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House Of Mirth And Persuasion By Edith Wharton

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“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” or so they say. “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton, and “Persuasion” by Jane Austen have very similar themes that seem to resonate with every page turned. Like frogs leaping out of a pond, themes of feminism, family, marriage, and social status leap from the pages of these classic novels. One theme, in particular, that surrounds both novels is beauty. Wharton and Austen, although different authors from different parts of the world, created their respective protagonist with a similar attractiveness and beautiful attributes. It appears as though both Austen and Wharton wanted their readers to know how beauty played a major part in their novels. “The House of Mirth” begins with describing Lily Bart’s
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In Chapter 1, the overall main idea that the author writes about is Gantos lifestyle in St. Croix leading him to the drug culture. The drugs being available everywhere especially the dope never made him think that it would lead him to trouble or jail. He talks about the consequences that St. Croix is dealing, the racism between blacks and whites. His plans in St. Croix changing with the racism situation leading his father jobs to get cancelled, having them work at building wooden packages. He later meets Rik who’s a dope smuggler since he always has him shipping his artifacts with extra protection.

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We start with seeing Jane as a child living at her aunt’s manor her uncle had died and her aunt doesn’t treat her very well. Her cousins treat her as lower than them her cousin John and her get in a fight and she gets blamed. At the beginning we see her not putting much emphasis on her faith and power of will but she is strong. “I was knocked down was the blunt explanation jerked out of me by another pang of mortified pride”(Brontë,24). She had a lot of pride and that is good for strength.

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During World War II, propaganda posters were a powerful tool used by governments to mobilize their populations and garner support for the war effort. In this essay, I will analyze and evaluate three British propaganda posters from this era, focusing on the persuasive techniques used to encourage people to join the fight. The first poster encourages women to join the workforce, the second poster encourages men to enlist in the RAF, and the third poster emphasizes the importance of national service. These posters played a critical role in shaping public opinion and rallying support for the war effort.

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Appearances come with a tragic price. A prodigious amount of characters’ lives changed based on their appearances in Ruth White’s novel, Belle Prater’s Boy, and characters focused and cherished a person’s beautiful appearances. In Belle Prater 's Boy if you had a pretty appearance or if they were cross-eyed determined the names people called you, and the type of clothes they wore determined the names that people decided to call them. Appearance and a person’s disfigurement were the main causes of death and disappearance. A character’s beautiful appearance changed someone’s love for them.

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Tony Hoagland’s poem ‘Beauty’ examines the concept of a woman’s beauty seen through the eyes of her brother, who is also the narrator of the poem. This poem conveys the topic of how everything we do and everything that is around us is beautiful in its own unique way. Women tend to focus more on their physical appearances rather than the beauty inside themselves, which is shown through Hoagland’s perspective. The girl in the poem describes how physically attractive she is but fails to see the beauty inside of her which sparks a hidden concern in the brother. However, when the girl’s outer beauty fades, it is evident that she somewhat loses herself too as she starts to see everyone around her more as beautiful and elegant.

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In Edith Wharton’s most remarkable novel, Ethan Frome, the main character, Ethan Frome, is in love with a prohibited woman… his wife's cousin. His wife, Zeena, is a sick woman who has a villainous essence to her and an irrevocable hold on Ethan. Mattie Silver is Zeena’s cousin and the woman Ethan is infatuated with. Through Ethan’s eyes, Mattie is described as youthful, attractive, and graceful basically everything Zeena isn’t.

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Marissa Miranda Professor Bronstein English 1A 9:15 am -11:20 am Beauty In “Beauty,” Alice Walker discusses the differences and perceptions of beauty and how beauty is valued. Walker uses her article -her life journey as an example of how beauty changes based on how it is perceived. She talks about her child image, the accident, her and her family’s reactions, the desert she was able to see, and how her daughter freed her. She uses the metaphor of the world in her eye in order to redefine what society sees as beautiful in her article.

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Hawthorne creates similar characters in these two short stories to state that women are pure, flaws are human, and the flaws have motives of their own. A main theme in Hawthorne’s works is women are pure. This is the case for these two short stories as Georgiana and Beatrice both listen intently to their male counterparts and lack the flaws that the men in their stories contain. Georgiana is supportive of her husband’s decision to attempt to rid her of her birthmark and even as she questions it, she ponders the happiness it would bring

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However, this ‘beauty’ comes from the clothing and the societal class she appears to belong in. Clothing that is flattering is seen as vital to a woman’s success; while for men it is to display success and high status (i.e prince of the kingdom). The transformation of Cinderella going from rags and low class to riches and royalty is seen as ‘beauty’ because she is doing everything expected of her— keeping her physical appearance and having the ‘natural’ dependency on a male to save her from her slave-like lifestyle. All which, according to Maity, is a “socially constructed notion that physical attractiveness is one of women’s most important assets, and something all women should strive to achieve and maintain” (3). Cinderella goes from rags to riches all just for going to a ball, wearing a sparkly dress, and being pretty.

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First, Jane Eyre’s attributes displays women in our society who are still in search for meaning and love in their lives. Just like Jane’s spirit of passion despite abuse, these women continue to search for respect from other

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Erin Kellock Ms. Battle Engl. 112P 28 Aug. 2014 Is Beauty Only Skin Deep? Nathaniel Hawthorne’s

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The book deals with themes that include love, reputation, and class. However, Pride and Prejudice received much criticism for being a novel full of female characters that fit the social norms for women in the 19th century. The female characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, while being seen as frivolous and typical representations of

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While everyone is designated to seek happiness, the truth stands by the fact that very few ever achieve it. One’s morals, standards, conscious, or perhaps even fate, keep them from accepting a pure form of satisfaction. The character Ethan, portrayed in Edith Wharton's novel, acquires the qualities of an emotionally weak man and throughout the novel the author sets a man versus self environment of Ethan trying to break free from Zeena’s oppression. Through Ethan’s loveless marriage to Zeena, Wharton emphasizes that at times one needs to be disloyal or let go of people that restrict his happiness Likewise Zeena stands as Ethan’s struggle to overcome the obstacles ahead of him.

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Of course, one almost intuitively understands that the novel’s leading women adhere rather closely to socio-gender norms; both Adeline and Clara, the two women who most represent Radcliffe’s idealized morality, are traditionally beautiful, focus on emotional intelligence via poetry and music rather than on scientific pursuits, and represent the appealing innocence of ingénues. In the same manner that Adeline’s unconsciousness contributes to her integrity, it also appears that her extensive physical beauty results in part from her inherent saintliness, her beautiful eyes linked to some intrinsic purity (7). Further highlighting this ethical preference for femininity, Adeline exhibits fear related directly to the presence of men; in the Marquis’s chateau, her terror specifically abates when she realizes that “elegant” and “beautiful” women surround her, and later the inverse occurs as she balks in fear at “the voices of men” (158, 299). On some level, Adeline seems to recognize that masculinity poses a significant threat to her, and instinctively shies away from its

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I. Introduction Jane Austen’s Persuasion contains an abundance of references to reading and literature. Characters often read something, be it a book, a newspaper, a navy list or an advertisement. Examining the episodes in which reading or literary works play a part provides an excellent opportunity to study and interpret the novel from a specific and well-defined point of view.

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