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Mayor of casterbridge critical analysis
Mayor of casterbridge critical analysis
Mayor of casterbridge critical analysis
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Literature:
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Can it be said that Henchard's downfall is all due to 'some great error?' Some may believe that it is a penance for selling Susan, but this would be to take Newson out of the equation, who, it must be said, is just as guilty of this act as Henchard. I believe that Henchard is totally blameless for his downfall, to use a bad pun that will become apparent later, it is in his nature. It is my belief that Henchard is a personification of nature. It is obvious that his life has completed a revolution but when you look closely, you can see that Henchard's life resembles the seasons.
Our first image of Henchard is one of winter, his clothing is described as '…a short jacket of brown corduroy…white horn buttons…and a straw hat overlaid with black glazed canvas.'; Black, brown and white conjure images of the countryside in the heart of winter for me. Hechard's life is in a rather bad point but things start looking up when he sells Susan, it is at this point that he moves into spring. We are told little of what happens between Susan's sale and when she comes looking for him but I would say that during this period Henchard passes through spring as he gives up liquor and moves into summer when he becomes mayor. When we next see Henchard he is on the brink of autumn, his progression down through the social strata is very autumnal as his creeps, inch by inch, t...
George W. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall may have been one of the most arrogant & intelligent men of his time, he saw his opportunities when they arose and he took them as soon as he possibly could. Not only did he make a huge fortune but he made it using, what he called, "honest graft". With this sentence in the first chapter,"Everybody is talkin' these days about Tammany men growin' rich on graft, but nobody thinks of drawin' the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft." Plunkitt sets the tone for his short treatise on New York City politics while Tammany Hall ran the show. George W. Plunkitt was a senator in New York at the turn of the 19th Century to the 20th Century. He was very successful in politics, and at one time he held four offices at once and collected salaries from three of them. G. W. Plunkitt securely held one and possibly other offices in Tammany Hall for over forty years. He was somewhat of a shady politician who took care of his constituents and his bank account. Plunkitt was never shy about becoming rich in politics because he did nothing illegal by the standards of the time. Moreover, Plunkitt never broke the penal code and therefore never spent a day in jail.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, several factors contributed to the growth and expansion of cities in the United States. The 1850s saw a fantastic peak in the immigration of Europeans to America, and they quickly flocked to cities where they could form communities and hopefully find work1. The rushing industrialization of the entire country also helped to rapidly convert America from a primarily agrarian nation to an urban society.
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
In January of 1990, Washington, DC, the seat of the federal government of the United States was turned upside down by scandal. While the headlines were filled with the efforts of the Bush Administration to crack down on drugs, the District's Mayor and symbol of black power against a nearly all white backdrop of authority was caught on videotape buying and than smoking crack cocaine with an exotic dancer two days before he was expected to announce an unprecedented fourth campaign for mayor. The sting was setup and carried out by a Federal Bureau of Investigation unit that had been pursing the frequent rumors of the Mayor's drug dependency.
Among these faults, Voltaire expands upon greed as the most prevalent, where the world’s shows thorugh the horrors of looters, robbers, and deception. From early on in the beginning of the story, Voltaire expands upon greed by introducing the Avars and the Bulgars, two warring factions who loot the land that they capture. The carnage left by the greed of these men is horrifying: “Butchered Women…girls
Throughout the novel, the harsh Puritan townspeople begin to realize the abilities of Hester despite her past. Hester works selflessly and devotes herself to the wellbeing of others. “Hester sought not to acquire anything beyond a subsistence of the plainest and most ascetic description, for herself, and a simple abundance for her child.
Connected to the somber image of the town, The house is described with harsh diction such as “streaked with rust”, depicting the years of neglect. Affected by abuse, Petry describes the house as stained with “blood” in the form of rust. Despite the harsh outer layer, Lutie is drawn to it as her figurative and literal “sign”of refuge. A town that had been nothing but cold to her is finally seen as warm from the words on the sign; describing the house as “Reasonable” and open to “respectable tenants”.
We can see how Hester begins changing even from the beginning of The Scarlet Letter. As the story starts Hester begins to develop a stronger and more rebellious attitude, which can be seen by the way she decorates the ‘A’ that represents the grave sin of adultery she has committed (p44). As the book progress we see Hester grow even stronger by the way she supports herself, her child born of sin, and helps the poor and sick out of the sincerity of her heart. Finally near the end of the novel we see the rebellious side of Hester evolve, symbolized by her casting the Scarlet letter to ground, as she takes control of her family, plans for escape, and a life as part of a family with the man she loves (p173).
