We are introduced to the character of the pretentious 13 year old Briony, through her over active imagination and eagerness for the theatrics and melodramatic stories and plays. Part one entails a description of Briony’s in depth preparations she has taken to put together a play named the ‘Trials of Arabella’ which is written for her brother Leon who has been away for a while- although it is not much this is probably the most amount of success she achieves across the whole story. Within the first few pages of the chapter we can begin to establish a sense of secrecy and a passion of writing… for such a young girl this could be deemed tragic. Briony has been brought up in a wealthy but also lonely household, she spends most of her time alone as a result of a mother who is very distant due to her depression, and her other two siblings who are away for most of the time- she classes herself as a ‘only child’ The firsts lines of the book implicate she has a very creative and intelligent mind …show more content…
and thinks about every detail on a project or even problem she encounters.
Her personality shows traits of obsession and becoming too invested into things ‘causing her to miss a breakfast and a lunch’- she does this so she can stick to a deadline of completing her play before her brother gets back. She cares a lot about her brothers perception of her, suggesting is a father figure. Her proactive mind is very advanced for a girl thats only just started to hit puberty “two-day tempest of composition’ the reference to a Shakespeare play displays her literary ambition and her exaggerated personality thats been so obviously shown in her performance. This idea of her just starting her journey into womanhood is portrayed by her strong idea of what love consists of and her idea of a man and woman perfecting each other. This could be because of her traditional family
values that she holds. Her maturity is shown through this quote ‘desperately sad, the play told a tale of the heart whose message, conveyed in rhyming prologue that love which did not build on a foundation of good sense was doomed’ the ‘rhyming prologue’ shows connotations of medieval literature exercising her ability of being able to comprehend text way beyond her age capabilities. As a child the most mediocre thoughts of love would be a happy ending and love being fun and games. Although, a lot of her story has adult points of view her plot ends happily suggesting deep down she still has child like mentality due to this fairytale element conveyed. She is not as experienced apposed to her cousin Lola who through her parents own trials and tribulations she knows that love can also end in turmoil and heartbreak. Arabella is the main character in her play who has a very ostentatious ring to the name, it gives the sense that this character claims great importance, she is ‘punished by ill-fortune’, a deeper understanding of this quote could suggest a biblical meaning for example Adam and Eve who by temptations of a serpent were forsaken and ‘punished’ down to the realities of the real world. These two mythical figures can be likened unto Cecilia and Robbie how they were tempted by their sexual desires which initiated Briony’s misjudgement later on. Punishment and rewards is a key theme within the whole entire storyline, Briony and her whole family are very keen on the practise of disciplining those who have done wrong. As Briony has incorporated this into her story this strongly suggests how much she values her family standards and their moral views. “In fact, Briony’s was the only tidy upstairs room in the house” the word tidy suggests that she feels the need of order and structure in her life this is also expressed in the sentence structure of this quote as it is sharp, tidy and straight forward. Briony has a very organised and perfectionist personality which she explains as she describes the tight orders which her dollhouse is under “straight-backed dolls” . The secrecy aspect starts to appear as the narrator states ‘hidden drawers, lockable diaries and cryptographic systems could not conceal from Briony the simple truth: she had no secrets’ the use of the colon goes on to foreshadow the secrets she may face in the upcoming chapters and how well she will be able to cope with them. She has desires for encompassing secrets for this reason it could be seen she is trying to cover the fact she has no real excitement in her life and when drama does arise she blows it into a false event. Eventually, she comes to a realisation that devoting her true feelings and thoughts and pouring it into a book is a secret in itself- it was the development process of the story that is so vital for her not to share, this is represented through the quote ‘only when a story was finished all fates resolved…’ ‘…take the finished work to show her mother’. For example, the fact she is Arabella and also is aware of it and doesn’t feel the need to share it with her cousins is the turning point of story where real secrets start to develop. We could also consider that Briony was at a very naive and innocent age her actual personality shows ‘to not have it in her to be cruel’- with her noble upbringing she has been fortunate enough to of been sheltered and protected from the outside wickedness. She has not experienced neglect of suffered from her family quarrels and does not have the resentment or hatred in her heart to hurt somebody-intentionally. ‘Relative isolation’ goes on to emphasise her feelings of wanting someone to share her deepest thoughts with. The style and tone of adult Briony speaks in, is from her view in her later life which creates a nostalgic element that she is looking back and regrets her choices in her younger days. “Appeared only in retrospect” suggests that her longing for mystery and excitement only seems a problem looking back on it this creates a prolepsis that something tragic will take place that she greatly regrets, and has left a lingering guilt within her life since. Briony illustrates her intelligence through her own recognition of writing about occurrences she hasn’t gone through herself ‘appearing to know about the emotions of an imaginary being” with respect to this quote it is arguable she has a very empathetic characteristic. She possesses many important traits that can be classed as a curse or even a gift. Many of these, for example her ability to describe things extremely well which ultimately left Robbie to be arrested for a crime he didn't commit and the pure love between Cecilia and him to be broken. The melodramatic connotations expressed in her play, and her lack of being able to hide secrets slowly dominates the whole story.
Furthermore, within the play these "facades" belonging to the confident upper classes of the period are like wise displayed amongst the lower classes. For example, during the interaction between Christine and Katharina Binder (pp. 133-135 ), Katharina almost lectures Christine on the appropriate and expected behaviour of young working class girls within the Viennese `Vorstadt' - it
The play is about a young woman, Catherine who had been taking care of her father during his last years of life. Anne Heche plays Catherine. Prior to this play, I have never seen Anne Heche in any acting performance. I have to say she did an outstanding job in her portrayal of Catherine. She did a fantastic job of immediately drawing you into Catherine’s world. She aptly portrays the characteristics of a girl who never got a chance to grow up and the slight madness of the genius she inherited from her father. One can easily feel sad for her because after all she gave up all her dreams to take care of her ailing father. Anne Heche plays Catherine so well that it easy for you to fall in love with Catherine and desire only good things for her.
