Human Crafting In Marge Piercy's A Work Of Artifice

Within ‘A Doll’s House’ Nora Helmer has a strong appetite for knowledge. This is particularly evident in her voracious longing for independence: “But it was great fun, though, sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man”. This knowledge of “being a man”, and what that entails, would be unknown to many women during the Victorian era due to the fiercely patriarchal society that was perpetuated. The desire for knowledge and its inaccessible nature is particularly evident in the lack of further education for women. In fact, in the United Kingdom the first widespread report of female further education was the Edinburgh Seven in 1869. Whilst that instance of knowledge was not destructive, in the case of Nora and ‘A Doll’s House’ her appetite for knowledge is ultimately catastrophic for the Victorian female ideal due to the secrecy she creates around it: “My husband must never know of this”. As a result of this concealment and Nora’s appetite for knowledge, the Victorian ideal unravels and ultimately becomes destructive. Likewise, in Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’ an appetite for knowledge is ultimately destructive for the characters within the poem. After tasting the “fruit” of the “Goblin Men” and becoming knowledgeable of the taste and effects of it Laura “knew not was it night or day”. This confusion of time and geographical

Satire is the use of humor, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize a person’s someone’s shortcomings and vices. In William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, satire is evident through his use of irony and ridicule, which he uses to mock different aspects of traditional fairy tales. Archetypes are not employed, highlighting the absurdness of key components of these stories. Situational irony is also used to satericalize the flaws of several characters, mocking their flaws, and making them laughable. Therefore, William Goldman’s The Princess Bride is a satirical story that mocks fairy tale archetypes and character flaws through the use of ridicule.

Pauline’s personification of the plants only continues this idea of confusion and abandonment. Her prayer to the Catholic God is almost ironic; Pauline is begging her God to help her remember the practices that she thinks sacrilegious.

A satire is a piece of work that is designed to ridicule or tease a group or organization, generally for the purpose of being humorous. “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a play by Oscar Wilde, is a satire, ridiculing class, gender, and marriage. This essay will describe some points from each of these sections, as well as give a brief synopsis of the play these examples come from.

Furthermore, the woman was never recognised as an equal in the world; with a “mane” for hair she is immediately relatable to an animal. When this connection is made, the woman is perceived as some strange creature; a mere mimicry of a real human. Harwood’s description of is a taste of how society views women; not quiet human. Now equipped with darker views of the flower filled day; the contemporary day reader is pondering to whether or not this vile practice is still belittling women of today.

Robyn Schiff’s A Woman of Property is a study concerning the darker powers along with their everyday domestic insurgencies. Several American poets/poetess have for a long time sought to ingather symbols from their daily lives, from its whine gratifications as well as from shallow-end disappointments to help depict, communicate, and to impress certain notions in the minds of their readers. Among these poets/poetess is Robyn Schiff. In the context of Schiff’s writings, motivation may be considered as a light switch in a room that is in darkness. However, Schiff’s poems more deliberately try to blur the brightness of a fancy that is a little incisive. The poems, in this third volume of her poetry work, promise to save her from uncertainties,

In “The Mower Against Gardens,” Andrew Marvell uses a conceit to liken the plants in an English garden to the women of a brothel, exemplifying the theme of man’s perversion of nature. Three main metaphors are used, the first being mankind as the brothel owner. The second metaphor is the flowers as prostitutes, and the final metaphor is the flowers’ offspring as abandoned children.

In Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart,” tells the story of a maid named Felicite who endure hardships and heartbreaks one after another. Not only did she endure hardships and heartbreaks at a young age, but also throughout her life losing her nephew, the children of her mistress Mme Aubain and her parrot, LouLou. In his essay, “ Flaubert’s Un Simple,” James Reynolds argues that the story of Felicite demonstrates satire and that her actions is just too good. In Victor Brombert essay, “Un Coeur Simple: Tenderness and Irony,” he also argues that it is a story of satire, but also there is also sentiment. Felicite is pathetic, but extremely serving and loving. In “A Simple heart,” the story may seem to surpass both satire and sentiment, but

