Charles Dickens ' Little Women

Initially, Louisa is seemingly portrayed as a representation of all the qualities that become stereotypes of feminine females—Louisa sews, pays close attention to her “little feminine appurtenances,” drinks tea, and does what society expects of docile females, (62-63). Thus, Freeman leads the readers to believe that Louisa is the replica of a submissive female character. On the contrary, when Joe Dagget is introduced, it is evident that Louisa willingly partakes in the stereotypical roles, merely because they are her passion. For instance, she desires everything to be in its order, as shown when she irresistibly, puts back the book that Joe Dagget misplaces,

Louisa May Alcott is the author of many novels written back in the nineteenth century. Her most successful books, and the books she is most known for is the “Little Women Series”. These books consist of: “Little Women”, “Little Men”, and “Jo’s boys”. In these books Alcott shows the same writing style and each of the different books share the same theme and ideas. In Alcott’s book “Little Men”, (one of the three in the Little Women series) the theme is that nothing is impossible. This theme is supported by three points in the novel. These points are that anything is possible even though you come from different backgrounds which is portrayed through the character Dan, nothing is impossible even if you learn differently and this is displayed

As stated by intellectual Joseph Wong, “influence is our inner ability to lift people up to our perspectives” (Young Ch. 6). Throughout history, numerous writers have utilized their ability to impact their readers to encourage their audience to follow the author’s principles and beliefs. Louisa May Alcott, born in Pennsylvania in 1832, was the type of writer to use her power to influence her lectors’ views on the topics and issues that she was passionate about. Alcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a writer, lecturer, and educator, and her mother, Abba May, was a strong-willed and independent woman and bright educator. Her brilliant parents helped Alcott grow to be an intellectual, an independent female, and, as mentioned by Clark Moreland in one of his lectures, “…a dark headed, volatile, and energetic child” (“Lecture 3.4…”). After her parents fell into deep debt, Alcott began to work to support her family. She served as a seamstress, teacher, and, of course, a writer. As an open-minded individual, Alcott was an advocate of many causes and policies, and, through her compositions, she shared her beliefs to guide her readers towards integrating her ideals into their lives. For instance, in 1863, Alcott released her work “My Contraband,” first titled “The Brothers.” The piece featured a Civil War nurse, Faith Dane, in the Union side who was in charge of caring for a captured, dying Confederate captain and

Of the extraordinary amount of literary devices available to authors, Charles Dickens uses quite a few in his novel A Tale of Two Cities, which is set during the French Revolution. One of his more distinctive devices is character foils. The five sets of foils are Carton and Darnay, Carton and Stryver, Darnay and the Marquis de Evremonde, Madame Defarge, and Mr. Lorry and Jerry Cruncher. Dickens uses foil characters to highlight the virtues of several major characters in order to show the theme of personal, loving relationships having the ability to prevail over heartless violence and self-consuming vengeance.

In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, isolation impacts Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton by altering their perception of life, influencing Madame to become obsessive with her vengeful goal of eliminating the aristocracy and damaging Carton by forcing him to contain his depressive emotions.

Humanity is inherently flawed. Charles Dickens illustrates this in his novel A Tale of Two Cities as he writes about the lives of the Manettes and the people they draw around them. In this novel, Dickens uses Sydney Carton, a main character in the novel and the lover of Lucie Manette, to reveal his thoughts about the inherent nature of humanity. The characteristics of humanity change and mutate with the experiences of each person and the workings of their own mind, as illustrated by Mr. Stryver’s inhumane and thoughtless treatment of Sydney, the first time Sydney saves Charles Darnay’s life, and Sydney’s love for Lucie Manette.

It is said that right before someone dies, they see their life flash before their eyes. They are said to see the things most dear to them. However, no one on their deathbed regrets the amount of money that they have. In the moment of clarity, most realize that a number on a paycheck is not as important as emotional and mental possessions. People always tell each other that money can not buy happiness, yet most end up spending every waking moment thinking about money. Why do people waste their time and energy pursuing something that is not what they truly need? Often, they use social class to fill a void in their lives that can not be filled by materialistic possessions. Many people realize this, but it is often too late. Charles Dickens demonstrates the effects of social climbing in his novel, Great Expectations. This novel explores the connections and effects of human nature and society, which are the two most powerful forces that guide people’s decisions. Some may say that social climbing is good, but as will be proven, pursuing social class for the wrong reason can result in disastrous consequences. The motivation to obtain higher social status leaves those who pursue it dissatisfied with reality and with a wider void in their lives as shown by Pip, Estella, and Magwitch.

