Discovery has the ability to alter one's perspective of both themselves and society as a whole. They are shaped by an individual’s attitude to confronting or provocative discoveries which may challenge one's existing values. William Shakespeare’s tragicomedy “The Tempest” (1611) and Katherine Mansfield’s short story “The Garden Party” (1922) both examine the transformative capabilities of discovery in promoting a re-evaluation of the importance of power. In William Shakespeare’s play, it is through both unexpected and planned discoveries that individuals are forced to reassess their perception of themselves and others. Modernist short story writer, Katherine Mansfield, explores how unplanned discoveries lead one to learn about the nature of …show more content…
Despite being unplanned, these discoveries play a major role to the audience’s understanding of the character’s attitude towards the human order. Mansfield’s, The Garden Party, explores Mrs. Sheridan’s commanding figure and matriarchal perspective on society. The bildungsroman short story illustrates Mrs. Sheridan insensitive self, through the events that follow Mr. Scott’s death. Her dominating personality is emphasised through, “Mrs. Sheridan's voice floated down the stairs. "Tell her to wear that sweet hat she had on last Sunday,” where she speaks mostly in imperatives, assuming an authoritative quality and appears to control everything. Her command, along with “forget i am your mother,” comes from a disembodied voice that floats down from above, demonstrating the disruption of the great chain of being, furthering the supernatural elements of the story, as well as suggesting that Mrs. Sheridan has ultimate power and authority to manipulate all the pieces of the event. Sadie’s immediate reaction to the florist’s arrival is to “Ask Mrs Sheridan,” for guidance, despite her declaration that she will leave the arrangements for the children. Mansfield again emphasises Mrs. Sheridan’s authority here, where her powerful presence looms over her children, regardless of her proclaimed desire to be treated as merely “an honoured guest.” Succeeding the sudden death of Mr. Scott, an inferior ‘black’ man who “had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all,” and her daughter Laura’s request to cancel the garden party, Mrs Sheridan replies with "People like that don't expect sacrifices from us. And it's not very sympathetic to spoil everybody's enjoyment as you're doing now." This shows her view of lower social classes and emphasises how subordinate they are represented as being. Both Shakespeare and Mansfield represent the outlook of superior classes on those lower in the divine order as being
Confronting experiences may prompt inner discoveries which result in the re-evaluation of the importance of power. Shakespeare’s The Tempest follows Prospero, an exiled megalomaniac’s plan to exact revenge
With the semester coming to an end, many students are excited. This especially includes those who will be graduating soon. However, graduation can be seen as a bittersweet moment. On one hand, the graduates enter into a new chapter in their lives. On the other hand, they may lose communication with some of their friends. Unfortunately, this is a natural aspect of each person’s life. Everyone will experience some kind of loss in their life, whether it is person or an object. In The Tempest, Shakespeare discusses the topic of loss. While this theme is not talked about much compared to other themes in the play, it is very important since it is a theme that is included in the 1956 movie adaptation Forbidden Planet. While both works illustrate the ways people deals a loss, the later work demonstrates how the advancement in the world have affected the way modern society
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
Nora and Mrs. Wright’s social standing when compared to the men in each play is inferior. Both works expose their respective male characters’ sexist view of women diminishing the women’s social standing. Each work features egotistical men who have a severely inflated view of their self-worth when compared to their female counterparts. The men’s actions and words indicate they believe women are not capable of thinking intelligently. This is demonstrated in “Trifles” when Mr. Hale makes the statement about women only worrying about mere trifles. It is also apparent in “A Dollhouse” when Torvalds thinks his wife is not capable of thinking with any complexity (Mazur 17). Another common attribute is of the women’s social standing is displayed as both women finally get tired of feeling like second class citizens and stand up to the repressive people in the women’s lives (Mulry 294). Although both women share much in common in their social standing there subtle differences. Torvald’s sexist view of Nora is more on a personal level in “A Dollhouse” while the male characters’ sexist views in “Trifles” seem to be more of a social view that women are not very smart and their opinions are of little value. This attitude is apparent in “Trifles” as Mr. Hale and Mr. Henderson’s comments about Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping (Mulry 293). As the women in both works reach their emotional
With a husband and two children at the age of twenty eight, Edna Pontillier realized that the mother-wife life was not for her. With her new found independence Edna’s husband was unsure of how to handle his new untraditional wife. “I came to consult—no, not precisely to consult—to talk to you about Edna. I don't know what ails her.”(pg. 109) Mr. Pontillier is a loving and good husband but, his slight narcissistic personality causes him to lose touch with his wife. Mr. Pontillier buys Edna bonbons and compliments her in front of their friends but it would seem that he enjoys spending time with his friends and working more than he values his time with his wife. “Coming back to dinner?" his wife called after him. He halted a moment and shrugged his shoulders.”(pg. 8) The only reason Mrs. Pontillier stays with her husband for so long is because of her children. Although the Pontillier children are not major characters they help demonstrate her true commitment. Edna would rather die than let her children think their mother left them to be with another man. “She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body...
The heroine, Mrs. P, has some carries some characteristics parallel to Louise Mallard in “Hour.” The women of her time are limited by cultural convention. Yet, Mrs. P, (like Louise) begins to experience a new freedom of imagination, a zest for life , in the immediate absence of her husband. She realizes, through interior monologues, that she has been held back, that her station in life cannot and will not afford her the kind of freedom to explore freely and openly the emotions that are as much a part of her as they are not a part of Leonce. Here is a primary irony.
