Tag: short essays

Introduction to Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

A short study of psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein shows its true meanings. Though appearing itself a dream of Mary Shelly materialized into a Gothic fiction and the dream of Victor Frankenstein narrated by another dreamy character, Robert Walton, Frankenstein, the novel, appears to be fulfilling all the characteristics of Freud’s dream theory, psychoanalysis and Lacan’s improvements on that theory. Frankenstein himself is such a dreamy character that he always dreams of enjoying his life. However, he comes back to the reality, as he argues in the end when chasing the monster, “The story is too connected to be mistaken for a dream,” but he also actually enjoys the pleasures of dreams which he could not enjoy in this material world (Shelley 246). In his paper “Dream Interpretation in Theory: Drawing on the Contributions of Freud, Jung, and the Kleinians”, quoting Greeson, Joan Schon (2016) says that dreams are the best sources to look into the internal world of a person to see the thinking going on since his early childhood and memories (3). Close reading of the text of the novel makes it amply clear that not only Frankenstein has very disturbed and dreamy childhood but also he has deep attachment to his mother who was much younger than his father, as Frankenstein tells, “There was a considerable difference between the ages of my parents” (26). However, he quickly adds that there was a deep affection between them despite this difference of age, yet this could not have stopped him from developing oedipal feelings to his extremely beautiful mother loved passionately by his father (26).  The creation of the monster may be this repressed love of his mother but there are several other signs, which demonstrate Freud’s concepts of Id, ego and superego, and Oedipus complex of his theory, throughout the text including the Lacanian concept of desire, sex and alienation, with reference to the Imaginary order and the symbolic order.

Dreams and Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

As far as dreams are concerned, psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein shows that both Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein are having dreams and daydreams, but it is Frankenstein’s dream which is of importance. The difference is that Walton’s dreams are limited to his expeditions, while Frankenstein’s dreams are centered on his study of the chemistry and creation of a new form that could become his best creation, as he says when he created that monster, “the beauty of the dream vanished” that he harbored since he started studying in Ingolstadt (Shelley 59). This could be Mary Shelley’s dream according to Freud’s interpretation, as Barbara D’Amato has stated in her article “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: An Orphaned Author’s Dream and Journey Toward Integration,” that “Authors’ dreams frequently inspire their creative stories, unconsciously imposing the author’s personal conflicts upon the characters” (118). She has further mentioned Mary Shelley’s own daydreams, saying that it could be that she has created this story and the characters to mother something due to her own lineage from two creative personalities. However, she adds, this is purely unconscious, but is valid according to the concepts Freud has propagated regarding his theory (126). One thing is clear that not only this novel is a dream of unconsciousness of the writer herself, but also a dream of the narrator, Robert Walton, and his hero Frankenstein as asserted by Jerrold E. Hogle in his paper, “Frankenstein’s Dream: An Introduction” that this is a double dream though he has missed the point that it is also the dream of the writer as that D’ Amato has argued. He argues that Victor’s dreams, specifically, narrated by him to Walton by the end of the story are psychoanalytic in nature, but they also pose a big question before the readers that the whole story could be dream (Hogle). However, it is clear that he returns from his dreams and daydreams to start his narration again.

Characters and Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

In fact, it is this reversion to reality from dreams, which raises the question of Freud’s psychoanalytical interpretation of the dreams and as well as character’s different actions, feelings and desires. In this connection, the most important is the explanation of Id, by which Freud means a biological part of a person’s response to something that is instinctive and natural and a person cannot hide it, while libido is its primary source that stays unresponsive to the real world. In his lectures, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Freud explains ego and superego as mirrors to realities that ego mediates between superego and Id, while superego comprises of social rules and laws that govern human beings’ behavior (Freud 105). In terms of Frankenstein, his Id is clear when he talks about his mother in very sensual and loving terms saying her as of “uncommon mould,” whom his father gave full attention and in turn both of them loved their son. This was to create in him feelings for his mother, whose intense desire for a daughter was not fulfilled until Victor was of considerable age and stayed with her (Shelley 26). It is also that in the initial stages, Victor states that he loves investigation of things rather than the superficial structure on account of his curiosity. However, for him it was, curiosity as he argues, “Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember” (Shelly 30). It is another thing that he remembers several things of his childhood. These luxurious feelings, of course, are the oedipal impacts toward his mother to whom his father used to dot up, and he remembers this too (26). Perhaps these realities make the most of the dreams of Victor.

Family Behavior and Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

The influence of the father’s behavior toward his mother stayed in his psyche when it psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein is done. He tell is clearly that “He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener,” where the phrase “a fair exotic,” is enough to explain his fondness for his mother (26). However, his ego does not let him speak it in clear terms, for superego acts against it. In this connection, the conjunction of three characters, Frankenstein, his father, his friend Clerval and his creation, the monster, is very interesting as his superego. In fact, the monster is his alter ego, for Victor has created what he wished (Crisman). William Crisman further says that the monster is like a doppelganger for Frankenstein or in better words, his “objectified Id” (Crisman). This started a conflict between his ego and superego regarding the moral of his creation. His father, Alphonse Frankenstein and his friend Clerval act as persons driving his supergo. It is because according to Freud, the origin of a person’s supergo or his critical faculty is his father, or the social society around the person. Here Clerval and his father both act as representatives in this connection. They both act as moral agents to teach him about the social morality and rules of the society (Lall 37). Lall further argues that Victor takes to sciences merely to make his father resent his choice, the reason that he goes on to create the monster to satisfy his ego. That is why he does not tell them later what he has done but merely repents on his creation (37). However, this creation becomes his entire story, for he always stays engaged with this story in reality or in dreams. This represents his ego. It could be that it is his failed sexual fantasy that he remembers everything, the reason that he is fleeing from marriage with Elizabeth. However, he does not want to expose this to the real world. On the other hand, acting as representatives of his superego, his father and friend both are very much near him, all the time feeding him with a sense of somebody supervising him. However, it is more his father than Clerval who act as his superego, for he has everything in him. Victor says that “my father had filled several public situations with honor and reputation and indefatigable attention to public business” (Shelley 24). How could he break his ring of social restrictions woven around him by the society. Even Clerval was not an ordinary person with him, for “he was the son of a merchant of Geneva”, “of singular talent and fancy” (32). That is why Victor could not expose what was in his ego — love of his mother and his feelings for her – the gist of psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein.

Love and Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

It could be stated that Victor exposed this love for his mother in the shape of his creation going against the norm set by his father of learning philosophy. David Collings in his article, “The Monster and the Imaginary Mother: A Lacanian Reading of Frankenstein,” calls this minor rebellion as “intellectual pursuit”, adding that in magical “nature Victor hopes to recover the mother that has been denied or forgotten in much the same way as the alchemy of Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus has been dismissed by contemporary sciences” (Collings). Although it is not clear whether it is a reality or a fiction, Collings even include his mentors M. Krempe and Waldman in this list on account of his sexual terminology regarding the study of chemistry, for Victor uses words which are very much sensual in connotations, as he says “I have described myself as always having been imbued with fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature” (Shelley 35). He uses the same terms for the men of science, “who could penetrate deeper and knew more” (36).  However, this seems a far-fetched theory regarding Frankenstein and his feelings, for nowhere Victor shows any sort of symbol that he used to love his mother in his childhood more than a child does. His love for Elizabeth could be termed as a substitute to Oedipus Complex, or that it could be the rivalry in the mind of his father, yet this also has no trace except that he used to shower love on Elizabeth. For example, at once place he kisses Elizabeth in a dream, as he narrates this to Walton, saying, “I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her; but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms” (59). However, when he wakes up, he saw the monster staring at him in reality with his jaws wide open. The study done by William Veeder in this connection argues that this complex in Frankenstein is negative Oedipus complex. He has summed up the relations of Mary and Percy Shelley in pointing out this passion in Victor Frankenstein. He is of the opinion that it is Victor’s creation of his monster that shows his antipathy toward his father. Yet, it also shows his desire to revive his mother back to life which he calls negative Oedipus complex, for it does not rightly fit into the theory of Freud (Veeder). However, another point of view expressed by William Rodriguez is quite contradictory. He argues in his essay “Good and Ugly,” that there was a good relation between the son and the mother in the earlier years which led the son, Victor, to have been influenced by the death of his mother. His creation of the monster is based on his vows that he made on the grave of his mother to defeat death. Although he could not defeat death, he has fulfilled his vow that he made to his mother. He further argues that “This series of flashback offer interesting insights into dynamic of the Frankenstein Family. One can only conclude that this attractive and virtuous family harbors deep, ugly and depraved secrets” (Rodriguez 285). However, the problem is that it is based on the movie rather than the novel, though there are similarities in these flashbacks with the daydreams and dreams of Frankenstein, making it almost the same issue of Freud’s Oedipus complex.

