Point of View in the Life of Emma Grudger In any event, point of view can be the most crucial perspective for the understanding of meaning and importance in a particular situation. This can be demonstrated by reading the accounts of the life of Emma Gudger from two very different perspectives: that written by Emma, "So I Sung To Myself", and another written by James Agee, "The Gudger Family, 1936". In his portrayal of a poverty-stricken life in the south, James Agee focuses on one particular member of the Gudger family. Agee's choice of narrating his story around the life of the youngest daughter, Emma, best expresses the difficulty of life in poverty. Within the Gudger family, Emma has the most interesting and complex life as a result of her adolescence. Her sister, Annie Mae, is already older and married with a husband and their own house. Additionally, her father's life is a fairly simple one, characterized primarily by his work. Furthermore, Agee's focus on the life of Emma is a result of his obvious infatuation with her. In his opening line Agee explicitly states, "I am fond of Emma". Throughout Agee's writings he incorporates a sexual undertone, which the reader may interpret as somewhat of a secret lust for Emma. Agee refers to Emma as a "young queen" and later writes, "Each of us is attracted to Emma". This gives the reader a false sense that Emma's life is purely sexual when in reality, her character is much more complex than this. Whether a result of Emma's complex life or Agee's attachment to Emma, Agee's choice of a narrative voice only presents her life through one limited point of view. This may sometimes cause the reader to miss Agee's point. For example, after reading Emma's first person account of her own life the shortcomings of Agee's perspective are made evident. After reading Emma's first person account of life in the south, one can grasp the importance of point of view in the narration of such events. It is undoubtedly clear that the two texts both show how rough her life was, though Agee does this in an entirely different fashion. Not only is she the most interesting, but also she goes through the most change. She moved around extensively and at times was impulsive. "But anyway he got the license and came after me and I ran away when I saw him coming.
Further, throughout the book, Sadie and Bessie continuously reminds the reader of the strong influence family life had on their entire lives. Their father and mother were college educated and their father was the first black Episcopal priest and vice principal at St. Augustine Co...
...express all the ideology of modern day feminism. Unfortunately, neither of these scenarios is faithful to the scenario of an unconventional Victorian woman as portrayed by a Victorian female author. This is not to say that the filmed versions of Emma are not entertaining or without merit in their own right. rather, it is to suggest that instead of faithfully recreating Austen's work, the filmmakers felt it necessary to add their own personal interpretations of the work, modern interpretations that serve to undermine Austen's text. Like the tightly controlled, oppressive environment of Victorian England, Austen's Emma is best understood from within the confines the ideology of that elitist microcosm, not through the lens of modern interpreters who try to impose their own values on it.
Throughout the selection, the audience modal analysis shifts based on who is speaking and who is being addressed. Majority of this text’s audience modal analysis is lyric. The main character Elizabeth always address herself and what’s going on in her life, and about her husband. This book is also revolves around God. The main objective of the book is to allow God to be the head of you life. Another important character, Miss Clara, represents a muse that helps guide Elizabeth to the right path of
Emma is born a woman in France during the early 19th Century, and as such is doomed from the start to be a victim of the misogynistic bourgeoisie. As was the case for all women at the time, Emma was completely reliant on Charles to provide the quality of life she desired – and indeed her very identity – as she was not in a position that she could exercise such control herself. In marrying Charles, she ceased to exist as Mademoiselle Emma Rouault, and simply became Madame Charles Bovary, the doctor’s wife. Emma realised that she had blown her only chance to pursue the life she felt she deserved. “Pourquoi, mon Dieu! me suis-je mariée?
Before the interference of other classes and characters, Emma embraces her naïve self, defining the whole-hearted middle class. The novel begins with her enjoying her life on a farm, with the convent in her past, relying quaintly on herself and her father. In Emma’s background, she does not compare her life to other factions of society, nor does he allow for any sort of riches to impact her way of thinking. In fact, she has no desire to leave her life, to the extent that “when she went to confession, she invented little sins in order that she might stay longer [in the convent]” (Flaubert 24). Her fond memories of her life in the convent prove that she enjoyed her life of practice. While members of church society did not lead lavish lives, this does not seem to hinder Emma’s thoughts on her lifestyle. She reflects the middle class, though she indulges her past, she never obtains the thought process that more money would lead to a better life for her. The way that she idolizes her former life reflects this time as a growth point and positive period of her life. When Charles first visited her “she laughed at getting none of it [milk]” (Flaubert 15). Flaubert p...
In the novel, Emma has two affairs; one with a landowner named Rodolphe Boulanger and another with a law clerk named Leon. When Emma first meets Leon, she is attracted to him because they share an appreciation for music and literature, but she doesn’t cheat with him because she wants to keep her image of a good mother and wife. Here the reader sees Emma as a morally ambiguous character because she stays faithful to her family, but later in the book when Leon returns, Emma falls for his newfound urban experience and ends up having an affair with him. At first readers are happy that Emma stays loyal to herself and her family, but then she ends up falling for him and readers see that she does whatever to please herself. This affair reveals Emma’s moral ambiguity and plays a
Emma and Estelle are quite similar characters. They are both victims of lust in their own stories. Both are extremely dissatisfied in their marriages ‘Oh, why, dear God, did I marry him?’(Flaubert Pg41). This leads them each to seek refuge through extramarital affairs. Estelle takes a younge...
