Greek Myth Project

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Jane Eyre Essay

     Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre, a three-volume novel, in 1847 and till this day it is one of the greatest English nineteenth century novels. The novel tells the story of a young woman who, orphaned as a child, must first become a teacher and then a governess to survive. Accentuating one of the most unforgettable and independent female characters of all time, this novel constructs its plot and characters in terms of hypocrisy verses honesty, with Jane herself systematically on the side of righteousness.

     During the first volume of the novel, Jane is sent as a misfortunate orphan to "Lowood", a religion based public establishment in which the tyrannical Mr. Brocklehurst attempts to purify the girls by means of brutality and victimization. He dresses his daughters and wife in finery, whereas he makes the girls at Lowood cut their hair and practically starves them to death. Jane's best friend, Helen Burns, becomes a target of brutality in the novel and her mistreatment contributes to the advance of her severe case of tuberculosis. This portion of the novel distinctly depicts Jane as immune and resistant towards the hypocrisy of a world that can kill a young girl for her own good. Jane shows defiance again a few years later when Mr. Brocklehurst invites her to stay as an adult teacher at Lowood and she refuses to. Jane's rebelliousness and independence are represented as positives here, as the reader is expected to detest the casual cruelty Mr. Brocklehurst brings forth to the novel.

     Jane leaves Lowood behind and goes on to become a governess at the Thornfield Manor and tutors a French girl, Adele. Jane's boss, Mr. Rochester speaks to Jane with irony and brutal honesty, telling her that she is plain- to which she replies that he is not handsome. Later on in the novel, Rochester and Jane fall in love and he claims to have fallen for her because she is different than the rest. Rochester shows how hypocritical he is when he tries to dress up Jane in fancy clothes and jewels, for he had already claimed he fell in love with her because of her plain appearance. Jane does not make Rochester look bad in the reader's eyes at all throughout the novel, showing how honest she continues to remain while she is surrounded with hypocritical people.

    While Jane Eyre is clearly a romantic novel, it is also an early illustration of a feminist novel. The issue of honesty is at the center of the story. Those who are dishonest are clearly intended to earn the disapproval of the reader, and those who are honest are expected to win the reader's admiration. The reader respects Jane for the genuine nature of her virtues- she may be plain visually, but she is wise and has a compassionate heart, as well as a burning desire to do the right thing. Desire is evidently a theme in the novel, but a powerful moral code as well, one that captures the heart of fairness in social relations, not just one that focuses on soul-less rule making. The theme of righteousness verses hypocrisy further develops the character of Jane Eyre in this novel, and she also helps to establish the theme.  

Jane Eyre

Klara Sulce

Mr. Perez

English AP

13 February 2012

     “Jane Eyre” is written in the form Bildungsroman and takes place in Victorian England during the mid-nineteenth century. It is one of the most famous works of Charlotte Brontë because it is a memoir of her arduous life and the obstacles she overcame. The people Jane Eyre encountered had a huge impact on her life, particularly the females, including Mrs. Reed, Bessie, Helen Burns, Miss Temple, and Diana and Mary Rivers. Jane based her relationship with the women on a reciprocal nature because she lacked motherly guidance and therefore needed an affectionate woman to show her respect and love.

     The first woman that Jane Eyre was introduced to after her mother's death was Mrs. Reed. Mrs. Reed showered her no kind of motherly love, therefore Jane was witty towards her and suffered from emotional scarring throughout her teen years. Jane underwent many struggles due to Mrs. Reed and the most challenging one was attending Lowood School. Mrs. Reed sends her off to a private school because she hopes that Jane’s time at Lowood will reform her, particularly her tendency to lie. Although the family mistreats her, Jane still wishes that she could have the same attention and love that her cousins receive from her aunt.

     Contrasting from Mrs. Reed tremendously are Miss Temple, Jane's teacher at Lowood and Bessie-the nurse in the Reed household. Bessie is the only figure in Jane's childhood who regularly treats her kindly, telling her stories and signing her songs. She gives Jane hope that things will get better and visits her later on in the novel only to find out that Jane is now a lady. Miss Temple treats Jane and her best friend Helen with respect and compassion and serves as one of Jane's first positive female role models, encouraging the spirit of independence and dignity in Jane. She even goes out of her way to clear Jane of Mrs. Reed's accusations against her. Both Bessie and Miss Temple impacted Jane positively and reminded Jane that there are women out there that do in fact care about her and are not out to get her. She was so used to the idea of being tormented by the Reed family, that once exposed to true compassion by others, she did not know how to react to it or feel worthy.

