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How does literature influence society
The Relationship Between Literature And Society
The Relationship Between Literature And Society
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Henry James’ novella, Daisy Miller, was written as a cautionary tale. The main character, Daisy, was vilified by portraying her as vapid. She was also eventually shunned by society for her actions and decisions. Lastly, the text was conceived and published at a time in which there was great speculation and fear surrounding the disease from which the character Daisy eventually succumbs.
Fictional character’s names are often symbolic, alluding to the traits they possess. Daisy Miller's name is a symbol for a daisy flower. This is because she is fragile, pretty, and simple. The author continually refers to her physical attributes instead of who she actually is as a person, mirrored by how people usually focus on a daisy’s appearance. “And she was strikingly, admirably pretty (page 7).” said the narrator, not thinking anything of her deeper personality traits, or what she is capable of. The author seems to caution away from being like Daisy Miller by belittling her with his words. He uses negative connotation to affect the reader’s opinion of the character. For example the text says “ she began to prattle
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about her own affairs (page 27 ).” This verb use is directly demeaning towards the content of her words, and indirectly towards the content of her head. As with a daisy, the reader is led to believe there is nothing more than meets the eye. Daisy Miller’s character is a cautionary tale in that her choices of conduct are discouraged frequently by her peers. For instance, the character of Winterbourne describes her behavior by stating it is “everything that is not done here. Flirting with any man she could pick up; sitting in corners with mysterious Italians; dancing all the evening with the same partners; receiving visits at eleven o’clock at night (page 30).” She is eventually rejected by peers completely. Mrs. Costello, a prominent socialite in Rome, “turned her back straight upon Miss Miller (page 34)” signifying a final fall from good graces. But, even after being publicly shunned by the upper class, Daisy continues to act in a way that society did not accept at this time, especially when it came to male companions. At the time Daisy Miller was written and published, the cause of the fever now known as malaria was not yet known. One of the speculated causes of the deadly disease was from going out at night. A French surgeon observed parasites in a patient's blood in November 1880. This surgeon, Laveran, is credited with the discovery of malaria’s cause. Daisy Miller was published in July of 1878 - two years and change before the true source of malaria was discovered. This timeline leads one to believe the author himself ignorant when it came to the cause of the fever which had claimed the lives of over a million of his own countrymen not a decade earlier. In keeping with the mystery of the deadly disease, James refers to malaria as “fever” six times from pages 26-41. He only calls the fever by its scientific name once (page 40) in the entire text. The text also says on page 41, “‘It’s going round at night, that’s what made her sick.” This lack of scientific explanation for the character's unhealthy end also points to her status as a cautionary tale since. At the time, who was to say indiscreet courting after sundown wasn’t the cause of malaria? From the first time the reader reads her name, they are lead to believe that she lacks substance based on the symbolic nature of a daisy.
The text continues to cast Daisy in a negative light, subliminally encouraging the reader to not be like her. In addition to the character's eventual loss of life, she also loses social standing and the respect and admiration of her peers. This could have been avoided if she had stuck to the status quo, an option that was completely within her control. The author also was unaware of the biological cause of malaria, so it is likely his purpose was to warn readers away from possible contraction of the disease by not going out at night. As is typical of a cautionary tale, the character that was meant to be disliked, met a demise of their own avoidable doing, and warned against a culturally relevant action with deadly
consequences.
Daisy Blunt is described as a young, beautiful, dark-skinned women who was always nicely dressed. When Daisy walked by the store, the men started to compliment her and said what they would do for her. For example, one of the men, Jim claims he’ll buy Daisy a steamship and hire some men to run it for her.(pg. 69). From Janie’s perspective, Daisy is uncomfortable with all the attention that is suddenly placed upon her. When Daisy shows discomfort, the men would laugh loudly making fun of Daisy. (p...
Daisy Buchanan is another character who lives in an illusory world. Daisy marries Tom only because he has money. Daisy is in love with material objects. She uses her money to get away from reality, and when she feels threatened, she hides behind her money. Furthermore, she says, "And I hope she'll be a fool-That's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."(Pg. 21) regarding her daughter Pammy. This statement shows part of her corruption because she is saying that it is better to be careless and beautiful instead of worrying about real things. Daisy wears white, which represents purity, but she is corrupted by money, which is gold and yellow. The colors white, yellow and gold are like the flower that Daisy is named after.
As you read on, Daisy’s true character is slowly revealed, and you come to achieve that she is a very careless person. She seems to never care about the consequences of her actions, and this is proven when she is driving home from the city, and hits Myrtle with Gatsby’s car. Unlike most other people, she didn’t even hesitate and just drove home, without a care in the world about what she had done. One of Nick Caraway’s final assessments of Daisy after the accident is that she is very careless. He even says; “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made”. (Fitzgerald 187) This quote is proof that people i...
...mate sin, the killing of Myrtle. Fitzgerald believed that humanity was hopeless, and Daisy's character is a symbol of that hopelessness. "Aren't we all a little like Daisy--foolish sinners who wander around avoiding reality, hurting and being hurt by those around us, letting others take the punishment for our transgressions?" (Clark, 3/10).
that her husband was having an affair with another women but Daisy did not do
Knowing and understanding social, political, and cultural history is extremely important when reading many novels, especially Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Linda Brent and any short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both of these authors had many extinuating circumstances surrounding their writings that should be noted before reading their works. Without knowing what was happening both in the outside world and in the respected author's life, one cannot truly grasp what the author is trying to say or what the author truly means by what he or she is saying. In this paper, I will show how important it is for the reader to understand the social, political, and cultural happenings in the writer's lives and in the world surrounding them during the times that their works were written.
