QUESTION 1: Cecilia is a victim just as much as Robbie is. Was it important for her to share in the loss of innocence? It is important for Cecilia to lose her innocence because it ultimately impacts not only the course of the novel but her relationship with her family and relationship with Robbie also. Cecilia is as a woman of action and is the odd one out in the family. Having aspirations which differ from her delicate mother’s. Emily Tallis’ idea of being part of upper-class is highly traditional, only expecting of Cecilia to marry and “to confront” motherhood, worrying that Cecilia has made marriage an “impossible prospect” for herself. In the beginning chapters of the novel I grow Cecilia and Robbie’s relationship. They became aware
of each other as a man and woman, developing a connection which then leads to a sexual relationship. As Robbie is a member of the lower-class, his accusation of the rape of Lola tears not only his and Cecilia’s relationship apart before it begins but also that with her family. I have Cecilia fall for Robbie so profoundly that she abandons her family in a show of loyalty and commitment to him. Cecilia is Robbie’s other half, trusting and believing in him, despite the accusation. Even when he is taken away “she tells Robbie she had cut herself off from her family. She would never speak to her parents, brother or sister again”. Cecilia’s loss of innocence ensues when Robbie’s abandonment from her family is concerned, resulting in nothing but heartache and her eventual death. QUESTION 2: How did Briony and her perspectives have a significant impact on the Tallis family and Robbie and his future? HOST: How did Briony and her perspectives have a significant impact on the Tallis family and Robbie and his future? McEwan: I formed Briony Tallis to be the novel’s protagonist, naïve and certain of her understanding of the world and what she sees, having an evident effect on her family and Robbie. Briony’s misconceptions of Robbie and Cecilia’s relationship is a motive leading Robbie to three years in prison and Cecilia’s abandonment of her family. Briony witnesses a series of events showing Robbie’s forceful interest in Cecilia. Through the perspective of a window, Cecilia is forcefully getting undressed under Robbie’s commands, beginning Briony’s chain reaction. This misinterpretation is further influenced through privately intimate letters addressed to Cecilia from Robbie. Briony believes the world revolves around her and her opinions. Misinterpreting a series of events, Briony then unremorsefully commands “the truth” which her “poor cousin was not able to” of Robbie committing a crime of rape. This wrong accusation caused the disownment of Cecilia to her family and her relationship with Robbie being inevitable, both dying through the circumstances of war. With the Tallis family dividing, the loss of Cecilia and Robbie, 13-year-old Briony is left with regret to atone.
Nils Christie’s theory on an idea victim consists of certain category’s that may vary for each victim(Christie (1986). From Christie’s theory it is said that the victim could be an old or young lady that has cared for her elderly sister, and if she has been hit on the head by a big man and he grabs her bag and uses the money for alcohol or drugs(Christie (1986). Attributes that Christie came up with is the victim is weaker than the ‘big and bad’ offender. In regards to the rape victim would be a young virgin on her way home from visiting sick relatives’ (Christie (1986).
Miranda and Clarissa both lack parents. Miranda’s parents pass away, leaving her an orphan and completely alone in the world, except for her sister. Her lack of a guardian gives her a large amount of personal control. Miranda must decide what to do with her life. “…the fair Miranda, whose parents being dead… put herself into this enclosed religious house” (Behn 32). The phrase “put herself” is very important to both the story and the character. Miranda now has power over herself and this is both new and dangerous. Her freedom from parental control also has a heavy influence on her courtships and eventual marriage. If her father were still alive, Miranda would not have chosen her own husband. Her match with Prince Tarquin probably would not have come to pass. Although Prince Tarquin has a great name and “quality,” he does not have a lot of money. Miranda’s obsession with Henrick also would never occur because she would never have entered the convent. Likewise, Clarissa suffers much from the absence of her parents. Her father is weakened by the gout. In his absence, James Harlowe Junior takes control of the family. Throughout the novel, Clarissa is asking her father to take control and tell her what to do.
Barbara Huttman’s “A Crime of Compassion” has many warrants yet the thesis is not qualified. This is a story that explains the struggles of being a nurse and having to make split-second decisions, whether they are right or wrong. Barbara was a nurse who was taking care of a cancer patient named Mac. Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton (95). When he walked into the hospital, he was a macho police officer who believed he could single-handedly protect the whole city (95). His condition worsened every day until it got so bad that he had to be resuscitated two or three times a day. Barbara eventually gave into his wishes to be let go. Do you believe we should have the right to die?
First of all, both women are "victims" of their controlling husbands. Nora and Mrs. Wright are al...
What does the story of Atlas Shrugged have to say about the relative powers of good and evil and the conditions under which one is victorious over the other?
In The House on Mango Street, the theme of maturation through loss of innocence is based on Esperanza Cordero’s
Carl Williams the ‘former gangland kingpin’ was murdered in Barwon’s High Risk and Maximum Security Prison on the 19th of April 2010. At the time, he was serving a life sentence with a non-parole period of 35 years for ordering the murder of 3 people and the conspiracy to murder another (Butler 2010). Prominent news articles from Moor (2010), Butler (2010) and Stewart (2010) highlight Williams’ death in a perspective which allows the analysis of Williams’ victimisation in relation to Christie’s (1986) ‘Ideal Victim’ Theory and the consequence for such a representation of victims.
According to RAINN, (2009) approximately 10 per cent of all victims of sexual assault and abuse are adult and juvenile males. In terms of the nature of assault, real figures include a compendium of reported incidents ranging from unwanted sexual touching to forced penetration. To qualify this statement, it must be understood that the percentage does not reflect a vast number of crimes that go unreported due to issues that will be discussed in the present paper.
Atonement’s symbolism of innocence shows Briony’s youthful naïveté and her blameless intentions. The symbolism of lost innocence not only affects Briony, but Cecilia and Robbie as well. Robbie and Cecilia venture into the world of adult sexuality together, but are interrupted by Briony’s curiosity. Witness to the debauchery at hand, Briony skews her testimony to the police in regards to her encounter of Lola and her rapist at the temple, “Events she herself witnessed foretold her cousins calamity. If only she, Briony, had been less innocent, less stupid. Now she saw, the affair was too consistent, too symmetrical to be anything other than what she said it was. She blamed herself for her childish assumption that Robbie would limit his attentions to Cecilia. What was she thinking of? He was a maniac after all.” (158) Briony thought of the obscene note written to Cecelia as a warning to what Robbie was capable of, although the note w...
There is a way in which Sentimental Education, so utterly devoid of transcendence or redemptive spirit, chillingly effects the reader in a much deeper way, resonates in a much darker place than The Portrait of a Lady. Finally, we see that Isabel has learned what the novel had to teach her; Frédéric has not, and the brutal Œsentimental education' is ours.
Attending school at a nunnery, Rosa’s female friends rarely have any contact with men. Through her betrothal to Edwin Drood, Rosa is the only woman within the nunnery that has a man to court her. She is the only woman mentioned, in the nunnery, that is going to be married off to a man, not God. Rosa capitalizes on this situation by leading the other girls in the nunnery to be her “poor pets”(118). She realizes that the girls as well as the head of the school, Miss Twinkleton, who describes Rosa as her “pet pupil”(14), look at her to be the embodiment of romance because of her prospective marriage. Miss Twinkleton and the girls live their love lives through Rosa, “over her shoulder”(51). Rosa feeds into the situation by making sure that the girls are watching her and letting Edwin know that they “must get married . . . the poor girls would be so dreadfully disappointed” (17). She uses her power over Edwin, which is given through love and devotion to her and both of their parent’s wishes for them to be married, as a way to stay in control at the nunnery. She is the object of the gaze to all of the girls and Miss Twinkleton, “nothing escapes their notice”(18). Realizing that she is the object of their gaze, she remains in control by showing the girls what she has with Edwin from afar. The girls are under the impression that Edwin and Rosa are in a perfect relationship when, in actuality Rosa decides that they have to “pretend that you (Edwin) are engag...
Clarissa Dalloway’s childhood was the foundation on her lavish adult lifestyle. Her childhood influenced her thoughts on social class and standings. Clarissa was raised in a middle class family that always valued social status. As a child Clarissa spent a lot of time with her family. Her experiences at her Uncle William Bourton’s estate exposed Clarissa to the ideas of social norms. (2 Worster) These family influences taught social status was necessary for security and happiness in the future. Unlike most women in her era, Clarissa was aware of the lifestyle paths she could take, when most women of there time period were unaware of choices they had concerning their future lifestyle. (2 Worster ) Clarissa’s upbringing gives her the mind set that you must be rich and have social status in order to be important in life. This is later proven false in the novel, as Clarissa become evident that the comfortable and extravagant lifestyle she chose, is not all its cracked up to be. Worster shows in her literary criticism, “The Self Imprisoned Clarissa Dalloway” that Clarissa struggles with her identity due to the manipulation of truth her own mind. As “Clarissa Dalloway meagerly examines the conditions of her life and resignedly submerges herself beneath the shallow façade of the perfect housewife.”(1 Worster...
One day, when Harry enters to his room, he founds Maria naked on his bed, and he inferred it is an Armanda's present, so that, he lives a relation with Maria who has never experimented the erotism and love. One day before the mask dance, Maria tells Harry about the fair she fells in lost him, because surely, on the next day, he is going to be Armanda's.
Evald has repeatedly espoused to her that he does not want children. Thus when she becomes pregnant at the age of thirty-nine, Marianne is in an incredibly difficult position: leave her husband and raise the child on her own, or abort the child and stay with her husband. Neither of these options are ideal; Marianne repeatedly elucidates that she wants to keep the child, and so the decision is not one she can make lightly. This brings to mind other sub-optimal conditions faced by prospective mothers throughout the semester; particularly, the situation of Lucy in Disgrace, pregnant with her rapist’s child, conjures similar quandaries. Neither of these women is a teenager unable to support herself and her possible offspring, but still, the question of impending motherhood is a challenging one. Wild Strawberries tends to portray motherhood in a negative light; motherhood does not seem a harbinger of joy and happiness, but rather a necessary evil that should not necessarily be undertaken. Sarah, Isak’s betrothed who eventually marries his brother, cradles what is supposed to be a newborn child, but is obviously only a facsimile, a doll. Isak’s mother, of advanced age, is frigid and cold towards him, unwilling to show the least bit of affection for her last remaining
We see the fountain scene in three different perspectives, in the eyes of young Briony and through Robbie and Cecilia. The scene takes place outside the Tallis estate near a fountain where Cecilia is filling up a vase with water. Robbie offers his assistance but mistakenly drops the vase causing it to shatter to pieces (McEwan 29). The vase was of very sentimental value to the Tallis family and Cecilia is very upset with Robbie. Cecilia undresses in front of Robbie to get into the fountain to pick up the broken pieces (McEwan 30). Briony sees the scene playing out through her bedroom window and can only interpret the situation by what she sees and not what she can hear. Briony is a 13-year-old girl, who is trying to understand the scene between Robbie and Cecilia in an adult point of view. With her lack of knowledge, she mistakes the scene for Robbie proposing to Cecilia and taking complete control over her, forcing her to take off her clothes (McEwan 39). Briony believed that Robbie had some kind of power over Cecilia; her interpretation came from her knowledge from the Victoria era that men were superior to women (McEwan 38). However, for Cecilia and Robbie this scene is where they were trying to understand their relationship. They both have feelings for each other, but it is hidden by the supposed hatred. Cecilia wanted to prove to Robbie that she did not need him or his help, so she made sure she was the first one in the fountain to pick the broken pieces, "denying his help, and any possibility of making amends, was his punishment," (McEwan 30). However, Robbie had a different view of the scene, he thought that by Cecilia getting undressed was a form of humiliation towards him. Robbie had a tough time understanding Cecilia...