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Literature as a reflection of society pdf
Literature as a reflection of society pdf
Literature as a reflection of society pdf
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Christina Rossetti was a pivotal key in the foundations of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, which can be seen, throughout her poetry. Rossetti, as a follower of the Pre-Raphaelite’s, endorsed ideas of unrequited love, acceptance of human mortality and redemption. These ideals both endorsed and challenged the Victorian morals of her era as Victorian morality was focused on repression, class structures, and religion often conflicting with the sexual desire and questioning nature of Rossetti’s poems. The poem Echo is a reflection of Rossetti’s view on the romance and grief in her life through her unwavering faith in religion that will reunite her with her love. Through her desire of a recreation of love in the poem, it is both accepted and challenged through her religious beliefs as the purity of distance in …show more content…
This follows Rossetti’s value of acceptance of human mortality, as she understands “how long ago” their “love” was in the past but still desires them in her “dreams”. The use of personal language such as “my love” and imagery of “Speak low, lean low” give a feeling of intimacy that is missed by the narrator that endorsed Rossetti’s desire of a psychological need for love but also that the emotional nature of the poem is influenced by romanticism. The rhythmic imagery of the wording “pulse for pulse, breath for breath” is symbolic of a heartbeat showing the focus on the living memories rather than the bodily “death” of her lover. Rossetti uses the ideal of reliving her memories through her “dreams” as a Band-Aid approach as she has come to terms with the physical death of her lover but not the “death” of her “dream”. Christina portrays this attitude, as this could be seen as her coping mechanism for the deaths that occur in her life such as her father 's death which occurred the year she wrote the poem or could be seen symbolically as the death of her past
I transformed the poem by writing it as a story as though I am the
The verbose use of imagery in this poem is really what makes everything flow in this poem. As this poem is written in open form, the imagery of this writing is what makes this poem poetic and stand out to you. Marisa de los Santos begins her poem with “Its here in a student’s journal, a blue confession in smudged, erasable ink: ‘I can’t stop hoping/ I’ll wake up, suddenly beautiful’” (1-3). Even from the first lines of this story you can already picture this young girl sitting at her desk, doodling on her college ruled paper. It automatically hooks you into the poem, delving deeper and deeper as she goes along. She entices you into reading more as she writes, daring you to imagine the most perfect woman in the world, “cobalt-eyed, hair puddling/ like cognac,” (5-6). This may not be the ideal image of every person, but from the inten...
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
The confronting theme of life is shown through poetic techniques in the poems, Pieta and November. The cycle of life is shown through Pietà and November in two different ways. The child’s life is unfortunately cut short as it, ‘only [lives] one day.’ Whilst in November, the subject of the poem is about a Grandmother who is at the end of the cycle of life. This is unlike the baby in Pietà who is not able to live, or have a chance of living a long life. This may cause the audience to ponder about the purpose of life. Armitage uses consonantal alliteration and visual imagery, in ‘sun spangles,’ to symbolise that, ‘the only thing you can get, out of this life,’ is the beautiful happy moments. This logic is true for many non-believers as the purpose of life is unknown to them and the only positive reason for life is by creating happy memories.In November,the last moments of life are shown through the enjambment and flow. The audience is involved with the journey of bringing the woman to the hospital as if you are, ‘with your grandma taking four short steps to [your] two.’ This is effective as the audience can put themselves in the place of the narrator in the story.This is unlike Pieta which is written in past tense and is not able to put themselves in the place of mother but the audience is more sympathetic towards the mother and her loss of her child.
