Within the Beauty and the Beast inspired ten pages of Angela Carter’s short narrative “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon”, the narrator employs the contradicting nature of the Palladian house prior and succeeding the presence of Beauty to express both the mental and physical deterioration of the Beast. When Beauty first returns to the house after several months hiatus, she notices a rather “doleful groaning of the hinges” as she opens the door (Carter 50). Such a noise is reflective of the fact that they have not been physically oiled for a long duration of time, and that the Beast has ceased to maintain their smooth transition for her return due to an ever weakening state of hope. Similar to the lamenting of the hinges, it is only his desolate cry that plagues the once silent tranquility of the manor.
The extent of his despondency is further illustrated with the interior of the house that was now shrouded in “perfect darkness” (Carter 50). The dwelling no longer possessed its benevolent light, but was rather stripped of it, and only an absolute darkness remained in its absence. The supreme obscurity symbolizes the fact that no light found refuge within the confines of the house, and since light is viewed as an indicator of hope, the extinction of it reinstates the fact that the Beast had been deprived of the indemnity of her return.
Another instance in which his anguish at her abandonment is connoted is when the “house [echoes] with desertion” (Carter 50). Despite the fact that the house is rather grand and is beautifully furnished, there fails to be the reverberations of any sounds that would deem the dwelling alive. Rather, it is only the sounds of emptiness which engulfs the house. Comparatively, the mindset of the Beast is st...
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...h, but was now strangely cold, even though it remained equally desolate. Such a shift in the atmosphere alludes to the fact that Beauty had become the house’s warmth; she had become the Beast’s warmth and his life. With her departure from the manor, she had captured the warmth, and thereby it was analogous to slowly taking his life, and as the house got colder and colder, the beast became evidently nearer and nearer to death. Coincidentally, it is the lack of warmth, the coldness, which classifies one as a corpse, which additionally suggests that the Beast is about to reach the limits of his mortality.
To conclude, by comparing the vibrant and static house which seemed to exist in a dimension of itsat the beginning of the narrative, to its forlorn condition after the departure of Beauty, the extent of the suffering in which the Beast endures is visually revealed.
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
The author of the book, The Ladies of Missalonghi, by Colleen McCullough describes to the reader how Missy, an unattractive woman, in a small town differs from Alicia.
Before Mrs. Ames and the mother realize the restrictions of their old lives, their worlds have been full of disillusionment and ignorance. Mrs. Ames, for example, is oppressed by her husband’s silence and the search for love and tenderness from anyone, because she lives each day alone, ignored by her scornful husband. And, as a result of being left companionless, she does not mature, rather she longs for tenderness. In other words, Boyle explains her dysfunctional relationship with her husband, “The mystery and silence of her husband’s mind lay like a chiding finger of her lips. Her eyes were gray for the light had been extinguished in them” (57). That is, Mrs. Ames’ spirit remains oppressed by her husband who treats her as a child, and, in doing so, isolates her from his world.
In “To Set Our House in Order” Margaret Laurence, it conveys the message that alienation is self-inflicted on the character “Grandmother MacLeod” as a result of a tragic event. In this case alienation is used as a coping mechanism for the Grandmother who lost her son Roderick in the battle of Somme. In the story she tells Vanessa, “When your Uncle Roderick got killed, I thought I would die. But I didn’t die” (Laurence 94). This shows how she now avoids affection and emotion in fear of becoming vulnerable. In consequence the Grandmother is in a state of emotional withdrawal which is shown where it states, “For she did not believe in the existence of fear, or if she did she never let on” (93). By doing so she decides she is better off trying to feel no emotion which supports the fact her alienation is self-inflicted.
The use of ‘wild’ in both Catherine and La Belle’s descriptions shows their similarity in nature. The similarities of their descriptions of a charming, appealing appearances compared with their saucy, wild natures demonstrate the comparison of conflict within these texts.
“... when he saw her preparing to go away, he seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm;
When the story begins in “The House of Usher,” the narrator over exaggerates the description of the house in an attempt to explain his own disgust with the home. Reading Edgar Allan Poe’s stories seem to follow a pattern of dark feelings. His descriptions can give the reader an image in their head of a negative look and sets them up for a negative story. By writing about an eerie broken home such as “The House of Usher”, one could say the exaggerative descriptions are creating images that can depict the possible dreariness of a household. The dreariness may have consumed the residents of the household, which is mirrored in the state of the house. Poe has been said to have grown up in a broken home extending into a difficult childhood and deaths of his loved ones continuing to be a large portion of his life (Giammarco 28). By this mindset, a home can easily fall into a morbid trap of misery and unfortunate deaths. Poe’s drinking problem may also influence the way Poe may see home (Giammarco 22). An alcoholic may...
...ome the dream of attainment slowly became a nightmare. His house has been abandoned, it is empty and dark, the entryway or doors are locked. The sign of age, rust comes off in his hands. His body is cold, and he has deteriorated physically & emotionally. He is weathered just like his house and life. He is damaged poor, homeless, and the abandoned one.
The natural landscape and the winter storm in “The Painted Door” serve as a metaphor for Ann`s sense of isolation. The prescription of isolation upon an individual can prove to cloud one's view of the realistic world. Ann is not pleased with her life. She and her husband John live in a remote surrounding distant from populated settlements in which creates a sense of complete isolation. This separation mirror reflects the emotional and physical distance presented between Ann and John. “ In the clear, bitter light the long white miles of prairie landscape seemed a region strangely alien to life”...” The indicated proves to have only intensify Ann`s state of mind. “He was a slow unambitious man, content with his farm and cattle…”. John is
Hunt, Jonathan. "In Darkness." The Horn Book Magazine Mar.-Apr. 2012: 111+. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 Apr. 2014
...r supper...He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then, looking in the windows, saw the place was empty.”(257) Needy’s journey ended at a dark, lonely place; it was then he realized that he had no one left. Needy’s empty house was symbolic of the emptiness he now had in his heart.
The Depiction of Fear in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
We trace her struggles with personal grief, a restricted social life, socio-economic decline, and romantic misfortune, a long history of trauma and repression.”(445)
Similarly, the furniture in the house is as sullen as the house itself. What little furniture is in the house is beaten-up; this is a symbol of the dark setting. The oak bed is the most important p...