“‘As a wife and mother,’ cried Lucie, most earnestly, ‘I implore you to have pity on me and not to exercise any power that you possess, against my innocent husband, but do use it in his behalf. O sister-woman, think of me as a wife and a mother!’ Madame Defarge looked, coldly as ever, at the suppliant, and said, turning to her friend The Vengeance: ‘The wives and mothers we have been used to see, since we were as little as this child, and much less, have not been greatly considered? We have known their husbands and fathers laid in prison and kept from them, often enough? All of our lives, we have seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children, poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression, and neglect of all kinds?”
Historical Literature and Political texts have always had an underlying purpose to persuade and influence the audience’s opinion or perspective. Good afternoon/morning young writers and directors today I’ll be discussing the representation of visions and versions of people and politics within texts. Political/Historical Composers strive to show a personal reflection elaborating on the awakening encounter with the manifestation of race relations within Contemporary society. This is shown extensively in Henry Reynolds text "why weren't we told,” which talks about the violence, deprivation and disposition of the indigenous culture contrasting it with the perspectives of modern 20th century society. Also relevant to this concept is the event known
Throughout the centuries, a commonality of time enduring plays is that they often include themes that are consistently relevant to audiences as time goes on. Henrik Ibsen 's A Doll 's House and Susan Glaspell 's Trifle are two plays that were written in 1879 and 1916, and both are still well read and enjoyed plays because of this reason. One relevant theme for contemporary viewers that can be found throughout both of these works is the character 's conflict against conformity to social norms. This struggle is relevant to present-day readers because of the increased value of the individualistic mentality that has been prevalent in our culture. By analyzing these characters during their struggle against conformity to social norms, we can discover how this theme makes these two works relevant to present-day readers.
Whereas in the text of Macbeth, the setting is first presented as evil, stated by Macbeth “no foul and fair a day I have not seen“. On the contrary Macbeth is presented as ‘brave’ and ‘courageous’, ‘the savior of the day’, this implies that the writers chose the great difference in setting and character for the reader to
To compare and contrast the roles of Lady Macbeth in the play, giving close consideration to their relationship their husbands. In the play ‘Macbeth’ we notice that the roles of Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff are very different. The contrast between these two ladies, is especially noted by each woman’s loyalties and manner of death. These two women, as similar as they were, also had dissimilarities that are far more striking. Although Lady Macduff and Lady Macbeth each had the ability to influence their family, they used this influence in entirely different ways.
John Patrick Shanley ’s Doubt: A Parable takes place at the St. Nicholas Catholic Church and School in Bronx, New York, 1964. Father Brendon Flynn is new to St. Nicholas, and his contemporary take on Catholicism seems to immediately clash with Sister Aloysius’ though traditional beliefs. Sister Aloysius believes Father Flynn to be a sexual predator and wishes to enlist the wide-eyed optimist Sister James to help keep a watchful eye on him. First and foremost, the entire play mainly deals with issues of sexual abuse, race, religion, relations of power and gender.
Oscar Wilde wrote his plays against the backdrop of the Victorian English society. It therefore helps to discuss the salient aspects of the Victorian society. Victorian England is known for many paradoxes -- glaring contrasts between the rich and the poor, insistence on morality on the one hand and the practice of cynicism on the other, blooming creativity pitted against blatant constriction, imperial grandeur since Britain was then ruling almost one fifth of the total surface of the earth and domestic squalor since the majority of people did not have decent means of livelihood, and finally collectivity dictated by tradition opposed to the rapidly developing individualism. The class system denied the talented members of the lower classes access to social and economic advancement. The upper classes alone had the privilege of working in the government, the armed forces, and the church, while trade was monopolized by the rising middle class.
Relationships in Seamus Heaney’s Act of Union In my essay I am going to analyse Seamus Heaney’s poem, Act of Union. It is important to know the background of the author in order to understand the poem. Seamus Heaney was one of the major poets of the 20th century. He was from Northern Ireland.
M. Synge’s well-known tragedy Riders to the Sea, the sea also plays a great role throughout the work as a background, as a living character, as a force of nature, as an agent of destiny. Like the sea of “The Open Boat” it is also dark, mysterious, and powerful. That is why the characters do not know its moods. It has been presented as both kind and cruel. It is kind as it provides livelihood to the inhabitants of the island.
This is shown through the metaphorical pot boiling over as “zest and love drain out with soapy water as she scours the crusted milk.” Through this metaphor, Harwood shapes meaning through insinuating that the women’s passion has been “drained out” and lost through her obligation to household chores. With this, she creates the image that women should sacrifice their dreams and aspirations to become a mother figure to their children. Through references to “Rubinstein’s yawn” - known to be a famous pianist - Harwood implies a masculine judgement causing the persona to question whether she has ever really had a captive audience as “She practices a fugue, though it can matter to no one now if she plays well or not.” ’Suburban Sonnet’ is told from the persona’s point of view, leading readers to question whether the women in the sonnet could perhaps be the poet herself.
Staying Strong or Giving In? Language is an integral part of every distinctive culture. It represents a way of life and a way of communication among those that share similar traditions, values, and heritage. The Irish people have consistently been faced with foreign cultures encroaching on their land and threatening not only their culture but also the Gaelic language itself.
To convey the brutality and animosity of “The Troubles”, Seamus Heaney expressed his thought-provoking opinions in the form of poetry. His collection of poems called “North” specifically portray the violent and hatred of The Troubles during 1968 to 1998. The Troubles refer to the sectarian warfare and division between the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this time period, political infighting occurred and caused conflicts that eventually lead to a bloody and brutal war. The North collection utilises various historical context while also stylistically allude to the bygone era of the Vikings and the discovery of the bog bodies of the Northern Europe in order to emphasis the endless occurrence of brutality and violent events.
Besides the author and the reader, there is the ‘I’ of the lyrical hero or of the fictitious storyteller and the ‘you’ or ‘thou’ of the alleged addressee of dramatic monologues, supplications and epistles. Empson said that: „The machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots of poetry”(Surdulescu, Stefanescu, 30). The ambiguous intellectual attitude deconstructs both the heroic commitement to a cause in tragedy and the didactic confinement to a class in comedy; its unstable allegiance permits Keats’s exemplary poet (the „camelion poet”, more of an ideal projection than a description of Keats actual practice) to derive equal delight conceiving a lago or an Imogen. This perplexing situation is achieved through a histrionic strategy of „showing how”, rather than „telling about it” (Stefanescu, 173 ).
Nora 's courage in going against the pillars of the Victorian era is something the modern reader finds commendable and aspiring. If the play had been performed today, the modern reader would be the one to stand up and whistle during the scene of the slamming of the door, while the Victorian reader 's face would turn pale with shock at Nora
“Cathleen Ni Houlihan”, a play that William Butler Yeats co-wrote with Lady Gregory, in 1902, is about Ireland’s fight for their independence. According to Nicholas Grene: “What is at issue [in Kathleen Ni Houlihan] is the political meaning which the play generated and the potential for such meaning which the text offered.” (Grene, 1999) The play is set in a cottage kitchen and centres in the 1798 Rebellion. The play: “stages two conflicting narratives of Irish peasant womanhood. Mrs. Gillane and, potentially, Delia, her son’s pretty, well-dowered bride-to-be, represent a realist, maternal order, the values of hearth and home; the Poor Old Woman, Cathleen, also dressed as a peasant, represents a contrary order of being – symbolic, nomadic, virginal, sacrificial rather than procreative (…)