Emma, a novel by Jane Austen, is the story of a young woman, Emma, who is rich, stubborn, conniving, and occupies her time meddling into others' business. There are several recurring themes throughout the novel; the ideas of marriage, social class, women's confinement, and the power of imagination to blind the one from the truth, which all become delineated and reach a climax during the trip to Box Hill. The scene at Box Hill exposes many underlying emotions that have been built up throughout the novel, and sets the stage for the events that conclude it.
At the beginning of the novel we are made very aware of Emma's character, both her strengths and her flaws. She starts out, "seem[ing] to unite some of the best blessings in existence"(Austen, 1; Italics, Graham). Her flaws are "at present so unperceived that they d[o] not by any means rank as misfortunes with her" (1) but instead of seeming a fortunate thing Peter W. Graham states that "by naming what Emma has hitherto avo...
Jane Austen's Emma is a novel of courtship. Like all of Austen's novels, it centres on the marriage plot: who will marry whom? For what reasons will they marry? Love, practicality, or necessity? At the centre of the story is the title character, Emma Woodhouse, an heiress who lives with her widowed father at their estate, Hartfield. At the beginning of the novel, she is a self-satisfied young woman who feels no particular need to marry, for she is in the rather unique condition of not needing a husband to supply her fortune.
Emma desires freedom and cannot gain it due to the fact that she cannot leave Charles. Emma is scared that her husband will discover her financial spending issues. She is also paranoid that Charles will find out about her various love affairs with Leon and Rudolph. Emma does not get the satisfaction she needs from Charles. The spark of their romance together has died and Emma gets bored of him and feels as if she is stuck in the relationship, for Emma and Charles contrast. Emma is dissatisfied with Charles: “He seemed so feeble, a nullity, a creature pathetic in every way. How could she get rid of him? What an interminable evening! Something altogether deadening, like opium fumes, was taking hold of her” (Flaubert 234). Emma feels numb and wonders how she can get rid of the man she married, the overbearing man that loves her, yet cannot seem to satisfy her. Charles is oblivious to the fact that Emma is having doubts about the relationship which causes Emma to become even more unhappy with him. Charles is certain in what he wants and cares for Emma dearly, as a husband should, but this only makes life harder for Emma. Emma is selfish while Charles is not. The unhappiness Emma gains from her marriage causes her
Emma projects her views of an ideal man in her expected son. As if fantasizing what her life would be like having the control that men have in society. The resentment she feels towards her choices correlates to the resentment she feels being a woman. Emma tries to prevail over the obstacles of being a woman by trying to do activities that a man would typically do like going out all night in town, spending vast money on a rendezvous and courting a desired companion. After Leon’s departure the narrator speaks of Emma’s method of copi...
As I sit here pondering the life of Emma Bovary I wonder what it must have really been like for her. She was young, younger than I am now when she died. She was curious and bright and probably would have been a great college student; passionate but with her head a little bit in the clouds. Opportunities for women in the 1850's were, as we all know, extremely limited. I wonder if I would have fared much better than Emma if I had been as trapped as her. I also married young, but when I realized it had been a mistake I had the option of a divorce, Emma did not. I have had the opportunity to receive a good education
Emma Bovary is the biggest disgrace to romanticism in the book. This is portrayed in chapter eight, when she is at the ball. Although she is gorgeous, she has nearly no grace and inelegantly falls on the Vicomte. While she cherishes the moment, she embarrasses the Vicomte so he takes her back to her seat to find a more fitting partner. While Emma fantasizes about that moment, the Vicomte is already dancing the same dance with a new lady, one who knows what to do and can keep up with him, improving his image. Other examples are scattered throughout the novel, including Emma’s overdone tragic suicide with arsenic and the subsequent overdone tragic deathbed sequence.
Inevitably, Emma's life was based on the childhood and early years of Jane Austen's adulthood. Although part of the upper class society at an early age, Austen was not influenced by many of the contemporary novelists of that time (Parrish 343). As a child Austen was never around many people. She did not trust herself enough to speak unkind words to anyone, and she controlled her temper well (Parrish 340). She was essentially confined to her home and nearby areas. So everything Austen wrote or any idea she had was genuinely original and a homemade article (Parrish 343). Austen always delivered herself in a manner with great fluency and precision (Parrish 340). Once Jane Austen stated: "My greatest anxiety at present is that this fourth work should not disgrace what was good in the others" (Lauber 79). Austen was known for taking not of the behavior of mankind and a class of society, having a universality that makes them valid to modern times as well as the days of George III (Hardwick 11). In studying this behavior, Austen tries to identify her characters with those in her life, including herself mainly. Austen's ability to have consistency with perception and depiction of the people around her, and her occasional special touch of irony, makes her novels timelessly successful (Hardwick 11). Also, by her perceptive powers, as Virginia Woaf said: "Jane Austen was a mistress of much deeper emotion than appears upon the surface. She stimulates us to supply what is not there" (Hardwick 11).