The Understanding Of Feminist Theories English Literature Essay

The Understanding Of Feminist Theories English Literature Essay A system of cultural and social assumptions that are presented as natural or common sense, presented as normative social structures but which actually uphold a particular point of view on the world, they are shifting through time, contingent sets of attitudes and dispositions. (Lecture handout) This shift through time relates to feminist theory being developed in writing over time due to the influence of previous feminist literature. The womens movement of the 1960s was not the beginning of feminism. It is an ideology already present in classical books. An example of one of these books is Mary Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of the Rights of Women which highly influenced her daughter Mary Shelleys novel Frankenstein. Other influences on this novel will be discussed in this essay. A feminist may view Frankenstein as a womans story of male creativity because it is a womans description of a mans creation. (Lecture handout) Frankenstein has been described as a Female Gothic  [2]  which is defined as the work that women writers have done in the literary mode that, since the eighteenth century, we have called the Gothic. (Moers, p.214) She intended Frankenstein to be the kind of ghost story that would curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart. (Moers, p.214) This is seen in the description when the mad scientist makes the monster: It was on a dreary night of Novemberà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feetà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦my candle was nearly burnt outà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsion motion agitated its limbsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips. (Moers, p.217-218) The adjectives dreary, lifeless, horrid, shrivelled and black create a dark image of the monster for the reader. The feelings described such as anxiety, agony and agitation of its limbs reflect possible negative feelings the reader may be experiencing as they read the description. The action described such as my candle was nearly burnt out and it breathed hard creates suspense to the mystery of this creature. These techniques show Frankenstein to have brought a new sophistication to literary terror and it did so without a heroine, without even an important female victim. (Moers, p.216) Mary Shelleys personal experience influenced her writing and a feminist may see the hideous description of birth as an addition to fear of female sexuality because his workshop of filthy creation is seen as filthy because obscenely sexual. (Lecture handout) Womens childbirth is metaphorically described in a hideous way in Frankenstein as shown in Frankensteins process, when he has decided to produce new life, is to visit the vaults and charnel houses and examine the human body in all its disgusting phases of decay and decomposition. (Moers, p.220) To examine the causes of life, he says, we must first have recourse to death. His purpose is to bestow animation upon lifeless matter, so that he might in process of time renew life where death has apparently devoted the body to corruption. (Moers, p.220) Death and lifeless matter must be looked at and used to make new life: Death and birth were thus as hideously mixed in the life of Mary Shelley as in Frankensteins workshop of filthy creationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦her myth of the birth of a nameless monsterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦which records the trauma of her lossà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦of her first babyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦who did not live long enough to be given a name. (Moers, p.221) A feminist may relate to the feelings of mothers guilt of abandoning her children as only women experience a mothers attachment to their child. Ellen Moers states that another personal female experience which influenced Shelleys writing was the absence of a mother since she was born and her fathers abandonment of her after she eloped. (Moers, p.222) I, the miserable and the abandoned. Cries the monster at the end of Frankenstein, I am an abortion to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled onà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I have murdered the lovely and the helplessà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I have devoted my creator to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. (Moers, p.222) This reflects Mary Shelleys feelings of being miserable and abandoned through harsh imagery using words such as spurned, kicked, trampled. It also reflects her guilt over losing her children which are lovely and helpless and have suffered the same abandonment as the newborn is at once monstrous agent of destruction and pite ous victim of parental abandonment. (Moers, p.222) A feminist may consider all women to originate from Eve to identify who we are and the reason why we are separated from men into a different gender which triggered the separation of public-masculine world and domestic-feminine one. Frankenstein is heavily influenced by the evidence of marginalisation of fallen Eve in John Miltons Paradise Lost. Frankenstein Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? the monster reports wondering, describing endless speculations cast in Miltonic terms.  [3]  These questions refer back to the story of mankind to identify who we are, what we were before we were alive and when we came into this world. Thus their questionings are in some sense female, for they belong in that line of literary womens questionings of the fall into genderà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Gilbert and Gubar, p.229-230) Relating back to the point that Eve represents female fall, a feminist may read Frankenstein as a subverted version of Miltons Paradise Lost with the emphasis on the fall of the woman in terms of her creativity. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue that Mary Shelley uses Waltons revelations in the novel to mirror her anxieties as a woman. Walton says: You are well-acquainted with my failure and how heavily I bore the disappointment  [4]  However, Mary Shelley also states in her introduction in Frankenstein that she had spent her childhood in waking dreams of literature; later, both she and her poet-husband hoped she would prove herself worthy of [her] parentage and enrol [herself] on the page of fame (xii). (Gilbert and Gubar, p.229-230) Both Shelley and Walton share the anxiety of failure as a writer. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it seems possible that one of the anxious fantasies his narrative helps Mary Shelley covertly examine is the fearful tale of a female fall from a lost paradise of art, speech, and autonomy into a hell of sexuality, silence, and filthy materialityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Gilbert and Gubar, p.231) A feminist may argue that female characters are just as important as male characters in literature which may be an argument for the equality of importance of men and women in everyday life. The female characters of the book have a significant role in the story: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Victors post-creation nightmare of transforming a lovely, living Elizabeth, with a single magical kiss, into the corpse of my dead mother enveloped in a shroud made more horrible by grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel (42, chap 5) (Gilbert and Gubar, p.232) Relating back to the subject of Gothic writing, Elizabeths character enables Shelley to further reveal her Gothic style through chilling imagery using words such as corpse, dead and grave-worms crawling. Though it has been disguised, buried, or miniaturised, female-nessà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is at the heart of this apparently masculine book. (Gilbert and Gubar, p.232) Although the book is comprised of mainly male characters, Elizabeths character is used to show Shelleys talent in writing which is the heart of the book. A feminist may see the character Victor as the cause of the fall of women as he symbolises Eve who represents all women who are tempted to do wrong unto the world and unleash Sin and Death. Victors curiosity also mirrors Eves curiosity: He is consumed by a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature, a longing which -expressed in his explorations of vaults and charnel-houses, his guilty observations of the structure of human frame- recalls the criminal female curiosity that led Psyche to lose love by gazing upon its secret face, Eve to insist upon consuming intellectual foodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Gilbert and Gubar, p.234) The secrets of nature is a sexual reference and the metaphors vaults and charnel-houses and human frame are metaphors for bodies and intellectual food refers to sexual appetite: For what Victor Frankenstein most importantly learns, we must remember, is that he is the author of the monster-for him alone is reservedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦so astonishing a secret- and thus it is he who is the true murderer, he who unleashes Sin and Death upon the world, he who dreams the primal kiss that incestuously kills both sister and mother. (Gilbert and Gubar, p.234) A feminist recognises the importance of books and reading to further womens education. (Lecture handout) The monster is the voice of Mary Shelley. Werters story, says the monster-and he seems to be speaking for Mary Shelley-taught him about gentle and domestic manners and about lofty sentimentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦which had for their object something out of selfà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the monster explains to Victor that I thought Werter himself a more divine being that I had everà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦imagined. (Gilbert and Gubar, p.237) Mary Shelley reveals to her readers the importance of education and etiquette such as gentle and domestic manners to help men and women in their everyday lives. Mary Shelley considers Werter a divine being relaying the message that men are valued for their knowledge and can enable women to learn from them through their literature. A feminist may view Frankenstein as a separation of public-masculine world and domestic feminine one as males are taking the domestic role of womens childbirth in Shelleys alternative world. (Lecture handout) Mary Shelley creates an alternative all-male world in her novel. Frankensteins bride-to-be is transformed in his arms into the corpse