The document analyzes Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" through different critical lenses:
1. It provides biographical context on Plath and describes "Daddy" as a confessional poem that uses a metaphor comparing the Holocaust to Plath's relationship with her father.
2. Applying New Criticism, it examines the poem's form, meter, and unified meaning, but notes the limitations without considering context.
3. Using Russian Formalism, it analyzes Plath's defamiliarization of language and distinguishes the poem's plot of the father-daughter relationship from the historical story it references.
Dr. Aziz represents the twentieth century Indian characterlosha-29
E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India portrays the central character Dr. Aziz. While Aziz tries to represent a new generation of Indians seeking friendship with the British, he is undermined by doubts and hesitations stemming from colonial oppression. Forster presents Aziz as a stereotypical Indian, lacking extraordinary qualities and displaying supposed Oriental values like falsehood and flattery. Though intended as a modern individual, Aziz disappoints as a protagonist by failing to overcome his imposed Indian identity under British rule.
Symbolism in "The Old Man And The Sea"hezaltrivedi
This document discusses symbolism in Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Old Man and the Sea". It analyzes various symbols in the story, including:
The old man Santiago represents the struggle of life and compares to Jesus Christ. The sea represents isolation and life's struggles. The marlin symbolizes a worthy opponent, while the sharks represent destructive obstacles. Manolin symbolizes love and hope. The lions, mast, harpoon and Joe DiMaggio further symbolize strength, faith, and motivation. Through these symbols, Hemingway conveys deeper meanings about life, struggle, and humanity.
The significance of the main title & theTahani Ali
This project analyzes the significance of the main title "She Stoops to Conquer" and the subtitle "The Mistakes of a Night" from Oliver Goldsmith's play. The main title refers to the heroine Kate stooping to play the role of a barmaid and poor relation to conquer the hero Marlow's heart by helping him overcome his shyness. The subtitle refers to the many mistakes Marlow makes over the course of one night, mistaking the house for an inn and Kate's identities. The play provides references to both titles to emphasize the comedy of errors.
The document discusses several themes and symbols in Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus. It examines how Faustus rejects medieval limitations on knowledge and seeks unlimited power, representing his pride. This leads him to make a pact with Lucifer in exchange for knowledge and magic powers. Throughout the play, Faustus wavers between wanting to repent to God to be redeemed from his sins or continuing his pact with Lucifer. In the end, his gaining of absolute power through magic corrupts him and prevents his redemption, condemning him to damnation. The document also analyzes how symbols like Faustus' signing in blood to seal the pact, his rejection of ancient authorities, and his good and evil angels
This document provides a character analysis of Pamela Andrews from Samuel Richardson's novel "Pamela or Virtue Rewarded". It summarizes that Pamela is a 15 year old maid-servant subject to the sexual advances of her new master, Mr. B. It discusses the power imbalance between Pamela and Mr. B due to their different social classes in 18th century society. The document also analyzes Pamela's changing psychological state throughout the novel as she goes from having a positive impression of Mr. B to realizing the ominous intimacy in his behavior and questioning whether he can distinguish right from wrong. It notes how the novel provides a profound psychological portrait of Pamela through her unfiltered thoughts in letters.
1) Mulk Raj Anand's short story "Two Lady Rams" depicts the constant fighting between the two wives, Suki and Shakuntala, of Jinda Ram over his attention.
2) Jinda Ram divides his household into two separate wings to keep his warring wives apart, but tensions rise again when he is knighted and both wives insist on being called "Lady Ram".
3) Through clever deception, Jinda Ram's driver convinces each wife that she alone will attend the garden party for Jinda Ram's knighthood ceremony. However, both wives arrive, causing confusion but no real issues. The story concludes with the two Lady Rams attending ceremonies together going forward.
War poetry emerged during wartime to express the extreme emotions of soldiers and civilians caught in conflict. It deals with questions of identity, humanity, and morality in relation to national crises. Modern poetry originated in the late 19th/early 20th century and is characterized by a break from tradition, the use of everyday language, and themes of dissatisfaction and existence. Both genres grapple with the horrors of war and disillusionment, but war poetry focuses more on personal experience of battle while modern poetry explores broader spiritual and philosophical issues.
The document provides an in-depth summary and analysis of Amitav Ghosh's novel "The Shadow Lines". It discusses the novel's themes of identity, nationalism, and the artificial nature of borders. The summary explores how the novel uses memory and fiction to reconstruct historical events through the narrator. Key events discussed include the Partition of India, riots in 1963-64 in Dhaka and Calcutta, and the creation of Bangladesh. The document also analyzes the novel's structure, use of an omniscient narrator, and how it blurs distinctions between past, present and location.
Dr. Aziz represents the twentieth century Indian characterlosha-29
E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India portrays the central character Dr. Aziz. While Aziz tries to represent a new generation of Indians seeking friendship with the British, he is undermined by doubts and hesitations stemming from colonial oppression. Forster presents Aziz as a stereotypical Indian, lacking extraordinary qualities and displaying supposed Oriental values like falsehood and flattery. Though intended as a modern individual, Aziz disappoints as a protagonist by failing to overcome his imposed Indian identity under British rule.
