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The house of bernarda alba critical analysis
Blindness in literature
The house of bernarda alba critical analysis
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The Usage of the Motif of Eyes to Illustrate Defiance, Effects of
Repression and Confinement, and Foreshadow in Federico Garcia Lorca’s
The House of Bernarda Alba
Although the human body functions the best when all five senses work,
the sense of sight is arguably the most important of the senses. With
that intact, it is definitely easier to get by because one will always
be aware of the events occurring around him or her. In Federico Garcia
Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba”, the motif of eyes and sight is
prevalent, and is used for various purposes: to show rebellion against
a greater force, to show the effects of repression and confinement,
and as well as a way of foreshadowing. In the play, Lorca could be
said to be establishing that confinement and repression from a greater
force can lead to one’s end, and through the way he uses the motif of
vision, he is continuously reinforcing that idea.
Because of the authoritarian figure of Bernarda Alba, a strict mother
who confines her five adult daughters within the four walls of her
house, subtle rebellion, usually through what they see, is the one
method that her daughters use to defy her. For instance, Adela, the
youngest of all the daughters, once told on her sister, Angustias, “I
saw her looking out through the cracks of the back door” (Lorca 166).
Here, she was referring to Angustias spying on the men outside their
house, which could also suggest that she is looking out from the
boundaries that her mother had set. This is an act of rebellion
against her mother because firstly, she is disobeying her, since she
knows her mother disapproves of it, and secondly, she is aware that
snooping around during her father’s funeral is wrong, and perhaps even
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motif of eyes and vision to illustrate defiance against a domineering
force, the effects of a greater force on the repressed, as well as a
porthole into the future. Although this was not mentioned previously,
Lorca also emphasized this motif through other things, such as the
materialistic issues such as class, wealth and beauty. Bernarda had
not let one of her daughters marry because the man was of a lower
class than them. Also, despite the fact that others kept emphasizing
Angustias’ ugliness, she was the only one with the marriage proposal
because she had money. Thus through this idea that materialism counts,
Lorca could have been suggesting that what is perceived and seen plays
a great role in the way people act. In all, the presence of this motif
of eyes shows that vision is important in keeping one aware of the
events occurring in the environment.
Zora Neale was an early 20th century American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. In her best known novel Their eyes were watching God, Hurston integrated her own first-hand knowledge of African American oral culture into her characters dialogue and the novels descriptive passages. By combing folklore, folk language and traditional literary techniques; Hurston created a truly unique literary voice and viewpoint. Zora Neale Hurston's underlying theme of self-expression and search for one’s independence was truly revolutionary for its time. She explored marginal issues ahead of her time using the oral tradition to explore contentious debates. In this essay I will explore Hurston narrative in her depiction of biblical imagery, oppression of African women and her use of colloquial dialect.
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Furthermore, Campbell explained such patterns by using Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, which he was strongly influenced with. Psychological organs that developed through the evolution, is the idea Jung gave of archetypes (Jung 81). To him they are recurring patterns, images and ideas which all humans inherited in their unconsciousness (Volgar 23). In addition, Campbell described his theory as a reoccurring cycle of pattern consisting of three phases: Departure, Initiation and Return, which he calls The Monomyth (Campbell 28), a deep inner journey of transformation that every hero must go through in order to grow (Voytilla vii).
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As most well-written authors do, Flannery O’Connor incorporated a lot of symbolism into her writing. One common symbol in her storytelling was eyes. Eyes were a significant symbol in Flannery O’Connor’s works, especially, it seemed, in these four stories: “The Displaced Person,” “Revelation,” “Good Country People,” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” She used eyes as subtle ways to communicate a character’s mindset or to build tension.
The third chapter is quite a different spin from what I read in the previous chapters from author's Gloria. E. Anzaldua's book entitled Light In The Dark/Luz En Lo Oscuro. Chapter three is quite interesting. In this particular chapter on page 48, she reveals her identity as a jotitita (queer Chicana). Anzaldua goes to further states that this "mexicatjena-to enter a museum and look at indigenous objects that were once used by my ancestors"(48 Anzaldua). What is interesting to me is the she ponders on whether or not she finds her historical Indian identity at the museum. In addition, she also questions whether her identity could be found along the ancient artifacts and their as she puts it their mestizaje. I really
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” (Shakespeare). In life we all have a route that we are supposed to follow to achieve our goal. Our attitude towards the path to achieve that goal is what will shape our ends. Our reactions to our obstacles we face are what are going to set us through the path. Shakespeare was trying to have an overall theme throughout his tragedies, to get through obstacles to keep continuing on the path to our overall achievement in life.