Monster and Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

Another interpretation of the creation of monster falls very close to the oedipal interpretations of Frankenstein. This is the concept of fire. Although Frankenstein has been aware of electricity, he learned it when he read Agrippa. However, he did not apply it to infuse life into the structure of the monster he created. Rather he used candle as he says “my candle was nearly burnt out” (Shelley 58). Obviously, he is using candle to infuse life into the structure. However, this fire, argues Nicholas Marsh, has “the power to create life,” and he creates this life after the death of his mother (155). This fire then burns into his heart becoming a fire of revenge, while he feels the heart of this fire until the end. If the monster is taken as the image of Victor Frankenstein, he constantly watches his fire that he wants not to extinguish, for it is akin to life for the demon. However, this fire in Victor is akin to a sexual desire that he cannot fulfill in the absence of his mother. This interpretation cannot be taken too far, for the life he has created is male that is not even similar to Adam in Paradise Lost that Victor happens to read during his free times. He should have created rather Eve like figure, instead of a male figure to fulfill his desire for love. This is perhaps that same fire that makes a person hot in his emotions and temper and is akin to violence. This Victor confesses when stating his childhood saying, “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature, they were turned towards childish pursuits to be an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately,” by which he means that in his environment and situation, laws and social customs require him to learn something which otherwise would have been left (Shelly 32). Here this clearly points to something sinister in his childhood bestowed by the circumstances of “filial love” that he enjoyed until the end (32). That is why he has been suffering from the complex of loving his mother and creating the monster to defeat death which has enveloped it. It could be that he wanted to preserve death from taking the life of his next love, Elizabeth Lavenza. Despite these similarities and differences, this interpretation cannot be stretched further than this. In fact, it has its own limits, for he has never expressed any antagonism against his father explicitly, yet his language, desire, sexual orientation and alienation makes him a fit subject for these interpretations in the psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein.

Lacan and Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

In this connection, it is suitable to mention Lacan who brought improvements in the psychoanalysis theory and mentioned language as the most significant element of it. He has called it the Symbolic order by which he means the cultural system as Peter Brooks has been quoted by Laura Hamblin saying that individuals are inserted to act accordingly (8). Contrary to this is the Imaginary order, which means what has been imagined since childhood. In this connection, both Victor as well as his creation deserves deep attention with reference to Oedipus Complex as propounded in the light of the theory of Freud. It is worth mentioning here that this lack of language learning or the ability to speak language means the person has not entered the cultural system, as Victor has pointed it out at a place that “I confess that neither the structures of languages, not the code of governments, nor the politics of various states possessed attractions for me” (Shelley 32). This means that he has not wished to enter the Symbolic order or the cultural system propounded by Lacan through which a person makes his desires known to the world and the people around him. In this connection, it is pertinent to mention Haidee Kotze’s article “Desire, Gender, Power, Language: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” in which she has argued that it is the order of language that forces a person to redefine his personality or what she calls “self” through which the subject reconciles his two orders; the Imaginary order and the Symbolic order. As Lacan, she argues, has theorized that language structures the unconscious; rather it creates it, it is through language that a subject expresses his sexual desires, aggression and guilt or alienation and expresses if there is repression in him (55).  She means that Alphonse has already set the rules and customs for his son to follow which he escapes on the pretext of studying at Ingolstadt. That is quite evident when he says that “my father thought it necessary for the completion of my education that I should be made acquainted with other customs than those of my nature country,” for which he needs to study and learn this in order to become a docile person fit to be under the subservience of his father (Shelley 39). It is, therefore, understood, as Haidee Kotze says that feminine reflection and adoration comes into play to counter this grid setup by the patriarchal social setup as in the case of Frankenstein that he idolizes his mother more than his father, an “identification with the mother,” which is the Imaginary order (Kotze 55). In this connection, a little analysis of monster’s state is also significant.

Symbolic Order in Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

It is because the monster without language is living in the Imaginary order, Haidee Kotze argues, which is the state as “still non-subject, is in a formless state,” where he cannot express his desires or gives shape to his emotions (Kotze 56). However, when he becomes capable of expressing himself, not only does he win the heart of Victor Frankenstein, his immediate creator, but also of Walton and others he comes into contact with through the language. That is why he is after his creator to create somebody to give him pleasure and life. However, this is the same that is going on with Victor, for he is after the death to defeat it to win his mother back to defeat his father’s Symbolic order. This is why he eulogizes his mother saying “On her deathbed the fortitude and benignity of this best of women did not desert her,” (Shelley 38). This benignity and fortitude that he thinks his father has only for his mother, and has not for him. That is why he turns to the feminine side of the Symbolic order, as he says about his mother that “her countenance expressed affection even in death,” an affiliation and association which leads him to the creation of the monster by studying natural science (40). It is, however, very significant to see that he has fulfilled his desire but has not expressed it openly in this Symbolic order. For this, perhaps he should have created a female demon instead of the male monster which could have proved rather akin to this Imaginary order.  

Conflict in Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

Whereas the desire is concerned, here both the Imaginary and Symbolic order are in conflict with each other. This conflict is present in Victor’s personality and situation as well as in the situation and figure of the monster, his mirror image or creation. As far as the monster is concerned, this conflict in him leads him to step his feet in the Symbolic order through learning the language of the De Lacey family. However, his description of the earlier emotions as Haidee Kotze states, “suggests the possibility that it functions as substitute mother-figure for monster,” for he is a motherless figure and has only his creator (57). However, in the case of Victor, it is his mother which is always with him at the times when he dreams, or even if he dreams about Elizabeth. He has entered the Symbolic order long before his creation. This entry creates a conflict “between the law of the Father and the desire for the mother,” who is now dead (57). This conflict according to Lacan, between the Imaginary and Symbolic makes a person aware of the gender difference and leads to the birth of difference desires (58) when looked through psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein. That is the very reason that the monster desires a female, as he asks Victor, “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” (174). This is the same conflict that has made the monster to feel alienation, for in the Imaginary order he does not know the language which has made him a pariah in his own mind. He compares himself with Satan but is more bitter over his solitude due to his being living in the Imaginary order where he is devoid of any linguistic capability as he says about his loneliness, “Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred,” (155). The stress on ‘solitary’ and ‘abhorred’ is very significant in that a person always desires the company of his fellows or mates, and he wants to be loved. Although Victor has lost his mother and possible love that he has found in Elizabeth, his mirror image has nothing to console him, the reason of his entreaties to Victor to create someone for him. There is possibility that Victor’s desire has not fulfilled, and in revenge, he does not want his mirror-image to have his desire fulfilled. That is why he does not create the female figure despite his sincere promise to the monster.

Desire in the Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

However, there is another point that this desire goes back to the pre-Imaginary order and stays repressed. It could stay repressed in the Symbolic order in case there is reproach as is the case of Victor, for he does not express this desire openly but only creates the monster. However, in the case of the monster, it is quite open and explored when he enters the Symbolic order by learning the language of the De Lacey family. He clearly appeals to Victor to create another female figure for him, or else he will wreak havoc with his near and dear ones (Shelley 157). Haidee Kotze has argued that the demand of the monster for a female brings Lacan in the fore that it is the monster’s desire that is dependent on his father, creator, who is Frankenstein here, who in turn carries on making him wait and then defer it (59). By the end of the story, he entirely leaves the project on the pretext that he cannot breed more monsters. However, in the case of Victor, this desire is not fulfilled, for his father stays alive quite late and wishes him to marry Elizabeth who is also very dear to both of them. However, somewhere the linguistic connotations suggest that this delay on the part of Alphonse has made Frankenstein either impotent or castrated him. This is inhibition of his desire that has perhaps frustrated him but he cannot express this frustration in the face of his father. He is not a monster, for he has lived in the Symbolic order for long to have developed a sense to keep his mouth shut. It is clear from his thinking about his marriage when he says “To me the idea of an immediate union with Elizabeth was one of horror and dismay,” showing his jealousy with the monster to make him stay away from his mate as he says “let the monster depart with his mate” (Shelley 184). If the desire of the subject is not fulfilled, the desire of the subject of the subject must not be fulfilled. However, his castration that seems a possibility further adds to his woes. Had he been so much committed to his family as he states occasionally in his narrative, he should have left his family entirely to avenge upon the monster and stated it to his father in his face that a monster he has created has killed his brother and Justine and that he is going to avenge that. Not only that he does not do it, but he constantly keeps hiding it from his father. As far as castration is concerned, it comes to him again. By the end, he consents to marry Elizabeth but again the point of impotence or non-fulfillment of his desire is there staring in his face. For example, he says, “what is excellent and sublime in the production of man could always interest my heart,” which is an entirely a feminine characteristic that he desires to have (195). However, the very next sentence is very pointed in which he says, “But I am a blasted tree,” which could be interpreted in both ways that he cannot produce leaves like a female, or that his is unable to procreate something like male. This is clearly a reference to his impotence. The point that author has her own desires which she hands over to Robert Walton is clear from his letters that he writes to his sister about his expedition. It could be interpreted that he has the same feelings towards his sister as Victor has towards his mother. Both have created something to satisfy their desires; Mary has Walton, and Victor has the monster and the monster in his turns wants another female. Here the mirror-image or double again shows the same possibility of castration as has been discussed earlier. Mladen Dolar argues that this creation of the mirror image or double against the impending extinction of the subject has “its counterpart in the language of dreams,” as Victor enjoys this in his dreams (3). This counterpart is impotence or castration. This castration is, therefore, very much present in his language too.

Creation and Impotence in Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

Now this castration or impotence has led to the final resolution that like his mirror-image of monster, who is not able to procreate, Victor is also not able to produce a child. That is why he has created the monster through his science. It is perhaps to hide is gender identity as he has not created the female monster as he needs a different set of chemicals and formulas that he did not have. In both the cases, the monster as well as his creation have lost the ability to copulate or create a new form of their own. That is why they are alienated and secluded from the rest of the people.  Although both alienation and seclusion are the results of avoiding joining the Symbolic order in totality, it is yet not all that. For example, the monster joins the the Symbolic order by learning the language and by becoming eloquent as Victor appreciates him, but he does not join the cultural system. He stays aloof from others, as he is a deformed shape (Dolar 13). However, Victor has created this niche of a secluded person for himself due to the non-fulfilment of his desire that he cannot express and cannot fulfill in this existing Symbolic order. That is why he is always on one or the other journey and leaves Elizabeth alone to fight the monster though he knows that the monster will never hurt him as the monster has already stated it to him that he will kill Victor, his creator /father / mother figure. If here it is supposed that the monster is merely Victor’s fig of mind, then the warning of the monster “I will be with you on your wedding-night,” not only supports the point that Victor feels alienated from the rest of the human beings due to his castration or impotence is the same alienation that the monster is going through (Shelley 206). It also supports the point that this monster is his own castration that is threatening him. That is why he leaves his beloved wife in the bed to die.

Conclusion

Concluding the debate, it could be said that Frankenstein like its creator, Mary Shelley, is a very complicated text having multiplicity of meanings when psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein is conducted. It could be interpreted on several levels, as is proved through different conceptual points discussed with reference to Freud and Lacan’s psychoanalytical approach. However, it is still open to debate whether it really comes up to the level of a definitive text to be exemplified as a psychoanalytical model, for the text involves various twists and turns which sometimes show it has the qualities that a psychoanalytical model text should have, while at some points it just shows itself as a Gothic novel. However, it is the connotative use of language that has given rise to such controversies, and it lies in the artistic rendering of the story. However, as the critics have pointed that every piece of literature is a mirror image of the conscious and unconscious thoughts of its writer, it needs far greater and deeper studies to point out that Mary Shelley has really been suffering from some Electra complex, the reason that she has put so many psychoanalytic characteristics in this fictional work. Some studies in this connection have pointed out resemblance but the task of this essay is limited to only explaining the framework of Freud and Lacan’s Oedipus Complex, the Imaginary and Symbolic order and the interpretation of the text in the light of these theoretical studies. It seems that almost all the characters from Walton to Victor and from the monster to Elizabeth, show some signs of their entry from the Imaginary order to the Symbolic order and their repressed desires coming out through their language as in the case of Victor and his creation, the monster. However, in some cases there are some debatable points such as the dreams of Victor Frankenstein and of his creation, the monster. These dreams border on sanity and insanity at the same time showing some characteristics of their gender identity, desires and alienation. In the same way, Robert Walton has also some desires which he keeps repressed but just states in connotative terms to his sister through letters. Despite these interpretations through the psychoanalytic study of Frankenstein, it still needs a lot of arduous reading to point out further interpretations of their language.

Works Cited

1. Crisman, William. “`Now Misery Has Come Home’: Sibling Rivalry in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.” Studies in Romanticism 36.1 (1997): 27. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2016.
2. Collings, David. “The Monster and the Imaginary Mother: A Lacanian Reading of Frankenstein.” USASK. n. d. Web. 10 Sep. 2016.
3. D’Amato, Barbara. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: An Orphaned Author’s Dream and Journey Toward Integration.” Modern Psychoanalysis 34.1 (2009): 117-135. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2016.
4. Dolar, Mladen. “I Shall Be With You on Your Wedding Night: Lacan and The Uncanny.” JSTOR. 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 10 Sep. 2016. pp. 1-23.
5. Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. 1933. Penguin. pp. 105–6.
6. Hogle, Jerrold E. “Frankenstein’s Dream: An Introduction.” Romantic Circles. Jul. 2003. Web. 10 Sep. 2016.
7. Kotze, Haidee. “Desire, gender, power, language: a Psychoanalytic reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Literator 21.1 (Apr. 2000): 53-67. Web. 10 Sep. 2016.
8. Lall, Ashley. “Like Father, Like Son: Parental Absence and Identity Crisis in Shelly’s Frankenstein.” PACE. n. d. Web. 10 Sep. 2016.
9. Marsh, Nicholas. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein. Palgrave Macmillan. 2009. pp. 156.
10. Rodriguez, William. “Good and Ugly.” Frankenstein and Philosophy: Shocking Truth, edited by Nicolas Michaud. Open Court. Chicago. 2013. pp. 281-286.
11. Schön, Joan. “Dream Interpretation in Theory: Drawing On The Contributions Of Freud, Jung, And The Kleinians.” Psycho-Analytic Psychotherapy In South Africa 24.1 (2016): 76-108. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2016.
12. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Planet Ebooks. 2014.
13. Veeder, William. “The Negative Oedipus: Father, Frankenstein, and the Shelleys.”KNARF. 1986. Web. 10 Sep. 2016.

