“Miss Potter” (2006) is a biographic film of the legendary author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, directed by Chris Noonan. The 92-minute flow of scenes captures only a few years in Ms. Potter’s life, but it has successfully portrayed her as an admirable lady “whose imagination inspires the world”. Beyond such great depiction of one individual, the film also demonstrates the identity of British people as a whole. Various characteristics have been explored, and the most remarkable one is their incredible love of nature.
The British adore nature and its green peace. They see the countryside, with cottages, ponds, trees and grasses, an ideal place to live safely and healthily. They love gardens and parks, as many spend a lot of time growing and protecting plants. They care for animals, especially small rodents and domestic pets (Nguyen et al., pp. 88-90). These three traits are well illustrated in “Miss Potter”, either in description of the British lifestyle or through characters’ thinking and interactions.
Firstly, the British enthusiasm for tranquil, off the beaten track homes is clearly expressed in their preference of the Lake District as a holiday destination. The Potters often travel there to enjoy their summer, which
…show more content…
Amelia Warne, Miss Potter’s best friend, has a great aspiration for this activity. “I love to garden,” she says, “I love flowers shockingly”. This outright confession exemplifies how gardening is consistently among the most popular hobbies in the UK (Nguyen et al., p. 89). It also explains why the Warnes’ house looks lively with a backyard full of greenery, a favourite venue to have tea breaks in the afternoon with welcome guests as Miss Potter. In nice weather, they think it is a must to share the joy in the embrace of nature with people. The sentimental attachment to gardens then has symbolised both hospitality and appreciation for nature in
the modern garden. She interprets how we have the need to control and create what we consider perfect with our sciences and labs. While rules reign, sanitation demands, and socialization take control of the perfect scene for a pleasant environment, the unpleasant side of these malls such as their trash is kept out of the vision of the consumer. Most of these consumer products that are used to entice the population to enter into this heavenly place on earth became waste that is not entirely recycled
In the mid-19th century, public parks in England began to emerge in response to a rise in pollution and lack of open space within newly industrialized urban centers in places such as London, Derby, Birmingham, and Manchester.(2) The first public parks were funded by private benefactors who were often times the owners of the factories that created these tainted environments. Influencing this environment-friendly attitude was the increased Victorian interest in the sciences (especially botany) due to nineteenth century contributions of both biologists and writers including the empirical work of Darwin's Origin of Species (1858) and Tennyson's literary work, InMemoriam (1867).(3) Many of these benefactors put money into the development of public walks and parks to give birth to not only a healthier urban setting, though, but also to create a façade that made them appear as altruistic philanthropists who were genuinely concerned with the social welfare of the urban-based factory workers who had little or no open space of their own.(4) However, while these upper-middle Victorian philanthropists appeared to provide the working class with the social and health ideals of the upper crust, the public environments that they created did not reflect this universal ideal of integrating the disparate classes together, but rather they were attempts to maintain the isolation and segregation the Victorian upper class desired.
Mr. Grein had remarked on the London Sunday Times that:” the English are not artists in the dram, nor in the other arts, but they are eminent artists in living and in the ordering of a home”. In the story of Pride and Prejudice, characters’ daily chat are always surrounding house decoration or beautiful houses too, several plots are drew from the conversation about house, for example, when Mrs. Darcy came to Elizabeth’s place to tell her to keep away from her son, she ask Elizabeth to lead her a tour to the house. It can be seen that house’s position in English mind. Like the fiction Pride and Prejudice, story began with a “house” on the site of Alice Keck Park.
On the other hand, the garden itself within The Secret Garden can be classified as a cultivated natural therapeutic landscape. What makes the garden truly remarkable as a therapeutic is its role in Mary’s coming of age, considering that prior to Mary’s exposure to the garden she was raised without an appropriate adult role models but nonetheless reached emotional maturity. In addition, the garden is considered a true therapeutic landscape due to its role in healing not only Mary, but also Colin and Archibald
Walker, Alice. (1974). “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 694-701.
Seaton, Beverly. The Language of Flowers: A History: Victorian Literature and Culture Series. Charlottesville and London: University Press of London, 1995. Print.
Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key. Although The Tale of Peter Rabbit is not a ‘modern’ picturebook, and was written to a different concept of childhood than Voices in the Park, it certainly falls within Bader’s description.... ... middle of paper ...
Goff, Patricia. Producing Harry Potter: Why the Medium is Still the Message. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. "Flower Garden." Introduction to Literature: Reading, Analyzing, and Writing. 2nd ed. Ed. Dorothy U.Seyler and Richard A. Wilan. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1990.
The portrayal of female characters in British literature has most often reflected the larger perception of women by society during the time of a work’s publication. In this regard, the immensely popular Harry Potter series written by author J.K. Rowling is certainly no exception. The circumstances for women in late 20th century Britain have improved and in many ways are nearing equality with men, yet a notable upper barrier to success still remains. Rowling captures this gender dynamic throughout the Harry Potter series by including a diverse cast of resilient female characters who are not allowed to take on the same leadership roles dominated by the men at Hogwarts, at the Ministry of Magic, in quidditch, and during the Triwizard tournament. The novels also center on an important theme of motherly love that Rowling uses to explore the sacrifices women must make in order to raise their children well. Such issues have been present in British literature for well over a century, with each generation seeing steps toward equality, both for the fictitious characters and the women of a given time period. The Harry Potter series, therefore, constitutes a reflection of female status in modern Britain that has advanced, but remains perpetually flawed.
...that suspends the boundaries of man and nature, the way in which she structures the last image to be one of hostility indicates the unsustainable nature of the garden.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, author J.K. Rowling displays the themes of feminism, love, and death because she personally experienced the importance of each. Throughout her lifetime Rowling experienced many difficult and wonderful times with her family, friends, and fans. These experiences and the effects that they had on the author’s life are clearly demonstrated in her written work. Through her characters in this novel Rowling created an outlet that she may solve her problems and relive the wonders of her life not only for herself but for her readers as well.
Gardeners often find deep satisfaction in their gardens because they are rewarded by their patience and
‘Wuthering Heights’, although having survived the test of time as a work that is poignant and passionate, and eminently capable of holding the reader’s attention, received mixed criticism upon publication in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. Apparently, the vivid description of mental and physical violence and agony was hard to stomach, and the atmosphere was too oppressive to merit popular liking. But many later readers and critics have given ‘Wuthering Heights’ the mantle of being the best of the works of the Bronte sisters, displacing Charlotte’s ‘Jane Eyre’. One of its prime merits, at least to my eyes, lies in Emily’s ability to make Nature an eloquent party to the story-corresponding closely with a character’s emotions, with the incidents, with the movement of the plot, and thus adding to the quality of the story. Emily was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, and her love for the landscape that she grew up with is reflected in the novel in the moors and the crags, the storms and the spring. One can see an extension of this one-ness with nature, this unity, in her choice of Wuthering Hei...
As a child I remember my mother was always busy at work in her garden. It was full of lush red cherry and big boy tomatoes so, juicy and sweet that I could pick them right off the bush and eat it. I would eat so many of these lovely succulent round balls of red that my mouth would start to feel the pain from the acid in the tomatoes. She grew everything from a variety of vegetables so tasty to flowers so beautiful they would take my breath away. I could not wait for springs arrival, just to help her cultivate our summer gardens.