     Helen is Jane's closest friend at the Lowood school and serves as Jane's foil. The two young ladies differ immensely in personality. Helen endures her miserable life with a passive dignity that Jane cannot understand, whereas Jane answerers back to all her elders and will not tolerate being disrespected. Helen dies of consumption in Jane's arms at the age of ten and this has a powerful effect on Jane. How can someone that so firmly believes in a loving God die so early in their life? What Jane learns from Helen becomes a part of her value system and affects her emotional responses, behavior, and decisions.

     Diana and Mary Rivers are the final two females that truly have a lasting impact on Jane. Jane tells us directly that, when she’s hanging out with Diana and Mary, she aspires to their level of intelligence, saying, "They were both more accomplished and better read than I was; but with eagerness I followed in the path of knowledge they had trodden before me" (Bronte 308). In relation to her female friends, then, Jane often reverts to the dynamic she learned as a child, where she is the loyal pupil and the compassionate women around her are her teachers. The loss of a mother figure that Jane experienced early in her childhood lead to the way she judges the women that later came into her life. In other words, the way Jane relates to most of the women in her life is either as their master or their pupil and in some instances, as both.

     The encounters Jane made with all the women in her life helped her to become the woman she presents herself as as the Bildungsroman novel progresses. Jane's development in character starts because of Mrs. Reed and continues as she meets Helen, Mrs. Temple, and Diana and Mary Rivers. These women are not Jane's equals, some are her teachers, that Jane hero-worships and learns from, whereas some are her students. As the novel comes to a close, Jane becomes an independent woman because of all the experiences she underwent with all the women in her life and she has the ability to form her own religion regarding right and wrong.

Essay part 3

Klara Sulce # 3

               

Many characters in novels are superior to the outside world’s influences. For instance, Gregor Samsa exemplifies the effect that family and society has on individuals as a whole. In Metamorphosis, Gregor is constantly pressured by his family to provide for them financially. They became so used to him providing for them that once he transforms into an insect, they do not know how to provide for themselves. Had it not been for the Samsa family’s continuous stress put forth on Gregor, his outcome would not have been so appalling.

                Before his metamorphosis, Gregor was faced with working an unpleasant job that left no time for him. The pressure of time and intense monetary ambition of the economy-driven world drives Gregor to feel alienated from himself, as well as his family, through his obligation to providing for them. The frame of a woman he has hung up in his room acts as a companion in Gregor’s alienation from the public realm. This void in his life is the result of the immense amount of hard work he undertakes. Gregor places this unknown woman in a golden frame, symbolizing how he desires the loving intimate relationship that time does not permit him to engage in.  

                Gregor’s family is selfish in many ways and they are the reason for Gregor’s demise. They see gold purely for its monetary value, a perspective from the economically-driven outlook, where value is determined by financial asset instead of one’s spirit. The expression “time is money” summarizes the value that time holds in the economy-driven world.  Once the supply of money became ill, the Samsa family’s true colors were revealed.  This often happens to society as a whole, they become so preoccupied with money that everything else, including family becomes irrelevant in their attempt to achieve happiness and success.  Had his family been more supportive and appreciative of Gregor, his death could have been avoidable.  His family has lost sight of the appreciation of family, a blindness directly caused from living and participating in a society driven by greed.

Hamlet Midterm Essay

Klara Sulce

                William Shakespeare’s characters tend to display forth behaviors that one might find evil. In “Hamlet”, Hamlet is seeking revenge and will stop at nothing to avenge his father’s murder.  Some people find his behavior to be sane and merely attempting to cope with the death of his father, whereas others find his actions to be that of an evil man. While some of Hamlet's deeds were cruel, it was not evil that led him to commit such harsh deeds, he was led by duty.

                Upon reflection, Hamlet conducted himself horribly in some scenes of the play. In Act 3, Scene 4 when Hamlet kills Polonius, his words indicate that he thought it was the king hiding behind the arras and so killing him would have fulfilled his father's ghost's request for vengeance. If he had known it was Polonius, he would not have murdered him in such a gruesome way. For he loved his daughter Ophelia and he would not want someone he loves grieving over the death of her father like he once had. He knows how painful the loss of one’s father is.

 Also, in this particular scene, Hamlet is highly incensed because of Claudius' reaction to the play that Hamlet had the actors perform. After all, he's just been shown definitive proof, in his mind, that Claudius killed the king, Hamlet's father. Imagine the hurt, fury, and feelings of betrayal that must be surging through Hamlet at this time. Certainly it was not evil that led Hamlet to act the way he did, it was simply emotion.  Love makes individuals do some crazy things, things that one is not always proud of. 

It is evident that Hamlet is the kind of person who wears his emotions openly and is guided by them from the very beginning of the play, when Claudius and Gertrude both tell him essentially that he needs to get over his father's death and move on.  His love letters to Ophelia are also proof of how highly emotional Hamlet is. There are constant examples of how Hamlet is led by his emotions.  The most "evil" act he engages in is when he changes the letter that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take to England so that they will be put to death. That is a high price to pay for being pawns in Claudius' game.

Midterm

Klara Sulce

            Poets always have different opinions and outlooks on life, therefore some poems are depressing and not as enjoyable. Others have an overload of happiness expressed in their lines, but it all depends on the author who wrote them. William Blake and John Keats poems were very contrasting, but had a few similarities.  Keat’s poem, “Bright Star” and “The Lamb” by William Blake differentiate in terms of language and diction, but the overall theme of the poems is quite similar.

As a poet, Blake would create happiness in his Innocent poems and in his Experience poems, more cruel lines were found. Dissimilarly, Keats' poems focused more on depression, anger and suicidal considerations. “The Lamb” opens with a child asking the lamb about its origins. Questions such as how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding, its “clothing” of wool, its “tender voice.” were brought up to the child’s attention. Although the poem is a child’s song, it is written in the form of question and answer. A person is looking for guidance and answers in an object or rather an animal that can not necessarily answer them.

“Bright Star” by John Keats, expresses the poet’s desire to be like a star. In the poem the tone is melancholic whereas the theme is the desire to live in an unchanging state. Keats uses rhyme and literary techniques to reveal these ideas. This poem is not as suitable for children as opposed to Blake’s poem. Both of the speakers in “Bright Star” and “The Lamb” become impatient for responses and their questions are not answered by those they seek replies from.

Hence, the theme of both “Bright Star” and “The Lamb” has to deal with accepting the world for what is.  Both speakers are looking for answers in the wrong places and in wrong people or objects, for it is impossible for the star and the lamb to reply to the child or the speaker in “Bright Star”.  It is up to the speaker to come up with the answers they hope to find and towards the end of the poem, they are both obligated to answer their own questions.

Revision of "Clocks and Lovers"

Klara Sulce

Mr.Perez

English AP

11 December 2011

“Clocks and the Lovers” by W.H. Auden refers to the love that we all experience in life that can seem eternal at times and stimulate us to be forever passionate. Auden brings the reader's attention to the truth about time, and how it fades our love away without sympathy. He explains that love has no meaning in the beginning of the poem and demonstrates it through understatement. The reader's feelings are exaggerated as being strong enough to make a “river jump over the mountain.” The overall mental attitude of the lover is one of everlasting delight and romantic happiness.

As the poem progresses and we grasp onto the lover's feelings, our attention is shifted to that of the clocks’, who tell the mere truth. The clocks are powerful, for they end the lover's time. This is that state of strain and business of society with “headaches and worry, vaguely life leaking away.” The clocks believe that this is the fate that was chosen for lovers. Auden's language and imagery change extremely from the lover’s perspective to that of the clocks’. The lover demonstrates his emotion by song and the clock by “whirr and chime”, which set the time right away for the reader. All of the animals that the lover mentions are loving and joyous, from the salmon, to the geese, then to the rabbits.

Thus, the lover’s use of language is reflective of solely one emotion, Love.

The clocks however, show many signs of love in a different way that is through coughing, worry, breaking, stares, cracking, and distress. They also go on to courageously state, “You can not conquer time.” These apprehensions of reality depict a depressing sense of love and how time fades it away day by day. Like the death of his lover, the last line emphasizes the finality of life and an end void of

purpose.