of his dead mother- a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. (p53)  [5]  This description horridly describes the corpse intentionally as a representation of the death of all women. One of the deepest horrors of this novel is Frankensteins implicit goal of creating a society for men only: his creature is male; he refuses to create a female; there is no reason that the race of immortal beings he hoped to propagate should not be exclusively male. (Mellor, p.274) This separation of the public-masculine world and domestic feminine one helps us to understand the cultural background of the text in the time it was written in regards to peoples ideas on gender separation. (Lecture handout) The men in Frankensteins world all work outside the homeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦The women are confined to the home; Elizabeth for instance, is not permitted to travel with Victor and regretted that she had not the same opportunities of enlarging her experience and cultivating her understanding (151). Inside the home, women are either kept as a kind of pet (Victor loved to tend on Elizabeth as I should on a favourite animal [p.30]; or they work as house wives, childcare providers, and nursesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Mellor, p.275) Men are seen to have more opportunities to expand their knowledge and develop their understanding and women are seen as pets or animals. Victor Frankensteins nineteenth-century Genevan society is founded on a rigid division of sex roles. (Mellor, p.274) We can see Mary Shelleys feminist views on the divide of the gender in the novel and the costs of it. Frankensteins obsession with his experiment has caused him to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time (p.50) (Mellor, p.275) The bad result of the division is he ignored his friends and loved ones as he cannot do scientific research and think lovingly of Elizabeth and his family at the same time. (Mellor, p.275) Feminist theory of Frankenstein enhances my understanding of the text as it has shown me it could be read as a womans story of male creativity. The theme of gender is exposed throughout the novel in different ways. The description of birth or the hideous progeny of body reveals the fear of female sexuality of the time. Evidence of marginalisation is shown in the references to Miltons Paradise Lost as Eve is seen to be fallen. Also the separation of public-masculine world and domestic feminine one is seen through the characters roles in the novel. Mary Shelleys gothic style is seen as a subversive form of writing as no other woman before her was able to develop this style in an effective way. There is a strong encouragement to educate women through the importance of books and reading in the novel as Shelley used previous literature to write her novel. This is significant as feminist readings of Frankenstein can be used by other feminists to understand other novels the same way feminis t theory of Frankenstein has helped me to understand the text.

Robert Frost :: essays research papers

It has been said many times that all men have a common bond, or a thread that joins them together. Robert Frost ¹s poem  ³The Tuft of Flowers ² explores the existence of such a bond, as experienced by the speaker. In the everyday circumstance of performing a common chore, the speaker discovers a sense of brotherhood with another laborer. Frost contrasts a sense of aloneness with a sense of understanding to convey his theme of unity between men. To understand the setting of the poem, one must first understand how grass was mowed in the time period in which the poem was written (1906). Grass was mostly mowed by hand using a scythe. The mowing was often done in the dew of the morning for better mowing. This left the grass wet, and it needed to be scattered for drying. The phrase turning the grass refered to the scattering of the grass for drying. In  ³The Tuft of Flowers, ² the speaker has gone out to turn the grass. Whoever did the mowing is already gone, for there are no signs of his presence. The speaker is alone. Then, a butterfly catches the speaker ¹s attention, and leads his gaze to a tuft of flowers, which the mower chose to leave intact. The patch of beauty left by his fellow worker causes the speaker to feel that he is no longer alone. There is a sense of understanding between the speaker and the mower, because an appreciation of beauty unites them. Frost uses peaceful images to relate the feeling of his poem. The setting is in a grassy field with a brook running through it. The tranquil feeling is added to by a silent butterfly, who searches for a flower upon which to land. In keeping with the peaceful surroundings, Frost speaks of a long scythe  ³whispering to the ground, ² and of hearing  ³wakening birds around. ² The speaker also listens for a whetstone  ³on the breeze ² to determine if there is anyone around, and finds a  ³leaping tongue of bloom ² beside the  ³reedy brook. ²  ³The Tuft of Flowers ² does not contain a definite meter, but it does have a strict rhyme scheme of AA, BB. The poem is organized in couplets, each of which contains a single thought. This makes the poem more charming and gives it simplicity, which adds to the overall feeling of peace and tranquility. Robert Frost provides many interesting ideas in  ³The Tuft of Flowers.

Funding my used book store Essay

This will be an outlet that deals in second-hand or used books. Literacy of a people is the foundation of a nation. We wish to encourage the culture of reading in order to eliminate illiteracy. We have chosen to go this route due to affordability. The shop’s name â€Å"Daily Books† is bound to be a crowd puller. The service will be targeting the thousands of shoppers and those whiling away window shopping or taking casual walks. Considering the hard economic times we are going through as a nation, this idea could not be timelier. Concept Funding my used book store Business Statement SBA loans are available and we are going for the lowdoc that addresses needs below $150k. This is part of the 7(a) loan program. The loans not only come with low interest rates and minimum hassles but also with entrepreneur education. This is a very helpful resource. Since some banks allow one to access funds for the business from relatives, then your proposal is well within all legal requirements. Competitive edge Products and services: – Ease of getting classical novels and writings which may not be available from the conventional book shops. These may as well be collectors’ items. Inexpensive: – All our books will be way below the market prices. Organization: – The arrangement and placement of books will make it easy for shoppers to locate what they want and hence save valuable time. The lighting will be artistic and professional. Location: -. The shop’s strategic location is a sure winner. The university and schools’ readership will come in handy. Public relations: – This is one of our greatest strengths as my partner is deep and wide reader, not to mention that I am an excellent people person and marketer. We have been careful to hire committed staff whose vision is similar to ours. Market / Industry information While the knowledge search continues to expand, there is stiff competition in the horizon. New players are joining the market not to mention new technology. The government is putting in place structures that will aid in the growth. Product/Service Information The crucial service on offer is the provision of an accessible, unique product, convenient, and a cheap service facility which promises easy access to the avid reader. The county council has been of great support since we shared our idea with them. On the launch, they have offered the parade grounds at no charge at all. They will also be sending word out to the local dwellers. Goals and strategies In the short term, we will be focusing on getting people to see the big picture. What has all along been thought of a rich man’s hobby that owning a rich home library is their preserve will now be common place. Due to our strategic location, we are assured of traffic. Our goal then, will be to focus on those walking in and around the complex. We aim to serve at least 50 walking customers per day. The tills in the stores around the town will be offering discount vouchers to all their customers in the first month after launching. The next level and secondary goal will entail advertising by use of flyers and banners. We shall also do rounds in the offices. Our marketers will visit every school in the area and the university as well. For these students, we intend to offer a discounted price especially for the course books. We shall introduce membership to all our customers with an aim of giving away bonus gifts and discounts. This will see our customer base grow from 50 to 100 after 6 months of business. In the long term, we are looking at electronic sales. This will entail a website that will advertise as well as offer on-line sales. A delivery van will come in handy for those members who may be a little out of town. The bookshop should have a readability of 500 plus faithful customers after a period of 2 years. As a backup plan for the above strategy, we will be liaising with the local bookshops as well as those in the nearby towns. We shall introduce a partnership programme that should see their sales soar as well. The idea is to bring about symbiosis and cut unfair competition. We plan to have stock lists of al the other outlets and when customers make enquiries, referential sales will be seamless. We shall encourage book owners to exchange or deposit old books that they no longer use. This idea will go along way in reducing our capital requirement for re-stocking. Payback As per the bank’s requirements, we have negotiated a very low payback interest rate. We have a 60 days initial grace period after which we shall be required to pay only 1. 5% PA on a reducing balance. This arrangement will go along way in helping us repay you within a comfortable period. It will not stretch the business neither will you be strained financially while it gives you peace of mind that your investment is secured. References Advani, A. (2005). SBA loans for your startup. Entrepreneur. com. Retrieved November 18, 2008 http://www. entrepreneur. com/money/financing/startupfinancingcolumnistasheeshadvani/article79254. html

Internationalisation in Marketing Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Uppsala model also identifies the differences that exist between and local and foreign environment. These differences are important for marketers as one strategy in a local setting may bear great benefit but the same strategy can lead to a disaster. So the difference between environments is very important and the model identifies this difference. In this regard, the model is greatly effective. The stages that are suggested in the model are also very helpful for international marketers. As the stages increase the investment in the foreign country also increases. This provides the marketers a proper framework to go by marketing their products in a stage-wise fashion. First limited marketing is required and as the firm gains knowledge and increases its capital excessive marketing should be done. Uppsala model also holds that one kind of knowledge can be used in specific markets. This is not right for international marketers as different countries have different cultures and although th e culture might be close it may not be the same. So different markets have different dynamics and marketers cannot generalize their strategies. This point discussed in the model is not of any use to the marketers. Overall Uppsala model provides a great framework for international marketers to help them develop a marketing strategy. We will write a custom essay sample on Internationalisation in Marketing or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now There are some things in the model which do not apply to marketers so they are not useful to marketers. Network model emphasizes on the relationships a firm develops and maintains in order to function smoothly in a foreign market. This model suggests that firms can tap into the international markets by developing networks which can help them eventually in starting up business in the international market. This model is greatly useful for international marketers because it involves building relationships. Marketers can build a relationship with similar firms and can witness what kind of approach they are using to target the clientele in the foreign country.