...that fate. Events that lead to other events will eventually lead one to their fate. “Oedipus the King” is a great play that sets an example of what fate is. Oedipus chooses to flee from home, in attempt to avoid the god’s statement of his fate from coming true. However, Oedipus’s decision for fleeing is what was necessary to make his fate come true. Undoubtedly, this is what was meant to happen because Oedipus allowed it to. Perhaps if Oedipus ignored the god and never did a thing then perhaps the outcome could have been different for Oedipus. However it did not turn out that way and the choices that Oedipus made is what led him to his doom.
How are the patriarchal and class systems presented in García Lorca's "La casa de Bernarda Alba"?
In Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba, a tyrant woman rules over her five daughters and household with absolute authority. She prevents her daughters from having suitors and gives them little to no freedom, especially with regard to their sexualities and desires. They must conform to the traditional social expectations for women through sewing, cleaning, as well as staying pure and chaste. While, as John Corbin states in The Modern Language Review, “It was entirely proper for a respectable woman in [Bernarda’s] position to manage her household strictly and insist that the servants keep it clean, to defend its reputation, ensure the sexual purity of her daughters, and promote advantageous marriages for them,” Bernarda inordinately
A motif is an element in a film that is repeated in a significant way. As discussed in Film Art, a viewer cannot follow a story, recognize emotional tenor of the scene, respond with their own emotions, or reflect on possible meanings until they notice certain things in the frame (p. 140). Since motifs
The play "The House Of Bernarda Alba" gives an interesting portrayal of a middle class home consisting entirely of women. The plot is set in a small town, middle class house in a society dominated by men. It is believed to be set somewhere in Spain in the 1930s. The play was written in a time when the suppression of woman was still strong. The mother, the head of the household, does everything she believes is necessary to keep her house within a good social standing in the town. The mother had become the master of the house after her husband died, which makes her work harder to keep a good reputation for her house of women. Looking deeper into the story one might find two sides to the dilemmas that cover the house. There are protagonists, principle characters in a story, and antagonists, characters that act adversaries or opponents to the principle characters. In this play one of the maids, Poncia, is forced to be in the middle of much of the drama consuming this house. She, Poncia, can be looked at as both a protagonist and antagonist. One might say that she fits into a back up role; helping support the main characters' roles, in the cast of characters.
Studying this theme affected my life, my relationships, my feelings, my actions and my values. This theme affected my life through the changing of my understanding of human life. This change in my understanding affected my relationships in a positive way because it helped me to
In a multitude of tales written across time, both true and fiction, there lies an antagonist and a protagonist. Often times, it transpires that the protagonist pushes through whichever obstacles the malevolent antagonist decides to throw their way over the course of the story. Now, that simple baseline, the baseline of multitudinous stories, aims to demonstrate that the human soul pushes on. No matter what someone may encounter, sooner or later they’ll move past it, and their soul will prove stronger in spite of it. In order to corroborate my theory, I’m going to share some specific findings from stories including the “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Matthew 26 and 27 of the bible, and lastly, “The Crisis”.
Often, archetypes penetrate into the human mind without actual awareness as in dreams, myths or symbols; thus via those dreams the archetype becomes conscious. Subsequently, these archetypes assume a latent role in one's personality, and they become visible through repeated, similar experiences and through interactions with others. Ideally, the collective unconscious with its archetypes play a major role in the development of an individual's persona, one's true identity masked by their social identity. Moreover, it controls the shadows of our emotions that compel us to do wrong. Additionally, it balances the anima and the animus, the opposing sex sides of one's gender, so that the opposite psyches of one's gender do not completely dominate an individual. Another archetype, the self, plays an active role in unifying one's different aspects of personalities to express the best of it. In total, the archetypes, more than the ego, are responsible for an individual's social spot in