Heroes and Heroines "Who the heck are you?" Victor Frankenstein cried. "What the heck are you?" "I am the wretch created by your beloved Elizabeth," cried the vaguely female wretch. "Elizabeth has passed the limits of the human realm and in her feverish pursuit of the essential knowledge of the world she has spawned the being that you now see before you!" "And what do you want from me, you frightening monstrosity whom my innocent and sheltered eyes should never have been made to look upon
The Heroines of the Western Schoolhouse "School-Teacher Wanted: One room schoolhouse seeks a young, single white woman who is willing to leave her sheltered life and come teach twenty to thirty classes a day, for a variety of students ranging in ages from five to twenty-two. Teacher must be able to perform with inadequate teaching materials and minimal funding for her salary and for the maintenance of the school." If you fit these qualifications, you would've been a wonderful addition to the
little girl in her formative years in life. The story has a deeper meaning though, expressed in the involvement of much symbolic representation. The author, Sarah Orne Jewett, paints a vivid and descriptive image of the young heroine and her surroundings in the story. I will try to primarily focus on the symbolism and representation in the story. I will also mention the subtle references the artist made to the biggest struggle in a young persons life- self-identification
The Witches as the Heroines of Macbeth Traditionally, the witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth have been treated as symbolic manifestations of the potential for evil. Many students and critics of Macbeth enjoy blaming the witches, along with Lady Macbeth, for Macbeth's downfall. Regardless, it may be argued that the witches are the heroines of the play. One eminent modern literary critic, Terry Eagleton, has addressed the issue of the witches as heroines directly: To any unprejudiced reader--which
The Ethics of Jane Austen's Heroines Jane Austen's novels at first glance tell a story of romance set primarily within the landowning society amidst country estates, and their cultivation of tea parties, social outings, and extravagant balls; ladies sashaying in flowing gowns through precisely decorated rooms, and men deliberating over their game of whist. The storybook romance usually unfolds in these familiar settings, and inevitably involves the conflict of two lovers separated by differences
Emilia, A Heroine of Shakespeare's Othello Shakespeare, in his tragedy Othello, presents a minor character who does great things in the final act. Her character is deserving of analysis. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare: Othello, explains the motivation of Emilia through most of the play: Emilia’s character, too, is determined by the plot. In the source, the villain’s wife is privy to the nefarious designs. Shakespeare wisely makes her, like the other characters
Othello and the Heroine, Desdemona In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello we see a very exceptional woman in the person of Desdemona, wife of the general. She, as Cassio says, is a “paragon” of virtues, unlike the other female characters in the drama. H. S. Wilson in his book of literary criticism, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, discusses Desdemona’s entry into the Moor’s life: But Othello had not known Desdemona long; he had little knowledge of women in any case;
Desdemona, the Heroine in Othello In William Shakespeare’s Othello Michael Cassio’s praises of the richly blessed Desdemona, as he awaits her arrival on Cyprus, are well deserved. This essay will amply support this statement. Blanche Coles in Shakespeare’s Four Giants interprets the protagonist’s very meaningful four-word greeting to Desdemona which he utters upon disembarking in Cyprus: Othello’s four words, “O, my soul’s joy,” tell us that this beautiful Venetian girl has brought
There is no doubt that Eustacia Vie is the Heroine of the tragedy "Return of the Native". Without the majestic air that Miss Vie adds to the novel we are left with a typical period soap drama. Eustacia Vie is on more then one occasion compared to classical characters of Greek mythology, and even in her death the nobility of her figure evokes images of classical sculpture."Pallor did not include all the quality of her complexion, which seemed More the whiteness; it was almost light. The expression
In Jane Austen's Emma the eponymous heroine is "handsome, clever, and rich" but she also suffers from arrogance and self-deception. With the good judgement of Mr Knightley, and her own self scrutiny, Emma experiences a movement of psyche, from arrogance and vanity through the humiliation of self knowledge to clarity of judgement and fulfilment in marriage. The tone of the novel and the episodes where Emma is self deceived progresses from the light comedy of Mr Elton's gallantry and the eventual
