Cordelia Hale's Narrative

Improved Essays
Darkness.

Darkness and silence was what Cordelia Hale woke up to that day. She could feel a duvet tangled around her body and humidity in the air. She could feel silence clamping down on her lungs and making her feel like she was breathing through a layer of insulation, but when she touched her hands to her mouth, there was nothing there. She could feel the blackness of the air around her like a layer of black paint over a white sheet of paper.

She sat up, and the duvet cover fell to her hips. Instantly, she felt the dank air hit her bare chest, and knew she was not clothed. Delia didn't know how to feel about that. The feeling of loneliness was so strong she didn't think anyone was around to see her, and she felt so bare that it was a bit
…show more content…
Light was what Cordelia Hale found when she opened the door of the room she'd been in, out into the corridor. It washed over her like the sea did when you stepped into it. She squinted against it, throwing her arms out and embracing the sunlight the way you might embrace a long-lost friend.

She felt as if she hadn't seen light in the longest time. It was such a joy to be able to see her feet in front of her that her gaze darted around as she walked through the stone corridor. She drank in the muted colors around her that seemed neon and blazing to her deprived eyes. Gray stone all around her, almost silver from the light that spilled in through the great bay windows that lined the
…show more content…
There was a lake as well, a magnificent field of glass, and a line of trees, beyond which she couldn't make out from her position, but she wanted to be out there, lying among the blades of grass and breaking the peaceful glass of the lake.

The corridor reached an intersection, and Delia, instinctively, took the right one. She couldn't fathom why, but it was without hesitation that she did so.

As soon as she turned onto the right-side corridor, she felt a cold sensation spread over her like ice water being poured onto her body, but instead of the feeling starting at her head and ending at her toes, it started at her front side and ended at her backside, as if the water was going through her rather than over her.

Delia gasped and stopped dead, but there was no one and nothing in front of her that could have caused such a feeling.

"Who are

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Blank, dead eyes stared at the blank death like white walls, the pills had done their job. Lucille Chaleau was now like every other person in the glorified purgatory, Marie de Médicis Asylum. Her mind wobbled unsteady in her convulsing body, her vision became blurred, everything went black. It was simply another 6:30 p.m. With the sun’s rise screams pierced the air, jolting Lucille from her medicated coma like slumber.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Delia in the story “Sweat” had an abusive husband, which some say she stayed with because of her moral aptitude as a church going lady, some say because she feared being alone, or that in that era subservience was normal for most women then. Delia, as a church going lady, took her religion and spirituality very seriously. She believed that a woman should always be faithful to her husband and God. Despite all the abuse that her husband, Sykes subjected her to, she kept her mind and heart focused on her work and the word of God she heard at the church meetings. These meetings gave her desire and strength to carry on even though she was talked about by the towns’ people who periodically witnessed the abuse she suffered from her husband.…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the chill air of winter, in the silent day of December, Edward walked Isabella to her car for the last time as the school semester had ended. They were standing there, in the empty parking lot, silently speaking through their eyes, until he kissed her on her soft radiant cheek. She experienced a strange feeling that slowly overwhelmed her mind with ecstasy: an excitement totally different from what she feels towards her husband.…

    • 74 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He realized he was shirtless, the cold floor rendering his back numb. And he realized he wasn't alone. Standing above him with a few feet of distance were two men. The harsh overhead lighting of the windowless room cast them somewhat in silhouette, but he could tell one was broad and had exceeding tidy hair and clothes, while the other was slim and kind of scruffy.…

    • 1796 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    America Monologue

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Opening the once lonely door, there was a hallway that seemed to have just rejoiced with a once depriven necessity. As striking as the first rose in spring, her silky, soft, shiny hair combined with her enticingly exquisite eyes produced a sublime look; it instantly ejected any pressure in the room. Her presence would’ve even made an angry person hopeful. Withered by time, the plethora of thin liable cracks scattered across the olive-dyed floors and indigo walls with an antique circular pattern ; this house was old enough to live in a pangea . However, there was a skeptical sense of suspicion of this person.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagery, poetic language, and the use of personification and other devices all serve one common purpose; to make the reader truly believe that they are living in what they are reading. Authors attempt to create portal doors in their writing for a sense of escape to an alternate world. Arthur Miller, an American playwright, essayist, and prominent twentieth century figure, devised one of the most infamous philosophical and allegorical “portal door” through the power of words and his direct use of poetic language. The Crucible, Set in Salem, 1692, a small segment was added before the first dialogue expressing the prelude to the upcoming events.…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyone has a voice, but some are heard more than others. Marriage can sometimes take voices from an individual. In most cases, the woman is of little power and has little to no input at all. Although this is what most marriages were like, two women decided to take a stand. Delia and Louise Mallard heavily influenced the outlook on marriages in their time and the future.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sexism: "You are burnt beyond recognition," he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage. - this text evidence supports the theme of the text because it shows that Mr. Pontellier only valued Mrs. Pontellier as a trophy or property of his, not as a woman or human being. "If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" - This evidence can relate to the theme of sexism by showing that, the one who is supposed to care for the children most are the mothers, no one else could.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the beginning of time, women have been thought of as inferior to their male counterparts. Societal attitudes and ideas have forced many women into submissive personalities. In the short stories “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, the main characters Delia Jones and Minnie Wright, respectively, are oppressed and lonely women, being silenced in some way by their society. Society’s judgemental, passive, and unforgiving attitudes towards women create victims of Delia and Minnie, forcing them into a life of fear and loneliness.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story “Sweat”, Zora Neale Hurston introduces the reader to Delia Jones, the main character of this short story. Delia Jones is an African-American woman who is constantly striving to provide financially in order to maintain her home. She is hardworking and most definitely the breadwinner of the household, although very submissive. Delia is married to a man named Sykes Jones, a man who mistreats her, finds her unworthy, cheats on her, and has no intention of providing stability for her financially or emotionally. Even though Delia Jones is presented as a submissive character at first, as the story progresses, she undergoes a massive transformation that later defines her as a dynamic character.…

    • 1061 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Darkness Creative Writing

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sam Strauss Ap Lang Ms. Stech 11/25/15 Don’t Let The Darkness Ruin You The remaining light was obliterated by the quickly descending night.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Giver Ending Analysis

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages

    if any one does not like the ending to The Giver ,and here is what happens. And we all know the story does not tells what happens to jonas. Does he die does he live who knows.so here is the truth for jonases ending. Jonas forced his eyes open as they went downward,downward,faster,and faster and all at once he could see lights,and he reconized them,now he knew they where shining through the windows of rooms, that they were red,blue,and yellow lights that twinkled from treesin places where families created and knew where memories , where they celabrated love. as we can see , jonas is at the house now.as we know the book does not tell us what happens .so keep on reading it gets wierd.…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As opposed to the noise of discussion and possible laughter, the house is now condemned to eternal silence and desolation. This stark contrast depicts the speaker’s focus, once more, on the emotional loss she experiences as a result of the obliteration of her…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some of you will remember this story. It was ten years ago, and I was employed then as a forensic psychologist in Marin County. Much of my work involved talking to criminals, then testifying as to their sanity in a court of law. On the afternoon this all began, for example — that afternoon when I blacked out in Sara Johnson’s apartment — I was scheduled to examine a man who’d been accused of strangling his wife.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Loss: A Short Story

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Loss. It was a new feeling. Amelia never imagined that she would ever have cared about someone so deeply that their loss would feel like death. It was like a parasite, one that slowly sucked away her will to live, but she hardly noticed, because it replaced all it took with itself. That’s what love was for Amelia.…

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays