DAS KUNSTSEIDENE MÄDCHEN
Irmgard Keun's 1931 novel, "Das Kunstseidene Mädchen", which has been translated into English as "The Artificial Silk Girl", is one of the most famous of Germany's `Neue Sachlichkeiten' works. This particular novel, in which the protagonist, Doris, a young working class German girl from Cologne, who dreams of the glitz and glamour and bright lights of the big city, Berlin - in her own words, she wants to be a "Glanz""Glamour Girl" - suffered subsequent censorship at the hands of Hitler's Nazi regime. This was due to the manner in which Doris is portrayed. Her behaviour and attitude towards men and her sexual relationships all greatly disturbed the National Socialist German society, which in effect deemed "Das Kunstseidene Mädchen" as anti-German, stating it possessed "antideutschen Tendenzen" . The uncompromising depiction of independent, self assured young women with goals out with the boundaries of being dependent on men was clearly "das Gegenteil des Hitler-Mädels-Ideals..." /"the opposite of Hitler's Young-Girl-Ideals." The intention of this essay, therefore, is to demonstrate the contrast in Doris' feelings for two of her lovers - Hubert, the student who also stays in Cologne, and with whom Doris claims she's "in love" with at the very beginning of the novel, and Ernst, the nice, `white-collar' man whose wife recently left him and who is reminded of his wife by Doris.
Firstly, in the opening pages of the novel, the reader discovers that Hubert is the only man, out of all her lovers, that she's in love with. Instantly from reading this one could suggest that this in itself is somewhat of a peculiar statement - Doris has other lovers, but believes only to be in love w...
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...ert. However whilst with Ernst, the coat doesn't seems to have less of this type of an effect on her, as Ernst eventually manages to persuade Doris to hand the stolen coat to the police.
Overall I would argue that Doris, apart from her `excited heart' [sic] at the thought of Hubert, was not really in love with him but very clearly demonstrates true love for Ernst. The reader witnesses her unconsciously adapting her whole outlook on due to falling in love with Ernst - she is keen to stay at home, remain within the more traditional female role and sacrifice her dreams of becoming a "Glanz." Whereas whilst "in love" with Hubert, nothing, not even her `beloved', could stop her leaving Cologne for Berlin in pursuit of her dreams.
REFERENCES
Keun, Irmgard. Das Kunstseidene Mädchen, 1992 Claasen Verlag
Sundermeier, Jorg. Glanz und Abglanz, 2004 Essay
...to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled out into unhoped- for liberty.” Never knowing what was going to happen next, like St. John wasn’t first portrayed as a cousin but at the end he was being portrayed as a husband rather than even a cousin all because of Jane. She puts the twist and turn into the story, which causes the reader to being pushed or perceived into liking Jane.
Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book, she was not happy with her position in life. It is apparent that she had never really been fully unaware However, because her own summary of this was some sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life before her newly appearing independence, THE READER SEES HOW she has never been content with the way her life had turned out. For example she admits she married Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. EDNA knew he loved her, but she did not love him. It was not that she did not know what love was, for she had BEEN INFATUATED BEFORE, AND BELIEVED IT WAS love. She consciously chose to marry Mr. Pontellier even though she did not love him. When she falls in love with Robert she regrets her decision TO MARRY Mr. Pontellier. HOWEVER, readers should not sympathize, because she was the one who set her own trap. She did not love her husband when she married him, but SHE never once ADMITS that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way IN WHICH SOCIETY HAS defined the roles of men and women. She does not ACCEPT ANY OF THE BLAME, AS HER OWN. The only other example of married life, in the book, is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional role of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of society. Edna, ON THE OTHER HAND, was not A TYPICAL WOMAN OF SOCIETY. Mr. Pontellier knew this but OBVIOUSLY HAD NOT ALWAYS. This shows IS APPARENT in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been able to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work OUT THEIR PROBLEMS, WHICH MIGHT HAVE MADE Edna MORE SATISFIED WITH her life.
Throughout the play Bennett reviles Doris’ character by showing her affection to the past, she talks to old photographs of her dead husband, Wilfred, and talks aloud to him. This indicates Doris’ apparent loneliness and how she feels “left behind” by the rest of her generation. When talking about the people she new in the past like Wilfred, she takes on there voice, this shows how she...
Leonce Pontellier, the husband of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, becomes very perturbed when his wife, in the period of a few months, suddenly drops all of her responsibilities. After she admits that she has "let things go," he angrily asks, "on account of what?" Edna is unable to provide a definite answer, and says, "Oh! I don't know. Let me along; you bother me" (108). The uncertainty she expresses springs out of the ambiguous nature of the transformation she has undergone. It is easy to read Edna's transformation in strictly negative terms‹as a move away from the repressive expectations of her husband and society‹or in strictly positive terms‹as a move toward the love and sensuality she finds at the summer beach resort of Grand Isle. While both of these moves exist in Edna's story, to focus on one aspect closes the reader off to the ambiguity that seems at the very center of Edna's awakening. Edna cannot define the nature of her awakening to her husband because it is not a single edged discovery; she comes to understand both what is not in her current situation and what is another situation. Furthermore, the sensuality that she has been awakened to is itself not merely the male or female sexuality she has been accustomed to before, but rather the sensuality that comes in the fusion of male and female. The most prominent symbol of the book‹the ocean that she finally gives herself up to‹embodies not one aspect of her awakening, but rather the multitude of contradictory meanings that she discovers. Only once the ambiguity of this central symbol is understood can we read the ending of the novel as a culmination and extension of the themes in the novel, and the novel regains a...
