Upon arriving in London and informing Mrs. Strickland that her husband does not plan to return, the narrator notes: "now that I had seen Strickland in Paris it was difficult to imagine him in those surroundings. I thought it could hardly have failed to strike them that there was something incongruous in him." This shows the lengths which people are willing to go to fool themselves; Strickland lived for many years as a stockbroker, unwilling to see the "incongruities" of his personality to such a life until very recently. The two women in this scene, Mrs. Strickland and her sister, also fool themselves -- Mrs. Strickland imagines that no one could have been as supportive as her, whereas her sister refuses to believe that Strickland even wants to paint in the first place. Both women would rather construct a reality that fits their expectations than to absorb new information honestly and fairly. Perhaps the most...
Strickland does this in his life with Ata in Tahiti: "he painted and he read, and in the evening, when it was dark, they sat together on the verandah, smoking and looking at the night." Even Mrs. Strickland manages to find contentment again; at the end of the novel, she is proudly beaming about her two children, and does not seem troubled at all when the narrator -- who must remind of her long-gone husband -- returns for a visit. She, like Strickland, moves on neatly and smoothly. True, there are a few bumps for each of them, and the contentment might not last eternally, but in general people find their own ways to be happy. This is not true of absolutely everyone in the story or in life, but it is true enough to provide some hope to both the narrator and the reader.
According to Freud, sublimated anger and rage that is contextually inappropriate to present circumstances, situations, and individuals is merely a form of sublimation through resentment, or literally through "re-feeling" emotions and anger that was never acknowledged consciously by the individual. The psychosomatic element is illustrated by the case of Lucy R., a patient whose inability to acknowledge her romantic desire for her employer or to consciously accept his rejection
Nature in Troilus and Cressida Both Troilus and Cressida and The Winter's Tale deal with nature as an allegory for human nature. Many kinds of metaphors are used, from the classically romantic, to the dirty joke, to positive and negative portrayals of personalities. Many of the most powerful metaphors are in the initial portion of the play. In Act I, Scene I, of Troilus and Cressida, Troilus compares being observed by his
John Steinbeck's 1942 novel The Moon is Down can be interpreted as a propaganda piece, aimed at emboldening and comforting the conquered peoples of Europe during the Second World War. However, admitting this pragmatic objective of the book does not necessarily detract from the value of the arguments or themes found within. Steinbeck manages to convey a comprehensive picture of contrasting world perspectives though his depiction of a fictitious
Human Space Travel: Environmental and Health Effects Ever since people first looked up at the stars, mankind has wondered about going into space. What was up there? What would it be like? Was there life, looking back at them? Some of these questions have been answered by NASA and the space program, and some of the questions remain. However, it is no secret that space travel has effects on the human
Smith notes that it may be impossible to unequivocally prove something with one hundred percent accuracy; rather, scientists seek probability. The term theory is often misconstrued: Smith states that "theories always explain facts." Moreover, there is no clear demarcation between a theory and a hypothesis. Theories are basically broad hypotheses. Laws, on the other hand, are more restrictive and are often derived from theories. The practice of science entails experimentation
Nature vs. The Modern World in William Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much With Us" William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an English poet and writer widely-acclaimed for his literary works during the English Romantic era. Born on April 7, 1770, in Cumberland, England, Wordsworth was born to an affluent family, and grew up in great commune with nature, because Cumbersome is an area that is often termed as a 'rustic society,' and his
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