For years the Book of the Duchess has raised suspicion whether the character Gerffrey the dreamer’s intentions to console the Black Knight was sympathetic or simply criticism. Therefore many readers wonder why the dreamer does not seem to comprehend the Knight’s sorrow for his beloved. My paper will explore the fact that the dreamer overhears the Knight’s weeping at the death of his lady but still continues to misunderstand what is truly said because he process to provide a compassionate ear. As a result the Knight is able to make sense of his frustration and sorrow for his grief.
The first passage reveals the parallel suffering occurring in the lives of different members of the family, which emphasizes the echoes between the sufferings of the father and the narrator. The narrator’s father’s despair over having watched
Having concluded that both females are in complete possession of their mental capacities at the beginning of the stories, a collation of The Awakening and “The Yellow Wall-Paper” uncovers a similarity in the oppressiveness of the ruling male figures. Both husbands in
Dreams have been important in much of Arthurian literature, from the Historia of Geoffrey of Monmouth to Wace's Brut and the alliterative and stanzaic Morte Arthures. In those works, a vivid dream came to Arthur at some crucial point or points, whether on the way to Gaul, in his camp at Rome, or in England before his battle with Mordred. In That Hideous Strength, dreams appear not just at important moments, but regularly. Jane Studdock discovers herself to be a seer, able to dream of real events either happening or about to happen, and thus supplies important information to the Pendragon and his companions. Her dreams are more realistic and informative than
Consequently, Marie displays a reverse of traditional ‘damsel in distress’ roles, as the lady rescues Guigemar, and in concordance with the hind’s curse, he becomes the wife’s ‘damsel in distress.’ Marie accentuates the wife’s power and her ability to save Guigemar’s life. There was much back and forth cornering their feelings for each other, but Guigemar and the wife began an affair, underscoring the wife’s capability to heal lovesickness and her cunning spirit. Following a year and a half of their relationship, she fears an imminent disaster and contrives a brilliant plan for their future. Through the repetition of “I,” Marie asserts that the plan’s inventiveness originates from a woman.
Remorse is a product of a deep regret which is brought upon by empathy, something in which the character Montresor in the story “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe claims he does not possess, as he desires to commit the perfect revenge. This paper argues that the em dash used in the cask of amontillado signifies that Montresor feels remorse for his actions but rapidly recomposes himself, as the em dash allows him to blame his feelings “on account of the dampness of the catacombs” (pg.854). But, in doing so proves that perfect revenge is unattainable, and Montresor is left to pretend that he is unable to feel empathy.
After falling asleep, the Duke of Windsor has a dream in which “he was alone” (Findley 232). It is evident that Mauberley, the narrator, cannot narrate another character’s dreams. Furthermore, the Duke of Windsor mentions that “he was alone”, which proves why Mauberley could not narrate the dream truthfully. The reliability of Mauberley’s narrative as the truth is considered a lie.
In the basis of ancient medieval literature, there were at least three principle concepts that were guidelines for writers: the tradition of chivalry, use of power, and the art of courtly love. In her lais, or lyrical narrative, Marie de France uses all three of them, but not exactly in the traditional sense that men of her time favored. Through her writings, Marie de France has shown great focus on members of the aristocracy that were not as prominently acknowledged, which included both women and single knights, and portrayed characters that she observed in real life in ways that did or did not conform to their stereotypes. Additionally, she challenged the roles often found in 12th century writings by using ordinary heroines and heroes to work through both genuine and figurative conflicts. Through the lai of “Lanval”, Marie subtly works through the theme of courtly love in a separate ideal setting that both challenges and reverses the typical gender roles without completely letting go of the accepted cultural standards of that time.
