Preview

Portrayal Of The Characters In 'Lantana'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
567 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Portrayal Of The Characters In 'Lantana'
‘None of the characters in Lantana are particularly attractive. All are deeply flawed human beings.' Discuss whether you agree with this statement.

Lantana delves into the world of the middle-aged and married, and gives the audience insight into the crises they face and the resolution and conclusion to their mid-life melodramas. Throughout the text we see each characters ability to deceive both themselves and others and this is discovered through not only the powerfully driven narrative of the text, but is represented also by the actors and the filmic techniques used to exemplify each theme and character.

Jane is lonely and lives a very unsatisfying and unfulfilled life and not only does she drag herself into oblivion with her transient

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The life cycle is a major subject of literature as old as perhaps humanity itself, with each society having a different view or expectations regarding trials and acceptance. “Lanval” by Marie de France is an allegory for the stages of life, beginning with conception and ending in death. These stages are exemplified through Lanval’s evolution from a lonely knight into a popular and generous member of society. The trials of adulthood are seen in his controversy with the court and king due to Lanval’s honor to his lover. Finally, Lanval enters the last stage, death, and is brought to paradise.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He also saw the damage that she was doing to herself not only physically but emotionally as well. Her deepest thoughts were enough to tamper even the purest water. The author explained this by saying she was "stirring the clearest water." Her thoughts were filled with disgusting and self hating thoughts that were stirring up her clear view of life itself. With so much self hatred within herself she lost sight of the good that she possessed. With her joy being taken away by her depression, it was her who chose to take her own life. The author wishes that he would have done more when you were still alive; he thought that maybe that could have saved you. He wishes he "could nudge you from this sleep." Jane...the girl who was quiet, yet superior in her thoughts and ideas, the girl who never bothered anyone with her problems...was now the girl who bothered the thoughts of the author. The author said "Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love." This was not the love as in her "father nor lover" but as a man who saw the girl for who she really was. The author loved Jane's spirit and the way she was all along, which was the quiet one that no one noticed until it was too…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    She doesn’t want to condemn Rochester to further misery, and a voice within her asks, “Who in the world cares for you?” Jane wonders how she could ever find another man who values her the way Rochester does, and whether, after a life of loneliness and neglect, she should leave the first man who has ever loved her. Yet her conscience tells her that she will respect herself all the more if she bears her suffering alone and does what she believes to be right. She tells Rochester that she must go, but she kisses his cheek and prays aloud for God to bless him as she departs. That night, Jane has a dream in which her mother tells her to flee temptation. She grabs her purse, sneaks down the stairs, and leaves…

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jane strives to please the men in her her life, this started at a young age due to the detached love she held as a child. Jane’s parents both died when she was young and was brought in by her uncle to be raised with her cousins. Jane became the pupil her uncle never had, and because of this she was resented by her aunt Reed. The resentment Jane felt throughout…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In chapter two, Jane is locked into the red room because of her ‘fight’ with John, and her description of it shows it to be fairly luxurious, but gloomy and solitary. This description of the lonely room seems to reflect upon Jane herself, as they are both seemingly ‘luxurious’ on the surface, the room literally and Jane intellectually, but both have their own solitude and loneliness about them. This portrayal of Jane’s loneliness can be shown on page nineteen in chapter two with the quote “I was a discord at Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage”. This quote is Bronte showing us that Jane is fully aware of her loneliness and solitude, and perhaps that her opinionative and seemingly harsh nature is a way of her coping with her…