Aside from their careless errors, the Abby and Bronson Alcott relentlessly fought for what they believed in. The Alcott’s were

In the 1800s women were taught to cook, clean, watch the kids, and obey their husbands. That was the last thing Alcott wanted to do. She chose to never marry and she never had kids of her own. This was uncommon for women in that era, in fact, it was a very controversial topic I am sure she got an abundance of public shaming for. The Alcotts were a frugal family. Bronson was so hung up on his role in transcendentalism that he did not even realize his family was barely keeping their heads above water. His wife and daughters were starving, lacking the education they required, and were kept cold as a result of not having clothing. Louisa decided she would make a name for herself and when she did, she would provide for her family because her

Dinaw Mengestu’s riveting novel, All Our Names, is a story about so many complex aspects of life and revolves around a theme of humanity. It can, more or less, be viewed as two separate stories that eventually collide with the characters from each representing diverse views of what it means to be human. With vastly different experiences being represented, the reader is able to see the struggle of people trying to survive in a country torn by politics as well as the struggle of a relationship trying to survive in a country torn by hate. So appropriately referenced in the novel was Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities as what the characters experienced truly were the best of times and the worst of times. And while

In 1865, He was in a train accident and never fully recovered, but was still touring

Anna Alcott was the model for Meg March. Both these characters shared common life events. They both married a man called “John” and both gave birth to twins. They were both the eldest in the family. Louisa’s little sister, May, was the model for Amy. They were both graceful and poised at a young age and very materialistic. The youngest of the Alcott girls, Elizabeth was the model for Beth in the novel. Not only did they share the same namesake as the youngest March character Beth; they both shared a childhood death due to scarlet fever. They both died at a very young age. Evidently, Alcott was the model for Jo. They were both tempestuous and of wild nature. They were both females living in the Victorian Era who defied the norms of their times. At the age of fifteen, she wrote in her diary, “I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write anything to help the family and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t” (Laire 10). Women of that time did not normally focus on getting jobs; they left it to their male counterparts to bring home the income. Alcott and her sister both took on teaching jobs, though her dream was to become an actress. By the age of twenty, she knew her real talent was to write. To please the readers, she quickly understood the reading market and started experimenting with different writing styles. This gave her

The era surrounding the French Revolution was a horrifically bloody and violent period of history – the best of times and the worst of times. The violence enacted by the citizens of French on their fellow countrymen set a gruesome scene in the cities and country sides of France. Charles Dickens uses a palate of storm, wine, and blood imagery in A Tale of Two Cities to paint exactly how tremendously brutal this period of time was.

Charles Dickens utilizes themes in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, to enrich the plot and intensify the meaning of the text to the reader. Dickens wrote the novel sixty years after the French Revolution; however, he compared his present time period to that of the past using universal themes and motifs. Even though Dickens uses many themes, one of the most important and most frequent themes is that of sacrifice. In fact, most of Dickens characters make sacrifices in the name of love. Dickens exemplifies the theme of sacrifice in the name of love with the sacrifices of several characters including: Doctor Manette, Miss Pross, and Sydney Carton.

In Hard Times, Dickens presents life philosophies of three men that directly contradict each other. James Harthouse sees one’s actions in life as meaningless since life is so short. Mr. Gradgrind emphasizes the importance of fact and discourages fantasy since life is exactly as it was designed to be. Mr. Slearly exhibits that “all work and no play” will make very dull people out of all of us. He also proclaims that one should never look back on one’s life and regret past actions. Dickens is certainly advocating Sleary’s life philosophy because the subjects of the other two philosophies led depressing and unhappy lives. This is made clear when Louisa realises her childhood of fact without fancy has ruined her, when Tom’s life falls apart after leaving his father’s home in rejection of his strict parenting, and when Mr. Gradgrind himself realises the faults in his own philosophy and devotes the rest of his life to virtue and charity.