Hamlet’s Heroine, Ophelia In Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet there is, technically, no heroine. But the female character who comes closest to qualifying for the role is not Gertrude, whose sinful past precludes this, but rather Ophelia, the “universal victim” of the drama. She is truly a good, upright person although she is victimized by her father, brother and boyfriend. Harry Levin, in the General Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare, elaborates on the special kind of prose which the
Gertrude: The Tragic Heroine of Hamlet Hamlet is perhaps English literature's most renowned play; a masterwork by the greatest of all masters, Shakespeare, from its very appearance Hamlet has not ceased to delight audiences and confound spectators. The complexity of the main character, prince Hamlet, is so vast that all who have attempted to decipher his character fulsomely have failed. Amidst his own grandeur, Hamlet makes the other characters pale. As they blur into literary oblivion due to
Katherine of Aragon - Tragic Heroine of Henry VIII Among the bevy of female characters to grace the Shakespearean stage, Katherine of Aragon in Henry VIII is perhaps the most enigmatic. Despite the range of possibilities in other female roles-such as Cordelia and Desdemona, in whom one certainly finds desirable traits-Katherine stands out as a tragic heroine: a secure, strong-willed woman who is articulate, passionate, charismatic, and altruistic. The unique qualities of Katherine are achieved
of the nineteenth-century woman. Austen refuses these women any sexual expression and focuses more upon their concern with marriage and society. Thomas Hardy resists Austen's socially accepted depiction of the female with his radically independent heroines. Hardy redefines the role of women in his novels, focusing on sexuality. By emphasizing the physical aspect of femininity in his unorthodox representation of the sexual female, Hardy threatens the Victorian model of women. Sexuality is evident
The Powerful Imogen of Cymbeline Shakespeare’s Cymbeline developed a female protagonist who led the literary world as one of the original heroines. Centuries before women were recognized as capable and authoritative, a character is presented on stage who bears these qualities, thus representing the ideals of the future. Shakespeare boldly displayed a woman warrior to a male-dominated society. Imogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline, is indeed the central character of this play. She braves a
Song of Solomon Margaret Atwood in her novel Surfacing and Toni Morrison in her novel Song of Solomon require their heroines to pass through a stage of self-interpretation as a prerequisite for re-inventing the self. This stage in the feminine journey manifests a critical act typically absent in the traditional male journey, and one that places Atwood and Morrison's heroines at odds with the patriarchal community. If authors of feminine journeys meet the requirements set out by feminist critics
slowly became publicly acceptable. Her poem "Goblin Market" comments on the institutions in Victorian society that she and her feminist contemporaries wished to see altered, creating modern female heroines to carry out its messages. The goblins serve as malicious male figures to tempt the innocent heroines, sisters Laura and Lizzie, to corruption. According to the Victorian definition, a gentleman "never takes unfair advantage . . . or insinuates evil which he dare not say out," and possesses, among
scholars in recent years to refer to Shakespeare's heroines. They have helped us to take a fresh look at these characters while we are reevaluating the position of women within our own society. But are Shakespeare's women really unruly? It would be anachronistic to believe that he created rebellious feminists in an age that had never heard the term. Nevertheless, writing many of his plays with Elizabeth I on the throne, Shakespeare created heroines who operate in, rebel against, attempt to rule, or
Reynolds, and The Scarlet A, Aboriginal and Awesome, by Kristin Herzog. Reynold's essay dealt with Hester as a heroine, who is an artistic combination of disparate female types. Herzog's essay dealt with the idea that Hester is both wild and passionate, as well as, caring, conservative, and alien. Towards Hester Prynne, by David Reynolds, expressed Hester as a heroine composed of many different stereotypes of females from the time period Hawthorne was writing. Hawthorne created
Ballaster’s Critical Analysis of the Writing of Eliza Haywood In "Preparatives to Love: Seduction as Fiction in the Works of Eliza Haywood", Ros Ballaster critically examines the active role that seduction plays in the passionate lives of the heroines presented in the writing of "the undisputed Queen of Romance," Eliza Haywood. Ros Ballaster's primary argument refers to Eliza Haywood's "creation of a specifically feminine authorial persona with a direct address to female readers, which is seen