Importance of Symbolism and Setting in The Yellow Wallpaper

Importance of Symbolism and Setting in The Yellow Wallpaper In the disturbing novel, The Yellow Wallpaper, the setting in which the action takes place is extremely important. The author uses setting to focus the reader’s attention into the story in a gradual manner. Also, the manipulation of setting allows the author to subtly introduce symbols in the text. These symbols represent Gilman’s view on the status of women in the patriarchal society of the nineteenth century. The story takes the form of a journal of the main character. Therefore, the reader’s view is limited to the impressions of a single character, Jane. Considering some background information on Gilman, one can easily draw the conclusion that the story is†¦show more content†¦We learn from the first paragraphs that focusing on the scenery will help her forget the nervous depression which she has been diagnosed with: So, I will let it [her illness] alone and talk about the house(947). The main character’s focus on the environment is the reason for which the reader gets plenty of information about the setting. The text is very descriptive and loaded with symbols. The author takes the opportunity to relate elements of setting with symbols with meanings beyond the first reading’s impressions. The house that the characters rent for the summer as well as the surrounding scenery are introduced right from the beginning. It is an isolated house, situated quite three miles from the village(947); this location suggests an isolated environment. Because of its colonial mansion(946) look, and its age and state of degradation, of the house, a supernatural hypothesis is implied: the place is haunted by ghosts. This description also suggests stability, strength, power and control. It symbolizes the patriarchal oriented society of the author’s time. The image of a haunted house is curiously superimposed with light color elements of setting: a delicious garden(947), velvet meadows(950), old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees(948) suggest bright green. The room has air and sunshine galore(947), the garden is large and shady(947) and has deep-shaded arbors(948). The unclean yellow of the wallpaper isShow MoreRelatedSymbolism of the Setting of The Yellow Wallpaper1198 Words   |  5 PagesVolpe 1 Marissa Volpe Prof. Baker ENC 1102 4/10/14 Symbolism In The Gothic Setting of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† Gothic literature is incredibly distinct. There is a sort of formula involved with writing in the Gothic style, and one of the most important aspects of this is the setting, which can include anything from the architecture of the buildings to the color of the leaves on the trees. The setting of a story is a vital element, as it would seem to be that the most effective way of drawing Read MoreAnalysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1269 Words   |  6 PagesFebruary 2017 Analysis of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† Life during the 1800s for a woman was rather distressing. Society had essentially designated them the role of being a housekeeper and bearing children. They had little to no voice on how they lived their daily lives. Men decided everything for them. To clash with society s conventional views is a challenging thing to do; however, Charlotte Perkins Gilman does an excellent job fighting that battle by writing â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† one of the most captivatingRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper Essay : Importance Of Identity And Self Expression1707 Words   |  7 PagesThe Importance of Identity and Self Expression in The Yellow Wallpaper In the article â€Å"‘Too Terribly Good to Be Printed’: Charlotte Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’† Conrad Shumaker explains the genius of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and how its themes reflect the patriarchal society of the time period. 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O n the other hand, Crane’s 1893 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the realist account of a New York girlRead MoreOf Discovery In Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, And Robert Frosts Poems1093 Words   |  5 Pagesreflected in the poem, ‘Stopping by Woods on A Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost and the short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Robert Frost’s poetry reflects an enduring interest in how landscape can evoke contemplation and reflection about one’s place in society and the purpose of their existence. This idea is also closely reflected in my related text ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. 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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wall-paper† strongly argues the theme of patriarchal control while in a authentic sense defines a feminist critique of the role of women. Gilman does a great example of relating the setting to the oppression of females during this time. Jane tells about the house in saying, â€Å"It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three milesRead MoreUse Of Setting And Symbolism Of The Works Of Charlotte Perkins Gilman And Robert Frost1424 Words   |  6 PagesFrost that we’ve read in class use setting and symbolism to help readers to develop a greater understanding of the nature of relationships develop a greater understanding of the nature of relationships between two people. Gilman, Frost, and Edson use setting to demonstrate the strain that can exist between people in times of conflict. In Gilman s short story The Yellow Wallpaper the relationship between a man and a women displayed distressed. Gilman s use of setting allows the reader to demonstrateRead MoreInternal And External Captivity By Langston Hughes1739 Words   |  7 Pagesthe reader has embarked upon and starts with a basis of freedom from a newborn civilization and goes on to explain the confinement of an ever-changing society who has lost its way. Contrasting with that society, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† showcases the narrator’s captivity within a room and the mechanics of her mind growing more and more chaotic as her isolation from the outside world (mostly her husband) leads to her insanity. Kate Chopin expresses the many freedoms of an upper-classRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesoccupy an entir e chapter or more. Some plots require more exposition than others. A historical novel set in a foreign country several centuries ago obviously needs to provide the reader with more background information than a novel with a contemporary setting. COMPLICATION: The complication which is sometimes referred to as the rising action, breaks the existing equilibrium and introduces the characters and underlying or inciting conflict (if they have not already been introduced by the exposition).

