Fate and Pessimism in Far from the Madding Crowd Essay example

Pride and Prejudice is a novel that has intrigued readers for decades. Despite where one may be from, what gender they are, or what age they are, this story enthralls every reader. One of the primary reasons that this book is so notorious is because the two main themes: pride and prejudice, are two characteristics that any person can say they have come to know. Whether it be in themselves, in a friend, or even in a stranger, pride and prejudice are two defining attributes a person may have. Almost every character in this novel possesses at least one of these characteristics and because of this, relationships are created, broken down, and built

‘It is injustice with innocent people and she can’t forgive them. She is angry at them’. She also added that, ‘this cannot happen to any other person like his child, as she feels for everyone.’

She had 3-4 kids they were taken from her and sold to other people. She became depressed from that she lost the reason to live. So

She is the typical woman desired by men, a woman who is a “perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper”(634) who “hopes for no better profession”(634). Jennie is everything that the narrator is not. As time passes at the colonial mansion, she replaces, and diminishes John’s wife “who now sees to everything”(634). It is apparent that a comment is being made on how yielding Jennie’s character is as opposed to that of the narrator, for she is the one who chooses to stoop down to such humiliation, while the narrator attempts to escape submission to such treatment.

Though instead of being grateful, she listens to Emma and refuses his proposal which is seen as an enormous shock and appalling judgment by her. We are then presented with Miss Taylor, who was a governess for the Woodhouse household. Though Miss Taylor marries, and moves away, she is still considered as a very close relation to the Woodhouse’, which is again an odd case for this society. A

Living almost a century apart, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy each explore similar themes of love through strong female characters. While society strove to keep women’s value directly tied to their marital status, Austen and Hardy wrote the stories of characters who defied these expectations. Bathsheba Everdene of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd is a fiery young woman who inherits a farm, and Elizabeth Bennet of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is an educated woman who prides herself on speaking her mind regardless of the consequences. Both women are of marrying age, and both novels feature their romantic exploits. Besides their differing socio-economic and temporal settings, Bathsheba’s and Elizabeth’s behaviors indicate that they are facing similar feelings and conflicts when it comes to issues of love and marriage. Bathsheba goes to greater lengths to defy societal pressures than Elizabeth does, but Bathsheba’s circumstances warrant the effort. The real difference between these characters is the way in which they are written. One could not know how similar Bathsheba’s thoughts and feelings are to Elizabeth’s, because the reader rarely sees through Ms. Everdene’s eyes. Bathsheba Everdene is the greater feminist heroine when taken alongside Elizabeth Bennet; however, Hardy writes her story almost exclusively from the perspective of his male characters, leaving her represented as two-dimensional in comparison to

In Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Arthur Huntington, Helen’s husband and Arthur’s father, is presented as an alcoholic, disgraceful, narcissistic “gentleman” (Brontë 311). Despite Helen’s efforts to shelter their son, Arthur, from the corrupted masculinity embodied by Huntington and his friends, Huntington encourages Arthur’s “manly accomplishments” that mirror his own character, such as excessive drinking, swearing, and selfishness (297). For fear of Arthur becoming “a curse to others and himself”, like his father, Helen has acquitted herself to prepare for an escape; however, Huntington seizes her journal which reveal her plans (203). In this passage Mr. Huntington is not only devaluing aspect of his corrupted masculinity,

The flaneur as is he is typically portrayed is a man set apart from the mindless masses of people who engulf him; he becomes the eyes and ears through which the reader receives seemingly objective information about the various humans in these crowds. The flaneur typically associates these passing faces with mammoth concepts such as death and existential loneliness in urban environments. Poe critiques the position of the flaneur in his short story “The Man of the Crowd” by ultimately revealing that human subjectivity is inalienable, and even if it were not it is nonetheless still a folly to suggest that humanity can be neatly divided into only so many categories, as our narrator attempts to do. The flaneur in “Man of the Crowd” presents himself

Parallel to many of the great feministic novels throughout literary history, Jane Eyre is a story about the quest for authentic love. However, Jane Eyre is unique and separate from other romantic pieces, in that it is also about a woman searching for a sense of self-worth through achieving a degree of independence. Orphaned and dismissed at an early age, Jane was born into a modest lifestyle that was characterized by a form of oppressive servitude of which she had no autonomy. She was busy spending much of her adolescent years locked in chains, both imaginary and real, as well as catering to the needs of her peers. Jane was never being able to enjoy the pleasures and joys that an ordinary and independent child values. Jane struggles

The failings of not marrying for love are again made apparent by Austen through the account of Lydia and Wickham and their shortfalls. Lydia and Wickham’s relationship was built on a mixture of youthful attraction and naivety. In the letter she sends to Harriet,

The feelings of "regret" felt by Oak and Boldwood build to the mass hatred of him. This is particularly true of the characters surrounding Bathsheba who are most affected by Troy's deception and Fanny's death. Specifically Boldwood and Oak who view him as the "greatest sinner." Hardy represents this symbolically through the stream flowing from the gargoyle's mouth which thickens "in substance" eventually cascading into the grave in a "ceaseless torrent."

In Graham’s Magazine, another anonymous reviewer suggested that Rochester’s character was dangerous and immoral, saying, “No woman who had ever truly loved could have mistaken so completely the Rochester type, or could have made her heroine love a man of proud, selfish, ungovernable appetites, which no sophistry can lift out of lust.” Thus, he intimated that any author who would contrive to have her heroine fall in love with such a total rake would be immoral herself and unknowing of what true love is. He went one step further to say, “We accordingly think that if the innocent young ladies of our land lay a premium on profligacy, by marrying dissolute rakes for the honor of reforming them, à la Jane Eyre, their benevolence will be of questionable utility to the world.” In this, he suggested that the depiction of Jane and Rochester’s relationship would cause young women of the time to emulate Jane’s “romantic wickedness.”

Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels written by Jane Austen. This romantic novel, the story of which revolves around relationships and the difficulties of being in love, was not much of a success in Austen's own time. However, it has grown in its importance to literary critics and readerships over the last hundred years. There are many facets to the story that make reading it not only amusing but also highly interesting. The reader can learn much about the upper-class society of this age, and also gets an insight to the author's opinion about this society. Austen presents the high-society of her time from an observational point of view, ironically describing human behavior. She describes what she sees and adds her own

Disillusionment is one of the major thematic thrusts of literary enterprise from the time immemorial. This foregrounds the fact that man’s disillusionment is ontological. The study investigates the trope of disillusionment in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. The paper reveals different struggles that Jude, the eponymous character, passes through. Through Hardy’s explicit portrayal of life in Victorian society, Hardy condemns human institutions which endlessly perpetuate people in suffering, castration of hopes and limit them socio-politically. In spite of his legitimate and lofty dreams, Jude dies like a dog. Moreover, social factor responsible for the abortion of Jude’s ambitions and ruination of his destiny are emphasised in the study. The

Personal growth is an essential element of human development and progress. However, even though there are countless opportunities for the characters in Thomas Hardy 's novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge, to embrace and experience this necessary growth, there is an absence of such personal advancement and progress. Ultimately, the decisions and actions of Michael Henchard, Lucetta Le Sueur, Donald Farfrae, and Elizabeth Jane all demonstrate repetitive qualities and a lack of character development which either assist or hinder the justice and moral order of the characters’ fates.