British Literature
What we can do for another is the test of powers, what we can suffer for another is the test of love."
This I believe is the underlying theme, the thesis, if you will, that lingers in the mind long after reading Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband and Robert Lewis Stevenson's The Beach of Falesa. They are literary masterpieces that play on human emotions, that build on human relationships, that pull at the heartstrings of the reader, urging him to believe that in this day and age of greed, immorality and social hypocrisy, unselfish love and true devotion can still reign supreme negating the ill effects of evil.
Wilde's ideal husband, Lord Chiltren has been fashioned by a woman's love- Lady Chiltren's faith, trust and devotion for her husband, Lord Chiltren. He was her creation, from their first meeting, and throughout the early years of their marriage when he was still building a career and up to the later stages of his profession when he had already carved a career for himself. It was her love which built an image of an ideal man in her husband. For her, he was a man who could do no wrong. He was a man to be adored, to be loved. When she found out about his indiscretion committed in the early years of his career, she was devastated and she had to run for help to their dear friend, Lord Goring.
The supreme test of her love was when the crisis had been passed, when Lord Goring had destroyed the evidence that would damn Lord Chiltren and when the invitation came for him to be a member of the Cabinet, she tore to pieces Lord Chiltren's letter declining the invitation to fill the position that was being offered to him. She proved how she loved him by giving him the opportunity to advance in politics even though she would prefer a quiet life with him away from the public eye.
At this point we focus on another character, Lord Goring who is the instrument used to defeat Mrs. Cheveley, the villainess in the play. What Lord Goring did for Lord Children is the test of his powers. He did what he had to do, demand from Mrs. Cheveley the letter of Lord Chiltren and burn it to save his friend from political destruction. This is proof of his great friendship for Lord Chiltren. Lord Goring passes the test of the powers he possessed by saving his friend. In so doing, he also proved that he would sacrifice much to show his love for a friend.
At best Lord Goring is an intriguing personality. To his father he was a wastrel. He managed to hide his true good self behind the facade of a ne'er-do-well. And yet he was the person entirely lovable to Mabel Chiltren. He was a man whose friendship was priceless to Lord and Lady Chiltren. He hid his true personality under a veneer of uncaring coldness and indifference.
Lady Chiltren and Lord Goring are the perfect foil or the antithesis to Mrs. Cheveley, who is the personification of the antagonist, the villainess, the evil in the play.
Lord Chiltren is another character who in his own quiet way, was willing to sacrifice everything for the love of his wife. He had built for himself a career in public life - he had carved out a name for himself in politics. He was on his way to greater heights in the political arena but for love of his wife he was willing to turn his back to fame, fortune and success because he wanted to please his wife whom he loved above all else. Wasn't this sacrifice a test of true love?
Still when the damning evidence against him was destroyed, he asked his wife:
suppose I should retire from public life?" When his wife says yes, he should retire. He says,...
E.M. Forster's the Life to Come, on the other hand, is a tale divided into four parts: Night, Evening, Day and Morning. Its main character is a young missionary by the name of Paul Pinmay who is sent to spread the word of Christ to the native people. All prior attempts to proselytise these people have failed. During his attempt he meets with the tribal chief, who approaches him to
Neither lust, nor greed, nor vanity, is necessary to account for betrayal: it is the simple and inevitable reflex of the changeability that is the very life of human beings."(Mann, 19) Thus, the discourse of the Wife of Bath should be seen rather in this light, than as an antifeminist one. In fact, her prologue is to be read rather like a purposeful unmasking of the many antifeminist stereotypes circulated
British Lit. Romanticism to Present Following the liberating Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, the age when humanity was triumphing through literature and Rousseau's philosophy was inspiring revolutions, the age of Romanticism saw the birth of some genius writers of its own. Among them, Lord Byron, a man who lived his thirty-six years with the intensity of one who wants to know it all and do it all, was a prolific writer
In fact, all these novels are concerned with the psychology and attitudes of the characters, and use them to represent the fragmentation and uncertainty in society. The characters own lives are uncertain and fragmented, and this represents these themes in society at large. Rhys also wanted to confront areas of British society that remained hidden and unacknowledged in her novel. In "Jane Eyre," the character's madness is simply alluded to,
records court transcripts from "The Trials of Oscar Wilde," when the opposing council at the trial asks the defendant, Oscar Wilde, if he kissed one of the boys whom Wilde was supposed to have engaged in homosexual practices, Wilde appears unfazed. When asked if he kissed the boy, Wilde, with customary wit, responded that he did not, because "he was a very ugly boy." This kind of exchange forces
Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift's satirical work A Modest Proposal is particularly successful at lambasting careless attitudes towards the poor because Swift's proposal that poor children be sold as food for the upper classes is rendered in the language of pseudo-scientific argument and economics. When deployed elsewhere, this combination of tone, appeals to authority, and abrogation of evidence is precisely the kind of language used to support various misguided, outdated, or
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