Daisy's carelessness reveals her corruption as a human being. She uses her wealth and social status to escape whatever she chooses, like the death of Myrtle. Additionally, her actions demonstrate the dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain and attention. Daisy’s character, due to her money, inherently values her advantage over the lower class, revealing a nature of entitlement. Additionally, she gives no respect to anyone around her, sometimes n...
Specific characters in which their names act as their genes are Bertha and Lily. Very few female characters’ names are not in the diminutive, and one is Bertha, a preeminent figure in the upper class. When Lily is about to reveal Bertha’s affair her “words died under the impenetrable insolence of Bertha’s smile…then without a word, she rose and went down to her cabin” (Wharton 221). Bertha’s superiority is evident in Wharton’s’ diction and Lily’s symbolic positioning. Because Lily’s words die under Bertha and she goes downstairs, or below Bertha, it signifies her subservience. Lily’s name is even in the diminutive, since it ends in “y”, which further represents her subordination. This enables Wharton to use Bertha’s name to foreshadow, or predestine, her eventual dominance over Lily. Like Bertha, Lily’s name denotes her fate, particularly her alienation. Her name represents nature, but, since a flower cannot survive in this metropolitan environment, it symbolizes why Lily cannot conform and will not prosper. A lily further allows Wharton to comment on Lily’s personality. If she were to succumb to the values of her class she would “…sacrifice [the] fineness of spirit that sets her apart” (Barnett). This fineness relates to Lily’s innate morality, such as a lily’s white coloring. Since she is characterized as virtuous, she will fail
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson, a woman named Ms. Strangeworth came off as a very sweet, self-minded woman who cared deeply about her roses. The author used several symbols to represent Ms. Strangeworth’s character. A symbol is something that represents another person or thing. One symbol that was used in this short story was roses. Ms. Strangeworth took pride in her home and the neighborhood it stood in. The most important thing about her home was the roses in her front yard making them a big symbol that uprises in this story. These roses were very special to Ms. Strangeworth and they were greatly admired by her and all the others who pass by them. In addition to the first, the reason these roses are a big
...ccording to Perkins, although French and Russian realists and naturalists influenced James style, “in Contrast to the European naturalists whose tutelage he acknowledged, he rebelled against the materialistic interpretation of human destiny, and struggled with the problem of undeniable evil as desperately as Hawthorne, whom, among earlier Americans he most admired” (Perkins 1055). This shows that James was greatly influenced by Europeans, but he also has his added his own unique American style. One of James’ stories, “Daisy Miller," takes place in Switzerland. Throughout this story Europeans see America as being hostile and somewhat harsh. During the decade between 1870 and 1880 , the United States was once again beginning to rebuild the nation. This rebuilding or reconstruction not only affected attitudes, but it affected art and literature throughout the world.
...e of a female in this village. Other names are used to assist with setting the season, and to forewarn of Tessie Hutchinson’s fate. The brilliance in Jackson’s selectiveness in who is given a first name, and how it is used to bring attention to how this is a man’s society, adds to the other sexist innuendos. The names Jackson assigns her characters are just as important to the message in this story as the characters themselves.
Throughout time women have been written as the lesser sex weaker, secondary characters. They are portrayed as dumb, stupid, and nothing more that their fading beauty. They are written as if they need to be saved or helped because they cannot help themselves. Women, such as Daisy Buchanan who believes all a women can be is a “beautiful little fool”, Mrs Mallard who quite died when she lost her freedom from her husband, Eliza Perkins who rights the main character a woman who is a mental health patient who happens to be a woman being locked up by her husband, and then Carlos Andres Gomez who recognizes the sexism problem and wants to change it. Women in The Great Gatsby, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wall Paper” and the poem “When” are
Back in the 1920's, Most of America's women were dependent on men. The character Daisy Buchanan disregarded everyone's feelings for her own security and comfort. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, she is portrayed as a money-hungry, selfish, and immature woman. Daisy is more interested in making sure she is stable and safe before everyone else.
Throughout Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” the role of women can be examined to demonstrate anti-feminism. Initially, Daisy is viewed as an innocent, loving character, but once her true motives are revealed, it is clear that she is very corrupt, desiring only money and power. This is used to show the stereotypical female who lives under the man for his possessions, and lacks the self-respect to stand against the opposite gender. She is not the only female to act like this, there are many, but her case is the most important because it directly influences all of the main characters. Gatsby is also portrayed as a stereotype: the boy who wants his true love and will do anything and everything to get her, even be accused of murder. Once each character
In Daisy Miller, Henry James slowly reveals the nature of Daisy"s character through her interactions with other characters, especially Winterbourne, the main character. " The author uses third person narration; however, Winterbourne"s thoughts and point of view dominate." Thus, the audience knows no more about Daisy than Winterbourne. " This technique helps maintain the ambiguity of Daisy"s character and draws the audience into the story. At first glimpse, Daisy is portrayed as a "pretty American flirt" whose innocence Winterbourne is unsure of, and yet he says he was "almost grateful for having found the formula that applied to Miss Daisy Miller" (James 1563).