Class boundaries play a significant role in “The Undefinable: A Fantasia” and The Return of the Soldier, as these texts create a picture in which those boundaries are done away with, if only for a moment. The women of the lower classes, who are described in the beginning of these stories in negative aesthetic terms, are ‘Otherized,’ due to class distinctions in their appearance and manners. The stories show the progression of the unreliable first person narrator ‘falling for’ the Other, but being unable to describe the woman in artistic terms, they turn to spiritual terminology. This spirituality varies in each story, with the novel describing the Other as a Christian saint and the short story as a Greek muse. The narrators in “The Undefinable” …show more content…
In “The Undefinable,” by the end of the young woman’s first visit, the narrator is appraising her body for its worth in a portrait. The woman views this appraisal with disdain, mocking the “rounded form, healthy flesh, and lively glances” that appeal to the painter, common tropes of upper class portraits (Grand 285). Over the course of her next two visits, the narrator begins to worship and “glorify” her being (Grand 285). In the midst of her glorification, the man is able to paint in “love and reverence” a woman as she is, so that he “may feel her divinity and worship that!” (Grand 282, 284). The goddess-like terms of exaltation that the narrator describes the women with come with a frenzy to paint the ‘soul’ of the young woman, who was “a source of inspiration the like of which no man hitherto has even imagined in art or literature” (Grand 287). The inspiration, which solidifies the woman’s role as the muse, comes from a desire for her soul, not her …show more content…
Jenny cannot communicate the same type of perfection she alluded to in her description of Kitty’s appearances. She searches for why Chris would choose Margaret, and in doing so, she breaks out of artistic terms and begins to describe Margaret as belonging to the spiritual realm. As Chris and Margaret reunite in the garden, the nymphs and Tritons stand by as symbols of exaltation of beauty, but Jenny says “one’s eye lay on the figure in the yellow raincoat,” Margaret (West 58-9). In this scene, the image of beauty is forsaken for the motherly embrace, in which Margaret envelopes Chris. They stood “breast to breast,” and her embrace seemed to have “fed him” (West 59). In this scene, Jenny is setting the stage for the exaltation above the pagan notions of beauty to that of Christ-like service, specfically the service that Margaret can give to Chris as a type of selfless mother
According to Shearer West, a portrait is “a work of art that represents a unique individual”. West elaborates on the implications of this definition of a portrait, introducing the dilemma of the painter, who may strive to illustrate either or both the ideal figure, or a likeness of the sitter. Jean Germain Drouais’ resolution to such a dilemma can be observed in the painting, Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame, as he struggles to portray both the femininity of the ideal woman in the 1760s, while conveying the more present, aged and unique characteristics of the lady that captured King Louis XV’s heart.
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
Different time periods and different places throughout the world have their own ideas of beauty and perfection. Idealized style is what the artist sees as beautiful. “Women possess a lot of dynamic energy, they take care of a lot of responsibilities- they are wives, mothers, daughters, and friends. Women are dynamic in their trajectory of life: they are beautiful, inspiring and charismatic. The women in my life juggle a
In many works of literature, an author highlights or exposes the values of a society or culture through the use of characters which are alienated from that same culture or society. These characters can be alienated through many means, whether it be by gender, race, or social class. In the case of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the main protagonist is isolated by her gender. In the Novel, Edna Pontellier’s alienation exposes the unjust moral values of a patriarchal society.
As the art world moved away from Renaissance ideals, the way women were shown in the art world began to shift. In 1863, the french painter Edouard Manet used Venus of Urbino as inspiration for his radical painting Olympia, in which he challenged the limited way women were depicted in art. For one thing, he paints a prostitute, rather than an aristocrat. He paints a prostitute who is unashamed of her work, and unwilling to conform to classically idealized form. Even more radical however, is the way he painted her. Olympia meets the viewer’s gaze head on, and stares almost defiantely. She is positioned slightly above the viewer, and gazes down powerfully. She is wearing just enough to not be considered a nude figure. Instead she is a naked one,
When we read these questions at the beginning of Daniel Deronda, we do not know the identity of the woman, we do not know the context, the scene, the observer. We are given two choices: is she beautiful or not beautiful. As the questions arise, one after another, the subjective choice “beautiful or not beautiful” becomes more complex. There is a “dynamic quality” in the expression—a constant unmarked fluidity. The object of our question is not static and “By dint of looking at a dubious object with a
Written during the Victorian era, the author presents an amatory sequence of sonnets cast against her time to highlight the appreciation of the revitalisation of love and female expression of a male literary form amid an era synonymous with conservatism, repression and rigid moral behaviour and how she overcomes these obstacles. Browning explores the notion of finding such love in a world surrounded by obstacles and disappointment in Sonnet 1, as seen in “I once heard Theocritus had sung/ Of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years/Who each one in a gracious hand appears/ TO bear a gift for mortals, old or young/I mused in his antique tongue...” The quote depicts the author’s search for emotional connection and inner peace as she calls on the muse of Theocritus, whose poetry surrounded that of love and sentiment. It also portrays her initial perception of herself, as it presents Browning as not having the confidence to pursue love, and thereby straying from reality to enter the realm of the imaginative, so as to evade the possible risk of rejection. The quote introduces a sense of hope yet simultaneously as sense of despondency as she calls on a muse of love and emotional connection, yet is unable to perceive one of her own, as seen in “I saw, in
the women is not one of beauty and it is surprising to the reader that
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,
Next, the poet’s attitude on inner and outer beauty is quite disturbing. “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back,
People use art to display the beauty found in the world and, because of this, women have been subject to objection through paintings and photography all throughout history. Whether it is a commissioned oil painting from the 17th century or an advertisement from the 20th century, there will always be some type of image that objectifies women. In the book Ways of Seeing John Berger states that a woman “comes to consider the surveyor and surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman,” (Ways of Seeing 46). Berger is saying that women know they are seen as an object purely because they are women. Women in paintings and photography are objectified for the pleasure of the viewer, they are illustrated for the surveyor’s specifications, so in essence the picture is a better representation of the owner than the subject.
“Confronted by the expressive, powerful or victimized images of Gentileschi’s women, writers have been unable to fit her paintings into the usual feminine stereotype: they cannot trace the expected signs of femininity, weakness, gracefulness or delicateness. Thus, unable to put her work into a stereotype, they turn instead to the dramatic events of her life” (10)
...es to Lily that a woman cannot paint. The painting stands for the feminist representation of going against traditional beliefs and also suggests that a lack of a male in Lily’s life does not detract from it.
The woman is part of that loving feeling. She may appear as a sweet and innocent being who is a victim of love or society. Although sometimes appears as a perverse and cruel being that leads the poet to destruction. The artist echoed social and political conflicts of this time, inequalities and frustrations of nationalist and regionalist consciousness, theories of social humanitarian is also present.