This summarizes a scholarly essay analyzing Philip Roth's novel Exit Ghost. It argues that the protagonist Nathan Zuckerman constructs a sexualized and masculine version of New York City in his mind as he returns after many years in exile. However, this vision fails to acknowledge the profound impact of 9/11 and the absence of the Twin Towers, representing a "misreading" of the real, post-9/11 city. Zuckerman channels his desires into fictional dialogues rather than real relationships, and ultimately his constructed identity and vision of New York cannot be reconciled with the changed reality around him.
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of Shakespeare's sonnets. It discusses how the sonnets can be divided into two sections - sonnets 1-126 addressing a male friend, and sonnets 127-152 addressing a "dark mistress." The main themes are constancy versus inconstancy between the two subjects of the sonnets, and how Shakespeare uses them to represent non-physical and physical realities. The document analyzes metaphor usage and how Shakespeare portrays the two subjects in relation to themes of youth, beauty, fidelity and the test of time.
Book Review:Opinion - The People of Paper - Entertainment WeeklyChanning Joseph
This document contains reviews of four books:
1) The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, a surrealistic metanvel about residents of a fictional town who battle against being characters in a story.
2) Playground by Jennifer Saginor, a memoir about growing up with a father in the Playboy circle that reviewers found overly narcissistic.
3) Make Love! (The Bruce Campbell Way) by Bruce Campbell, a comedic novel imagining Bruce Campbell in a Hollywood romantic comedy that reviewers enjoyed.
4) Lord Byron's Novel by John Crowley, a novel about a woman researching Lord Byron's daughter who discovers a mysterious manuscript, which the review does not discuss further
An Objective Evaluation of Shakespeare’s Universal Appealpaperpublications3
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance; that you o‟verstep not the modesty of
nature. For anything so o‟erdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end both at the first, and now, was and is, to hold
as „twere the mirror up to nature, to show Virtue her own feature, scorn her own Image, and the very age and body of the
time his form and pressure.
- Hamlet: III.ii.17-24
This document provides an analysis of Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley as an example of a modern novel. It discusses several key characteristics of modern novels, including their realistic portrayal of human nature and focus on psychological characterization through examining a character's inner thoughts and past experiences. The document analyzes Edward Waverley as the passive protagonist in Scott's novel, exploring how his changing costumes and aliases throughout reflect his flexible nature. It also discusses Scott's techniques of characterization in Waverley that demonstrate both emerging a character from events as well as providing initial descriptive portraits.
The lighting design recommendations for the play Bus Stop are:
1) Areas where action occurs on stage should be consistently lit to show the characters' confinement in the diner due to harsh weather.
2) Lighting should gravitate towards the center stage to create a sense of being bound by the weather, with dimmer lighting around the edges.
3) A blue hue and soft lighting should be used to recreate the feeling of a snowstorm and match the somber moods conveyed by some characters in Act 1.
4) Soft lighting is most appropriate for the 1950s rural setting in Kansas City, Missouri rather than bright modern lighting.
An Attitude of Defiance - Shakespeare's womenEloivene Blake
I will be exploring this distinctive characteristic as I look at the virtues and mishaps of Shakespeare's women in the context of the Shakespearean comedy.
1) Macbeth is considered Shakespeare's most comprehensive portrayal of evil. It tells the story of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's ambition which leads them to commit regicide and other murders.
2) Ambition is the main driving force behind the actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth's ambition is selfish while Lady Macbeth's is driven by love, but both passions ultimately lead them down a path of evil deeds.
3) The play depicts the contrast between light and darkness, good and evil, through its characters, imagery, and themes. It shows how Macbeth's initial goodness becomes corrupted by his unchecked ambition.
The document contains several poems and analyses about themes of civilization, humanity, and gaming. The first poem, "Civilisation" by Arthur Henry Adams, uses metaphors to depict the rise and fall of mankind likened to a wave and fading rose. It has an irregular rhyme scheme potentially mirroring the decline. The following sections analyze this poem's literary devices and provide personal reflections relating its themes to current conflicts. Further poems address topics like the escape of gaming, its contrast to reality, and perspectives on difference and war.
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of Shakespeare's sonnets. It discusses how the sonnets can be divided into two sections - sonnets 1-126 addressing a male friend, and sonnets 127-152 addressing a "dark mistress." The main themes are constancy versus inconstancy between the two subjects of the sonnets, and how Shakespeare uses them to represent non-physical and physical realities. The document analyzes metaphor usage and how Shakespeare portrays the two subjects in relation to themes of youth, beauty, fidelity and the test of time.
Book Review:Opinion - The People of Paper - Entertainment WeeklyChanning Joseph
This document contains reviews of four books:
1) The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, a surrealistic metanvel about residents of a fictional town who battle against being characters in a story.
2) Playground by Jennifer Saginor, a memoir about growing up with a father in the Playboy circle that reviewers found overly narcissistic.
3) Make Love! (The Bruce Campbell Way) by Bruce Campbell, a comedic novel imagining Bruce Campbell in a Hollywood romantic comedy that reviewers enjoyed.
4) Lord Byron's Novel by John Crowley, a novel about a woman researching Lord Byron's daughter who discovers a mysterious manuscript, which the review does not discuss further
An Objective Evaluation of Shakespeare’s Universal Appealpaperpublications3
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance; that you o‟verstep not the modesty of
nature. For anything so o‟erdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end both at the first, and now, was and is, to hold
as „twere the mirror up to nature, to show Virtue her own feature, scorn her own Image, and the very age and body of the
time his form and pressure.
- Hamlet: III.ii.17-24
This document provides an analysis of Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley as an example of a modern novel. It discusses several key characteristics of modern novels, including their realistic portrayal of human nature and focus on psychological characterization through examining a character's inner thoughts and past experiences. The document analyzes Edward Waverley as the passive protagonist in Scott's novel, exploring how his changing costumes and aliases throughout reflect his flexible nature. It also discusses Scott's techniques of characterization in Waverley that demonstrate both emerging a character from events as well as providing initial descriptive portraits.
