A Structuralist Reading of Austen's Sense and Sensibility

I think an understanding of this (self-subverting) form has some important and complicated implications for a reading of Absalom, Absalom!, especially in terms of the relationship of historicity to orality in the novel, and of its distinctive and relatively homogeneous prose style. Ultimately to be found in these themes are the novel's fantasies of its form and of its reader. The new aesthetic defines itself in relationship to an implied old one which, because of some historical break ("Then the theatre was changed/to something else"), no longer works. If Absalom, Absalom!, formally and thematically, offers a substitute for a now-inadequate "souvenir," it may be necessary to begin its exploration with the souvenir itself: namely the communication of positive historical truth in fixed form. Many critical interpretations of Absalom, Absalom!

Additionally, Ridley thinks Conrad is artfully clarifying that societal and personal issues have two sides: “The story is built upon the balance of opposites, a core of faith versus hollowness, restraint versus its lack, civilization versus savagery, light versus darkness” (49). I agree, although nothing can be simple when reading literature, because one must think about the variety of point of views. You can’t just say “this versus this” and find the center of the story. But what gets me upset by Ridley’s article is that she has the audacity to write, “Conrad was concerned with the process of acquiring understanding of Self” (45). So, H.O.D was written selfishly by Conrad so he could find ex... ... middle of paper ... ...rkness will never have a center and readers will never fully know Conrad’s true intentions if one is viewing the text through an impressionism lens.

It is Steppenwolf's break from the past which distinguishes it from the styles of two of Hesse's most prominent contemporaries: Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. While Mann and Kafka are themselves dissimilar, their novels are characteristic of the novel as a form: as totality. Mann's novels are intricately detailed and firmly situated within their historical contexts. Further, we are intimately familiar with the characters, with their backgrounds, their tastes, their values, and their fates. And while Kafka's novels are heavily symbolic, we are nevertheless presented with a total worldview, a worldview we can consider in all its irony and terror.

Sadly, The Awakening falls short of one major criteria of the canon that can not be overlooked. There are many characteristics that define a canonical piece of work, and the three standards listed deal first with Aesthetic quality, such as diction, and symbolism. Next with mortality, such as the inner and external journey to find ones self, and last with originality, meaning the ability to stand on it's own, despite the gender of the writer, or the time period in which it was written. The Awakening meets certain points of these three characteristics, but falls short on the ability to stand on it`s own. Because Chopin's novel is embedded with major feministic issues that question the beliefs of gender, social, and cultural roles of women during her time period, one must ask themselves if this novel is celebrated because of it's aesthetic qualities, or because of the controversy it triggered during it's time.

Narrative entrapment arises when the readers' perception of a character is hindered or rendered incomplete by the biased observation of a less-than-omniscient external observer, in this case, the narrator. In both "Olalla" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe, there exist characters who are ensnared in all three forms of entrapment. However, even under similar duress, the said characters' motivations and the causes of their predicaments differ fundamentally. In "Olalla", with her personality fragmented by her emotional turmoils, Olalla chooses self-seclusion as a sacrifice, whereas in "The Fall of the House of Usher", Madeline is imprisoned through forceful entombment and complete removal of characterization. Characters from both "Olalla" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" suffer various forms of physical confinements as results of the burden of ancestral... ... middle of paper ... ...course limits her emotional freedom by obscuring her emotions from the readers.

Though the novels have vastly different settings and topic, they deal with one common theme: human nature. However, the two novels differ greatly on where they lie in the plane of genres described before. In ROOM, Donoghue takes us through engrossing story, simply taking a brief look at the ideals she wanted to show when given the chance: a sharp contrast to Huxley's preference of focusing on ideals and themes, and simply creating a set of scenes around them. This preference of Huxley is shown in Brave New World, where Huxley creates a number of scenes whose only purpose is to showcase a theme. The most glaring example would be chapter 16 in the novel.

With the critical approach of deconstruction, the reader recognizes the significance of opposition within the text. I believe this simultaneous understanding of both discourses is the only way a reader can truly appreciate the depth of Hinton's work, for the greatest enlightenment stems from the realization that the true message lies within the many thematic shades of gray. Works Cited Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. New York: Penguin, 1995.

Emotional Aspects of Mary Reilly Throughout her tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Martin maintains some emotional aspects of the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while discarding and replacing others. Although the subtleties of the emotions in Stevenson's novel are deeper than those of Martin's, they may still be found spotting the plot in all of the different characters. Stevenson's primary characters, Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Utterson, display the strongest emotions, and can be most easily documented and interpreted. Martin, on the other hand, swaps out Mr. Utterson as the primary character and replaces him with Mary Reilly, a housemaid living with Dr. Jekyll. Unlike Stevenson, Martin provides a very grand emotional display.

Highlighting the reader as a character in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy may seem trivial considering the clear use of fictional readers within the text ("sir", "madam", "lord", et al. ); however, the manner in which Stern renders the reader a character, and creates the illusion of in-text participation, is far more profound than sporadic discourse with these aforementioned sirs and madams. This essay, through analysis of Volumes 1 and 2 of Tristram Shandy (with latter volumes in mind), seeks to illume Sterne's methods of subverting the novelistic form, interacting with the reader, and engaging with the theme of time in relation to the question of the reader as a character in Tristram Shandy. Comparing Newton's Third Law to Tristram Shandy's excursive style, Judith Hawley wrote: "For every attempt to make himself [Tristram] go in a straight line, there is an opposing impulse to deviate"1. This Newtonian peculiarity of Tristram's narration also encapsulated the book's criticism, as for every laudatory reviewer there seemed to be a censorious critic, who found the book's salacious japery unbecoming of a cleric.

At this final stage, this chapter is an overall summary of the findings of the thesis. The chapter ends, however, with a note of suggestions and recommendations for improvement and speculating on future directions. 9-2 Findings Returning to the question posed at the beginning of this study, it is now possible to state that the novels and short stories can be thematically clustered using in objective and replicable methods. In spite of its limitations (discussed in 9-3 below), this thesis suggests the following significant findings. • All of Hardy’s prose fiction works exhibit rich thematic concepts.