Symbolism in "The Old Man And The Sea"hezaltrivedi
This document discusses symbolism in Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Old Man and the Sea". It analyzes various symbols in the story, including:
The old man Santiago represents the struggle of life and compares to Jesus Christ. The sea represents isolation and life's struggles. The marlin symbolizes a worthy opponent, while the sharks represent destructive obstacles. Manolin symbolizes love and hope. The lions, mast, harpoon and Joe DiMaggio further symbolize strength, faith, and motivation. Through these symbols, Hemingway conveys deeper meanings about life, struggle, and humanity.
The significance of the main title & theTahani Ali
This project analyzes the significance of the main title "She Stoops to Conquer" and the subtitle "The Mistakes of a Night" from Oliver Goldsmith's play. The main title refers to the heroine Kate stooping to play the role of a barmaid and poor relation to conquer the hero Marlow's heart by helping him overcome his shyness. The subtitle refers to the many mistakes Marlow makes over the course of one night, mistaking the house for an inn and Kate's identities. The play provides references to both titles to emphasize the comedy of errors.
The document discusses several themes and symbols in Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus. It examines how Faustus rejects medieval limitations on knowledge and seeks unlimited power, representing his pride. This leads him to make a pact with Lucifer in exchange for knowledge and magic powers. Throughout the play, Faustus wavers between wanting to repent to God to be redeemed from his sins or continuing his pact with Lucifer. In the end, his gaining of absolute power through magic corrupts him and prevents his redemption, condemning him to damnation. The document also analyzes how symbols like Faustus' signing in blood to seal the pact, his rejection of ancient authorities, and his good and evil angels
This document provides a character analysis of Pamela Andrews from Samuel Richardson's novel "Pamela or Virtue Rewarded". It summarizes that Pamela is a 15 year old maid-servant subject to the sexual advances of her new master, Mr. B. It discusses the power imbalance between Pamela and Mr. B due to their different social classes in 18th century society. The document also analyzes Pamela's changing psychological state throughout the novel as she goes from having a positive impression of Mr. B to realizing the ominous intimacy in his behavior and questioning whether he can distinguish right from wrong. It notes how the novel provides a profound psychological portrait of Pamela through her unfiltered thoughts in letters.
1) Mulk Raj Anand's short story "Two Lady Rams" depicts the constant fighting between the two wives, Suki and Shakuntala, of Jinda Ram over his attention.
2) Jinda Ram divides his household into two separate wings to keep his warring wives apart, but tensions rise again when he is knighted and both wives insist on being called "Lady Ram".
3) Through clever deception, Jinda Ram's driver convinces each wife that she alone will attend the garden party for Jinda Ram's knighthood ceremony. However, both wives arrive, causing confusion but no real issues. The story concludes with the two Lady Rams attending ceremonies together going forward.
War poetry emerged during wartime to express the extreme emotions of soldiers and civilians caught in conflict. It deals with questions of identity, humanity, and morality in relation to national crises. Modern poetry originated in the late 19th/early 20th century and is characterized by a break from tradition, the use of everyday language, and themes of dissatisfaction and existence. Both genres grapple with the horrors of war and disillusionment, but war poetry focuses more on personal experience of battle while modern poetry explores broader spiritual and philosophical issues.
The document provides an in-depth summary and analysis of Amitav Ghosh's novel "The Shadow Lines". It discusses the novel's themes of identity, nationalism, and the artificial nature of borders. The summary explores how the novel uses memory and fiction to reconstruct historical events through the narrator. Key events discussed include the Partition of India, riots in 1963-64 in Dhaka and Calcutta, and the creation of Bangladesh. The document also analyzes the novel's structure, use of an omniscient narrator, and how it blurs distinctions between past, present and location.
T.s eliot theory of objective correlativeneelab1234
The document discusses T.S. Eliot's theory of the objective correlative. The theory holds that writers can evoke emotions in readers through a combination of objects, events, and details rather than directly stating the emotion. Eliot believed poets must find an objective correlative formula to represent emotions for readers. The document also examines Eliot's views on poetic process, tradition and criticism, and provides an example of an effective objective correlative in Macbeth.
cultural studies with reference to 'To his coy mistress'Neha Rathod
This document contains a student paper analyzing the poem "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell. It provides biographical details about Marvell, an overview of the themes and structure of the poem, including its treatment of time and mortality. The paper then discusses how the poem uses imagery and metaphor. It also notes that while the poem is set during a historical plague, it focuses more on themes of love than accurately representing the time period.
Tess as a tragedy includes basic information according to the Aristotle's tragedy, its specific genre, feactures and flaws in major characters with textual references and examples.
The document provides background information on E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India. It discusses the colonial occupation of India by the British, the rise of Indian nationalism in response, and key events and attitudes during the time period when Forster wrote the novel in the 1920s. It also summarizes some of the main plot points and characters in A Passage to India, including Dr. Aziz, Mrs. Moore, Adela Quested, and their interactions in British-controlled India.
