The short story, "My Last Duchess," by critically acclaimed, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, is an intriguing and thought-provoking work of prose. Though it ties considerably to the famous work by the same name, written by Robert Browning, it also brings its own ideas, and symbols to the table. The most prominent symbolic link within this story is the representation between the characterization of Miss Bessie--the high school english teacher--and the narrator 's ideas, thoughts, and fears about life. The term life -- for the purposes of this essay -- is defined as the existence of an individual person and their course through the world. In “My Last Duchess,” the narrator 's life is symbolically represented through Miss Bessie by the character traits of a positive reputation, overcoming obstacles, and the solitary nature of people. A positive reputation is an important part of being successful; being respected for your workmanship, determination and professionalism is, for many people, a major goal in life. Throughout “My Last Duchess,” Miss Bessie is described as having, “[a] no-nonsense professional appearance,” as well as being, “the best English teacher in the school.” The narrator also remarks about Miss Bessie’s intolerance for meer passing marks, stating that, “...she wanted top marks from us. She had the reputation of the school to keep up, and also her own reputation.” It can be inferred that Miss Bessie is quite conscious of her reputation and treats it as a
Kate the Great by Meg Cabot, teaches you to know that only true friends will always be by your side no matter what.
Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.
An individual’s need to renounce a decision or a course of action can often lead to an individual forsaking themselves and choosing to live in their own fantasy, and not living in reality. In the short story “The Horses of the Night”, Chris has to deal with his below average life, in his below average house, and to do so he creates his own delusions by renouncing what his life is now. As the story progresses, the life of Chris progressively gets worse, with no job and no college education, Chris continued to create more delusions until finally, Chris could no longer handle it and chose a life outside of reality, leaving his body behind. Chris chose to renounce his life in its entirety and to live in a false reality in which he created in
Browning closes My Last Duchess by establishing that envy can lead a person to commit extreme acts and hinder their- or someone else’s sanity. Browning uses characterization to exploit the character development of the duke and also enhance how envy can lead
A vampire is defined as “a prenatural being of a malignant nature, supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking the blood of sleeping persons;” (1). Whereas a parasite is defined as “a person who lives at the expense of another, or society in general;” (2). A sleeping persons can be interpreted as an innocent person, this is due to countless stories and lore depicting vampires stealing the blood of conscious innocent persons. Therefore, by doing harm to the innocent, a vampire is living at the expense of the humans whose blood it steals, making vampires a form of parasite. In The Good Lady Ducayne, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Ducayne is genetically a human, but her mind has become fixated on life. By exploiting technology, her moral and ethical standards change, allowing for her personal relationships to become meaningless in her search for an elongated life. She goes so far as to steal the blood of young girls; this act of stealing innocent girls blood at their own expense, makes her a special parasite, human vampire.
The Moment, a poem by Margaret Atwood, suggests the idea that humans do not have ownership over anything in nature in the world. Throughout history, humans have gained a sense of superiority over the environment, which only leads to the downfall of mankind. This is demonstrated in the poem. In the first stanza, the idea that humans think they have ownership over mother nature is established. Then, in the second stanza, the idea that the aforementioned idea is unjust and that it will inevitably lead to the end of mankind. Thirdly, the final stanza, which refers to “you” as mankind and “we” as nature, explicitly says, “you own nothing…we never belonged to you” (Atwood); these lines clearly conclude the message that humans have no superior control
Women who had no claim to wealth or beauty received the harshest of realities in America’s Victorian era. Author Charlotte Bronte – from America’s Victorian era – examines and follows the life of a girl born into these conditions in her gothic novel Jane Eyre (of which the main character’s name
The two Browning poems, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were written to convey to the reader how women were treated in that era; as possession, as assets. Both of these poems can be read from different points of view and they also both are what is
The poem “My Last Duchess” is a historical event that involves the Duke of Ferrara and Alfonso who lived in the 16th century. Robert Browning "My Last Duchess" presents a narrative about a recently widowed Duke who talks with an emissary had come to an arranged marriage with another lady from a powerful and wealthy family. In the perspective of Duke, power and wealth were integral in marriage and was determined to be married to a wealthy lady from a famous family. As the Duke orients the emissary through the palace, he stops and shows a portrait of the late Duchess who was a lovely and young girl. The Duke then begins by stating information about the picture and then to the Duchess. Duke claims that the Duchess flirted with everyone and did not appreciate the history of the family: “gift of a nine hundred years old name.”(33) However, when an individual continues to read the poem, it is evident that the Duke played an important role in killing the lady. Duke states that “he gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together”(45-46) he used these words to define the death of his beloved Duchess. The aim of the essay is to analyze literary devices that emphasize the content of the poem, which includes rhetorical questions, exclamation mark, and em dash.
The novels, Jane Austen’s Lady Susan and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret, focuses on a woman’s quest wealth in a patriarchal society ruled by social class. However, what sets them apart is the execution and measures taken the woman took in order to achieve their goals—or at least attempted to. That was a case in Lady Audley’s Secret, in which Helen Maldon thought that her marriage to George Talboys will save her from her cursed life in poverty. When she found that she was still living in financial destitute, she took a desperate measure to escape it by committing criminal offense—bigamy, fraud, murder, and attempted murder. In Lady Susan however, Lady Susan Vernon wanted to regain her wealth she had lost by forcing herself
In Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess,” the speaker is concerned with the rank of importance he acquires in his wife’s life. The speaker’s personality comes off as angry, self-centered, and greatly annoyed. One time the speaker portrays these an annoyed quality is when he stated “as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift” (Browning, 33-34). The speaker’s spouse was brought equal amounts of joy by marriage as she was by the little things in life. The speaker could not fathom the fact that his spouse was not putting him, her husband,
The dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess” was penned down by Robert Browning. In this poem, the narrator is the Duke of Ferrara, and the listener is the count’s agent, through whom the Duke is arranging the proposed marriage to a second duchess. The poem is ironical and reveals its rhetorical sense, gradually. In the later part of the poem, the Duke claims that he does not have a skill in speech, but his monologue is a masterpiece of subtle rhetoric. While supposedly entertaining the listener by showing his wife’s portrait, he clearly reveals his character. Through his formalized tone of rhyme, he reveals his egoistic and jealous attitude.
Life has many ups and downs; all of which form obstacles that shape us into what we’re destined to be. For instance, the prestigious an eminent English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning firsthand experienced this. For example she faced illness, wrong and right in both political and religious views, most of all infatuation for another. As a result, of the occurrences faced she had real context towards her literary work.
In "My Last Duchess", by Robert Browning, the character of Duke is portrayed as having controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits. These traits are not all mentioned verbally, but mainly through his actions. In the beginning of the poem the painting of the Dukes wife is introduced to us: "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/ looking as of she were still alive" (1-2). These lines leave us with the suspicion that the Duchess is no longer alive, but at this point were are not totally sure. In this essay I will discuss the Dukes controlling, jealous and arrogant traits he possesses through out the poem.
“My Last Duchess,” by Robert Browning, depicts powerful husbands attempting to control the actions of their wives as they are free to do as they please. In contrast, women are expected to be faithful and attentive only to their husbands. The power and control of the Duke is conveyed by a painting of the Duchess. It belongs to the Duke and is referred to as “my last Duchess” (1). The use of “my” demonstrates the possessive nature of the Duke and his claim of the Duchess as his own personal possession, much like the painting itself. As the Duke persists on forcing domination upon the Duchess, he is greatly displeased to find that she treats and considers him as the same value as nearly any other man.