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Www.scarletit.solutions universal ebooks www.scarletit.solutionsfrom the internet www.scarletit.solutions free books. Apr 27, 2013. Woolf, Virginia. “Professions for Women.” The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose. Laura Buzzard et. Toronto: Broadview, 2011. Posted in 2: Close Reading,.

Being interested, as I am, in the confluences of the arts particularly how literature and music work together I have come across a few interesting pairings and since I know that we are all looking for ways to respond to each other’s posts I thought I would throw this one into the mix and see what other poems have been successfully set to music, at least in the opinion of my classmates. In addition to The Lady of Shalott, which I mentioned in an earlier post, Lorenna McKennitt has set Alfred Noyes’ to music. Noyes isn’t in the anthology but I recall this as one of the poems I had to memorize in school and Anne of Green Gables recited it for a contest in the book by the same name.

I find the piece too long, but my daughter likes it a lot, so I include it here. McKennitt does a good job of evoking the Celtic music of Ireland which is where the poem is set. One of the most successful pairings of poet and composer, apart from the financially successful but otherwise saccharine efforts of Andrew Lloyd Webber in Cats, was Benjamin Brittan and A.H.

Brittan set several of Auden’s poems to music and the two actually collaborated to write the acutely ironic Tell Me the Truth About Love for Hedli Anderson, a cabaret singer. The collaborations are noteworthy in this context because they represent the ‘modernity’ of both the poet and the composer and are a good example of where 20th century ‘classical’ music was going. You can hear the dissonance and disconnection in both they lyric and the music. The first is (I apologize for the quality of the video) The poem is both funny and sad when viewed against Auden’s struggle to be accepted as a homosexual in a world where it was still illegal. Some say love’s a little boy, And some say it’s a bird, Some say it makes the world go around, Some say that’s absurd, And when I asked the man next-door, Who looked as if he knew, His wife got very cross indeed, And said it wouldn’t do.

Does it look like a pair of pyjamas, Or the ham in a temperance hotel? Does its odour remind one of llamas, Or has it a comforting smell?

Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is, Or soft as eiderdown fluff? Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?

O tell me the truth about love. Our history books refer to it In cryptic little notes, It’s quite a common topic on The Transatlantic boats; I’ve found the subject mentioned in Accounts of suicides, And even seen it scribbled on The backs of railway guides. Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian, Or boom like a military band? Could one give a first-rate imitation On a saw or a Steinway Grand?

Is its singing at parties a riot? Does it only like Classical stuff? Will it stop when one wants to be quiet? O tell me the truth about love.

I looked inside the summer-house; It wasn’t over there; I tried the Thames at Maidenhead, And Brighton’s bracing air. I don’t know what the blackbird sang, Or what the tulip said; But it wasn’t in the chicken-run, Or underneath the bed. Can it pull extraordinary faces? Is it usually sick on a swing? Does it spend all its time at the races, or fiddling with pieces of string?

Has it views of its own about money? Does it think Patriotism enough? Are its stories vulgar but funny?

O tell me the truth about love. When it comes, will it come without warning Just as I’m picking my nose? Will it knock on my door in the morning, Or tread in the bus on my toes? Will it come like a change in the weather? Will its greeting be courteous or rough?

Will it alter my life altogether? O tell me the truth about love.

A more serious, and moving piece is. In it Auden explores the heartache of trying to be a couple in an England that would not accept homosexuality. The images are stark and barren with little sense of hope. Now the leaves are falling fast, Nurse’s flowers will not last; Nurses to the graves are gone, And the prams go rolling on.

Whispering neighbours, left and right, Pluck us from the real delight; And the active hands must freeze Lonely on the separate knees. Dead in hundreds at the back Follow wooden in our track, Arms raised stiffly to reprove In false attitudes of love.

Starving through the leafless wood Trolls run scolding for their food; And the nightingale is dumb, And the angel will not come. Cold, impossible, ahead Lifts the mountain’s lovely head Whose white waterfall could bless Travellers in their last distress.

If you are interested, I recommend that you have a look at Brittan’s Peter Grimes. It is a complete departure from the operas of the 19th century and a great window into the way Englishmen viewed the world in the wake of two world wars.

I would be interested to hear about any other examples of poetry set to music that you have come across- from heavy metal to rap. Hello all, I know we’re not quite on The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock yet, but I’m really excited to get to it because it happens to be my absolute favorite poem. I remember studying it in high school and my English teacher played this song for us. I’m sure we’ve all heard it at some point, but I just thought it was cool to know that the song that I thought was totally overplayed on the radio when I was a kid, (I remember not liking it, and always changing the station when it came on), is inspired by T.S. Eliot, (which is now obvious to me considering the title of the song). For my close reading I will focused on a short paragraph about marriage. I’m a sucker for love stories, even failed love stories, so one of the most intriguing parts of the novel for me was Clarissa’s relationship and history with both Richard and Peter.