The lighting design recommendations for the play Bus Stop are:
1) Areas where action occurs on stage should be consistently lit to show the characters' confinement in the diner due to harsh weather.
2) Lighting should gravitate towards the center stage to create a sense of being bound by the weather, with dimmer lighting around the edges.
3) A blue hue and soft lighting should be used to recreate the feeling of a snowstorm and match the somber moods conveyed by some characters in Act 1.
4) Soft lighting is most appropriate for the 1950s rural setting in Kansas City, Missouri rather than bright modern lighting.
An Attitude of Defiance - Shakespeare's womenEloivene Blake
I will be exploring this distinctive characteristic as I look at the virtues and mishaps of Shakespeare's women in the context of the Shakespearean comedy.
1) Macbeth is considered Shakespeare's most comprehensive portrayal of evil. It tells the story of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's ambition which leads them to commit regicide and other murders.
2) Ambition is the main driving force behind the actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth's ambition is selfish while Lady Macbeth's is driven by love, but both passions ultimately lead them down a path of evil deeds.
3) The play depicts the contrast between light and darkness, good and evil, through its characters, imagery, and themes. It shows how Macbeth's initial goodness becomes corrupted by his unchecked ambition.
The document contains several poems and analyses about themes of civilization, humanity, and gaming. The first poem, "Civilisation" by Arthur Henry Adams, uses metaphors to depict the rise and fall of mankind likened to a wave and fading rose. It has an irregular rhyme scheme potentially mirroring the decline. The following sections analyze this poem's literary devices and provide personal reflections relating its themes to current conflicts. Further poems address topics like the escape of gaming, its contrast to reality, and perspectives on difference and war.
The poetess conveys wisdom through several elements in the poem:
- Experience and reflection. The poem suggests the poetess has gone through difficult life experiences of loneliness, hardship as a woman, and unfulfilled hopes for love and freedom. She is drawing on this experience to reflect on deeper truths about the human condition and women's lives.
- Realism and acceptance. Rather than dwelling in misery, the poetess adopts a realistic tone of accepting her circumstances as they are. This conveys a wisdom of understanding reality rather than clinging to false hopes.
- Resilience. Despite her suffering, the poetess notes she has never sunk so low as to be overwhelmed by fear, and can still find moments of
This document discusses situating Oscar Wilde's play Salome and Joris-Karl Huysmans' novel Against Nature (A Rebours) within the tradition of satire. It argues that both works contain satirical elements that were missed by initial critical receptions. Regarding A Rebours, the protagonist Jean Des Esseintes is analyzed as a target of ridicule, fitting the criteria of Menippean satire which focuses on mental attitudes. While Salome does not fit neatly into a single satirical mode, it contains humor through absurdity and non-sequitur dialogue meant for entertainment rather than didactic purposes. The document examines how both works may have been misunderstood due to wholly literal readings
This document provides an in-depth analysis of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It discusses key elements of the plot and characters, including Hamlet's introspective nature and delay in seeking revenge. It also analyzes other main characters like Ophelia, Claudius, and Horatio, and contrasts Hamlet's contemplative traits with more impulsive characters like Laertes. Overall, the document analyzes the themes, characters, and critical reception of Hamlet through numerous quotes and references from the play.
This document provides context and analysis for 12 poems by W.B. Yeats, including summaries of their themes, historical context, form and structure, and imagery. It examines poems such as "Easter 1916", "The Cold Heaven", and "Leda and the Swan", analyzing Yeats' exploration of themes like time, death, decay, and mythology through various poetic forms and techniques. Key figures referenced in the poems and their historical significance are also described.
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of the 2011 film The Mill and the Cross, directed by Lech Majewski. It summarizes the film as follows:
1) The film is inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1564 painting The Way to Calvary and attempts to bring the painting to life by translating it into a narrative film.
2) The film depicts both the events of Christ's crucifixion procession shown in the painting as well as the historical context of Spanish rule and religious persecution in 16th century Flanders.
3) However, the director's vision is not a straightforward translation and includes interruptions and contradictions that undermine cinematic realism,
The document provides an analysis of key themes, characters, and symbols in Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. It discusses how the novel is structured around two parallel love stories between Catherine and Heathcliff and young Catherine and Hareton. It also analyzes the social class dynamics between the Earnshaws and Lintons as members of the precarious gentry class. Key motifs like doubles, symbols like the moors and ghosts, and the conflict between nature and culture are also examined.
This exhibition explores how landscape conveys emotion in artworks from different historical periods. Three key points:
1) Landscape sets the tone and reinforces the meaning and symbolism of paintings by vividly depicting the mood and emotion of the scenery.
2) Landscapes from different eras articulate crucial moments and allow artistic expression, such as religious art during the Reformation emphasizing landscapes of mourning, or Rococo interiors reflecting elegance.
3) During the Romantic period, landscapes merged with mood to inspire artists and depict nature's intensity, as seen in Friedrich's melancholy night scene and Cole's contrast of calm sunlight amid storm clouds.
Julian barnes's the only story a postmodern absurdist critiqueRiddhi Bhatt
The document provides an analysis of Julian Barnes's novel "The Only Story" as a postmodern absurdist critique. It discusses how the novel explores themes of absurdity and meaninglessness in the lives of the main characters Paul and Susan. Through their relationship and its breakdown, Barnes examines what it means to find love and purpose in a postmodern society. The document also reviews relevant literary theories of absurdism from authors like Albert Camus and Thomas Nagel and how they relate to Barnes's novel.
Pathetic fallacy is a literary device used by the author to attribute human emotions and traits to nature or inanimate objects. For instance, the following descriptions refer to weather and how it affects the mood, which can add atmosphere to a story: smiling skies, somber clouds, angry storm, or bitter winter.
