Readings in Modern English Literature PDF

Assiut University Faculty of Arts Translation BA Program An Elective Course READINGS IN MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1  Introduction to Modern English Literature From the beginning of the 20th Century started the Modern Period in English lite...

Assiut University Faculty of Arts Translation BA Program An Elective Course READINGS IN MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1  Introduction to Modern English Literature From the beginning of the 20th Century started the Modern Period in English literature. The most significant feature of Modern literature was that it opposed the general attitude of Victorian writers and people to life and its problems. During the first decade of the 20th Century, the young people regarded the Victorian age as hypocritical, and the Victorian ideals as superficial, mean and stupid. This rebellion hugely affected modern literature which was directed by moral values, spiritual ideals as well as mental attitudes that were dramatically opposed to those of the Victorians. Moreover, the Modernists no longer believed in the sanctity of home life as Victorians did. They also reacted against the Victorians‘ attitude of self complacency and self perfection. Since the modern writers could no longer write in the old manner, they devised their own. If they wrote about the contempt of money, natural beauty, divine love, and the sentiments of home and life , they were considered running the risk of striking a false note. Even if they treated the same themes, they had to do it tactfully to evoke unique thoughts and emotions. The modern writers, therefore, had to cultivate a fresh point of view employing fresh techniques. The main cause of this attitude of interrogations and disintegration of old values was the impact of scientific thought on the people. Many writers of the 20th Century began to study and contemplate seriously over the writings of Karl Marx, Engles, Ruskin, Morris etc. and discuss practical suggestions for the reconstruction of society. The 20th Century literature is full of experimentation and adventures peculiar to the modern age—an age of transition and discovery. After World War II, new trends appeared in English literature. Although poetry was the most memorable form to come out of World War I, the novel was the form which told the stories of World War II. This was because mass media, cinema, newspapers, and radio had changed the way of information and entertainment. There were many writers who wrote about war. For instance, Henry Greene‘s novels— Nothing (1950), The End of Affair (1951), and A Burnt-out Case (1961) deal with war. 2 These novels explore regions of human unhappiness in many different areas of the world. Then came Samuel Beckett, best known for his plays, who described interior feelings of lonely souls in his works. In this regard came his novels Murphy (1938) and How It Is (1961). Similarly, the novels of George Orwell also possess political intention. As a socialist, Orwell believed in equality. His famous works are Animal Farm (1945), and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). 3  Two Samples of Modern Drama I. A Summary and Analysis of Arthur Miller‟s Death of a Salesman Death of a Salesman is that rare thing: a modern play that is both a classic, and a tragedy. Many of the great plays of the twentieth century are comedies, social problem plays, or a combination of the two. Few are tragedies centred on one character who, in a sense, recalls the theatrical tradition that gave us Oedipus, King Lear, and Hamlet. But how did Miller come to write a modern tragedy? What is Death of a Salesman about, and how should we analyse it? Before we come to these questions, it might be worth briefly recapping the plot of what is, in fact, a fairly simple story. Death of a Salesman: summary The salesman of the title is Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is in his early sixties. He works on commission, so if he doesn‘t make a sale, he doesn‘t get paid. His job involves driving thousands of miles around the United States every year, trying to sell enough to put food on his family‘s table. He wants to get a desk job so he doesn‘t have to travel around any more: at 62 years of age, he is tired and worn out. He is married to Linda. Their son, Biff, is in his thirties and usually unemployed, drifting from one temporary job to another, much to Willy‘s displeasure. Willy‘s younger son, Happy, has a steady job along and his own home, and is therefore a success by Willy‘s standards. However, Happy, despite his name, isn‘t happy with the life he has, and would quite like to give up his job and go and work on a ranch out West. Willy, meanwhile, is similarly dreaming, but in his case of the past, rather than the future: he thinks back to when Biff and Happy were small children and Willy was a success as a salesman. The Lomans‘ neighbour, Charley, offers Willy a job to help make ends meet, but Willy starts to reminisce about his recently deceased brother, Uncle Ben, who was an adventurer (and young Willy‘s hero). Linda tells her sons to pay their father some respect, even though he isn‘t himself a ‗great man‘. 4 It emerges that Willy has been claiming to work as a salesman but has lately been borrowing money as he can‘t actually find work. His plan is to take his own life so his family will receive life insurance money and he will be able, with his death, to do what he cannot do for them while alive: provide for them. Biff agrees reluctantly to go back to his former boss and ask for a job so he can contribute to the family housekeeping. Meanwhile, Willy asks his boss, Howard, for his desk job and an advance on his next pay packet, but Howard sacks Willy. Willy then goes to Charley and asks for a loan. That night, at dinner, Willy and Biff argue (Biff failed to get his own former job back when his old boss didn‘t even recognise him), and it turns out that Biff once walked in on his father with another woman. Willy goes home, plants some seeds, and then – hearing his brother Ben calling for him to join him – he drives off and kills himself. At his funeral, only the family are present, despite Willy‘s prediction that his funeral would be a big affair. Death of a Salesman: analysis Miller‘s family had been relatively prosperous during the playwright‘s childhood, but during the Great Depression of the 1930s, as with many other families, their economic situation became very precarious. This experience had a profound impact on Miller‘s political standpoint, and this can be seen in much of his work for the theatre. Death of a Salesman represented a decisive change of direction for the young playwright. His previous success as a playwright, All My Sons, was a social drama heavily influenced by Henrik Ibsen, but with his next play, Miller wished to attempt something new. The mixture of hard- hitting social realism and dreamlike sequences make Death of a Salesman an innovative and bold break with previous theatre, both by Miller and more widely. In his essay ‗Tragedy and the Common Man‘ (1949), which Miller wrote to justify his artistic decision to make an ordinary American man the subject of a theatrical tragedy, Miller argued that the modern world has grown increasingly sceptical, and is less inclined to believe in the idea of heroes. As a result, they don‘t see how tragedy, with its tragic hero, can be relevant to the modern world. Miller argues, on the contrary, that the world is full of heroes. A hero is anybody who is willing to lay down his 5 life in order to secure his ‗sense of personal dignity‘. It doesn‘t matter what your social status or background is. Death of a Salesman is an example of this ethos: Loman, who cheated on his wife and lied to his family about his lack of work and his reliance on friends who lent him money, makes his last gesture a tragic but selfless act, which will ensure his family have money to survive when he is gone. Of course, this doesn‘t mean that Miller is somehow endorsing the hero‘s final and decisive act. The emphasis should always be on the word ‗tragedy‘: Loman‘s death is a tragedy brought about partly by his own actions, but also by the desperate straits that he is plunged into through the harsh and unforgiving world of sales, where once he is unable to earn money, he needs some other means of acquiring it so he can put food on the table for his family. But contrary to what we might expect, there is something positive and even affirmative about tragedy, as Arthur Miller views the art form. For Miller, in ‗Tragedy and the Common Man‘, theatrical tragedy is driven by ‗Man‘s total compunction to evaluate himself justly‘. In the process of doing this, and attaining his dignity, the tragic hero often loses his life, but there is something affirmative about the events leading up to this final act, because the audience will be driven to evaluate what is wrong with society that it could destroy a man – a man willing to take a moral stand and evaluate himself justly – in the way that it has. Does Willy Loman deserve to be pushed to take his own life just so his family can pay the bills? No, so there must be something within society that is at fault. Capitalism‘s dog-eat-dog attitude is at least partly responsible, since it leads weary and worn-out men like Willy to dream of paying off their mortgage and having enough money, while simultaneously making the achievement of that task as difficult as possible. When a younger and better salesman comes along, men like Willy are almost always doomed. But by placing this in front of the audience and dramatising it for them, Miller invites his audience to question the wrongs within modern American society. Thus people will gain a greater understanding of what is wrong with society, and will be able to improve it. The hero‘s death is individually tragic but collectively offers society hope. 6 So it may be counter-intuitive to describe a tragedy like Death of a Salesman as ‗optimistic‘, but in a sense, this is exactly what it is. Miller takes the classical idea of the tragic flaw, what Aristotle had called the hamartia, and updates this for a modern audience, too: the hero‘s tragic flaw is redefined as the hero‘s inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity and rightful status in society. There is something noble in his flaw, even though it will lead to his own destruction. So really, the flaw is not within the individual or hero as much as in society itself. A key context for Death of a Salesman, like many great works of American literature from the early to mid-twentieth century, is the American Dream: that notion that the United States is a land of opportunity where anyone can make a success of their life and wind up stinking rich. Miller‘s weaving of dream sequences in amongst the sordid and unsatisfactory reality of the Lomans‘ lives deftly contrasts the American dream with the American reality. Characters: Willy Loman Despite his desperate searching through his past, Willy does not achieve the self-realization or self-knowledge typical of the tragic hero. The quasi-resolution that his suicide offers him represents only a partial discovery of the truth. While he achieves a professional understanding of himself and the fundamental nature of the sales profession, Willy fails to realize his personal failure and betrayal of his soul and family through the meticulously constructed artifice of his life. He cannot grasp the true personal, emotional, spiritual understanding of himself as a literal ―loman‖ or ―low man.