Relevant Questions of Psychoanalytic Study of Frankenstein

1. In a psychoanalytic study of “Frankenstein,” how do Victor Frankenstein’s unconscious desires and fears come to the forefront through his creation of the monster?
2. From a psychoanalytic perspective within the context of a study of “Frankenstein,” how can we analyze the theme of parenting and abandonment, and what psychological insights does it offer about the characters and their relationships?
3. Within the framework of a psychoanalytic study of “Frankenstein,” how does the creature’s relentless pursuit of revenge serve as a window into his unresolved psychological trauma, and what does it reveal about the human psyche?

Introduction to Darkness in Heart of Darkness

Darkness in Heart of Darkness is is associated with all types of sins committed in the third world countries in the name of civilization. This is not only in Christianity but also in all the other religions of the world, because darkness is considered as breeding ground of sins where a person can observe his mistakes and blunders and see the truth. It is said in Mathew 4:16, “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned” which means that those who live in darkness can see the light or the truth before them. Even the holy Koran states the same thing as it is given in Chapter Baqra, “Allah is the Protecting Guardian of those who believe. He bringeth them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their patrons are false deities. They bring them out of light into darkness” (2:245). Here darkness is akin to ignorance and state of having no knowledge or willful neglect of the knowledge that a person could become addicted to or victim of.

Marlow and Darkness in Heart of Darkness

It means that darkness is usually associated with backwardness, ignorance and willful neglect of civilized norms and cultured behavior. Marlow would not have seen the horrors of the modern civilization through darkness in Heart of Darkness, had he not visited the Congo himself and seen the situation of savagery on the ground. That is why Conrad has used darkness as a part of the title of the novella, which shows that darkness is not only of the outer world but also of the inner world — the inner-deep recesses of human mind and heart. However, he has also used it as a symbol, which shows that where there is civilization and learning, there is light of knowledge. The civilizations have evolved rapidly, but it is also said that where there is darkness, there is no knowledge. Using as a title of his novella to show the darkness that burgeons in the heart of men, Conrad has not only used darkness as a recurring symbol of the darkness of one’s soul and heart, but also a symbol of ignorance, and savagery. It is also a motif of evil far away removed from the civilized world in the absence of social norms, traditions and laws.

Title and Darkness in Heart of Darkness

The title of the novella of Conrad is very provocative and inciting. It is because it shows the darkness lurking in the heart of men that is explored in the entire short novella. The title is reflective of the darkness of the soul of the characters, of the entire civilization and of the corporate world that was engaged in operations in the “dark continent” in Henry Morton Stanley’s word as quoted by Macwan Hiral Josep in his paper “Justification of the Title – Heart of Darkness.” He is of the view that the title is apt as it shows not only the “dark continent” but also the imperial designs of the European nations, their cruel treatment with the natives, their barbaric disregard of the localities and natives and their senseless plundering of resources at the cost of exterminating the native Africans. Commenting on all the connotative and denotative meanings that darkness demonstrates in the novella, Hiral Josep states that, “Darkness is important enough conceptually to be part of the book’s title. However, it  is difficult to discern exactly what it might mean,  given  that  absolutely  everything  in  the  book  is  cloaked  in  darkness” (Joseph 160-164). It is because Conrad has used it in the novel around 25 times, each time using it in different meanings that could be anything for the reader. However, all of those meanings are linked with the darkness that is sometimes impenetrable, sometimes conquerable, sometimes stream of darkness while at other times it is heart of darkness of darkness of the heart as he ends his novel saying that their backward journey was to “lead them into the heart of an immense darkness” while commenting about his ideal, Mr Kurtz, he says, “The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own” (Conrad 81-88). Therefore, it is clear that he has intentionally chosen the word darkness in Heart of Darkness for his title to show that men are prone to fall in the pit of darkness if they want to do so.

Symbol of Darkness in Heart of Darkness

The symbol of darkness in Heart of Darknessis that of darkness of heart and soul. It means ignorance and behavior sans any evolved social customs and laws that once England was, “But darkness was here yesterday” (6). Conrad starts this from the city of London that is now city of light. Once it was all darkness on the Thames and around it that was the city of London in the past. Now it leads to another darkness, the Congo river that is now the darkest corner of the world where the darkness rules the roost. The reason of this darkness is the absence of knowledge, civilization and light. The people living over there obeys the conventions and customs far removed from the rational mind and rational souls that now live in the light or civilized culture. However, when a civilized man enters that place, he is prone to fall prey to the same darkness. His heart and mind falls prey to it, and he follows the same course of action as the natives do. This the idea of darkness that is the conquest of the earth that “means taking it away from those who have a difference complexion” (8). Here they are the black Africans where Marlow’s experience about the darkness of the soul culminates.

Symbol of Ignorance

However, at the same time, Conrad has used darkness as a symbol of ignorance, and savagery at several places. Marlow states, “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” (57). Kurtz could not resist to this, while Marlow followed a difference course that he first “took him for a sort of vision” not a complete ideal (26). Therefore, he saves himself from the savagery and in which Kurtz has fallen. Kurtz, therefore, falls prey to this darkness that is a symbol of savagery, but it is also where the land make them “feel savagery, the utter savagery” (7). That is why Kurtz he holds himself over there the supreme deity of that place. As the entire Europe has contributed his making, he himself admitted that perhaps the natives consider them savages as they approach them with the power of a “supernatural being [or] a deity” (82). They, then, exercise that power like a supernatural being too. However, Marlow “resist[s] the lure of the darkness” states Jo Stafford in his article “Pathways to Making Meaning: Inroads to Interpretation of The Nature of Evil in Heart of Darkness”, adding that is why Marlow returns as a changed man as he has seen the darkness of the white people in the dark corner of the world (Stafford).

Darkness in Heart of Darkness

Darkness in Heart of Darkness symbolizes absence of society, social norms and laws, because there is no administration, no social set up to puncture the false beliefs and no cops to cope with the violation of set rules and laws. The light of knowledge has not reached that part of the world Marlow describes. As Marlow leaves for Congo to meet Kurtz, the icon of colonialism, he comes across several incidents where no rules, no laws and no social customs are observed and “anything — anything can be done in this country” where there are no laws or no fear of cops (52). Ziaoxi Li and Caie Qu in their paper “Light and Dark Symbols in Heart of Darkness” states that “When Marlow first learns of Kurtz’s activities in the jungle, he attributes Kurtz’s moral downfall or madness to his lack of connectedness with civilization” as he is away from Europe (85). It is because Marlow and his successors are far away from the civilized Europe of rule-imposed society, and Marlow and other whites are considered “the new gang — the gang of virtue” (39). It is because they have considered it a virtue to spread the light of civilization and knowledge to this farthest corner of Europe, where the darkness holds supreme over human beings. However, despite this, human beings are used as tools, beasts of burdens and laborers to feed the economic wheel of Europe. Although the objective announced and demonstrated regarding this journey and expedition is to show the performance of the white in response of Kipling’s phrase “the white man’s burden” that is to teach these savages. However, he observes that as there are no laws, the white men have become equally savages and have started observing and following the same rituals such as Kurtz did. Therefore, this darkness becomes a cover for evil — the major motif of the novella that runs through it from the first sentence to the last one.