The document discusses the use of symbolism in T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land". It analyzes various symbols in the poem including water, the Fisher King, religion, animals, drought, characters, cities, rivers, Buddhism, seasons, thunder, and landscape. Key symbols examined are water and its association with cleansing and relief as well as drought; the Fisher King and its connection to fertility rites and Christianity; and how cities represent the cyclical rise and fall of cultures. The document serves to explore the symbolic meanings and interpretations behind elements in Eliot's modernist work.
Characterization in The Swamp Dwellers and Waiting for Godotjinalparmar
First, the document provides background on the characters and plots of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Wole Soyinka's The Swamp Dwellers. It then compares and contrasts the two plays, noting their exploration of similar themes of absurdity and the human condition. While both plays depict hopeless characters waiting for salvation, Soyinka incorporates more African idioms and mythology whereas Beckett employs avant-garde techniques and Christian concepts. The Swamp Dwellers also includes female characters and a clear beginning, middle, and end compared to Godot.
This document discusses various critical analyses and interpretations of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights. It explores how the novel combines elements of Gothic fiction and domestic fiction, and negotiates between Romantic and Victorian literary traditions. Some key points made include:
- The novel traces the emergence of the modern family and domestic realism while also keeping other versions of domestic life, like the family as a site of violence.
- Elements like disrupted chronology and the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff work to resist ideologies that tied women to powerlessness.
- The mixing of genres in the novel can be understood as both supporting and resisting dominant ideologies of gender.
- There are many potential approaches to analyzing the
The speaker, the Duke of Ferrara, shows off a portrait of his late wife, the Duchess, to an envoy. He speaks proudly of the portrait but reveals that he grew jealous of the attention the Duchess gave to others, including the painter who created her portrait. The Duke implies that he took severe actions against his wife, suggesting he was responsible for her death. He dismisses the envoy to join others, showing his desire to move past his late wife and pursue a new marriage.
Richard Russo has written a new memoir titled "Elsewhere" about his complicated relationship with his hometown of Gloversville, New York. The memoir explores his troubled childhood raised primarily by his working mother, and how she insisted he leave Gloversville as the town's economy declined. While Russo has found success as a novelist, he remains haunted by Gloversville. Through his fiction, he was able to revisit the town in a more positive light under different names. However, returning to the real Gloversville remains difficult for Russo due to his unresolved feelings about his past there.
The document discusses T.S. Eliot's modernist poem "The Waste Land". It provides background on the poem, describing it as widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century. It explores the poem's themes of disillusionment, despair, and hopelessness in post-World War 1 Europe. While the poem reflected the mood of its time, it also examines universal human dilemmas. It suggests "The Waste Land" is not just a product of its circumstances but reveals broader issues through allusions to the past and fragmentation of the present.
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth in 3 sentences:
It explores Macbeth's descent into evil and tyranny after he murders King Duncan upon the urging of his wife Lady Macbeth and their manipulation by the witches' prophecies, depicting how his crimes lead to his paranoid rule and eventual downfall. Dramatic irony pervades the play as characters are unaware of the true situations while the audience understands Macbeth's growing corruption. The play examines the complex interplay between free will and fate that leads to Macbeth's tragic downfall through his own actions and the consequences of his choices.
The summary provides key details about the document in 3 sentences:
The document summarizes a presentation on the Victorian poem "My Last Duchess" which analyzes the possessive and arrogant Duke who speaks to a messenger about his previous wife, as depicted in her portrait. It describes how the Duke sees women as possessions and was displeased that his Duchess appreciated all people equally rather than respecting his high social status alone. The analysis suggests the Duke's jealousy led him to order his Duchess's death, as implied by his comments about her smiles stopping.
Annotated glossaries chronicle of a death foretoldChet
The document defines and provides examples of key literary terms:
- Setting is described as the geographical location and physical environment where the story takes place. An example from Chronicle of a Death Foretold describes the beautiful setting of a farmhouse.
- Symbol is defined as something that represents both itself and something else, evoking a concrete reality while also suggesting further meaning. Biblical names in Chronicle of a Death Foretold act as symbols.
The document provides analysis and context about T.S. Eliot's modernist poem "The Waste Land". It summarizes that the poem was written in the aftermath of World War I amid economic and social upheaval in Europe. It captures the sense of a "lost civilization" through fragmented images and allusions to depict the modern world as a "waste land". While obscure, the poem's difficulties are intentional to recreate the feeling of cultural fragmentation. It also hints at underlying patterns and continuity with the past through its references to myths and previous empires to provide glimpses of hope among the despair.
In this essay I explain how the actual society influence in the sexual orientation of the people. The gender roles are changing and that makes everything tend to a change.
The document discusses sexually transmitted diseases increasing among younger people and schools' use of abstinence-only sex education. The author has researched whether abstinence-only education prevents STDs and has come to different conclusions. They question if schools should be held responsible for rising STD rates if they are not properly educating students on safe sex practices.
The poetess conveys wisdom through several elements in the poem:
- Experience and reflection. The poem suggests the poetess has gone through difficult life experiences of loneliness, hardship as a woman, and unfulfilled hopes for love and freedom. She is drawing on this experience to reflect on deeper truths about the human condition and women's lives.
- Realism and acceptance. Rather than dwelling in misery, the poetess adopts a realistic tone of accepting her circumstances as they are. This conveys a wisdom of understanding reality rather than clinging to false hopes.