‖ Willy is too driven by his own ―willy‖-ness or perverse ―willfulness‖ to recognize the slanted reality that his desperate mind has forged. Still, many critics, focusing on Willy‘s entrenchment in a quagmire of lies, delusions, and self-deceptions, ignore the significant accomplishment of his partial self-realization. Willy‘s failure to recognize the anguished love offered to him by his family is crucial to the climax of his torturous day, and the play presents this incapacity as 7 the real tragedy. Despite this failure, Willy makes the most extreme sacrifice in his attempt to leave an inheritance that will allow Biff to fulfill the American Dream. Ben‘s final mantra—―The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds‖—turns Willy‘s suicide into a metaphorical moral struggle, a final skewed ambition to realize his full commercial and material capacity. His final act, according to Ben, is ―not like an appointment at all‖ but like a ―diamond... rough and hard to the touch.‖ In the absence of any real degree of self-knowledge or truth, Willy is able to achieve a tangible result. In some respect, Willy does experience a sort of revelation, as he finally comes to understand that the product he sells is himself. Through the imaginary advice of Ben, Willy ends up fully believing his earlier assertion to Charley that ―after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.‖ Biff Loman Unlike Willy and Happy, Biff feels compelled to seek the truth about himself. While his father and brother are unable to accept the miserable reality of their respective lives, Biff acknowledges his failure and eventually manages to confront it. Even the difference between his name and theirs reflects this polarity: whereas Willy and Happy willfully and happily delude themselves, Biff bristles stiffly at self-deception. Biff‘s discovery that Willy has a mistress strips him of his faith in Willy and Willy‘s ambitions for him. Consequently, Willy sees Biff as an underachiever, while Biff sees himself as trapped in Willy‘s grandiose fantasies. After his epiphany in Bill Oliver‘s office, Biff determines to break through the lies surrounding the Loman family in order to come to realistic terms with his own life. Intent on revealing the simple and humble truth behind Willy‘s fantasy, Biff longs for the territory (the symbolically free West) obscured by his father‘s blind faith in a skewed, materialist version of the American Dream. Biff‘s identity crisis is a function of his and his father‘s disillusionment, which, in order to reclaim his identity, he must expose. Happy Loman 8 Happy shares none of the poetry that erupts from Biff and that is buried in Willy—he is the stunted incarnation of Willy‘s worst traits and the embodiment of the lie of the happy American Dream. As such, Happy is a difficult character with whom to empathize. He is one-dimensional and static throughout the play. His empty vow to avenge Willy‘s death by finally ―beat[ing] this racket‖ provides evidence of his critical condition: for Happy, who has lived in the shadow of the inflated expectations of his brother, there is no escape from the Dream‘s indoctrinated lies. Happy‘s diseased condition is irreparable—he lacks even the tiniest spark of self-knowledge or capacity for self-analysis. He does share Willy‘s capacity for self-delusion, trumpeting himself as the assistant buyer at his store, when, in reality, he is only an assistant to the assistant buyer. He does not possess a hint of the latent thirst for knowledge that proves Biff‘s salvation. Happy is a doomed, utterly duped figure, destined to be swallowed up by the force of blind ambition that fuels his insatiable sex drive. Linda Loman and Charley Linda and Charley serve as forces of reason throughout the play. Linda is probably the most enigmatic and complex character in Death of a Salesman, or even in all of Miller‘s work. Linda views freedom as an escape from debt, the reward of total ownership of the material goods that symbolize success and stability. Willy‘s prolonged obsession with the American Dream seems, over the long years of his marriage, to have left Linda internally conflicted. Nevertheless, Linda, by far the toughest, most realistic, and most levelheaded character in the play, appears to have kept her emotional life intact. As such, she represents the emotional core of the drama. If Linda is a sort of emotional prophet, overcome by the inevitable end that she foresees with startling clarity, then Charley functions as a sort of poetic prophet or sage. Miller portrays Charley as ambiguously gendered or effeminate, much like Tiresias, the mythological seer in Sophocles‘ Oedipus plays. Whereas Linda‘s lucid diagnosis of Willy‘s rapid decline is made possible by her emotional sanity, Charley‘s prognosis of the situation is logical, grounded firmly in practical reasoned analysis. He recognizes Willy‘s financial failure, and the job 9 offer that he extends to Willy constitutes a commonsense solution. Though he is not terribly fond of Willy, Charley understands his plight and shields him from blame. Themes The American Dream Willy believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream—that a ―well liked‖ and ―personally attractive‖ man in business will indubitably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life. Oddly, his fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. Willy‘s interpretation of likeability is superficial—he childishly dislikes Bernard because he considers Bernard a nerd. Willy‘s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life. Abandonment Willy‘s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy‘s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream. Likely a result of these early experiences, Willy develops a fear of abandonment, which makes him want his family to conform to the American Dream. His efforts to raise perfect sons, however, reflect his inability to understand reality. The young Biff, whom Willy considers the embodiment of promise, drops Willy and Willy‘s zealous ambitions for him when he finds out about Willy‘s adultery. Biff‘s ongoing inability to succeed in business furthers his estrangement from Willy. When, at Frank‘s Chop House, Willy finally believes that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy‘s illusions and, along with Happy, abandons the deluded, babbling Willy in the washroom. 10 Betrayal Willy‘s primary obsession throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff‘s betrayal of his ambitions for him. Willy believes that he has every right to expect Biff to fulfill the promise inherent in him. When Biff walks out on Willy‘s ambitions for him, Willy takes this rejection as a personal affront (he associates it with ―insult‖ and ―spite‖). Willy, after all, is a salesman, and Biff‘s ego-crushing rebuff ultimately reflects Willy‘s inability to sell him on the American Dream—the product in which Willy himself believes most faithfully. Willy assumes that Biff‘s betrayal stems from Biff‘s discovery of Willy‘s affair with The Woman—a betrayal of Linda‘s love. Whereas Willy feels that Biff has betrayed him, Biff feels that Willy, a ―phony little fake,‖ has betrayed him with his unending stream of ego-stroking lies. II. Analysis of The Stronger by August Strindberg The Stronger by August Strindberg is a play that is filled with irony. One of the first things noticed in this play is that the characters have no names, nor are they labeled by any type of status. Rather than having names like most plays, the two characters are differentiated by the letters "X" and "Y." Another ironic thing about this play, is how it is written; the dialogue of the play is not evenly spoken. Instead of the two characters conversing between one another, the play is written almost like a monologue where only Mrs. X speaks. Because Mrs. X is the only speaker, one would think that she is "the stronger," but ironically, she is not.One reason Mrs. X is not thought to be the stronger is that she goes back…show more content…X the stronger. She is not stronger because instead of confronting her husband attempting to resolve the relationship, she is scared to disrupt the false perfection of her marriage. Another reason Mrs. X is not strong is that she has no control over her life; the irony about this is that she honestly believed that the decisions 11 she made came from her own thought when they did not. When Mrs. X first discovers the affair between her husband and Miss Y, she realized that most of her decisions in life were based on her husband's knowledge of Miss Y's likes and dislikes: her vacations were by the lake because Miss Y hated the seaside; her son was named Eskil - the same as Miss Y's father's. The colors she wore, the books she read, the foods she ate, the drinks she drank were all favorites of Miss Y. Mrs. X's reaction to the discovery of these controls proves that she truly had no idea that her choices had been influenced. She responds, "That's why - oh my God, it's terrible to think of, terrible! Everything, everything came to me from you - even your passions." This proves how unexpectedly the facts were realized by Mrs. X. Despite the proof of her weakness, Mrs. X still persuades herself that she is stronger; ironically, her proclamations of strength proves that she is not stronger. Mrs. X starts her persuasion by announcing to herself and to Miss Y that she prevails. She says, "Perhaps, my dear, taking everything into consideration. The Strength Of Silence in The Stronger Silence: An Analysis of The Stronger by August Strindberg When one thinks of great playwrights that have changed the theatre the first name that one may think of is Shakespeare. Everyone will agree that he was great at what he did. One person‘s work that many people may not recognize is August Strindberg. ―The Stronger‖ by August Strindberg is one of his best one-act plays. Not only is The Stronge‖ a great one act, it also only uses the voice of one actor. Strindberg‘s The Stronger is based. The Surface and Deep Levels in the analysis of The Stronger On the surface, there‘s nothing particularly complicated about Strindberg‘s play ‗The Stronger‘. Two women – two actresses – run into each other in a restaurant on Christmas Eve. One is married and has been out shopping for presents for her family, the other is unmarried and is sitting alone in the restaurant reading magazines and drinking. We are told almost nothing about these women – they are not even important enough to have names; Strindberg calls them simply Mrs. X and Miss Y. 12 And the entire play (all 6 pages of it) consists of nothing more than a single conversation between these two women. There is no action, no real plot development, nothing particularly out of the ordinary. In fact, one of the women, Miss Y, doesn‘t even speak in the entire performance. And yet, in this one simple scene Strindberg creates an episode of incredible, poetic power – a snapshot of life so intense, so powerful, that it rivals Beckett at his best. Like a Kafka short story, ‗The Stronger‘ is rich in allegory and lends itself to many layers of interpretation; it is a play that takes little more than ten minutes to read / perform, but that one can easily spend hours thinking about afterwards. It is moreover, a powerful play, one that makes a deep impression, and leaves one with the illusion that one has travelled far and seen much, even though the entire thing is actually incredibly short. What is it that makes the play so powerful? To begin with, it is an immaculate piece of stagecraft. It is a tribute to Strindberg‘s genius that despite the fact that Miss Y says nothing right through the play, the interaction between her and Mrs X is in every sense of the term a dialogue. Strindberg uses a combination of stage directions and reactions from Mrs. X to ensure that Miss Y is more than a passive listener and that her responses (or at any rate, Mrs. X‘s interpretations of her responses) influence and guide the thread of the scene. Second, ‗The Stronger‘ is one of those fascinating pieces of writing that lend themselves to multiple (and conflicting) interpretations. As the play progresses, we discover that Miss Y and Mrs. X are rivals for more than theatre roles – Miss Y is having / has had an affair with Mrs. X‘s husband. Except that the play never really corroborates this – we only know that by the end of the scene Mrs. X