I love the complexity of the relationships, romantic or otherwise, in Mrs. They tend to be fluctuating and ambivalent, which is an excellent reflection of human nature and the way we ourselves interact with one another. The following passage is on page 2223: “And there is a dignity in people; a solitude; even between husband and wife a gulf; and that one must respect, thought Clarissa, watching him open the door; for one would not part with it oneself, or take it, against his will from one’s husband, without losing one’s independence, one’s self-respect—something, after all, priceless.” This passage does an excellent job of summing up some of the significance of the novel. Woolf wants to show the shared experiences between people (the entire narrative is created by the unknowing links that people have) and yet the “solitude” or the “gulf” they feel as a result of being unable to connect in the conscious, tangible ways that they desire. Despite any closeness these people might share, they are still very much stuck in their own bodies and their own concerns. They will never be able to know what the other is thinking or feeling despite the curiosity and even eagerness they sometimes experience.

Each character seems to feel the weight of the human experience as an individual one. When reading this book this gulf that they are all unable to cross has a palpable presence. The preceding passages include Richard determined tell Clarissa he loves her, out of jealousy of her past relationship with Peter Walsh.

As he walks through Green Park (page 2220) he thinks to himself “For he would say it in so many wordsBecause it is a thousand pities never to say what one feels.” But once he arrives he is only able to give her flowers and assures himself she “understood without his speaking”, having no clue earlier she was questioning the choices that led her there. Clarissa’s missed connection with Peter, followed by a too brief to be satisfying moment with her husband, causes her to contemplate solitude in a marriage and even justify it to herself. I mentioned earlier in class that I believe Clarissa is restless, and trying to assure herself of her ordinariness and contentment with life.

This is yet another section in the text where Mrs. Dalloway rationalizes her restless loneliness (loneliness seen through her jealousy involving Richard and Elizabeth, and her interaction with Peter). It appears to be true that she highly values her independence, and is suggested at various points throughout the text that this influenced her decisions in the past. On page 2221 Richard acknowledges that she married him for support, and this could arguably be seen as support so she has her independence, the opposite of the life fidgety, intimate, and unpredictable Peter offered. But that also doesn’t change the fact that Clarissa is lonely in a marriage characterized by a gulf, highlighted by her passionate ambivalence towards Peter. It is not only revealing about her marriage, but also her character.

Clarissa views this separation or gap between people as “dignity.” It is dignifying to expect and allow space between people. Any relationship, even a marriage, to Clarissa, should not be characterized by claustrophobic intimacy. Her “self-respect” is “priceless,” her identity and sense of self is all she really has and she is unwilling to jeopardize that.

It is suggested that even for love, the loss of freedom was not worth it. So while her marriage with Richard might be lacking, he afforded her the independence that she views as crucial to her survival. She is an admirable character in her resolve; Mrs. Dalloway knows her priorities and accepts her circumstance despite any dissatisfaction (though I was still hoping maybe she’d change her mind and leave with Peter). Since Clarissa values her privacy so highly, she “would not part with it,” perhaps the discontent I sense stems not from her solitude but rather her inability to escape it. She has the space she desires, but consequently that also seems to be all she has.

Her daughter is growing up and preoccupied, her husband has his career and social standing, and all her old friends (until the evening of the party) were far away, so she craves the social reassurance of lunch dates or political parties to fill the gap. Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2012. I’ll start by apologizing for the alliteration, I’m not a fan of it myself but it fit so well with such an odd letter that well I had to. Down to business!

I’ve decided to have a look at a particular paragraph from Mrs. Dalloway which I found very exciting. I’ve left my textbook at school, so I’m using a PDF copy of the book (which I’ve cited at the bottom of this post, if anyone wants to pull it up, just go to the link and download the PDF), so my citations will not match up with the textbook (clearly). I’m looking at this paragraph (pp 9 in the PDF): “It rasped her, though, to have stirring about in her this brutal monster! To hear twigs cracking and feel hooves planted down in the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul; never to be content quite, or quite secure, for at any moment the brute would be stirring, this hatred, which, especially since her illness, had power to make her feel scraped, hurt in her spine; gave her physical pain, and made all pleasure in beauty, in friendship, in being well, in being loved and making her home delightful rock, quiver, and bend as if indeed there were a monster grubbing at the roots, as if the whole panoply of content were nothing but self love! This hatred!” I know I’m not supposed to put the passage down, but I think this is probably easier since I’m using a different version.

