ipl-logo

Lady Wishfort

658 Words3 Pages

Throughout Robert Erickson’s article “Lady Wishfort and The Will of the World,” he discusses the plays various characters and how their names and traits effect the conclusion of the story. In addition, Erickson focuses on Lady Wishfort’s “depraved will” and is seemingly obsessed with her character flaws. Erickson expresses a bias opinion against Lady Wishfort, making her out to be the vilest and least reformed character in the play.
If readers relied only on the abstract of this article, there would be a great deal of confusion as it expresses the topic as “Attention to Lady Wishfort and Foible; Restoration comedy; Unfulfilled desires of Lady Wishfort” (Erickson n.p.). Unfulfilled desires, not exactly the topic Erickson goes on to describe. …show more content…

Erickson discusses the beginning of the play in great detail, being sure to drag out all the flaws in Lady Wishfort’s character before her transformation at the end. He writes, “At the beginning of the play, Lady Wishfort is a powerful social arbitress in a shame society; her words and status have real power to hurt, to pass judgement, even to “kill” (342). Albeit, a true statement, but what about the person she becomes, the woman that has to swallow her pride and ask Mirabell for help. Erickson further berates Lady Wishfort by stating, “ill language further binds her, ironically, to the low world from which she prides herself on having rescued her waiting maid” (345). Thus, Lady Wishfort is a hypocrite with no chance for redemption because that is the last titbit of information readers are left with, except for his comparison that Lady Wishfort’s face is similar to furniture with cracking varnish, how kind (347).
Obviously Robert Erickson’s shows a bias opinion against Lady Wishfort in his article “Lady Wishfort and The Will of the World.” From her “depraved will” to comparing her face to cracked furniture, the author clearly did not like Lady Wishfort’s character. Unfortunately, this means readers are missing out on his (unbiased) insight regarding the character. If one is going to evaluate a particular character, it should be done from beginning to end; had Erickson included Lady Wishfort’s transformation, perhaps his writing would not seem so

Show More
Related
247 Words | 1 Pages

In the short story “The Boston Girl,” Anita Diamant develops the compassionate nature in Miss Chevalier’s character using imagery and actions. Anita Diamant expresses Miss Chevalier’s patience through her actions. Miss Chevalier is in charge of a settlement house, where she hosts a library group for girls. One of the girls, Addie, was reading a poem when she made the mistake of mispronouncing a word. Miss Chevalier could have pointed out the error in a rude or impatient manner, but she takes the extra step to be “nice about it” indicating Miss Chevalier’s understanding of how her actions have an impact on the people around her.

Read More
391 Words | 2 Pages

Established within Act Three are Tartuffe’s true motives, which reveals his disgraceful nature and his desires of lust towards Elmire.(Wilbur) Such as, Tartuffe states during scene three, “I thereupon surrendered to your beauty... Love without scandal and, pleasure without fear. ”(Wilbur) This scene holds a significant impact in the play, by confirming that the family’s complaints against Tartuffe have been justified and that Orgon is certainly being manipulated.

Read More
933 Words | 4 Pages

Through the death of Natan Ketilsson, Agnes’ sense of identity is fragmented by her status as a ‘murderess’. The notion that Agnes is now seen as 'an inhumane witch, stirring up murder' reveals her inability to reconcile her identity within society. Kent exemplifies society’s misperception of Agnes through the appearance of Rosa, deeming her as an outsider. Agnes is misperceived by the crowd gathered around her as the “Fjandi! Devil”, as she feels the ‘comfort’ of Rosa, ‘someone [she] recognised’. That presenting Rosa’s disappearance at the remark of the crowd, the only person she could recognise, Kent implies that society has ultimately betrayed Agnes at the cause of their own portrayals of her.

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

People are like snakes Like snakes some people go behind your back and bite you. Shirley Jackson’s story “The possibibility of Evil’ is a very weird but good story. The story’s about an older women who’s leaved in the town basically all her life but she is very judgemental person that writes mean letters to people.

Read More
324 Words | 2 Pages

This can be seen in the play during her conversations with her grandchildren, in which she is critical of both of them. During her conversation with her grandson Damis, she refers to him as a “fool”. She is in the mindset that she is always correct in the way that she thinks, and is very judgmental if her way is not followed. In addition, she is disapproving how much money her daughter-n-law Elmire spends on dresses. She is very quick to let her know that she is not a princess, even though she persists to dress like one.

