Inconsistency in Adam Bede
In George Eliot's Adam Bede, an inconsistency can be found between Dinah's firmly held convictions and her decision to
marry. Throughout the story, Eliot presents Dinah as a symbol of divine love who persistently shuns all earthly pleasures of her
own for the benefit of those in need. Several passages in the text show that Dinah insists she must follow the path God has
chosen for her and prevent her own needs and desires from rising to the surface. Despite her moral protestations, however,
Dinah marries Adam in the last few pages of the book. This marriage is disappointing in another sense as well. Dinah was not
only created as a symbol of divine love, but also as a figure who transcended the boundaries of the sexes. It is impossible to
believe that it is this same strong-willed, independent woman who breaks down at the end and turns her back on the life to
which she was so dedicated in order to accept the role all too commonly accepted by women of the time period. For these
reasons I would like to argue that there is a flaw in the characterization of Dinah. Eliot created an unrealistically good character
and then destroyed her credibility in an attempt to have a rosy conclusion.
We are first introduced to Dinah on the green hills of Hayslope. Dinah is preaching on the grass, and Eliot provides us with a
physical description of her that gives us clues about the nature of her personality:
There was no keenness in the eyes; they seemed rather to be shedding love than making observations; they had the liquid look
which tells that the mind is full of what it has to give out, rather than impressed by external objects. (33)
...
... middle of paper ...
...ar more important than any conclusion, no matter how phenomenal the
latter may be. I am left wondering what Dinah, originally a symbol of independence and divine love, is intended to symbolize
after all.
Works Cited
Carrol, David, ed. George Eliot: The Critical Heritage. New York: Barnes & Nobles. 1971
Collins, W.L. "Adam Bede." Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983
Goode, John. "Adam Bede." Critical Essays on George Eliot. Ed. Barbara Hardy. New York: Barnes & Noble. 1970
"George Eliot." Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983
Wiesenfarth, Joe. "George Eliot." Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 21. Ed. Ira B. Nadel and William E. Freedman. Detroit: Gale, Inc. 1983.
The three heroes discussed here, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and King Arthur, are heroes for different reasons. Beowulf, our earliest hero, is brave but his motivation is different than then other two. To Sir Gawain personal honor and valor is what is important. King Arthur, Sir Gawain's uncle, is naturally the quintessential king of the medieval period. Though all men to a certain extent share the same qualities, some are more pronounced than in the others. It is important to see how these qualities are central to their respective stories and how it helps (or hinders) them in their journeys.
...o all guests saved Odysseus and helped him return home to his wife, son, and kingdom. Even though people from many different kingdoms and islands took Odysseus in their home and showed him great kindness on his return home, the individual who helped him most was the goddess Athena. In many occasions Athena assisted Odysseus. One such example is when Odysseus was fighting of the suitors and they threw spears at him. "Re-forming, the suitors threw again with all their strength, but Athena turned their shots, or all but two (p 566)." Another instance which Athena aided Odysseus was when she disguised him as a beggar on his arrival to his homeland. "Would even you have guessed that I am Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, I that am always with you in times of trial, a shield to you in battle (p 444)." "Your goddess-guardian to the end in all your trials (p 539)."
Paris, Bernard J. Experiments in Life: George Eliot's Quest for Values. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1965.
...Chrie, D., (ed.), Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1986. Vo. 13, pp. 53-111.
Form often follows function in poetry, and in this case, Eliot uses this notion whe...
Abbey, Cherie D., ed. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Vol. 14. Kansas City, MO: Gale Research, 1987.
The great epic, Homer's Odyssey, is a tale of an adventure; a journey through the mind body and soul. Odysseus was strong throughout his voyage and was able to conquer his obstacles thanks to the help from the Goddess Athena. Athena provided physical and emotional support for this man, to get him on his way home to Ithaka. She also provided this same support for Odysseus' son, Telemakhos. Without her involvement, "The Odyssey" would not have turned out the way it did; because she plays such a crucial role in the story. It is understood that Odysseus is the primary character in this epic; concerning his fears and eventually returning to his home, Ithaka. The only reason this was possible is because he had the help of the clever and intelligent Goddess, Athena.
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. ed. M. H. Abrams New York, London: Norton, 1993.