At the beginning of the novel, Briony has a childish view on love and passion, derived from fairytales and her own writings. Although Briony’s mother loves her, it is a fruitless love because there is no clear benefit or care given. As an outsider in her own family, Briony does not feel normal childish emotions, only speaking of a “passion for tidiness” and “love of order” (McEwan 7). Her older sister, Cecilia, assumes the role of
In order to analyse Shakespeare’s women, one must be aware of the female situation in both the playwright's own time period, and in the period in which his play was written. The ladies in Othello suggest that they have “internalised society's’ expectations of them, and apart from in moment of private conversation, behave as men expect, believing this to be ‘natural’” (. Emilia’s (and Desdemona’s) behaviour towards men for the most part of the play is an example of this behavior considered normal at the time. This conformity to social norms can be perceived as weaknes...
She does not spew out all the reasons why she loves Othello or say that she is unavoidably attracted to him as she could have. Instead, she picks a practical reason –
Neely, Carol Thomas. "Shakespeare's Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations." In Holland, Norman N., Sidney Homan, and Bernard J. Paris, eds. Shakespeare's Personality. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
As in his portrayal of Desdemona, here too Shakespeare has presented a woman of beauty and culture. Her demeanor is gentle and refined though not lacking in strength or determination. Her emotions are deep, pure, loyal and e...
Throughout “Araby”, the main character experiences a dynamic character shift as he recognizes that his idealized vision of his love, as well as the bazaar Araby, is not as grandiose as he once thought. The main character is infatuated with the sister of his friend Mangan; as “every morning [he] lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door…when she came on the doorstep [his] heart leaped” (Joyce 108). Although the main character had never spoken to her before, “her name was like a summons to all [his] foolish blood” (Joyce 108). In a sense, the image of Mangan’s sister was the light to his fantasy. She seemed to serve as a person who would lift him up out of the darkness of the life that he lived. This infatuation knew no bounds as “her image accompanied [him] even in places the most hostile to romance…her name sprang to [his] lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which [he] did not understand” (Joyce 109). The first encounter the narrator ex...
Written by the same author, “Araby” and “Eveline” are very similar in several aspects, both formal and contextual. As they are taken from the same collection of the short stories, namely “Dubliners”, these works develop the same theme – the life of those living in Dublin, their joys and problems, their ups and downs; therefore, it is logical that they share many similarities which may be traced while analyzing the main characters, the plot peculiarities, the themes and the conflict, the mood and the tone etc.
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest provides dialogue that portrays the social expectations and stereotypes imposed upon women in Elizabethan times. Even though the play has only one primary female character, Miranda, the play also includes another women; Sycorax, although she does not play as large a roll. During many scenes, the play illustrates the characteristics that represent the ideal woman within Elizabethan society. These characteristics support the fact that men considered women as a mere object that they had the luxury of owning and were nowhere near equal to them. Feminists can interpret the play as a depiction of the sexist treatment of women and would disagree with many of the characteristics and expectations that make Miranda the ideal woman. From this perspective, The Tempest can be used to objectify the common expectations and treatment of women within the 16th and 17th Centuries and compare and contrast to those of today.
... quest ends when he arrives at the bazaar and realizes with slow, tortured clarity that Araby is not at all what he imagined. It is tawdry and dark and thrives on the profit motive and the eternal lure its name evokes in men. The boy realizes that he has placed all his love and hope in a world that does not exist except in his imagination. He feels angry and betrayed and realizes his self-deception. He feels he is "a creature driven and derided by vanity" and the vanity is his own. At no other point in the story is characterization as brilliant as at the end. Joyce draws his protagonist with strokes designed to let us recognize in "the creature driven and derided by vanity" a boy who is initiated into knowledge through a loss of innocence who does not fully realize the incompatibility between the beautiful, innocent world of the imagination and the very real world of fact. In "Araby," Joyce uses the boyhood character with the manhood narrator to embody the theme of his story. Joyce, James. “Araby”. Literature and It’s Writers.
The Shakespearean classic work Othello enchants the readers mind through the tragic love story of the witty and cunning soldier Othello and the charming and powerful Desdemona. The continuous reinforcement of their tragedy is molded by the gender roles present in the play, particularly those of Bianca, Desdemona, and Emilia. Although the men are important within the outcome of the play, mainly Iago and Othello, the women take a more subtle, yet effective approach in manipulating the work through their personalities. Bianca is a woman of self-esteem and sexual power while Desdemona is the keeper of Othello’s heart and handkerchief, never once denouncing him, even her death. Emilia subtly represents that women are just as powerful, if not more,
Neely, Carol Thomas. “Shakespeare’s Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations.” Shakespeare’s Personality. Ed. Norman N. Holland, Sidney Homan, and Bernard J. Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. 116-134.
In many cultures, childhood is considered a carefree time, with none of the worries and constraints of the “real world.” In “Araby,” Joyce presents a story in which the central themes are frustration, the longing for adventure and escape, and the awakening and confusing passion experienced by a boy on the brink of adulthood. The author uses a single narrator, a somber setting, and symbolism, in a minimalist style, to remind the reader of the struggles and disappointments we all face, even during a time that is supposed to be carefree.