The Portrait of a Lady is a well-known masterpiece of Henry James. All the parts of this novel are like a chain which helps James to show the contrast of America and Europe while remaining neutral towards them. The main way which James choose to start and progress his story in this novel, is his common way of bringing an innocent American girl to a European society, this young and innocent girl in this novel is Isabel Archer. The entire story is shown through the process of Isabel’s decision for coming and living in Europe with the hope of gaining a better life and a high culture and civilization. But again, like most of James’ well known heroines, this American young girl is deceived in Europe. Because of her innocence and lack of knowledge, …show more content…
All these Americans had left America and had come to Europe in the search of a high culture. They think of Europe as a place of culture, so to live like Europeans, means being cultural for these Americans. Actually Isabel also is coming to Europe again in the search of a high culture and a better life. And it is through her decision to leave America and live in Europe for its high culture that James develops his international theme of ‘America versus Europe’ in this novel.
All the elements in this novel cooperate in depicting this contrast between America and Europe, they all are planned to show Europe as a place of high culture and sophistication while America in the place of morality and innocence. Even the houses in this novel includes in showing this contrast. Albany, the house where Isabel lived in America, is standing for America and Gardencourt, the house where Isabel lived in London, is standing for England or for Europe.
Albany, the house in America, has an important room named “the office”.It shows the “officiousness” of America. Although America is full of lecture halls and platforms, it lacks royal residences and glorious palaces, and remarkable artistic figures which are the sign of high culture. But the house in Europe was a symbol of Europe’s high
The novel is an American Gothic novel set between the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The novel follows Clara Wieland, as she struggles to find her place in society as she is faced with the loss of her virtue. Benjamin Franklin gives another example of loss of virtue in “The speech of Miss Polly Baker,” written in 1747. The speech shows what happens when a woman is given the right to defend herself against her accusers. Both works show the reality women faced when presented with the loss of their virtue.
Stacy Davis, self-proclaimed activist for feminism and womanism, is a “scholar trained in feminist theory and African American biblical hermeneutics” (Davis 23). In her article, The Invisible Woman: Numbers 30 and the Policies of Singleness in Africana Communities, Davis argues for a prominent place for single woman (specifically those who have never married) in biblical scholarship, and as leaders in the church, with questions of their sexuality left alone. Davis argues this viewpoint from the perspective as an unmarried black woman. Davis establishes the foundation for her argument in Numbers 30, a text that altogether omits reference to single woman, rather each group of women mentioned in the text about vows refers to them in relation to men (21). Thus, Davis establishes the omission of single women in the Hebrew Bible as the invisible women.
Portraits drawn by Raphael are a vital source for the analysis of his artistic motives. “Lady of the Unicorn” (fig. 3), one of Raphael’s earliest Florentine portraits, owes much to Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” in its design. However, the clarity of light which infuses even the shadows with colour not only recalls Raphael’s early exposure to the paintings of Piero della Francesca, but also in itself a statement he wanted to make through his art. Raphael’s obsessive experiments with clarity of features cannot be construed as a mere influence of his teachers or contemporaries. Somewhere deep down, deliberation to do away with the mysterious haziness associable with divine or religious mystification must have inspired the Italian great to incorporate
The sixteenth century America is primarily dominated by the Puritan idealism, but slowly through the year’s things are changing both in the religion and culture. In human nature the constant need for change is captivating, a change towards something new and different than the current. The events of the growing and changing eighteenth century America reflect just that. Ideas of the Enlightenment take deep root in the transformation of ideas about human’s relationship to God and to nature. Therefore, a deeply religious society starts transforming into a more secular culture, but religion still has quite a large influence.
In the novel “An Old Fashioned Girl” by Louisa May Alcott, Polly Milton, a young country girl, moves to the city to become a music teacher. This is because her older brother wants to go to college but the family does not have the money. Polly being the good sister that she is, leaves her family to earn the much needed money. As the novel progresses, Polly begins to struggle against the high class society that surrounds her, though this is far more undesirable than she expected in the beginning. Though not always easy Polly tries to adjust to her new lifestyle, and proves herself to be kind, sensible, and brave.
