James Hogg’s novel Confessions is told through two distinct narratives. The first narrative and the second narrative represent the main character, Wringham differently. In doing this, Hogg illustrates that the narrator’s viewpoints have no authority. The first narrative represents Wringham as a “devilish-looking youth” who constantly tries to provoke an altercation with George (Hogg 20). He harasses George to the point that none of George’s friends will spend time with him (30). Wringham is one-dimensionally evil. In the second narrative, Wringham as a character becomes much more complex. Though he is committing wicked acts, his justifications poses the question of whether or not Wringham is as sinister as presented in the first narrative. …show more content…
This ends with M‘Gill in great trouble. It is obvious that jealousy inspires Wringham 's actions. However, Wringham also appears to be completely justified in his thought. He believes that M‘Gill has “dealings with the devil” and hence his scholastic skill is synonymous with evil and should be obliterated (83-84). The question of whether Wringham is truly evil or delusional is unsettled with neither narrator having authority over the true nature of Wringham.
Rather, it is the similar theme of the Devil, which both narrators explore, but themselves cannot understand, that is the important focus of the story. Since they cannot not understand the theme themselves, they cannot alter it with their views. Hence, Hogg renders the Devil the fundamental source of conflict in the story. The second narrative builds the first narrative’s idea that the Devil is the primary conflict. In the first narrative, this theme is primarily developed through George’s perspective of Wringham. At the start of the first narrative, Wringham appears “devilish” to George, though George has yet to
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Not long after taking legal possession of the Laird 's house Wringham goes into an unconscious delirium (132). When he wakes he is informed that he had a lover and that he murdered both her and his mother (143). He concludes that he was “possessed by a spirit” to whom he “was wholly unconscious" and whose actions he could not control (136). He ultimately decides that Gil-Martin affected these murders and dreads him “more than hell” (141). The second narrative’s end focuses strongly on the theme of the Devil. Wringham attempts to escape Gil-Martin in the physical world but cannot. In the end he kills himself, banning himself from salvation but also banning Gil-Martin from using him as a vessel to harm the mortal world. Although the two narratives are often contradictory, when put together, they develop the theme of the Devil fully, highlighting it as the main conflict and focus of the
On the contrary, the turning points to both the stories are a little different from one another because Tom loses to the devil and the devil took him away. On the other hand, Jabes Won with the help of the lawyer named Daniel Webster against his opponent and the devil was banished also to never come near Jabez and his family ever again. Furthermore, “The Devil and Tom Walker” illustrate that the devil is dark-skinned, red eyes, red sash and with an axe, while “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, the devil actually looked decent , with nice suit and gentlemen.
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
Symbolism plays a vital role throughout Tom Walker’s tale. Set in the early to mid-18th century in the New England area, Irving uses the location’s landscape as a basis of symbolism throughout the story, as well as to represent the main character. The murky morass environment of the swamp in which Tom Walker meets the devil represents his soul which, like the swamp fog, is clouded and thick with greed. The swamp areas of the New England areas were also used as a stronghold by the Native Americans against the Europeans during the Indian battles. Ironically, this same area in the story is seen as the devil’s stronghold, which symbolizes the prejudice that was still prevalent in the townships during this period in American history....
Guilt, Duty, and Unrequited Love: Deconstructing the Love Triangles in James Joyce’s The Dead and Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure
Washington Irving displays a sense of humor throughout “The Devil and Tom Walker” about greed, marriage and religion to help the reader, become a better person. Tom Walker makes a Faustian Bargain, also known as a deal with the devil. Tom has a lot of problems with his abusive wife, his desire for riches and getting into the afterlife. Washington Irving tells us the story of Tom Walker in a humorous way. Irving does this to display a message to his readers.
...ebel against God, George is trying to earn God’s favor and be readmitted into heaven. Each work provides context to the reality of humanity during the time it was written. The fact that Bedazzled is a satirical take on Dr. Faustus merely accentuates this fact. Throughout history, theories are challenged, facts are redefined, beliefs and interpretations change, even the role of James Bond is revamped. By comparing these two works, it can be said that time has also transformed the relationship between humanity, God, and the Devil.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
We see that good vs. evil has been a theme that is ubiquitous in many writings. The story "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a story about a man who lives an immoral life of greed. Walker lives in a wooded area, where it is solemn, and quiet area of New England. Walker runs into the devil and sees that the devil is cutting down someone else's timber.