- Resilience. Despite her suffering, the poetess notes she has never sunk so low as to be overwhelmed by fear, and can still find moments of
This document discusses situating Oscar Wilde's play Salome and Joris-Karl Huysmans' novel Against Nature (A Rebours) within the tradition of satire. It argues that both works contain satirical elements that were missed by initial critical receptions. Regarding A Rebours, the protagonist Jean Des Esseintes is analyzed as a target of ridicule, fitting the criteria of Menippean satire which focuses on mental attitudes. While Salome does not fit neatly into a single satirical mode, it contains humor through absurdity and non-sequitur dialogue meant for entertainment rather than didactic purposes. The document examines how both works may have been misunderstood due to wholly literal readings
This document provides an in-depth analysis of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It discusses key elements of the plot and characters, including Hamlet's introspective nature and delay in seeking revenge. It also analyzes other main characters like Ophelia, Claudius, and Horatio, and contrasts Hamlet's contemplative traits with more impulsive characters like Laertes. Overall, the document analyzes the themes, characters, and critical reception of Hamlet through numerous quotes and references from the play.
This document provides context and analysis for 12 poems by W.B. Yeats, including summaries of their themes, historical context, form and structure, and imagery. It examines poems such as "Easter 1916", "The Cold Heaven", and "Leda and the Swan", analyzing Yeats' exploration of themes like time, death, decay, and mythology through various poetic forms and techniques. Key figures referenced in the poems and their historical significance are also described.
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of the 2011 film The Mill and the Cross, directed by Lech Majewski. It summarizes the film as follows:
1) The film is inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1564 painting The Way to Calvary and attempts to bring the painting to life by translating it into a narrative film.
2) The film depicts both the events of Christ's crucifixion procession shown in the painting as well as the historical context of Spanish rule and religious persecution in 16th century Flanders.
3) However, the director's vision is not a straightforward translation and includes interruptions and contradictions that undermine cinematic realism,
The document provides an analysis of key themes, characters, and symbols in Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. It discusses how the novel is structured around two parallel love stories between Catherine and Heathcliff and young Catherine and Hareton. It also analyzes the social class dynamics between the Earnshaws and Lintons as members of the precarious gentry class. Key motifs like doubles, symbols like the moors and ghosts, and the conflict between nature and culture are also examined.
This exhibition explores how landscape conveys emotion in artworks from different historical periods. Three key points:
1) Landscape sets the tone and reinforces the meaning and symbolism of paintings by vividly depicting the mood and emotion of the scenery.
2) Landscapes from different eras articulate crucial moments and allow artistic expression, such as religious art during the Reformation emphasizing landscapes of mourning, or Rococo interiors reflecting elegance.
3) During the Romantic period, landscapes merged with mood to inspire artists and depict nature's intensity, as seen in Friedrich's melancholy night scene and Cole's contrast of calm sunlight amid storm clouds.
Julian barnes's the only story a postmodern absurdist critiqueRiddhi Bhatt
The document provides an analysis of Julian Barnes's novel "The Only Story" as a postmodern absurdist critique. It discusses how the novel explores themes of absurdity and meaninglessness in the lives of the main characters Paul and Susan. Through their relationship and its breakdown, Barnes examines what it means to find love and purpose in a postmodern society. The document also reviews relevant literary theories of absurdism from authors like Albert Camus and Thomas Nagel and how they relate to Barnes's novel.
Pathetic fallacy is a literary device used by the author to attribute human emotions and traits to nature or inanimate objects. For instance, the following descriptions refer to weather and how it affects the mood, which can add atmosphere to a story: smiling skies, somber clouds, angry storm, or bitter winter.
The document discusses the use of symbolism in T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land". It analyzes various symbols in the poem including water, the Fisher King, religion, animals, drought, characters, cities, rivers, Buddhism, seasons, thunder, and landscape. Key symbols examined are water and its association with cleansing and relief as well as drought; the Fisher King and its connection to fertility rites and Christianity; and how cities represent the cyclical rise and fall of cultures. The document serves to explore the symbolic meanings and interpretations behind elements in Eliot's modernist work.
Characterization in The Swamp Dwellers and Waiting for Godotjinalparmar
First, the document provides background on the characters and plots of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Wole Soyinka's The Swamp Dwellers. It then compares and contrasts the two plays, noting their exploration of similar themes of absurdity and the human condition. While both plays depict hopeless characters waiting for salvation, Soyinka incorporates more African idioms and mythology whereas Beckett employs avant-garde techniques and Christian concepts. The Swamp Dwellers also includes female characters and a clear beginning, middle, and end compared to Godot.
This document discusses various critical analyses and interpretations of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights. It explores how the novel combines elements of Gothic fiction and domestic fiction, and negotiates between Romantic and Victorian literary traditions. Some key points made include:
- The novel traces the emergence of the modern family and domestic realism while also keeping other versions of domestic life, like the family as a site of violence.
- Elements like disrupted chronology and the characters of Catherine and Heathcliff work to resist ideologies that tied women to powerlessness.
- The mixing of genres in the novel can be understood as both supporting and resisting dominant ideologies of gender.
- There are many potential approaches to analyzing the
The speaker, the Duke of Ferrara, shows off a portrait of his late wife, the Duchess, to an envoy. He speaks proudly of the portrait but reveals that he grew jealous of the attention the Duchess gave to others, including the painter who created her portrait. The Duke implies that he took severe actions against his wife, suggesting he was responsible for her death. He dismisses the envoy to join others, showing his desire to move past his late wife and pursue a new marriage.
Richard Russo has written a new memoir titled "Elsewhere" about his complicated relationship with his hometown of Gloversville, New York. The memoir explores his troubled childhood raised primarily by his working mother, and how she insisted he leave Gloversville as the town's economy declined. While Russo has found success as a novelist, he remains haunted by Gloversville. Through his fiction, he was able to revisit the town in a more positive light under different names. However, returning to the real Gloversville remains difficult for Russo due to his unresolved feelings about his past there.
The document discusses T.S. Eliot's modernist poem "The Waste Land". It provides background on the poem, describing it as widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century. It explores the poem's themes of disillusionment, despair, and hopelessness in post-World War 1 Europe. While the poem reflected the mood of its time, it also examines universal human dilemmas. It suggests "The Waste Land" is not just a product of its circumstances but reveals broader issues through allusions to the past and fragmentation of the present.