believes that this is true. So the play lends itself to two very different readings: in the first, Mrs. X is an astute wife who discovers the truth about Miss Y and her husband; in the second, Mrs. X is a pathetic and paranoid woman who‘s insecurity about her marriage has brought her to slander. This in turn, leaves the question of who is ‗The Stronger‘ one (which is, after all, the key to the play) open. Is Miss Y, who chooses to maintain her silence against Mrs X‘s accusations (whether false or true) stronger in her independence? Or, as 13 Mrs. X would have it, is she the stronger one, because she has accepted the truth about her husband and found a way to go on? Mrs. X can not be the stronger because Miss Y clearly shows more strength by saying nothing. Miss Y shows this strength by simply sitting there enduring Mrs. X's accusations and abuse. She sat there and faced it all when she could have easily matched Mrs. X's actions. Miss Y could have refused to listen to Mrs. X's accusations, or she could have made a scene by responding to Mrs. X's abuse. Instead of showing signs weakness, Miss Y chose to say nothing because there really was nothing that could be said to make the situation any better. By choosing to do so, Miss Y proves that she is the stronger. When speaking of people and personalities, it‘s difficult to assess who is stronger or better. We all express our emotions and our values so differently. In his short play The Stronger, August Strindberg introduces two characters with conflicting ideologies and attitudes: the quiet Miss Y, who has had an affair with a married man, and the wife of said married man, the talkative Mrs X. In spite of their interest in the same man, these two women have nearly diametrical approaches to life and to adultery: Mrs X forgave her husband; Miss Y would not. Everything about Mrs X is overbearing. Even her physical appearance is heavy and showy. She enters the café, ―dressed in winter clothes, carrying a Japanese basket in her arm‖. The Japanese basket immediately stands out. It tells everyone at the café, as well as the reader, that Mrs X is from the upper class: she must be rich to afford such an exotic item. This social standing is also apparent in the things she talks about: ―It makes me feel as I did one time when I saw a bridal party in a Paris restaurant.‖ Mrs X is showing off, gratuitously inserting her trip to Paris in the conversation. She also monopolizes the conversation. She repeatedly interrupts Miss Y before the latter can utter a single word: ―MISS Y. (Appears as if she‘s about to speak)/ MRS. X. Hush, you needn‘t speak—I understand it all.‖ Mrs X is trying to intimidate Miss Y, which is why she is so exuberant, often expressing herself with mildly violent gestures: ―And here is Maja‘s popgun. (Loads it and shoots at Miss Y.)‖ Mrs X taunts Miss Y, 14 dredging up painful memories and humiliating experiences: ―Do you remember, I was the first to say ‗Forgive him‘? Do you remember that? You would be married now and have a home.‖ However, Miss Y (or Amelia) barely responds to Mrs X‘s provocations. Her biggest reaction is when she ―looks up scornfully‖. She isn‘t intimidated by Mrs X‘s rants. She ―laughs loudly‖ and freely when Mrs X ―makes the slippers walk on the table‖. Her ease in this ordeal hints that Miss Y may be in control of the situation. Her silence seems deliberate. It threatens Mrs X: ―And why are you always silent, silent, silent? I thought that was strength.‖ Miss Y has more influence than Mrs X. This is apparent in the lifestyle and habits of Mrs X‘s husband: ―That‘s the reason why I had to embroider tulips—which I hate—on his slippers, because you are fond of tulips; […] that‘s why my boy is named Eskil—because it‘s your father‘s name.‖ Obviously, Miss Y has had a stronger impact on him, yet it is with Mrs X that he shares his home. Mrs X was capable of forgiving her husband, and this forgiveness is the fundamental difference between the two women. Miss Y was once in a similar situation but made the opposite decision: ―you [Miss Y] would have done better to have kept him! […] I was the first to say ‗Forgive him.‘‖ The two women now live the consequences of their respective choices: Mrs X has financial security, a home, and a family, while Miss Y sits in a café, drinking beer, ―alone on Christmas eve‖. At first glance, Mrs X appears to be the winner. However, she betrays this illusion by coming into the café. Mrs X enters the establishment, on Christmas Eve no less, for no other reason than to flaunt her superiority to Miss Y: ―Thank you for teaching my husband how to love. Now I‘m going home to love him.‖ If she were truly confident about her marriage and herself, she would not need to confront Miss Y in this manner. This level of vindictiveness is a sign of insecurity, of weakness. Mrs X and Miss Y made very different choices in life, especially regarding the relation. Mrs X forgave; Miss Y did not. Their respective reactions to the relation have given them completely diverse lives: Mrs X is rich and has a family, while Miss Y is poor and lonely. Though social 15 standings would put Mrs X in and advantageous position, ultimately it is her need to declare her superiority that makes her inferior. Brief Analysis of the play: 1. 1. „‟The Stronger‟‟ By/ August Strindberg. 2. PLOT: Mrs x and miss y meet in a corner of a women‘s café on a Christmas eve, Mrs x starts greeting and talking to Miss y, after greeting she criticizes her for her loneliness, then Mrs x keeps talking and revealing memories till we know Miss y was Mrs x‘s husband‘s lover, and Mrs x tells Miss y that she destroyed her life and she changed her but later she says that she is the stronger in all what happened and in the end she says she will leave the café to go home to make love with her husband. 3. Climax: The climax of the play is when Mrs x xpresses the reality and tells Miss y ‗‘I hate you! Oh, how I hate you!‘‘ here she says that she hates her and she had eaten her from inside and she tells her that she cannot keep a man‘s love but she can steal it away from others , here we can feel the weakness of Mrs x and we can see Miss y is the stronger. 4. Conflict: The conflict of the play is between mrs x‘s will against miss y‘s will, Mrs x tries to keep other women away from her husband and fights whoever comes to her way, on the other hand Miss y is in love with Mrs x‘s husband and she wills to gain her love. And Mrs x keeps talking throughout the play and Miss y doesn‘t say a word but her silence and her facial expressions tell so much. At the end and if judging appearance, we find Miss Y the weak person while Mrs. X Is stronger because she is able to keep her house, her husband and have children, while Miss y is lonely and siting in the café. 5. Characters: Mrs X: she is a round character, and she is wearing a winter coat and hat and she keeps talking to miss y throughout the play, she makes fun of miss y‘s loneliness later in the play we know she hates miss y, but she also admits she changed a lot to be similar to miss y and she pretends to be the stronger. Miss y: she is 16  also a round character of the play, her name is Amelia and she keeps silent throughout the play she doesn‘t say anything she only listens to Mrs x, in the play mrs x reveals that she was her husband‘s lover and her friend, and by what mrs x tells about her changes to be similar to miss y we know about what is her favorite things and vice versa. Mrs x‘s husband (bob): he is a flat character his name is Bob and only mentioned from what Mrs X tells Miss y , from mrs x we know he is a little man and he works in the theatre and he is womanize, and he likes whatever Miss y likes and vice versa. 6. Setting: Time: on a Christmas eve‘s evening. Place: a corner of a women‘s café, there are two small iron tables and a red worsted sofa and some chairs and there is a half empty glass on miss y‗s table Atmosphere: psychological study of human nature and it is a complicated social problem, hard to solve throughout the play that might create a sad, melancholic atmosphere. 7. Theme: The main themes are: LOVE: love is something beautiful but the play shows that it can be a destructive power and it should be limited, miss y is in love with mrs x‘s husband and he also loves her back. Love itself is an amazing feeling but in this situation is wrong. It destroys Mrs x‘s family. 8. Giving up: we should never give ourselves up and should not change to someone else completely just because of keeping someone in our lives, we should be our self for real and respect one self, changes are always good in life to get better but not to lose yourself. 9. Irony: ‗‘he is really kind, and he is fine little man you you should have had a man like that, Amelia what are you laughing at? Eh? eh? and then‘‘,, it is irony from what she says, he is not kind and he is always angry about almost everything, and another irony is when she says: you should have had him because he was at some time her lover ‗‘I know he‘s faithful to me, you see yes I do know! He told me so himself‘‘ ,, this quotation is Irony said by Mrs X ,, this statement is not true because mrs x‘s husband (BoB) is a 17 womanizer and he had a relationship with miss y too, and she tries to say that Miss y is a loser and she is the winner. ‗‘wherever I was, I was always near you I didn‘t dare to be your enemy so I became your friend‘‘,, this is irony because in reality mrs x hates miss y we know that when Mrs. x tells miss y she hates you, she had eaten her from inside. At the beginning she was a friend of Miss Ybecause she couldn‘t treat her, that‘s why she wanted her to be near her and that‘s why she says she became her friend. ‗‘poor Amelia! Do you know. I‘m sorry for you all the same?‘‘ this sentence being told by Mrs x to Miss y and it is irony because In reality Mrs x doesn‘t feel sorry for miss y. She knows that this woman was in love with her husband, so she doesn‘t really pity her. ‗‘I didn‘t get jealous-strange!‘‘ Mrs X says that to Miss Y when she talked about at first time She was afraid of her so she became her friend but Miss y and her husband weren‘t friendly toward each other but after miss y‘s engagement Miss y and Mrs x‘s husband became so friendly till she showed her real feelings,, this is irony because in reality Mrs x is jealous Flashback: There are many flash backs in the stronger: 1. when Mrs. x at the beginning of the play talks about miss y‘s fiancé and memories, she told Miss y she felt sorry when she saw a wedding party in Paris restaurant when the bride was sitting reading humor magazine while bridegroom was playing billiard. when Mrs. x talks about when she was in a tour in Norway with her husband, she says Frederique tried to seduce her husband 3. Mrs. x talks about Missy when she was a godmother in the christening, she tells that she made her husband kisses miss y and he did then miss y became upset. Quotations: ‗‘I‘d be less amazed if you wanted to shoot me since I‘ve stood in your way‘‘ it is being said by Mrs x when she shows Miss x the Christmas gifts that she had bought for her kids and husband, she shows miss y her sons gift which is a gun toy she loads and shoots Miss y, then Mrs x says that she would be less amazed if miss y shoots her because she was the cause of Miss y‘s losing job. And her lover (the husband). ‗‘but I‘d have torn out her eyes if she had come around when I was at home‘‘ Mrs. x told these words to Miss y, she said when she was 18 on a tour in Norway with her husband Frederique tried to seduce her husband, but her husband told her about Frederique so Mrs. x was aware if she wanted to get close to her husband and house when she was at home. ‗‘you may believe! I don‘t know why. But women are absolutely crazy about my husband‘‘ Mrs. X tells miss y that there are many women follow her husband because he works in the office at the theatre and they think he had authority about the contracts in the theatre. She triesto emphasize on the idea that the man belongs to her as if he is a property not a human being the implied fact is that she knows her husband is not faithful and she should keep her eyes on him. ‗‘maybe it‘s because i did stand in your way that time‘‘ Mrs x said that while she was inviting her to her house to let Miss y shows that she is not angry with them, and here we know that Mrs x stood in Miss y‘s job and marriage way. ‗‘I didn‘t get jealous-strange!‘‘ Mrs. X says that to Miss Y when she talked about at first time She was afraid of her so she became her friend but Miss y and her husband weren‘t friendly toward each other but after miss y‘s engagement Miss y and Mrs. x‘s husband became so friendly till she showed her real feelings ‗‘I can‘t be angry with you though I‘d like to be- you‘re weakling- oh, that with Bob. I don‘t care about that!- that doesn‘t really hurt me!- and if you have taught me to drink chocolate, or someone else has, what difference does it make! (drinks a spoonful out of her cup. With extreme common sense) besides. Chocolate is good for me!‘‘ here Mrs X talks about how she changed to be Miss y, because of keeping her husband she had to change to Miss y , but she also says that she is not really annoyed about that, Mrs x learnt to drink chocolate from miss y and she says it is good for her so she is not angry about her changes to be like Miss y and she pretends to be the stronger.‗‘maybe when all is said I‘m really the stronger right now‘‘ here Mrs x tries to tell Miss y that she is the stronger because she took everything from miss y and she lost everything, Mrs. X says that she is like a thief because she only took whatever miss y had but Miss y didn‘t get anything from her so she had what miss y had lost. ‗‘thank you Amelia thank you for everything you taught me!‘‘ here Mrs. X thanks Amelia for what she had 19 taught her that caused her to change to keep her husband and she thanks her because she taught her husband how to make love. Images: Mrs x admits that Miss y changed and affected her so much and she says that miss y stole her soul , she mentions some images to strongly show the affections of miss y on Herself(mrs x), Mrs x tells Miss y that she was like a worm come to an apple that ate her inside until all that was left was the shell and a little dust, and then she mentions that Miss y was like a snake that her eyes hypnotized or fascinated her that is why her wings rose and moved only to drag her down, then she describes Miss y as a giant crab lays under the bottom of the water ready to seize her while her feet are bounded and the more she tries to swim she sank to the giant crab (Miss y) in the bottom of the sea.Why the writer uses X and Y for the characters‘ name not an ordinary name? A/ Because the plot and the conflict of this one act play can happenin any society of the world so we can replace X and Y by any other name that we can imagine. 20  Two Samples of Modern Poetry I. A Study of Reading Habits Philip Larkin (1922-1985) When getting my nose in a book Cured most things short of school, It was worth ruining my eyes To know I could still keep cool, And deal out the old right hook To dirty dogs twice my size. Later, with inch-thick specs, Evil was just my lark: Me and my coat and fangs Had ripping times in the dark. The women I clubbed with emotion! I broke them up like meringues. Don't read much now: the dude Who lets the girl down before The hero arrives, the chap Who's yellow and keeps the store Seem far too familiar. Get stewed: Books are a load of crap. Philip Larkin‘s ―A Study of Reading Habits‖ follows the life of a young boy who loved reading books. The entire poem is written from a grown mans perspective looking back on his reading habits when he was young. The speaker indirectly talks about reading books during the three different stages of his life. Larkin enjoyed reading and listening to jazz music. Larkin studied English at St. Johns College and was known as a great scholar in his University. After graduating he became a librarian, first in the library of a town, later in a university. From 1955 until his death he was the librarian of the Brynmor Jones library at the University of Hull. 21 The paraphrase: Stanza 1: The first 4 lines of Larkin‘s A Study of Reading Habits the speaker demonstrates how passionately he felt about reading books. He describes a young boy who could not take his eyes off of a book. Getting so lost in the story he was reading, he would move closer and closer to the text, getting his nose so into it. We all know what the consequence of this is, and so did the speaker. In line 3 he acknowledges this, saying he would be willing to ruin his eyes. He writes about how reading made him feel different. Reading was an escape, a way to be anyone or anything he wanted to be. It made him feel cool, giving him supernatural abilities. He would be fighting villains twice his size with no fear. Stanza 2: As the speaker grew in age, his passion for reading stayed with him. He still found his same escape route, reading to be lost inside his own mind. And as we all guessed, he ruined his eyes. Line seven exposes the obvious point that the speaker wears very thick glasses. This line, along with the next, give the impression that much time has passed. The speaker goes on to talk about how he now found himself into a very different type of reading. He no longer wanted to fantasize about being a super strong hero; he now was into evil writings. The older speaker at this time becomes aware of women, emotion and violence. He has the typical pubescent fantasy of being a vampire. Vampires have supernatural powers, they stay awake all night, cannot be killed, and have emotion with lots of women. The speaker finds relief from his hormonal feelings in his books. Lines 11 and 12 relate directly to emotion; clubbing being substituted directly for emotion. Relating them to food, meringue is a sugary pie filling. Stanza 3: Before he use to seek for an escape in books but now that he is an adult with more complex issues he realizes that books wont help. Reading is just a reminder of his malfunctions. He then feels anger and finds another way of coping with his problems. In lines 17 he suggests to get stewed, 22 assuming that he means drugs or alcohol is the escape now. He then goes on to say that books are a load of crap exposing that he totally has giving up with books and his own life. The speaker was exposed as a young man who never knew how to deal with reality since he was stuck in fantasies growing up. The speaker: The speaker in the poem is not Larkin but a twisted character whose tone is filled with disappointment and hallucination. Structure  ABCBAC rhyme scheme: like most of Larkin's poems, this has a very subtle rhyme scheme. It is marginally more perceptible than others, however it is disrupted by the enjambment. The AC on the end of the ABCB rhyme scheme creates a tone of dejection and disappointment; despite the persona's attempts to escape reality, it is persistent  The enjambment and caesura are significantly more marked in the final stanza, creating a less markedly poetic effect. As the persona loses his interest in books, his language becomes more mundane and disjointed.  The poem has three stanzas. Each stanza is a sestet because it has 6 lines. Every stanza represents a stage in the speaker's life. The first is the stage of boyhood, the second is the stage of adolescence, and the third is the stage of youth.  The lines are iambic and anapestic trimeter. Figures of speech: - The words 'getting my nose in a book' indicate the high interest in books. -The word ' Cured' has a metaphor. Books are compared to medicine which can cure diseases. 23 -The words ' dirty dogs' have a metaphor. Enemies are compared to dirty dogs. -The words ' inch-thick specs' indicate that his eyes got weak. -The words ' Evil was just my lark' have a metaphor. Evil is compared to a guide guiding the speaker to destruction. -The words ' coat and fangs' have a metonymy. They refer to the appearance of vampires. -The words ' like meringues' have a simile. Women are like sweet food. -The words 'dude' and 'chap' indicate that the speaker achieved no success in his life. He became an average person. -The words ' Books are a load of crap' have a simile. Books are like useless trash. II. Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave? By Thomas Hardy "Ah, are you digging on my grave, My loved one? — planting rue?" — "No: yesterday he went to wed One of the brightest wealth has bred. 'It cannot hurt her now,' he said, 'That I should not be true.'" "Then who is digging on my grave, My nearest dearest kin?" — "Ah, no: they sit and think, 'What use! What good will planting flowers produce? No tendance of her mound can loose Her spirit from Death's gin.'" "But someone digs upon my grave? My enemy? — prodding sly?" — "Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate That shuts on all flesh soon or late, She thought you no more worth her hate, And cares not where you lie. "Then, who is digging on my grave? Say — since I have not guessed!" — "O it is I, my mistress dear, Your little dog , who still lives near, And much I hope my movements here Have not disturbed your rest?" "Ah yes! You dig upon my grave… Why flashed it not to me That one true heart was left behind! What feeling do we ever find To equal among human kind A dog's fidelity!" "Mistress, I dug upon your grave To bury a bone, in case I should be hungry near this spot When passing on my daily trot. I am sorry, but I quite forgot It was your resting place." 24 About Thomas Hardy: Born in 1840 in the region of Dorsetshire, Thomas Hardy went on to become a novelist and poet. His most notable works include „Tess of the d‟Urbervilles‟, „Far from Madding Crowd‟, „The Mayor of Casterbridge‟ and „Collected poems‟. Though Hardy considers himself primarily a poet, he is well known for both his novels and poems. He started his literary career with the novel „Far from the Madding Crowd‟ in 1874. He published his poems first in the year 1898, though he started writing them long before that. He was a Victorian realist and he acutely criticized the then existing values and social constraints of people. A man lauded by senior poets and an inspiration to the younger ones, Thomas Hardy died in the year 1928. About Ah, Are You Digging my Grave? This poem was written in 1914. Hardy‟s poems often contained themes of disappointment in love and life. One such poem is this one. Setting of the poem: The speaker of the poem is dead and buried. It‟s at her grave that the whole of the poem is set. The grave comes into play physically in the last stanza only but the implications of the location are present right from the first stanza. Summary: The world loves to believe that the dead are remembered beyond their death but everyone forgets all too soon. Victorians believed that a family should be closely woven together and people are remembered in life as well as in death. The author presents a satirical sense on this belief and shows how absent minded the living can be toward the dead. In the poem ―Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?‖, by Thomas Hardy, the author satirizes Victorian morals and uses irony to show how even the most loyal among the living can dismiss the dead. Hardy uses the actions of the others to enforce his theme, ―the most loyal among the living can dismiss the dead.‖ The poem begins with the deceased woman who has someone ― digging one [her] grave‖ (Line 1) and proceeds the hypothesis whom it may be. First she believes it could be her ―loved one‖ (2) who is there ―planting rue‖ (2), but ironically he is with another woman of whom ―yesterday he went to wed‖ (3). the author shows that ―till death do we part‖ is not just a phrase to sound pretty and nice for the wedding ceremony, but is the final truth for her and she is left by her loved one for another woman. 25 Next she believes the person is her ―nearest dearest kin‖ (8), but her family is away thinking, ―What use! / What good will planting flowers produce?