The Current Interpretations of Newstead
Newstead Abbey has an extensive and diverse history, dating back to
the 12th Century when it was built as a priory for Augustinian monks.
Over the last nine hundred years, Newstead has been the possession of
several different families, home to the famous poet Lord Byron, and
most recently a tourist attraction. The house is presented, as it
would have looked like in 1871, when the Webb family was residing
there. The Webb family lived in the house for seventy years, after
which it was donated to Nottinghamshire County Council and was opened
to the public. Consequently the house has retained its Victorian
heritage and gives tourists today an interesting insight into the
lives of a wealthy, upper class Victorian family.
To a certain extent current interpretations of Newstead Abbey
accurately portrays what it may have been like in 1871 for the Webb
family. Although the house has a strong Byronic influence, we know
from Augusta’s book, Livingstone and Newstead, that Emilia Webb and
her husband William had an interest in the poet, Augusta writes, “one
of his [William Webb‘s] chief aims was to increase both the Byronic
and historic interest of the place.” Emilia Webb encouraged visitors
to view the assortment of artefacts and curios associated with Byron,
that she had collected, prompting her daughter to write, “[she] seemed
much less mistress in her own house than caretaker for Byron’s. It is
chiefly owing to Mrs Webb’s care on her first arrival at Newstead that
every relic connected with Byron has been so religiously preserved.
She regarded this as an obligation and a duty to the poet’s admirers.”
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into the decoration and furnishing of each room. The house was kept in
the Webb family before it was donated to the Nottinghamshire County
Council, meaning that a lot of the furniture and decoration was
preserved from when the first generation of Webbs lived there. However
in conclusion I think the image of Newstead is to some extent
inaccurate of how it may have been in 1871. The Byronic significance
of the house is too heavily promoted, in 1871 Byron had not lived in
the house for over fifty years, and the role of the servants, and the
children, is neglected for commercial reasons. Also the ghost evenings
are not part of the Victorian heritage, and are simply used for
attracting visitors. Heritage tourism plays too big a role for
Newstead Abbey ever to be considered an accurate reflection of
Victorian life.
The quilt is described in the story as being nice and neat, except for one small part of it that was “messy”. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters question whether Mrs. Wright meant to “quilt” it or “knot” it. Along with this is the condition in which Mrs. Wright left her kitchen. Mrs. Hale questions why it appears as though she was interrupted. These are symbols of Mrs. Wright’s life with Mr. Wright, in that on the outside, things seemed happy and in order, but with closer observation, they were not. Furthermore, the rocking chair in which Mrs. Wright was sitting represents herself. This is known because Mrs. Hale states that the rocking chair “didn’t look the least bit like the Minnie Foster of twenty years before”. She mentions the chair is now “dingy red”, and
John Knowles wrote a fantastic novel entitled A Separate Peace. Some important character in the novel were Gene, Finny, Leper, and Brinker. Gene and Finny were best friends; Leper was the outcast; Brinker was the “hub of the class” This was a novel about friendship, betrayal, war, peace, and jealousy. Although Gene and Finny were similar in many ways, they also had numerous differences.
In John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, Finny acts like a leader by being persuasive, caring, and creative. Finny tends to show creativeness in a situation that needs it which creates him as a leader image. He can be caught caring for others a lot which allows him to be called a leader. Both a leader and Finny can often be found to possess the trait of persuasiveness.
The American Library Association defines a challenge to a book as, “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based on the objections of a person or group” (“About Banned). A Separate Peace by John Knowles was one of the many challenged books of its time; it was ranked sixty-seventh on the American Literature Association’s list of most challenged classic novels The book continues to be challenged all over the country and in 2013 it is ranked thirty-fifth on the summer of banned books list .(ALA). A Separate Peace chronicles the life of a boy named Gene Forrester, a student of the prestigious Devon School in New Hampshire. In Gene’s first year at Devon. He becomes close friends with his daredevil of a roommate Finny. Secretly Gene somewhat
The distinctive arches of Walton Bridge alone can be seen in many scenes and landscapes far from the Thames. Having studied architectural drafting at a young age, and later going on to become a professor of perspective at the Academy, it is unsurprising that Grand pieces of forgotten, taciturn architecture frequent many of Turners’ Landscapes. The timeless quality of Turners’ bridges often rest amongst temporary pastoral scenes, as ‘Walton Bridge’ does amongst the sheep shearers. Turner in this way juxtaposes the timeless and stable against the transient and fast passed life of the 19th century. The bridge further provides a common focal point in Turners work, standing as a poetic metaphysical symbol of timelessness and transience; providing a way through for the river and a way over for the pastors for as long as the bridge
A Lesson before Dying, the 1994 novel by Ernest J. Gaines, is the gripping and evocative story of a young man accused of a crime and sentenced to death by electrocution. In the fictional town of Bayonne, Louisiana, the narrator, Grant Wiggins, attends the trail of Jefferson, a twenty-one-year-old uneducated black field worker who is charged with the murder of a white storekeeper. Jefferson claims that two of his acquaintances, Brother and Bear, shot Alcee Grope, the storekeeper. Jefferson’s lawyer rest his argument on the idea that Jefferson lacks the intelligence to commit the murder and sentencing him to death would be like putting a “hog” (18) in the electric chair. In malice of the so called defense, the all-white jury finds Jefferson guilty.