What is it that makes this passage amazing? For me, the beauty of this passage is in the diction and the metaphor. For me, this passage defines Woolf’s writing. The dark word choice in this passage makes the image of hatred which she’s trying to describe come to life.

Words like “rasping,” “brutal,” “scraped,” and “monster” all carry very violent and vivid (there’s that alliteration again) connotations with them. Since she is describing hatred in this passage, Woolf has opted to liken the feeling to an all-consuming monster, which is also a violent image, and she has used these words to back up and strengthen her point. And her likening the soul to a forest, a dark and distressed one at that, what with it being full of horses and (in my imagination) dead leaves and twigs scattered about, made the hatred metaphor sink even deeper. The reader can almost feel the depth of darkness and evil that arises in the soul when such true hatred is felt. I absolutely love when she uses these kinds of metaphors. If anyone has read another of her works, A Room of One’s Own, specifically the section “Professions for Women,” you will be familiar with her metaphor of violently murdering the angel in the house in order for the woman to have the freedom to embrace her voice as a person.

This is an equally powerful metaphor, and just as violent. The depth and power of this paragraph captured me while I was reading it.

How she can make such a small thing, like an emotion, feel so all-consuming, violent, and ultimately real through such a simple thing as word choice is truly amazing. Every time I read her work, this is what draws me into the piece and what keeps me absorbing her work.

—- Woolf, Virginia. Woolf, Virginia. “Professions for Women.” The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose. Laura Buzzard et. Toronto: Broadview, 2011. After talking today in class about examples related to Mrs. Dalloway (like Run Lola Run and Community) that showed how intricately our lives are interwoven and how they can affect each other unintentionally, I found myself coming up with a couple more examples and I just thought I would share them.

I’m sure (or I hope) that most of you have read Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. If so, you will be very familiar with this: Hermione’s time-turner.

In the book and the film, we see how delicate time really is. Any single action can alter what happens in the future, and Hermione uses the time-turner not only to attend more classes than her schedule can handle, but she also is able to save Buckbeak from his untimely death by altering history.

Everything Hermione did while going back in time worked in a domino affect and created an alternative outcome to what originally occurred. The same sort of outcome happens in the movie series Back to the Future. When Marty McFly initially travels back in time, he accidentally attracts the affections of his own mother (which is very disturbing). As he alters history simply by being present in a place/time he shouldn’t have been, parts of the life he once knew (like the house he grew up in) slowly begin to disappear, and he has to help his own two parents fall in love so that he will still be born one day. One last example I thought of was the collective works of author Sarah Dessen. Most of Dessen’s books (which have been written over the span of 15 years) are based in the fictional town/area of “Lakeview”.

Dessen writes the stories as if they are all happening simultaneously. Her characters cross paths throughout her novels because they all live in the same town, but they appear in a “cameo” sort of way. I’ve had to read her books more than once so that I could actually pick up on the appearances of the characters from other books, because she interweaves them so subtly you wouldn’t pick up on it if you hadn’t read the book that character was from.

So basically she’s taken Woolf’s idea of Mrs. Dalloway, and instead of writing in a continuous flow of streams of consciousness, she writes a complete novel about each person’s life that appears in her stories. You get to see how the main character in the story you’re currently reading perceives the presence of a character who to them is anonymous but to you, so much more. By doing this, it makes Dessen’s writing seem that much more realistic! Anyway, I just love the idea that every single person you meet or action you carry out will put your life down a certain path. I’m sure I’m going to be noticing other examples of this everywhere now, but I just felt like sharing these three for now! While reading Mrs.

Dalloway, the one thing that found myself doing was trying to connect to Virginia Woolf herself. I found in fascinating that a writer who was able to describe simple things and mundane aspects of everyday life in such beautiful detail took her own life.

Woolf suffered from bipolar disorder, and I think this novel is a testament to her suffering. Bipolar disorder is characterized by episodes of elevated mood alternating with a depressed state; I look at Clarissa Dalloway as the elevated mood, and Septimus as the depressed state. I think both are one in the same and both are written to represent the author herself. Clarissa, as the “elevated mood” has an appreciation for life, and it is described in the second paragraph of page 2157, “For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so” The sentence is written like poetry and it conveys a sense a beauty for her surroundings. Septimus is the contrast character to Clarissa. He’s not so much her exact opposite but a progression of her mood; from beautifying everything to a depressed state. He is what Clarissa’s character could become, but never does in the course of the novel.

At one point in the novel, Septimus’ “condition”, or rather lack-of condition is addressed; “Dr. Holmes might say there was nothing the matter.

Far rather would she that he were dead!” (Top of page 2168). This sentence is a direct notion to mental illness.

The idea that there is nothing actually wrong, and one is better off acting a certain way than being dead. What’s really interesting is that Clarissa and Septimus never actually encounter each other in the novel and that also speaks to Woolf’s internal struggle with her illness. The two sides of herself are always separate and there was never a middle ground where she could come to a sense of balance and normalcy. At the end of her party when she learns of the suicide, Clarissa reflects on Septimus’ death; “She felt somehow very like him-the young man who had killed himself.

She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun.” (bottom of 2259). I think this makes it clear that both characters are one in the same and the characters are in fact a manifestation of Woolf’s struggle with mental illness.

Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2012. In Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs.

Dalloway, I found Septimus Warren Smith to be one of the most intriguing characters, and was drawn to the passage where he addresses beauty in the world (2194 – second paragraph). I found this passage to be both lovely and yet very sad, especially after reading the novel in its whole and knowing Septimus’ fate. As Septimus sits in Regent Park, he takes in his surroundings, and is filled with “exquisite joy” (2194) as he observes a “leaf quivering in [a] rush of air” (2194), or swallows flying through the sky. All that is beautiful and true is “made out of ordinary things” (2194), these simple pleasures of the sights and sounds of Regent Park that – albeit ordinary – become something extraordinary for Septimus. This notion of a collection of ordinary things becoming something extraordinary is prevalent throughout Mrs. Dalloway, as the whole novel takes place during one apparently average day with that is far from ordinary.

While reading this passage I almost felt like I was reading poetry, Woolf makes use of alliteration when Septimus looks up to the sky to see the “swallows, swooping, [and] swerving” (2194), and on numerous occasions personifies the non-human objects that Septimus observes. Leaves “quiver” (2194) and the sun shines “in mockery” and “in pure good temper” (2194). The swallows, which “fling themselves in and out, round and round, yet always with perfect control as if elastics held them” (2194) foreshadow Septimus’ suicide. While deciding how to kill himself, Septimus does not choose “the bread knife”, “the gas fire”, or the “razors” (2238), but instead chooses to end his life by jumping out of a window. He “flung himself vigorously” (2239) similarly to how the birds fling themselves through the sky, but unlike the birds, Septimus does not fly up again. Septimus does not want to die, why then did the man who believed that “beauty was everywhere” (2194) kill himself? Is his suicide in fact an attempt to preserve what is true and beautiful?

The tone of the passage is rather optimistic, but there is an underlying sadness, because although Septimus can see the beauty around him, he cannot fully be apart of it. Interesting that despite the importance of his character, Septimus’ name appears considerably less times than Clarissa’s, Peter’s, and even Sally’s. Also I just really wanted to use Voyant. Woolf, Virginia. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2012.

The first time I heard of Mrs. Dalloway was in my postcolonial literature class last semester when its title was briefly mentioned during a class discussion regarding modernism. I was immediately intrigued by the concept of the story occurring over a single day, and I quickly added it to my lengthy list of “Things I Would Eventually Like To Read”. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it on our reading list for English 340, and I am happy to say that it far exceeded my expectations.

Oddly enough, I was most surprised by the amount of detail throughout the novel, as I originally assumed that the plot would revolve around simple observations. However, I enjoyed being guided through the story as it maintained a balance between simplistic events and characters that were both minor and complex. The particular section that I found most interesting was between pages 2166 and 2171, because of the quick and brief introductions of many different characters in such a short time. In a single paragraph, the second paragraph on page 2166, we are introduced to three characters: Sarah Bletchley, the mother whose voice resembles that of a “sleepwalker” (2166), Emily Coates, who seems to completely forget about her child who is “lying stiff and white in her arms” (2166) while she watches the plane soar across the sky, and “little Mr.

Bowley” (2166), who is equally as engaged with the flying object. Continuing onwards to page 2169, I was surprised to find even more characters being introduced so quickly: Maisie Johnson, the young girl “visiting London for the first time” (2169), Mrs. Dempster, the older women observing and wishing she could “whisper a word to Maisie Johnson” (2170), and Mr.

Bentley, an inquisitve man focused on the aeroplane as “a symbolof man’s soul” (2171). I found myself having to read this section over and over until I could figure out exactly what Woolf’s intentions were when including these minor characters in such close proximity, and although I am not sure of the exact reason, I will explain the significance it had for my reading experience.

Recently, I have been thinking about interactions with people and the shared experiences we all have, maybe without ever realizing it. I have been considering how everyone who is at the same place at the same time has the potential to have similar experiences, even though we all take something different away from that particular place and time. It is odd that this book has come to me at this time, and I see it as a sort of fate because of its similarities to my life right now.