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth in 3 sentences:
It explores Macbeth's descent into evil and tyranny after he murders King Duncan upon the urging of his wife Lady Macbeth and their manipulation by the witches' prophecies, depicting how his crimes lead to his paranoid rule and eventual downfall. Dramatic irony pervades the play as characters are unaware of the true situations while the audience understands Macbeth's growing corruption. The play examines the complex interplay between free will and fate that leads to Macbeth's tragic downfall through his own actions and the consequences of his choices.
The summary provides key details about the document in 3 sentences:
The document summarizes a presentation on the Victorian poem "My Last Duchess" which analyzes the possessive and arrogant Duke who speaks to a messenger about his previous wife, as depicted in her portrait. It describes how the Duke sees women as possessions and was displeased that his Duchess appreciated all people equally rather than respecting his high social status alone. The analysis suggests the Duke's jealousy led him to order his Duchess's death, as implied by his comments about her smiles stopping.
Annotated glossaries chronicle of a death foretoldChet
The document defines and provides examples of key literary terms:
- Setting is described as the geographical location and physical environment where the story takes place. An example from Chronicle of a Death Foretold describes the beautiful setting of a farmhouse.
- Symbol is defined as something that represents both itself and something else, evoking a concrete reality while also suggesting further meaning. Biblical names in Chronicle of a Death Foretold act as symbols.
The document provides analysis and context about T.S. Eliot's modernist poem "The Waste Land". It summarizes that the poem was written in the aftermath of World War I amid economic and social upheaval in Europe. It captures the sense of a "lost civilization" through fragmented images and allusions to depict the modern world as a "waste land". While obscure, the poem's difficulties are intentional to recreate the feeling of cultural fragmentation. It also hints at underlying patterns and continuity with the past through its references to myths and previous empires to provide glimpses of hope among the despair.
In this essay I explain how the actual society influence in the sexual orientation of the people. The gender roles are changing and that makes everything tend to a change.
The document discusses sexually transmitted diseases increasing among younger people and schools' use of abstinence-only sex education. The author has researched whether abstinence-only education prevents STDs and has come to different conclusions. They question if schools should be held responsible for rising STD rates if they are not properly educating students on safe sex practices.
This document disputes Leif Jerram's argument that the sexual melee of 1900 was tamed in the 20th century. It argues that sexual ignorance was prevalent in the early 20th century but diminished over time, and that sexuality opened up more towards the mid-1970s. It discusses increasing sexual knowledge and promotion, as well as the growing acceptance and use of contraception throughout the century. While Jerram focuses only on homosexuality, this document takes a broader view of sexuality, finding that various sexual themes supported greater openness and variety of sexual experience by the late 1960s/early 1970s, rather than a taming as Jerram concluded.
This essay discusses the biblical view of marriage and divorce. It begins by defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman that is intended by God to demonstrate His love for the Church. The essay then examines what the Bible says about marriage, noting it is meant to be a lifelong, exclusive relationship. It also explores biblical grounds for divorce, which are limited to adultery, and says divorce should only be a last resort. The essay argues society has distorted marriage by accepting same-sex marriage and viewing divorce as acceptable for minor issues. It concludes by stating the Bible sees divorce as sinful and breaking God's design for the lifelong union of marriage.
RESEARCH ESSAY American Beauty and Freud's Three EssaysGemma Luscombe
This document provides a summary and analysis of Sigmund Freud's theory that libido (sexual desire) is as essential to human well-being as hunger is to physical nutrition. The document examines how the 1999 film American Beauty supports Freud's theory through its portrayal of characters like Lester Burnham, who becomes mentally reinvigorated after indulging in sexual fantasy, and Frank Fitts, who experiences mental turmoil from repressing his homosexuality. The document analyzes scenes from the film through a Freudian lens and references Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality to argue that sexual repression has detrimental psychological effects.
Marriage and family life in america sample essayPremium Essays
This document discusses marriage and family life in America. It notes that while marriage was once considered a sacred lifelong commitment, divorce is now very common in the US. The institution of marriage is crumbling with high divorce and cohabitation rates. Failed marriages present economic challenges for the government. Working long hours also negatively impacts family time and stability. While religion is linked to lower divorce rates, America has shorter waiting periods for divorce than other nations. Overall the essay examines the declining state of marriage in the US.
The document analyzes how the TV shows Sex and the City and Shameless represent feminist ideas through depictions of female sexual desire. Regarding Sex and the City, it notes that the female characters take on traditionally masculine roles and have empowered sexuality, yet ultimately return to normative relationships. Their sexuality is tied to consumerism and affluence. Shameless features working-class female characters who engage in sexually dominant behaviors and freely enjoy casual sex without seeking romance. Both shows challenge stereotypes, but Shameless presents a less exclusionary view of female sexuality not dependent on certain privileged attributes.
The document compares and contrasts marriage and living together. Both involve two individuals living under the same roof and sharing responsibilities, but they differ in legal structures and social expectations. Marriage typically involves legal and social obligations, while living together does not require the same level of commitment and allows more freedom to end the relationship. However, the level of love and commitment between two individuals living together can be similar to marriage. Overall, living together is gaining popularity due to offering more freedom compared to marriage.
The document analyzes gender dynamics and masculinity in Junot Diaz's works Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It discusses how the protagonists Yunior and Oscar, despite sharing a Dominican heritage, develop very different senses of masculinity due to their differing paternal influences. Yunior's negative relationship with his father leads him to have unhealthy views of relationships, while Oscar's lack of a father figure and influence from maternal figures in his life allow him to love in a more tender way. The document examines how these varying paternal presences shape the characters' relationships with women and senses of gender.
This document discusses inter-caste marriage in urban India. It notes that while legally permitted, caste remains a powerful social force in marriage decisions. Urbanization is weakening the influence of caste, as people of different castes interact more in cities. In urban areas, caste is less relevant and inter-caste marriage more common. However, reported inter-caste marriages remain low, suggesting a transition period as values change with increasing urbanization. The document also examines restrictions on inter-caste marriage historically, noting they primarily allowed higher-caste men but not women to marry lower castes.
