The House of Mirth

Daisy inadvertently hits Myrtle as she speeds to safety, but Fitzgerald hints that, subconsciously, Daisy had always wished Myrtle had not been part of her life. Happiness is another emotion that binds Daisy and Myrtle together. Daisy's happiness is dependent on Myrtle's sadness. This concept is based on the fact that Myrtle has taken away something that was once in Daisy's power; her husband Tom. Throughout the book Daisy and Myrtle almost strive to take power away from one another, ultimately leading to the death of Myrtle, leaving Daisy the only woman to live out her superficial life.

Shortly afterwards at the beginning of act five scene three Cordelia and King Lear are captured and held prisoner. In the selection I chose, Edmund expresses his true feelings about the love triangle he and the sisters Goneril and Reagan are in. "... Neither can be enjoyed, If both remain alive: to take the widow Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril; And hardly shall I carry out my side," (V, i, ll 58-61) Edmund conveys how though both sisters are vying for his love and eventually his hand in marriage, he does not love either, and is only playing them for his own benefit; he just wants to increase his power. "Stands on me to defend, not to debate."

At the time of this passage Lily is sinking into poverty and begins to feel friendless. Gerty realizes that Lily needs a companion and is there to help. But soon Lily realizes that fate is against her and that she is headed in a downward spiral. Edith Wharton cleverly uses her words to represent Lily’s state of mind. When Lily says she wasn’t meant to be “good”, she means her perfect life with a stable status in society.

19 Nov. 2002    <http://www.Kutztown.edu/faculty/Reagan.Wharton.html>. Pizer, Donald. "The Naturalism of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth." Twentieth Century Literature 41.2          (1995): 241-8. Rehak, Melanie.

Ophelia is told her social class is too low for her to be romantically involved with a prince and her father takes advantage of her and plays her like a pawn, in order to question Hamlet’s sa... ... middle of paper ... ... free and clear… we’re free.” (Miller, p.139) Just like all humans, fictional characters have breaking points. When internal conflicts become overbearing, they usually result in external action. Whether the external action is suicide or a confrontation, the emotionally devastating impacts always leave the character feeling overwhelmed. In both Hamlet and Death of a Salesman, two characters found themselves victims of their own hands as they took their lives to find relief of their mental hardships. The frailty of the human mind is eminent in both situations, as the characters, still deluded, found relief as they decided, “to sleep, perchance to dream.” (Shakespeare, p.66) Works Cited Miller, Arthur, and Gerald Clifford Weales.

After Gus convinces her to let him invest for her, Lily thinks, “Her immediate worries conjured, it was easy to resolve that she would never again find herself in such straights…” (Wharton 85).” Lily’s avoidance of her problems causes her to engage in risky and foolish behavior such as receiving pay offs from Gus or following the Duchess around in Europe after Bertha Dorset denounced her in Monte Carlo. In both cases, she ends up in worse situations than she was initially in. She gains a reputation as a woman who sleeps around for money with Gus, and her avoidance of returning to New York after her denouncement allowed Bertha to spread the story that Lily was a husband-stealer without Lily there to defend herself. Bertha’s story reached to her Aunt Julia, leading to Lily’s disinheritance after Julia’s death. The primary source of Lily’s conflict and subsequent avoidance of said conflict is marriage and

When he finally notices the seriousness of his wife’s sickness, he faints. This heroine has no real, direct influence on her fate. Even though she is ironic about the conditions in her life and marriage, she is not able to make real changes – like most of the women in Gilman times. "A Streetcar Named Desire," a play by Tennessee Williams, is a story not only about changes in the South, but mostly about the situation of women in 1940’s America. Blanche, main character, has to give up living in the old, family villa because of financial problems, and moves to Stella ­ her sister who gave up aristocratic roots and decided to live like a working class in the city.

The truth, however, is that Quint only exists in the mind of the sexually deprived Governess who creates Quint to help herself cope with her longings for relations with the master, who might be represented by Miles. Moreover, since the social position of the Governess forces her to live away from all men, her motherly feelings towards Miles blur together with her longings for the master. Upon critical examination it can be concluded that upon his death Miles is not saved from Quint, but from the erotic longings of the Governess. The Governess characterizes Quint, who is only her hallucin... ... middle of paper ... ...e. As a result of the Governess's social position she is isolated from any males with the exception of Miles. Therefore, when Miles dies she is losing the object she uses for her sexual fantasies.

Now, at the conclusion of her story, and her life, she seems to find that the release of death is the only release which would enable her to be freed from the control of men and suffocation from her own children. The title of Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, seems to ironically contrast her story’s conclusion and the main character’s self-induced eternal slumber. Edna Pontellier’s liberation from men and high society begins with the justified motive of self-empowerment but quickly spirals out of control when it becomes based purely upon being able to love another man. These conflicting influences cause her complete destabilization, leading to a tragic, but fitting, self-destructive

The theme of the novel in this aspect is that identity based on mere appearance is not enough to sustain the human soul physically or metaphysically. Once she is no longer able to keep the "eye" of her peers, Lily finds herself with no identity and dies. This analysis will discuss the theme of the objectification of women in a male dominated society inherent throughout the novel. Lily Bart and her mother have been socially "ruined" in a sense because of the economic failures of their father and husband respectfully. However, Lily's mother teaches her that she can still maintain a high social status if she marries well, i.e.