‖ (9-10) and they believe nothing they can do to return ―Her spirit from Deaths gin‖(12). If a child died, then his/her parents and close family would visit often to memorialize the child instead of believing that there is no point in the matter and staying at home in a depressed state. This irony is showing how the parents would not even visit their precious child after his/her death, and decided it would be better to just sit and sulk. Finally she asks if it is her enemy, ―prodding sly‖ (14), but her enemy, ―when she heard [she] had passed the Gate / That shuts on all flesh soon or late, / She thought [she was] no more worth her hate‖ (15-17) which shows how the person that hated her remembers her not. The person who hated her the most now believes that it would not even be worth her time even to visit her grave and dismissed her hatred towards her. The speaker stops hypothesising and asks, ―Who is digging on my grave?‖ (19), which grants the reply ―-- „O it is I, my mistress dear, Your little dog, who still lives near, And much I hope my movements here Have not disturbed your rest?‖ (21-24) This gives the impression of a kind dog who is trying to be polite to their former owner, continuing the stereotype that all dogs are extremely loyal. This notion is deterred when the dog says, ―Misstress, I dug upon your grave To bury a bone, in case I should, be hungry near this spot When passing on my daily trot. I am sorry, but I quite forgot It was your resting place.‖ (31-36) This shows how even the most loyal of the living can dismiss the dead. The recurring signs of irony repeatedly show the theme that ―the most loyal among the living can dismiss the dead‖. From this the reader can infer that Thomas Hardy was trying to say that Victorian society was too closely intertwined, and while the separation could be hard on each other often times it would be necessary. Hardy also goes to great lengths to 26 show that no matter what any person will be forgotten after his/her‟s death, whether it is a week or over many years. Hardy uses irony throughout his poem, ―Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?‖, to excentuate his theme, ―the most loyal among the living can dismiss the dead.‖ Figurative Language and Meanings: The Poem “Ah Are You Digging On My Grave” Stanza 1 "Ah, are you digging on my grave, (1) My loved one? — planting rue?" (2) — "No: yesterday he went to wed (3) One of the brightest wealth has bred. (4) 'It cannot hurt her now,' he said, (5) 'That I should not be true.'" (6) a. Irony In line 2, ― My loved one? — planting rue?"‖, this sentence is using figure of speech of irony to describe an expression of sorrow felt by one who lost the dead person. Rue is actually a kind of shrub which is widely known as symbol of sorrow. Planting rue over someone‟s grave means we mourned the loss of someone we know quite well or perhaps the one we loved. Initially, the woman seems to feel that her death has caused sorrow for the loved one and that she remains strong in his memory. b. Synecdoche In line 4,‖ One of the brightest wealth has bred‖, the poet is using an expression of synecdoche. In real context, there is no way wealth able to breed. The use of word „bred‟ here is actually describing the man which is woman‟s This presumably former husband‟s wealth has increased. was indicated by the use of the third- person ―he‖ to refer to the man. The voice explains that the woman‟s loved one—perhaps a husband or lover—has married another woman. Stanza 2 "Then who is digging on my grave, (1) My nearest dearest kin?" (2) — "Ah, no: they sit and think, 'What use! (3) 27 What good will planting flowers produce? (4) No tendance of her mound can loose (5) Her spirit from Death's gin.'" (6) a. Hyperbole In line 2, ―My nearest dearest kin?", the poet using the expression of hyperbole in order to strengthen the meaning of the sentence. The word „kin‟ itself means family or someone who we know or friend. the word „nearest‟ is superlative of `near' or `close' which means within the shortest distance. In line 4, ―What good will planting flowers produce‖, this sentence is using figure of speech of hyperbole which is describing that what benefit for grieving upon her is. The poet giving some kind exaggeration that flower will something else that its bloom. In line 5 and 6, ―No tendance of her mound can loose — Her spirit from Death's gin‖, The poet using the figure of speech of hyperbole, this sentence is explaining of no matter what kind of actions will not prevent her from. This sentence is also strengthen by previous line, ―What good will planting flowers produce?‖. Stanza 3 "But someone digs upon my grave?(1) My enemy? —prodding sly?" (2) — "Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate (3) That shuts on all flesh soon or late, (4) She thought you no more worth her hate, (5) And cares not where you lie. (6) a. Irony In line 2, ―My enemy? —prodding sly?, the poet uses an expression of irony, to describe the woman‟s rival who came to the her grave (or that what she thought). The „prodding‟ itself means to squat down or lean lower. From here, we can imagine that the „rival‟ comes to her as sign of a „mockery‟ of her death. b. Personification In line 3 and 4, "Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate — That shuts on all flesh soon or late,‖ the poet using figure of speech of personification. The poet uses the word ―the Gate‖ because he wants to 28 give human sensibilities and human characteristics to the word ―Gate‖, so this word as if acts like life-like being. the gate described as if ( its moving on its own and could swallow and devour all flesh note; human). Stanza 4 "Then, who is digging on my grave?(1) Say — since I have not guessed!"(2) — "O it is I, my mistress dear,(3) Your little dog , who still lives near,(4) And much I hope my movements here (5) Have not disturbed your rest?"(6) a. Personification In line 5, ―And much I hope my movements here‖, this sentence is using figure of speech of personification where the dog says that he hopes that his digging hasn‟t bothered her. The poet giving a rather humanistic feature to dog where as if the dog‟s activity is assumed it was like the human. b. Synecdoche In line 6, ―Have not disturbed your rest‖, this sentence is using figure of speech of synecdoche which describes the state of woman. The poet was using word „rest‟ as replacement for dead. Stanza 5 "Ah yes! You dig upon my grave... (1) Why flashed it not to me (2) That one true heart was left behind! (3) What feeling do we ever find (4) To equal among human kind (5) A dog's fidelity!" (6) a. Metonymy In line 2, ―Why flashed it not to me", this sentence is using figure of speech of personification which describes what the woman realize about the one who is digging her grave. The poet uses the word „flashed‟ to make the reader think like an idea that came to our mind as if it was a flash of light. b. Synecdoche In line 3, ―That one true heart was left behind!‖, the sentence is using figure of speech of synecdoche. This sentence means that there is still 29 someone who actually cares about the woman even though, she is already dead. c. Personification In line 6, „A dog's fidelity!", this sentence is using an expression of personification where the dog is is given a rather humane aspect, act of loyal or what we Form here, we can imagine that the woman praising call fidelity. dog‟s loyalty which she think that its loyalty as equal as human being. Stanza 6 "Mistress, I dug upon your grave (1) To bury a bone, in case (2) I should be hungry near this spot (3) When passing on my daily trot.(4) I am sorry, but I quite forgot (5) It was your resting place (6) a. Synecdoche In line 4, ―When passing on my daily trot‖, this sentence is using figure of speech of synecdoche. The term of „daily trot‟ is describing the dog‟s routine walking activities and the dog constantly stopped at woman‟s grave. In line 6, ―It was your resting place‖, this sentence is using an expression of synecdoche. The words „resting place‟ is used as replacement of grave, it somehow has ironical meaning, which states that it will be the one‟s place to take a rest forever. This sentence is coupling with lines before it where the dog has finally revealed its objective in digging the woman‟s grave. The Form of the poem: The poem is a lyric because it shows the personal feeling of the writer. The tone is depressing and pessimistic. The poem has 6 stanzas. Every stanza is a sestet (each one has 6 lines). The rhyme scheme is ABCCCB in each stanza. The lines are iambic tetramers. Every line has 4 feet. Every foot starts with a weak syllable followed by a strong one. 30  Two Samples of Modern Fiction I. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen Analysis The Little Match Girl is a short story by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, first published in 1845. The work was inspired by a drawing by Danish artist Johan Thomas, which shows a girl on the street selling matches. The title actually means "Girl with matches", but Andersen based his story on the dreams and aspirations of a child who is dying from cold and poverty, but also hunger. The story begins with a cold and dark last dinner of the year. The poor girl sells matches on the dark and cold streets, and in order to protect herself from the cold, she hid in a corner of two houses and sat on the cold concrete. She didn‘t want to go home because she hasn‘t sold a single box of matches and that is why she expects her father to beat her. Here is shown the unfortunate fate of the girl. Death is represented in bright pictures. The theme of hope symbolized by matches is projected, and the cold winter is a symbol of hopelessness. There is a parallel between the girl's condition and the weather outside. She was miserable and was going through a lot of trouble. She struggled to survive to the end, which means that we must not lose hope, despite the unfavorable conditions. This is a sad story about a girl who does not lose hope until the last moment. Even though it was a strong winter, she did her best to sell matches, but she didn't succeed. In the end, she was freed from all her pain when hope and faith came hand in hand to help her and take her to a better place - to heaven. Almost frozen, when no one can even dream of how great a life she imagined, she imaginatively enjoyed the New Year's joys with her grandmother. 