Analysis Of Herman Melville's The Paradise Of Bachelors And The Tartarus Of Maids

Robert Browning provides a critical view of gender and power relations in his dramatic monologues “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess.” The dramatic monologue, as S.S. Curry has written, "reveals the struggle in the depths of the soul” (11). Browning delves into the minds of characters to show their conceptions of women and ideas of power. He explores the mental processes of the characters, and invites readers to question societal ideas of power and gender. The mental pathologies of the speakers is emphasized, which forces readers to examine the sanity of their own notions of gender dynamics.

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener” the author, Herman Melville, uses indirect references to hint to many historical, literary, and biblical events. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” contains many allusions about important events that help connect this fictional story to actual events in Melville’s time period, before, and beyond. Melville uses allusions frequently throughout “Bartleby, the Scrivener” to help build connections with the real world and the fictitious world of this short story.

The Portrayal of the Plight of Women by the Author, In Their Particular Period of Time

Throughout history, our society has created gender norms that are followed consistently by members of communities. Though they differ from place to place, we recognize trends that seem almost prescribed to certain genders. Specifically, in the 1600s, men and women had explicit roles that were designated by people of stature. These expectations were followed loyally and people who failed to follow suit were shunned or sometimes even suffered seriously punishment including crude public beatings that were mot only pain inflicting but also status damaging (Rocke, Gender and Sexual Culture, 159). Looking deeper into the novel The Return of Martin Guerre, we identify from the start the expectations that are in place and how they play a role in the story. In comparison of Characters, taking into consideration the standard that had been set for men of this era, we notice that Pansette (Arnaud du Tilh) is an almost faultless example of what is expected for men and in contrast, Martin Guerre fails to meet these standards.

Despite the economic distinction and living conditions that separated the bachelors and the maids, they both have similarities. Though there are similarities, they only further expose the power of the upper class over the working class. These similarities bring to our attention the topic repeatedly discussed in class, which is the power of choosing. Both the bachelors and the maids lived or were isolated from the world and had no attachments to family. Melville explains, “…these easy hearted men had no wives or children to give an anxious thought” (6). The bachelors chose to not have a family so that it did not interrupt their tranquility and so that they did not have to worry

To demonstrate these points, this essay will dissect elements of gender and sexuality in the limited points of view of the chef in Suicide City and the writer in Dumbo’s Feather. These elements are revealed through the narrators’ own sets of stereotypes, their personal life experiences, and their interaction with other characters. Furthermore, observations are also derived from what the narrators, with their subjective points of view, unintentionally include or omit in their narratives.

Herman Melville’s novels, with good reason, can be called masculine. Moby-Dick may, also with good reason, be called a man’s book and that Melville’s seafaring episode suggests a patriarchal, anti-feminine approach that adheres to the nineteenth century separation of genders. Value for masculinity in the nineteenth century America may have come from certain expected roles males were expected to fit in; I argue that its value comes from examining it not alone, but in relation to and in concomitance with femininity. As Richard H. Brodhead put it, Moby-Dick is “so outrageously masculine that we scarcely allow ourselves to do justice to the full scope of masculinism” (Brodhead 9). I concur with Brodhead in that remark, and that Melville’s

Literature, apart from being a channel to depict the author’s work and thoughts on a particular subject, is also interpreted as a medium to reflect norms, values, customs, and so on from different times in history. As stated by Milton C. Albrecht, literature reveals “the ethos of culture, the processes of class struggle, and certain facts of social facts.” (425) Through literary works, authors may be able to reflect their thoughts on specific issues, such as social injustices, or just point out the inequity between different social aspects, such as gender, class or social status. This essay, therefore, focuses on “Wifey Redux” and “Fjord of Killary”, two of Kevin Barry’s short stories from Dark Lies in the Island as well as on “Death of a Field” and “Number Fifty-Two” from Paula Meehan’s Painting Rain to show how inequities of class and social status in Irish society are visible through indirect reflections onto the natural and material worlds.

The novella “Billy Budd” by Herman Melville is a 1924 ‘sea story’ that has underlying allusions to Christ and the bible as pointed out by many critics. Many have found that Billy’s life resembles the plight of Christ, as well as Adam, while Captain Vere is meant to stand as God, and Claggart is left as the role of Satan. These underlying character molds ultimately contribute to the novella as a whole and explore the dilemmas of their Bible counterparts.

Lastly, the Romantic Era blended human emotions with nature. The interfacing of emotion and nature was emblematic of Romantic poetry, whether it engrossed the idea of bequeathing human emotions to an innate article like a river or connecting the scenery to the temperament of the writer. (James, 491) This kind of beauty that is

health, Herman left his position at the bank in the spring of 1834 and spent a

The sublime moment is the ultimate subsumption of the self. It is frightening in its intrinsic need to consume the experiencer and then emancipate him upon the consummation of the event. Melville composed a story that could have been filled with moments of the sublime and yet it is, frustratingly for the reader, almost entirely absent. However, this is not an indication of any fault in the text. Rather, it is the consequence of a meticulously planned physical and

In much of what we “identify" with in our everyday lives has to do with the relationships we have with one another. These relationships are ultimately embedded into our memory for basically the rest of our lives, and with some shape or form, shape us to who we are today. These relations, similarly have to do with faces, actions and personal experiences that we have never been exposed to before. This type of exposure is apparent in Herman Melville’s Typee,where “identity” is of critical importance to that of Tommo, the narrator, along with the tribe that he encounters while stranded on the island. There are numerous instance as to where Tommo questions his moral and somewhat physical ‘identity’ in Typee. These events such as Tommos decision to tattoo himself is a major identity crisis because it’s not something he, nor his Western culture is really exposed to or familiar with. The Typee practices and societal structures displayed by Melville in Typee allows the reader in some case, to compare and contrast how Western civilization and the “other” [Typee] reaffirm “identity.” In a sense Tommo and his decision, by the end of the novel, really allows the reader to understand what creates and helps maintain identity for ones self.

“Another great victory of heart over head was the Romantic movement in thought, literature, and the arts.” (Tindall 503) This movement was

“There is wisdom that is woe but there is a woe that is madness.”- Herman Melville. Moby-Dick is a novel that was written by Herman Melville, during the American Renaissance. Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and a poet. Melville was influenced in his writing career by many people such as, William Shakespeare (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlett Letter, The House of Seven Gables), and Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher). He was also a whaler for approximately 3-4 years. While Melville was on a whaling voyage he heard a story, from Hawthorne, about a terrorizing whale. Hawthorne had also mentioned the ship named, The Essex. Details about the accounts which took place on the Essex, a whaling ship from Nantucket under the command of George Pollard Jr., interested Melville. The Essex was an old ship which sank in 1820, due to an attack from the whale. Many of the voyages on the Essex were profitable so “she” gained the reputation as a “lucky” vessel. The story of Moby-Dick is not new to the silver screen. When it was first released in 1851, reviewers trashed it. The Athenaeum (London literary magazine) wrote, “This is an ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact”. Prior to the new movie “In the Heart of the Sea”, there are 12 different versions of Moby-Dick. Ron Howard, director and producer of the new movie “In the Heart of the Sea” told IMDB (Internet Movie Database) that it was always his dream