Motif of Darkness in Heart of Darkness

That is why Joseph Conrad has used darkness in Heart of Darkness as the title, the major symbol and the main motif in the novel. This darkness overwhelms a man, howsoever civilized he is, creeps into the inner recesses of mind where evil lurks. He finally succumbs to this and becomes a supernatural figure for the natives despite knowing that he is committing blunders and dancing with the devils. This transformation could happen consciously or unconsciously or due to the prevalent environment or absence of a “cop” or ignorance. In case of Kurtz, this is a willful transformation. But darkness with Conrad has become a symbol of savagery and barbarism through which Marlow comes out successfully and lives to tell the tale. That is why it is akin to his allegorical journey into his own dark mind, and then his backward journey toward humanity. However, he has also seen that his loved figure, Kurtz has willfully lived in that darkness and has exploited the locals to extract ivory. In other words, it means that he has willfully lived in the darkness — a move that has portrayed him as an authoritatively dark soul, who has finally uttered his famous words “the horror, the horror” despite writing the postscript of his report “Exterminate all brutes” (83,116). This is the culmination of the use of darkness as a motif, a theme and a symbol throughout the novel as well as in the title to show darkness in Heart of Darkness.

Works Cited

1. Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness'” Massachusetts Review. 18. 1977. Rpt. in Heart of Darkness, An Authoritative Text, background and Sources Criticism. 1961. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough, London: W. W Norton and Co., 1988, pp.251-261.
2. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness.  Planet Ebooks. Online ebook. 2009.
3. Jordison, Sam. “Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad – a trip into inner space.” The Guardian. The Guardian. 29 July 2015. Web. 21 Sep. 2015.
4. Joseph, Marwan Hirapal. “Justification of the Title-Heart of Darkness.” The International Journal of Humanities and Social Studies. 2 (1). (2014). 160-164.
5. Li, Xiaoxi & Caie Qu. “Light and Dark Symbols in Heart of Darkness.” Asian Social Science. 4(5). May 2008. 85-87.
6. Stafford, Jo. “Pathways to Making Meaning: Inroads to Interpretation of The Nature of Evil in Heart of Darkness.” Yale National Initiative. Yale Initiative. n. d. Web. 21 Sep. 2015.
7. The Holy Quran. Trans. Marmaduke Pickthall. n. d. Web. 21 Sep. 2015.
8. The Holy Bible. Hendrickson Marketing LLC. Peabody MA. Print. 2006.

Relevant Questions about Darkness in Heart of Darkness

1. What does Heart of Darkness represent in the story, and how does it relate to the physical journey into the African Congo and the moral journey into the depths of human nature?
2. How does Conrad use darkness as a symbol in Heart of Darkness, and what does it reveal about the themes and characters in the story?
3. How does the novella Heart of Darkness use darkness to critique the imperialist project and shed light on the consequences of European expansion into Africa?

Introduction to Conjugal Life in “The Story of an Hour”

Women often think of unconventional ideasas Kate Chopin did by presenting conjugal life in “The Story of an Hour” around a century back.. None would have thought that such an ironic thing that a wife enjoys the death of her own husband could happen. “The Story of an Hour” presents a female protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard, who is sensually enjoying the autonomy that her husband’s sudden accidental death has brought to her. She is given the news with great care, but suddenly Brently appears and causes her instant death in doctor’s words “of joy that kills” (Chopin 183). This is how conjugal life in “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates unconventional female thinking of Louise and feelings of freedom, sensual pleasure, and future prospects after hearing the news of the death of her husband.

Unconventional Thinking of Conjugal Life in “The Story of an Hour”

The first unconventional thinking of the time when Kate Chopin wrote this story by presenting conjugal life in “The Story of an Hour” is how a woman could think of freedom after the death of her husband. Louise first expresses a sort of autonomy and freedom when the first wave of sorrow ebbs down. Her sister Josephine has come to break the news. Commenting upon this thinking, Robert C. Evans argues that Josephine has no idea what her sister is feeling adding “She is imagining her autonomy in the days ahead” (194). In other words, she is thinking about her freedom from the conjugal life that Kate Chopin has clearly hinted in the words Louise is repeating “under the breath” as “free, free, free.” (182). This is unconventional to think let mutter when husband’s dead body has not arrived as yet. However, even more unconventional is the way she has felt it.

Sorrows of Conjugal Life in “The Story of an Hour”

As stated earlier that after the first wave of sorrow ebbs down, she instantly looks out of the window to the tree tops to feel “the new spring life” after suspending her “intelligent thought” of the existing reality of the death of her husband (Chopin 182). This is the major sorrow of conjugal life in “The Story of an Hour”. All the sensual moves of Louise betray her feelings of happiness at the prospects. This is rather unbecoming of a woman to feel and show such thoughts even in isolation. Going into the psychoanalytic details of this joy of freedom and thinking, Mavis Chia Chieh Tsen in his article “Joy that Kills”: Female Joissance in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” that actually Louise wants to “liberate long-suppressed female identity more than anything else” (29). This could be true, for Kate Chopin’s narrator, too, has spoken of the same repression in the lines of her face (Chopin 182). This means that there must have been repression of conjugal life in “The Story of an Hour” that she has expressed her joy about freedom from it. It is entirely unconventional for a woman to think such things at such a gloomy time. Even more unconventional is to enjoy that moment.

Strangeness of Conjugal Life in “The Story of an Hour”

The anonymous narrator has clearly indicated that Louise has loved her husband but the insertion of word “sometimes” is strange, for whether she loves or not, she is a married woman and that it is her duty to love her husband or at least not show that there is no love. At least, this has been a norm during Kate Chopin’s times. Therefore, it seems another unconventionality on Louise’s part that when her sister knocks at the door, “she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window” (Chopin 183). This means that now her happiness has crossed all the boundaries and her freedom and autonomy is complete as none could bar her from enjoying and asserting herself.

Conclusion

Concluding the argument, it can be stated that Kate Chopin’s heroin, Louise Brently displays unconventional behavior not only at the breaking of the news of her husband’s death, but also expressing her feelings and expressions when she is alone in the room. She bursts into tears at first but then it dawns upon her that she is free now she instantly starts ruminating about her future. When she is alone in the room, she feels the arrival of this sense that she is autonomous and this too is unconventional for a woman of that time when her husband’s dead body has not arrived yet. Even the thinking of enjoying life alone could be unbecoming of a woman let alone to make “her fancy … running riot” (183) about the freedom that lies in the future. In other words, Kate Chopin has tried to break the conventions of that time to present her heroin and her conjugal life in “The Story of an Hour”,  showing sensual pleasure and happiness over freedom from her seemingly repressive conjugal life.

Works Cited

1. Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour,” from The Story and it’s Writer edited by Ann Charters. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015, pp. 181-183.
2. Chopin, Kate, and Robert C. Evans. “The Story of an Hour.” Introduction to Literary Context: American Short Fiction, Nov. 2014, pp. 193–198. EBSCOhost, delgado.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=101666196&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
3. Mavis Chia-Chieh Tseng. “‘Joy That Kills’: Female Jouissance in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour.’” Short Story, vol. 22, no. 2, Fall 2014, pp. 29–38.