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What role did tribalism and racism play in ancient Greece Free Essays

Abstract A broad analysis of the evidence and impact of the concepts of tribalism and racism within Greece of antiquity, concentrating on the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Assessing the archaeological and literary evidence alongside the prevailing historical bias for these concepts. It is argued that Greece, although not a tribe but a state under Elman Sevice’s definition shows some strains of tribalism. We will write a custom essay sample on What role did tribalism and racism play in ancient Greece? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Racism or proto-racism, is defined by differing criteria to the modern connotation and seems to have been geographically rather than biologically biased. Introduction The period associated with ancient Greece spans around 1400 years from the archaic period with the traditional date for the first historic Olympic games in 776BC to the end of antiquity around 600AD.It is sensible to focus on the Classical and Hellenistic periods beginning with the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC and ending with the end of the Fourth Macedonian War in 148BC. The modern concepts of racism and tribalism are non necessarily one that would be comprehended in the ancient world. Racism in the modern sense of the word arose in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries alongside concepts of nationalism and the ‘noble savage’. To add a broader cultural context, the Mycenaean palace civilization which collapsed in the twelfth century BC and the archaeological evidence supporting this collapse indicates a phase of depopulation and decline in the region. (Champion et al 1989: 244) At the beginning of the eighth century BC an archaeologically visible cultural complex emerged, distinct from the Halstatt iron age culture predominant in northern Europe. Broadly homogenous and distinctive, this cultural complex was established by the sixth century BC encompassing most of the Mediterranean coastal regions and included the Phoenicians, the Etruscans and Celt-Iberians as well as the Greeks. (ibid) and includes the corpus of work by Prof. Manolis Andronikos which establishes that the Macedonians had a Greek material culture. The attitudes of colonial Greeks in places like Massilia (Marseille) towards Hellenic ethnic identity differs from that of the Greeks who were living in polis (city-states). As an example of this geographical difference, and what that meant to ancient Greek society , there is a marked contrast between Pericles’ citizenship law of 451/450BC and Ptolemy I’s ‘Diagramma’ explaining the legal implications of inter-marriage between Greeks and non-Greeks in Cyrene in the fourth century BC. Pericles’ law relates to Athens and stipulates that only individuals who had two Athenian parents could be considered Athenian citizens. From Ptolemy we learn that in Cyrene children of a Greek father and a Libyan mother were considered citizens. Aristotle in his Politics (VI, 2 1319 b 2) remarks that the democratic members had changed the orthodox practice and â€Å"flooded the citizen body with these half-castes† (nothoi pros metros) betraying the conservatism of ‘mainland’ Greece, but in particular Athens. Discussing trading colonies it is significant that the only echelon of society within Greek polis involved in banking and business in the modern connotation were xenoi or outsiders. In Aristotle’s words: â€Å"†¦money orientated life is not of the knightly kind† (Nicomanchean Ethics I. iv 1095b15-22) As there was a material cultural continuity across the Mediterranean world at the time, the concept of ethnic difference or racism cannot be easily tracked archaeologically but through literary sources. Considering the bias of such sources Baldry says: â€Å"One can all too easily overestimate the importance of beliefs expressed by a small intellectual minority, while forgetting that the majority found it difficult to see beyond the horizon of the polis;†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Baldry, H.C., 1965 176-77) Within this academic community there was a breadth of opinion. Conservative Aristotle equates ethnic identity with slavery in his Politics saying: â€Å"Wherefore the Hellenes (Greeks) do not like to call Hellenes slaves, but confine the term to barbarians. Yet in using this language, they really mean the natural slave†¦Hellenes regard themselves as noble everywhere, and not only in their own country, but they deem the barbarians noble only when at home, thereby implying that there are two sorts of nobility and freedom, the one absoloute, the other relative† (Aristotle Politics 1255a-1255b) â€Å"†¦the lower sort are by nature slaves, and it is better for them as for all inferiors (sc barbarians) that they should be under the rule of a master. For he who can be, and therefore it, another’s, and he who particupates in rational principle enough to apprehend, but not to have, such a principle, is a slave by nature† (Aristotle’s Politics 1254b) This hints at concepts of the ‘noble savage’ which emerged during the enlightenment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in tandem with nationalism and racism. It has been suggested that the ideologies of the ancient Greeks could be defined as proto-racism (Bakaukas 2005: 5) The zenith of the Greek polis was the sixth to the fourth centuries BC. The period of the Persian Wars and the dominance of Athens and Sparta as political