    • 539 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She loses herself, as I would imagine Sophie to do after a lifetime of oppression. Jane saw a woman in the wall, and then became her. She took on that identity, and in her mind, then became free of ruling and imprisonment. All of my sympathy for any of the other characters in this work went solely to Jane. Her obvious mental instability made the story difficult for me to read- not because it’s what’s wrong with her, but what’s wrong with professional medical abuse, which especially back then was an ongoing problem in addition to today. I almost wonder if Gilman was trying to speak out facetiously through the story about how mistreatment of the mentally ill is a phenomenon that will continue to take place in the future. Furthermore, Jane was ill, and having been mistreated in her circumstance only made her existing condition and also the unpleasant topic for me worse. Looking at this story with Feminist theory in mind would be fitting, as her husband dismissed her voiced needs because he believed he knew what was best for her and she did not. I interpret this selection of the text as sexism; though I’m sure he loved her very much, he was still controlling and believed she couldn’t think for herself for she was a woman. Psychoanalytic Criticism may also be applied, as…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane tells her own story and takes you on a journey of no return. Jane arrives at a house that her husband rented for them as a retreat because he refused to believe that she is ill. Jane constantly tells her husband that her illness is not resolving but he doesn’t understand or believe in this nonsense. He thinks is just stress and if he takes her away she might relax and start writing again. Jane’s condition takes a turn as soon as she enters a room upstairs in the house that has yellow wallpaper. This yellow wallpaper must have triggered something in Jane because she starts to see it come to life. Once this obsession begins for Jane it seemed like no one can take her away from the idea that there are people trapped inside the yellow wallpaper. When Jane’s husband discovers that his wife was indeed ill it’s too late because what he sees when entering the yellow wallpaper room makes him faint. Jane is seen inside the destroyed yellow wallpaper room crawling on top of the debris and her husband. The ending of the story reveals how deeply Jane’s illness became because no one believed her therefore no treatment was given to her. The 1800’s seemed to be a very depressing era especially for women maybe because they were being oppressed by society. A woman in the 1800’s needed to be an upscale citizen, perfect daughter, wife, mother and obey every rule or be submitted to a mental institution for being…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane Eyre Essay

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages

    While reading this book, the reader may pity Jane. Charlotte Bronte creates a consistent thread until the end of the book. Jane struggles with the same problem throughout the work, which is betrayal. She deals with it a place that was supposed to be her home, school and the work place.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlotte Gilman wrote this story at the end of the nineteenth century but never specifies the exact time that it is set in. Therefore, it follows suit that readers are to assume that it is set in the time that it was written which explains much of the interpersonal relations between the characters and their various social roles. The main character, Jane, is totally subservient to her husband and her wishes mean next to nothing in their home. This fact appears to be a natural part of life as no one bats an eye at her lack of control in her own life, “He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs and so on… But he is right.” Here Jane quits pushing the one issue that disturbs her in the house and is preventing her from recovering because her husband can easily dismiss her. Her opinions have no value of their own because her husband is both a man and a physician even though these opinions are about what distresses her personally. This is something that no one in the world can possibly know…

    • 1908 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The article talks about how jane is proud but is ungrateful to? And how she goes to this school that has 110 girls and 15 teachers but she doesn’t form any friendships? The reason that she has pride is because she knows she is better than how she is being treated. She learns not to rely on anyone but herself because they all treat her horrible and she is ungrateful for the things they do give her. She is a strong girl that can do what she puts her mind to. Her uncle promised to take care of her when he was alive but after he died her aunt treated her like crap and didn’t do anything for her and then locks her in the red room and tells her she is going to be attacked by the ghosts because of what she had done and she freaks herself out so much that she passes out.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main subject that Jane talks about or writes about is the yellow wallpaper. She is very disturbed…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Case Study: Jane

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I believe that Jane’s actions will continue to lead her down her current path of injustice and exploitation. She will frequently be drawn to the people who treat her poorly because that is all she has ever known. It would be difficult to recondition her brain to believe that these types of behavior are not normal, when they are the only behaviors she has ever been accustomed to. To, Jane, someone inflicting pain and anguish onto her, is the…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane, she decided to break free of this norm and embark on her own search for understanding and identity,…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane loses her parents at a young age, she was first brought to the Reed's house by her uncle. But when her uncle passed away, her aunt promised to take Jane as one of her own children.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Theme Of Trust In Lantana

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages

    TRUST IS JUST AS VITAL TO HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AS BREATH IS TO LIFE AND JUST AS ELUSIVE. IS THIS ILLUSTRATED FOR US IN LANTARNA?…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays