Henry Thoeau once warned ‘Never look back unless you are planning to go that way’. This applies to

The Past, an ever growing pool of time, is always biting at the heels of a person. It reminds him of what they have done wrong, done right, or when he did nothing. For most people, recalling the past leads to loose ends and blanks where memories should be. No matter how much a person may want to return to the past, it is not possible. It is lost forever. These forgotten moment lead to uncertainties and confusion in the present, and chaos in the future. Forgetting the past leads to spirals, spinning downwards as people look to what they have lost. They retrace their steps hoping to find a sliver of who they are and what may become of them. In the poem, Itinerary, Eamon Grennan shows how an individual searches through his past, but can never return to it. Through the poem and with a personal experience I will explain how individuals deal with uncertainties in their pasts.

Thomas Hardy lived in a time when marriage was the expected practice for young men and women. He had a very distinct view of the institution and the implications that came along with it. He himself was married twice in his long life, both times not very happily, and had progressive views about the union of the sexes, most particularly regarding divorce. His ideas and opinions are not too carefully concealed in his literary works, though he contested that he kept his own views out of his fiction.

on behalf of him. In the end she completely understands the crime her husband has committed. Thomas Hardy states,

Austen’s character, Mr.Collins, mainly focusses on himself when he is proposing, which causes him to come across as selfish and unemotional. Mr. Collins thinks that “It is the right thing” for him to get married to “set the example”(2). This suggests that Mr. Collins wants to be married because he feels he needs to set the example for his parish

Austen further instigates these thoughts into the reader’s minds as she expounds in the chapter about how Mr. Elton fails to inquire more about Harriet, and still goes out to the party without her or a second thought. Textually, this is supported by Emma’s narration, as she is shown thinking it strange that Mr. Elton would leave Harriet behind. Accompanied by the thought, is an after thought of Emma’s where she excuses a single man like Mr. Elton’s blatant disregard for Harriet by thinking, “...such a passion for dining out; a dinner engagement is so high in the class of their

This is true to a certain extent, Hardy tends to create a pessimistic outlook however sometimes his poems can show a bittersweet look at situations. ‘At Castle Boterel’, for example, Hardy writes ‘I look back at it amid the rain/ For the very last time; for my sand is sinking.’ When Hardy writes that ‘[his] sand is sinking,’ it points towards the idea that his time is running out, which gies strong imagery to the reader. Although this shows a pessimistic tone, when reading it, it can be understood that he has fond memories of the times he has spent there. Hardy makes this clear to the reader when it reads, ‘was there ever a time of such quality’.

The ensuing disconnect between Emma’s perception and the reality of her surroundings forms the crux of Austen’s novel. Just as Cher convinces herself that Elton loves Tai and Christian loves her, everything that Emma imagines is occurring in her small village turns out to be wrong, and she manipulates people and events with disastrous results. Emma suffers little limitation as she goes to the Cole’s party, to the ball at the Crown, and to the excursion at Box Hill, "provided all was safe at Hartfield." The fact that this represents Emma 's change of response to her father rather than being a change in Mr. Woodhouse himself is made clear by details which would have felt inconceivable in book three, for instance, we casually hear that Emma had replaced the small uncomfortable table at Hartfield with a modern round table sometime in the unspecified past.

The novel's limited scope of action gives us a strong sense of the confined nature of a woman's existence in early- nineteenth - century rural England. Emma possesses a great deal of intelligence and energy, but the best use she can make of these is to attempt to guide the marital destinies of her friends, a project that gets her into trouble. The alternative pastimes depicted in the book — social visits, charity visits, music, artistic endeavours — seem relatively trivial, at times even

Texts and their adaptations are significant when comparing the paradigms in place in their respective time periods. Throughout history, there has been a drastic change of belief on the importance of marriage. When Frank Churchill, in Emma by Austen, finally announces his hidden engagement to Jane Fairfax, there is a considerable uproar for many reasons. Personally, to Emma, she felt deceived as she thought she was beginning to develop real feelings for Churchill. Although, to everyone else in the town, this engagement was seen as a scandal; particularly as he was seen as much worthier status and finance than his fiancé. Also, this kind of ‘reckless’ behaviour is accentuated by valued character, Mr Knightley, who comments with high modality, “This is very bad. He had induced her to place herself, for his sake, in a situation of extreme difficulty and uneasiness”. With this negative response from the Highbury community,

Frank Bruni, the author of Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, dedicates his fact-filled odyssey by stating, “To all the high school kids in this country who are dreading the crossroads of college admissions and to all the young adults who felt ravaged by it. We owe you and the whole country a better, more constructive way.” Bruni then proceeds by assaulting the very foundation on which the modern higher education system is built off of, the notion that not all colleges are created equal. He theorizes that a college is not based solely on name and prestige, but what you are able to make of it and what a college is able to offer you. Pressing onwards, Bruni contends that there is no ideal

Another significant element utilized by all three authors is entrapment. This gothic element is shown to exemplify the internal and external conflicts the character feels. In particular, in “The Raven”, the narrator explains the internal conflict they feel when “...just above my chamber door - Perched, and sat, and nothing more” (Poe 438). This implies the dreary emptiness they have after a losing a loved one. Next, in “Prey”, the author demonstrates the external conflict the girl is having as “She was trapped...She started pounding on the door” (Matheson 6) - because of the evil doll. Finally, in “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Irving illustrates that they are prisoners (internal and external conflict) when “The house and it’s inmates had altogether a bad name” (Irving 322). This is the outcome of conspiring with the devil. Furthermore, entrapment reflects the conflicts going on in the characters' lives.

To start, Thomas Hardy uses the poem’s speakers to contrast the bliss of ignorance with the reality of knowledge. In this piece, the stark differences between ‘Melia and the country girl demonstrate how despite the glamorous life that ‘Melia has, she feels that she has nothing of real value anymore. Throughout the

Though at first glance, Emma appears to be a generic romantic novel about virtue and ladyhood, Austen actually challenges what the meaning of “ladyhood” is to the reader. We view Emma’s follies, trials, and triumphs through the eyes of the omnipotent narrator who first describes Emma as a stereotypical, wealthy young lady who is “handsome, clever…with…a happy disposition” (1). Through the use of irony, Austen employs a series of situations in which Emma, a “lady” of high standing within her community, challenges conventional thinking of what it means to be a young woman in the early nineteenth century, particularly her ideas concerning marriage and

Thomas Hardy was born into a religious family and brought up with very Christian values and morals. As he matured and was exposed to the new ideas of the time, he became conflicted in his views about God and religion.  He was criticized for writings that many of his peers considered to be obscene, immoral and blasphemous. Throughout his adult life, Hardy considered himself to be an agnostic. His poems show that he was much more complicated than that. His writings show a Christian who was tormented by the fact that he was no longer able to believe in the church doctrine. He had a conflicted soul that was searching for some meaning.  This is evident in his poetry,

This image and atmosphere of mundane imperfection is a far cry from what Emma expects after reading the romantic novels she smuggled in at the convent. From those foppish texts she gathers the impression that ladies such as she should be “lolling on carriages” or “dreaming on sofas,” or perhaps embracing some dashing “young man in a short cloak” (Flaubert 32). Yet such is not the reality in which she lives.