Class boundaries play a significant role in “The Undefinable: A Fantasia” and The Return of the Soldier, as these texts create a picture in which those boundaries are done away with, if only for a moment. The women of the lower classes, who are described in the beginning of these stories in negative aesthetic terms, are ‘Otherized,’ due to class distinctions in their appearance and manners. The stories show the progression of the unreliable first person narrator ‘falling for’ the Other, but being unable to describe the woman in artistic terms, they turn to spiritual terminology. This spirituality varies in each story, with the novel describing the Other as a Christian saint and the short story as a Greek muse. The narrators in “The Undefinable” …show more content…
In “The Undefinable,” by the end of the young woman’s first visit, the narrator is appraising her body for its worth in a portrait. The woman views this appraisal with disdain, mocking the “rounded form, healthy flesh, and lively glances” that appeal to the painter, common tropes of upper class portraits (Grand 285). Over the course of her next two visits, the narrator begins to worship and “glorify” her being (Grand 285). In the midst of her glorification, the man is able to paint in “love and reverence” a woman as she is, so that he “may feel her divinity and worship that!” (Grand 282, 284). The goddess-like terms of exaltation that the narrator describes the women with come with a frenzy to paint the ‘soul’ of the young woman, who was “a source of inspiration the like of which no man hitherto has even imagined in art or literature” (Grand 287). The inspiration, which solidifies the woman’s role as the muse, comes from a desire for her soul, not her …show more content…
Jenny cannot communicate the same type of perfection she alluded to in her description of Kitty’s appearances. She searches for why Chris would choose Margaret, and in doing so, she breaks out of artistic terms and begins to describe Margaret as belonging to the spiritual realm. As Chris and Margaret reunite in the garden, the nymphs and Tritons stand by as symbols of exaltation of beauty, but Jenny says “one’s eye lay on the figure in the yellow raincoat,” Margaret (West 58-9). In this scene, the image of beauty is forsaken for the motherly embrace, in which Margaret envelopes Chris. They stood “breast to breast,” and her embrace seemed to have “fed him” (West 59). In this scene, Jenny is setting the stage for the exaltation above the pagan notions of beauty to that of Christ-like service, specfically the service that Margaret can give to Chris as a type of selfless mother
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
The contrasts between depth and surface, figure and landscape, promiscuity and modesty, beauty and vulgarity all present themselves in de Kooning’s Woman and Bicycle. Although the figure is a seemingly normal woman out for an afternoon with her bike, she becomes so much more through the artist’s use of color, contrast, and composition. The exotic nature of woman presents itself in her direct stare and slick buxom breasts in spite of a nearly indiscernible figure. It is understood that, on the whole, de Kooning did not paint with a purpose in mind, but rather as an opportunity to create an experience, however, that does not go to say that there isn’t some meaning that can come of this work. Even Willem de Kooning once said that art is not everything that is in it, but what you can take out of it (Hess p.144).
In many works of literature, an author highlights or exposes the values of a society or culture through the use of characters which are alienated from that same culture or society. These characters can be alienated through many means, whether it be by gender, race, or social class. In the case of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the main protagonist is isolated by her gender. In the Novel, Edna Pontellier’s alienation exposes the unjust moral values of a patriarchal society.
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
Sontag introduces her essay to the audience by establishing a focal point around the fact that women viewed today are derivative from the religious perspective of how women were viewed in history. During the ancient times, Greeks and Christians practiced their own methods of analyzing and critiquing women and their beauty. The Greeks believed that the lack of ‘inner” beauty could be compensated with “outer” beauty. They distinguished the two beauties in a way that suggested that both were interconnected to one another within an individual. The preference and priority was given to the ‘outer’ beauty, while the ‘inner’ beauty would be kept at bay. Christianity, on the other hand, gave moral significance to beauty; in defining beauty, or words of physical character to be associated with woman and feminine. Gradually, Sontag introduces the distinguishable beauty between men and women. She does this by recapitulating how in a Christian religion, a woman’s body was parted into many sections to be judged and scrutinized, while men are visua...
As the art world moved away from Renaissance ideals, the way women were shown in the art world began to shift. In 1863, the french painter Edouard Manet used Venus of Urbino as inspiration for his radical painting Olympia, in which he challenged the limited way women were depicted in art. For one thing, he paints a prostitute, rather than an aristocrat. He paints a prostitute who is unashamed of her work, and unwilling to conform to classically idealized form. Even more radical however, is the way he painted her. Olympia meets the viewer’s gaze head on, and stares almost defiantely. She is positioned slightly above the viewer, and gazes down powerfully. She is wearing just enough to not be considered a nude figure. Instead she is a naked one,
the women is not one of beauty and it is surprising to the reader that
Written during the Victorian era, the author presents an amatory sequence of sonnets cast against her time to highlight the appreciation of the revitalisation of love and female expression of a male literary form amid an era synonymous with conservatism, repression and rigid moral behaviour and how she overcomes these obstacles. Browning explores the notion of finding such love in a world surrounded by obstacles and disappointment in Sonnet 1, as seen in “I once heard Theocritus had sung/ Of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years/Who each one in a gracious hand appears/ TO bear a gift for mortals, old or young/I mused in his antique tongue...” The quote depicts the author’s search for emotional connection and inner peace as she calls on the muse of Theocritus, whose poetry surrounded that of love and sentiment. It also portrays her initial perception of herself, as it presents Browning as not having the confidence to pursue love, and thereby straying from reality to enter the realm of the imaginative, so as to evade the possible risk of rejection. The quote introduces a sense of hope yet simultaneously as sense of despondency as she calls on a muse of love and emotional connection, yet is unable to perceive one of her own, as seen in “I saw, in
People use art to display the beauty found in the world and, because of this, women have been subject to objection through paintings and photography all throughout history. Whether it is a commissioned oil painting from the 17th century or an advertisement from the 20th century, there will always be some type of image that objectifies women. In the book Ways of Seeing John Berger states that a woman “comes to consider the surveyor and surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman,” (Ways of Seeing 46). Berger is saying that women know they are seen as an object purely because they are women. Women in paintings and photography are objectified for the pleasure of the viewer, they are illustrated for the surveyor’s specifications, so in essence the picture is a better representation of the owner than the subject.
When we read these questions at the beginning of Daniel Deronda, we do not know the identity of the woman, we do not know the context, the scene, the observer. We are given two choices: is she beautiful or not beautiful. As the questions arise, one after another, the subjective choice “beautiful or not beautiful” becomes more complex. There is a “dynamic quality” in the expression—a constant unmarked fluidity. The object of our question is not static and “By dint of looking at a dubious object with a
...es to Lily that a woman cannot paint. The painting stands for the feminist representation of going against traditional beliefs and also suggests that a lack of a male in Lily’s life does not detract from it.
Next, the poet’s attitude on inner and outer beauty is quite disturbing. “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back,
The woman is part of that loving feeling. She may appear as a sweet and innocent being who is a victim of love or society. Although sometimes appears as a perverse and cruel being that leads the poet to destruction. The artist echoed social and political conflicts of this time, inequalities and frustrations of nationalist and regionalist consciousness, theories of social humanitarian is also present.