Virginia Woolf including these minor details is a characteristic that is simply reflective of real life and its complexities; specific details being designated to such minor characters is representative of our everyday lives. We share experiences with people, much like the characters in this section (all observing the plane and each other), but will we ever see these people again? This is something I constantly think about, and I think it is the point Woolf is trying to make: when we are reading the novel, will we remember these characters later on? As English majors, I think we tend to try to remember characters and all of their attributes because we believe that they may become important later in the story. However, life is not always like that; people often come into our lives and leave just as quickly as they came, our interactions soon forgotten. Much like this novel, our lives are filled with small details that may or may not be significant later on.

Although I will most likely not remember these six characters in the future, nor the name of the friendly women with whom I had a conversation with on the train the other day, all were significant at their respective moments in time, and that is what makes our lives, and literature, meaningful and significant. Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W.

Norton and Company, Inc., 2012. Connecting Caves When I first began reading Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (and apart from being thrown off by her complex sentences and multiple characters), I found her diary statement in the Norton to be rather interesting and true: “I dig out beautiful caves behind my characters” (2155). Beautiful caves, the characters and minor characters in Woolf’s novel do not simply ‘exist’–their past, history, miniscule details are numerous in the “caves”, and at times I even found myself getting lost in all the vast perspectives and information she highlights. But to answer the question: Why does Woolf add details like street names and full names for (even) minor characters?

I believe it is as she purposely intended; Woolf adds these details to carve out an intricate world of description, but also to remind the reader of the various, random, and even indirect ways in which all people are silently connected. Starting out with Mrs. Dalloway’s grand adventure to the flower shop, one can’t help but notice the amount of traveling one tends to do. Being illiterate as I am in reading maps and directions of all kinds, I had a difficult time imagining ‘where’ exactly everything was located, and ‘where’ exactly all the characters were headed to; the eyes of each individual is constantly changing (and sometimes in fast progression), as Woolf goes about this normal day in June. But people have names. People have stories.

People have reasons for where they are going. Woolf gives everyone a name, and a story, and it’s almost impossible to imagine all the things she didn’t say in this single text alone. By passively, yet intentionally, attributing names for all the different characters we see (and don’t see), by changing characters view-point to all perspectives low and high, Woolf creates a sense of realism and truth–that existence is not just one straight path, but people come and people go, “rising and falling” on the waves of life. Everyone is involved in different ways, and everyone has the potential for their ‘own’ story. Streets are named throughout, and streets are naturally connected to each other. But why does Woolf even bother using so many locations again and again, or telling the reader where ‘exactly’ everyone/anyone is going?

By creating these names and directions for (all) the characters to follow, by giving multiple characters a specific purpose, Woolf creates the suspense that anyone has the chance to pass by anyone. And just as all people have the possibility to know each other, all these characters have the possibility to ‘collide’: when Mrs. Dalloway first runs into Whitbread, or when Peter Walsh just barely misses Septimus Smith and his wife (yet both see the poor old lady singing), indirect connections are formed through the progression of a single day; the ringing of the bell, the motor car and airplane, characters of all kinds are shown to be brought together by these strange events, by the streets they walk through, and the interconnected lives they randomly see.

I noticed while reading, lots of ‘rumours’ float by the characters heads; they form ideas about each other yet hardly speak of them. They all seem to be intensely fascinated with others, yet never put their thoughts to action–connections are formed, but no one ever knows; they live in the same world and city yet all are preoccupied in their own little thoughts. Woolf adds these tiny details into her story for many purposes, many examples, and the novel is so overly complicated that it feels impossible to note it all down in one blog post. The world she creates, the characters lives and personalities, all the caves are connected, but whether anyone in the story realized it was another issue altogether. As a final note, I wanted to add a random ‘‘ I found of some of the routes (I thought it was sort of interesting): Ramazani Jahan and Jon Stallworthy, eds.

The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen Greenblatt.

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Woolf, Virginia. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2012.

While reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf I found myself entrapped by her vivid imagery, her unfailing detail of all objects around her characters and her story of a day in a life.

Her keen imagination made me feel like I was the camera and I was panning around London fallowing around people, and going places. She definitely has a way to make you see the big and the very small details. (Although, I must admit, at times I wanted her continue the story and not the description).

For this blog post we are to focus on why she gives names to minor characters and places. After days of contemplating and reading, Virginia Woolf names minor characters and places for the purpose of social commentary but also to draw our attention to everyone and everything.

