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essay about the victorian era in literature
essay about the victorian era in literature
essay about the victorian era in literature
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Homosexuality in Oscar Wilde's Work
"I turned half way around and saw Dorian Gray for the first time. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself" (7). During the Victorian era, this was a dangerous quote. The Victorian era was about progress. It was an attempt aimed at cleaning up the society and setting a moral standard. The Victorian era was a time of relative peace and economic stability (Marshall 783). Victorians did not want anything "unclean" or "unacceptable" to interfere with their idea of perfection. Therefore, this quote, taken from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, brimming with homosexual undertones, was considered inappropriate. Due to the time period's standards, Oscar Wilde was forced to hide behind a thin layer of inference and parallel. Wilde was obsessed with the perfect image. Although he dressed more flamboyantly than the contemporary dress, it was to create an image of himself. Wilde was terrified of revealing his homosexuality because he knew that he would be alienated and ostracized from the society. Through his works, Oscar Wilde implicitly reflected his homosexual lifestyle because he feared the repercussions from the conservative Victorian era in which he lived.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and led a normal childhood. After high school, Wilde attended Oxford College and received a B.A. in 1878. During this time, he wrote Vera and The Importance of Being Earnest. In addition, "for two years Wilde had dressed in outlandish outfits, courted famous people and built his public image" (Stayley 317). Doing so earned Wilde a job with Rich...
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...me, to make no mystery of his fall, and to regard him as a star which, looking at its own reflection in some dank marsh, fell down and smirched itself, and then became extinct ere it had time to soar aloft again" (Graham qtd. Tucker).
Work Cited
Wilde, Oscar. The Portable Oscar Wilde. Aldington, Richard, ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.
"The Making of the Motion Picture Wilde." (Online)(Internet) Samuelson Entertainment. 6/16/99. Available: http://www.oscarwilde.com
Kilvert, Ian Scott, ed. British Writers. Vol. 5. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1982.
Marshall, Kristine E., ed. Elements of Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1997.
Stayley, Thomas T., ed. The Dictionary of Literary Biograph. Vol. 34. Michigan: Book Tower, 1985.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: The Modern Library, 1992.
Things have gotten a lot better for people in the work place since this book was written but I know that people are still facing the same problems that she had. In my mind I think having a job is better that not having a job. I'd rather get paid $6 an hour then not have any source of income at all.
As I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with every sentence and by doing so, the characters within the story are infinitely real in my mind’s eye. As I consider these factors, the story focuses on two main characters; that of the grandmother, who comes across as self-centered and self-serving and The Misfit, a man, who quite ingeniously, also appears to be self-centered and self-serving. It is the story behind the grandmother, however, that evidence appears to demonstrate the extreme differences between her superficial self and the true character of her persona; as the story unfolds, and proof of my thought process becomes apparently clear.
"The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book -- it
...her job opportunities. I am aware now that this along with many other issues are beyond their control. The poorer they are the more constrained their mobility is. Usually relying on someone else to pick you up and drop you off pretty much limits you to one place of employment. This book has changed my thinking in so many ways, mostly that the problems that limit their progression are out of their reach. The government needs to step in and provide for more assistance and aids to help the situation. Just based on the difficulty Ehrenreich had when trying to locate food shelter that would feed her disappointed me greatly. It is unbelievable that it is expected from a poor person, who has limited money and resources, to do that much work in order to find food or even shelter! Everyone should read this book in order to grasp the harsh realities of the working poor.
The primary character in this story is the Grandmother whose epiphany at the end of the story gives the religious and moral push that is underlying the actual text. O'Conner leaves the Grandmother's character unnamed; by doing this and infusing cantankerous dialogue, O'Connor manages to provide the story with wit and sketch a both sad and funny portrait of the Grandmother. The Grandmother's character is one that is both frustrating to the reader and familiar at the same time--a character that the reader can feel superior, especially at the beginning of the story. The Grandmother is self-centered, demanding, and haughty--it is indeed her domineering demeanor that ultimately causes the death of her family.
The grandmother serves as a symbol of etiquette and structure: dressing as a lady with her neckline “pinned [with] a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet” (O’Connor) and constantly reminding her grandkids of the wonderful gift of nature and the necessary appreciation for their belongings, keeping the children from throwing their sandwich wrappers out the car window and bickering, and attempting to improve their manners. She believes herself to be a good, Christian woman. On the contrary, the grandmother is, as T. W. Hendricks observes in his literary criticism Flannery O’Connor’s “spoiled prophet”, “compromised by her delusions about her background and social status” and a partaker in sinful pride. She is pretentious and domineering towards her son, as well as, his wife and children. She seems to believe her opinions, on more than just religion, are factual. Directing her family down a road she remembers to have led to an interesting, but partially made-up, house, results in a car ...
“A good man is hard to find”, a short story written by Flannery O’Connor, is a story about good and evil and divine grace. Much irony is found throughout this story: The story starts out with a family planning to take a vacation but ends with all of them being killed. In addition, being good does not relate to being kind. Instead, it relates to what the grandmother thinks is moral.
O?Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York. HarperCollins, 1991. 907-917.
However, she never really experienced the actual life of living in poverty as the majority of people living in poverty experience. Barbara, an educated white women had just that on other people living in poverty, because of the color of her skin and education level that is more often than not restricted from people living in poverty. She was able and more qualified for jobs than other people living amongst the status she was playing. She also was able to more readily seek better benefits than people living in poverty. When she first start her journey in Florida she had a car, a car that in most cases people living in poverty do not have. She was also able to use the internet to find local jobs and available housing in the area that many people living in poverty are restricted from. Another great benefit she had was the luxury of affording a drug detox cleansing her of drugs deemed bad. Many people living in poverty do not have much extra cash laying around much less fifty dollars to afford a detox for prescription drugs. She also had the luxury to afford her prescription drugs, another option that many people living in poverty do not have. Another element that made Barbara’s experience not that genuine was the fact that she was not providing for anybody other than herself. Twenty-two percent of kids under the age of 18 are living below the poverty line (http://npc.umich.edu/poverty/#5) , Barbara did not have to provide for pets or kids which would of changed her experience altogether of living in poverty. Not to belittle Barbara’s experience, but many factors of what life is like living in poverty were not taken into consideration during her
The grandmother says “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people,” showing how she is trying to find a shred of hope in a murderer. O’Connor’s use of southern diction and religious banter develop the grandmother away from superficiality and towards genuineness. The grandmother says “’Listen,’…’you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell.’” The Misfit replies “I pre-chate that, lady,’” by using the phonetic spelling instead of proper diction O’Connor is showing that the grandmother believes he is a fellow southerner. The grandmother is talking to The Misfit about salvation and she has an epiphany, O’Connor writes “His voice seemed to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’” After discussing religion and seeing his perspective the grandmother finally feels real sympathy for The Misfit; up until that point the grandmother had been trying to compliment and talk her way out of being killed along with the rest of her family. Unfortunately this is also when the struggle between good and evil ends with the grandmother being killed, “The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.” The Misfit then says “‘She would of been a good woman’ … ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’” He realized that her gesture at that moment was out of pure kindness and
The first way that Pip demonstrates these themes is by reaching for things that are unattainable to him. For example, Pip is in love with Estella, but he can't have her because she doesn't like him. Also Miss Havisham's man-hating ways have brushed off on her, and she wants nothing to do with Pip. Another thing that Pip strives for is to become a gentleman. He cannot become a gentleman, however, because he is just a commoner. He is very smitten, for example, with "the beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's and she is more beautiful than anybody ever was and I admire her dreadfully and I want to be a gentleman on her account" (780). Thus, Pip wants to become a gentleman only for Estella.
Robert Frost wrote poetry about nature and it is that nature that he used as symbols for life lessons. Many critics have been fascinated by the way that Frost could get so many meanings of life out of nature itself. Frost‘s poetry appeals to almost everyone because of his uncanny ability to tie in with many things that one is too familiar with and for many, that is life in itself. “Perhaps that is what keeps Robert Frost so alive today, even people who have never set foot in Vermont, in writing about New England, Frost is writing about everywhere” (294).
Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems. The everyday objects present in his poems provide the reader an alternative perspective of the world. Robert Frost uses all the elements of poetry to describe the darker side of nature. After analyzing the Poem Mending Wall and After Apple Picking it is clear that nature plays a dark and destructive role for Robert Frost. This dark side of Frost’s poetry could have been inspired from the hard life he lived.
Robert Frost is an amazing poet that many admire today. He is an inspiration to many poets today. His themes and ideas are wonderful and are valued by many. His themes are plentiful however a main one used is the theme of nature. Frost uses nature to express his views as well as to make his poetry interesting and easy to imagine in your mind through the detail he supplies.
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...