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How does literature help us understand history
Role of literature in history
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The two interpretations – Natalie Davis’ and Robert Finlay’s - diverge most profoundly when characterizing Martin Guerre’s wife, Bertrande de Rols. While Davis guesses about Betrande’s emotional state and her longings to have a different husband, the author does not cite any passage in Coras’ account or in any other sources to support this claim: “Beyond a marriage in which her husband understood her little, may have feared her, and surely abandoned her, Betrande dreamed of a husband and lover who would come back, and be different.” In her exploration of Betrande’s emotions and feelings, Davis is committing the historian’s fallacy, Finlay argues. He writes that Davis is applying her own twentieth-century understanding and expectations of love,
After a few days of grieving, Editha went to George’s mother’s house. During a tragic even in a love-war story, both sides of the family would come together and overcome the obstacle. However, in Editha when she went to George’s parent’s house the mother gave more guilt to Editha saying, “He told me he had asked you to come if he got killed. You did not expect that, I suppose, when you sent him” (1499). The mother continues to say, “When they give their men up to their country, they think they will come marching back, somehow, just as gay as they went...and they are so much the prouder of them” (1500). This comment is reffering to the typical type of love-war stories that have been written, undercutting the romantic plots.
The Return of Martin Guerre, written by Natalie Zemon Davis, is the tale of a court case that takes place in sixteenth century France. Martin Guerre is a peasant who deserted his wife and family for many years. While Martin Guerre is gone, a man named Arnaud du Tilh arrives at Martin’s village and claims to be Martin Guerre. Bertrande, who is Guerre’s wife, Guerre’s sisters, and many of the villagers, accepts the imposter. After almost three years of being happily married, Bertrande takes the fraud to court under pressure of Pierre Guerre, her stepfather and Guerre’s brother. Arnaud du Tilh is almost declared innocent, but the real Martin Guerre appears in the courthouse. Throughout this tale, many factors of the peasant life are highlighted. The author gives a very effective and detailed insight to a peasant’s life during the time of Martin Guerre. Davis does a successful job of portraying the peasant lifestyle in sixteenth century France by accentuating the social, cultural, and judicial factors of everyday peasant life.
The Life and Activism of Angela Davis. I chose to do this research paper on Angela Davis because of her numerous contributions to the advancement of civil rights as well as to the women’s rights movement. I have passionate beliefs regarding the oppression of women and people of racial minorities. I sought to learn from Davis’ ideology and propose solutions to these conflicts that pervade our society. As well, I hope to gain historical insight into her life and the civil rights movement of the 1960’s and 70’s.
In the Return of Martin Guerre, Guerre himself was a prime example of the lack of individualism in the community. Clearly, there is a dilemma between collectivism and individualism within this French 16th century society. In the society of Artigat, religion was the determining factor for collective identities, and this collectivism added to the ideas behind the “individual identity” of a family –however, this left a singular identity behind an entire family name. Before Martin’ Guerre’s departure, individual identity was not based off of the individual person—By leaving Artigat, Martin Guerre demonstrated this new idea of ‘independent self-worth’. Martin Guerre made it clear that he had all the intention to leave Artigat and declare his own independence away from his family: “Martin "stole" a small quantity of grain from his father. Since they were both living in the same household, this theft probably reflected a struggle for power between the two heirs. But in any case theft was unpardonable by the Basque code, especially if done within the family. "The Basques are faithful," Judge Pierre de Lancre was to write; "they believe that theft is the work of a debased soul, of a low and abject heart; it bears witness to the demeaning neediness of a person." Martin Guerre h...
In the story of “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, there are many literary themes that can be analyzed such as love, racism, gender inequality, and miscegenation. What this analysis will focus on is primarily on the central male character, Armand Aubigny, and on his views towards racism. More specifically, what this essay will aim to prove is that Armand Aubigny looked down upon the African race to the point where he hated them. One of the biggest driving points to aid this idea is how his family name shaped his behavior and actions according to the societal normalities of his time period. Another important aspect that will be considered is his very relationship towards his slaves in how he treated them cruelly even to the point where he is described as “having the spirit of Satan” (Chopin 3). In addition to this, the reader will also see Armand’s negative reaction to being aware of the implications of his son and wife having mixed blood in where he practically disowns them. With all this culminating to Armand finding out the ugly truth that the race he had treated so horribly is actually a part of his very own blood as well.
