In Julia Alvarez’ poem, “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s The Blue Estuaries”, a story is told that someone is browsing the shelves of a bookstore and is drawn to a work by an author that she doesn’t know. Knowing that they can’t afford the book, she considers stealing it before putting it back. Throughout the poem, Alvarez uses expressive imagery and specific selection of detail to convey the book as a beautiful and understated piece of literature through the eyes of the speaker. The imagery used to describe just the appearance of the book is powerful in its impression.
The fact that Ozymandias calls himself a king stresses how much the power has dominated his mentality and his thoughts. Similarly, in ‘My Last Duchess’, it focuses on how a Duke, a powerful figure within the social hierarchy, uses his power to control his duchess and thus how he lets power make him arrogant and possessive. Significantly, there is a sense of arrogance attached to power through Browning’s use of possessive pronouns such as “that’s my last duchess hanging on the wall”. Here however, we see how the Duke has let his power over women absorb him and he has become deluded into thinking that he still has power over his dead duchess. The use of the demonstrative “that” is repeated throughout the poem to add to his aggressive and mocking tone whilst showing that he sees his previous wife as an object or possession to him.
‘Ozymandias’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are both poems about the pride of men and how it always leads to ruin. ‘Ozymandias’ looks at the pride of men as opposed to Nature, and declares it a foolish notion, mocking humanity as whole. ‘My Last Duchess’ looks at the pride of men in contrast to emotions and portrays it as a dangerous force, describing pride as an insinuating sickness of the mind. The initial imagery in ‘Ozymandias’ emphasizes the broken remnants of the monument as the aftereffects of pride.
Any reader could see how Mrs. Browning uses ethos to justify her writing, logos to suggest consequences, and pathos to “butter up” her emperor. To begin with, Elizabeth Barrett Browning also uses logos to suggest outcome to Emperor Napoleon. Browning mentions his status and how he is viewed several times throughout his letter, almost reminding him of his position of power. Browning mentions while exiling Victor Hugo to Jersey that the people of France would see him as weak, or fragile seeing that he sent a poet away for his work.
Two of the poems in this book are “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”. In “Porphyria’s Lover”, Browning presents an understanding to the irrational mind of a selfish man, while “My Last Duchess” tells a story about the Duke of Ferrara telling a guest that his wife was murdered and what the motive was. The two speakers share similar qualities, both being greedy and unashamed. The difference between the narrators is how they show their love for the women. Using dramatic monologue, the author lets the reader explore the strange thinking of the
Gatsby’s encounter with this “golden girl” has a profound effect upon his future. Similarly within ‘Sonnets of the Portuguese’, Barrett-Browning’s poems show her growth and transformation that is catalysed by her developing relationship with Robert Browning. She utilises imagery such as “God’s future thundering down on my past” to depict her metaphorical journey from the dark of her past into the light of
In the analogy that Plato presents to us, “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato believes that a realm of Forms exists for every imperfect and changing object and idea in the material world. These Forms are perfect and unchanging, making them a source of knowledge (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). I do find Plato’s image of a realm of Forms compelling as an understanding of reality. Let us example Plato’s Allegory of the Cave closely to help justify my reasoning for my argument. The people chained inside the cave represent individuals that have not been exposed to “reality” or the ideal world.
The topics discussed in Tartuffe would follow literature all the way to today. All literature today was rooted from the philosophies and works published during the Enlightenment, especially the works of Pluto. Robert Browning’s, My Last Duchess, was written two centuries after Tartuffe, discusses the issue of marriage, and also the superiority of men to women, a topic subtly mentioned in Tartuffe. Perhaps had Moliere never republished Tartuffe the world of literature would still lack satire and courage to test the common held beliefs of
The comparative study of intertextual perspectives accentuates the distinctive context of text in referring to the human heart. This is evident in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s (EBB) “Sonnets from the Portuguese’’ and F Scott Fitzgerald’s modernist novel ‘‘The Great Gatsby’’, whereby both composers explore the contexts of 1840’s Victorian England and the ‘’Roaring 20’s’’ in America. Through a comparison, one may accede that Ebb explores how a female may challenge patriarchal values to explore an authentic love or more so something from within, firmly based on spirituality. Ebb manifests her integrity in the belief of love and speaks out as a passionate, assertive woman defying societies conservative beliefs in genders.
Charles Brockden Brown’s novel, Wieland, explores the aspects of both a Gothic and sentimental novel. The novel investigates on subjects such as gender norms, religious views, and femininity. Clara, being both the narrator and protagonist, is driven by gender expectations of the eighteenth-century. She resembles the heroine of a gothic novel, but has independence due to her living on her own. Clara breaks through the eighteenth-century thinking that women were passive and ruled by their bodies and their emotions.
’s eclaircissement, not only to her own naïvety, but to the oppression under which Eleanor lives, as fantasy, gives way to cruelty, as Eleanor states; ‘After courting you from the protection of real friends to this – almost double distance from your home, to have you driven out of the house, without the considerations even of decent civility…..’ (Austen, 2008). Ultimately, the General’s disregard for Catherine’s safety, and welfare,’ especially on a Sunday and to a clergyman’s daughter with no money’ (AA316, CD2,) acts as an epiphany for Austen’s Bildungsroman as Catherine comes of age, and awakens to the reality of the General’s cruel totalitarianism. The extract denotes motif in Austen’s didactic novel, and depicts the moral lesson of self-deception.
It is made apparent throughout the poem that the persona is that of a sadistic and power-loving woman by the use of visual imagery. Firstly, Browning writes, “Soon, at the King’s, a mere lozenge to give / And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live! / But to light a pastile, and Elise, with her head /
In comparison to the rigid patriarchal society portrayed in “My Last Duchess”, Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci” illustrates how the freedom of individual expression in the romantic period affects people’s perspective on love. While the narrative persona in “My Last Duchess” demands his wife to devote her love to him, the protagonist of “La Belle Dame sans Merci” devotes to the woman he loves even though the love is unrequited. This is evident through the repetition of the line “On the cold hill side.” throughout the poem. The noun phrase “cold hill” suggests that the knight is lonely and depressed when he waits for the woman solely, however unlike the narrative persona of “My Last Duchess”, he would not demand the woman to love him instead he would wait patiently until the day his affection towards her is accepted.
How does the poet convey the theme of Death? In ‘My Last Duchess’, Browning portrays the theme of death from the high-status viewpoint of the duke, as if it was a deserved punishment for the duchess. As seen in the structure of the poem, the duke’s focus rapidly changes from reflecting on her death at the beginning, to quickly finding a new mistress to appease him, often within the same line. This conveys the idea that although the duke is accusing his wife of being ‘too easily impressed’, it is ironic as his focus has changed as quickly as her loyalty for the duke supposedly dissipated.
In contrast, the speaker in the “My Last Duchess” is flippant, jealous and manipulative, which argues that the speaker is complaining about his wife reflect how some powerful men cannot accept their own failure and place
