Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and W.B. Yeats :: Biography Biographies Essays

Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and W.B. Yeats    Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and W.B. Yeats, examined together in the same sitting are as different as the Victorian and Post-Modernist eras they emerged from, yet they were both independent thinkers of their time.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Browning, born in 1806 before Victorianism came into full play, was celebrated as a woman poet but also quite conformist to the Victorian movement in some regards.   Browning did make use of her family's money to "give herself an exceptional education"   (1858) and she thought outside of traditional lines in regards to gender roles for women as in her poem "Aurora Leigh".   In this poem, the narrator is a woman which is unusual for that era "Place your fecund heart in mine, and let us blossom for the world"   (1877).   It was unusual in the Victorian era - to consider that women added anything substantial to a marriage relationship.   Browning was definitely independent in her thinking and in her personal life - defying her father by eloping with Robert Browning late in life   (1859).        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are other elements of her poetry that are fairly conformist to the Victorian age.   Her poem "Sonnets from the Portugese" describes a courtship that is prudent and in keeping with Victorian age.   This form of a sonnet was taken from Shakespeare's style, yet another element of Browning stepping into territory formerly only occupied by men   (1859).        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   W.B. Yeats, influenced in large part by his free-thinking father, became just that   (2322).   Yeats poetry contains elements of the mysticism that he studied, whether the double worded meaning of "The Second Coming" or the reference to Spiritus Mundi in that poem, Yeats defied the religious conformist thinking prevalent at the end of the Victorian era..   In his poem, "Sailing to Byzantium", Yeats takes on the narrative voice of an old man, sailing away from his "homeland" to Byzantium, where old men stand in "God's holy fire"   (2332).   This reference to Byzantium, a city of the Roman empire, would not have been considered "holy" by traditional religious thinking.        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yeats borrows from Greek mythology in "Leda and the Swan" and puts words to a sexually explicit tale of a swan raping a girl   (2337).

The revelatory dilemma presented in the play also revolves around the economic situations Nora

The theme of feminism as it relates to A Doll’s House concerns mainly Nora’sreactions to the alternate drives of so called domestic tranquility and the formulation of an effective identity that works outside of the domestic sphere.The revelatory dilemma presented in the play also revolves around the economic situations Nora finds herself in, linking, as many plays of the era did, concern with money to moral action, depicting Krogstad as an immoral character and linking his moral action to Nora, as others including her father do, through the use of money.   â€Å"Nora, Nora! Just like a woman!But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that sort of thing. No debts, no borrowing. There's something constrained, something ugly even, about a home that's founded on borrowing and debt† (Ibsen 149).   Mainly, from a feminist perspective, the revelatory dimensions of Nora’s decisions inform most of the work, in terms of her gradual shift away from the stif ling domestic sphere towards a greater independence that is formed by an establishment of greater degrees of knowledge.   As she has more revelations as a character, Nora grows to a new awareness of what was previously hidden, and manages to put these changes into perspective.Although it seems at times that she is overwhelmed, Nora is generally able to get over her knowledge and use the concealed information to some future advantage of her own.   Nora’s system of discovery is based on her early life partly, when she was alternately dependent on her father and then her husband.   She was sheltered by this transition and does not have a very good idea about the real world, but she also is cunning enough to negotiate for her independence, and the discovery of secrets along the way drives her towards this independence as a goal.Ibsen, H.   A Doll’s House.   New York:   Penguin 1994.   

Flapper Dream Analysis - 1477 Words

Winter Dreams and the Emptiness of the Flapper Lifestyle During the 1920s, there was a massive increase in the post-war economy, and with it came luxuries and technologies that many Americans had never seen before. The changing cultural climate brought with it drastic changes in the ideals and morals of the youth because they had become disillusioned with their parents morals and lifestyles following World War 1. Interestingly, the disillusionment that the youth of America felt towards their parents way of living brought about the first real generation gap. History remembers the time of this generation gap as the Jazz Age, and its culture quickly became enamored with the idea of being young and living for today.†¦show more content†¦Accordingly, Fitzgerald uses the characters in â€Å"Winter Dreams† as a warning to his generation about how the irresponsibility and emptiness of the wild lifestyle of the 1920s could lead to their downfall. In â€Å"Winter Dreams,† the character of Judy Jones represents the flapper lifestyle and the spirit of the 1920s. One parallel between her and the flappers comes in the form of her disregard for the customs of the previous generation, which Fitzgerald illustrates through her flippancy towards Mr. Hendrick on the golf course. Her remark â€Å"Did I bounce into the rough?† shows that she does not have the manners to be distraught over hitting someone with a golf ball and that she has the flapper trait of disregard for the customs and morals of previous generations (Fitzgerald 3). Furthermore, Mr. Hendrick’s remark that â€Å"all she needs is to be turned up and spanked for six months and then to be married off to an old-fashioned cavalry captain,† embodies the disenchantment that Hartt 3 previous generations felt towards the current one (Fitzgerald 3). By showcasing the mutual disapproval between Mr. Hendrick and Judy, Fitzgerald demonstrates the generation gap in which, â€Å"older Americans squabbled with their children andShow MoreRelatedFshore Pirate By Scott Fitzgerald Essay2086 Words   |  9 PagesI define as an aristocratic product of rebellion in the 1920s, but I am not convinced that Ardita is what a historicist would refer to as a flapper. By definition, a flapper was a woman that openly rejected traditional societal norms in the 1920 s to grasp more from life than what was offered to their Victorian predecessors. From my understanding, flappers were women that fought against traditional expectations to destroy the hypocritical double-standard placed on women by the male dominated societyRead More Fitzgerald and Short Story Writing Essay1370 Words   |  6 Pagessuch as â€Å"Winter Dreams†, â€Å"The Rich Boy†, â€Å"‘The Sensible Thing’†, and â€Å"Absolution† (Bruccoli xvii). 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Scott Fitzgeralds Personl Influences on The Great Gatsby1762 Words   |  7 Pagesterms, Fitzgerald was like Nick because of how he was educated, and their liking of their new life style, and he was similar to Gatsby because of their idolization of the rich. Jay Gatsby, or James Gatz was a man who wanted to pursue the American Dream, to work hard and get ahead. All of this was to impress the woman that he was in love with, Daisy Fay. Nick Carraway is made narrator of the novel. He is inclined to reserve all judgements of all people, which is why Fitzgerald made him the narratorRead MoreMisogynist Role Of Women In The Great Gatsby1024 Words   |  5 PagesIn the 1920’s women in America had new freedom as the ways of life came around with the emergence of flappers and women were allowed to vote, but men still treated them with misogynist ways. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. 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