The Landlady “It doesn’t look in the least bit dead.” In the Landlady by Roald Dahl, the author uses revealing actions to help describe his characters. In the beginning, Billy Weaver was looking for a cheap place to stay and ended up at BED AND BREAKFAST. The landlady welcomed him in, gave him a place to stay, and tea to drink.…
Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway, features a severely mentally ill man named Septimus Smith. Throughout the novel the reader glimpses moments of Septimus’s dementia and how his poor frazzled wife, Rezia, deals with him. Septimus, who has returned from the war and met Rezia in Italy on his discharge, has a seriously skewed version of reality. He has been through traumatic events during the war, including the death of his commanding officer and friend, Evans. Upon his return to England he suffers from hallucinations, he hears voices (especially Evans’), and he believes that the trees have a special message to convey to him. Rezia attempts to get Septimus help by taking him to several doctors. Ultimately Septimus commits suicide rather than let the doctors get to him.…
Being around others can be a goddamn nightmare. Yet there is still a constant need in many people for other human beings for social interaction and support. Not everyone works with that the same way since there are some people who need more, some who needs less, and some who don’t really want any at all. When they got to extremes they are often seen deviant and non-conformity can cause some real waves. Depression and Autism are both neurodivergences that impact the way people operate socially and as in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, there is a clear contrast on how these impact people and people around them. The amount of interaction a person enjoys with others doesn’t…
Throughout the story, “My Last Duchess” by Margaret Atwood, there exists vast dissimilarities between stereotypical women and women opposing stereotypes, and society. These dissimilarities are shown evidently through the characters. Margaret Atwood uses her characters to supply detailed examples of individuals who embody these stereotypes, those who do not, and the conflicting tones she uses in regards to these characters display her feminist ideals. A few of the characters representing stereotypical women in the text are embodied by the Duchess within the poem titled “My Last Duchess,” and the female individuals who surround the protagonist. Although the most notable male character in the story, Bill, is oblivious to any problem with the Duchess’…
“Landlady” is a tragic fiction story; one with a peculiar ending written by Roald Dahl. In the short story, Billy (protagonist), a young, handsome man is in search of an affordable hotel out on a chilly night at Bath, England. One of the shopkeeper’s tells Billy ‘to try the Bell and Dragon”, a quarter of a mile down the street. Ordinarily, Billy was planning on heading straight to the Bell and Dragon, but on the way, there was a notice that said BED AND BREAKFAST. Billy rang the doorbell, and out came the landlady; a perfectly normal landlady. Conversely, it is revealed that she’s not normal; she’s the one who murdered the people from the headlines, and her next prey was Billy. In my opinion, the foremost message of the story is that appearance…
As a passionate lover of Audrey Hepburn I decided to take this book for supplementary reading. It is not a secret that this book is more famous for its well known adaptation based on the Capote’s book Breakfast at Tiffany’s in which Hepburn was in the leading part.…
the lively mood of modern London, while the gloomy tones of Clarissa reveals a severe…
The American Dream was a significant concern of Albee's. In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , he explores the illusion of an American dream that masks a core of destruction and failure.55 Writing during the Cold War, Albee was responding to a public that was just beginning to question the patriotic assumptions of the 1950's. His George and Martha reference patriotic namesakes George and Martha Washington. Albee uses this symbolic first couple's unhappy marriage as a microcosm for the imperfect state of America.56 When George and Martha's marriage is revealed to be a sham based on the illusion of an imaginary son, the viewer is led to question the illusions that similarly prop up the American dream.57 Nick and Honey, a conventional American…
Literature is our lens to peer back into past eras, societies, and cultures that may otherwise be unfamiliar to us. History books tell us facts and recount of events that happened in the past, but that times poems, songs, novels, and short stories give us insight into the feelings and reactions of the people to the events and the society that they lived in. Peering back into our own American civilizations past through literature displays to us the changes and shifts in our attitudes towards certain subjects and also reveals the ideals that have stayed constant throughout our history. One central theme of the American lifestyle that has remained constant in society and literature is the effect of God and faith in our society whether from…
Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield is a short story written in 1922 about an older lady who takes routine walks each Sunday and listens to the band that plays in the park. She sits on a bench which seems to be placed directly across from where the band is playing, and she makes constant observations of the people or things around her. She makes note of how pretty the sky is, that it almost has a painted effect, and how the band seems to be much more lively when it is in season. She also notices that what she is witnessing resembles somewhat of a play, and everyone she has made observations about play a role, including herself. The day seems to be going like any other Sunday, cheerful music, bright colors, and a calm and settle wind blowing…
This value is a reflection of the post-war, androcentric society in which the book was written. This context is mirrored in Mrs Dalloway through the character Clarissa Dalloway. Her quote “...not being Clarissa anymore; this being Mrs Richard Dalloway.” conveys the loss of identity felt by repressed women. Woolf’s stream of consciousness mode highlights the dichotomy between Clarissa’s public and personal life, condemning the repression of women. The text begins with “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself”, which indicates Clarissa’s desire for independence, and reflects Woolf’s views against repression.…
Before I read Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, I did a little research on Edward Albee the playwright. I realized that the assigned play would not be the first I have read by Albee but the second. A few years ago I read A Delicate Balance. Once I finished Virginia Woolf I was able to compare the two plays, which helped me develop an idea about Albee’s writing and his style. Edward Albee’s plays are usually unapologetic examination of modern society, usually to an extreme, like Edward Albee said himself "That 's what happens in plays, yes? The shit hits the fan”, which tends to be true in most of his plays. Albee had an impact on theatre in the 1960’s when many people were still in the mindset of the of the 1950’s, Albee was doing the opposite in American Theatre, as Albee said his plays are “an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen"(Dircks). Many of his plays dissect the social convention of marriage and other conventions that are believed make the individual feel complete and apart of the American dream. His impact on American Theatre has been significant which has led him to be compared to famous American Playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.…
Little Women by Louisa Alcott would definitely appeal to women of all types and ages. Little Women appeals to a broad audience, its full of the values and beliefs, and it paints a very real picture of most American's lives at the time.…
The article illustrates how the novel Mrs. Dalloway depicts the effects of World War One. One of the major topic is the war has “created a parallel between time and deaths in one’s intense consciousness”. Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway has experienced the dangers of war, after witnessing the death of his best friend in trenches, he realizes how vulnerable life is, and death can happen at any time. He is sensitive to time passage that every time the Big Ben strikes, he would think of the horrifying war, and he would recognize death and aging is inevitable, so he chooses to end his life to be freed from this fear. “Clarissa is the only character who comes to terms with death and the fleetingness of time”, she is pleased to the hear the news that Septimus…
On the surface, Septimus seems quite dissimilar to Clarissa, but he embodies many characteristics that Clarissa shares and thinks in…