Child abuse takes many forms, including physical, emotional, neglect, and sexual abuse. Physical abuse causes injuries like broken bones or burn marks through actions like punching or beating. Emotional abuse impairs children's development through constant criticism, threats, rejection, or withholding love and support. Neglect refers to the failure to provide proper care, food, clothing, medical attention, or education. Sexual abuse involves inappropriate sexual activities or exploitation of children for sexual pleasure or gratification. To prevent long-term harm, it is important to protect children from all types of abuse.
This document discusses group therapy for sexually abused children. It provides background on child sexual abuse, signs and symptoms of abuse, and the nature and benefits of group therapy for abused children. Specifically, it notes that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 5 boys experience sexual abuse by age 18. Group therapy can help abused children feel less isolated, express their struggles in a safe environment, and clarify misplaced blame. The counselor must carefully screen children for appropriateness of group therapy and provide consistency to establish safety.
The document provides a history of footwear from its origins thousands of years ago to modern times. It discusses how early humans wore animal skins and straw wrappings on their feet for protection. Over time, footwear evolved into crafted sandals made of materials like leather and straw. The document then summarizes how various ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece, Rome, and others developed distinct shoe styles that conveyed social status and trends. While basic shoe designs and materials have changed little, modern footwear remains influenced by historical styles from different cultures around the world.
1. Sex and the City: Urbanity and sexual energy in Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost
In his essay “Representing Terrorism: Reanimating Post-9/11 New York City”, Howie argues that
representing a visual New York in popular TV series such as Friends, or Sex and The City with the
Twin Towers created a dilemma for studios, because representing the now-missing Towers in an urban
skyline was to represent a missing city, a city that “in many respects,no longer existed” (2). In Philip
Roth’s Exit Ghost, Nathan Zuckerman makeshis return to the city in 2004, afteran 11-year exile. Inside
him comes reawakened,as phrased by Roth in an interview with Hermione Lee, “a longing so strong
that it comes to border on the delusion that he can recover what is irrevocably gone”. Roth defines the
ghost in the story as being Zuckerman’s youth, which he chases throughout the book in a “crazed hope
of rejuvenation” (31). I suggest that the ‘presence/absence’ of the Twin Towers also implicitly haunts
the text, representing a changed, remapped, emasculated landscape that Zuckerman refuses to
acknowledge, at odds with his new-found sexual, urbane energy. In “Geography, experience and
imagination: towards a geographical epistemology” Pile, quoting Lowenthal contends that “people
create personalgeographies which are 'separate personalworlds of experience,learning and imagination
[which] necessarily underlie any universe of discourse’” (12). Zuckerman’s personal, sexualized New
York - represented in his relationship with Richard Kliman and his fictionalized depiction of elusive
Jamie Logan - is destined to shatter because it cannot be reconciled with the real, fragile post-9/11 New
York he returns to. Likewise, the younger version of himself that Zuckerman hopes to recover can only
develop in a contained, fictional space he carves for himself within the city, but that is ultimately
doomed as he grows increasingly self-conscious of his own irretrievable loss of sexual energy.
Robert Park asserts that the city is a state of mind... it is a product of nature, and particularly of
human nature” (1). Following this statement,I examine how Zuckerman’s construction of a sexualized,
masculinized New York, based around his idealized fascination with Jamie and Kliman stems from his
own new-found energy, a production of a self/city interplay that plays out in his fiction. But ashe writes
the New York and flirtation with Jamie Logan he is too old to experience, his produced fiction and
sense of reality blur, leading him, I suggest, to misread the city’s own, physical text, marked by the
destruction of the towers. Zizek’s writings on post-9/11 landscape provide a useful framework to think
about the city and its inhabitants as being unwillingly ‘remapped’. Misread by Zuckerman, the city
ultimately resists Zuckerman’s appropriation of it.
Zuckerman’s first steps back into Manhattan are doubtful, tentative, as he questions where to
start, where situate his body in the city he once lived in. His first thoughts turn towards an imitation of
the past,a “revisiting” (14). Yet, fearful of the changes that might have taken place in his absence,that
the present might not lend itself to this ‘revisiting’, he heads towards Ground Zero instead, to “[b]egin
there, where the biggest thing of all occurred”. Yet,it the same sentence,at a semi-colon, he stops and
turns back on himself, making his way towards the “familiar rooms” of the Metropolitan Museum
instead (15). I will return later in more detail to the significance of his inability to visit Ground Zero,
here, I simply wish to introduce the idea that Zuckerman is first reluctant to begin in the place where
the present,the change from the past most obviously assertsitself in the city. Fearful, he anchors himself
in a landmark of ‘familiar’ past which offers the possibility to elude a destabilizing present. Yet, even
this present as an immutable conservation of the past offers no stability: returning to a restaurant he ate
at in the nineties, where nothing has changed, he feels like an “impostor” (27). Ivain contends that
within cities we move in a “closed landscape whose landmarks constantly draw us towards the past”
(qtd. In Pile, 14). Yetthat past for Zuckerman cannot be revisited satisfactorily, asit leads to a “craving”
to be the man he once was (27) - and whilst everything else is still on surface the same,he is not. In the
first sentence of the book, Zuckerman declares that during his exile, he has “long since killed” the
“impulse” to be a part of the present world (1). In the rurality of the Berkshires, and in his first steps
around New York, the rhythm of the text is steady, detached. However,in the restaurant, when he sees
2. the ad for a house-swapwhich would allow him to move back to NewYork, adrenaline suddenly infuses
the text, as he responds “[w]ithout waiting”, dialling “quickly”. When Billy responds, Zuckerman’s
speech is an indirect, uninterrupted, frenzied flow, reaching its climax as he tells him he can be there
“in minutes” (29). The possibility of re-inscribing himself on the urban maps fills Zuckerman with new-
found energy, which expresses itself in “crazed” hope for rejuvenation. The city becomes the source
and the manifestation of Zuckerman’s energy, where life appears “limitless” (31).