This is my power point on Macbeth which I completed for students who are studying for the 'English Literature' exam. I hope it's helpful as I provided as much as information as possible. References: https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/zwws39q
~Suzan G
(Info is from Bitesize, I don't own it)
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons Licence" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>.
Ted Hughes was an English poet born in 1930 in Mytholmroyd, UK. He exhibited an early interest in writing and was publishing poetry by age 15. Hughes met his future wife, Sylvia Plath, in 1956 and they married soon after, having two children together. However, their marriage ended in divorce in 1962 following Plath's suicide. Hughes later had a child with his partner Assia Wevill, who also committed suicide. Hughes died in 1998 after an 18-month battle with cancer, leaving behind a significant body of work including poetry collections, novels, and children's literature that drew heavily from his personal experiences.
This document provides a summary of George Bernard Shaw's play "Arms and the Man". It discusses the plot, characters, themes, and Shaw's motives. The play satirizes romantic notions of war, love, and class through characters like Raina, a romantic idealist, and Captain Bluntschli, a realistic soldier. It shows the conflict between idealism and realism. Through this play, Shaw criticizes attitudes of glorifying war and discrimination by class.
This document provides an analysis of John Dryden's poem "Absalom and Achitophel" as a political satire. It discusses how the poem uses biblical allegory to criticize the Whig party and praise the Tory party in response to political events during Dryden's time. The document also examines Dryden's style of satire, where he would describe things in a way that finds approval while also scrutinizing. It provides context on the political situation during Dryden's life and career where he supported constitutional monarchy.
Comparison between Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoevyas charmi
character of novel to the lighthouse, about Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe, comparison with example of TV serial " Naviya" and " Yeh rishta kya kahlata Hai.
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818 and died in 1895 in Washington D.C. He escaped from slavery in 1838 by boarding a train to Philadelphia dressed as a sailor. He went on to become an author, publishing two autobiographies about his life as a slave. Douglass also became a famous abolitionist, traveling widely to lecture against slavery despite risks to his safety.
Mulk Raj Anand's short story "The Two Lady Rams" highlights the discrimination and lack of identity that women faced in British Colonial India. It depicts a patriarchal society where women were defined by their husband's name and role. The story follows the first and second wives of Lalla Jhinda Ram as they struggle for their husband's attention. It illustrates how women were only valued for their ability to produce heirs, and how men were free to take multiple wives if the first could not conceive. While criticizing the social standards of the time, the story also reveals elements of comedy in the rivalry between the wives.
Chief Characteristics Of Comedy Of Menace NiyatiVyas
This document provides an overview of the characteristics of comedy of menace as a genre. It notes that the term was coined by critic Irving Wardle to describe plays by David Campton and Harold Pinter. Comedies of menace feature both comic and tragic elements, keeping the audience both amused and on the brink of terror through an indefinable sense of fear. They often have simplistic settings and focus on the threat faced by characters from a vaguely defined powerful force. The sudden shifts between comedy and seriousness enhance the unsettling atmosphere.
The Rape of the Lock was written by Pope to chide gently the Fermor family when Lord Petre cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s hair on a certain fateful day and such dire consequences followed. Pope started something that culminated into a piece of literature that has remained to this day a leading example of the mock epic satire.
Abraham Cowley (pronounced Cooley) was born in London, the posthumous son of a wealthy London stationer. He was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his BA in 1639, was made fellow in 1640, and became MA in 1643. Cowley published his first volume of verse, Poetical Blossoms (1633), when he was 15. The collection consisted of five poems, one of which Cowley had written at age 10. He wrote a pastoral drama and a Latin comedy, Naufragium Ioculare (1638), when he was but 20.
The document provides background information on Henry Fielding's novel "Joseph Andrews". Published in 1742, it was one of the first novels written in English and tells the story of the adventures of the title character Joseph Andrews and his friend Parson Adams. The novel brought together two different literary aesthetics that were popular during the 18th century Augustan period: the mock heroic style of authors like Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, and the domestic prose fiction of writers such as Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson. The story embodied the principles of reason and empiricism that defined the Augustan Age. While some critics praised Fielding's realistic depictions of human nature, others disliked his satirical parody of Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela
Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 in Illinois. He worked as a reporter after high school and joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps during WWI, where he was severely wounded. He was treated in Italy, where he met a nurse named Catherine. After the war, their relationship and experiences formed the basis of his novel A Farewell to Arms. The novel follows American soldier Fredrick Henry and nurse Catherine Barkley during WWI as they fall in love amid the horrors of war and ultimately try to flee to neutral Switzerland together.
Salman Rushdie uses magic realism in his novel Midnight's Children to tell the story of India's independence. The main character, Saleem Sinai, is born at midnight on August 15th, 1947, when India gains independence. He and other children born at that moment have special supernatural powers. Rushdie blends realistic historical events with magical elements to reflect how independence was experienced on an individual level. Saleem acts as a telepathic link between hundreds of children with gifts, trying to understand their purpose and connection to India's fate. Magic realism allows Rushdie to incorporate indigenous worldviews and critique the effects of colonialism on post-independence India.