...us on deadly revenge. In each case, a retribution that is carried out in a cruel and callous fashion. The men fulfilling these actions are cold, calculating, and contemplative. They have painstakingly endeavored to seek retribution against what has plagued them: Fortunato and his insults to the Montresor and the old man’s piercing, chilling eye for the man from “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Driven to the point of madness by their own obsessions, they plot to murder their offenders. The tales are told each by the man who has indeed committed the crime. Each man’s insanity becomes more and more clear as they narrate confession; the Montresor with the unfailing ease with which he dictates his account and the man from “The Tell-Tale Heart” with his jagged and rough delivery. Their distinct mental instability calls into question to reliability of the report they give.
As a literal deathbed revelation, William Wilson begins the short story by informing the readers about the end of his own personal struggle by introducing and immediately acknowledging his guilt and inevitable death, directly foreshadowing the protagonist’s eventual downward spiral into vice. The exhortative and confession-like nature of the opening piece stems from the liberal use of the first person pronoun “I”, combined with legal and crime related jargon such as, “ crime”, “guilt”, and “victim” found on page 1. Poe infuses this meticulous word choice into the concretization of abstract ideas where the protagonist’s “virtue dropped bodily as a mantle” (Poe 1), leading him to cloak his “nakedness in triple guilt” (Poe 1). In these two examples, not only are virtue and guilt transformed into physical clothing that can be worn by the narrator, but the reader is also introduced to the protagonist’s propensity to externalize the internal, hinting at the inevitable conclusion and revelation that the second William Wilson is not truly a physical being, but the manifestation of something
Hindley’s obstructive actions, imposed on Heathcliff’s life, expand an internal anger that arouses as Heathcliff’s time at Wuthering Heights draws to a close. The negligent and condemnatory conditions advanced by Hindley transform Heathcliff’s futuristic outcome and supply him with motives to carry out vengeance on multiple personalities involved in the plot. Heathcliff’s troubled social environment renders it difficult to determine the ethical legitimacy behind his decisions, contributing to the moral ambiguity of his
Furthermore, the love that Heathcliff’s young niece and nephew share is one that echoes that of what his and Catherine’s love could have been, which provides even more ground for the fiend to tyrannize the two. The semblence in their relationships can be seen in comparable scenes, the first of which recounts Catherine uttering, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (74) Later, Heathcliff pronounces apropos of Cathy caring for Hareton, “Your love will make him an outcast, and a beggar.” (299) The similarities between their two relationships is therefore outlined in their alluded elements of shame and social degradation that can be found in both occasions , and this likeness further agitates the aching heart of Wuthering Height’s antagonist.
Human nature is a conglomerate perception which is the dominant liable expressed in the short story of “A Tell-Tale Heart”. Directly related, Edgar Allan Poe displays the ramifications of guilt and how it can consume oneself, as well as disclosing the nature of human defense mechanisms, all the while continuing on with displaying the labyrinth of passion and fears of humans which make a blind appearance throughout the story. A guilty conscience of one’s self is a pertinent facet of human nature that Edgar Allan Poe continually stresses throughout the story. The emotion that causes a person to choose right from wrong, good over bad is guilt, which consequently is one of the most ethically moral and methodically powerful emotion known to human nature. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe displays the narrator to be rather complacent and pompous, however, the narrator establishes what one could define as apprehension and remorse after committing murder of an innocent man. It is to believe that the narrator will never confess but as his heightened senses blur the lines between real and ...
Ian McEwan illustrates a profound theme that builds details throughout the novel Atonement, the use of guilt and the quest for atonement are used with in the novel to convey the central dynamic aspect in the novel. McEwan constructs the emotion of guilt that is explored through the main character, Briony Tallis. The transition of child and entering the adult world, focus on the behavior and motivation of the young narrator Briony. Briony writes passages that entail her attempt to wash away her guilt as well find forgiveness for her sins. In which Briony ruined the lives and the happiness of her sister, Cecilia, and her lover Robbie. The reality of the events, attempts to achieve forgiveness for her actions. She is unable to understand the consequences of the actions as a child but grows to develop the understanding of the consequence with age. McEwan exemplifies an emotional novel that alters reality as he amplifies the creative acts of literature. In this essay I will be arguing that, the power of guilt prevents people from moving on from obstacles that hold them in the past.
If Kafka thought he had confronted and dealt with his faults, then there was no reason the engagement should not have worked out happily when resumed. But, like K., though he thought he was aware of and owned up to his own faults, he was still convicted for his denial and the engagement was again broken off. The Trial is Kafka’s exploration of the extreme consequences of denying one’s own guilt and thus one’s own humanity. In some senses, it serves as a warning, or a sort of parable of its own, and in others it is simply an expression of anguish. The story serves to warn against thinking so highly of oneself that we only interpret infractions of the outright law as guilt.