Make the reader notice that we are all human and we all have a voice. Dalloway has shifted my view of a prose and the internal monolog. Her focus on every detail of her characters makes the reader have a better understanding of each one but also makes us realize we are all connected. Woolf stressed that we are to “look within” and “examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day” (2155). When the airplane flies overhead and people stop to see what the airplane is writing in the sky, Mrs.

Dalloway, Septimus and all the others are connected for a brief moment in time. We stop, look up and see the airplane through everyone’s eyes. We hear their voices and their thoughts and we know everything is connected in our giant world. Woolf’s narrative shifts from the wealthy and the privileged characters of Jane Austen or Bronte sisters to characters that struggle physically and mentally. She dives into the harsh realities of what is human and ordinary gives them a voice and a story.

Her goal was to “criticize the social system and to show it at work, at its most intense”(2156). I truly believe Woolf has done so in Mrs.

Long gone are the days of prefect women, in perfect houses and indulgences. Now we get to hear the stories of Septimus and his struggles of posttraumatic stress disorder, or how Mrs. Dalloway has “the oddest sense of being herself invisible” (2161). Her prose makes us see the world “by the sane and the insane side by side”(2155). She pulls the taboo subjects from under a rug and makes them her masterpiece.

This was an extremely hard post to write, since there are so many topics and themes within this novel. So much to analyze and focus on! Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition Keygen Download Torrent. Dalloway is a hauntingly beautiful description of an “ordinary” day. Woolf shines a light on the faults of our society and makes us know we are all connected and we are all human. Works Cited Ramazani, Jahan and Jon Stallworthy, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen Greenblatt.

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Woolf, Virginia.

The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2012.

Group 8, DQ Response Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway Discussion Question: Why does Virginia Woolf add details like street names and full names for (even) minor characters? The initial answer that I could come up with was also the most obvious: that she wanted to achieve a sense of verisimilitude for the reader so that the reader would be immersed into the fictional world she has created. This made sense to me. The most commonly cited reason why a writer would include such specificities is to portray a nuance of realism to draw the reader in. Full names grant the reader a kind of intimacy, a kind of knowledge into the characters’ lives. Similarly, names to locales, particularly real-world locales, give an aura of place and time that helps to orientate the reader.

Both of these tools, coupled with Woolf’s elaborate and ornate descriptions (what the streets look like, what the character is wearing, etc.) further propels the visual aspect of the writing, allowing the reader to further comprehend the work. The streets, cities and towns which Woolf alludes to all refer to real places (or at least places that existed in the past), and the informed reader would be able to garner further understanding through insights of the location, the environment and the setting. Indeed, specificity and detail both add depth into the writing.

Yet, as I read the short biography on Woolf, as well as the Norton’s passage on Mrs Dalloway, I began to realize that perhaps Virginia Woolf had other, ulterior reasons to include such minute and intricate details, and that her motive was not primarily for the reader, but instead, for herself. As a writer, I am told by the Norton, Woolf did not agree with the method of depicting topics “through gritty realism” but rather she “sought to render more intricately those aspects of consciousness in which she felt the truth of human experience lay” (2143). In essence, she prefers “stream of consciousness narration” (2144). So Woolf desires to go further than to simply inject scenes of realism through including names of locations and people, but rather, those things function as the rudimentary base of which she launches from. As the Norton goes on to say, she “found inspiration and material in the physical realities of the body and in the heavily trafficked and populated streets of London” (2144). For Woolf, she did not want specifics and details to rule as the primary focus of her work, but as the bolstering which would couch her streams of consciousness and give it structure and depth. In her own words: “I dig out beautiful caves behind my characters” and “the caves shall connect” (2155).

Therefore, Woolf added these details, not necessarily for the reader’s benefit, but for her own. She acquired and imagined these intricate characters in her mind to such a acute degree that when she sat down to write in her stream of consciousness manner, the specifics simply came. She had designed her characters so that they came alive in her mind and became, as it were, real to her. Similarly, for street and city names (especially the streets of London, where she resided), there were innate and intimate ideas that she has related to those places and this gives her the inspiration and authority to write about those locales with confidence. In conclusion, once Woolf’s own personal understandings of her characters and places are solidified within her mind and her writing, the readers are also then able to benefit from the rich complexities and elaborate details of the world which she has created, not only to be experienced, but also inhabited. Ramazani, Jahan and Jon Stallworthy, eds.

“Virginia Woolf”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature.

Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W.

Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Ramazani, Jahan and Jon Stallworthy, eds. Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi Mp3 Songs Free Download. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen Greenblatt.

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012.

John Dieu 10.03.13. So one afternoon i got bored.I was cruising instagram and decided to use the hash tag of my favorite poem so far Lady of Shalott.