The document discusses themes of imperialism in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. It explores how the novella depicts Europeans asserting their racial superiority and civilizing mission as justification for colonizing Africa. However, Marlow comes to realize that imperialism in the Congo involved brutal exploitation and abuse of power over native people. Ivory is presented as a symbol of the Europeans' greedy commercial motivations for imperialism. While the idea of uplifting natives was used to justify colonization, many Europeans instead treated natives as less than human and failed to civilize them.
Themes and Symbols in The Crucible by Arthur MillerFatima Zahra
The presentation includes the themes and symbols present in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, It includes videos and photos from the movie Crucible starring Winona Ryder.
1. Philippine literature had a pre-Spanish period where the ancestors developed their own forms of literature through legends, folk tales, and epics that expressed their culture and traditions.
2. Some examples of pre-Spanish literature include legends like "The Legend of the Tagalogs" and folk tales like "The Moon and the Sun". Epics during this period included the Biag ni Lam-ang and the Maragtas.
3. Unfortunately, many records of pre-Spanish literature were destroyed by Spanish friars who saw them as works of the devil, but some forms like folk songs survived through oral tradition.
T.s eliot theory of objective correlativeneelab1234
The document discusses T.S. Eliot's theory of the objective correlative. The theory holds that writers can evoke emotions in readers through a combination of objects, events, and details rather than directly stating the emotion. Eliot believed poets must find an objective correlative formula to represent emotions for readers. The document also examines Eliot's views on poetic process, tradition and criticism, and provides an example of an effective objective correlative in Macbeth.
cultural studies with reference to 'To his coy mistress'Neha Rathod
This document contains a student paper analyzing the poem "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell. It provides biographical details about Marvell, an overview of the themes and structure of the poem, including its treatment of time and mortality. The paper then discusses how the poem uses imagery and metaphor. It also notes that while the poem is set during a historical plague, it focuses more on themes of love than accurately representing the time period.
Tess as a tragedy includes basic information according to the Aristotle's tragedy, its specific genre, feactures and flaws in major characters with textual references and examples.
The document provides background information on E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India. It discusses the colonial occupation of India by the British, the rise of Indian nationalism in response, and key events and attitudes during the time period when Forster wrote the novel in the 1920s. It also summarizes some of the main plot points and characters in A Passage to India, including Dr. Aziz, Mrs. Moore, Adela Quested, and their interactions in British-controlled India.
This is my power point on Macbeth which I completed for students who are studying for the 'English Literature' exam. I hope it's helpful as I provided as much as information as possible. References: https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/zwws39q
~Suzan G
(Info is from Bitesize, I don't own it)
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons Licence" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>.
Ted Hughes was an English poet born in 1930 in Mytholmroyd, UK. He exhibited an early interest in writing and was publishing poetry by age 15. Hughes met his future wife, Sylvia Plath, in 1956 and they married soon after, having two children together. However, their marriage ended in divorce in 1962 following Plath's suicide. Hughes later had a child with his partner Assia Wevill, who also committed suicide. Hughes died in 1998 after an 18-month battle with cancer, leaving behind a significant body of work including poetry collections, novels, and children's literature that drew heavily from his personal experiences.
This document provides a summary of George Bernard Shaw's play "Arms and the Man". It discusses the plot, characters, themes, and Shaw's motives. The play satirizes romantic notions of war, love, and class through characters like Raina, a romantic idealist, and Captain Bluntschli, a realistic soldier. It shows the conflict between idealism and realism. Through this play, Shaw criticizes attitudes of glorifying war and discrimination by class.
This document provides an analysis of John Dryden's poem "Absalom and Achitophel" as a political satire. It discusses how the poem uses biblical allegory to criticize the Whig party and praise the Tory party in response to political events during Dryden's time. The document also examines Dryden's style of satire, where he would describe things in a way that finds approval while also scrutinizing. It provides context on the political situation during Dryden's life and career where he supported constitutional monarchy.
Comparison between Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoevyas charmi
character of novel to the lighthouse, about Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe, comparison with example of TV serial " Naviya" and " Yeh rishta kya kahlata Hai.
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818 and died in 1895 in Washington D.C. He escaped from slavery in 1838 by boarding a train to Philadelphia dressed as a sailor. He went on to become an author, publishing two autobiographies about his life as a slave. Douglass also became a famous abolitionist, traveling widely to lecture against slavery despite risks to his safety.
Mulk Raj Anand's short story "The Two Lady Rams" highlights the discrimination and lack of identity that women faced in British Colonial India. It depicts a patriarchal society where women were defined by their husband's name and role. The story follows the first and second wives of Lalla Jhinda Ram as they struggle for their husband's attention. It illustrates how women were only valued for their ability to produce heirs, and how men were free to take multiple wives if the first could not conceive. While criticizing the social standards of the time, the story also reveals elements of comedy in the rivalry between the wives.