The main character of “The Black Cat”, in Vertigo is divided in two different persons, Scottie and Gavin Elster. Scottie is the part of the character in Poe´s story that is obsessed with the cat and with guilt, it could be said that Scottie represents the past of the narrator when he was still good, moreover, the narrator states that after all there were parts of his old self that were still present. On the other hand, Elster is the representation of the evil, perverse part of Poe´s main character, as he is the one that invents and commits the crime as well as the way to conceal it. This duality of the characters is used to portray that good and evil are not separate notions and are not absolute (…). Therefore, Madeleine both real Elster´s
In the words of Sigmund Freud, “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.” The legendary psychologist saw dreams as an avenue to study one’s underlying motives for action. Similarly, in literature one finds striking significance from the illusions of protagonists that often predict the nature of one’s psyche. Two such examples present themselves in Blanche, from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, and the grandmother, from Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find. The former tale follows a lady without a home who finds herself reliant on her belligerent and bestial brother-in-law. The latter traces a family’s road trip South and their encounter with a wanted fugitive. Both Blanche and the grandmother find themselves tethered to their idealistic and often times hypocritical fantasies which signify their underlying mental instability and foreshadow their eventual ruinations. Williams and O’Connor examine their protagonists’ delusions through gender, clothing, and nostalgia.
The general mood throughout Poe’s The Black Cat is frightening and evokes an uneasy feeling in the reader. The narrator prefaces the story by telling the reader that, “For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief” (1). This at first excites the reader, but also leaves a feeling of uneasiness due to the uncertainty of the nature of the story. However, the narrator quickly reveals the story does not end well for him when he says, “But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul” (1). The mood of The Black Cat is also developed in the horror element of character and the uncanny. Poe’s use of dreary details exhibit the frightening mood of The Black Cat.
The events that unfolded in Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The black Cat,” are all due to one person, the narrator. It is because of his Mental state, being an alcoholic, and being abusive to his wife and pets that the fault lies heavily on the narrator. What this paper will entail is all three of the reasons why it is the narrator's fault for what happens in the story and it will come to a conclusion based off the findings in the story.
The prince was a tall, young man with watchful blue eyes and long coppery hair. He had gone impulsively to hunt. Ian could think of nothing like responsibility or duty. He could only think of leaving the palace for an hour or a day. The company had met the king's messenger half-way across Sirle. The message was accompanied by a troop of guards to make sure that Ian did not ignore it. Come home, it said tersely. Now. Ian was not surprised, and he was too weary to fend for himself. So he let fortune, in the shape of the king's guards, bring him back.
On the one hand, with the prediction of the coming “fall,” the reader is provoked by some expectation about how, when, and why. The reader is exposed from the beginning to the narrator’s style and without realizing it will be ruled by the logic of that fictional world, in which melancholy and spiritual impatience reigns.
Poe’s poem, “Lenore” extends further and uniquely focuses on a man’s journey to accept the loss of his betrothed using the tone and organization of the text. The poem is organized as a conversation in four stanzas between Guy de Vere and the narrator. The first and third stanzas are the spoken words of the narrator and the second and fourth stanzas are the verbal responses of Guy de Vere. Poe’s decision to compose his poem in this manner provides the reader with a direct look at the raw, bare emotions of the recently widowed man. These four stanzas allow the reader four opportunities to stand in Guy de Vere’s shoes and to hear what he hears. The reader now can identify with the complex array of emotions and stages of grief experienced by Guy de Vere. With each stanza in the poem, the tone changes slightly showing the gradual acceptance of the loss by Guy de Vere. In the second stanza, de Vere’s tone, created by internal sound devices and sentence structure, is hostile, demonstrating the anger felt. The change in de Vere’s tone occurring in the fourth stanza demonstrates a major evolution in his outlook toward the future. He finally understands that although Lenore is gone, she will be accepted in Heaven; and his life will continue without her. By talking out his feelings through conversation, Guy de Vere finally accepts the loss of his bride to be, showing the power that one conversation can have on someone’s life. In Poe’s poem, he uses structure and sound devices to show that after the loss of a loved one, one may attribute the death to others, but with consolation and care from others, he or she will make peace with the
Edgar Allan Poe’s “Berenice” interprets the story of a man who lives with his cousin and has a relationship with her, both of them having illnesses and Egaeus having an obsessive disorder which leads to a tragic accident with Berenice who had been buried alive. This short story’s tone is a suspenseful and morose particularly before Egaeus finds out what he had done to Berenice, there is also situational and dramatic irony considering he creates a character who its literally born in a library and is a quiet person. Poe creates a narrator with an obsessive disorder whose guilt comes from the death of a beautiful woman and builds around foiling the two main characters establishing unity of effect.