I wasn’t expecting to find anything spectacular, but i did find two interesting things. First, a picture was posted of a user’s favorite song called “Shalott”, written by Emilie Autumn, who actually happens to be some what famous. Check it out below (lol) Next, i was surprised to see that a lot of girls posted photos of nail polish/ painted nails.

Surprisingly the colors named “Lady of Shalott” all happen to be dark, Gothic like colors. What is the significance or reason for this? I sure do not see any nice pinks or light blues. While reading The Lady of Shalott, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The Greek myth tells the story of two lovers, who tragically lose the chance to share their life together, when on the day of their wedding, Eurydice is bitten by a poisonous snake, and dies. Orpheus – who is the most talented musician of his time – enters the Underworld and plays his lyre for the king and queen of the underworld – Hades and Persephone – who allow him to bring Eurydice back with him.

However, Hades warns Orpheus that he cannot look back while his wife is still in the dark. He should wait for Eurydice to get into the light before he looked at her. The moment Orpheus stepped on the world of the living, he turned his head to look at his wife, but Eurydice was still in the dark. Since Orpheus looked at his wife before she had seen the sun, like Hades warned, Eurydice was dragged back into the underworld.

Orpheus looks at Eurydice and she is taken back to the Underworld. Eurydice in Orpheus’ arms, reminds me of the images of Lancelot holding The Lady of Shalott. Like Orpheus, The Lady of Shalott cannot help but turn her head from her mirror and look at Lancelot, knowing that this will bring the curse upon her. And it was only in her death that Lancelot has the chance to see her, musing that “she has a lovely face” (1166).

I noticed in our anthology that The Lotos-Eaters, is another one of Tennyson’s works, which is based on a short episode from the Odyssey. Since Tennyson obviously had knowledge of Greek mythology, I wonder if the story of Orpheus and Eurydice had any influence on The Lady of Shalott. Lord Tennyson, Alfred. “The Lady of Shalott” Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen Greenblatt.

New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012. A quick Google Images search of ‘The Lady of Shalott’ shows a large amount of Pre-Raphaelite depictions. Pre-Raphaelites focused on abundant detail and intense colours. They found a rich source of pictorial inspiration in Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” most likely because of the subject matter: a beautiful but unattainable woman tragically dying for love. The theme of the woman destroyed/victimized by love dominated not only Pre-Raphaelite but Victorian paintings and poems for much of the nineteenth century. I decided to search for other lesser-known depictions of the Lady of Shalott, ones that aren’t necessarily ones we see on the Google Images results. The variances in styles/portrayals show an interesting mix in interpretations. Here are just some that I found and thought to share (note: the first and last two are by female artists): (Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, The Lady of Shalott, 1853) (Howard Pyle, The Lady of Shalott, 1881) (Florence Rutland, 1896) (Inez Warry, The Lady of Shalott, 1890).

In the lines 55-72 of The Lady of Shalott, it seems like the lady is musing about the lives of the people who pass by towards Camelot, and how she secretly longs to have one of her own. Seeing these “damsels glad” (55), “a curly shepherd lad” (56), and the “long-haired page in crimson clad” (58), she sees how happy ordinary folk are with their ordinary lives. Like it was already said in the post, ‘Tennyson’s Lady’, it is assumed that the Lady’s life is meant to represent that of an artist removing him/herself from society in order to stay true to what she had dedicated her life to. In order to have a full commitment to creating something truly beautiful, the ultimate sacrifice must be made. But is creating something beautiful through the medium of art as valuable than potentially creating something beautiful through the medium of life experience? It seems that this is what the Lady of Shalott is struggling with here. I think that the idea of the ‘mirror’ (line 60) in itself (a traditional tool of vanity) represents the superficial sense of a final art form.

It is a privilege to take part in an art form that creates beautiful things, but what is the point if you don’t have life experience to even compare it to? Also, in acknowledging that a mirror, in that vain sense, allows a woman to indulge in the vanity of admiring herself, Tennyson might be playing on that idea in that the Lady can only indulge in the pleasures of a life beyond her discipline (an intentional double-meaning here) through the mirror and not in reality. Vanity is frowned upon, as a modest woman in that age should not acknowledge her beauty in fear of having her worth reduced to just that. It seems that beauty plays a big part in Tennyson’s day despite this (The Lady’s value is later reduced to ‘she’s pretty’ when she is found dead), but the discipline in proving worth non-reliant on looks (on art instead) demonstrated here is what is most important. “She hath no loyal knight and true,” (62) because the idea of ‘love’ is the most powerful force for any 19 th century woman to be seduced. It is the epitome of irrationality that women in this age had assumed into their very souls before even having the chance to prove anyone otherwise. Even in Tennyson’s “ The woman’s cause is man’s”, he says “For woman is not undevelopt man, but diverse: could we make her as the man,” (259-60).

The genders are completely different species, according to Tennyson, which I suppose is a step in the right direction for feminism as he states that women are not necessarily worse, just different. Different, as the traditional literary idea that woman is irrational: end of story. Love is irrational: that’s a fact. Woman falls in/ desperately longs for love: she causes her own downfall and/or that of any number of others.

The Lady seems to be doing well in a rational sense (male-approved thus more desirable?) by ‘still delighting’ in her art and being more or less content with observing the world she is detached from through a mirror, but only because she is enchanted by the “plumes and lights and music” (67) or “two young lovers lately wed” (70) and the mysteries surrounding them. I would think that the Lady must have developed quite the imagination, out of necessity, in order to construct her own stories about the things she sees in the world.

But in order to assume this, we must assume that she has a basic knowledge of how things work outside her tower. But, who has taught her these things? How does she know what love is? Does she know she is beautiful? How does she have the capacity to say, “I am half sick of shadows,” (71) if she does not know any different, even if she is imagining?

Works cited: Lord Tennyson, Alfred. “The Lady of Shalott” Norton Anthology of English Literature.

Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012.

Lord Tennyson, Alfred. “The woman’s cause is man’s” Norton Anthology of English Literature. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012. Whilst reading The Lady of Shalott, I couldn’t help but take somewhat of a feminist stance.

I found it intriguing that Tennyson depicted her in such a helpless, somewhat weak character with the way in which he focused on her beauty and inability to do almost anything. The way that she just sits watching the knights, shepherds and reapers who are engaging in physical labour and are defined by their jobs when we are not really shown what activities she engages in whilst in her tower apart from looking into the mirror. The jobs also have connections to being male dominated, so is Tennyson is suggesting that while the men contribute to society all that Lady Shalott does is sit and stare in the mirror? The mirror in itself has connotations of beauty and self obsession, the way in which she is constantly staring in the mirror puts a focus on her beauty as opposed to any other quality she may possess such as her willpower to not look out onto Camelot, for majority of the piece anyway. The focus on her beauty is even reinforced when she dies and the somewhat beautiful nature of her death.

Her death is described as “a gleaming shape she floated by” (line 156) and she is described to just lay down rather than to fall or injure herself, anything that would subvert that soft and sensitive image of femininity that Tennyson employs. He even describes her to be “lying, robed in snowy white” (line 136) and image of innocence and again a soft, sensitive description of her that was the stereotypical image of a woman who’s purpose merely surrounded looking beautiful.

The way in which she is waiting for a knight to save her also reiterates the helpless nature of her character. Tennyson writes that before she saw or, more accurately, heard Lancelot, “she hath no loyal knight” (line 62) to save her. The fact that she faces the outside world because of the knight and then dies, again emphasizes her vulnerability and inability to survive in the real world – What does this say about women in the Victorian Era? That their lives should be confined to the household while the men contribute to society because they would not survive?

Also, the way in which she had basically sacrificed her life for Lancelot and then all he says at the sight of her death is, “she has a lovely face” (Line 169) reinforces the idea that she is defined by her beauty and despite her actions being heroic and passionate, she is reduced back to her looks by the man she essentially died for. I do think that the way that she has the courage to face the outside world suggests the strength of her character and it could be interpreted that her death is out of her control, it’s the curse, therefore perhaps does not suggest her inability to survive in the real world. However, personally I think that this does still make a negative comment on the status and purpose of Victorian era women. As young girls grow up they look up to the ideal Disney Princess, whether that is Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Snow White etc. All these have princesses survive adversity by being beautiful, fragile and have a handsome knight to rescue them. This imagine stayed with me while reading Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. It was the fairy tale plot structure that Disney follows and the image of a woman cursed in a tower, singing.

Both of them screamed Disney. I have re-read it several times since my original reading and the picture of a Disney princess kept forming. However, I have to applaud Tennyson for giving me an ending I did not see coming.

I wonder if Tennyson wrote this with the original folklore in mind? Was that why magic, the curses and the knights are involved? Or, what was Tennyson’s influence while writing The Lady of Shalott? Did anyone else notice the similarities to the Disney princess and/or the fairy tale?

Full Bibliographic Record Publication information: Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2014. ISBN: 922 (bound) Language: English Record ID: 3158255 Format: Regular Print Book Physical description: 531 pages: illustrations; 23 cm Date acquired: September 2, 2014 More creator details: edited by Catherine Nelson-McDermott, Laura Buzzard, Don LePan. General note: Includes writings previously published in Broadview anthology of expository prose. Contributor: Contributor: Contributor: •.