Chief Characteristics Of Comedy Of Menace NiyatiVyas
This document provides an overview of the characteristics of comedy of menace as a genre. It notes that the term was coined by critic Irving Wardle to describe plays by David Campton and Harold Pinter. Comedies of menace feature both comic and tragic elements, keeping the audience both amused and on the brink of terror through an indefinable sense of fear. They often have simplistic settings and focus on the threat faced by characters from a vaguely defined powerful force. The sudden shifts between comedy and seriousness enhance the unsettling atmosphere.
The Rape of the Lock was written by Pope to chide gently the Fermor family when Lord Petre cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s hair on a certain fateful day and such dire consequences followed. Pope started something that culminated into a piece of literature that has remained to this day a leading example of the mock epic satire.
Abraham Cowley (pronounced Cooley) was born in London, the posthumous son of a wealthy London stationer. He was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his BA in 1639, was made fellow in 1640, and became MA in 1643. Cowley published his first volume of verse, Poetical Blossoms (1633), when he was 15. The collection consisted of five poems, one of which Cowley had written at age 10. He wrote a pastoral drama and a Latin comedy, Naufragium Ioculare (1638), when he was but 20.
The document provides background information on Henry Fielding's novel "Joseph Andrews". Published in 1742, it was one of the first novels written in English and tells the story of the adventures of the title character Joseph Andrews and his friend Parson Adams. The novel brought together two different literary aesthetics that were popular during the 18th century Augustan period: the mock heroic style of authors like Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, and the domestic prose fiction of writers such as Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson. The story embodied the principles of reason and empiricism that defined the Augustan Age. While some critics praised Fielding's realistic depictions of human nature, others disliked his satirical parody of Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela
Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 in Illinois. He worked as a reporter after high school and joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps during WWI, where he was severely wounded. He was treated in Italy, where he met a nurse named Catherine. After the war, their relationship and experiences formed the basis of his novel A Farewell to Arms. The novel follows American soldier Fredrick Henry and nurse Catherine Barkley during WWI as they fall in love amid the horrors of war and ultimately try to flee to neutral Switzerland together.
Salman Rushdie uses magic realism in his novel Midnight's Children to tell the story of India's independence. The main character, Saleem Sinai, is born at midnight on August 15th, 1947, when India gains independence. He and other children born at that moment have special supernatural powers. Rushdie blends realistic historical events with magical elements to reflect how independence was experienced on an individual level. Saleem acts as a telepathic link between hundreds of children with gifts, trying to understand their purpose and connection to India's fate. Magic realism allows Rushdie to incorporate indigenous worldviews and critique the effects of colonialism on post-independence India.
The document discusses themes of imperialism in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. It explores how the novella depicts Europeans asserting their racial superiority and civilizing mission as justification for colonizing Africa. However, Marlow comes to realize that imperialism in the Congo involved brutal exploitation and abuse of power over native people. Ivory is presented as a symbol of the Europeans' greedy commercial motivations for imperialism. While the idea of uplifting natives was used to justify colonization, many Europeans instead treated natives as less than human and failed to civilize them.
Themes and Symbols in The Crucible by Arthur MillerFatima Zahra
The presentation includes the themes and symbols present in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, It includes videos and photos from the movie Crucible starring Winona Ryder.
1. Philippine literature had a pre-Spanish period where the ancestors developed their own forms of literature through legends, folk tales, and epics that expressed their culture and traditions.
2. Some examples of pre-Spanish literature include legends like "The Legend of the Tagalogs" and folk tales like "The Moon and the Sun". Epics during this period included the Biag ni Lam-ang and the Maragtas.
3. Unfortunately, many records of pre-Spanish literature were destroyed by Spanish friars who saw them as works of the devil, but some forms like folk songs survived through oral tradition.
1) The narrator has a conversation on a train with a male companion where they discuss various poets such as Byron, Keats, and Shelley.
2) The narrator mentions the unknown poet Gerard Manly Hopkins whose lines were quoted to her by a friend.
3) As the train continues on its journey, the narrator and her companion sit in thought, having engaged in a discussion of poetry.
1George OrwellWhy I WriteFrom a very early age, perh.docxfelicidaddinwoodie
1
George Orwell
Why I Write
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.
I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. Nevertheless the volume of serious — i.e. seriously intended — writing which I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a dozen pages. I wrote my first poem at the age of four or five, my mother taking it down to dictation. I cannot remember anything about it except that it was about a tiger and the tiger had ‘chair-like teeth’ — a good enough phrase, but I fancy the poem was a plagiarism of Blake's ‘Tiger, Tiger’. At eleven, when the war or 1914-18 broke out, I wrote a patriotic poem which was printed in the local newspaper, as was another, two years later, on the death of Kitchener. From time to time, when I was a bit older, I wrote bad and usually unfinished ‘nature poems’ in the Georgian style. I also attempted a short story which was a ghastly failure. That was the total of the would-be serious work that I actually set down on paper during all those years.
However, throughout this time I did in a sense engage in literary activities. To begin with there was the made-to-order stuff which I produced quickly, easily and without much pleasure to myself. Apart from school work, I wrote vers d'occasion, semi-comic poems which I could turn out at what now seems to me astonishing speed — at fourteen I wrote a whole rhyming play, in imitation of Aristophanes, in about a week — and helped to edit a school magazines, both printed and in manuscript. These magazines were the most pitiful burlesque stuff that you could imagine, and I took far less trouble with them than I now would with the cheapest journalism. But side by side with all this, for fifteen years or more, I was carrying out a literary exercise of a quite different kind: this was the making up of a continuous ‘story’ about myself, a sort of diary existing only in the mind. I believe this is a common habit of children and adolescents. As a very small child I used to imagine that I was, say, Robin Hood, and picture myself as th ...
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The dramatic monologue became a popular poetic form in the Victorian period, especially through the works of Robert Browning. It features a single speaker addressing another person or people, revealing their character through what they say. Modernist poets like T.S. Eliot further developed the form in poems like "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" where the speaker's identity is ambiguous. Contemporary poets, including many women, have also used the dramatic monologue to give voice to mythical or historical figures' perspectives.
George Orwell explains the four main motives that drive writers: (1) egoism and desire for fame, (2) aesthetic enthusiasm for language and storytelling, (3) the historical impulse to uncover facts, and (4) political purpose to change society. As a child, Orwell engaged in extensive imaginary storytelling and worked on various unsuccessful poems and stories. He was drawn to descriptive writing styles and wanted to write large naturalistic novels. His experiences in Burma and later poverty influenced his political views and pushed him towards writing pamphlets.
Module-3 American Poetry "Daddy" by Sylvia Plathjitugohil
Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" expresses the speaker's intense love and hatred for her father through surreal and violent imagery. The speaker addresses her father directly, calling him names like "ghastly statue" and comparing him to Hitler. She describes being oppressed and living in fear under his influence for many years. While partly autobiographical, the poem more broadly examines themes of female oppression and the victimization of war through its symbolic representation of the father figure. It allows the speaker to relieve neurotic emotions through creative expression.
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A Critical Analysis Of Quot Daddy Quot By Sylvia Plath
1. Andrea Martínez Celis Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Crítica Literaria e Investigación Contemporánea en Lengua Inglesa
Dr. María Goicoechea de Jorge 3º Grado en Estudios Ingleses
Facultad de Filología 09/04/2015
A Critical Analysis of
Daddy
by Sylvia Plath
2. Daddy
Sylvia Plath
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time–
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.
In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend
Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.
3. It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene
An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.
The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.
I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You–
Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.
You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
4. But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who
Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.
But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look
And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I’m finally through.
The black telephone’s off at the root,
The voices just can’t worm through.
If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two–
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.
There’s a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through
5. 1
Daddy
Sylvia Plath
General Analysis
Sylvia Plath was an American writer, she wrote poetry, novels, and short
stories. She was born in Boston 1932 and she committed suicide in London in
1963. ‘Daddy’ was written in 1962, around four months before her death, but it
was published posthumously. Her entire life was a controversy since she
suffered several depressions during most of her adulthood, taking the fatal
decision of ending her own life when she was just thirty years old. She was
considered a feminist by some people and exactly the opposite by others. One
of her first goals in life was to be a good wife and a good mother, but at the
same time she got to be a famous writer and to place herself in the world of
literature among several male names in which women had not been accepted
until then. Could a woman be a perfect wife and a feminist at the same time?
She could not answer this question since she died very young. Her poetry was
famous for being especially honest, for describing exactly what she felt without
caring about what people could think, and this was a difficult task for a woman
in the society of the Fifties. She wrote about very different themes during her
life; nature, love, vengeance, rage etc. However, her favourite theme was death,
it seemed from the very beginning of her career that she was obsessed with
death. In most of her works, whatever the subject, the darkness of death
remains between the lines. She wrote confessional poetry; it means personal
poetry, the poetry of the ‘’I’’ in which the author uses literature to confess
personal experiences, private feelings, traumas, depressions or difficult
relationships. ‘Daddy’ is one of her most famous poems because of very the
hard metaphor she does about the Holocaust. She ‘‘lived’’ The Second World
War as a child despite she could live a normal life far from the war, her father
6. 2
was a German American author, Otto Plath, he is more likely protagonist of this
poem. He and his daughter could have a difficult relationship, although he died
when she was only eight years old. She compared the Holocaust with the
patriarchal society in which she lived; the father’s image as a God is similar to
the image of Hitler in Germany.
Sylvia Plath could be considered within the literary canon inasmuch as she won
several major awards in literature, notably the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for 'The
Collected Poems' in 1982. 'Daddy' was not in this book and it was maybe
because of the controversial issue that she wrote about. Perhaps this poem is
not considered within the canon because, as many authors claim, the canon is
not just about literary quality but ideology and politics. Therefore, a woman
writing about the Holocaust as a metaphor of her father does not exactly match
the perfect idea of the Western Canon.
This essay will analyse and criticize a polemic poem written by a controversial
author from some varied critical movements.