31 There are also certain religious beliefs in the story. The author firmly believed in God that he would give us everything we wanted, and that is why an innocent child entered a world where there was no more pain, agony, and suffering. The story also shows the value of the relationship. The girl was so close to her grandmother that even after her death, she talked to her as if she were alive. She didn't want to lose her, which is why she lit a whole bunch of matches. Superstition in the form of a shooting star also finds its place in the story. According to the author, when a star falls, the soul rises to the sky, so it can be said that the story is a mixture of many elements. The short story is about the poverty, hunger, and helplessness of a girl who was sent to sell matches when she needed to stay at home or at school. When the whole world seems to be celebrating the New Year, the girl is deprived of that joy. But readers are caught up in the mystery of whether it is pure family poverty or cruelty between father and daughter, and we come to the conclusion that it can be both. In any case, the author has shown us that sometimes death can be better than life on earth. The poor girl had nothing left, and all the visions she had in the light of matches only reflected her unfulfilled wishes and dreams. She also wanted to enjoy delicious food, to sit under a beautiful Christmas tree, and to be in the company of her dear old grandmother, but that could not be achieved, and the only way she could get it was after death, in heaven. That is why the writer says: "No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, and how happily she had gone with her old grandmother into the bright New Year." Thus, New Year's Eve is a symbol for the beginning of a new life (after death) of a girl in heaven. The last night of the old year was the last night of the girl's miserable life. The new year brings magnificent changes in the life of a girl that others have not seen. With this irony, the author touches upon the so-called civilized society in which even today we do not have the eyes to see the troubles of 32 thousands of such hungry people in our cities. So, in its appeal, this story transcends all ages and cultures. Even the girl is unnamed, and the only thing we know is the place and time of the story, which could be a deliberate attempt by the writer to keep the story universal in its appeal. As for the title of the story The Little Match Girl, it is very clear and represents the protagonist of the story, a poor girl. How the story deals with the poor life of a girl, her dreams and desires, and how she got rid of the cruelty of this world in order to reach paradise, the title is thematically appropriate. In its plot and environment, the story has easy access. The author tells stories in the third person, where the dialogues are quite short and we can say that this is a one-way story without flashbacks and twists. But we should also mention that the story is rich in the use of irony, images, and symbols, emphasizing the need for compassion for those who are less privileged than us. The story intertwines several themes: poverty, imagination, cruelty, and death. Poverty is a sharp critique of cultural attitudes toward extreme poverty and inequality during the Industrial Revolution. Using pictures and juxtaposition, Andersen contrasts the poverty of a little girl with the surrounding wealth. Naked and barefoot, the girl is slowly succumbing to hypothermia, while wealthy people are safe indoors, sheltered by the heat and shine of roasted geese. Poor despair is also transmitted through a boy who steals slippers from a girl, thinking that one day he will keep his child in them. The boy's desperate need leads him to take what he can, ignoring the safety of the girl. The story clearly emphasizes the price of an unequal society. The other main theme of the story is the cruelty directed at the girl, and it comes from all sides: her father will beat her if she returns home with unsold matches, a carriage that almost ran over her in the snow, a boy who steals her slippers and, most importantly, no one tries to help her as she freezes in the street. Despite these injustices, the girl never 33 interrogates, retaliates, or practices cruelty. Her ascent to heaven is her way of escaping the cruelty she suffers. The next main theme of the story is imagination and the relative ability of people to use it. The girl has deep imaginative abilities: with each stroke of the match, she conjures up a new vision of warmth, food, well- being, and love that she lacks in her material reality. In contrast, when people see her frozen body at the end of the story, the narrator comments that they can‘t imagine what was in the girl‘s mind and heart before she died. All they saw was an impoverished child trying to keep warm while freezing. The theme of the afterlife and death enters the story when a girl dies and ascends to heaven to be with a dead grandmother and with God. Although the girl suffered from hunger, cold, and lack of love on Earth, the narrator commented that she would not want anything in heaven. As such, the story ends with a sense of hope. The Christian spiritual understanding of life after death prevailed in 19th century Danish culture. Through a lens in which the afterlife is tangible, Andersen does not present death as something to be feared, but as liberation from the cruelty of mortal existence. Literary Elements Genre: fairy tale Setting: the streets in a town (likely in Denmark), on New Year‘s Eve Point of view and Narrator: the point of view is written in third-person, in past tense, and switches between the little girl, the narrator, and the Townspeople who find her body. At the beginning of the story, the narrator seems to be omniscient, but there are parts of the story that suggest that the narrator might be limited to the little girl's perspective. Tone and Mood: The authors represented a sorrowful tone throughout the story. At the very beginning, the writer puts us in the position of a little girl‘s shoes. The tone is pathetic and the mood is somewhat magical but mournful. Style: ironical, using metaphors and symbols 34 Protagonist and Antagonist: The main protagonist is an unnamed little girl, while the main antagonist remains the Townspeople and the weather as well as her parents (her father) and the boy who steals her slipper. Major Conflict: The major conflict in the story is that the little girl can‘t return home if she doesn‘t sell any matches as she would receive a beating from her father, which leaves her wandering the cold streets until she freezes to death. Climax: The fairy tale reaches its climax when she leaves the cruelty of the mortal world, hunger, and cold by ascending to heaven with her grandmother. Ending: The little girl dies on the street with a smile on her face. Symbols and Metaphors  Symbols: the matches, the goose, the Christmas tree and candles, the shooting star, fair hair  Metaphors: a picture of misery The Matches - the matches symbolize the little girl‘s happiness and hope. Whenever she would light a match, she would see something where she would rather be or do. Her desperate reaction when matches light off indicates that the matches are the only conformity in the painful situation. The Goose - the goose symbolizes the little girl‘s childish innocence and her persistence to remain happy despite the painful situation she‘s in. When she sees the roasted goose, it waddles towards her creating a comic scenery despite the tragic situation. The goose represents her innocence that allows her to be positive through tough situations. The Christmas Tree and Candles - the candles and the tree represent her ideal life. The holiday spirit is important to the girl and so she imagines her ideal scenery, as the perfect tree she imagines symbolizes her beliefs. Shooting Star - a shooting star is a symbol already explained in the story. When someone‘s dying, one shooting star is falling, meaning that the falling star represents a human soul rising to heaven. She doesn‘t know or realize that this shooting star is for her as she was the person dying. 35 Fair Hair - it is described that the little girl was having long, fair hair. In the author's time, blonde hair was a symbol of youth and purity also emphasizing the little girl‘s innocence. A picture of misery - while the narrator describes the visual imagery of the protagonist walking on cold streets, he refers to the picture of misery. The author emphasizes the little girl‘s bad situation by suggesting that she exists solely as a portrait illustration of the conceptual idea of misery. Detailed Summary and Commentary: Summary and Amalysis (Part One): Narrated from a third-person limited omniscient perspective, ―The Little Match Girl‖ opens on a dark New Year‘s Eve. Snow falls on gloomy, freezing-cold streets. The story‘s protagonist, a poor little girl, walks with no hat to keep her head warm and nothing covering her bare feet. The narrator comments that she had been wearing slippers when she left her house, but the slippers—which belonged to the girl‘s mother—were too big for the girl. The narrator comments that the slippers had fallen off the little girl‘s feet while she ran across a road to get out of the way of two horse-drawn carriages rattling quickly past. One slipper was lost in the snow while the other had been stolen by a boy; the boy said he would use the slipper one day as a cradle for his child. Now, without shoes, the little girl‘s feet have gone red and blue from the cold. She wears an old apron in which she carries packages of matches; she also holds a box of matches in her hand. All day she has tried and failed to sell her matches. No one has given her a cent. The poor girl shivers from the cold and the hunger she feels. She creeps along the street, a walking portrait of misery itself. Snowflakes collect in her long blonde hair, which hangs in curls over her neck. Around her, 36 light shines out from windows. There is also a pervasive smell of roast goose—served because it is New Year‘s Eve, she thinks. The girl stops walking when she finds a corner formed by the exterior walls of two houses, one of which sticks out farther into the street than the other. She sits, drawing her small feet under her legs. Though she is growing increasingly colder, she fears going home. Because she sold no matches and earned no money, her father would beat her as punishment. Regardless, her home is also cold. The wind whistles through the family‘s roof even though the largest cracks are stuffed full of rags and straw. Critical commentary The opening paragraphs of Hans Christian Andersen‘s 19th-century fairy tale ―The Little Match Girl‖ establishes a third-person narrative perspective that is capable of understanding the thoughts and dreams of the eponymous protagonist while simultaneously viewing her plight from a distance. By narrating the story this way, Andersen acts as a facilitator between reader and subject bringing the detached reader into the dying girl‘s innocent, hopeful point of view to evoke pity and sadness in the reader. The opening paragraphs also focus on the doomed circumstances the girl is in through the use of kinesthetic (i.e. temperature-based) imagery. The terrible cold slowly enters the girl‘s vulnerable body through her uncovered feet and head. These details function to set a narrative timer, foreshadowing the girl‘s inevitable death from freezing. The scene in which the girl loses her mother‘s slippers in the snow introduces the themes of poverty and cruelty. The slippers symbolize her poverty. If it wasn‘t for her family‘s poverty, the girl might have her own shoes, which would have been fitted to her feet and wouldn‘t have fallen off. She also loses them while trying to get out of the way of carriages, the mode of transportation for wealthy people in the nineteenth century, 37 when the story is set. She knows the carriages will not go out of their way to avoid striking a lowly poor girl, and thus the carriages force her into a position where she must defer to their power and run out of the road. In this way, the loss of her slippers directly links her poverty to her eventual death. The incident with her slippers also highlights the theme of cruelty. She loses one in the snow, but the other is stolen by a cruel boy. Exhibiting no empathy for the little girl‘s plight, he claims he‘ll use the slipper to cradle his baby one day, putting the imagined life of theoretical offspring before the immediate needs of the barefoot human who shivers in the snow before him. The girl‘s poverty is also encapsulated in the fact that she has been out all day trying and failing to sell matches. Similarly, her parents, though impoverished themselves, exhibit cruelty by forcing their child to walk freezing cold streets to make money against the threat of being beaten. It is the threat of a beating from her father that keeps her away from her home and leads her to freeze. The Little Match Girl Summary and Analysis (Part Two): Summary: The little girl‘s hands are so cold and numb they seem to be nearly dead. She remembers her matches and thinks happily about how they could warm her. With difficulty, she removes one from the box and strikes it with a scratching sound. She is thrilled by how the match head sputters and burns. The bright and warm flame is like a little candle she holds her hands over. However, the match gives off a peculiar light: it seems to the little girl as if she is sitting in front of an iron stove—she can even see its brass knobs and brass cover. The fire in the stove burns wonderfully, making her feel comfortable. She extends her frozen feet to warm them against the stove. 