Louise Mallard is a woman who enjoys freedom and independence. She feels soaring relief and fiery triumph upon realizing that, yes, she is finally free. She is free of the weighted ropes of marriage. She fantasizes of her days ahead, living for herself and only herself. “A kind intention or cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination” (Chopin 234). She views the imposing of one’s will on another person as a crime, no matter the intention behind it. She has a taste of freedom after Mr. Mallard’s death and can finally see days without stress ahead of her. Prior to her husband’s death, young Mrs. Mallard feels tied down and even oppressed. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 233). Despite the typical oppression of women throughout the centuries prior to the 1920s, Mrs. Mallard possesses a free spirit.
That was the way all the Aubignys fell in love, as if struck by a pistol shot…The passion that awoke in his that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like everything that drives headlong over all obstacles.”(47). Most often, such love does not last, it is like a fire that ignite some dry straw but it is consumed very quickly. The true love was the one between Armand’s father and his wife, which was of black race. To be with her, he left his plantation and his important name in Louisiana and went to live in France, a land foreign to him, just to offer an easier life to his wife, “But, above all, she wrote, “night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.” (Chopin 52). To show his love for Desiree and their baby, Armand could do the same thing his father did many years ago, but his attitude towards Desiree looks like in fact his love was just one who pass away went something wrong happened in their life, when life 's challenges arise. The true love is when you can’t live without another person, when his/her happiness is your happiness, “This was what made
Martineau clearly had a strong political agenda in writing this story, however in doing so, she addresses the fundamental difference she sees in the roles of responsibility in marriage. In her mind, the husband and the wife have clearly defined roles, not so much along lines of production, but rather in terms of the household. That which is in the household, whether it is the domestic duties or financial responsibility, falls to the wife while it is the husband who is responsible for the income stream.
The Marquis’ father made up for the loss of his mother by having a close relationship with his son, but that did not help the negative opinion the young child was already forming about women. The personality conflicts that later arise in de Sade’s life are said to come from his hatred of women because his mother was not present in his childhood (Lever 14). The relationship between the father and son was described as “This symbiosis was undeniably emotional, a pr...
Mersault believes that life has no meaning other than existence itself; so what is the purpose of love? He does nothing more than think of Marie’s physical features, like her hair, smile, skin, and laughter. Mersault runs into Marie on his way to the beach for a swim and soon after he already describes her physical attributes, “I helped her onto a float as I did, I brushed against her breasts”(Camus 19).
The Woman in Love, a section taken from Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, describes her theories on men and women in love and the vast differences and purposes they think love is for. This book was published in 1949, and with this in mind we can understand the way she describes women as the weaker sex and how dependent women are on men. In the beginning of the text she states that “The word ‘love’ has not all the same meaning for both sexes, and this is a source of the grave misunderstandings that separate them...love is merely an occupation in the life of the man, while it is life itself for the woman(683).” This first quote from this chapter is important because it really outlines what she is about to get at throughout the entire...
In America, the 1890s were a decade of tension and social change. A central theme in Kate Chopin’s fiction was the independence of women. In Louisiana, most women were their husband’s property. The codes of Napoleon were still governing the matrimonial contract. Since Louisiana was a Catholic state, divorce was rare and scandalous. In any case, Edna Pontellier of Chopin had no legal rights for divorce, even though Léonce undoubtedly did. When Chopin gave life to a hero that tested freedom’s limits, she touched a nerve of the politic body. However, not Edna’s love, nor her artistic inner world, sex, or friendship can reconcile her personal growth, her creativity, her own sense of self and her expectations. It is a very particular academic fashion that has had Edna transformed into some sort of a feminist heroine. If she could have seen that her awakening in fact was a passion for Edna herself, then perhaps her suicide would have been avoided. Everyone was forced to observe, including the cynics that only because a young
It is quite peculiar that “the young girl talking to the soldier in the garden had not ever completely seen his face” (Bowen 2). When has a person had a positive relationship with someone they never knew, much less fall in love and vow to marry a man whose face she has never seen nor known. Kathleen makes one mistake after another with the faceless soldier over her promise to him. She ...
“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.
Love is a timeless sensation but can change over time for the better or the worse. In Bessie Head’s The Collector of Treasures, Dikeledi’s marriage with her husband, Garesego, is a key to her freedom from her enslavement under her uncle and to live a more stable life. As time passes, she realizes the darkness to her marriage, and must escape the misery of being with her husband. The relationship between Dikeledi and Garesego are set in three stages of Dekleidi’s freedom when marrying Garesego, then being forced into a sexual relationship, to both being victims to one another.