Transcendence in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping
William H. Burke suggests that transience in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping is a type of pilgrimage, and that “the rigors and self-denials of the transient life are necessary spiritual conditioning for the valued crossing from the experience of a world of loss and fragmentation to the perception of a world that is whole and complete” (717). The world of reality in Housekeeping is one “fragmented, isolated, and arbitrary as glimpses one has at night through lighted windows” (Robinson 50). Many of the characters that precede Ruth in the narrative rebel against something in this world that is not right. Edmund Foster, her grandfather, escapes by train to the Midwest and his house is “no more a human stronghold than a grave” (3). His daughters, Molly, Sylvie, and Helen, all abandon their home and their mother; Helen, in fact, makes the greatest “leap” away from the world into death when she cannot effectively deal with the expectations placed on her to “set up housekeeping in Seattle” with husband and children (14). Ruth takes up a transient life with her mentor and aunt, Sylvie, to escape from history and the past into a new life, a new awareness. Crucial to this spiritual awakening is the abandonment and the isolation of the self. Transience is Ruth’s escape from the impermanent illusory world, a world that rejects one of the tenets of transience, that “the perimeters of our wanderings are nowhere” , in favor of fixity and stasis (218). She acknowledges the world’s illusory nature when she admits that she has “never distinguished readily between thinking and dreaming”, and that “Everything that falls upon the eye is apparition, a sheet dropped over the world’s true workings...
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...orld (219).
Works Cited
Burke, William H. “Border Crossinsgs in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping.” Modern Fiction Studies. 37 (Winter 1991): 716-724.
Mallon, Anne-Marie. “Sojourning Women: Homelessness and Transcendence in Housekeepking.” Critique 30 (Winter 1989): 95-105.
Miller, Heather. Grace Through Isolation in Herland, Housekeeping, and Ellen Foster. Masters Thesis. University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. December 1991.
Ross, Dianne Lillian. The Circle in the Waters: Unity and Visions of Regeneration and Immortality in Housekeeping, To the Lighthouse, and Surfacing. Masters Thesis. UVA May 1986
Schuler, Carol. Crossing the Boundaries with M/Other: Beyond Dualism into the Dream of a World made Whole in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. Masters Thesis. California State University, Stanislaus. May 1994.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic. Second ed. N.p.: Yale University Press, 2000. Print.
The application of the therapeutic nurse-client relationship is absolutely essential to providing the appropriate care to clients (College of Nurses of Ontario, 1999, p. 3). The therapeutic nurse client relationship consists of four components; respect, trust, professional intimacy and empathy (College of Nurses of Ontario, 1999, p. 3). Though, I have not been able to establish a nurse-client relationship yet, I have established customer-client relationships. Customers react similarly to clients when respect is established. One experience in particular really helped me make this comparison.
Strategic family therapy is when the therapist initiated most of what happens during a therapy session and designs an approach for each problem that comes up. To be a successful strategic therapist a person should identify problems that can be solved, set goals for the course of therapy, design interventions or tools to meet those goals, and take client’s responses into consideration. Strategic family therapy is really a combination of a few family therapy models Strategic family therapy developed from the communications theory which evolved from MRI (mental research institute)’s brief therapy, Haley’s Strategic model, and the Milan Team’s systemic model. Strategic therapy uses all of these methods together to help the progression of therapy and to bring about change. Strategic family therapy has a few different types such as a model from Jay Haley, MRI (mental research institute), and The Milan Team. Each of these models has different concepts, strengths, and weaknesses that make strategic family therapy a truly diverse type of family therapy.
Positive relationships with both nurse and client is rewarding to both sides; however, there are essential elements needed to achieve a good nurse-client relationship. Multiple studies were analyzed by Hagerty and Patusky in “Reconceptualizing the Nurse-Patient Relationship” to determine the elements of linearity, trust, time, and role expectations within the nurse-client relationship. Linearity allows the relationship to act in “phases”, which provides efficient and quality care. By doing so, a nurse must establish trust, work with the client while progress continues, and when client is free to go home, the relationship comes to an end. During the orientation phase, trust must be established; as this provides the client comfort and confidence to provide valid information, and then receiving proper care. Effective use of time is vital to the relationship, though many nurses believe they do not have enough time to provide care due to the current health care pressures and time limitations. A study by Forchuck, then analyzed by Hagerty and Patusky, was conducted between 10 nurse-client relationships; Forchuck reports that 7 out of the 10 established a “working relationship” between nurse and client within 2.5 and 6 weeks. Regardless of time, many nurses are introduced to a client with the presumptions that the client wants to receive care and create a relationship, though the nurse expects nothing in return. “Heifner (1993) found that nurses identified vulnerability of patients as an essential foundation of nurses’ abilities to ‘connect’ with patients” (Hagerty and Patusky, 2003, 146). Despite nurses building a relationship upon vulnerability, Hewison discovers that control can actually create “barriers to open and meaningful communication and exchange” (2003). The data collected concludes the vital elements of linearity, trust, time, and role expectations stimulate a successful nurse-client
Therapeutic relationship is an essential part of nursing; it is the foundation of nursing (CNO, 2009). The National Competency Standard for Registered Nurses state that nurses are responsible for “establishing, sustaining and concluding professional relationship with individuals/groups.” Throughout this essay the importance of forming a therapeutic relationships will be explained. The process of building a therapeutic relationship begins from prior to time of contact with a patient, the interpersonal skills of the nurse; then the process includes skills required by the nurse to communicate effectively, including respect, trust, non-judgment and empathy. The way to portray these skills can be via verbal or non-verbal cues that are important to understand how they influence a person. The process and skills listed below are all relevant to nurses working in the contemporary hospital environment today.
Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper"." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Concise Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. 1597-1609. Print.
The best way to understand exactly what a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is is to look into the characteristics of the relationship. As previously stated, the therapeutic relationship focuses on the client and their goals. In contrast with a social relationship, the actions of both the nurse and patient are dedicated to the needs of the patient. Nurse and patient work together to attain the goals set for the patient. Although the nurse may enjoy interacting with the patient, this is not the purpose of the relationship. The parameters of the relationship are defined to ensure that the relationship does not curve in that direction. Parameters include, “[the] relationship is terminated when goals are met and service no longer needed” (Craven & Hirnle, 2009, p. 330). This ensures that boundaries are not crossed and the nurse-patient relationship stays a professional one.
Eiseley’s essay on water is from a reflective stance, connecting past, present, and future by water. He links his own magical experiences to water, by telling of when “…I lay back in the floating position that left my face to the sky, and shoved off” (Eiseley 139) he sets his mind adrift, and “… this sort of curious absorption by water¬¬—the extension of shape by osmosis…” (Eiseley 137) he becomes an embodiment of water. He goes on to articulate his interpretation of being one with nature, geology, history, and archeology, via water. All his reveries are brought about by a view of a stagnant pool on a roof. He not only feels connected to life through water, but he lets us glimpse that water is able to dredge up his past, and stir speculations of his future. He speaks of our current evolutional phase as a waypoint on the path to the future, he writes “…I have seen myself passing by—...
Imprisoned in the “cardboard world” for a long time, Antoinette feels so lonely. “Long ago when I was a child and very lonely I tried to kiss her”(Rhys 180). She thinks of her childhood, and she does not remember many things. Undoubtedly, she becomes more abnormal. “One morning when I woke I ached all over. Not the cold, another sort of ache. I saw that my wrists were red and swollen”(181). Something bad has happened to the poor woman. “Grace said, ‘I suppose you’re going to tell me that you don’t remember anything about last night’”(181). Grace’s words imply that Antoinette often forget about something. A submissive wife is changed by her husband’s indifference-- she endures loneliness, coldness and despair.
She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her
Charlotte will never be anything but a wife and mother with no room to become a writer. Dependent on her husband for emotional support as well as financial support, Charlotte did not outwardly disagree with John's diagnosis. Without much protest, Charlotte stays in one room for fear of being sent to Dr. Mitchell's for the Rest Cure. (4) Trapped in a room with no aesthetic pleasure, she was left to her own thoughts. Societal norms said th...
In the days of black-and-white television and homemade apple pie, there existed a hallmark of perfection: the “all-American family”. This was composed of a mother who was always perfectly pressed and had dinner ready on time, a father with a good job who wore a suit to work every day, and two children who brought home perfect grades and were star athletes. This was the dream given to many Americans; a perfect family in the public eye, like the Cleaver family in the show “Leave It to Beaver”. This family had no marital disputes, no broken lamps, and no bills left unpaid, or so it seemed. Like these picture-perfect families, Allegra Goodman’s Sandy Glass wished to portray the perfect person, family, and lab, even when it was all collapsing in on itself.
William of Ockham was born at around 1287 in the village of Ockham in Surrey, East London in England. At a tender age of around 9 or 13 years Ockham was given to the Franciscan Order. William studied and later taught at the Oxford University. He was later controversially denounced by Pope John XXII for dangerous teachings as served a House detention in 1324 to 1328. William sided with the Franciscan General against the Pope. In 1328, he fled to Munich and was excommunicated. He died at around 1347 in Munich at Holy Roman Empire. As a Western Philosopher, he belonged to the Medieval Philosophy in the school of Scholasticism. William of Ockham’s notable ideas are Ockham’s Razor, Nominalism (Spade; Kaye).
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...