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Byrons contribution to literature
Contribution of Byron in romanticism
Lord Byron essays
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Disgrace is set in a post-apartheid Cape Town where the protagonist David Lurie is forced to terminate his job after Melanie, a student, files a sexual abuse claim against him. In this essay I will explore how David Lurie's own view on masculinity is affected by his idolization of Lord Byron, and how this allows him to justify his immoral actions. The protagonist, David Lurie, a university professor, is particularly interested in Lord Byron, a poet known for his licentious lifestyle, and an inspiration to the literary concept of 'Byronic heroes'. A Byronic hero is arrogant, intelligent, emotional, morally and characteristically flawed and often sexually irresistible to women. Lurie possesses many of these qualities, visible already on the …show more content…
Something Lurie was used to in his youth. Like all things in life, one day it all ended. Without warning his powers fled. Glances that would once have yielded a response were no longer. Overnight he became a ghost. If he wanted a woman he had to learn to pursue her. Lurie yearns to desire and to be desired by women, it is deeply embedded in him. However, “it surprises him that ninety minutes a week of a woman's company are enough to make him happy, who used to think he needed a wife, a home, a marriage” He can no longer rely on his magnetism, nor does he seek companionship, so he creates the perfect romance, a woman who wants him, who desires him, for ninety minutes a week. His dream world quickly vanishes when Soraya no longer wants his …show more content…
When telling Bev Shaw about his encounter with Melanie he states “I was the troublemaker in that case.” After the rape of Lucy, he admits to being able to imagine being the men, to “fill them with the ghost of himself” However, he does not believe that he has to alter his behavior or admit to his mistakes. When discussing with his daughter Lucy, he proclaims “I am not prepared to be reformed” She answers him “so you are determined to go on being bad. Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. I promise, no one will ask you to change”. Is he pleased with her description? With the idea of himself as a vigilante, fighting for what he believes is, if not right, then natural? This quote supports that idea: “One can punish a dog for an offense like chewing a slipper, but no animal will accept the justice of being punished for following its
“Lord Byron.” Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2009: 269-272. Student Resources in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
In this essay I intend to prove that David LaChapelle’s work is more than just mere pornographic smut that at face value some would suggest, that his work is in fact an exposé on the deviant nature of human sexuality and addresses the subject of class and politics in England today. David LaChapelle’s 2002 ‘Aristocrats’ is the subject of this study, due to its provocative nature.
In short, this is a story of a random meeting of two strangers, and an attraction or feeling that is overlooked and ignored. A man describes a lady such that you could only envision in your dreams, of stunning beauty and overwhelming confidence of which encounters of the opposite sex occur not so very often. The mans attraction is met by a possible interest by the lady, but only a couple flirtatious gestures are exchanged as the two cross paths for the first time and very possible the last.
Wolfson, Susan & Peter Manning. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. V. 2A. New York: Longman, 1999.
The play Blackrock, written by Nick Enright that was inspired by the murder of Leigh Leigh, which took place in Stockton in 1989. During this essay the following questions will be analysed, what stereotypes of women are depicted in the text, how do the male characters treat the female characters and how do the male characters talk about the female characters. These questions are all taken from the feminist perspective.
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar brings race, politics, religion, and ethnic identity all to the table in his 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play. In modern day society these are the major social issues we see. What the audience fails to realize is that in Disgraced Akhtar has caused them to involuntarily embrace the double standards involving gender present in America. Women walk a fine line to not be a victim of “slut shaming.” “Despite its moniker, slut-shaming has little to do with actual sexual activity. Rather, it is largely a function of gossip, cliques and social control.(Tarrant)” Both Amir and Emily, the two main protagonist in the play, are victims to the others misconducts at some point in this play. The audience however finds themselves empathizing
“Often” encapsulates the masculine side of male R&B singers through various use of lyrics and imagery. The song opens with The Weeknd staring emotionless into the camera, a blank stare almost as if he is in his own world. Showing very little to no emotion is widely accepted as an extremely masculine trait. In one of Devors ' essays he says “men/who conscientiously avoid anything associated with femininity are seen as exuding masculinity”(Devor 139). This can be interpreted as expressing emotion is associated with being feminine, so by not showing emotion The Weeknd exudes masculinity. Further demonstrating his masculinity The Weeknds ' demeanor throughout the music video gives off an air of confidence almost arrogance. He is seen standing
The ethics of desire and shame include the main issues at the heart of Coetzee’s Disgrace. Coetzee remarks the issue of human sexual ethics in David Lurie’s desires. While some who read this novel feel distressed at David’s lack of control over his desire, David himself fairly confident in his manners. David feels no embarrasment for the actions of his manners, but rather disgrace for yielding to social pressure after taking an hypocritical apology and shame of his daughter’s raping. David claims that the relationship between Melanie lies in the ‘‘ rights of desire’’ (90). In this exclamation, David makes the contradiction between the right to desire and reproduction and opposite ideas of undesired love or rape. I will question whether the David’s treatment of women loving or immoral or David has the right to seduce or he goes into unethical areas through his desire. At the end, Coetzee claims that while it is ethical to have right to your own behavior, it is not ethical to harm others.
Thorslev, Peter L., Jr. The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1962. Print.
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee is a novel that follows the downfall of David Lurie, a South African college professor, after he loses his job for having an affair with one of his students. After being released from his position as a professor, David travels from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape to visit his daughter, Lucy. During his visit, he and Lucy encounter two men and a boy who set David on fire, rape and impregnate Lucy and rob their property. The attack causes David and Lucy’s relationship to suffer mainly due to the way that the attack alters Lucy’s personality and affections toward David. The attack and David’s relationship with his student, Melanie Isaacs, reflect each other as they both portray different scenarios regarding non-consensual relationships. Readers can gather from J.M. Coetzee’s description of Melanie as, “the dark one” (18) that Melanie was of African descent. This equates to the most striking aspect of David and Melanie’s relationship as it parallels the oppression that black women in South Africa endured historically since David Lurie, as a white man, had an inappropriate and invasive relationship with Melanie, a young African woman.
Through the perspective of an unconventional college professor, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace addresses the transition into post-apartheid South Africa, societal acceptance and rape through David Lurie and Lucy Lurie’s complex father-daughter relationship. While living in his daughter’s countryside home, David Lurie’s experiences reveal that despite the powerful political reform, crime continues to dominate the African people. Aspects of South African history are used to emphasize racial tension and the shift from a white to a black dominated South Africa. Coetzee also suggests the instability of the African society through constantly depicting his characters as emotionally unable to adapt to adverse situations. Although David and Lucy were initially introduced as polar opposites, their value of privacy and refusal to endure public humiliation and shame draw a parallel between the predator and prey of the novel. David Lurie ultimately evolves from his sexual encounters with Soraya, Melanie and Bev Shaw by realizing the traumatizing implications of his actions after the Lucy’s rape.
This paper aims to investigate some aspects of postcolonialism, feminism, as well as symbolism, allegories and metaphors. For this purpose I have chosen the novel Disgrace (1999) by J.M Coetzee. The story takes place in Cape Town, in post-apartheid South Africa. David Lurie is a white man and works as a professor of English at a technical university. He is a ‘communication’ lecturer and he teaches ‘romantic literature’ too. Lurie is divorced two times already and one gets the impression that he is not really satisfied with his job. His "disgrace" comes when he makes attempts to seduce Melanie Isaacs, one of his students, against her will. This affair is then remitted to the school authorities and a special committee is convoked to judge his actions.
... men in the story are portrayed, exhibits the degradation of the value of the self-expression of a woman.