In this limitless space Zuckerman perceives, he sets out to remap his masculinity on the urban
grid. Along with his new-found energy comes a reawakening of his sexual desire in Jamie Logan’s
“sensual presence” (35), which he in turn integrates into his own, personal construction of the city as a
sexual space,as he notes that
women were clad in ways I couldn’t ignore, however much I wanted not to be aroused
by the very desires actively quelled through living in seclusion … I enviously
understood that women dressing as they did meant that they weren’t only to be looked
at and the provocative parade was merely the initial unveiling. (65)
In De Certeau’s terms,the walking of passers-by “offers a series of turns tours and detours that can be
compared to 'turns of phrase' or 'stylistic figures'. There is a rhetoric of walking. The arts of 'turning'
phrases finds an equivalent in art of composing a path” (161). Zuckerman’s attention to the sexuality
of the street becomes a text in itself: Zuckerman writes a sexualized city. In turn, this sexualized city
also becomes a virile, masculinized one in his relationship with Kliman.
There is a tension in Kliman’s position to Zuckerman, as he functions both as a double, a
‘younger self’ who Zuckerman notes is “a passing rendition of me at that age” (48) but also a rival,
Jamie’s ex-boyfriend. When they meet up to discuss Kliman’s project to write E. I. Lonoff’s biography,
Zuckerman constructs Kliman as the embodiment of his perceived masculine, energetic New York he
seeks to re-establish himself in, describing him as being “well over two hundred pounds, easily six-
three,a large, agile, imposing young man with a lot of dark hair and pale grey eyesthat were the wonder
that pale grey eyes are in the human animal” (96). Kliman exudes stereotypical male energy, which
Zuckerman sets out to resist, as a chance to reassert his own virility. In their encounter, Central Park
becomes an urban arena. When Zuckerman declines to participate in this project, Kliman “[searches]
for a reason not to punch [him] in the mouth for having failed to be bowled over by his eloquence”
(100). Although they both come to their feet, the fight physically takes place: instead, it becomes a
battle of wills, as Zuckerman tells Kliman that he will do “everything he can to sabotage [him]” (103).
Zuckerman perceives this rivalry as the key to his rejuvenation, as urbanity, sexuality, energy and
virility all intersect together in his mind:
There is pain of being in the world, but there is also robustness. When was the last time
I had felt the excitement of taking someone one? Let the intensity out! Let the
belligerence out! A resuscitating breathof the old contention luring me into the old role,
both Kliman and Jamie having the effect of rousing my virility in me again, the virility
of mind and spirit and desire and intention and wanting to be with people again and
have a fight again and have a woman again and feeling the pleasure of one’s power
again. (104)
Yet, in the text, Zuckerman’s desires never materialize themselves. He never fights Kliman,
nor seduces Jamie Logan. Rather, he channels this energy into writing. If De Certeau argues that
walking is writing, as it has its own rhetoric, in the text, Zuckerman ‘literally’ carves his own space in
the city: his writing becomes the medium through which he mostly attaches himself to the city, in his
fictionalized ‘HE/SHE’ dialogues. There is a shift away from the physical reality of the city and into
the fictional, as he performs mostly dialogues between himself and Jamie, creating a space where his
3. sexual frustration can be released,as it cannot be in the non-fictional space1
. The text is set during and
after the 2004 election, an emotional, highly-strung backdrop, which affects mostly Jamie in the text.
In his fictionalized depiction of her, her sexuality plays alongside her emotion over the elections, as he
writes in the introductory SITUATION to the dialogue that SHE’s “scared and distraught over the
election, over Al Qaeda,over an affair with a college boyfriend who’s around and still in love with her,
and over “daring ventures” of a kind she married to renounce” (123). Throughout the text, Zuckerman
acknowledges that Jamie is affected, exhausted by the current political situation, describing her as
“drained” after the election results (88). In Jamie’s character,Roth writes a husk of a woman, which
Zuckerman’s imagination fills with sexual intent, such aswhen he wonders why she had “gotten herself
up so appealingly” to watch the election results (83). In the act of writing Jamie, he creates an idealized
fiction of a woman that I would argue is to be read as too emotionally exhausted to care about sex.
Jamie’s sexual history in these dialogues are the product of his imagination. The fictionalized ‘SHE’
becomes his way of reclaiming his masculinity, as he performs her, ventriloquizes her in service of his
ego. In his text, she can restore his sexual attraction, as he makes her tell him that it excites her to be
alone with him too as they could “both use a little excitement” (132), and also reassert his masculine
power: “SHE: (Long pause) I’m a little afraid of you” (214).
