For instance, when she writes about Martin Guerre’s impotence, she cites the sources that give insight to his family relations, his impotence (and that he was bewitched), and how Bertrandes’ parents tried to push her into annulling the marriage. This information is documented in Coras’ court files. Yet Davis “fills” in her own interpretation and guesswork to make the narrative of Martin Guerre’s importence much more compelling; she writes about how he was bullied as a child because of his name, his difficulty of finding a male identity in a family dominated by women, and his conflicted partaking in the French folk customs. This example illustrates how Davis uses general historical knowledge and facts to strengthen her arguments about the individual
Historians approach history in various ways to catch their reader’s attention and make sure that their books are interesting at the same time. They tend to write histories based on concrete evidence from the past− ethnography, journals, and research. However, John Demos went beyond the normal stereotype. He approached history unconventionally by drawing hypothesis from certain historical evidence and connecting history to his subject rather than just speculating; he made it personal. In Unredeemed Captive, he made it clear that he wrote this historical novel based on research, also, journals and diaries left by the Williams family.
1. Describe the possible factors that provoked Martin Guerre to leave his wife. What factor is the most important?
Finlay’s book, The Refashioning of Martin Guerre corrects Davis’s errors when in her book, The Return of Martin Guerre because it has many incorrect facts that were not shared when Coras wrote his book, Arrest Memorable in the sixteenth century. To begin, Davis’s intent was to take a different interpretation of the story of Martin Guerre, which ends up being incorrect. Finlay describes Davis’s interpretation as “imaginatively conceived, eloquently argued, and instructionally appealing. It is also strikingly different from the version of the story accepted since the sixteenth century.”
Another example for this imaginative story telling is the fictitious conversation between the imposter Arnauds du Tilh and Martin Guerre. “As a thought-experiment, let us imagine what might have taken place if the heir from Artigat became friends with the golden-tongued peasant from Sajas. […] they exchange confidences. Martin expresses his ambivalence about his patrimony and his wife, perhaps seems to imply to his look-alike “take her.” And Pansette says to himself, “Why not?”
what was once a man, Joseph K., is now an animal; lost, confused and “Like a dog!” (pg 211, TT), he had to be put down. Denise, in sharp contrast to K., found extremely wanting in the basic needs for survival, navigates Paris’ intricacies with insider knowledge bequeathed to her from Paris, herself, because Denise does not fear the innermost thoughts she is able to view the true nature of the city. Denise rises again like a phoenix from the ashes of her old life and becomes a true Parisian woman. “No doubt this little thing [Denise] had grown accustomed to the air of Paris, and now she was becoming a woman – and she was disturbing, what is more, with her sensible manner and her beautiful hair heavy with passion.”
"Martin Luna is a monster", that's what people think about him when they look at the way he acts. However, the "monster" that people assume is not the real one. Someone says, "It's only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eyes" , and that statement is true when applied to Martin. Deep inside that monster is the little boy who is longing for a happy life. That little boy loves his family and his friends, and he always tries his best to protect them from the danger that is lurking at them.
Moral Ambiguity and History within The Assault Harry Mulisch’s The Assault is a self-proclaimed “story of an incident” (3) wherein “the rest [of the events are] a postscript” (55). The incident in question is the murder of Anton Steenwijk’s parents, and the postscript refers to the future, where Anton uncovers details relating to the incident. Despite Mulisch’s definitive distinction between events, however, the incident itself is convoluted and its details shift over the span of the work. Through the development of major and supporting characters, Mulisch brings forth a diverse range of perspectives and reconstructs the history of the incident, thereby exploring the motif of moral ambiguity within The Assault.
Subject 1: Evidence from the novel: “Francois was stern, demanding instant obedience; and by virtue of his whip receiving instant obedience.” (London,Pg 16) Evidence to show that Francois and Perrault were both males
John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces follows Ignatius J. Reilly in his journey through holding different jobs around the city of New Orleans. In his journal of his adventures as a working boy, Ignatius shows off his learnedness through his rather formal writing style in a setting that does not call for such. The decisive use of language develops the extent of Ignatius’s attack on Myrna’s philosophy on top of developing Ignatius as a character.