Firstly, Munro displays society’s weak and stereotypical view of women through the protagonist’s mother. The mother acts exactly as society expects girls to, staying inside the house, cooking and cleaning. For example, the mother “did not often come out of the house unless it was to do something – hang out the wash or dig potatoes in the garden.” (43) indicating that her sole purpose was to be inside the home. However, although women are expected to be weak and silenced, the protagonist opposes herself to society’s expectations. While most girls are expected to help their mother in the kitchen and stay inside, the protagonist prefers to “help my father when he cut the long grass, and the lamb’s quarter and flowering money-musk, that grew between the pens. He cut with the scythe and I raked into piles.” (43) Due to the protagonist preferring to work outside with her father it makes her mother feel as though, “It’s not like I (she) had a girl in the family at all.” (44) which is evidence that the protagonist defies gender conventions by participating in male-oriented tasks. Munro expresses the protagonist’s unconventionality through the use of symbolism in Flora the horse. Flora is viewed as, “given to fits of violent alarm, veering at cars and even at other horses, but we loved her speed and high-stepping, her general air of gallantry and abandon.” (44) Whereas, the other horse Mack, is described at “slow and easy to handle” (44) The inclusion of the comparison amongst Mack and Flora is to show the reader that Flora’s wild and brave personality is not common and is seen as unconventional which represents the protagonist and her separation from the norm.

In the poem “The Secretary Chant,” the poet, Marge Piercy, uses figurative language to develop the argument of how society has produced a stereotype that women should be secretaries, because being a secretary is not always the ideal job because just like every other jobs, there may be emotional conflicts. The way Piercy uses comprehensive imagery about the speaker’s body and figurative language to depict  a woman's perspective of being a secretary interested me. Aftering reading the poem thoroughly, each imagery and figurative language conveys how women are stereotyped to be secretaries and why it is not always the ultimate jobs for women.

Although, some people may or not side to the circumstances of how artifice is use, it plays a great role in both political theater and in a consumer culture. During the time being, most people need a background to

Authors often apply literary devices in literature to convey special messages to the readers. Margaret Atwood portrays the use of literary devices in her poem, “Bored,” when she uses anecdote and metaphor. In the poem, Atwood effectively demonstrates how the use of literary devices creates a greater insight into the lack of power women have in a male-dominated society.

Margaret Atwood’s satirical poem, “There Was Once”, aims to disrupt the generic conventions of a traditional fairy tale. Atwood begins with the traditional opening of a fairy tale by writing, “there once was a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest” (Atwood 406). Atwood begins to dissect the aspects of a fairy tale by first calling out the normal backdrop, which is a forest. Then, she points out that the girl in the story was never poor to begin with since she lived in a house. Atwood questions why the protagonist must always be beautiful, pointing out the current problems surrounding women and body image. Atwood also complains about the fact that all of the female leads in fairy tales are white, possibly alluding to Hollywood’s constant whitewashing of films. She attacks the idea that the “evil stepmother” must always be evil and be a female, pointing out that if the stepmother had to be

Marge Piercy's poem "To Be of Use" expresses an opposing connotation about the idea of work. Most people believe the words "hard work" carry a negative connotation. What these words imply is not something that is generally received with enthusiasm but is often accepted either by force or obligation. The poem’s central theme is that satisfaction and self-fulfillment can be attained by using one's skills to serve a specific function in life, for it is the opinion of the speaker that an unproductive existence has no value or significance because it is vain, and pointless. Piercy uses figurative language, imagery, description, symbolism, and details to develop this theme throughout the poem.

Although the poems “Barbie Doll” and “A Work of Artifice” both deal with the subject of women, Marge Piercy uses subtly different approaches in tone of voice, metaphorical style, and use of irony. While “Barbie Doll” uses the form of allusion to compare a female child to a doll and demonstrates a strong tone of anger and irony, “A Work of Artifice” uses metaphor as a way to discuss the subject of women indirectly. Both poems succeed in making strong statements about the position of women in society and how they are constructed by society to serve others.