Lady Mary Montagu´s Travel Writing Essay

Elizabeth Fernea entered El Nahra, Iraq as an innocent bystander. However, through her stay in the small Muslim village, she gained cultural insight to be passed on about not only El Nahra, but all foreign culture. As Fernea entered the village, she was viewed with a critical eye, ?It seemed to me that many times the women were talking about me, and not in a particularly friendly manner'; (70). The women of El Nahra could not understand why she was not with her entire family, and just her husband Bob. The women did not recognize her American lifestyle as proper. Conversely, BJ, as named by the village, and Bob did not view the El Nahra lifestyle as particularly proper either. They were viewing

Ever since the days of World War I, women have been seen as second rate to men. They had to live up to many social standards that men didn’t have to and had strict guidelines on how to live their lives. This all changed when modernism deliberately tried to break away from Victorian Era standards in which women were subjugated to a lot more scrutiny. Ezra Pound, who was a large figure in the modernist movement, captured the spirit of the era in his famous line “Make it new!” Consequently, many writers started to experiment with many different and wild writing styles, which led to the short stories and poems we have today. The stories The Wife of His Youth and Mrs. Spring Fragrance were all written in this era of modernism. While they are written in a more traditional style of writing, both these stories have strong implications on feminism from the viewpoints of both male and female writers.

Through its ethnocentric tales and family based beliefs, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik suggests that to find the true representation of Islamic culture, one must leave ethnocentrism behind. Not only will we discuss ethnocentrism and the cultural differences between Western and Middle Eastern societies, we will also take a look at the women of El Nahra and family within the differing societies.

Everyone experiences adversity in their life, but not everyone experiences adversity the same. The book ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak, published in 2005, is narrated by a death who tells a story about a foster child, Liesel, who grows up in Nazi Germany. Liesel has a love for reading and steals books to be able to read. She finds comfort in words as the novel goes on. She and Max, the jew her family protects, are the only 2 main characters that survive the war.

Furthermore, there was a strong lack of female empowerment resulting as there was a general strong dichotomy in tasks performed by each gender. However, the women’s new lives offered them a sense of liberation by providing a larger space of operation, in that they could explore additional activities previously limited or unexplored to them, such as teaching and gardening. Regardless, these observations paint a general brush of the women traveling and there always exist individuals, such as Sessions, who buck this trend.

Both the 1892 short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Stetson and the 1879 Norwegian play ‘A Dolls House’ by Henrik Ibsen, explore how the female protagonists are products of and are influenced by the harsh social conventions and expectations of their time. Both protagonists are constrained by the patriarchal society and the expectations of the wife of the late 1800s. Stenson challenges the audience’s response through the use of literary techniques including symbolism, to enhance the submission of the unnamed female narrator dealing with nervous depression. Conversely, Ibsen, through the use of theatrical techniques predominately stage directions and dramatic irony, to provoke audiences discuss the women’s abandonment of her marriage and motherly duties, something that still shocks contemporary viewers today.

Perhaps he is known as one of the most notorious and infamous kings in the history of the world. His bloody and prosperous reign would change England forever. Henry VII was born to Henry VII of England and Elizabeth York on June 28th, 1491. Henry was infamous for his terrible temper, his reformation of the church where he split from the Pope and the Catholic Church and turned England into a mainly Protestant country, but conceivable he is mostly recognized for his marriages to six different women. Years of infidelity, murder, and pure disrespect would follow and Henry’s final wife would be Katherine Parr.

Following the explanation of women and their beauty, Frith discusses how Montagu left for Turkey to follow her husband who was the Ambassador to the Ottoman court. This is where Montagu saw the process of inoculation for the disease smallpox. This was a major advancement in the medical field because smallpox were seen as one of the worst and most dreaded diseases that one could get, because if it did not kill you it left your face disfigured from the pox, which in a time where beauty was everything for woman was very devastating.

“The use of knowledge in our sex, besides the amusement of solitude, is to moderate the passions, and learn to be contented with a small expense...it may be preferable even to that fame which men have engrossed themselves, and will not suffer us to share.”

Society’s view of women has changed as a result of what they have accomplish to become relevant inside a man oriented culture. Women are accused of being untrustworthy, due to their approach of going around the rules. Although this may be true, their limited possibilities push them to use their cleverness to look for alternatives that will help them reach their goals. The stories of The Arabian Nights demonstrate that when women are in control of a situation they must be trusted, as long as they act upon good will.

In this essay I will be comparing Oscar Wilde's play 'A Woman of No Importance' to John Fowles' novel 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'. I will be exploring their differing views of woman in Victorian society. Generally, woman were viewed as inferior to men, yet Wilde shows compassion for them in his writing, this can be seen through his kindness to Mrs Arbuthnot towards the end of the play. However, John Fowles, although much darker in his presentation of woman, portrays Sarah Woodruff as

The relationship between the environment and characters in literature played a large role in Victorian novels. This relationship is extremely evident in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, where Jane’s journey to freedom is reflected by her environment. However, Jane’s goal of freedom and equality symbolizes Victorian women struggling to gain these same values. According to Jennifer D. Fuller in “Seeking Wild Eyre: Victorian Attitudes Towards Landscape and the Environment in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre”, Jane’s passion for freedom is reflects the passion for freedom in Victorian women who have not achieved equality yet. Although Jane’s environmental surroundings symbolize Jane’s future, Fuller effectively asserts that the weather instead symbolizes the harsh constraints of women’s gender roles in Victorian society.

Letters play a very important role in ‘Pride and Prejudice’. They can tie the story together because letters provide information which we would not have found out from the dialogue between the characters. We can also find out extra background information which can help with the reader’s understanding of characters, the plot and the novel in general. Letters can reveal character’s personalities and how they feel about the other characters in the novel, for example Miss Bingley’s feelings about Jane. Letters are used as a dramatic device in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ to further the plot, link the story and to inform the readers of the character’s personalities.

Robert Browning’s poems “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” depict a mastery of the dramatic monologue style. Said style contains a narrative told by a character’s point of view that differs from that of the poet.The character’s monologue consists of them discussing their particular situation that they find themselves within, this is meant to convey their internal information to the reader or audience. This in turn allows the reader a glimpse into the personality of the narrating character. Within “Porphyria’s Lover” and My Last Duchess” these monologues are used along with poetic devices to develop unique male personas. Between these two personas there are evident differences in class and within each class social issues arise within each work.

This is a significant aspect of the course because the article examines the strengths and weaknesses of femininity through a cultural Muslim perspective and the reading is a prime example of how ideologies regarding race affect those involved. In class we have discussed the significances of social constructs and how assumptions are made on the basis of physical characteristics. In this situation, identity is related to gender as Muslim women are categorized as both good/respectful and rebellious/evil individuals because they are apart of a culture where they are both oppressed and liberated simultaneously.