Comparing Christina Rosetti's Approach to the Subject of Death in After Death, Remember, Song and Dream
The last poem “The Fish” illustrates the sorrow of life itself. The skin, the blood, the entrails, everything of the fish depicts vividly and dramatically. The poet seems to share the same pain with the fish observing the scene and enjoys the detail just like enjoying an artwork. The poet lets the fish go because she is totally touched by the process between life and death; she loves life but meanwhile, is deeply hurt by the life. In the poem, the fish has no fear towards her; the desire to life is in the moving and tragic details when faces the
In Rossetti’s poem “In an Artist’s Studio”, she illustrates a man in the art studio surrounded around his canvases. On each of his canvases, he has painted the same woman in different positions, as depicted in, “One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans” (Rossetti 104). This man continuously paints the same women, each time depicting her differently as demonstrated, “A saint, and angel…” (Rossetti 104). Similarly, in McKay’s poem he illustrates for the readers, a dark skinned, half clothed woman dancing. Both of these poems focus on how men view women, and how men idealize women for their beauty, or some other desirable part of them. Both of these poets express that men do not appreciate the wholeness and complexity of both of these women. McKay’s idealized woman is also a woman of colour, which may lead into a discussion of race gender, and sexuality. In Rossetti’s poem, the artist “feeds upon” (Rossetti 104) the object of his affection, “not as she is, but as she fills his dreams” (Rossetti 104). Also, McKay’s narrator idealizes her physical beauty and describes how everyone “devoured” her beauty, even though “her self was not in that strange place” (McKay 18). The main difference is that McKay’s narrator sees his desired woman as having “grown lovelier for passing through a storm” (McKay 18), whereas Rossetti’s artist uses his art to wash away the pain-and by extension, the
Much of Christina Rossetti’s poetry has a very depressing and rather sombre tone, which can be sometimes used to infer the way in which she viewed life and times, which she was living in. However, despite this sombre theme throughout her poetry it can ... Much of Christina Rossetti’s poetry has a very depressing and rather sombre tone, which can be sometimes used to infer the way in which she viewed life and times, which she was living in. However, despite this sombre theme throughout her poetry it can be argued that it was not only her life that influenced her poetry but also the time in which shewas living. Many historians have suggested that the era in which Rossetti lived was a rather ‘bad’ time, the second half of the nineteenth century was a rather strange period and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement made quite an artistic group.
The central tension of fleeting versus eternal is vital to One Art, as it assists in using the villanelle’s structure and visual imagery of the poem. This is to illustrate that like this poem, most poetry contains many meanings that can be interpreted in many different ways.
The use of Bishops words at the beginning of the poem refers to her earlier years when she lost her father when she was eight months old, which was not so hard to cope with the loss of her since she was just a baby to know about pain. On the contrary, the conclusion of her poem refers to the last recent loss of her lover Lota de Macedo Soares, which was painful and she has not yet mastered the loss.
In Kate Chopin’s short story, a woman named Louise Mallard suffered of a heart disease. When her sister Josephine reveals to Louise about her husband’s tragic train accident, causing his death, her reaction was bizarre. After she is notified about her husband’s decease, she goes upstairs and locks herself in her room. She sits on her armchair, looks out her window, and fantasizes about what her life will be like without her husband, Mr. Mallard. Shortly after, Josephine comes for her, thinking Louise will get ill about the news and they both walk down the stairs. To Mrs. Mallard’s dismay, the door flings open: Mr. Mallard was alive! Mrs. Mallard was in shock but mostly disappointed, for the future she dreamed of without her husband was ruined, and dies. According to the doctor she had died of the joy that kills. There is no doubt that Kate Chopin included an abundant of symbolic and ironic references in her short story “The Story of an Hour.”
Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite model and wife to Gabriel Rossetti, is the source of intrigue for many Victorian researchers. Her mystery began from her vague background as a milliner’s assistant. From the start, many stories were told of her discovery and yet few stories were told of her past before that point. A frail young woman, she was addicted to narcotics and suffered from a variety of ailments, from the physical to the mental. Her turbulent relationship with Rossetti was plagued with ups and downs, and yet after her death, he mourned her with great sorrow and guilt.
Before reaching this moment, the reader can discern that Louise is struggling between the thoughts of how she “should” be reacting to the news of her husband’s death against the feeling of elation of being free from her perceived marital constraint. Louise is living in the late 19th century where society believed women belonged in a domestic realm where they “manned” the house (cooking, cleaning, raising the children) binding them to their home and husband. A time when a woman is to be the social moral compass and live by a strict social code of conduct. Even in the description of Louise it is clear she upholds these values: “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” (Chopin 306). It is also when the reader gets the first glimpse of Louise’s repressed life.
Within the context of this historical epoch, characterized by its reverence for "earnestness, moral responsibility" and "domestic propriety," the function of art as a device to both commemorate and conserve societal ideals makes it an effective instrument for the delineation of the Victorian individual. Those operating within the domain of literature, therefore, attempted to recreate their experience of the issues challenging Victorian society. The efforts of poets in this period to identify and explore these issues, including the position of women in society, are reflected in their works. Nineteenth century poets Tennyson and Rossetti endeavored to confront the prevalent social issues within England at the time. Amy Roxana in her writing explains that their texts, The Lady of Shallot and Goblin Market respectively, engage in “literary discourse with one another on the Victorian Era's perception of women in society, presenting dissimilar views on the idea of women's need for male protection, but mutually concluding that the place of women is indeed within the domestic sphere”.
Rossetti’s use of repetition emphasizes the idea that the artist is able to set expectations for women by controlling who they are, what they do, and what they feel by recreating them through art. Rossetti shows us a woman who is repeatedly being depicted in the artist’s paintings. Repetition of the word “one” (1,2,8) conveys a sense of homogenization: many women