The Yellow Wallpaper

The narrator of this story obviously feels trapped. The whole relationship between the narrator and her husband is not what we would call a "normal" relationship that spouses share. The narrator feels trapped and looked down upon by her husband, leading her to feel like she has no voice. She also feels that she cannot express her thoughts for fear of her husband keeping her locked up for her insanity. It's almost as if the husband is the father and the narrator is the child. Especially when she mentions that she believes the wallpaper in the room signified that the room had been a nursery. The yellow wallpaper signifies mainly toward the narrator. She swears that there is a woman in there each day "creeping" to try and break free of the pattern that resembles "bars," as if she were trapped inside it. In a way the narrator could determine that she herself was much like the woman trapped in the wallpaper. Not wanting the same fate for her, she thought it'd be best to shred the wallpaper down so that the woman could be free. The narrator wants the same for herself. She wants someone else to tear down her wallpaper so that she could be free. Going back to our talk of feminism in class the other day, it's almost unfair that the narrator has no say whatsoever in her life. Though I know she could be "insane" or have some sort of disorder, the husband should not be the sole ruler of all of the things that she does. It was just what happened back in those days though. The husband provided for the family and worked for them. The wife usually just took care of the house, stayed at home and in the kitchen caring for the family. That's why the narrator feels so trapped, she can't voice her own thoughts and opinions because her husband had a dominance over her and her life.

Ethan Frome Essay: Class and Morality

In this essay written by Alfred Kazin, the main idea is on the issues of class and morality. It starts off by providing a small background of Edith Wharton and the different symbols of the book. Kazin describes how Ethan is chained to his controlling wife from having to "owe" her for helping him take care of his sick mother. He doesn't truly love her, he is in love with her cousin Mattie Silver. The author then goes off by explaining how no reader can get away from the emotional symbolism of the heartbreak that Ethan Frome suffers. This leads to the questioning of Ethan Frome's morals and beliefs. Is it really ever okay to cheat on your spouse if it is considered to be a "loveless" relationship? In an attempt to show some background on Edith Wharton, Kazin also looks into her past and the reasons why she writes the way she does.

Edith Wharton has a certain style that she wrote with Ethan Frome. Her used of showing the illicit affair Ethan wishes to have actually goes back to her past. She was in a marriage that was believed to be unsuccessful with Edward "Teddy" Wharton. She became more intellectual and wanted to continue furthering her education (though it was frowned upon for most women) to which Teddy was jealous. He didn't share the same intellectual and literary interests that she did and they often disagreed when it came to those matters. Teddy was also said to be jealous of his wife's success, so he demanded they split her abundant income. He also even confessed to cheating on her. Wharton struggled to label herself as an established author, being a woman, but also struggled with her husband's jealousy, leading to a loveless relationship. These hardships caused Wharton to become rather bitter. Aside from these difficulties in Wharton's life, she planted new ideas into Ethan Frome that most people questioned. With society and class, others questioned of how Wharton could possibly even know how a tiny town like Starkfield would operate considering she was raised in a higher style of life. What amount did she know about economic struggles, poverty, and a lower class standard? She makes the town out to be a low standard of life, having all of the people in it lower on the class scale in society. The weather also plays into this, with it being winter and gray all the time. Ethan especially thinks and reflects a lot about the weather, nature, animals, basically all symbols of what he believes could connect to his own feelings. Kazin explains that Ethan Frome isn't so much social as it is moving. Wharton displays one of her favorite subjects, which is illicit love. The way she writes makes it seem as though love is supposed to be forbidden, hard, and most of the time love is supposed to be a failure. An example would be the attempted suicide of Mattie and Ethan. It would have gone as planned had Ethan not swerved, but it had to fail, crippling Ethan and Mattie's love forever.

I think the author provides a fair fight in their argument. The one point made was that love must taint one's morals and beliefs. Though the reason for not running away with Mattie that Ethan provided was lack of money, it is purely Wharton's writing style that displays love having to change the way one thinks. Kazin also states that though Ethan Frome has a wonderful setting and plot, it is at times too dramatic. It tries to persuade readers that the only way Ethan and Mattie could ever be happy together would be in death. Obviously there were a lot of other options that could have been considered, yet Wharton writes for us to believe that love corrupts our minds so much that those options were never even thought of. Maybe Ethan truly believed that there was no other way, because as Wharton once said, "Life is the saddest thing next to death."

While it's true that love corrupts the mind and our morals, I truly agree with the statement that this book is quite dramatic at times. Especially since we are inside of Ethan's head for most of the time. Seeing the thoughts he has about Mattie, Zeena, and himself, I feel like he overthinks a lot of things. He's undoubtedly hard on himself, making it seem as though he is responsible for other's happiness. The one night he had alone with Mattie was built up with so much suspense and was expected to be a huge milestone in their relationship. Yet it was in reality nothing. Ethan lived in a dream world, he was an idealist, that's what killed him. He spent too much time dreaming and not enough time speaking up, taking action. It was almost as if he waited for those things to happen to him. Like he wanted a more dramatic and eventful ending for himself. I just think that even if love corrupted his and Mattie's minds that much to the point of suicide, other options would have been at least discussed along with the option of death. That's the part to me that is most dramatic, I feel like just because they couldn't physically "be together," without having to face Zeena, they could have done a numerous amount of other things than killing themselves. So while Ethan Frome is a classic novella in the literary world, it at times can be too dramatic to believe.

I feel that the class and morality presented in this novella are as Kazin stated in his essay. I feel that by providing us with a background of how hard it was for Wharton to establish herself in the literary world, it showed that while she may not have known what it was like to be in poverty, struggling with money, she knew what it was like to struggle at achieving something. As for morality, again I feel that Kazin providing us with the loveless marriage that Wharton suffered, it gives a better background of how Wharton can actually relate to how love could corrupt one's mind to doing things beyond their beliefs.

Shakespeare Sonnet One Hundred Thirty

This sonnet puts down the love that is involved with Shakespeare. It is a classic "AB, AB, CD, CD, EF, EF, GG" rhyme scheme. Instead of praising the love, he constantly is negative toward them. Which at the time was much unlike Shakespeare, who we see always praising this boy's beauty that he writes of. Which leads back to the theory of the "dark woman" being portrayed.

It's almost like a parody to other sonnets in that it is sarcastic, and tells the truth of how the speaker really feels about his love. The speaker is thinking of every beautiful thing, comparing it to his love but in a negative way. Like when it says that he loves to hear her speak, but the sound of music is much more beautiful than the sound of her voice.

In the end, it summarizes in saying that while their lover's love is as rare as heaven, their comparisons to these beautiful things will always stand as false considering how negatively the speaker talks of his love.

Shakespeare Sonnet One Hundred Twenty Nine

This sonnet contains mainly a negative tone to it. The first twelve sentences in the sonnet are all one sentence phrases. Words like perjured, murd'rous, bloody, hated, hunted, rude, cruel, and blame are used to emphasize how negative the sonnet is in the beginning.

The first half of the poem focuses on how lust is cruel, and how awful it is to not experience love, but experiencing lust for a person. It is believed that this sonnet pertains to Shakespeare's "dark woman" mistress.

Toward the end of the third quatrain however, Shakespeare compares this lust much like joy proposed behind a dream. The couplet concludes this saying that this "heaven" that is lust much leads men to hell.

All in all, Shakespeare says that he knows lust is an awful feeling to have toward someone, but at the same time he cannot resist the lust, and he can accept it.

Shakespeare Sonnet One Hundred Sixteen

This sonnet focuses on the meaning of love. In the first quatrain Shakespeare says that love is not love in other people's minds. That what is called love is not true love in most cases, some people just say love when it isn't true.

Shakespeare compares a lost ship to this sonnet. A ship is strong, and Shakespeare says that it will stand firm even when it's love has been unfaithful. That even if a ship is lost, that love is the star that guides it home on its way.

In the third quatrain, the word "Time" is personified when it says that "Love is not Time's fool," (Shakespeare 8) meaning that even if time runs out, love will not. Love is endless and never changing. Love, even when lost will guide its way back.

The couplet finishes off saying that until it is proven, not all love will be true love, and not all men have loved.

Shakespeare Sonnet Ninety Nine

This sonnet is another one of Shakespeare comparing the speaker to beauty. This sonnet is the only sonnet out of the collection with fifteen lines. That's because the first line in the sonnet Shakespeare more saw as an introductory line rather than part of the first quatrain.

In the first quatrain Shakespeare is accusing an object of stealing something from his love. "Sweet thief," he calls it, saying that their complexion resembles that of the lover's which they have stolen too much from.

The second quatrain reveals that Shakespeare is scolding the flowers. Three flowers in particular, the lily, the rose, and violet. Shakespeare says also that buds of marjoram had stolen the sweet scent of his love's hair.

The third quatrain focuses mainly on the roses, saying that they are the chief thief in this affair. He says that they are white with despair and red with shame from stealing so much beauty. The couplet ends by saying that Shakespeare saw more and more flowers, yet could see none that hadn't stolen beauty from the lover.

Shakespeare Sonnet Eighty Seven

In this sonnet, the speaker is putting down the qualities that they possess as humans. They are saying goodbye to their lover, stating that their lover is too good for them. They continue saying that the worth of their lover is enough for them to leave and let go since they feel that they are unworthy.

They say that even though the connection that they have has potential they just don't see how they are a value to their lover. In the third quatrain the speaker displays that they are not even worth the things that their lover had given them.

The last couplet finishes off by saying that it would be flattering to them self just to have their lover in a dream. And while they're in sleep, they'd feel much like a king having a love like that. But waking up from the lovely dream would just result in them living a normal, loveless life.

Shakespeare Sonnet Fifty Five

In this sonnet, Shakespeare says that the beauty and love of the boy will outshine and outlast anything ever made. The boy will outdo death, war, stone, and other things that are usually unbreakable. He says that no matter what happens, no matter how much time goes by, the memory of the boy will never fade from the minds of those that love him.

And despite death and other events that may occur, the boy will keep moving forward with being praised. Even with all of the terrible things that happen in the world, the boy will keep on living the way he should.

It ends with Shakespeare saying that even on the day the boy will die, he will live forever in the eye's of lovers and in their minds and hearts as well. No matter if the boy is there or not, his presence will always remain in the lives of those who cherish him.

Shakespeare Sonnet Eighteen

This sonnet by Shakespeare contains one of the most recognizable lines in poetry.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate," (Shakespeare 1,2) This sonnet is furthermore stressing how lovely the boy seems to Shakespeare. He is saying that the boy is better than a summer's day, and that he is more tolerable than one since summer can be unbearably hot and too short.

Shakespeare also says that "every fair from fair sometime declines," (Shakespeare 7). What he means here is that all good things must come to an end. Meaning that the boy's beauty will eventually end. The next line says that nature's course will result in untrimmed beauty, such as the things we lose when we're older, like our hair, memories, etc.

The last couplet basically ends with Shakespeare saying that as long as the boy's beauty is living somehow, that he is immortal.

Shakespeare Sonnet Twelve

This sonnet in particular represents the seasons and their aging. It is known as a seasonal sonnet. The first quatrain represents the ticking of a clock. It is telling of how time passes quickly, and day is to life as night is to death.

The second quatrain says that as time passes, leaves will fall off of trees, flowers will get old and wilted, and when these things happen they aren't as beautiful as they once were. So, what the speaker stresses is that while they are young and still have their beauty, they should settle down with children.

The third quatrain and the last couplet specifically focus on time again. Shakespeare is saying that despite time rapidly slipping away, the boy should sometime soon settle down and extend his beauty by having children. He is saying that when time finds him, and wants to take him away, that he'll at least have an offspring to carry on the beauty that he once had possessed himself.

Shakespeare Sonnet Two

Sonnet two has to deal a lot about aging and what it can do to a person's beauty. Again, we are to believe Shakespeare is speaking to Mr. W.H., praising him for his beauty. He goes on saying that "forty winters shall besiege thy brow," (Shakespeare 1) which is comparing the age of the boy to the seasons. Spring is considered to be the new season, young and full of life, summer is still young and fun, autumn is when people go through changes getting older, and winter is cold, old, and almost dead-like. In line two, Shakespeare says "dig deep trenches," which can symbolize the wrinkles upon an older person's face.

So, when Shakespeare stresses that the beauty the boy possesses will not be with him forever, he follows up by saying that if he could pass his beauty onto a child, it would live forever. If this boy got married, and had a child the beauty would be immortal.

Shakespeare Sonnet One

In this sonnet, Shakespeare is encouraging the boy of whom he's directing it toward to reproduce and settle down. What the speaker is saying, is that people want more of beauty, they want to make sure beauty never dies. By this boy that Shakespeare addresses (which is believed to be W.H. a young man of a royal family who hired Shakespeare as the family's poet) having children, beauty will live on.

The line, "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel," (Shakespeare 8) explains that by him not settling down, not getting married, and not having children, he is cheating himself out of exposing his beauty further. He is trying to stress that it would be an awful waste for him not to have a child. He even goes as far as to say it's downright selfish of him not to have a child.

In a round about way, Shakespeare is complimenting the boy, as well as scolding him for not using his beauty to his advantage.