Read More
1408 Words | 6 Pages

" Adversely, the story doesn't leave much for the reader to decide how to feel, it almost tells one how to feel because the detail is so engaging. That was just the point that Glaspell was trying to make though when she decided to turn the play into a story. It was the story, rather than her play, that drove her message home; the pursuit of justice for women in a man's

Read More
948 Words | 4 Pages

Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers,” is a short story that was adapted from her own play “Trifles.” While the basic plot and characters are the same in both versions, there are some noticeable differences between the two. In this essay, I will consider the reasons Glaspell may have had for rewriting the play in short story form, the main differences between telling a story through narration and telling it through drama, and how the story might be different if it were adapted as another form, such as a poem or a film. One possible reason why Glaspell rewrote "Trifles" as a short story is that it allowed her to explore the characters' inner lives in greater depth. In the play, the characters are limited to what they can say and do on stage,

Read More
1455 Words | 6 Pages

Nearing the end of Stage Four when Mirabella must leave St.Lucy’s for her behavior at the ball, Claudette packed a “tin lunch bail for [Mirabella]: two jelly sandwiches on saltine crackers, a chloroformed squirrel, a gilt-edged placard of St.Bolio” and left it with a little note (Russell 245). This discernable care for Mirabella and ability to make a lunch and most importantly, write a note shows Claudette’s amnetity with her newly attainable

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

Shakespeare’s language and choice of words portrays one of the most vital characters of the play, Portia, as a powerless woman to a large extent… but only in a certain way. Being ‘powerful’ has three meanings, one is “having great strength”, two is “having control over people and events”, and lastly three is “having a strong effect on people’s thoughts and feelings”. The two latter definitions are similar yet very different in this context. Making it possible for Portia to seem like a powerless woman, but surprisingly remain one of the most important characters.

Read More
1436 Words | 6 Pages

The struggles faced by the characters, particularly Blanche, Stella, and even Stanley himself, are emblematic of the oppressive nature of the code and its consequences on personal lives. Furthermore, the play invites audiences to consider the broader implications of such legal systems on societal progress. By highlighting the flaws and limitations of the Napoleonic Code, Williams prompts reflection on the need for change and the dismantling of oppressive structures that hinder personal growth and

Read More
1252 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the play, the readers can see how human beings were irrationally behaved under the spell of these fairies and in the magic forest, however, there was a character based on the Greek mythology named Theseus as the Duke of Athens, who thinks logically and believes in just reality and not the imagination. Furthermore, the imagination based on this story can be asked on the play within the play of “Pyramus and Thisbe”, which is rehearsed by craftsmen throughout the story and performed at the wedding ceremony in the last scene, offers an increase of imaginative perspectives. The characters and events in the play indeed have their own way of interpretation of imagination that can be manipulative and confusion to the readers. In the

Read More
1854 Words | 8 Pages

Deception is an action driven with the motive to employ one purpose which can be to mislead another individual in order to gain knowledge, to get revenge, or to reveal a plan unknown to the public eye and keeping it that way for the dutiful well-being of the Kingdom of Denmark. In the tragedy Hamlet by William Shakespeare, deception develops into the character trait that initiates the actions, heartbreak, and revenge driving this play. This attribute held by Hamlet is the leading cause of this same flaw development in Ophelia, King Claudius, and many others in an attempt to reinforce the theme. This theme is one of heroism, but the deceptive notion each action reveals challenges the perception the reader has on each of the main characters. In order to be able to fully analyze the part Hamlet’s deception plays in driving the plot and storyline of this tragedy, one must understand that a foil character juxtaposes each character to illuminate their shortcomings.

Read More
831 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
1134 Words | 5 Pages

John Webster, the great Elizabethan dramatist was little admired during his life time. The Elizabethans failed to appraise his genius as a dramatist and after his death he fell for nearly two hundred years into the lap of oblivion to be brought back into the limelight by the criticism of such distinguished critics as Lamb, Swinburne, Rupert Brooke, who popularised his works and establised his claim to be recognised as a great dramatist of Elizabethan age. But now the tide has turned in Webster 's favour and he is recognised today not as a dramatist who carried forward the revenge theme in drama but as a great poet, and above all, a great moralist, who held aloft the moral vision of life at a time when the dramatists of the age were piling horror and glorifying murder into a fine art. This tragedy THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, the revenge is further degraded and the moral motive of the dramatist come to the forefront. There are some influences of other Elizabethan authors.

Read More
765 Words | 4 Pages

In "A Respectable Woman," Kate Chopin digs in to examine the psychology of Mrs. Baroda, a rich woman with a loving husband who encounters temptation in the person of Gouvernail, a well-mannered, humble visitor to the Baroda’s plantation. Mrs. Baroda is tempted early in the story with the view of a change from a noiseless, more conventional life, Mrs. Baroda does not immediately identifies what she really wants and finally struggles with the self-inflicted restrictions of her personality as "a respectable woman." Nonetheless, just as the narrative suggests that she has found the power to overcome her emotions, Mrs. Baroda spoke to her husband and proposes a sweetly unclear statement that revives the question of her intention to act upon her emotions. She tells him, "I have overcome everything!

Read More

More about Lady Wishfort

Related Topics

Open Document