Edwardian era

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a realist novel written in 1856 that tells the story of a married couple, Emma and Charles Bovary. In particular, Emma’s constant emotional struggles with her social position and status as well as her frustration with her banal life drive her to commit adulterous affairs. Within the novel, Flaubert utilizes food to showcase distinctions between middle and upper social class as well as Emma’s discontent with her current life and desire to live the life of the…

Introduction - Duffy and Browning both traverse the concept of personal power and power distribution in the poems “War Photographer” and “My Last Duchess”. Duffy, through the use of imagery, metaphors and personification aims to portray the power the photographer has, however it is not enough to impact readers in his home country. Browning aims to criticize the patriarchal society, power control between the sexes and the attitude of the upperclassmen during the Victorian times, through the…

The Wasp and the Echo: The Oneness with Everything In A Passage to India, E. M. Foster explores various conflicts between the Indian and the English in a dramatic setting. Foster is a master of realism; however, what walks side by side with the realistic plots like the trial and the friendship is the mysticism, which reflects Foster’s extraordinary ability to grasp the essence of the Oriental spirit. Realistic descriptions in many colonial literary works sometimes cannot suffice to present the…

Underneath the color and beauty of flowers lurks a symbol that is representative of the abuse of the handmaids occurring in Gilead. The book The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood is a literary masterpiece containing a multitude of symbols concealed throughout the text, from the flowers to the clothes worn by the characters. These symbols are used to represent the purpose of the characters in Gilead, the setting of the book. The flowers are a symbol for the sole reproductive role of the handmaids…

women are oppressed in society and are not considered individuals during the Victorian Era. This is because during the Victorian Era women were not given the same amount of freedom as to men and were treated as possessions instead of individuals. Ibsen uses the title of the play, the tarantella dance and the macaroons mentioned in the play to portray his negative perspective of society during the Victorian Era. Henrik Ibsen uses the title of the play ‘A Doll’s House’ to portray…

The authors Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë lived in a very difficult era in Great Britain what concerns the position of women in the society. In this period, the fight for acknowledgement of a woman as a valid and equal member of the society just had started to pay dividends. Nevertheless, the change in stiff British society and mainly in thinking of people had come very slow. The female authors as Austen, Brontë or Eliot had a difficult position in the literary world mainly ruled by men.…

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Carmilla Laura, the narrator in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella Carmilla, fits into the appearance of a typical female victim in vampire literature. Long before she meets the titular character, she had a dream or rather a nightmare about a woman bearing a striking resemblance to Carmilla, who sang her fangs into the maiden’s body. Despite the fear, she helps the woman after the accident and invites her in. Laura easily and without much thought happens to trust…

Many authors utilize books to convey problems with society. More talented authors such as Gustave Flaubert and Kate Chopin address their perspectives creatively through the life of a character, Emma and Edna. These authors both impart their perspective on the topic of women’s rights in the books Madame Bovary and The Awakening. Although it is their diverse tone in which both argue their positive or negative ideas for letting women have the ability to choose. Gustave uses his tone to show how…

The Awakening by Kate Chopin takes place in the late nineteenth century and revolves around a woman named Edna Pontellier who cannot conform to the society in which she lives in. Throughout the novel, Edna slowly breaks free of the reigns in which society holds her to by rebelling against the ideas and morals of motherhood and femininity and chooses love and solitude instead. Early on in the novel, however, Chopin alludes to the existence of Edna's dual life through the following quote, "At a…

HOW DOES THE HIERARCHY OF SOCIETY AFFECT THE SENSE OF DUTY AND MORALITY OF CERTAIN CHARACTERS IN GHOSTS? Ghosts was a play written by Henrik Ibsen, an 19th century Norwegian playwright who was credited for the creation for modern realistic drama. Ibsen specialized in portraying the stark reality of life in the 19th century. Society during that period valued facade over integrity due to the fact that the people higher up the social ladder were under greater scrutiny from others to adhere to…