Profuse Masculinity
I think we can all agree that relationships are hard. We would also probably agree that, within relationships, some habits are healthier than others. Lastly, I am willing to venture we can all… Continue reading
Tag Archive: British literature
The Lady’s Dressing Room Meme
Jonathan Swift’s “A Lady’s Dressing Room” is a satirical poem about the representation versus actuality of females in 18th century Britain. This meme explains Strephon’s confusion with the discovery of female bodily functions… Continue reading
Lord Byron: The Man, The Myth, The Legend
The Byronic hero is commonly described as arrogant and isolated, while also being seductive and mysterious. Part of the character’s mystery is usually due to their hidden, dark past. Our modern Byronic… Continue reading
I WISH THAT I COULD BE LIKE THE COOL KIDS: HOW THE AGE OF INNOCENCE HAS ALTERED
Throughout William Blake’s, Songs of Innocence and Experience, he goes to great lengths on both accounts, of showing the true differences between a life of innocence, and how this is altered once experience has come… Continue reading
CONTINUED CHANGE: SPOTLIGHT ON THE LATE/EARLY 1800 WOMAN
Mary Wollstonecraft: Context Category Can one voice challenge the thoughts of a crowd and bring hope for change? For one thing, women have been wishing for rights way past the creation of Wollstonecraft’s… Continue reading
The History of Mary Prince, a tremendous step towards Freedom
“White people who keep slaves think that black people are like cattle, without natural affection. But my heart tells me it is far otherwise.” It is by her emotional standpoints that Mary Prince… Continue reading
The Idealization of Childhood in Wordsworth’s “Ode” and Moonrise Kingdom
Many film goers can think of their favorite quotes from a movie. Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is rife with them. “That’s not a safe altitude (Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson, 2012)..” “I’m going to find a tree to… Continue reading
Some Reflections Upon “Happily Ever After”
Disney’s line of princess-themed films have come a long way in terms of the portrayal of their leading female characters. Early films like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty feature damsels in distress who simply… Continue reading
Brutality in Satire: The Similarities of A Modest Proposal and American Psycho
One of the biggest risks a satirist can face is his or her readers entirely missing the point of the work. Two clear instances of this have taken place decades apart from one another,… Continue reading
Alexander Pope’s Condescending Mock-Epic Towards Women’s Vanity
Gender roles in society have always put women in vain. Whether, in literature or in actual events, sexism has always been a great topic for confrontation. Alexander Pope wrote The Rape of the… Continue reading
Comparing Houyhnhnms & Vulcans: How Swift’s Critique of Society is Still Used Today
Gulliver’s Travels, anonymously published by Jonathan Swift in 1726, satirizes the travel narrative, an immensely popular genre at this time due to the vast number of explorers who published their own adventures and experiences in… Continue reading
Without Education–There is no “Happily Ever After”
Mary Astell is a firm believer that women’s rights are just as important as a man’s. In her essay Some Reflections Upon Marriage, she argues these positions. Mary Astell grew up in Newcastle… Continue reading
The Reason’s Why Swift May Not Be Viewed So Misogynistic
When looking over Swift’s, The Lady’s Dressing Room, it is easy to be swept away by the contents, most pertaining to the grotesque. The shock is that the grotesque belongs to Celia, the “victim” of the… Continue reading
American Horror Story: Coven, an Appropriation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
FX’s American Horror Story: Coven appropriates Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in a modern retelling. The plot orbits teenage witch Zoe Benson and her fellow attendants of Miss Robichaux’s Acadamy for Exceptional Young Ladies, a… Continue reading
A Textual Analysis of Wordsworth’s “Intimations of Immortality”
William Wordsworth has said that, “nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit the notion of death as a state applicable to my own being” (552, Wordsworth). In Wordsworth’s “Ode:… Continue reading
Alexander Pope’s Evident Misogyny in The Rape of the Lock
During the height of satirical workmanship, Alexander Pope writes in response to an actual situation that occurred to the detriment of Mrs. Arabella Fermor. (Longman, 2471) In this situation, a lock of Arabella’s… Continue reading
Agency and Liberation in Haywood’s Fantomina
Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina: Or, Love in a Maze takes a different approach to female agency namely in the method in which her protagonist attains her sense of freedom. By occupying various stages of… Continue reading
The Reasons that Required Lady Montagu to write a Poem criticizing Dr. S.
18th century society in England mandated a chasm as wide as the Atlantic Ocean between the roles of the sexes. The men supposed themselves England: superior, imperial, and conquering, while giving the women… Continue reading