entities, underlining the perceived divisions between those who defined themselves as Hellenic and those deemed barbarian. Paridoxically there was concurrently growth in the concept of the unity of all mankind. Homer defines men as aydeentes (speaking beings), and this concept can also be seen in Plato’s Protagoras with the pronounced distinction between man and inarticulate animals. There is also a choral fragment from the fifth century BC from the Alexander of Euripides and the philosophy of sophists, in particular Antiphon. Other proponents were Thucydides, and the medical writers of the Hippocratic Corpus ( â€Å"†¦the same symptoms have the same meaning everywhere†). Nevertheless, as has already been alluded to, Greek proto-racism was not biologically based as the common modern interpretation. Tribalism could be placed within the theoretical framework of the American anthropologist Elman Service. He postulated a four-fold classification system of societal evolution (Band, Tribe, Chiefdom and State) with associated types of site and settlement patterns. Greece in Service’s definition is not a tribe but a State. Tribalism implies shared cultural or ethnic identity used to exclude non-members. Therefore it could be described as a cohesive force and racism a devisive one. A good example of the impact of both concepts is the Greek attitudes towards Macedonia and Alexander the Great. Greek states generally considered Macedonians barbarians, but, since the fifth century BC they had been permitted to compete in the Olympian Games, ostensibly because they were believed to descend from the legendary Heralces. Linguistically they spoke Greek (Bakaukas, M. 2005: 9). Alexander’s mother, Olympia was another ‘barbarian’ (daughter of Neoptolemus of Epirus (ibid)) another Hellenised individual who met Philip of Macedon during celebrations of the Greek Mysteries of Samothrace. Alexander was a pupil of Aristotle and Plutarch relates that the teacher was criticised for advising Alexander to treat Greeks as friends and barbarians as enemies. Alexander did not pay any heed to this advice: â€Å"All mortals from now on shall live like one people, united and peacefully working towards a common prosperity. You should regard the whole world as your country – a country where the best govern – with common laws and no racial distinctions† (The ‘Oath’ of Alexander the Great – Speech at Opis (Assyria) in 324BC) The most obvious comparison between Greek city states for race and tribal considerations is between Athens and Sparta. Both considered each other Hellenic but Athens was a democracy and Sparta an oligarchy. The Peloponnesian War (431 – 404BC) is the pinnacle of their rivalry and as Thucydides comments, before the War and after the Persian Wars (499 – 449BC) much of Greece was known as the Athenian Empire. Conclusion In conclusion, tribalism and racism are modern constructs which existed in ancient Greece but were formed according to the prevalent cultural, political and social contexts. Archaeological evidence has provided a quantitive benchmark that the material culture was homogenous throughout the Mediterranean world. The ‘tribe’ of Greeks were united in their urban state structure and common ideals of democracy and civilization but the significance of ‘purity’ in racial terms was malleable, tending to be more flexible the further from the nexus of Greek civilisation. BIBLIOGRAPGHY Bakaukas, Michael. 2005. Tribalism and Racism amongst the Ancient Greeks: A Weberian Perspective. Anistoriton Journal, vol. 9, March 2005, section E0501 Available through: http://www.anistor.co.hol.gr [Accessed 10th August 2012] Baldry, H.C., 1961 The Idea of the Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought Cambridge University Press Borza, E.N., and Palagia, O., The Chronology of the Macedonian Royal Tombs at Vergina Available through: http://uoa.academia.edu/OlgaPalagia/Papers/872753/The_chronology_of_the_Macedonian_royal_tombs_at_Vergina [Accessed 11th August 2012] Champion, C., Gamble, C., Shennan, S., Whittle, A. 1984 Prehistoric Europe Ninth printing 1997. Academic Press Ltd, London. Renfrew, C., and Bahn, P., 1996 (Second Edition) Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice Thames and Hudson, London Trigger, Bruce G. 1989. A History of Archaeological Thought Cambridge University Press. How to cite What role did tribalism and racism play in ancient Greece?, Essay examples

Civil War Weaponry free essay sample

A look at the weapons used in the American Civil War, the modernization process and the use of bullets for the first time on such a major scale. This paper examines the modernization of warfare that occurred during the American Civil War, a process that was centered on the kinds of weapons that were used, but also had to do with changing ideas about the nature of war as well. This paper focuses on an examination of the types of bullets used in the war by both sides because new techniques in the manufacturing of bullets was the core of the modernization of warfare. The American Civil War is often referred to as the last of the old-fashioned wars in terms of its weaponry, its military strategy and its casualty rates. Looking at these same criteria, it is also arguable and this seems to be the more tenable position that it was in fact the first modern war, and this was the case primarily because of the weapons that were used, including the types of guns and the types of bullets. We will write a custom essay sample on Civil War Weaponry or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page