38 However, the flame extinguishes itself and the stove disappears, leaving her in the dark with the burnt matchstick in her hand. The girl strikes a second match against the wall. This one also burns brightly. The light on the wall next to her turns the wall transparent, as if it is a thin veil through which she could see into the room on the other side. She sees a table covered in a snow-white cloth. The table is set with shining silverware and plates and dinner service objects. A roast goose steams gloriously in the center; it is stuffed with prunes and apples. With a knife and fork stuck in its breast, the goose jumps off the dish and waddles over the floor toward the little girl. The match goes out before the goose reaches her, and she can see only the cold wall. She lights a third match and is suddenly sitting under a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. The tree is larger and more beautiful than one she had seen the previous Christmas behind the glass door of a rich merchant‘s home. Thousands of candles burn on the tree‘s green branches; she sees colorful pictures, like she‘s seen in print shops. Just as she reaches her hands toward the pictures, the match goes out. The Christmas tree lights move to the sky, where she now sees them as brightly shining stars. She sees one of the stars fall; a long line of fire marks its trajectory. The little girl takes the shooting star as a sign that someone is dying. This belief comes from her dead grandmother, the only person who had loved the little girl. Her grandmother told her that when a star fell from the sky, a soul went up to God. Critical Commentary: The story reaches a turning point when the little girl remembers she can strike her matches to create some warmth. Though her red and blue appendages suggest that frostbite has already begun, the girl is able to focus happily on the satisfying act of striking a match, which Andersen 39 conveys through auditory imagery, capturing the scratch and sputter of the ignited match head. Striking the first match introduces the motif of matches bringing visions to the girl, while simultaneously introducing the theme of imagination. In her dying confusion, the girl sees a vision of a warm stove on which she can warm herself. However, the vision vanishes when the match goes out, leaving her to strike a second one in confusion. The next match brings a vision in which the house wall becomes transparent. The olfactory imagery of roast goose in the air combines with her imagination, and she sees the goose on the table, soon to waddle toward her as though animated. This second image is more surreal than the first, suggesting her connection to reality is growing progressively tenuous. The third match brings the vision of a Christmas tree lit with candles, as would have been common for Christmas trees before the invention of electric string lights. When the match burns out the girl finds that the tree lights are replaced in her vision with the stars above her. The little girl sees a shooting star, which she understands to be symbolic of a human ascending to the afterlife to be with God, based on what her grandmother once told her. The moment she thinks that someone must be dying presents an instance of dramatic irony. The reader understands something the little girl does not: she is the dying person. The Little Match Girl Summary and Analysis of Paragraphs (Part Three): Summary The little girl strokes a fourth match against the wall. This time, the bright glow reveals to her the clear, shining image of her kindly and lovely grandmother. 40 The little girl calls out to her grandmother, imploring her to take the little girl with her. She says she knows her grandmother will disappear when the match burns out; she will vanish, just as the stove, goose, and Christmas tree did. Wishing to keep her grandmother with her, the little girl strikes a bundle of matches, which glow brighter than daylight. In this light, her grandmother appears grander and more beautiful than the little girl has ever seen her. The grandmother lifts the little girl into her arms. Ensconced in joy and brightness, the little girl and her grandmother fly into the sky, high above the Earth, to a place free of cold, hunger, and fear. They are with God. The perspective shifts to show the little girl in the corner of the houses‘ exterior walls, leaning with red cheeks and a smiling mouth. The narrator reveals that the little girl has frozen to death. The New Year‘s Day sun rises on the pathetic little figure. She sits stiff and cold, holding burnt matches still. The story ends on the image of the frozen little girl and the ignorant passersby speculating incorrectly on the last moments of her life. The people who find her assume she wanted to warm herself with the matches. None of them imagine the beautiful visions the little girl saw. None of them imagine how happy she was when she went with her grandmother into the bright New Year. Critical Commentary: The fourth match brings a clear vision of the girl‘s grandmother, the only person from whom she ever felt love. The girl asks if she can join her grandmother, meaning join her in the afterlife. The beautiful, warm, joyful image of the grandmother contrasts against the story‘s hitherto gloomy, freezing mood and the life of poverty and cruelty the little girl has endured. 41 Comforted by her grandmother‘s warm embrace, the girl imagines that she is flying into the heavens to join her grandmother. In the afterlife, she accepts that she will leave the cold, hunger, and fear that have characterized her mortal reality. With God, she will be safe. The girl‘s hallucinatory experience of ascending to the heavens and leaving her earthly troubles behind is juxtaposed with a perspective shift. The narrator moves out of the little girl‘s point of view by cutting to the morning, when the New Year‘s sun rises on the girl‘s frozen dead body. While the girl‘s spirit left for the afterlife, her body remains for passersby to see smiling. The smile is symbolic of the hope and joy she felt at the end of her life, as she embraced death. Despite her smile, people see the poor dead girl as a pathetic little figure. The matches she has burnt suggest to them she tried to keep warm. However, Andersen ends the story by returning to the theme of imagination through an instance of dramatic irony: these people cannot possibly imagine everything that went through the girl‘s mind as she succumbed to hypothermia. While they might have had health and more money than her, they lack the imagination and optimism she showed at the end of her short, unfortunate life. The Little Match Girl Symbols, Allegory and Motifs Shooting Star (Symbol) While staring at the sky after hallucinating a Christmas tree, the little girl sees a shooting star. She interprets the star as a sign someone must be dying, because her grandma used to say that a falling star represents a human soul ascending to heaven. She does not realize she is the person dying. Matches (Symbol) Initially, the little girl's matches represent safety, as she needs to sell them to avoid a beating from her father. The matches' symbolic value is fleshed out more as the story progresses and the little girl strikes her matches for warmth, discovering their magical ability to imaginatively 42 satisfy her desires for safety and comfort in the form of warmth, food, prosperity, and love. Fair Hair (Symbol) The little girl is described as having long fair hair. In the time Hans Christian Andersen was writing, blonde hair was a symbol of purity and youth, and therefore emphasizes the little girl's innocence. The Little Match Girl Metaphors and Similes Like a Thin Veil (Simile) When the little girl strikes her second match, the light burns brightly, turning the wall beside "transparent like a thin veil." In this simile, the otherwise thick, opaque wall is magically transformed into a transparent material through which the little girl can see inside the home. Like a Little Candle (Simile) When the girl strikes her first match, Andersen uses a simile to emphasize the surprising amount of light the match gives off, saying it is "like a little candle." A Picture of Misery (Metaphor) While describing the visual imagery of the little girl walking on cold streets with snow collecting in her hair, the narrator refers to her as "a picture of misery." In this metaphor, Andersen underscores the girl's sad circumstances by suggesting that the poor little girl exists as a portrait illustration of the abstract concept of misery. The Little Match Girl Irony Someone Must Be Dying (Dramatic Irony) In an instance of dramatic irony—in which the reader knows more than the character—the little girl sees a shooting star and says to herself that someone must be dying. She understands a shooting star as a sign that a human soul is ascending to heaven; what she doesn't understand is that she herself is dying from hypothermia, and that the shooting star is foreshadowing her own death. People Assume She Lit Matches for Warmth (Dramatic Irony) At the end of the story, the little girl's stiff, frozen body is surrounded by spent matches. People who see her assume she lit them to keep warm. The moment presents an instance of dramatic irony, because the reader 43 knows the little didn't light the matches solely for warmth. The narrator comments that they have no idea what was in her mind in her dying moments and how much joy felt as she experienced her visions. The Little Match Girl Imagery Coldness (Kinesthetic) Andersen begins the story by emphasizing the extreme cold the little girl is exposed to. With no hat or shoes, she shivers and her feet go red and blue in the cold—a sign of frostbite. This kinesthetic imagery emphasizes the extreme cold she is feeling as she succumbs to hypothermia and dies. Striking Match (Auditory) When the little girl strikes her first match, Andersen supplies the satisfying sound of the match head's combustion through auditory imagery, capturing the match's scratch and fizzle. 44  II. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Brief Biography of Henry James Henry James was born in 1843 to a wealthy New York City family, with his father a clergyman and well-connected intellectual. James‘s older brother William became a highly regarded psychologist and philosopher, while his younger sister Alice was an accomplished diarist. The family traveled extensively during James‘s youth, residing in London, Paris, and Geneva. As an adult, James departed America to live in Europe for a twenty-year period, based in France and England. He drew on his Transatlantic experiences to write often on the topic of Americans living in Europe, and vice versa. At first creating straightforward and simplistic texts, James began to focus on writing dramas and short stories, before entering a new career phase in which he completed long and complex novels. He was a dedicated observer of human behaviors, himself a socially awkward individual who never married and formed few close friendships. Gaining British citizenship in 1915, he was awarded a British Order of Merit the following year for services to World War I. James died in 1916, likely the result of stroke three months earlier. Throughout his life he produced a prolific literary output of approximately twenty novels and numerous short stories and letters Summary of the novel: Isabel Archer's aunt comes to America after the death of Isabel's father in order to take her niece to Europe. On her arrival in England, Isabel meets her cousin Ralph, her uncle, Mr. Touchett, and the great nobleman of the area, Lord Warburton, who immediately falls in love with her. After a short time, Warburton proposes to Isabel, but she turns him down, maintaining that she cherishes her freedom and independence too much to marry. A short time later, her journalist friend Henrietta Stackpole arrives in England and tells Isabel that her American suitor Caspar Goodwood has followed Isabel to England. 45 During a visit to London, Isabel encounters Caspar Goodwood, who tries to convince her that she should marry him. Again, Isabel says that she must have time to see the world and make a few independent judgments. She promises Goodwood that she will discuss the subject again in two years. He leaves, promising to remain in America for this time. While in London, Isabel hears of the sickness of her uncle. She returns to his home, Gardencourt, where she finds him dying. She also finds another guest, Madame Merle, an old friend of Mrs. Touchett's. During the long days when the house is involved with sickness, Isabel and Madame Merle become good friends. Ralph Touchett knows that his father plans to leave him a huge fortune, but he also knows that he is slowly dying himself and does not need much money. He therefore convinces his father to leave some of his fortune to Isabel. After Mr. Touchett's death, Isabel becomes a great heiress. She continues to travel with her aunt and they go to Mrs. Touchett's home in Florence, Italy. Here, Madame Merle introduces Isabel to her old friend Gilbert Osmond. Madame Merle has already instructed Osmond to be nice to Isabel because she thinks that Gilbert should marry her. After some time, Isabel believes that she is in love with Osmond. She maintains her independence by refusing to listen to any advice. Everyone is opposed to her marrying Osmond because all feel that he is a worthless fortune hunter. Some years later, Isabel knows that she has made a mistake. Gilbert Osmond, now her husband, has tried to break Isabel's independent nature and has tried to make her obey his every wish. He wants Isabel to be as quiet and obedient as is his daughter. Pansy, the daughter, has been brought up in a convent and has been taught to obey her father in everything. Thus when the father disapproves of the young man that Pansy is in love with, she must submit to his wishes. When Isabel receives a letter telling her that her cousin Ralph is dying, she wants to go to England to visit him. Osmond opposes the trip because it would not look proper. At this time, Isabel discovers that Pansy is actually the illegitimate child of Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond. She then realizes that her friend Madame Merle tricked her into an 46 imprudent marriage with Osmond, and with this knowledge Isabel leaves for England in spite of her husband's disapproval. In England, she confesses the mistake she made in marrying Osmond, and Caspar Goodwood pleads with her to leave her husband. Isabel, however, feels that she cannot forsake the sacred bonds of marriage and feels that Pansy needs her help. She therefore decides to return to Osmond in spite of her dislike for him. Character Analysis Isabel Archer Isabel is the central concern of the novel. She possesses all the attributes of James' typical American. She is innocent, but also intelligent. In contrast to the European such as Madame Merle, she does not possess a great amount of experience, but she does have the capacity to appreciate any new experience. Isabel has an expansive personality. Ralph Touchett and others are attracted to Isabel because she apparently has a great capacity for growth. This quality allows her to react spontaneously to any new experience. Her response indicates a depth of perception missing from other people. It is a compliment to Isabel's combination of these qualities that she is able to attract so many divergent types of personalities to her. She excites the admiration of people as different as Madame Merle and Henrietta Stackpole, or as different as Gilbert Osmond and Ralph Touchett. Furthermore, men as divergent in personalities as Caspar Goodwood and Lord Warburton both fall in love with Isabel. Therefore, part of her greatness lies in her ability to attract all sorts of people to her. Even though Isabel is not considered a great beauty, she is attractive enough to win attention. She possesses a natural charm and a sincerity that add to her looks. Perhaps her most striking qualities are her desire for independence and her imagination. She believes strongly in her own opinion and cherishes the right to evaluate independently any person or situation. This note of independence is struck in the first chapters of the novel. It is the trait which Ralph admires greatly. In conjunction with her independence, Isabel is also a very imaginative person. Ralph Touchett 47 thinks that in order for Isabel to realize her imagination, she must be made financially independent. Thus, her inheritance gives her the freedom to allow her imagination to soar. One of the first uses of her free imagination is in evaluating Gilbert Osmond. He told her that he had lived a dull life, but Isabel's imagination took flight to create for him a very interesting life. In her imagination, she filled in the vacant spots and saw him as a much more interesting person than he actually was. It is ironic that Isabel's desire for complete independence causes her to marry Osmond. In her determination to follow only her own evaluation, she refused to listen to her many friends who cautioned her against such a marriage. Consequently, her highest quality also became her downfall. Isabel also possesses a rather over-strong sense of pride. Even after she recognizes that she made a mistake in her marriage, she cannot admit this publicly. It took a great effort to confess her error to Ralph, and at the end of the novel, she has too much pride to confess her mistake to the whole world. Thus, partly for this reason, she returns to Rome to continue her life with Osmond. Isabel, therefore, represents the innocent young American who is deceived by the superior cunning and deceit of Osmond and Madame Merle, who are representatives of the old order of European thinking. Isabel was capable of great potential and of great development — she had a large capacity for growth and for life. Her tragedy is in her mistaken judgment of Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond. Once, however, she has recognized her error, she is determined to try to make the best of it. Ralph Touchett Ralph functions as the cosmopolite who has interested himself in Isabel's career. Upon first meeting her, he senses her potential capacity for development. He then devotes his life to observing Isabel's activities. Ralph is well suited for his function in the novel. Knowing that he has only a few more years to live, he has developed a sensitivity which enables him to penetrate to the center of things. Owing to his sickness, he can remain relatively uninvolved and objective. But he is not completely disinterested. He feels that his last remaining years will be enriched by 48 observing Isabel's activities. Thus, he is instrumental in placing a large fortune at her disposal. His act was performed in order to provide Isabel the opportunity to develop to her fullest capacity. But in actuality, it caused her to become a prisoner. Ralph's objectivity and sincere love for Isabel also allow him to function as a confidant to her. He is able to discuss intimately with her various aspects of her career and thus give the reader a more rounded view of any situation. Ralph, then, is a person of high intelligence and sensitivity who is able to perceive the essential aspects of any situation, and the reader has access to what he knows. Ralph knows that Osmond is a "sterile dilettante," but is unable to convince Isabel of this fact. Furthermore, he recognizes that some people, like Madame Merle, are too perfect. He remains, however, Isabel's closet friend and admirer and the person who brings about her first open break with Gilbert Osmond. Madame Alerle Madame Merle is one of the most admired women in Europe. Everything she does is in perfect good taste. As Mrs. Touchett says, she hasn't a fault. But this means that Madame Merle has created a visible exterior to cover up her inner corruption. As the reader later learns. she has been an adulteress, but she covered her licentious behavior with such good taste that the world is unaware of it. Madame Merle had very great ambitions as a younger person. She has constantly been frustrated in her desires and has consequently developed certain forms and ceremonies to compensate for her failure. She plays the piano flawlessly-, she is welcomed in most of the great houses of Europe; she is intelligent, witty, and charming-, she is never given to excesses, and she never makes a blunder. She understands human nature and knows how to accomplish anything. Given her nature, it is only natural that Isabel, innocent as she is, should fall prey to Madame Merle's more polished and experienced ways. In other words, Isabel is not an easy victim; her conqueror or superior must be a superior person. Madame Merle's great flaw is her ambition. When she sees Isabel achieve something that she would have liked to possess, her true nature is revealed. Thus, it is her ambition to have Pansy make a superb marriage 49 that leads Madame Merle to perpetrate her treachery against Isabel. Since Madame Merle has failed so miserably in life, she desires that her daughter should make a brilliant match. Her strong ambitions and firm pursuit of her goal finally make her an odious person. She is so determined to succeed that she goes beyond her usual good taste and decorum. This allows Isabel to see her for what she is. But even in her failure, Madame Merle recognizes that she has been "vile" for no apparent gain. Furthermore, we recognize that finally even Madame Merle's own daughter does not like her and quite the contrary, the daughter does like Isabel, whom Madame Merle had so horribly betrayed. In the final analysis, Madame Merle, like Gilbert Osmond, represents the European personality that sacrifices all that is human and natural and sincere for something that represents the perfect form and ceremony. The acquired taste and rule become more important than real human relationships. Gilbert Osmond Gilbert Osmond is the epitome of everything that one finds objectionable in European society. He was, as a matter of fact, born in America, but since he was brought to Europe as a small child and has lived his entire life in Europe, we may consider him for all thematic purposes a European. Osmond is a person who puts extreme value on the correct form and perfect ritual. He is a self-centered individual who thinks that the world should take note of his unusual attributes. Everything he does is calculated for its effect. He hits never done anything without considering first what effect it will bear upon him. He is basically an indolent man who has the egoism to think that the world should come to him. If he is disdainful of most of the things in the world, it is because he desires them so strongly. He is a man of perfect taste. But the reader should note that perfect taste can be carried too far. As with Madame Merle, everything is so contrived that the real person is concealed behind a mask of pretenses. Everything that he possesses is perfect. His objects of art, his house, his view, his daughter are all brought to absolute perfection. Thus, when he desires to marry Isabel, it is only because she will reflect what good taste he has. 50 But when one devotes oneself entirely to creating an effect, there is naturally something artificial about the results. Gilbert Osmond, then, has developed good taste so that he will be praised for it. It has been a project with him; it is acquired. On the contrary, Isabel has good taste but it is a naturally endowed quality. It stems from her personality; whereas Osmond's taste is studied and artificial. It must be noted, however, that Osmond does not marry Isabel Archer solely for her money. Had Isabel not possessed talent, charm, intelligence, taste, and lo