George Sheehan once said, “Success means having the courage and determination and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” Catherine wants to be her own person and do what she wants in her life, not what her father or mother plan for her life. In the novel Catherine Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman, Catherine cannot have the life she wants, but she does use courage and determination to overcome her lady-tasks, arranged marriages, and fight for her freedom. Throughout the story, Catherine was forced to complete her lady-tasks around the manor daily. As Catherine completed the duties expected of her, she complained, "I can stand no more of the lady-tasks, endless mindless sewing, hemming, brewing, doctoring, and counting …show more content…
Under the circumstances of being in the manor all day, Catherine exclaims, “After my harrowing days locked away, I rejoice to be free!” (137). Being a girl, Catherine did a lot of labor around her house which her father and brothers did not have to do. Doing this work kept Catherine away from doing what she pleased, and sometimes she had to fight for a little freedom. She also thought, “I wonder which is the day ladies will get to dance and fool” (65). On January 8, 1291, the male villagers held a celebration because it was their day off of work, but the girls weren’t allowed to participate in all the singing and dancing. This event showed that boys had more freedom than the girls, and villagers had more freedom than Catherine overall. Women gaining freedom was rare in Catherine’s kingdom. Going against these rules was also an unlikely event, so Catherine had to have courage to stand up for her …show more content…
Since the men Catherine’s father always tried to arrange were not appealing, Catherine claimed, “ I would not wed the fat and flabby Fulk and would probably set him afire again” (74). Catherine was willing to do almost anything to get of a marriage, even if it got her into trouble. She did these kinds of pranks because she prefered to marry who she loved when she was ready. Catherine also feels, “Marriage seems to me to be but spinning, bearing children, and weeping” (97). Marriage, to Catherine seemed like the worst lady-tasks of them all. It was almost like acting like a slave doing work for your husband and kids, according to Catherine. Going against these marriages was a big risk for her especially with Lord Rollo’s and Morwenna’s strict rules. Catherine was a determined fourteen year old who always tried her hardest to escape all arranged marriages her father had set up, which took much courage from her
This book is about a girl name Ellen Foster who is ten years old. Her mother committed suicide by over dosing on her medication. When Ellen tried to go look for help for her mother her father stopped her. He told them that if she looked for helped he would kill them both. After her mother died she was left under her fathers custody. Her father was a drunk. He would physically and mentally abuse her. Ellen was forced to pay bills, go grocery shopping, cook for herself, and do everything else for herself. Ellen couldn't take it any more so she ran away her friends house. Starletta and her parents lived in a small cabin with one small bathroom. One day at school a teacher found a bruise on Ellen's arm. She sends Ellen to live with Julia the school's art teacher. Julia had a husband named Roy. They were both hippies. Julia and Roy cared a lot about Ellen. After Ellen turned 11 years old she was forced to go live with her grandmother. Ellen didn't want to leave Julia and Roy but her grandmother had won custody. Her grandmother was a cruel old lady. Ellen spends the summer with her grandmother. Living with her makes her very unhappy. Since her grandmother owns farmland she forces Ellen to work on the field with her black servants. Ellen meets a black woman named Mavis. Mavis and her become good friends. Mavis would talk about how she knew Ellen's mother and how much Ellen resembled her mother. Her grandmother didn't think the same. She thought that Ellen resembled her father. She also hated that man. Her grandmother would often compare her with her father. Her grandmother would torture her because she wanted revenge from her father. Her grandmother also blames her for the death of her mother. While Ellen was staying with her grandmother her father died. When her father died she didn't feel sad because she had always fantasized about killing her father. Ellen just felt a distant sadness. Ellen cried just a little bit. Her grandmother was furious because Ellen showed some emotions. She told her to never cry again. After that Ellen becomes scarred for a long time. One day her uncle Rudolph bought the flag that had been on Ellen's father's casket. Her grandmother turns him away. Later that day she burned the flag.
The setting of the plot is in England in the year 1290. In addition, in this society, the people follow a lord. It can be seen that the plot takes place in medieval England due to the presence of the lord. “Begun this 19th day of September in the year of Our Lord 1290, the fourteenth year of my life” (Cushman 3). It is shown that the plot takes place in year 1290, and that the people follow a lord. In addition, “No wonder the baron was willing to consider alliance with a knight’s daughter” (Cushman 92). It is further implied about Catherine’s social background that she the daughter of a knight, who is not as high in society as others.
Another trend in the twelfth century was the arrangement of marriages to increase power, gain alliances, or to mend bad blood between people. This can be seen when the girl, after being in the tower for so long, says “A curse on my family, and on all the others, who gave me to this jealous man, who married me to his body” (72). It was not the girl’s choice to be married to this man because of love but due to her beauty, wisdom, and good family she was married to this rich man.
The excerpt of “Chapter 1 from Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen, introduces the reader to the protagonist of the novel, Catherine Morland. Born in the rural town of Fullerton in England, with a big family of modest income, Catherine is presented as an unremarkable, plain-looking child that was never interested enough to be proficient at whatsoever. Although all of her characteristics diverge from what an heroine profile should be, the author continually emphasizes that she would become one; this being the main topic. At the age of ten, Jane Asuten describes the girl’s demeanor as “noisy and wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house" (27). As she enters
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews Have you ever imagined living locked up in an attic for 3 years and 5 months? Have you ever imagined not growing up with your mother's care and love at the time you were 5? Flowers in the Attic is one of the more original series written by V.C. Andrews of the Dollanganger series. It is one of the best books I've read because it's depressing and dark yet heart-touching. In this book report, the setting, plot and the characters of the book will be included. Flowers in the Attic is one tragic yet a hopeful story of four children.
"Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it" (Baldwin). All experiences spring out of innocence. Sarah Orne Jewett expresses this through the story “The White Heron.” She uses the story to show how easily innocence can be influenced. "For Jewett, it seems to have been a personal 'myth' that expressed her own experience and the experience of other women in the nineteenth century who had similar gifts, aspirations, and choices" (Griffith). Her personal experiences include her living in Maine with her dad and two sisters. She had a medical degree but turned to writing because of poor health. She represented many women during the hard times of the 19th century.
Medieval society was completely dominated by men, making a women’s life at the time difficult. Medieval law at the time stated that women could not marry without their parents consent, could not divorce their husbands, could not own property unless widows, could not inherit land if they had surviving brothers, and could own no business with special permission (Trueman, “Medieval Women”). When a woman married a man, he would get any property she owned and she would forfeit any rights she had to him. When the husband dies she would get one third of the land to live on and support herself. Unmarried women who owned land had the same rights as men (Hull). Whenever a woman got into trouble it would be her closest male relative who would appear in court, not the woman herself (Medieval).
...periences in life. The most important one is search for freedom. Catherine is always locked up in her chamber, or trying to get away from the suitors. Throughout in the book she thinks about going to the abbey, leaving the manor, or going on an adventure. In the end her marriage with Stephen shows her that now she is “… at least less painfully caged” (Cushman 164). The story was very exciting when you wait to see what she would do to another suitor. I learned that as much as you try to fight something sometimes you cannot and it’s bound to you. As seen with Catherine and marrying any one of the suitors. “If I was born a lady, why not a rich lady” (Cushman 4). I think the author wrote this because she wants to show how medieval Europe was like, the social classes, education, religion, and especially society’s look on marriage.
Catherine is very pleased to meet Isabella after being disappointed in not seeing Mr Tilney again. The narrator informs the reader that Catherine is fortunate in finding a friend as ‘Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.’ (p.18 NA). Isabella being the elder of the two has much more knowledge of fashionable society than Catherine and is, therefore, able to teach her a great deal about the expectations of society at that time.
One of Virginia Woolf’s best-known novels, Mrs. Dalloway features a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman of the post-World War I English society. While most of the novel is primarily centered on Clarissa Dalloway and her preparations for a party that evening as her “offering to the society”, Virginia Woolf also uses the novel to comment on the consequences of World War I on its veterans. Through Septimus Smith, a character who is an ill World War I veteran and suffers from posttraumatic stress, Woolf critically comments on the detrimental effects of World War I.
Catherine's dilemma begins in an overtly conventional yet dismal setting. This is the ordered and understated fashionable New York setting where she is victim to her father's calculated disregard and domineering behaviour and of the perceptions others have of her given their economic and social positions. She is, in Sloper's words, "absolutely unattractive." She is twenty, yet has never before, as Sloper points out, received suitors in the house. Mrs. Almond's protestations that Catherine is not unappealing are little more than a matter of form and she is admonished by Sloper for suggesting he give Catherine "more justice." Mrs. Penniman, for her part, readily perceives that without Catherine's full inheritance, Morris Townsend would have "nothing to enjoy" and proceeds to establish her role in appeasing her brother and giving incoherent counsel to the courtship between Catherine and Townsend. For Townsend himself, Catherine's "inferior characteristics" are a matter of course and a means to a financial end.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27). They became very close friends; they were practically brother and sister (Mitchell 122). Heathcliff is intent upon pleasing Catherine. He would “do her bidding in anything” (Brontë 30). He is afraid of “grieving” her (Brontë 40). Heathcliff finds solace and comfort in Catherine’s company. When Catherine is compelled to stay at Thrushcross Grange to recover from her injury, she returns as “a very dignified person” (Brontë 37). Her association with the gente...
The character of Lady Catherine de Bourgh is an integral element of the plot, contributing to, as well as influencing, the final outcome of Darcy's marriage and the various factors associated with it. Lady Catherine, a prominent and influential noblewomen in the English aristocracy, thrusts her domineering predilections onto her family, friends, and acquaintances, starting with the pompous clergyman she patronizes, Mr. Collins. Lady Catherine exerts her influence upon Mr. Collins by frankly telling him that he "must marry ...a gentle woman for [her] sake" (92). This effectively causes Collins to peruse Elizabeth, the daughter of the man whose estate he will inherit. After being rejected by Elizabeth, Collins marries Elizabeth's childhood friend Charlotte. On a trip to visit the newly married couple, Elizabeth finds herself and Lady Catherine's nephew, Fitzwilliam Darcy, at a dinner party hosted by Lady Catherine herself. At the dinner party, Lad...
Catherine’s revenge does not make things better for her. Her revenge on Heathcliff by blaming him for her upcoming death does not meliorate her mind. Just before she dies, she ascribes Heathcliff for her “murder.” “You have killed me, and thriven on it, I think” (Bronte 158). Catherine resembles what Oliver Goldsmith said, “When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy?