Does Amy’s beauty and mystique represent something deeper? In Katherine Anne Porter’s “Old Mortality,” there is an obvious obsession amongst most of the novella’s characters with Amy’s beauty. Most of the female characters throughout the novella are often compared to Amy by her family’s elders. These characters are often described as coming close to embodying Amy’s beauty (or not at all), but it is generally recognized that no one will ever be able to be quite as beautiful as Amy was. While there are a few descriptions of Amy’s physical appearance throughout the novella, there seems to be more of a focus on her careless behavior. Many of the novella’s central figures identify this kind of behavior as something that contributed to her charm …show more content…
and mystique. In actuality, Amy’s behavior was likely considered “unladylike” for the time period in which she was living. During this time period, there were set notions as to how women were expected to behave. The fact that Amy’s rejection of societal gender norms was considered charming, and even anecdotal, points to the beginning of an acceptance of a new type of woman.
While a handful of the female characters are considered attractive in the novella, they will never reach the same level of attractiveness as Amy due to the fact that they cling to gender norms too much.
Literature is often a reflection of the times in which it was written, and tends to express some of the commonly held beliefs during its inception. Literature is also a vehicle for change, and the spreading of new ideas. Porter seems to grab hold of both of these ideas in her writing of “Old Mortality.” “Old Mortality” takes place during part of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. While women’s suffrage was not necessarily a widely accepted idea throughout the United States, it began to gain more traction, especially through the progression of this novella. During this time period, women were beginning to recognize that their abilities and value went beyond the home, their husbands, and their children. Throughout the anecdotes told about Amy, the reader learns that Amy never really wanted a marriage. She would have been perfectly happy by herself. While Amy does end up marrying, she becomes the more dominant partner in the marriage, while was certainly uncharacteristic for many women during this time
period. Amy’s behaviors, as described by Eva and others, are marked with aggression, carelessness, and even “impurity.” These are all traits that were certainly considered to be outside the norm for the time in which this novella was written. It is striking that many of the characters found these traits to be so appealing. Moreover, the act of Amy cutting her hair (which was described as one of her most attractive features), demonstrates her blatant refusal to take on some of the ideals forced upon women at the time. Amy does not seem to pay much heed to her appearance as was (and still is) expected of women. She does what makes her happy, even if her happiness lies in spiting others. I believe that the characters’ acceptance of these traits represent the change in thought surrounding gender norms at the time in which this story was written. While not all of the characters were fond of Amy’s behaviors and actions, many of them found her ways to be a major contributing factor to her beauty and mystique. Amy still does submit to some of this time period’s norms by eventually choosing to marry. The emphasis on her physical beauty also capitalizes on the reinforcement of these norms. The obsession with Eva’s mystique does not represent a full acceptance of a new type of woman, but rather the beginning of accepting a new type of woman. However, some may argue that Eva embodies the characteristics of this new type of woman. Eva is continually referred to as being physically and personally unappealing. There is brief reference to Eva’s advocacy for women’s suffrage, but this aspect of Eva’s life is also what seems to make her unattractive. Some may argue that because of Eva’s negative descriptions, the characters completely reject the idea of a new, independent woman with full rights. I believe that Eva represents the end result of a feminist movement. This idea of the end result is still unappealing to many people during this time period, but Amy represents the beginning of accepting this new idea of what womanhood can be. She still adheres to some of the traditional ideals of femininity, but challenges other ideals, which causes her to be intriguing rather than unappealing.
At the beginning of the story, Amy is a gangly and awkward pre-teen, not caring what others think, playing in mud, and painting on her skin with the blue clay from the creek. As summer comes to an end, Amy stops dressing in her grungy t-shirts and cut off jean shorts, and more like her popular preppy friends at school, as it is more important to her that she wears what her friends wear, rather than what she likes to wear. At school, all of her friends’ names end with an “i”, so hers changes to
In "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," there are two themes. The first is self-pity. The second theme is the acceptance of her death. Both deal with the way people perceive their deaths and mortality in general. Granny Weatherall's behavior is Porter's tool for making these themes visible to the reader. The theme of self-pity is obvious and thoroughly explored early on. As a young lady, Granny Weatherall was left at the altar on her wedding day. As a result, the pathetic woman feels sorry for herself for the rest of her life. She becomes a bitter old woman who is suspicious of everyone around her. This point is shown early in the story when the do Granny Weatherall, the main character in Katherine Anne Porter's The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, is an 80-year-old elderly woman who is at the doorstep of death. There is a sense of disillusionment with Granny that leads readers to develop their own interpretation of her relationship with Cornelia, her daughter As the narrator, Granny unknowingly would paint the picture of Cornelia as nuisance and bothersome. In fact, the reader can rationalize that it is just Cornelia's concern for an ailing mother that creates the situation of her seemingly being there all the time.
Common among classic literature, the theme of mortality engages readers on a quest of coping with one of the certainties of life. Katherine Anne Porter masterfully embraces the theme of mortality both directly and indirectly in her story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Understanding that all mankind ultimately becomes subject to death unleashes feelings of dread and anxiety in most people; however, Granny Weatherall transitions from rushing to meet her demise in her sixties to completely denying she is on her deathbed when she is eighty. Readers have seen this theme of mortality reverberated over and over in literature, but what makes this story stand the test of time is the author’s complexity. In Katherine Anne Porter’s
First, Margaret Fuller Slack’s loveless relationship with her husband is a main factor in her death. In the poem, Margaret Fuller Slack, Slack speaks about her wish to write. She then tells of how she must choose her future and that she was lured into marriage under the pretense of writing her first novel. Unfortunately, things did not work out as she planned. Masters wrote, “Luring me with the promise of leisure for my novel, / And I married him, giving birth to eight children, / And had no time to write.” Because of her marriage to John Slack, she was forced to give up her dreams of writing. Her husband led her to believe that she could write at leisure, but, once she was married and had children, she was not able to write. Not only was her marriage the cause of her unhappiness, it was the cause of her death. Masters wrote, “It was all over with me, anyway, / when I ran the needle in my hand/while washing the baby’s things, /And died from lock-jaw, an ironical death.” It is ironic because if she had not been married and had become a writer, her life would not have ended this way. It is also ironic because what she really wanted was ...
In these stories by Katherine Anna Porter such as "the Old Order" she illustrates the inner lives of her characters with precise and crafty prose. The south, dreams, cultural norms, and self-delusion are all common themes. In the story "Old Mortality," the character Miranda Gay shakes off "the legend of the past," resolving to make "her own discoveries." Yet Porter emphasizes how difficult making one’s own “discoveries” and breaking from norms is to do.
...r passing. The abundance of literary devices highlights Mrs. Mallard emotions when she was finally given the freedom she had been longing for throughout her entire life. In the end, the nineteenth century male-dominated society reigns supreme once again, and “when Louise ceases to exist in relation to the patriarchal society around her, she ceases to exist at all” (Cunningham 53).
As a kid, Amy found it astonishing that everyone began to love the fictional character displayed as her. Making a decision that changed her life, Amy chooses to become, the most beloved fictional character, “Amazing Amy”. Throughout many years, she became a perfectionist who can never be caught in an act with flaws, The cool girl; who did whatever she wanted without being judged. Amy was an understanding woman with a personality of pure gold, also known as the “it” girl; the woman every man dreamed about.
Amy's loyalty to her mistress is evident from the beginning of the novel when we are also told by Roxana herself that Amy is as “faithful to [her], as the Skin on [her] Back”(25). Amy proves this when she says: “if I will starve for your sake, I will be a Whore, or any thing, for your sake; why I would die for you, if I were put to it” (28). This is proven true over the course of the novel, but immediately after those words are spoken, our narrator denies that Amy should be a whore for her. Later in the novel, however, Roxana takes Amy up on this offer, and excercises her power as a mistress to abuse Amy's loyalty by forcing her to sleep with the Landlord. Roxana tells us:
Amy in the beginning of the book has been like the other girls goes to school, likes to read, plays, like girls do. Amy did not know what was going to come to her later in the book. Amy was watching some T.V. when she came upon the News and saw that there were aliens invading Earth. Amy was scared to death when she heard that. Amy
Jane Austen’s novels have always played a large part in my life. My love for this nineteenth-century female author began with movie adaptations of her books; my interest quickly spiraled into the richness of her texts. I know that Jane Austen was not the norm for her time period. She was a female trying to live independently in a male dominated society, but she did not let the difficulty of her situation impede her success. When she was told that her stories would get her nowhere and that she would do best to abandon her career, she persevered. Jane Austen wrote many novels, and most of them became extremely popular. Jane Austen wrote her novels to support herself, and I believe that she used them to reveal truths about humanity, happiness, and perfection. All the characters that Austen created have one common theme: they desperately seek out their place in the world. This struggle plagued people from
The story takes place in the late nineteenth century, a time when women had very limited rights. Mrs. Mallard, a young woman who has a bad heart, plays the main character in this story. She receives news that her husband has been killed in a railroad accident. Mrs. Mallard is shocked and bewildered by the death of her husband. However, the feeling of bewilderment is only a temporary feeling that quickly leads to an overwhelming sense of freedom. A freedom she has desperately longed for. Yet, shortly after receiving the news of her husbands death there is a knock at the door. Upon opening the door, she discovers that her husband is not dead, for he is standing in the doorway alive and well. Mr. Mallard’s appearance causes his wife to die. “[T]he doctors … said she [has] died of heart disease – of jo...
Eveline, as a child, was joyful. She along with her brothers and sisters use to play with the neighborhood children in a big field, which was now full of “[b]right brick houses with shining roofs” (3). During that time her mother was living and her father less harsh. Although her father had always been stern still “they seem to have been rather happy then” (3). But that was in the past, “[s]he and her brothers and sisters were all grown up; her mother dead” (3). Her life had become dull and boring. Since her mother was deceased now, she took on many of the womanly duties of the house. Joyce reveals it by stating “. . . she had dusted once a week for so many years. . .” and “she had hard work to keep the house together and to see that the two young children who had been left to her charge went to school regularly. . .” (3- 4). Her father became abusive, “. . . he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother’s sake” (4). Work was one place where she had got some type of attention. Though her job was not that delightful she “would not cry many tears at leaving the stores” (3). Frank was her only real outlet. He gave her excitement and a sense of love. She had wanted a new life with him so “people would treat her with respect” (3). Eveline does not flee her unhappy home because of the vow made to her dying mother; she’s trapped by an abusive father and her Catholic faith.
This is a clear example that if there are no standards in a relationship than how is a relationship gonna work out? Think of it this way his Amy would have taken a little more control on her husband from the beginning of the marriage ,their marriage wouldn't have started falling apart as fast because she could have been able to tell that something was wrong when he wasn't meeting up to the standards.
The main characters of Gone Girl, Nick and Amy Dunne, meet they choose their personas based on what they think the other will find attractive. To create these personas, both characters used what they observed in their own lives, the lives of others and in popular culture. Amy Dunne chooses to be the mythical “Cool Girl” who is described as a “hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes” and “never gets angry” (Flynn 222). Amy feels that this ideal woman is non-existent and that “they’re [women are] pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be” (Flynn 222-23). While to an extent this is what many people do, glossing over their inner-self Amy adopts the “Cool Girl” and completely replaces who she really
Is aging a true moral dilemma or just harsh criticism of society? The poem "Next Day" by Randell Jarrell and Ulysses by Lord Tennyson Alfred are good examplesof what role society plays in wht one feels they should look like, act like, and the differences between sexes and aging. In the "Next Day" poem by Randell Jarrell the woman is most devastated by aging. She feels that society giver her less respect and she is pushed aside because she has aged and lost her youth and vitality. when at her friends' funeral, what she sees is an aged cold body. Feeling of fear that aged and cold is all she is becoming. She feels at a loss. That because she has aged, she has lost everything that counts as a person. I feel it is obvious that this woman is desperate for something more in her life, but first she needs to realize that because you have aged does not mean your dying. It should be shown from society that your matured and experienced, with everything to offer from your mind and not just your body.