The tone of the poem is conversational and pert written in a plain, informal style. Neither voice uses a lot of poetic imagery in any of the verses and the language is considerably colloquial not employing metaphor and ambiguity in terms of the meaning. A question is posed as the introduction and the address is clear; Lady Maria implores Gui D’ussel to engage with her in this dialogue and confronts him with questions regarding the dynamic of lovers. The taunting tone of the dialogue is suggestive of a courting between the two, however, it is not explicit about the nature of the relationship as they do not, on any occasion specify the lady and man in question. The ambiguity that does exist revolves around the authors’ position in the text and whether or not they are debating about courtly love in particular or whether the generality of the “lady” and “man” in question are their potential selves.
Throughout The Artificial Silk Girl, one can see examples of how social power is exercised and responded too. The Artificial Silk Girl takes place during the last leg of the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic was a time era when women were trying to emancipate themselves. This involved them trying to prove that women can be more than just either a mother/Madonna or a street walker/prostitute. They were able to blur these lines by taking up jobs, participating in sexual encounters that did not tarnish their reputation and doing other acts that were previously only viewed as acceptable for men to do. The protagonist of The Artificial Silk Girl, Doris, views herself as a modern urban woman and in doing so challenges the previously construed views of women prior to the Weimar Republic. By doing so she believes that has attained an amount or social power.
Passage One, portrays the relationship between Marianne and Willoughby. Marianne was blinded by her love, ‘He was exactly formed to engage Marianne’s heart.’ Marianne is someone who can show no concern for wealth if she believes she has found true love. Willoughby was estimated to be ‘Faultless as in Marianne’ Willoughby was all that Marianne fancied, her affection for him was beyond everything else. This is rather ironic for Willoughby the man she loves holds a wholly contradicting viewpoint on the matter. Willoughby is willing to sacrifice even the greatest of loves if it cannot secure status and wealth.
The. Maybe it is a genuine love poem to his mistress, sort of. offer of a way of life. Both concepts, though, underline the point. simplistic romanticism of the poem.
Crooked Beak of Heaven Mask is a big bird-figure mask from late nineteenth century made by Kwakwaka’wakw tribe. Black is a broad color over the entire mask. Red and white are used partially around its eyes, mouth, nose, and beak. Its beak and mouth are made to be opened, and this leads us to the important fact in both formal analysis and historical or cultural understanding: Transformation theme. Keeping that in mind, I would like to state formal analysis that I concluded from the artwork itself without connecting to cultural background. Then I would go further analysis relating artistic features to social, historical, and cultural background and figure out what this art meant to those people.
One example of gender criticism Chopin accounts in her writing is the love between the women in the novel which has been suppressed throughout history as “lesbian” encounters in order to uphold male power and privilege (LeBlanc 2). Edna’ friendships with Mademoiselle Reisz and Adele Ratignolle both act as different buffers into Edna’s sexual and personal “awakening.” Edna’s a...
Mademoiselle Reisz, Madame Ratignolle, and Kristine Linde all act as role models for the protagonists. Edna deeply admires Mademoiselle Reisz's piano playing. When Edna hears Mademoiselle Reisz's playing, "the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body" (Chopin 35). Mademoiselle Reisz makes Edna see the strong emotions inside herself. Edna admires Madame Ratignolle's "comforting and outgoing nature" (Solomon 118). At the beginning of the novel, Edna wishes she could have Madame Ratignolle's easygoing nature.
Her love is so powerful, no counting, no rushing, no reproaching, slowly in a sacred way even though she cannot wait for what she wants from Marcher until she dies. His fears held him from hopes, drove him into isolation, made him live lonely, became a "beast in the jungle", and slipped away from his close friend, May Bartram, forever. When Marcher sat next to May’s grave, he finally realized that he was too obsessed with himself and self-absorbed in waiting for fate or spectacular would be happened to him but it is too late. May could never be alive again to see what he has realized. May could not wait for his confession or proposal. Even though Marcher acknowledges about his obsession lately, he is still facing his loneliness, losing everything, and spending his whole life in regretting. Therefore, no matter when he admits the fear inside himself, he has to face the loneliness anyway as a worse result than he should reveal it
She proclaims her husbands love throughout the story, I feel, in an attempt to bind the disconnection she feels with her husband.
“Said he, ‘I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake,as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind!’”(Gilman, 774) shows John begging her to withhold all feelings to save herself, him, and their child from any further pain. This suppression of feeling caused the mental confinement that the narrator felt. He hadn’t known in asking her to do so, it would cause such a reaction. While, Brently Mallard’s consistent pressure of being a perfect wife on Mrs. Mallard caused her conflicting ideas on his death as her being set free. “And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not.” (Chopin, 785) shows Mrs. Mallard's rethinking of her feelings towards her husband. The release of pressure caused by her husband death caused her to rethink and find her true feelings towards him. Mr. Mallard had unknowingly applied this pressure upon his wife because it was simply what he had always thought a woman should be which is learned from society. Meanwhile, Henry Allen consistently ridicules and rejects Elisa’s ideas of breaking free of the set standards of what a woman should be not knowing the effects it had on her. “Oh, sure, some. What’s the matter, Elisa? Do you want to
She wrote this novel to inform readers that there are differences and similarities between the genders of male and female and how each of their minds work. She says, In other words, when we are not thinking of ourselves as “male” or “female” our judgements are the same. This quote directly shows us that she is trying to tell us what life is like with each gender.