New Criticism
New Criticism is a movement very focused on the ‘’close reading’’ of the
piece itself, forgetting historical context, the biography of the author or other
external factors that can modify the way in which people read literature. New
Critics defend that this kind of reading is completely objective, because they try
to isolate literalness. This theory attempts to create a science of literature,
meaning that literature needs a technique to be literature. As New Critics it is
necessary to know the ‘false fallacies’:
-Intentional fallacy: The author does not write what he or she intends to do, it
means that readers cannot assume and judge the intentions of the author.
-Affective fallacy: Separating the poem from its own effect. This is that the
reader has to differentiate what the poem is and what the poem does.
7. 3
-Biographical Fallacy: Assuming that literature must be an actual reflection of
the author’s life and experience.
-Communication fallacy: Literature is not a way to indoctrinate people.
Literature does not have anything to do with politics or ideologies. Literature
should not interfere with society.
Taking this information into account, the first step to interpret this poem as
New Critic is to analyse form and meter. This includes rhythm, rhyme, and
rhetoric. New Criticism tries to find a pattern. On the one hand ‘Daddy’ has free
verse which means that there is no an established pattern of rhythm or rhyme.
On the other hand, ‘Daddy’ is composed of sixteen quintains, ie sixteen five-line
stanzas. The poem must have a unified meaning. The main problem with this
analysis is that as New Critics do not take into account the context, there are
just abstract content in this poem. The free verse and the complex meaning of its
lines could be because it is just a metaphor of Anarchy in literature. However,
the title of the poem clearly reveals that the poem talks about her father, which
means that the author is reflecting her life.
Russian Formalism
Russian Formalism stresses the importance of poetic language in the
literature studies. Russian Formalists try to create a ‘scientific method‘ to
differentiate between literature and ‘no-literature’. The main difference with
New Criticism is that Formalists believe that human ‘content’ gives the context
for the functioning of literary ‘devices’ while New Critics were very humanistic.
The tool to recognize literature quality is the use of poetic language, this
language has some properties that the reader can analyse. Poetry is the result of
an excellent use of language whose main characteristic is the rhythm. As
literature is compound of language, linguistics, as the science of language, is
fundamental for the Formalists. Literature is autonomous, which means that it
is different from the quotidian and practical use of language. Form and content
8. 4
are absolutely connected, since Formalists defend the idea that the history of
literature is the innovation in formal structures. ‘Defamiliarization’ is one of the
main concepts; it is the ability to use language in a different way from the
ordinary language to cause distinctive effects on the readers. Formalists also
distinguish between ‘plot’ and ‘story’; while ‘plot’ is the literary part, ‘story’ is
just raw material that must be organized by the author.
Firstly, the author uses in ‘Daddy’ a lot of ordinary language, but in a different
way through literary devices, this could be seen as defamiliarization of
language. For example the use of ‘shoe’, ‘tongue’, ‘town’, ‘engine’,
‘blackboard’, ‘brute’, ‘glue’, ‘telephone’ etc. They are very used in the quotidian
life however in this poem they are conveying very different feelings from the
daily life. It is also notable the several references to some countries and
religions, and the use of the word ‘Fascist’ in the literary context, in a poetic
manner. The plot of the poem is the relationship between the ‘Daddy’ and his
daughter. The story might be the facts of the Second World War with which the
author works. The motif of this poem is the father, while the motivation is that
the father existed so, the reference to reality is clear along the whole text. The
main literary device that Sylvia Plath used is metaphor; the entire poem is a
metaphor, therefore it could be called allegory. As it was said before, she
compares her family life with a Fascist life. The concept of ‘foreground’ to refer
to ‘the aesthetically intentional distortion of linguistics components’ is clear in
this poem. She uses words with different functions. For example, when she
mentions several Nazi extermination camps: ‘‘Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen’’, she
is looking for the aesthetic side of these horrible places that make the readers
think of very sad images. The same when she says ‘‘Every woman adores a
Fascist, The boot in the face, the brute, Brute heart of a brute like you.’’, she
gets the aesthetic vision, even the erotic side of this of a violent scene.
9. 5
Structuralism
This critical theory defends that literary texts must have a universal narrative
structure; it means that they must follow a kind of rules, a predetermined
system, to be considered literature. This is the reason because literature is
divided into genres. For Structuralists, literature is easier to understand by
experienced readers than by the rest of people. Literature and its rules must be
taught in educational institutions.
When talking about Structuralism, Binary Opposition theory must be
mentioned. This means that we as human beings associate automatically certain
opposites, such as men as opposed to women, ie, who is not a man, is a
woman, and several examples like this.
The main problem with this critical theory is that nothing would be new at all,
because all literature pieces would follow the same structure, taking the
greatest of literature as examples. Is Sylvia Plath just following these rules? She
respects a structure; sixteen five-line stanzas, and this is the reason because it is
considered a poem. Furthermore, she is labeled in the genre of confessional
poetry, despite she wrote other genres as well. However, critics strike again
with the theme of the poem, the newest and most relevant aspect of this poem.
