Originality can never be completely possible, since stories have been written for the last 5000 years. It is a difficult concept for writers to tackle because of the extensive and ever-growing amount of literature the world has to offer. Thus, begging the question; Just how original is an “original” work? Thomas Foster, asserts that there is no such thing as a “wholly original work of literature”, a claim that proves to be partially correct, when analyzing just these four stories: “Eveline”, “Trifles”, “The Story of an Hour” and “A Rose for Emily”.
In regard to cohesion, characterization is a literary element that rightfully shows just how closely related the stories are. Eveline can be considered an inception when interpreting each narrative,
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Emily is directly depicted as “a tradition” and “a duty”—she is unchanging. Notably, this is reflected by her denial that her father had joined the dearly departed and her unsettling knack for necrophilia. She does not want to let go of her significant other because he is all she has left, she harbors his body because she does not know how to cope with change, much like Eveline. Emily is the Eveline that remained with her father that would later be described as “with nothing left she would have to cling to that which had robbed her” (Faulkner 3). She fails when seeking affection within someone other than her father. The pair have no grasp or understanding of their own feelings, so they shelter themselves in damnable familiarity. Comparatively, Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Wright are the Eveline that chose to pursue a more fitting future. A future that they find is incredibly similar to that of the past. Eveline remains oppressed, however, now, it is not by her father, but by her lover. Mrs. Mallard, the older, anxiety stricken, Eveline, “afflicted with heart trouble”, experiences unparaled relief and glee upon hearing of her husband’s death. She is finally, “…free, free, free!”, from he who governs her. The freedom is short lived, as she perishes …show more content…
The most eminent, arguably, being the male characters and shockingly enough, windows. In Eveline and Story of an Hour, the protagonists look from their windows, an action that is seemingly insignificant. Nevertheless, to these women, windows represent the fracturing of patriarchal confines, they represent a promising future. Men embody what they are symbolic of—oppression and hypermasculinity. An aspect that Is imperative to each personalities’ characterization. The plot moves because of their existence, simultaneously, damning the female characters as it progresses. Evidently, women’s oppression is a very predominant theme within each narrative. These women have been condemned in some aspect by men. They are subject to a world of draconian gender roles, separated by these roles, men and women are portrayed in a world, dominated by men, in which social expectations and restrictions serve to further perpetuate gender stratification. Essentially oppressed women are to beat the home, bound to their husbands, with little control or identity of their own. Inevitability is yet another theme that can be recognized in each fictional work. It is apparent that these women desperately yearn for sufferance, even so, the reality is that it is something that they will not be able to achieve, their fate is inescapable, seeing as one woman cannot singlehandedly combat a whole
Life is sad and tragic; some of which is made for us and some of which we make ourselves. Emily had a hard life. Everything that she loved left her. Her father probably impressed upon her that every man she met was no good for her. The townspeople even state “when her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad…being left alone…She had become humanized” (219). This sounds as if her father’s death was sort of liberation for Emily. In a way it was, she could begin to date and court men of her choice and liking. Her father couldn’t chase them off any more. But then again, did she have the know-how to do this, after all those years of her father’s past actions? It also sounds as if the townspeople thought Emily was above the law because of her high-class stature. Now since the passing of her father she may be like them, a middle class working person. Unfortunately, for Emily she became home bound.
Emily was drove crazy by others expectations, and her loneliness. ““A Rose for Emily,” a story of love and obsession, love, and death, is undoubtedly the most famous one among Faulkner’s more than one hundred short stories. It tells of a tragedy of a screwy southern lady Emily Grierson who is driven from stem to stern by the worldly tradition and desires to possess her lover by poisoning him and keeping his corpse in her isolated house.” (Yang, A Road to Destruction and Self Destruction: The Same Fate of Emily and Elly, Proquest) When she was young her father chased away any would be suitors. He was convinced no one was good enough for her. Emily ended up unmarried. She had come to depend on her father. When he finally died, ...
The story of how temptations, lifestyles, and influences upon women cause their true personalities and devotions to arise and corrupt their normal existence is clearly shown in both novels. They represent how little influence women have over their own lives, although certain aspects of their lives can completely rule or take control of their surroundings and therefore change them as individual women as well.
One can clearly imagine the timid Emily standing behind her towering father. "Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip." Emily's father not only dominates the portrait but dominates Emily as well. Emily's father controls her every move. She cannot date anyone unless her father approves, yet he never approves of any of the few men that do show interest in her. "None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such." Unable to find a good enough suitor, Emily has no choice but to stay and care for her governing father.
life and looked for a way to gain her freedom. Emily must endure her fathers
...hetypes of these primary characters, both of these novels make a parallel statement on feminism. The expectations of both themselves and society greatly determine the way that these women function in their families and in other relationships. Looking at the time periods in which these novels were written and take place, it is clear that these gender roles greatly influence whether a female character displays independence or dependence. From a contemporary viewpoint, readers can see how these women either fit or push the boundaries of these expected gender roles.
Emily father was highly favored in the town. Faulkner writes in his Short Story Criticism, “The Griersons have always been “high and mighty,” somehow above “the gross, teeming world….” Emily’s father was well respected and occasionally loaned the town money. That made her a wealthy child and she basically had everything a child wanted. Emily’s father was a very serious man and Emily’s mind was violated by her father’s strict mentality. After Emily’s father being the only man in her life, he dies and she find it hard to let go of him. Because of her father, she possessed a stubborn outlook on life and how thing should be. She practically secluded her self from society for the remainder of her life.
Emily’s isolation is evident because after the men that cared about her deserted her, either by death or simply leaving her, she hid from society and didn’t allow anyone to get close to her. Miss Emily is afraid to confront reality. She seems to live in a sort of fantasy world where death has no meaning. Emily refuses to accept or recognize the death of her father, and the fact that the world around her is changing.
Women play a key role in this novel in many ways. In the case of...
Women had no choice but to follow whatever society told them to because there was no other option for them. Change was very hard for these women due to unexpected demands required from them. They held back every time change came their way, they had to put up with their oppressors because they didn’t have a mind of their own. Both authors described how their society affected them during this historical period.
who had lost the person she really knew. This repression of Emily’s father dying was
I am going to analyze this text using the intrinsic and feminist literary theory analysis. With the intrinsic analysis, I will brood mostly on the style and characterization of the text. According to Eaglestone, 2009, intrinsic analysis is a look into the text for meaning and understanding, assuming it has no connection, whatsoever, to the outside world. “Style is said to be the way one writes as opposed to what one writes about and is that voice that your readers hear when they read your work” (Wiehardt, n.d). The text uses mostly colors, poems and songs to deliver its messages. The main characters in the...
Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal girl with aspirations of growing up and finding a mate that she could soon marry and start a family, but this was all impossible because of her father. The father believed that, “none of the younger man were quite good enough for Miss Emily,” because of this Miss Emily was alone. Emily was in her father’s shadow for a very long time. She lived her li...
As a child, Emily was unable make friends or even play outside because her father held his family to a much higher standard than other townspeople “The Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner 36). Emily’s father, selfishly held Emily back from living, loving, and freedom. She was unable to find a soul mate because her father believed that “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such” (Faulkner 36). Because of this, Emily stuck close to the only man she’s ever known like a newborn to its mother. Emily and her father had such a close bond that when he died, for days she refused to believe he was dead, and she also refused to let the townspeople dispose of the body. For the townspeople, Emily’s reaction to her father’s death was quite normal, but for readers it was our first glimpse at her necrophilia.
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).