Heroes come in many forms. The construction of "the heroic" has taken many forms, yet traits such as: courage, honor, and loyalty, reappear as themes throughout the "hero" personality. The characters of Beowulf and Sir Gawain each represent a version of a hero, yet each comes across quite differently in their story. A hero can be said to truly win if he remains constant to his noble values when put in any situation that crosses his way. When measured by that criterion, Sir Gawain stands out above Beowulf as a true hero, due to his command of both personal and spiritual power through the use of thought, as well as valiant deeds.
The third comparison is how the both get treated with a great deal of respect. Beowulf gets respected through out the lands of his time, and by his men whom are scare with out the help and support of Beowulf. The soldiers get treated with up most respect by people not just of our country, but people for across the world that they have helped out in hard times in their country.
T.S. Eliot had very philosophical and religious meanings behind this poem, and that helped me relate personally very well with this work of his. He used allusions to other poems, letting me make connections with works I have read before. He also used inclusive language and had the same opinion as me portrayed in this work. Based on these, T.S. Eliot has convinced me of his messages in this poem, as well as made this by far my favorite of his.
Other images of Eliot’s, in contrast, are much larger than Shakespeare, but again succeed in making Eliot’s character look small and insignificant in comparison. Eliot describes the enormous amount of adornments around the room, including her ‘vials of ivory and coloured glass’, which contain many perfumes, which are described as ‘drowning the sense in odours’ and again it is the lack of subtlety t...
One of George Eliot's challenges in Middlemarch is to depict a sexually desirous woman, Dorothea, within the confines of Victorian literary propriety. The critic, Abigail Rischin, identifies the moment that Dorothea's future husband, Ladislaw, and his painter-friend see her alongside an ancient, partially nude statue of the mythic heroine, Ariadne, in a museum in Rome as the key to Eliot's sexualization of this character. Ariadne is, in the sculpture, between her two lovers. Theseus, whom she helped to escape from her father's labyrinth in Crete has already left her, while the jubilant God, Bacchus, her next lover, has yet to arrive. "By invoking the silent visual rhetoric of ancient sculpture," writes Rischin, "George Eliot is able to represent the erotic female body far more explicitly than Victorian conventions of... language would permit... By juxtaposing the statue with Dorothea, Eliot displays Dorothea's erotic potential." Here, Eliot uses an allusion to another type of narrative to fully illustrate her own heroine, and empower her with emotions that Victorian women were not supposed to possess.
T.S Eliot, widely considered to be one of the fathers of modern poetry, has written many great poems. Among the most well known of these are “The Waste Land, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, which share similar messages, but are also quite different. In both poems, Eliot uses various poetic techniques to convey themes of repression, alienation, and a general breakdown in western society. Some of the best techniques to examine are ones such as theme, structure, imagery and language, which all figure prominently in his poetry. These techniques in particular are used by Eliot to both enhance and support the purpose of his poems.
Faced with a world lacking variety, viewpoints, vibrancy, and virtue- a world without life- a fearful and insecure T.S. Eliot found himself the only one who realized all of civilization had been reduced to a single stereotype. Eliot (1888-1965) grew up as an outsider. Born with a double hernia, he was always distinguished from his peers, but translated his disability into a love of nature. He developed a respect for religion as well as an importance for the well-being of others from his grandfather at a young age, which reflected in his poetry later in life. After studying literature and philosophy at Harvard, Eliot took a trip to Paris, absorbing their vivid culture and art. After, he moved on to Oxford and married Vivien Haigh-Wood. Her compulsivity brought an immense amount of stress into his life, resulting in their abrupt separation. A series of writing-related jobs led Eliot to a career in banking and temporarily putting aside his poetry, but the publication of “The Waste Land” brought him a position at the publishing house of Faber and Gwyer. His next poem, called “The Hollow Men” reflected the same tone of desolation and grief as “The Waste Land.” Soon after, he made a momentous shift to Anglicanism that heavily influenced the rest of his work in a positive manner. Eliot went on to marry Valerie Fletcher, whom he was with until the end of his life, and win a Nobel Prize in literature. T.S. Eliot articulates his vast dissatisfaction with the intellectual desolation of society through narrators that share his firm cultural beliefs and quest to reinvigorate a barren civilization in order to overcome his own uncertainties and inspire a revolution of thought.