The Madwoman in the Attic Essays

based on or heavily rely on the influential work of Gilbert and Gubar, who focused on the issue of female madness within Victorian fiction in their work The Madwoman in the Attic. As they posit in their work, female authors of the time were confined to only two models of femaleness within their works, either the pure angel or the untamed madwoman. Here they also introduce the idea of the double, which harkens back to the dark doppelgänger from the gothic tradition. As they explain in the preface to

One of the many intriguing aspects of Jane Austen’s novel Emma is the use of the narration style of free indirect speech, which incorporates a mixture of first person direct speech and some of the characteristics of third person. This method allows for Austen to give the reader some perspective into Emma’s thoughts, while also occasionally floating through other viewpoints whether that be from the mind of another character or simply third person narration. Incorporating this engaging stylistic component

In the ancient time, all human beings were born with an equal right without any distinction between each other. However, since the word “Orient” was recorded in the Western history book, it suddenly divided the world into two groups: West and East. The word “Orientalism” has been widely discussed in the Western academic literature and the media sources since the middle of the eighteenth century. The concept of the Orient does not indicate to a geographic area but often described as a group of people

Katherine Boo’s Stereotypical Delineation of Contemporary India in Behind the Beautiful Forever: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Under city Abstract The Western writing about India has always been a grotesque and is the common trend right from the day of Britain rule in India. This trend is still continuing in this 21st Century. Britain had lost its hold on Indian subcontinent in 1940’s and there persists the interest in viewing India

Published in 1818, Frankenstein is one of the most famous works of Mary Shelley and its origin is almost as mysterious and exciting as the novel itself. The book is telling a story about the monstrous and mortal consequences of male creation, arising from a rivalry between man's affinities to his family and surely to science as well. Recently, modern literary critics do not perceive the work of Shelley merely as a fictional creation, but primarily as a novel that reflects the author's personal experience

Genre/ Literary Time Period: Gustave Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary during the Realism period, which focused on details and attempted to replicate the true reality of nature through literature (Rahn). Writers of this literary time period did not rely on profound events to propel the story forward; instead, they wrote about the nuances of one’s daily life (Rahn). For this reason, most of Madame Bovary lacks excitement; it relies on the portrayal of everyday events to develop the plot. Madame Bovary

woman as poet this poem reflects feminist dilemmas. As discussed previously this poem illustrates Victorian sexual concepts but the climax of the poem indicates much more: She sleeps up in the attic there Alone, poor maid. 'Tis but a stair Betwixt us. (ll.42-44) The wife 's decision to sleep in the attic indicates the physical

fought back calling him a “wicked and cruel boy” (11) her retaliation was described by one of the maids as a “picture of passion” (11). As punishment she was locked into the Red Room. This parallels Bertha since she was locked into the attic for behaving like a “madwoman” in the eyes of Rochester. Both characters are discarded, Jane is said to feel like a “nobody there [Gateshead]” (47), she had no real relation with her cousins besides being blood relatives but they

Examine how either text represents either class or gender. Are these representations problematic or contradictory? How do they relate to the plot and structure of the novel? Jane Eyre is a female Bildungsroman written by Charlotte Brontë in 1848. In the novel we follow the protagonist, a young Victorian woman who struggles to overcome the oppressive patriarchal society in which she is entrapped. It is a story of enclosure and escape, from the imprisonment of her childhood to the possible entrapment

congenital illness. However, from Rochester’s perspective, this physical illness is considered related to moral aspects. “Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; idiots and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard!—As I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on family secrets before”(292). In Rochester’s opinion, the gestation of her madness is specifically linked to her drinking and to her sexual appetites—failures of

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a novel filled with mystery and suspense, it is also about the journey for authentic love. Bronte wrote about the supernatural which she made seem natural for the reader. The red room which is where young Jane is locked as a punishment for defending herself against her cousin John Reed. The red room is where her uncle had died, according to Jane this room represents death and horror “this room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent” (Bronte 17). Bertha

her father, who is sitting and listening calmly. This difference can be explained in part by their gender and the way males described female characters who differed from the typical angelic qualities, according to Gilbert and Gubar in The Madwoman in the Attic: “The monster woman, threatening to replace her angelic sister, embodies intransigent female autonomy and thus represents both the author’s power to allay his anxieties by calling their sources bad names” (28). It is evident throughout the

addition the context of the novel is explored, and the public reception of the work. This essay has its main focus on the primary source, but does also take some secondary sources into consideration. One of these secondary sources is The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………… … 3 2. The Victorian era, the perception of the novel in its time, and the important themes in Jane Eyre……………………………………………………….. 4 2.1

uncanny or the unheimlich, and it embodies many of the preoccupations of the Gothic genre, including the fear of death, the anxieties of gender, and the problem of authority. Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. "Mary Shelley's Monstrous Eve." The Madwoman in

and what is considered an ‘acceptable version of the ‘feminine’ (Barry, 117). Gilbert and Gubar’s “A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress” offers a provocative critique, employing the character of Bertha Mason and her entrapment in the attic at Thornfield as an emblematic approach to the repression of omnipresent patriarchal standards of Victorian Society. Portrayed as the ‘truest and darkest double’ (360) to the novel’s protagonist, Bertha becomes a manifestation the thoughts and feelings

her more thoroughly” (Gilbert and Gubar 812). Women in previous literary works have been oppressed and destroyed by their male counterparts. The oppression and destruction of the female characters in stories such as Gilber and Gubar’s “The Madwoman in the Attic” and Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” originate in the male characters ' inaccurate perceptions of the women. The men in these stories eventually ruin them based on faulty assumptions related to

she gives birth to a coloured child. The story ends with a surprising twist when it is revealed that it is in fact Armand that is of mixed race. Chopin’s depiction of the Desiree’s circumstances falls short of Gilbert and Gubar’s proposal in Madwoman in the attic that women writers intending to be independent must first remove the veil of male imposed perception of in society and in literature. This paper argues that Armand’s initial acceptance and ultimate rejection of Desiree and her baby demonstrates

years old, was right. The Thornfield Hall presents itself to be the most gothic setting from all mentioned above: it has long, dark and mysterious halls, strange, enigmatic goblin like laughs and most important of all, it had the mad woman in the attic that set Rochester`s bed in fire, who came and rent Jane`s veil, who bit and cut Mason with her own

Jane Eyre Why would a person see themselves as mentally ill? Voices, actions, and constant reminders from our peers deceive us every day. However, the problem could also be based on oneself. This happens through our questioning. More specifically, when one's mind is taking over. Does one ever have a reduced ability to concentrate, excessive fears, and extreme mood changes? Signs of disorders and mental illness are shown through these causes and told all around us. Movies, books, TV shows, in one's

The novel Pride and Prejudice can easily be picked apart through a feminist lens. The farther into the book one goes, the more there is to critique and analyze through a feminist lens. The book is about Elizabeth Bennet and her relationship with her eventual fiance Mr. Darcy, the ups and the downs of their relationship. Elizabeth was never a woman who only craved the attention and approval of men, she was her own person with her own complex emotions. Pride and Prejudice is an intricate novel that