Evil Mother in Rebecca Rush's Novel Kelroy
Rebecca Rush's novel Kelroy is an exceptional novel on mannerisms in the nineteenth century. Mrs. Hammond is the key character in this novel. The plot and characters all seam to inner relate with her. In this novel, Mrs. Hammond is seen as an evil, conniving woman. There are many twists and turns in this novel, but there is one thing that is constant, and that is that Mrs.
Hammond motives are to take care of herself and secure her own future, and according to her it doesn't matter how she doses this or who she uses to her benefit.
The novel begins with Mrs. Hammond trying to figure out how she couldtake care of her two daughters and live the lifestyle that she has become accustomed, when she is left widowed, with little money. And figure it out she did. She came up with a precise plan on how to exactly go about doing this. The key was to marry her daughters off to wealthy men so they would be taken care of and, most important, so would she. The plan was for her to educate her daughters and keep them in seclusion until they were of the age to marry. She only had a little bit of time to accomplish her goals before her money ran out. When they were old enough, she through the biggest and best parties. Her plan seamed to work out well because it didn't take long for Lucy to become engaged to Lord Walsingham. According to Mrs. Hammond this was a perfect match. He was a handsome, rich man from a good British family.
Now with the fate of Lucy solved, Mrs. Hammond only had to focus on Emily. As a reader reading this book you would think this would be no problem. Emily was the prettier than her sister, and sweeter too. She was not only beautiful she was smart, although she tended to think with her heart instead of her head. Instead of the beautiful, youngest, well know Hammond girl falling in love, or becoming engaged to a wealthy man that Mrs.
Kelroy is a novel of manners, which means that the book is not as dependent upon plot as it is character. Kelroy explores the difference between the characters who are realists and those who are romantics. The realist characters, Mrs. Hammond and Lucy contrast with the romantic character Emily, in the ways they act and the choices that they make.
Faulkner first tells that shortly after her father’s death Miss Emily’s sweetheart left her. Everybody in the town thought that Emily and this sweetheart of hers were going to be married. After her sweetheart left her the people of the town saw her very little. Faulkner then tells what might be viewed as the climax of the story next. He explains that one day Miss Emily went into town and bought rat poison. By revealing this so early on in the story it challenges the reader to use their imagination. The readers’ view of Miss Emily could now possibly be changed. It has changed from feeling sorry for this woman to thinking she is going to murder someone.
The novel complicates its own understanding of women
Having been the only daughter of a noble family, Emily was overprotected by her father who had driven away all the young men wanting to be close to her. As a result of that, when she got to be thirty, she was still alone. It was Mr. Grierson who alienated his daughter from the normal life of a young woman. If she weren?t born in the Grierson, if she didn?t have an upper-class father, she could have many relationships with many young men in order to find herself an ideal lover. Then she might have a happy marriage life with a nice husband and children.
The novel begins with the protagonist, April Wheeler, portraying Gabrielle in an amateur-theatre production of the play, The Petrified Forest. The play ends up being a total disaster and leaves April devastated, leaving her disconnected from Frank, her husband, and her neighbors, Milly and Shep Campbell afterwards. The play, The Petrified Forest, is a disastrous love story of a man who decides to have himself die to keep the women he loves out of a life of misery. In the end of The Petrified Forest, Gabrielle is able to escape from her horrible lifestyle and fulfill her dreams; April was never able to do that.
Miss Emily was brought into the spotlight the same moment as her father died. Being the last remaining person from the high ranking Grierson family in town, she became the new ambassador of the old days. The people welcomed her with open arms, without actually knowing anything more about her than her admirable name. Her father's death also meant that Miss Emily's unrevealed secret was brought into the grave. It is well known that insanity is a hereditary disposition, and Miss Emily's great-aunt, lady Wyatt, had "gone absolutely crazy"(80) before she passed away a couple of years earlier. Emily's father had since then dissociated from that branch of the family, as if to run away from a dishonorable influence. I believe that he was aware of her condition, and he therefore had kept her from social life and driven away the long road of suitors to prevent her from causing another scandal, which could spot his and his family's remaining reputation.
thought they were not good enough for her. After the death of Emily's father she
Miss Hancock, her personality and beliefs were contrasted entirely by her character foil, Charlotte’s mother, “this civilized, this clean, this disciplined woman.” All through Charlotte’s life, her mother dictated her every move. A “small child [was] a terrible test to that cool and orderly spirit.” Her mother was “lovely to look at, with her dark-blond hair, her flawless figure, her smooth hands. She never acted frazzled or rushed or angry, and her forehead was unmarked by age lines or worry. Even her appearance differed greatly to Miss Hancock, who she described as,” overdone, too much enthusiasm. Flamboyant. Orange hair.” The discrepancy between the characters couldn’t escape Charlotte’s writing, her metaphors. Her seemingly perfect mother was “a flawless, modern building, created of glass and the smoothest of pale concrete. Inside are business offices furnished with beige carpets and gleaming chromium. In every room there are machines – computers, typewriters, intricate copiers. They are buzzing and clicking way, absorbing and spitting out information with the speed of sound. Downstairs, at ground level, people walk in and out, tracking mud and dirt over the steel-grey tiles, marring the cool perfection of the building. There are no comfortable chairs in the lobby.” By description, her mother is fully based on ideals and manners, aloof, running her life with “sure and perfect control.” Miss
There is a social outlook to the increase for the medicalization of birth. According to a study, women with higher social status and greater access to education often choose a cesarean birth. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists even stated that c-sections should only be done if the risk of a child being birthed vaginally is higher than going through the surgical process with anesthesia. Even though the guidelines promote going towards vaginal birth, the rates continue to
The Citizens of America do not realize the freedoms they have in the birthing process. Instead of knowing all the paths women can choose from in the United States most believe the only option is in the hospital. It is not common knowledge that the midwife can be the best choice for most healthy able women bearing children. This circumstance is reinforced by more than one factor. Historically, midwives have been exiled by the medical elite during the turn of the twentieth century. Another aspect that can be taken into account is that the birthing process is generational, meaning the tradition is passed down through the mother to her own daughter. These two factors play a major role in continuing the popular birthing norms of America. These reasons cause most people to lose interest when advocates of midwives try to convey their message. Through the examination of American birth models, the focus will be on the following: the historical context of the midwife up to modern day assumptions, the comparison and contrast of American practices in relation to the other countries of the world, and the financial break down and services a mother would receive in from an OB/GYN versus a midwife. These three factors will be used to fully exemplify the importance and necessity a midwife has on a birth, advocate for the knowledge of midwifery to the common public, and call for more American women to take advantage of such a powerful opportunity by educating themselves on what options they have when they become pregnant
When her father passed away, it was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The lines from the story 'She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days,' (Charter 171) conveys the message that she tried to hold on to him, even after his death. Even though, this was a sad moment for Emily, but she was liberated from the control of her father. Instead of going on with her life, her life halted after death of her father. Miss Emily found love in a guy named Homer Barron, who came as a contractor for paving the sidewalks in town. Miss Emily was seen in buggy on Sunday afternoons with Homer Barron. The whole town thought they would get married. One could know this by the sentences in the story ?She will marry him,? ?She will persuade him yet,? (Charter 173).
As time goes on Emily grows up, her mother criticizes and blames herself for the distance between the relationships. It is causing tension in their already rocky relationship. The mother is obviously suffering from guilt on how Emily was raised and the unpleasant memories of the past. Emily was also suffering. We see her shyness towards those who care for her. She was a very depressed teen. She had quietness in her daily duties, and her feelings of not being good enough towards herself. She always felt that she was extremely ugly and not smart compared to her younger sister, Susan. She thought she was perfect. She was the typical “Shirley Temple” image.
The opening of the novel begins with a transparency of American society. Rush quickly illustrates how "the good natured world" orchestrates. The reader is not disillusioned to the reality of the Hammond's society. A reality Mrs. Hammond herself is fully conscious of. "Still she retained an unabated relish for show and dissipation, which her knowledge of the world, on which she prided herself much, taught her could only be o...
.... Sandy reinvents himself and puts out an air of superiority to those around him and he wants to control the futures of his daughters for appearances sake. At work, Glass edits and reedits articles, speeches, and grant proposals so that the Philpott’s research and workers appear more successful and better than they really are for funding purposes. Ideally, the public and private spheres would be completely separate. This way, there would be no lying or shame to try and cover up. Unfortunately, that is not usually the case; there is at least some overlap. Sandy Glass does the best he can to conceal the private from the public, even though there is that overlap, and he does it with skill and, most of the time, level headedly. Instead, Sandy puts on a disguise to show the public his version of the truth of his private life; the version that he looks the best in.
The novel starts off in a train station in England where a widow named Lilia Herriton prepares to leave on a trip to the fictional Italian town of Monteriano. Her mother-in-law, Mrs. Herriton, and her two children, Phillip and Harriet, are sending her on this trip in the hopes of separating her from her suitors. Lilia is accompanied by a family friend, Caroline Abbott, who the Herritons hope would watch over her. A month passes by and the Herritons receive a letter that informs them that Lilia is engaged to an Italian man, Signor Gino Carella. Enraged, Mrs. Herriton sends her son Phillip to break up the engagement. However, Phillip arrives too late and Lilia had already married Signor Carella. Phillip and Ms. Abbot then return to England after failing to break up the marriage.