlessly. It sang for her when she couldn’t, and kept that small piece of happiness inside her. It was the only companion she had to keep her sanity and block out the negativity John brought in her life. The bird filled her loneliness until John’s abuse took that away from her. There was no way for Mrs. Wright to escape the nightmare she was living in. The women distinctly remember her before her marriage and are shocked to discover how much it has reshaped her. John, incapable of loving and fulfilling her needs as his wife, killed the bird and killed Minnie’s personality. John dictated Minnie’s role as solely a women who cooks, cleans, and cares for him. When John killed the bird, he figuratively kills Minnie. The bird and the birdcage represent the role of women in society and how powerless they are to free themselves from the cage they live in. Women are like birds, while men are their
When the focus is strictly on this fulfillment of desire, the importance of the present begins to supersede that of the future and distorts not only judgement, but also relationships. In the instance of this comical short story, Tom’s relationship with his wife is distorted by his emotion, a negative guide to life. Tom’s feelings are focused on gaining the treasure offered to him by the Devil which turns his attention towards the deal with the Devil and away from the well-being of his wife. When she decides out of avarice to bargain with the Devil herself and disappears, Tom is concerned about the articles she took with her stating “Let us get hold of the property […] and we will endeavor to do without the wife” (243). In this case, his desire is so strong that it clouds the love he feels for his wife. This is a prime example for the way emotion is able to distort relationships. Not only does it distort his relationship but Tom also suffers himself because of his decisions. “The black man whisked him like a child into the saddle, gave the horse the lash, and away he galloped, with Tom on his back, in the midst of the thunderstorm” even after he believed that he was safe (244). This plotline common to literature demonstrates a Faust myth where one knowingly or unknowingly sells their soul to the
Mrs. Hale’s keen wit and patience contributes to her embodiment of The Fate sister Clotho the Spinner, which is even more evident in her correcting of Minnie Wright’s improper stitching (Russell). Mrs. Peters begins the process of investigation deeply devoted to keeping the law. She doesn’t want any disruption in the house, saying, “I don’t think we ought to touch things” (Glaspell p. 666) when Mrs. Hale began searching for clues. Upon finding the dead canary, Mrs. Peters view on the situation changes drastically, and she decides with Mrs. Hale to hide the tiny dead bird from the men. They both figure that if the dead canary was discovered, Mrs. Wright would be thought to be a mad woman, though it was likely Mr. Wright who killed it.
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
And where there is no legal punishment for his father’s death, he must stoop, driven by the universal wrong, and “being thus be-netted round with villainies”, to revenge. He must share the corruption of others in spite of his nobility, and recognize in himself the common features, "we are arrant knaves all." (53)
The conflict between good and evil is one of the most common conventional themes in literature. Coping with evil is a fundamental struggle with which all human beings must contend. Sometimes evil comes from within a character, and sometimes other characters are the source of evil; but evil is always something that the characters struggle to overcome. In two Russian novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, men and women cope with their problems differently. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and the Master in The Master and Margarita can not cope and fall apart, whereas Sonya in Crime and Punishment and Margarita in The Master and Margarita, not only cope but pull the men out of their suffering.
Mr. Wright was a cruel, cold, and heartless man. He was also a very unsociable man. He abandoned his wife's contentment and paid very little attention to his wife's opinions. He even prevented her from singing. This is revealed about Mr. Wright during the conversations between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters when they find the dead bird with a twisted neck in Mrs. Wright's sewing basket. Mrs. Hale points out, "She- come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How-she-did-change" (Glaspell 1267). Mrs. Wright used to be a very high-s...
The path one takes to seek a personal reward may result in the treacherous acts that causes devastation for others. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the moral corruption that occurs between family members causes animosity that results in their downfall, and eventually their ultimate demise. More specifically, the tainted view of an individual in a family may result in the downfall of the other family members involved. Evidence of the tainted view of a family member causing undue harm can be found in the relationship between Hamlet and Claudius, Hamlet and Old King Hamlet, and Hamlet and Gertrude
Some people may say that having control over someone or something can bring satisfaction and a sense of power. In the an article called “Gunman Kills Himself After Hostage Drama (584)” written by Charles P. Wallace and Tim Waters loss of control and the feeling of being helplessness makes Robert B. Rose commit a last act of asserting control over himself. In another article written by Martin E.P. Seligman called “On Learned Helplessness (585)” the feeling of loosing control of oneself is something that can cause someone to do things that they thought they would never do. What is hard to understand is that some of the things the someone may commit may implicate the lives of others in a negative way and the ending result could be death.
Wright was described as a beautiful women filled with such joy and life until she married John Wright. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale feels sorry for her because her husband treated her so bad. Due to female bonding and sympathy, the two women, becoming detectives, finds the truth and hides it from the men. The play shows you that emotions can play a part in your judgement. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale felt sorry that Mrs. Wright had one to keep her company no kids and she was always left alone at home. “yes good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debt. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that goes to the bone. I should of think she would have wanted a bird. But what you suppose went with it?” Later on in the play the women find out what happens to the bird. The bird was killed the same way Mrs. Wright husband which leads to the motive of why he was killed. Mrs. Wright was just like the bird beautiful but caged no freedom not being able to live a life of her own. Always stuck in the shadows of her husband being told what to do and
“A Bird came down the Walk,” was written in c. 1862 by Emily Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. This easy to understand and timeless poem provides readers with an understanding of the author’s appreciation for nature. Although the poem continues to be read over one hundred years after it was written, there is little sense of the time period within which it was composed. The title and first line, “A Bird came down the Walk,” describes a common familiar observation, but even more so, it demonstrates how its author’s creative ability and artistic use of words are able to transform this everyday event into a picture that results in an awareness of how the beauty in nature can be found in simple observations. In a step like narrative, the poet illustrates the direct relationship between nature and humans. The verse consists of five stanzas that can be broken up into two sections. In the first section, the bird is eating a worm, takes notice of a human in close proximity and essentially becomes frightened. These three stanzas can easily be swapped around because they, for all intents and purposes, describe three events that are able to occur in any order. Dickinson uses these first three stanzas to establish the tone; the tone is established from the poet’s literal description and her interpretive expression of the bird’s actions. The second section describes the narrator feeding the bird some crumbs, the bird’s response and its departure, which Dickinson uses to elaborately illustrate the bird’s immediate escape. The last two stanzas demonstrate the effect of human interaction on nature and more specifically, this little bird, so these stanzas must remain in the specific order they are presented. Whereas most ...