It traces his life by comparing the author to her famous novel Dangerous Liaisons. The success of the scandal that has hosted Dangerous Liaisons is undoubtedly for many the ambiguity of the character of Laclos. How could a career officer, a good father and a good husband, write this burning epistolary novel? How could a man apparently so discreet have been in the turmoil of the Revolution, and take a not insignificant role? From there to deduce that Laclos was an embittered and revanchist, perhaps doubled by a redoubtable libertine, there was only one step, which was sometimes crossed very quickly, too much perhaps.
Marie de France’s romance, Bisclavret, is based on the story of a noble baron who lives in twelfth century Brittany with his beautiful wife. He is loved by everyone in the kingdom. Everything is all right between the two except that Bisclavret disappears from his house for three days and nobody knows where he goes. His wife declares “My lord, I’m in terror everyday, those days you have gone away, My heart is so full of fear” (Wilke, pg. 1336 lines 40-50).
The autobiography, The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, provides a vivid insight into the complicated, yet exhilarating, life of Rousseau. The beginning of his life was filled with misfortunes, such as the death of his mother which was quickly followed by a distraught and self-sabotaging attitude which his father adopted. This led to his father’s involvement in illegal behaviors and the subsequent abandonment of Rousseau. His mother’s death was the catalyst for his journey to meet multiple women who would later affect his life greatly. The Influence of Miss Lamberciers, Madame Basile, Countess de Vercellis, and Madam de Warens on the impressionable adolescent mind of Rousseau led to the positive cultivation of self-discovery and the creation of new experiences, as well as the development of inappropriate sexual desires and attachments towards women.
Final Assignment of English Literature Reading BY YANG ZONGYOU, D01 “The False Gems”by the great writer Guy de Maupassant is a miracle that draws a delicate and precise image of France in the late 19th century. Written in an objective view, woven with sarcasm, this little piece of art reflects the truth of the society and humanity in its era without any obvious rhetoric, like a real old gem that shimmers constantly and gorgeously, leaving an ample space of ambiguity for readers to ponder over and over again. “The False Gems” seems to be objective, however, on the contrary, the plot of the story itself is a barrel of irony, in which the author 's opinion and emotion lies deeply — the genuine ones are found fake, while the false ones turn out to be real; knowing everything is not always good. Mrs. Lantin 's before-and-after contrary is ironic. At the very beginning of the story, everyone is convinced that Mrs. Lantin was a virtuous woman.
Such hypocrisy was rampant within the clergy in the historical context of Le Rouge et Noir. The post-Napoleonic era described in the book approximated the period of overwhelming power of the Catholic Church in most aspects of society. Stendhal 's realism in writing exposed the clergy for its hypocrisy despite his audience being conformist to the status quo of romanticized ideals of the church at the time. Julien, the protagonist of Le Rouge et Noir, manifested the hypocrisy that the cassock allowed him to perpetrate in his lustful and adulterous exploits to climb the social ladder. Both Madame de Rênal and Mathilde de la Mole fell for Julien 's sexual escapades that they deemed to be love.
Such as deception and trickery, power and authority, gender roles and marriage, and education and knowledge. When talking about deception and trickery, the whole plot of the show starts with Martine deceiving Valére and Lucas, and then throughout the show Sganarelle is trying to trick everyone into believing he is a doctor, and even Lucinde deceives people by acting mute. The use of power and authority, we see Martine abuses the power that she has about knowing that Sganarelle will admit to anything after being beaten, and that he will not try to deny it afterward, and Gèronte abuses his power by attempting to marry off his daughter to someone she does not love. Molière talks about gender roles and marriage, and he shows a bad marriage, overall Molière challenges the gender roles of the time by showing Martine actually having power of Sganarelle, and Lucinde has the power to make decisions on her marriage. In this show, Molière also talks about education and knowledge as Sganarelle has no education on being a doctor, yet he still convinces everyone around him that he is a doctor using his own wit, Molière is suggesting that maybe intelligence and common sense are better than education.