As shown in this quote, the Governor attempts to grow beautiful flowers and plants to look at, but the climate is unsuitable. Rather, his garden grows vegetables and sturdy plants. The mayor sees this garden as a shame: “...garden-walk, carpeted with closely shaven grass, and bordered with some rude and immature attempt at shrubbery. But the proprietor appeared already to have relinquished, as hopeless, the effort to perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic, in a hard soil and amid the close struggle for subsistence, the native English taste for ornamental gardening” (p97). Since the garden is not beautiful, it is written off as a disgrace and failure. The garden represents how Hester is written off as useless because she is not represent the face of Puritism the community wants to see. The Puritans refuse to see past their drastic good and bad perspectives. This refusal leads Hester to find use in herself and break the mold the Puritans have
Hester intertwines the sin that she has done and wears upon herself and she acts as if it doesn’t exist by doing charitable work unselfishly for the poor, the sick, and the dying: “‘Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?’ the would say to strangers. ‘It is our Hester, -- the town’s own Hester, -- who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!’” (Hawthorne 106). The way Hester changes view of the A is unknown but that creates the mirroring affect for Hester: “What remains problematic, what Hawthorne compels us to explain for ourselves, is her dramatic change of purpose and belief” (Bercovitch 577). Pearl’s intertwinement between her life as a beautiful loving daughter and her wild nature is the theme of “mesh of good and evil”. The wildness is the evil that lives in all mankind that must be maintained: “Whenever that look appeared in her wild, bright, deeply black eyes…”(Hawthorne 63). The eloquent and admirable minister Dimmesdale is hiding the sin that eats him from within because even in the people that seem as if no evil is in them that’s just human nature to have it: “With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast…on the breast of the unhappy minister, a Scarlett Letter – the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne — imprinted in the flesh”(Hawthorne 161-162). Chillingworth is the kind physician to Dimmesdale but he seeks demonic avenge on him through torture. Chillingworth keeps the minister alive just to torture him like a leech does to its
Although the Political and intellectual factors of the revolution ave wood to the fire the social and economic problems were the spark to that fire that lead to the greatest revolution of all times. "What the Revolution was less than anyhting else was a chance event. While it is a true that it took the world by surprise, nevertheless it was only the culmination of a long period of travail-the sudden and violent termination of an enterprse on which men had laboured for ten generations." On this I belive that the social and economic disorder that took place in France in the eighteenth century was the cause of the revolution.
The depiction of fall to winter, shown in William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73,” holds a far deeper meaning behind the changing of the seasons. Shakespeare is able to delineate both a literal meaning of fall coming to an end as the chill of winter begins, and also a metaphorical message of people as they begin to change and grow older through time.
of time where Puritans have escaped the persecutions of England and now have created their own town in Massachusetts. The book focuses on the life of Hester Prynne and her act of adultery, sin, and guilt. We learn from Hawthorne that this town is formed on religion and law, but it is also severely isolated with a surroundings of the forest and the ocean. Contributing to this factor is in how the outskirts of the town is described as a forest haunted by the devil or Black Man. In this forest outside is filled with the mysteries of sin, witchcraft, and a new possible way of life could be found by Hawthorne’s diction that expresses the forest as something far different than the “city upon the hill.” and the use of imagery that sets the tone of what the townspeople see the forest as.
Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. Sex is so intertwined in our society that it pervades each facet, including television, books, advertising, and conversation. Movies like The Matrix toss in gratuitous sex because the audience nearly expects it. Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, therefore, is exceptional in its lack of sexual situations. The subject of sexual motivation and its inherent ambiguity with regard to Henchard's actions is a topic that caught my attention from the very first pages of The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Line thirty seven creates another personification by giving the house emotions: “And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house” (37). Everything is still happy and carefree in the world of the narrator. He is happy under the new day in line thirty eight. In line thirty nine he shows how little attention he paid at the time to what he had. “In the sun born over and over,” (39). Line forty uses the word “heedless” to show how oblivious he was to the easy and happy lifestyle he had when he was young. Line forty two explains how he did not care at the time, “And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows” (42), because he felt that those days would last forever. Line forty three uses the words “so few” to show how the narrator was unaware at the limited time of his youth, and that it would have inevitably come to an end. In line forty four the words “green” and “golden” are used once again. Green and gold represent youth and something being of