Introduction is a decisive part in a novel since it may introduce important key facts about the work to the reader. “Ceremony”, by Leslie Marmon Silko, opens with a compilation of poems, some larger than others, but all equally important for the novel. Poetry is found throughout the whole novel, however the introducing poems are the most powerful ones because they foreshadow what the novel is going to be about. They prepare the reader for what is coming next and introduce the major themes of the novel. This essay will analyze the first three poems and explain their importance in the novel’s foreshadowing.
More than six hundred years later the same issues of inequality and misogyny are still present in our society. The movement to fight against anti-feminism is not new. Thus, it only proves that the discrimination of women is more than centuries old. Written in 1405, The City Of Ladies is an allegorical story in response to the attack of men against women. Christine De Pizan highlights how a women are capable of good and moral character despite to the contrary of what male philosopher claimed to believe.
“Annie John is considered one of the best examples of the Caribbean bildungsroman or novel of development” writes Paravisini-Gebert in her critical companion to Jamaica Kincaid and continues: The eight chapters or stories that compose the text follow young Annie from the age of ten till she leaves Antigua at the age of sixteen, and recounts her maturation as a bittersweet process of alienation and loss. [...] Kincaid invites us to read in Annie’s physical maturation – her breasts develop, she begins to menstruate – and emotional growth – depicted primarily through her struggles to separate from her mother – a mirror to her island’s movement from colonialism to independence (29-31).
Final exam Earlier in the semester we were introduced to John De Crevecoeur’s letters from an American Farmer and Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. The two books both had strong opinions about what American and what the “New Man” was in American during the 18th century. In the 18th century Benjamin franklin was the man who invented the American dream for many people. His Dream was that through hard work and honesty any man can gain respect in the community; along with deserving prosperity and economic protection. he also believed that American was a place where you could come and have a new start.
The setting shapes the mood and tone of a story and has a great affect on what happens in a story. The setting influences the events that take place, how the characters interact and even how they behave. Settings show where and how the character lives, what they do, and what they value. Characters have a relationship with the setting just as much as they do with other characters in the story. This is seen in the effects the setting has on the development of the Character Elisa in the story “The Chrysanthemums.”
Zhe Xie Ms. Zylka English III April 20 2016 Both The Great Gatsby and the Of Mice and Man, are novels that represents authors’ lives, John Steinbeck’s George and Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, two outwardly different characters, are disillusioned with the American Dream, but for opposite reasons. George and Gatsby are both lonely, although the life they lived are completely different from each other, one is rich the other is poor.
The book, Percy Jackson: The Battle Of The Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan is an amazing book about a group of demigods (half human half god) that have to save their camp from being destroyed by the evil forces of Kronos. Kronos is a titan that the gods banished to the deepest part of the underworld (Tartarus) after a war against them. Now that the titans are rising once again, the protagonists must travel through an ancient Labyrinth to stop them from demolishing their camp and temporarily halt them from achieving their goal of destroying Mount Olympus and the gods. This literary analysis will show the interesting relationships between some of the characters, and how the setting that they were in affected them throughout their journey.
In Victorian society, women had the choice between two roles: the pure woman or the fallen woman. Bram Stoker plays with these anxieties revolving around female sexuality – he follows the gothic tradition of innocent damsel in distress against looming evil. The narrative structure Stoker imploys to the text through intertextuality reveals multiple point of view distinguishing a duality in Lucy - her true self and 'thing'. In order to cope with Lucy’s worsening condition, the male authoritative figures of the text assign a duality present in Lucy to make sense of her shifting from “pure woman” to “fallen woman”. Stoker exhibits in the structure of the multi-faceted narrative how certain characters are unable to cope with the duality present
A significant theme that Lynn Hunt explores is representational culture. Specifically, how the family and individual members of the family are depicted through the arts and literature in the advent of the printing revolution. This is a broader theme explored throughout the monograph. Representations of the fallen King, the Band of Brothers, and the Bad Mother through the despised Marie Antoinette. While this is not the main theme of the book, it gives the reader a good idea about the pervading political climate of 18th century France.
Captivating gothic elements indulge the reader in “The Woman in Black” by Susan Hill. Gothic elements are supernatural effects that create a feeling of dread and mystery. In the novella, Hill uses precise details to add a gothic atmosphere with the London Fog, Crythin Gifford, and the scene at the park. The first chilling detail that gives the novella a gothic element is the London fog.