If Zuckerman flirts with Jamie in this fictional space,and uses her voice to reassert himself, he
never crosses the boundary of physical contact, arguably aware that even inside his own fiction, he is
subject to his own physical limitations. He represents himself as shunning this physical contact with
her, leaving before following his inclination to kiss her (143), and progressively, he turns their relations
away from the carnal and into the intellectual. Strikingly, in the text, when he does perform an
aggressive, sexual encounter between HE and SHE, he surrenders the role of HE to Kliman, whom
throughout the text he supposes to be Jamie’s lover. His fictionalized depiction of their sex life is
explicit, as he imagines violent, sexual games between the two: “call girl and client” and “Jamie being
taken by force” (259). In ‘A Cup of Decaf Reality’, Zizek makes the case for adopted identities in a
virtual world being a reflection of our ‘true selves’, a space where the truth about ourselves can be
articulated. Following this reading, I would suggest that whilst Zuckerman’s desire to (violently)
overpower Jamie is evident, the fact that he must adopt a ‘mask’ of Kliman (rather than perform it
himself) sees him mentally give in to Kliman’s masculine, sexual power. In his fiction, Zuckerman
turns towards his ‘learnedness’,his mental superiority, as a means of gently seducing Jamie. He creates
the figure of a professor-lover to illustrate her attraction to knowledge, who she ‘tells’ him: “opened up
a world of thought that I had no idea existed… I was still a girl, only a girl, and I had no idea it was
sexual feeling” (236). If Zuckerman asserts that he is able to keep fiction and reality separate, that “the
imaginary “She” vividly at the middle of her character as the actual“she” will never be” (147), fiction
and reality begin to blur in his mind. Throughout the novel, her affair with Kliman begins as a
supposition in disguise, as he sees Kliman as a “boyfriend at college and with whom (I could imagine
all too easily) the link had remained sexual even after her marriage” (108). The brackets surrounding ‘I
could imagine all too easily’ speak for themselves, as a sentence is “grammatically complete without
[them]” (OED, “parenthesis”). Zuckerman’s imagination is redundant in the ‘truth’ of the affair. This
is later on consolidated in his mind, as after Jamie lies to Billy that Zuckerman wanted to look around
the apartment again, he thinks to himself “Yes,Kliman was the lover. She was so used to lying to Billy
– to cover her tracks with Kliman – that she’d lied to him now about me” (122)
Following my analysis, the New York that Zuckerman constructs first in the novel, and then
his own fiction is a sexual space,a masculine space,a space where the emotional drain of the threatening
political landscape is counteracted with a sexual tension, energy. I would like to make the case for this
city constructed by Zuckerman as being a ‘misreading’ of the city’s own text, written in the prolonged
aftermath of 9/11. As I mentioned at the beginning of my essay,Zuckerman turns round before visiting
Ground Zero. Throughout the novel, he never makes the trip, never acknowledges their disappearance.
1 I of coursemean non-fictional as confined to the physical world Zuckerman inhabitsin the novel.
4. Yet, they are present in their absence, present in Jamie Logan’s hysteria about moving out of the city,
in the elections, throughout the whole city Zuckerman returns to where ‘everything [is] simultaneously
familiar and unrecognizable’ (30). In The City and the Body, Pile discusses the phallic nature of the
Manhattan skyline: although on the whole hesitant to deconstruct skyscrapers and buildings as entirely,
and reductively phallic, he does howeverconcede that the Manhattan skyline is “open to psychoanalytic
readings precisely because it cloaks, exhibits and performs desire and power, through a political
economy of dominant visual and phallic spatialities” (224). Pile’s work was published in 1997 – to read
the text post-9/11, where the Manhattan skyline performs desire through a political economy of phallic
spatialities is interesting, although problematic, because it lends itself to a rather easy psychoanalytical
reading: did the fall of the Towers,and the subsequent ‘holes’ in the skyline create a castration anxiety
in the American psyche ? If this reading is a rather unsubtle one, it is, I think, a useful one for thinking
about Zuckerman’s refusalto visit Ground Zero: a sexualisation of a castrated city is more difficult, and
doesn’t offer the same possibilities for an urban sexual rejuvenation.
In more general terms of power, Ground Zero also acts as a stain, or a hole in the Manhattan
map. Reynolds and Fitzpatrick have argued that “maps, with their tacit specializations, attempt to
definitely mark out ‘what one can do in […] and make out of’ a space; that is, they direct how one
perceives and performs in space” (Reynolds and Fitzpatrick 72 in Zeikowitz 3). In the events of 9/11,
the attack on the Towers signifies an unwilling reconfiguration of the cityscape, this loss of power in
place that contains the city within such maps; in Zizek’s words, “the anamorphic stain which
denaturalized the idyllic well-known New York landscape” (15). Zizek further argues that it is the
“ultimate irony that ‘prior to the US bombing, the whole of Kabul already looked like downtown
Manhattan after September 11” (35). The Manhattan landscape has been unalterably ‘Othered’ in the
text: Zuckerman, in his failure to visit Ground Zero cannot see that New York is struggling to remap
itself against this loss of power and identity. Tony’s comment that “After 9/11 some of our regulars,
they took their kids and they moved to Long Island, they moved upstate,they moved to Vermont – they
moved all over, they went everywhere” (157) falls on deaf ears in the text. Zuckerman doesn’t see, or
refuses to see,the remapping of the city he once knew so well and that he sees as holding the key to his
search of lost time. When he narrates Jamie’s desire to leave the city, it is inherently sexual: “SHE: I
won’t have men, I won’t have people, I won’t have parties […] I won’t be so frayed, hopefully” (212).
He both misreads her ‘frayedness’ as a sexual, social one, rather than a frayedness of her own map, her
own familiarity amongst a city, and her own feeling of safety in a threatening political landscape, but
more widely, in this, he misreads the “state of mind”, as phrased by Pile, of the city (2).
Jamie, however,resists being made into a text by Zuckerman. In their final conversation at the
end of the novel, she tells him that Kliman is not her lover, and that she would have nothing to do with
him sexually should be “abundantly clear” by now, as she concludes “You’ve imagined a woman who
isn’t me” (277). His loss of rationality, his sense of disorientation is evident at the end of the novel.
From a venture which provided him with hope of rejuvenation, the city becomes a “frenzy”, a madness,
in which he can no longer partake (274). The reality of the city’s post-9/11 landscape and mentality is
in disjunction with his own produced city, which offers only frustrated hopes and desires, and a sense
of being out of place,and out of time, ashe fails to connect with the physical city’s underlying discourse.
Even in his own fiction, his carved place in the city is destined to falter, as Zuckerman, self-conscious
of his own failure in the city ventriloquizes SHE astalking to a “virtually inhumanly disciplined, rational
person who has lost all sense of proportion and entered into a desperate story of unreasonable wishes”
(291). Ashe tantalizes himself with the Jamie’s acceptance toenter an affairwith him, he “disintegrates”
(292), leaving behind, in the city, the exhausted urbane energy that cannot bring itself to the bed.