Throughout A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses semiotic codes to express an adolescent’s transition into adulthood in a time of conflict and war. Barthes writes, “Ideological imperatives express themselves through a multiplicity of codes which ‘invade’ the text in the form of key signifiers. Each of these signifiers represents a digression outside of the text to an established body of knowledge which it connotes; each one functions as an abbreviated version of the entire system (code) of which it is a part,” (Semiotics, 31). These semiotic codes are often looked at as social enigmas that relate to the rules and ideologies developed by the culture of the time period, in this case at Devon Prep School in New Hampshire in 1942-43 during World War II. Codes are where semiotics, cultural values, and social structures mesh. The ideals and challenges of war parallel the friendship between the two main characters, Gene and Finny, and particularly relate to Gene’s obsession with competition and envy of his best friend and enemy. These codes impose ideological imperatives that translate from Gene and Finny’s friendship to the larger picture; they connote the loss of innocence and transformation into adulthood, and ultimately define the dominant values of the time period’s culture, as well as the overall meaning of Knowles’ text. Through the use
In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the main character, Finny, is in the infirmary room for a “shattered” leg. “...One of his legs, which had been shattered”(60). This happened when Finny and Gene were trying to jump off of the same branch into the river. Finny and Gene had been very good friends and would always hang out. Finny was very athletic and Gene was known as a nerd who tried to hang out with Finny to become popular. Gene had always looked up to FInny but as they hung out more and more Gene started to become jealous. Finny suggested that they both go and jump off of the same branch together. Suddenly Gene started to shake the branch and Finny lost his balance and fell off the branch “shattering” his leg. Gene didn’t try to save him
Finny’s response to his injury and Gene’s revelation is believable because of his affection for Gene. For example, when Finny’s talking about his grades, although slightly discouraged, he says it for Gene, “‘Me?’ He smiled faintly. ‘Listen, I could study forever and I’d never break C. But it’s different for you, you’re good’” (Knowles 58). Finny includes Gene in everything because he always wants his presence there, “...’‘and at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal.’ He hesitated and then added, ‘which is what you are,’ and there was silence on his dune” (Knowles 48). For this reason when Gene makes his revelation he tells Gene that he doesn’t know anything and to, “‘Go away. I’m tired and you make me sick. Go away’”
expressing individualism is elicited by Gene and Finny actions. Some ways the characters are forced to conform are by peer pressure, as evident in the excerpt,. In this citation, conformity is shown through Gene’s decision of complying with what Finny orders, due to peer pressure of jump off the tree, therefore nearly injuring himself. Furthermore, he realizes it wasn’t his culpability of being in that position, due to if Finny wasn't there none of this would have occurred. Even more, this led to Gene feeling a desire to assert his individualism, due to he feels that Finny has surpassed him in every way, and cause his failure, such as in his academics. As well, Phineas
Throughout our lives, we 're told that knowledge is power. However, does knowledge alone achieve this? In the book, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, the main character, Tony, gains knowledge. In the beginning, he learns through his dependency on Adrian, his classmate. However, as he moves into his twenties, his learning stagnates. He 's peaceable to a point he seems spiritless but also too stubborn to change his original beliefs. It 's not until he wants to understand why Sarah, his ex-girlfriend 's mother, left him money and Adrian 's diary, that he actively pursues knowledge, helping him realize that his life may not be as black and white as he had thought. The evolution of Tony shows that a person needs to have an open mind in
Peters, John G. “Wordsworth’s TINTERN ABBEY” The Explicator(Washington) , Winter 2003, Vol. 61, Iss. 2, pg. 77 : eLibrary. Web 05 Mar 2002
As a child Percy was carefree and independent going wherever he pleased and exploring his surroundings. He learned to fish and hunt in the meadows encompassing his home, he often surveyed the rivers and fields with his cousin and close friend Thomas Medwin. “…insanity hung as by a hair suspended over the head of Shelley” (“Percy Bysshe Shelley”). At the age ...
In "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey," William Wordsworth explains the impact of Nature from Tintern Abbey in his every day life. "Tintern Abbey" shows the great importance of nature to Wordsworth in his writings, love for life, and religion. The memories he has of Tintern Abbey make even the darkest days full of light.
Tintern Abbey is just an old ruin (William). However, throughout Wordsworth’s poetry Tintern Abbey becomes something slightly more than a ruin. His poem recognizes the ordinary and turns it into a spectacular recollection, whose ordinary characteristics are his principal models for Nature. As Geoffryy H. Hartman notes in his “Wordsworth’s poetry 1787-1814”, “Anything in nature stirs [Wordsworth] and renews in turn his sense for nature” (Hartman 29). “The Poetry of William Wordsworth” recalls a quote from the Prelude to Wordsworth’s 1802 edition of Lyrical ballads where they said “[he] believed his fellow poets should "choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them...in a selection of language really used by men” (Poetry). In the shallowest sense, Wordsworth is using his view of the Tintern Abbey as a platform or recollection, however, this ordinary act of recollection stirs within him a deeper understanding. In his elaboration in “Tintern Abbey”, he says “For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, s...