On the one hand, it cannot be said that this is absolutely new, but Sylvia Plath is
not trying to follow rules or copy other great poets. She is trying to create her
own style to convey her own feelings without thinking about the literary
system. On the other hand, the reader can feel the deep part of the poem, she is
not inventing a stage, she is actually talking about historical facts, a hard reality.
Therefore, she could be trying to convey these elements to create what is called
by Structuralists as 'true literature'.
10. 6
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
This theory was born as opposed to Structuralism and it is based on the idea
of the complexity of human being. Since literature is created by humans,
literature is too complex to be classified under structures and systems. Some
modern philosophers such as Freud found out that there are parts of the human
condition that we cannot control. Therefore, this theory is closely related to
phallogocentrism. Jacques Derrida explained it as a mixture of phallocentrism;
that is the supremacy of the male, and logocentrism; which gives more
importance to language, both of them relative to the meaning.
As when talking about Structuralism it must be mentioned the Binary
Opposition theory, Poststructuralism defends the opposite theory;
Deconstruction. This theory rejects opposites and hierarchies, it goes against the
universal relations previously established. The only possible way to understand
the world is deconstructing it, ie; forgetting our preconceptions and our
knowledge previously learned. Nothing is true. The human being knows
nothing about the world or about the human beings themselves. Therefore, we
cannot create rules or systems, because nothing is clear. One thing may mean
several things at the same time or nothing. A sign does not have to mean a
signifier and a signified, because there is no truth. There is a trial of signifiers;
this means that a sign is a sign of a sign of a sign etc.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that this movement of literary criticism was born in
the same era in which Sylvia Plath wrote this poem; in the Sixties. The reader
can identify this lack of meaning of life in this poem and the rest of her literary
work. Actually, this poem is so important because of the absence of a clear
meaning or an explanation; all we have are just assumptions. This problem is
found with all authors whose writings were published after their deaths,
because anybody can give a clear answer for them. The general assumption is
that this poem is about her father. However, her father died when she was
eight, so maybe, as some people believe, it is about her husband, or somebody
else. The western ideology tends to relate the figure of authority to the father or
11. 7
the husband, always with the man. But, as it was said before, if we ‘deconstruct’
reality the reader could understand better the poem. Labeling this poem under
an ideology, it is not clear if it is feminist or misogynist, if it is racist or antiracist
etc. This is because nothing is absolutely true. The reader cannot understand
Sylvia Plath’s mind or intention, because there are parts of our brain that we
ourselves cannot control. Sometimes even the author is not aware of what she
or he is writing, because subconscious may be who is talking.
Conclusion
After studying ‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath from different critical theories, the
reader cannot extract a clear conclusion. The Western Cannon’s theory would
say that this is not literature because of the topic that she is talking about; the
Holocaust, nobody can create literature of such a horrible historical event. New
Critics would say that this is not literature because the reader cannot
understand any word without the context and she does not follow a clear
pattern, therefore it would not make any sense. Formalist would criticize its
‘ordinary’ language, but they would praise the way she manages to create
literature from that lot of common words. Structuralists would agree with the
structure of ordered stanzas, but they would not agree with the intertextuality
of the text and the lack of a marked rhythm. Poststructuralism would be the
most suitable critical theory for this poem because of the lack of a clear meaning
and the ‘deconstruction’ of the words that Sylvia Plath gets to create.
Personal Opinion
From my point of view, Sylvia Plath is a great author and this poem is
probably the best one. Despite that she uses free verse, the poem has much
musicality due to rhyme. She has the power to create a beautiful piece of
literature referring to the most heinous crime against humanity, and that is
12. 8
great. However, I am not able to analyse this poem without thinking that it was
written a short time before she committed suicide. Therefore, I, as a reader, can
feel anxiety because of the lack of life’s meaning that she conveys through these
lines. She had tried to end her life several times before, but when she was
writing this poem she wanted to write something about her father, but it was
not just about her father. I think that her subconscious wrote a poem about her
entire life. Firstly, her father, then her husband and, at the end of her life, even
her own children could be the hidden subject of this poem. She was always
under the pressure of being a woman of the middle class because of different
factors. Going to university, getting married and having children were
supposedly her dreams, the goals of her life, as they were for most of women at
that time. Nevertheless, when she achieved all the things she wished, she
ignited the gas, and she ended her own life forever. Perhaps she realized that
happiness was not in the goals, it was in the way to get her goals, and she did
not enjoy her life at all. Answering the question I asked at the beginning, I
strongly believe that a woman can be a perfect wife, a perfect mother, and a
feminist at the same time. Although, I think this poem is not just a claim about
the patriarchal society; it is a summary of her life, a way to ask for help or just
saying goodbye.
In my opinion, it is impossible to separate literature from its context, words
cannot work on their own, they need a context to make sense. Literature is not a
science. For me the most wonderful of literature is freedom, not to have the
obligation of following rules or systems, feeling free to interpret it. L'art pour
l'art , love to create something, in a selfless way, and without labels.
13. 9
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