Essay On The Leisured Gentleman Of Letters By Howells

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” examine the complex relationship between a husband and wife. The two works take two different approaches to convey the same message: Marriage is not a fairytale, it requires sacrifice and unselfish behavior in order to work. Relationships are difficult to begin and harder to maintain. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and Aylmer and Georgiana are two relationships that shatter the surreal perception of marriage and expose readers to the raw truth, marriage is not a fairytale.

The character of the mother executes the tell-tale signs of counterfeit happiness when she tells the murderous story of the narrator’s father’s brother. “‘Oh honey,’ she said, ‘there’s a lot that you don’t know. But you are going to find out’” (36).

Nathanial Hawthorne writes a compelling story about a recently married scientist whose wife has a blemish on her cheek. “The Birthmark” written in 1843 is a critique of domesticity, feminine sexuality, and perfectionism. Cindy Weinstein takes the stance that “The Birthmark” is a critique of feminine sexuality. Weinstein suggests, “A key reason, then, that Aylmer wants to erase the birthmark is that it signifies a sexuality with which he is deeply uncomfortable” (123). This argument is seen throughout Hawthorne’s story, but Weinstein’s argument can be taken a step further to deal with the root cause, control. Aylmer is disturbed with Georgiana’s birthmark due to the fact that it signifies her sexual desires that he is unable to control.

There was such anger in her heart, she hadn’t known it was there until she was alone on her mule riding the iron-hard miles. She had never been a bad mother, never truly a bad wife. She’d cared for her children . . . had lain with her husband even when she was tired and unwilling because these are the duties of a wife and mother” (Alderman 51).

The wife is screaming, hysterical, always portraying a sort of unpredictable insanity. She was desperate and determined to have the baby, in the passage she says “She would have it, this baby,” indicating how determined she is. I also believe that he chose the wife as the bad parts of him because of his estranged marriage to his wife at the time, Maryann Burk. In Maryanne’s personal memoir, she speaks of him

Divorce rates were more than doubling in the 1970s, because “[s]pouses found it easier in the Swinging Seventies to find extramarital partners, and came to have higher, and often unrealistic, expectations of their marital relationships” (Wilcox, 2009). Over 30 years later and divorce seems to be an overused option in many marriages. In the 2000s-2010s, 40-50% of people are getting divorces and “[c]urrently, 22 percent of women and 21 percent of men have...been in a divorce” (Stanton, 2015). Without setting The Great Gatsby in the 1920s, this aspect would have had to be completely different.

The Divorcee’s prologue and tale should immediately precede the Corporate Attorney's tale because the two tales are commentary on the implications of freedom. The divorcee and the attorney’s experiences lie on a spectrum, with devastation at one end and revitalization at the other. This spectrum shows that freedom can either be overwhelming to the point of debilitation, or it can be a tool to start anew. Both the corporate attorney and the divorcee are coping with major losses, the lawyer having just quit his job and the divorcee terminating her marriage. These life changes provide each character with newfound freedom. In addition, each character experiences dissonance with the freedom resulting from their life changes. In the divorcee’s tale,

“John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage”(). The narrator has a feeling of helplessness,

had a great deal of leisure time, and their major task seemed to be to

Even after Aylmer has “persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife,” he is not capable of loving her properly, unselfishly, because he “had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion.” The narrator seeks to justify this error or lack in Aylmer by explaining that “it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy.” Already at the outset of the tale, the reader perceives that Georgiana is going to be shortchanged in this marriage. She is exposed to the problem initially when her husband asks whether “it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?'' Aylmer is in quest of physical perfection in his wife; unfortunately he discounts her inner, spiritual value so clearly manifested in her comment: ``To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so.'' In using the word “simple” she is being honest and not sarcastic; she is being humble and respectful of others’ (parents?) evaluation of herself. The reply comes from a virtuous woman. “Hawthorne himself was preoccupied with . . .the

By employing a haughty, callous tone and through her diction, Krauss characterizes the narrator as an insensitive individual who takes shelter in a cold professional role in order to shield herself from blame. Words like prominent, published, and celebrated establish the portrayal of the narrator as a successful author (Krauss 182). They also suggest an arrogant personality. When she writes, she is brutal, with no care for others’ emotions. Her only care is further success. Only a year after her father’s death, she writes about the intense shame a dignified man experiences with loss of bodily control. The narrator unsparingly uses such unembellished, detailing words as abandoned, humiliations, defecated, torturous, shame, illness, suffering,

Another defective woman in The Trial is Helen, a “fat female of uncertain age with yellowish skin” (243). Unattractive, jaundiced, and overweight, she is repulsive to K., yet desires his attention all the same. Helen is the embodiment of sex as Kafka viewed it: disgusting and repulsive. She

In the story, “The Story of an Hour,” the topic of marriage becomes a controversial topic to be discussed. Upon the arrival of the news of Mr. Mallard's death to his wife, she becomes consumed with sadness with all her friends to witness it. However, she soon realizes that her bonds of marriage have been broken and she has been given a new life through the loss of another. Some may say Mrs. Mallard reacted cruelly to the death of her husband, but the reality is, her reaction was fair and justified.

Psychological criticism pulls from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories to better interpret the text we are reading by trying to understand both the author and the reader. These critics use this approach to understand the motive of the characters, emblematic meanings in literature and the state of mind of the author, and to analyze the reader’s response to the work. This is a great strategy to use when trying to understand Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” The story here focuses on a man who is obsessed with his wife’s birthmark. So obsessed in fact, he risks her life to remove it in hopes for her to reach absolute perfection. Using the psychological approach to this, we can clearly tell that the husband in this story, Alymer, is

The tone and mood created throughout the text and its drastic shift greatly affect the readers’ feelings on the situation.  The first couple of paragraphs depict the newlyweds as a happy couple, filled with the joy of the birth of their son.  As Désirée’s mother visits her daughter appears to be overfilled with happiness.  The descriptive details that first introduce the reader to Désirée make the young woman and her surroundings appear overly idyllic.  She enthusiastically tells about her husband and it becomes evident that her life revolves around him and his well being.  The narrator further mentions that young Armand’s roughness had been softened by the presence of his loving wife and son.  The overall mood created throughout the first part of the story is one of joy and harmony.  This clashes with the atmosphere created by the description of the latter part of the story.  Almost instantaneously