English Literature 2321
Dr. Shepard
Fall 2017 Final mss8420@dcccd.edu 1. Jane Eyre (200 words minimum, but more words accepted) It seems that Bronte wanted Jane to understand that she did not need Rochester, but wanted her readers to see that she loved him so deeply that she had to go back to him. When Jane was living with Rochester it, almost seemed that she could have only liked him for his money. I was reassured that was not the case when Jane found out about Bertha. In the years that Jane was away, she never stopped loving Rochester. Jane became a strong, confident woman before she went back to Rochester. This is the main thing that Bronte wanted to portray. Jane had never had it easy in life, and she never truly …show more content…
Mrs. Dalloway (300 words minimum)
The men in Mrs. Dalloway are so much more complicated than the men in earlier writings. There are three leading men in Mrs. Dalloway, and none of them would be considered a Mr. Darcy type. Men in older writings were sophisticated. All of their problems were superficial. For example, Mr. Darcy is held prisoner by his high status. He seems to like Elizabeth, but his status cannot be ruined by her families low standing. Not one of the characters from Austen’s or Bronte’s novels suffered from PTSD in the way that Septimus does.
Septimus has such a complex issue. He cannot live in the present. He literally lives in his mind and replays the war over and over again. Even an ordinary thing such as a car blowing out brings him back to when his friend died. After all of this, I believe Septimus is truly the best man in this story. His issues are completely different from the next two men, and Septimus seems to have no power over his actions.
The next man is Peter Walsh. Peter seems to be a runner; he runs from his problems. He lives exceptionally childishly and wants things he cannot have. For example, he loves one of the Indian army officer’s wives. The way Peter got married almost immediately after he and Clarissa broke up, shows the emotional intelligence level that he …show more content…
The poem has strong Victorian undertones. The main one would be the romanticism of love. The author discusses the city as it used to be. He explains the ruins of the city and how no society is left. The author is meeting a woman there. He decides that love is better than any society at all. In September 1, 1939, the author discussed the destruction of society through World War 1. There is no mention of love in this poem. Around this time in World War I the Germans began to invade various countries. I believe in 1939 the Germans invaded Poland. The author begins to see the destruction that this war has on This poem is a modernist poem because of the stream of consciousness the author has. The author flows from one thought to the next, and I can almost feel as if I am in his head. One theme these poems both share is the discussion of the city. In Love Among the Ruins the discussion is a city that used to be great but everyone left due to war. After the war, the city was demolished, and no one was able to return. Similarly, the author thinks about the many cities that will be destroyed after World War I. While the author is not actively in a demolished city, he sits in a dive, and the reader gets to listen to what is going on inside his head. These poems, do share the similar theme of destruction, and cities being ruined, yet they were written in different eras. The Victorian poem romanticizes love; it’s almost as