In the story "The Urn," the author crafts a poignant story revolving around the protagonist's adventure to scatter her late husband's ashes in New York City. As she navigates the bustling cityscape, memories of their existence intertwine with her present facts. She looks back on their youthful escapades and enduring love while grappling with the finality of his passing. The protagonist's inner turmoil is palpable as she confronts the burden of grief and the inevitability of letting go. Despite her apprehensions, she fulfills her husband's wishes with an aggregate of sorrow and backbone. The story contains themes of love, loss, and resilience, showing a profound exploration of the human experience. Through nuanced characterization and bright …show more content…
Despite her initial trepidation and difficulty with the scattering system, she ultimately finds solace in fulfilling her husband's desires. The perception she gains lies in knowing the importance of honoring her husband's memory while additionally navigating her own grief. This is evident while she displays his decision to have his ashes scattered throughout the city, knowing the significance of each location tied to their loved recollections together. She reviews a variety of feelings, from nostalgia to unhappiness, as she almost reminds them of their existence together. Additionally, the minor characters within the short story play an essential role in helping the main individual all through her adventure of scattering the ashes. For example, her husband's choice to simplify the scattering method for her demonstrates his consideration and love for her well-being. This is pointed out while he suggests scattering his ashes inside the river, knowing the issue she could face if his ashes were scattered in diverse places throughout the town. Overall, the primary man or woman goes through a transformation as she comes to terms with her husband's passing and reveals closure through the act of scattering his …show more content…
She notices these beautiful portraits, but finds herself grappling with the practicalities and complexities of the situation. This conflict comes up as she navigates the tension between what society expects of her—scattering ashes in serene and symbolic places—and her own personal feelings and experiences. Despite societal pressure to adhere to these expectations, the protagonist, in the end, chooses to observe her own instincts and emotions, disregarding conventional rules. This unresolved conflict highlights the protagonist's defiance against societal expectations and her choice to honor her late husband in a manner that feels proper and significant to her. Additionally, there is an internal conflict of character versus self because the protagonist wrestles with her emotions and memories for the duration of the adventure. She experiences moments of nostalgia and grief, reminiscing about her past with her husband and feeling the weight of loneliness in his absence. This conflict ends in a poignant moment at the waterfront when she struggles to let go of the urn containing his
Throughout the novel, crucial family members and friends of the girl that died are meticulously reshaped by her absence. Lindsey, the sister, outgrows her timidity and develops a brave, fearless demeanor, while at the same time she glows with independence. Abigail, the mother, frees herself from the barbed wire that protected her loved ones yet caused her great pain, as well as learns that withdrawing oneself from their role in society may be the most favorable choice. Ruth, the remote friend from school, determines her career that will last a lifetime. and escapes from the dark place that she was drowning in before. Thus, next time one is overcome with grief, they must remember that constructive change is guaranteed to
The author begins the story with a strong statement, “I found myself in a Chinese funeral parlor because of a phone call I made to my cleaning lady” (Schmitt); it takes the reader right into the funeral parlor and draws the reader into the story: how she got to the funeral parlor and what she doing there was the question I had. She starts the story with some background about how she got to China. Then moves on to the funeral that was happening in her neighbors’ home. She describes how the family was grievously weeping as she was walking toward her apartment. She noticed what happened and wonder why they were weeping. “Do you know why the neighbors are very sad?” she asked her cleaning lady.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
Finally, it uses a strong conflict which allows readers to see the importance of the theme, and how it has evolved throughout the book. To start, the characterization of May approaches the idea that grief can lead to guilt. May is a teenager who tragically experienced her brother being shot during a school shooting. She realizes that this had a great impact on her, and would not be able to go back to school. After the new school year starts, May decides to go back.
She had a plan to get her birthday present, but on her way there, she died. Because of her death, he is affected by relationships with others, particularly his family. This contributes to his sense of isolation and
John Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn” is an enduring work of beauty that masterfully intertwines the permanence of art with the transient nature of human experience. In the fourth stanza of the text, Keats mentions nature and humans as well, “What little town by river or sea sore,/ Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,/ Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?” (Keats, lines 35-37). Keats describes the sense of abandonment in a once vibrant place. In this poem, Keats employs an abundant veil of figurative language to explore the stories captured on the surface of the urn, which themselves are a powerful depiction of reality and the emotions that come with life.
The conversations between the characters happen in the narrow space of the burial vault, indicating that their quest for beauty and truth has made them get buried literally and metaphorically. The picture of their lips covered with moss and the names they used denoting the speechlessness and the erasure of identities shows the toll the single-minded pursuit of ideals might take on the self and the soul, leading to a living
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
In addition to dealing with her personal emotions, she endures her husband’s emotions of anger towards her. Their relationship shifts from a loving one to “as if it never were/ [a] friendship” (24-25). All their cherished memories no longer define their relationship. Although not physically separated from her husband in lines 15-26, she suffers from separation from him mentally and
The distortion and manipulation of Electra’s emotions by grief is brought to climax at the news of her brothers’ death. She reached out and took the supposed ashes of Orestes, slowly cuddling them like a mother cuddles a baby. She looked to this urn and talked to it like it was a child. This emphatic personification that Scott Thomas’ Electra is absorbed by highlights the effect that her grief has on her emotional balance.
Again, within the first few lines of text we are presented with a protagonist’s desires. The Mother is desperately lamenting on the tragedies that have befallen her family in the past and seeks her own and her son’s wellbeing and future
The death of her husband is what incites the metaphorical change in her because she is left to fend for her family and herself. She begins by selling the vacation house, which hoarded many important memories she
When she heard about this tragedy she grieved for a short amount of time within an hour but then she secured herself inside her room by the window and then her mood suddenly changes. She wasn’t feeling inconsolable anymore. A feeling of independence and freedom overcame her at the thought of not having a husband
Even after his mother’s death his careless attitude continued. Death in this novel is a prominent theme depicted throughout the course of the story. The motif of death is one consistently brought
There is another stark contrast between the haze of death and the natural recovery. After crying, the storm of grief became fade, Mrs. Mallard went back her room alone, motionless sobbing, however, when her dull eyes staring out of the window, the atmosphere around her seemed to be changed by the full of vitality landscape out of the window, which also influences her emotions. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares.