The author made some strong points about how society has become throughout this story. You can tell he isn’t fond of the fact that our society has adapted to caring a lot more about our appearance then other factors. He made some other points but this one was repeated through many examples.…
Cooper’s paragraph is practically a collage of the descriptions that Child derides in her first paragraph. Child mentions that men objectify women through the use of descriptions such as “’rosy lips,’ and ‘melting eyes,’ and ‘voluptuous forms,’” (par. 1). Using similar descriptions, Cooper bases Remarkable’s opinion of Elizabeth off of her physical features such as her “spotless … forehead,” “long silken lashes,” and “cheeks burning with roses.” Cooper even suggests that Elizabeth’s’ nose would devalue her greatly if it neither added character nor was pleasing to look at. This value basis matches the ideals Child critiques when she mentions that “women [are] urged to simplicity and truthfulness, that they might become more pleasing” (par. 3).…
“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition...”(pg.1,chap.1) lived in nineteenth century Regency England, where social status was dictated by wealth and breeding, which as a rule could only be inherited. This insured that wealth stayed within family circles and that the poor could not rise up the social ladder and make a better life for themselves. If one was of good breeding and wealth, such as Emma, one would be high ranking in society almost regardless of what one would do, as long as one did not violate the rigid rules of upper class life. Because women did not travel much in those days, especially not for entertainment, Emma was largely confined to her father's large estate with nothing much to do. Her family's status made it socially unacceptable for her to do much else apart from sitting around, pursuing the fine arts, in order to show how wealthy they were. The limited availability of entertainment and places to go gives the audience a strong sense of the confined nature of an upper class woman's existence at that time.…
Jane’s plain and normal features – of which do her no good to distinguish her from the typical woman – prevent her from receiving fair and equal treatment to women born with blessed genetics. For example, in chapter 3 in which Jane’s cousin John bullies her, and gets her into trouble for defending herself, the house servant Abbot makes a comment to the other servant, noting that “if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that”, to which the other servant, Bessie, replies with a remark in which she notes that she can easier sympathize with Jane’s cousin Georgiana due to her beauty and grace. Even the older women in this book don’t give Jane the benefit of the doubt because of her appearance. Because Jane does not have any exceptional genetic features, somehow her worth as a person devaluates to a standard in which she cannot even receive sympathy. Furthermore, Jane shows the result of a lifetime of belittlement because of her appearance in chapter 26 when Mr. Rochester – the master of the…
Emma presents her audience with the ills of a socially stratified society and its repressive constraints manifested through her characters. The conservative social structure of Regency England is established through a clearly defined social organisation which is responsible for determining class by a families inherited wealth and lineage. The eponymous character is presented as the regency stereotype of the upper-class elitist, with the preliminary stages of the novel reflecting the context through the establishment of Emma’s social superiorty. “Emma Woodhouse, clever, handsome, and rich with a comfortable lifestyle and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings in existence.” The opening sentence uses a trochaic rhythm to reveal the heroines place in the higher echelons of Highbury society. Emma’s moral development and her “disposition to think a little to well of herself” as stated by the omniscient narrator amplifies Emma’s vanity gently satirising the…
The protagonist of the story, Connie, is a vain, “typical” teenage girl, looking for attention, especially from the opposite sex. Constantly “…craning her neck to glance in mirrors” (614), she often considered her appearance and how she looked to others to be a matter of extreme, if not most, importance.…
Appearance is everything, the way someone looks, talks, and acts all make up who they are as a person. When someone does something the way they are seen often affects the outcome and consequences of their actions. This is seen very often in both Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. The main characters in both of these novels do awful things but their physical appearance, mindset, and whether they are a good or a bad person affects the way they are treated. The way society sees a person's overall appearance too often changes the way their actions are seen and dealt with and how they are treated as well.…
In “A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?” an essay by Susan Sontag, A lot of questions and points are put up that really make you think if society is fair or not. Sontag does a good job of making the reader question the point and realize how unfair society is today. In this essay, Sontag compares how society views men and women before now and shows the differences between them. Sontag does a good job of using examples to prove her point that society is very unfair today against women.…
Like the many of us today that are obsessed with reputation and appearance, the Victorians were just as bad, most of their life was centred around what other people think of them. What is the right way to dress and talk? Victorians showed how important reputation and appearance is to them in their everyday life from the way they dress to the literature they wrote and read. This is shown very clearly in two texts that I shall be analysing and comparing. They are; Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte and the A Doll’s House written by Henrik Ibsen.…
The culture standards' of beauty has changed throughout the course of history. Visual art in eighteenth Century America lead to the ideal women which was plump, flesh and full-figured ( Wykes & Gunter Pg. 154) This was a time period were a women's size represented strength, power and successful motherhood. The fertility was important because the more children she could bear, the more helpers the family would have to work the land.…
a short, slight, pretty figure, a quantity of golden hair, and a pair of blue eyes and a forehead with a singular capacity of lifting and knitting itself into an expression that was not quite one of perplexity, or wonder, or alarm, or merely of a bright fixed attention, though it included all the four expressions. (Dickens 17)…
During this time period, the idea of wealth and class was predominant among society; therefore, most first impressions were based on the amount of money a person had or on his/her ancestry. The main theme of first impressions goes around “Elizabeth, the heroine, and Darcy, her eventual husband, the chief obstacle resides in the book’s original title: First Impressions.” (Sherry, Pride and Prejudice limits of society) At the ball, Mr. Bingley encourages Mr. Darcy to dance with Elizabeth but he refuses by stating, “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt him” (Austen 13); and Elizabeth’s first impression about Mr. Darcy is that “ he is proud, above his company, and above being pleased” (Austen 17). The reader understands that physical appearance is not the only factor that drives Mr. Darcy towards that opinion, but her lack of wealth and her vast family are.…
Through the book Jekyll and Hyde we see what Victorian English society was like. Stevenson takes what they pride themselves on most (their image) and uses it to create a hellish nightmare that invades the subconscious of every 1800’s Victorian Englishman. The fear of someone not being how they appear is one that shows how much they truly valued their image, prestige, and reputation. A reminder today on the things we should value about each other. Not to uphold presentation but…
Literature often deals with the human drive for wealth and material success. The love of money often exercises a harmful power over individuals, causing a conflict both within themselves and with others. Although the characters in A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations assess the value of people only in terms of their financial contributions to society, they learn that self respect and dignity can be derived from means other than the possession of money and prestige. Through Scrooge and Pip, Dickens shows how the love of money does not lead to happiness but rather defiles the soul, depriving it of morality and grace.…
Most of Dickens’s novels were written episodically in monthly or weekly journals such as Master Humphrey’s Clock (Wikipedia). Due to this, the stories were affordable, accessible to anyone in that era. On top of that, his stories were widely anticipated by his readers causing many to be more interested in the classic English literature. The other impact of his episodic writings was his exposure to the opinions of his readers. He was able to analyse the public’s reaction to his works before starting a new chapter. For an example, Dickens’s friend, John Forster was able to suggest to him that Little Nell should die in The Old Curiosity Shop. Hence, he was able to write a story based on what the readers want, expect or prefer and because of this, he managed to capture the reader into reading more of his works, thus contributing, albeit indirectly, to the classic English literature.…