Margaret is an intelligent, articulate, and ambitious woman who desires to rise up in social status by marrying a man of higher social rank. She attends to those above her, in hopes of elevating her status as she becomes closer to the upper-class. As a minor character, she plays a small yet crucial role in advancing Don John’s plot to slander Hero and spoil her wedding. As a lower-class character, Margaret serves as a foil to the rich girls, particularly Hero, who embodies every attitude and mindset Margaret does not. But she also offers an alternative perspective on the upper-class characters in the play. Because Margaret is victimized because of her social ambitions, punished for wanting to rise above her ...
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...
Her death is foreshadowed in the beginning when it mentions that she was “afflicted with heart trouble”. Because of this, when her sister told her that her husband had died, it was done so delicately. After Mrs. Mallard is told, is where the story really begins to set a tone of elegiac settings, and how she is expressing herself is in direct contrast to weather, i.e. ‘the storm of grief”. When Mrs. Mallard goes to her room and sits down to rest, she begins to notice how lovely the weather is outside, and here the tone takes a sudden change from elegiac to soothing and peaceful. She notices the trees that are “aquiver with new spring life” and the “delicious breath of rain”. Not only are these segments directly related to her change of emotion, but they are also foreshadowing the Birjoy she will feel momentarily. She begins to realize she is “free” from whatever responsibilities she held to her husband, and is consumed with “monstrous joy” that she will be living “for herself”. Other symbols besides the weather, is also the bird she first notices when she first retires to her room to be alone with her grief. The birds are happy, singing, and carefree of any limitations. Also the door when her sister, Louise, begs her to open the door. She is also symbolically opening the door to her new life, the one she will live in total liberation with the restraints of her husband. She begins to also look at life with new eyes, seeing it in a different light, no longer seeing as a life of repression. She loved him, but not as much as she suddenly loves herself.
...t, cruel, and even emotionless. However, this is far from true. Louise Mallard may have been relieved to hear about her husband’s death and she may have died of the disappointment at hearing he was actually alive, but she is only human. She desires freedom from oppression and freedom to be her own woman. She cares deeply for her husband, but he tied her down in a way that she did not like. The weight was far too much to bear, despite what feelings she held for Brently Mallard. She has a wide range of emotions, including the grief toward the death of Mr. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and feelings are no different than those belonging to any other person.
The theatre metaphor also helps to explain why, in the last analysis, Prospero has to surrender his magical powers. Life cannot be lived out in the world of illusions, delightful and educative as they can often be. Life must be lived in the real world, in Milan or in Naples, and Miranda cannot thus entirely fulfill herself on the island. The realities of life must be encountered and dealt with as best we can. The world of the theatre can remind us of things we may too easily forget; it can liberate and encourage youthful wonder and excitement at all the diverse richness of life; it can, at times, even wake people up to more important issues than their own Machiavellian urge to self-aggrandizement, and, most important of all, it can educate us into forgiveness. But it can never finally solve the problem of evil, and it can never provide an acceptable environment for a fully realized adult life.
Upon seeing her husband alive and well Louise realizes that the life she has imagined is not to be. The return of Brently signals a return of the patriarchal oppression in her life, and after imagining herself as an individual and then to be denied the chance to live freely is a punishment far worse than the crime. Louise loses her identity and once again becomes "his wife." Richards once more tries to protect her, a helpless woman, by attempting to block her view from her husband, because of the fragile state of her heart. Mrs. Mallard's strengths are gone, never to be acknowledged by the men in her life. For one, brief hour she was an individual. Now she finds herself bound by masculine oppression with no end in sight, and the result is death.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1611) is a play about the manipulation of people who have a lack of knowledge of the current situation. Throughout the play Shakespeare uses Prospero a wizard as a master manipulator. The manipulation by Prospero, Ariel and Stephano are used to show that if you keep knowledge from others it is easy to take advantage of them. This was the case during the colonization of the New World by the English, Spanish and French. When first coming to the New World people from the old world uses manipulation and the lack of knowledge of the native people in order to overtake the land. By using manipulation Prospero is able to put into affect his plan to regain his dukedom.
Primarily, Mansfield uses the foil characters Laura and Mrs. Sheridan to accentuate Laura’s beliefs in social equality while bringing out Mrs. Sheridan’s opposite actions. After the news of the death of their neighbor, Mr. Scott, Laura feels she “...can’t possible have a garden-party with a man dead just outside [her] front gate”(5) she feels sympathetic towards the family as she knows they will be able to hear their band as they are mourning. On the contrary, Mrs. Sheridan does quite the opposite when alerted of the news, and even more so when Laura tells Mrs. Sheridan of her plans to cancel the party. Mrs. Sheridan strongly believes that “People like that don't expect sacrifices from us.”(6) Mansfield shows the reader how these two characters are quite different from each other. Laura doesn’t want a garden party to be disrespectful of the Scotts, but Mrs. Sheridan believes quite the opposite as she is rude and doesn’t believe the Scotts are on the same level as the Sheridans, being quite lower...
It makes sense to me to see in this Shakespeare's sense of his own art--both what it can achieve and what it cannot. The theatre--that magical world of poetry, song, illusion, pleasing and threatening apparitions--can, like Prospero's magic, educate us into a better sense of ourselves, into a final acceptance of the world, a state in which we forgive and forget in the interests of the greater human community. The theatre, that is, can reconcile us to the joys of the human community so that we do not destroy our families in a search for righting past evils in a spirit of personal revenge or as crude assertions of our own egos. It can, in a very real sense, help us fully to understand the central Christian commitment to charity, to loving our neighbour as ourselves. The magic here brings about a total reconciliation of all levels of society from sophisticated rulers to semi-human brutes, momentarily holding off Machiavellian deceit, drunken foolishness, and animalistic rebellion--each person, no matter how he has lived, has a place in the magic circle at the end. And no one is asking any awkward questions.