The Protagonists In The Queen Of Spades And The Overcoat

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” allows one to explore many ironic instances throughout the story, the main one in which a woman unpredictably feels free after her husband’s assumed death. Chopin uses Mrs. Mallard’s bizarre story to illustrate the struggles of reaching personal freedom and trying to be true to yourself to reach self-assertion while being a part of something else, like a marriage. In “The Story of an Hour” the main character, Mrs. Mallard, celebrates the death of her husband, yet Chopin uses several ironic situations and certain symbols to criticize the behavior of Mrs. Mallard during the time of her “loving” husband’s assumed death.

Although Chekhov emphasized in the beginning of the text that money holds power as shown by Anna and Modest Alexeich’s relationship, Chekhov shifts the power dynamic by introducing Anna’s beauty and sense of empowerment and now Anna has a new sense of awareness and power. Following the ball, His Excellency “[thanks Anna] for her part in the bazaar” and asked her permission to come again (283). After establishing herself and her influence at the ball, His Excellency’s visit to Anna truly places emphasis on her role at the ball. Having one of the highest member of society personally visit and thank Anna gave her the highest sense of empowerment as this moment proves to be significant. Most notably when her husband looks at her with the “cringingly respectful expression that she was accustomed to see on his face in the presence of the illustrious and the powerful,” and she confidently and clearly articulated the following statement, “Get out, you blockhead!” (283). Compared to the confined and powerless young lady Chekhov presented in the beginning of the plot,

A story, of any type, is greatly affected by the characters’ outlook on life. A bright, hopeful main character will give the narrative a more lighthearted feel, and cause the reader to feel encouraged and satisfied. If the character has a negative perspective, however, it can elicit sadness, pity, or even irritation from the reader. In Voltaire’s Candide and Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich, two characters with very different worldviews are displayed. The lighthearted Candide maintained an attitude of cheerfulness and perseverance even through the hardships of his life, which stems from his deep love and care for others, while the coldhearted despair of Ivan Ilyich is only intensified into anger by the feigned optimism of those around him.

The author portrayed the banker as a foolish and greedy man, and since Chekhov characterized him as static, he never changed. His inability to alter his ways resulted in him making an extraordinarily rash bet and later on him wanting to kill a man in cold blood. “That is not true! I bet you two million that you

How does Vladek become more selfish, in terms of money, after going through the Holocaust?

Petersburg, who are noticeably lower class, begin to plot and scheme in “A Rumor in St. Petersburg” by selling, what they claim are, “authentic” items belonging to the fallen Romanov family, including Anastasia. They are motivated to deceive others in order to receive monetary rewards. More specifically, Dimitri and Vlad, whose jobs are never disclosed but they are dressed in dull and mundane clothing (so it can be assumed that they are of lower class), brag about how they plan on committing the “biggest con in history” by finding a girl who can play the role of princess Anastasia. It is important to question why they would be willing to go through such drastic measures. The reoccurring theme in Anastasia is those in the lower class are motivated by money. With them belonging to the lower class, where money is not readily available item, they must accomplish their goal of attaining money by any means necessary. Hence, the working class actions are driven by the thought of obtaining money.

In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.

Vladek and Anja, their family member almost dead during the Holocaust, they were the lucky people. Their life should be happiness, but Anja suicided ten years later because she can’t stand the psychological shadow of the Holocaust. Anja’s death made him feel lonely and helpless. Later, he had the second marriage with Mala. But he always thinks Mala never love him, the reason that made her married with him was just for getting money from Vladek. It is shown that Vladek doesn't trust people, he thought that people approach him just for his money. He became to questioning life. This psychological effect from the life during the Holocaust, the people who helped him hide was just for his money. “Such traumatic experiences can lead to difficulty with social adjustment and difficulty trusting others”(Kaplan). And he didn’t believe that he can’t trust anyone after the Holocaust, his suspicious made Mala tried to leave him. As a survivor, Vladek very treasures the food, he likes to save food although it already goes bad. Because during the life in the Auschwitz, and on the way to back to Germany, Vladek can’t get enough food to eat, he even ate snow to keep alive. After he got to another camp, the Jews were too sick, they can’t get up. They got food and ate so fast, Vladek was too weak to eat, so he saved it because he knew that food is very precious, he must save it for his later life. The starvation during the

Rodya, who lives in poverty, was able to empathize with people who believe to have been cheated of their money from her and he thought that she deserved to die. In the beginning of chapter 1 Raskolnikov went to Alyona Ivanovna to pawn his watch and he was given nearly one-fourth of his requested amount which made Raskolnikov angry. When the pawnbroker left to retrieve her money to give to Raskolnikov, he listened attentively as she unlocked where the money was stored. He was able to figure out which key she used and what the key led to. Raskolnikov's attention to this detail proves that he had a desire to take her money. Knowing where the money is kept gave him a personal reason to kill Alyona Ivanovna because in return he could take her money and use it towards supporting his family and increasing their wealth or paying his tuition for his law studies. Another example of how money affected Rodya was after he killed the pawnbroker he immediately searches for her keys to the money box and goes on and sees that she has a stuffed purse on her and he takes it along with him. This shows that his first thought was about money and the valuables he can take. His mind was on the money throughout his entire plan. Clearly, Raskolnikov's motive for planning the murder was to obtain more

In the short yet complex work “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, readers see a woman who goes through a complete spectrum of emotions in the short span of an hour. When the main character learns that her husband is dead, like most, she is shocked and utterly filled with grief. As the story continues, a dramatic change takes place within the mind of the main character, Louise. Upon the conclusion of her natural, wifely grief, she realizes that she is finally out from under the grasp of her husband and is now a free woman in a time when men dominated life at home and the goings on of society. Through his death, Louise finds the opportunity to be born again. Many of the emotions that the main character goes through are depicted through the imagery of her constantly changing environment, and the author specifically uses the architecture of her home as a main tool. In the story, the use of visual imagery projects the rise and fall of the main character as her life transitions quickly back and forth. Through an analysis of her characterization, these changes ultimately prove too much for her to handle. In Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” a character analysis can be performed based on the changes in her environment compared to the changes in her life situation. The layout of the world around Louise is used to show her initial grief, sudden realization of freedom, and her gateway to a new life free from oppression of men.

One of the sweet comforts in life is to curl up in a favorite chair with a short story that will briefly carry people away from their everyday lives. On rare occasions, a tale mirrors real life in such a way that one is strangely comforted by the normalcy reflected in the words. A perfect example of a story about ordinary life that will soothe the soul in search for some insight on understanding the human behavior is Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” This style of writing has such a mass appeal because the characters wear recognizable social masks and reflect an everyday reality. In his simple story of a chance meeting between a middle-aged, chauvinistic, repeat-offender adulterer, unhappily married man, and a young, naïve,

In “The Story of an Hour” (1894), Kate Chopin presents a woman in the last hour of her life and the emotional and psychological changes that occur upon hearing of her husbands’ death. Chopin sends the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, on a roller coaster of emotional up’s and down’s, and self-actualizing psychological hairpin turns, which is all set in motion by the news of her husband’s death. This extreme “joy ride” comes to an abrupt and ultimately final halt for Mrs. Mallard when she sees her husband walk through the door unscathed. Chopin ends her short story ambiguously with the death of Mrs. Mallard, imploring her reader to determine the true cause of her death.

The story unfolds very smoothly and evenly in spite of of the stirring and at the same time troubling subject of the matter. We get acquainted with the main characters – The Crutchman family “so very very happy and so temperate in all their habits and so pleased with everything that came their way”, due to the anaphoric repetition the author creates intensification, that states the problem –

Additionally, by including less detail, Spiegelman makes his characters easier to relate to, or as McCloud references, more universal. After Vladek recalls the hanging of a few of his associates, Spiegelman illustrates a very plain, bleak image of him mourning their loss in present day. The image consists of the most basic character features, making it effortless for the reader to mentally input their face on Vladek’s. Overall, this “amplification through simplification” (McCloud), aids the reader in feeling the emotion of the character, finding a deeper connection to the story as a whole, and can reveal universal truths.

It would be a challenge not to wonder what causes him to be so nasty, audacious, and insensitive toward everyone, including himself. The transient beauty of Bukowski’s prose is hidden within the elusive and terse nature of his writing. Although it might be hard to appreciate at first glance, it gradually becomes more transparent as the reader becomes increasingly familiar with the two books. With this, the reader gains the ability to enter into the mindset of the protagonist and embark on a series of self-reflections regarding what type of person he/she might have become if he/she experienced similar neglect. Charles Bukowski wrote in a scramble, with a nothing-to-lose truthfulness that became the expedient in reliving the downtrodden generation in which Chinaski is raised. Along with some opinions that were expressed in the critical article in Time Magazine, Bukowski’s main character has deemed himself as none other than what he is in life: a “low life loser.” It does not require an immense level of effort to describe him as such, but attempting to explain a man of his particular genre is unquestionably abstruse. He is ornery and taciturn; when he does speak, it is with no apologies. He lives his life botching any remedial job for which he is lucky enough to get hired, and has no desire to escape the sphere he lives in as a “loser.” The reader must first ask why Henry