You may read more Short Essays below:

• Imperialism in Heart of Darkness: Ambivalence
• Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross
• Henry Dorset Case: Complicated Character
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Introduction to “The Woman With the Iron First”: Deconstructive Analysis

Taken from the novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, this chapter “The Woman With the Iron First” sheds light on the story of Liesel, a girl whose brother is dead, and she is left alone with the Hubermans. She has nightmares when Hans Huberman consoles her becoming his father and his wife treating her as their adopted daughter. She has a book that she stole when her brother died. With the passage of time, she becomes habitual of the nocturnal consolation. The Hubermans become quite loving to the girl though they are not at good terms with each other. While Hans Huberman plays accordion, his wife works in the kitchen, seeing the girl as their only solace after their own boys have left them for good adopting different careers. Liesel is then sent to a Catholic school where she feels at odd among the young students. Mama, Rosa Huberman, shouts at Hans though he advises her not to shriek loudly. Though she is a hard-working lady who washes clothes of the elite class, she also demonstrates her dissatisfaction over the profession of her husband and pride of the elite class to whom she does not like. When Liesel attends school she comes to know that she is to become a Band of German Girls by sticking to certain norms in Germany. Liesel remembers Rosa, as an abusive woman not only toward her husband but also toward the people for whom she does washing. Later Rosa tells her that a lady Holtzapfel always spits on their door and when she spits, Liesel has to clean that means that such a lady with power having sons in the army spits and you have to clean it. She has taken this task as a routine. The deconstruction analysis of “The Woman With the Iron First” involves the identification of binary oppositions, identification of its center with cultural assumptions, impacts of binary on the center, and consequential “multiplicity of meanings” (Klages, p. 56).

Binary Opposition in “The Woman With the Iron First”

As far as binary oppositions in this chapter “The Woman With the Iron First” of the novel are concerned, they are in the characters as well as the setting. These binaries include the quietness of Hans Huberman and the loudness of Rosa Huberman, nightmare of Liesel and consolation of Hans Huberman, hereness of dream and “thereness” of Hans (Zusak, p. 42), his leaving, not leaving, education of Liesel and ignorance of the Hubermans, night and day, poverty of the Hubermans and wealth of the people for whom Rosa does washing, hard work of Rosa and idleness of Hans Huberman and power and obedience. These binaries show different values residing in German society. Whereas Liesel has been left alone, the Hubermans are a well-knit family living in the German town. The German culture dominates their household as well as love and hate relationships (p. 41-45). The wife, Rosa, is loud, coarse, and dissatisfied, but Hans is quiet, idle, and satisfied with his lot. His playing of the accordion for the girl in this chapter, “The Woman With the Iron First” shows his satisfaction as well as love for art. This means that the center is the German culture.

This short analysis of the binary opposition from “The Woman With the Iron First” shows that the key cultural assumptions are about German culture. It can be assumed that the woman, mostly from the poor background such as the Hubermans, are coarse, and loud-mouthed but hard working and loyal to their husbands. They prefer sending their children to German schools where the existing German norms are taught such as “Band of German Girls” (p. 46) which Liesel has to learn when she gets to the school. The Catholic religion is dominant one as Liesel belongs to the Lutheran sect. It means that the religion, German social customs and German norms of the lower middle or poor class are the dominant assumptions. Considering German society as the center, it also becomes clear that there are two dominant classes. The first is that of the people in power who are mostly in the armed forces, and the second people who have money as Rosa Huberman washes their clothes. The other assumptions is that these two classes of the German social fabric are at bad terms with the poor class, as the spitting of the iron first lady on the door and cleaning of Liesel shows (p. 46). It is also clear from the behavior of Frau Holtzapfel who spits, and Liesel has to clean, for she has sons in the army (p. 49). This shows the prevalent culture of power and dominance. It also demonstrates the writer’s attitude toward the German culture and key assumptions of this culture that he has highlighted through the characters. When the binary oppositions stated earlier are looked and broken down, they impact the center as well as reveal varied interpretations.

Liesel in “The Woman With the Iron First”

When the chapter opens, Liesel is staying with the Hubermans, while she is attached to the head of the family, an old male. This is a strange relationship of love in that he is a complete stranger to her earlier though they have adopted Liesel as their daughter. She becomes quite consoled when he is there and this “thereness” (Zusask 42) points to the presence of a male member with her. Some words such as “brute strength” against “gentleness” points to the fact that Hans comes to her though out of love, but this opposite-gender relationship points to not-exact love for gender solace, specifically when the girl is so young. It is frowned upon in every culture let alone German culture. This is a first attack on the assumption as some binary opposition suggests that this relationship has its dark side. The second issue that arises is the bitterness of Rosa Huberman. Though she is not entirely at bad terms with her husband Hans, and takes care of the girl when she teaches her to clean spitting on the door by the end of the story, it is not clear why she is often loud with her husband when he is present with this little girl Liesel. Even if the old man is attracted to her, he still takes a good care of the girl that does not seem to go down well with Rosa, as she always asks him to stop the noise of the playing accordion. However, it is interesting that where it is a “safety” (p. 43) for the girl, it seems insecurity for Rosa. The inherent contractions of these binary oppositions have demonstrated the nearing instability of the German social fabric. This also points to varied interpretations of the society when broken down on this level.

Whereas on the one hand, this binary opposition shows that the old man, Hans Huberman, is a fatherly figure to the girl but the at the same time “brute strength” and “smell” (p. 42) against the innocence and fragrance of the freshness of the girly points to savagery. It further highlights that the old man is attracted to the girl who seeks safety in the daylight but experiences nightmares at night. It is true that she remembers her dead brother and mother, it is also true that the Hubermans have adopted her as their own daughter. However, these binary oppositions point to a relationship that does not fit a father and an adopted daughter as Rosa becomes bitter toward her husband. But at the same time, she does not show the same bitterness against the girl that is another argument that goes in favor of the old man that he treats her as a daughter. Going further deep, when Liesel is admitted to a school, it becomes clear that she is to become a pure German girl having certain norms. At the same time, in reality, there seems some other social conventions where a poor can only be loudmouthed like Rosa Huberman. Both Rosa and Hans also compete with each other to win the girl though the girl likes Papa more than Rosa. Such a contradictory event has increased disunity in the story which becomes further obvious when this chapter reaches its end.

Role of Binary Opposition in “The Woman With the Iron First”

Whereas as the role of binary oppositions in disuniting the text in this chapter “The Woman With the Iron First” is concerned, it is too much obvious from the very start. The girl is going to live with a German family with the assumption that this innocent girl is going to learn manners and ways to live in this world from her would-be Papa having “brute strength” and would-be Mama “loud” woman (p. 42). On the other hand, she is admitted to a formal state-run school to learn Catholic belief deposit being a Lutheran, German superior despite being an inferior and learn manners despite living with an inferior or poor family (45). Even then she is being taught to beware of the corrupt elite class whose manners uphold superiority making her inferior to them. These implicit attack on the German culture are entirely contrary to the supposed German upbringing of the girl.

Conclusion

Cutting it short, deconstruction analysis of “The Woman With the Iron First” has not only presented binary oppositions to uncover the inherent contradictions in the German social construct but also in the beliefs of the characters and their behavior. These oppositions have made the center instable causing the text to be fluid with variety of interpretations which seem slipping out of the hands of the author, Markus Zusak himself and also show that there are more things in the text than merely scribbled words on the pages.

References

1. Zusak, M., 2007. The Book Thief. Picador Australia.
2. Klages, Mary., 2011. Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum International Publishing Company.

Relevant Questions about Deconstruction Analysis of “The Woman With the Iron Fist”

1. How does “The Woman With the Iron Fist” deconstruct and subvert traditional gender roles and power dynamics within the martial arts genre, and what does this reveal about the film’s commentary on societal norms and expectations?
2. In what ways does the film challenge and deconstruct typical character archetypes and moral dichotomies often seen in martial arts films, and how does this contribute to a more complex and layered narrative?
3. Can you analyze the deconstruction of cultural stereotypes and tropes related to martial arts and Asian culture in “The Woman With the Iron Fist,” and discuss how these deconstructions impact the film’s overall themes and messages?

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Introduction to Postmodernism in The North China Lover

Though highly autobiographical to the point of truth, The North China Lover, a novel by Marguerite Duras not only depicts her own life story in a French Colony, but also the everyday happenings of her love. She once said during her interview to Salma Rushdie, “I swear it. I swear all of it. I have never lied in a book. Or in my life” (Rushdie & Ash). In the comments, Salman Rushdie and Timothy Garton Ash write that she has stated that “she was ostracized for her reckless teenager affair with an older Chinese millionaire” the reason that her novel, The North China Lover, seems and autobiographical document.

If studied minutely, this love happening of Vietnam bore several resemblances of love with the creator, Duras. It is even more autobiographical than it is, for it is not only a cultural document, but also a social and economic critique, surpassing all the literary boundaries in the modern world. Despite its being the voice of a bold feministic attitude having crossed the patriarchal dominance, this fictional biography has the traces of her earlier fictions, which too are biographical in nature. As a novel, The North China Lover, demonstrates several new techniques that the writer has used. Including using easy to understand third person voice for narrating the entire story, Duras has won several strands of fictional techniques into a single fiction which is often called a style of woven personal fiction into history. Writing about this quality of her fiction, Naoki Sakai argues that this is remarkable in Duras that “she dealt with the work of the unconscious in her own historical memory in which the affiliation of fascism and colonialism was unambiguously” given in clear fictional terms (179). This sort of creative technique is a clear demonstration of the quality of a postmodern fiction. However, this is not all, for she has demonstrate not only intertextuality and self-reflectivity or subjectivism, but also used transgression beyond the accepted norms in this novel.

Intertextuality in The North China Lover

As far as intertextuality when tracing postmodernism in The North China Lover is concerned, it means to create a sort of relation of one text with another written in the same way earlier and create a sort of “interwoven fabric of literary history” as stated by Ramen Sharma and Dr. Preety Chaudhary. It means there is a reference to another work or even fairy tales. They are of the opinion that pastiche or using of pasted elements together to create a piece of work is also a feature of postmodern literature (195). A la all of her fictional works, Duras has constructed several strands of pastiches or texts into one. Specifically, there are several memories of her childhood woven into this text. The girl, her mother and brothers living a French colony not in acute poverty makes the whole simple story. However, it happens that their father left them in the middle. Despite this acute poverty, Duras studied up to France and graduated from Paris. This has sharp parallels in her story as the girl also is fond of telling stories, “She is telling the story of her life”, while “The Chinese listens from far off, distractedly” (Duras 88). This shows clearly her own romance with the Chinese millionaire who is not able to listen to her stories, while she is quite adolescent. In the same way, the protagonist of the novel leaves Vietnam for France, which is another resemblance with her life. As Duras has seen historical events within her own eyes, her fictions are autobiographical in a sense that they show what she had seen as a child. This could be a subjective movement for the writer to show herself in her own fiction. However, this is not all. The intertextuality of Duras is not limited to this.  

The other intertextual parallel is between her father and family and the family of the child of her novel, motifs and themes. Throughout her life, she has sought love in adults despite having a strict family norms and traditions. The image of patriarchal dominance prevalent throughout, The North China Sea, are reflected through her father and brother in the shape of Pierre and his brother. Oppression and dominance are two of the qualities that she sought to represent but this is of course through her own life. Even the motifs also point out the relations between the previous novel, The Lover, and The North China Lover. Obviously both the texts as written by a single author must have some similarities but in the case of both of these novels, there are strong parallels. In their book, Francophone Postcolonial Studies: A Critical Introduction, Charles Forsdick and David Murphy write that the motif of river is also common in both the novels though the texts have also been linked in various ways such as “embodiment of flux, desires and transgression” but “many of the Mekong’s symbolic associations can only be fully deduced by reading them in intertextual association with those of The Lover” (260). They mean that this parallel structure not only go with themes, but also with the same motifs as both of them have already stated that despite it was written seven years later, the story was the same though it was only reworked a little (259). However, Aleksandra Tryniecka presents another hypothesis in her paper regarding this attempt of intertextuality on the part of Duras, arguing that she wants to show another alternative to her readers than presenting the “traditional generic model” the reason that she has used several texts within the same text to make it more interesting. Although several other writers have explored the themes of childhood and love in their fictions, she wants to show, she argues, that it “is now tread differently” which is not only through the social confusion that the child of The North China Lover confronts when migrating from Vietnam to France and through her rebelliousness in the traditional setting as she evinces (467-468). However, the consequences of the juvenile rebellion and resultant loneliness only makes things worse for the protagonist which is a sign that the author must have faced the same situation.

It is quite plausible that the life of the author and the text becomes interchangeable. Even the distinction between the two is blurred to a point. In this connection, C. K. Sample argues that her novel, The North China Lover, in fact, Duras has tried to play with her status as an author as well as a female figure, blurring the difference between her life and that of her characters. He is of the view that “Throughout text Duras manipulates intertextuality to blurs the lines — the lines between autobiography, fiction, among author, character and narrator” and the fact is that she has rather done it intentionality. She does not mince the word in saying that she has not done in in the previous novel, The Lover (280). In this connection, the most important point is that of hybridization which is the story and the setting. Although it is very much clear that as a biographical novel, it must have the same setting, the author has done her best in writing short and pointed sentences to point it out in the story where a new setting is replacing the old one with a bang such as “From Annam. From the islands….” (Duras 99). This is enough to show that she has played with the cinematic technique of sharply and abruptly introducing the new thing instead of making a long weaving of tale before changing the setting. In this connection, it is very interesting to seek further parallel of real character with that of the character created by the real one, the child.

Characters in The North China Lover

It is fair to say that a created one resembles more like a pastiche instead of a full-fledge character. Duras has clearly stated what she could have never stated in her conversation or interviews. She introduces the child saying that “She’s alone in the picture, she looks at the nakedness of his body, as unknown as that of any face, as unique, delightful, as that of his hand on her body during the trip” adding that “She isn’t alone in the picture any more” (Duras 69). This type of writing where the cut-paste technique of photoshop has been beautifully used with the poetic language. This image of her own life resembles with her own desires. However, even in the middle of this, the realization that she is going to love a person more than twice of her age will only result in the Chinese isolation that she thinks is going to make her wiser than before (59). This is also her desire that she has expressed in interwoven terms in Chinese isolation rather than the French one. Even more interesting is her technique of filmic or cinematic description of replacing one picture with another one and then make them run in a sequence such as “She starts to get out of bed. With his hand, he stops her from getting up. She doesn’t try again.” (70). Such a technique has made her unique in her narrative. It is not only abrupt but also poetic with pace very fast but movement very sluggish.

In its intertextual setting, the most important point is the subject which could be “self-absence” as stated by Todd in his paper. However, it is more than a reason for the book itself. In fact, Ruby Todd has argued this novel is revisitation of the previous, The Lover. The reason is that it is a catalyst of this narrative. There is the same intensity and same myth. In other words, Todd states that both of these books are “mere fragments of the limitless ones simultaneously present within autohr’s imagination and memory” which brings a sense of myth and “multivalency” or a new trait of weaving more than one texts into one. Although Todd asserts that Duras has refused to comment on the Chinese lover as being the same as in The Lover, he is of the view that the storyline is the same. It expresses the same desires, same experience, same wild emotions and same non-satisfaction (8). In other word, both of the texts have been interwoven into a one, showing the postmodern feature of intertextuality.

The North China Lover as a Histriographic Metafiction

It is also fair to label, The North China Lover, as a historiographic metafiction” for it involves not only the history but also the fiction. In this connection, a writer has two responsibilities to fulfill; the one that pulls him towards his native land and the other to his adopted land. Duras has beautifully constructed her story in a larger historical background. She has given the setting of the novel a French Colony, Indochina or Vietnam where she passed most of her childhood. Her birth within a French family and French colony and movement from Paris to home and back for education, and then her own tale of love with an old Chinese millionaire have been presenting on a huge historical canvass. Speaking about historical metafiction, Linda Hutcheon has argued that though it is correct to say that history and art are woven together to produce fiction, but challenges that historical metafiction poses are very serious and cannot be bridged by a common reader. However, she has also argued that this convergence of both the historical context and real text is “illimitable”, for this poses challenges in both “closure and single, centralized meanings” (07). In this connection, Duras has achieved success in this that she has woven history into her own autobiographical love story. She has lived in the elite neighborhood in Lycee de Saigon in Vietnam from where he left for France. This is the same that the child has to go through. The child leaves her home from Vietnam exactly like Duras. Both goes through the same historical period. Both sees the same historical happenings. Therefore, the challenge that it poses to the reader as a metafiction is only resolved when reader and the character are understood through the same lens. Regarding historical setting, the novel demonstrates the violence of attacks and patriarchal dominance of that era. Patriarchal dominance and oppression were common against the feminine perspectives in general life as well as private life.

Narrative of The North China Lover

The narrative of the entire novel is rather self-reflection or subjective. It could be that it is about the author herself, as it is an autobiographical account, but still the reflection in simple language is still there. It is the same like a mind that is remembering the past. In this connection, the comments of Ruby Todd are very important as he terms the narrative reflective, rather than non-linear, a postmodern trait of literary fiction. He is of the view that “linearity is bypassed in favor of the kind stop-start fragmentation experienced by a mind remembering” by which he means that this repeated remembering brings meanings into the events which is a sort of self-reflection (6). He further argues that “The order in which scenes come to us, for example, is not linear but rather a reflective of the narrator’s process of remembering” which is an evidence that she writes whatever she remembers from her memory (05). For example, the child says, “Doing nothing is a profession. It’s very hard” (130). In fact, this doing nothing is a self-reflection of the author herself when she has not being doing anything. In fact, the story in autobiography is in itself a self reflective retrospective, for she has been writing the same in The Lover, and as she has found not satisfaction, she started the same in this novel. It is because she has written gone a way beyond an ordinary fiction of autobiography. In this connection, Bethany Ladimer argues that she is popular for her rejection of ordinary and common autobiographical structure as followed in the fictional world. She is of the opinion that it was self-reflection of retrieving her own past several years back. Commenting further on this technique, she is of the view that it is a “personal truth about herself, as distinct from the “verifiable reality” which has made this novel rather a more self-reflective than self-explanatory (104). That is the very reason that self-reflection often comes in the form of flashbacks and hence the narrative is somewhat rudimentary or fragmentary.

Non-Linearity in The North China Lover

Although the novel itself seems to be a good narrative, it has the hallmarks of temporal distortion such as fragmentation or non-linear narrative. As it is clear from this above paragraph that the narrative is non-linear which are features of post modern fiction as stated by Ramen Sharma and Preety Chaudhary, but they argue that it is often used for the sake of irony. However, it is not clear whether Duras is ironic in The North China Lover, but it is confirmed that distortions are central in which it seems that fragmentation in the novel is in the shape of self-reflections (196). For example, the girl talks about the Chinese diamonds and then immediately returns to the Chinese, the old man and them again there is silence. Referring to Duras, John Taylor argues that even her previous lover on which this one was build was highly fragmentary and visual. He quotes her saying that The Lover was “highly poetic, fragmented, cinematic, visual and strangely paced” perhaps due to the reason that she has turned to cinema for which fragmentation of the narrative suits the best (Taylor). However, it is another thing that there are not many stories. Although there is only a one story, it is just in fragmentation and not in a full sequence like an ordinary novel. This fragmentation at parts is filled with silence which has successfully evolved the sense of self-reflection after a pause. Ben Kemper, a theater reviewer has obliquely referred to this fragmentation technique used by Duras as saying that though The North China Lover as a play has won the hearts of the audiences, it has been a Herculean task, he argues to bring this play on the stage. He pays tribute to the director saying, “Stillman has done her level best to bring the very sensory and fragmented novel to the stage” and he is quite right in his analysis in watching it that it is rightly fragmentary (Kemper).

As fragmentation is used to show a sort of self-reflection, Felix Guattari has made a very revealing commentary on the fragmentation in the postmodern interpretations saying that in literature fragmentation means fragmentation of the character. In other words, he is of the opinion that “The devaluation of the meaning of life provokes the fragmentation of the self-image” (12). Seen in the light of this interpretation, The North China Lover is a mirror image of Duras, and it could be that she has been suffering from acute devaluation of her own life in that strict family system in which she could not find an opportunity to satisfy her soul. He further comments that “its representation become confused and contradictory” that is very difficult to describe in language (12). It could be that Duras found her own story as very difficult to render in a linear narrative, the reason that she adopted the self-reflective mode and that too in fragmentation. Interpreting this point of view further, he goes on to say that “the crucial thing is to move in the direction of co-management in the production of subjectivity” (12). The subjective is another word for self-reflection in which the author does not find any other motive except his own life. That is why Duras has always asserted in her interviews that she has been destined to write about her as she has not seen anything else to write.

In this connection, it is also important that she has gone for transgression of the social norms and family and tribal traditions in not only loving a man much older than her but also writing several stories about her love affair. She has followed the feature of postfeminism of asserting her own gender identity as Judith Butler has called it in her book, Gender Trouble: Feminism and Subversion of Identity, in which she has asserted that women gender identity is formed in the absence of social and familial norms as outlined by the patriarchal dominance (31). In this connection, it is but fair to state that Duras finds herself expressing very outright and defiantly despite knowing this fact that she has very strict family system and living in a very strictly norm-bound society. Despite this, she has not only transgressed those norms, but has also expressed them in fiction. In other words, she has rather crossed the symbolic order as Judith Butler has called it as a Lacanian concept of forming identity through the norms, traditions, language and social traditions of the society. In the case of the child, this symbolic order was present around her in the shape of her brothers, her father and mother. As she says about her mother that, “Howe can that be, my mother does not even know that you exist” by which she means that if she has known, she would have traditionally forbidden her from meeting him (Duras 137). In other words, she has imbibed this symbolic order in her bones. Despite this, she is transgressing against this order in a defiant way, a sign that she has taken the chalice of recognizing her gender identity from which there is no way out. That is why she has asserts her identity even with that Chinese as “she pulls even further away from him” when he says that that nothing has been left. However, at the same time, she was fully aware as she told him that “I talked to her about my father’s preferring me dead to violating the law” which is a Chinese law and she dares to violate it by going to marry this old man (138). Even more than this, this is a bold expression of the empowerment of her sexual identity that she has been moving around with such an old man without even making him feel that she is after his wealth too.

Even this transgression is more than feministic as in Lacanian sense. It is because as Forsdick and Murphy has stated that even the title of the novel “transgress its moral and ethnic boundaries” which are the elements of symbolic order in Lacanian sense. They further argue that “Not only do the age, class and ethnic differences between them make their affair scandalous, but the fact that the lover is Chinese, rather than  ‘Indochinese’ (259). In other words, she has crossed all the boundaries in showing her feminine side of the personality in the midst of this strict and harsh symbolic order. Commenting on this transgression, Ladimer argues that it is committed in the forbidden “dangerous jungle and in her behavior with Vietnamese children, and stepped in a dynamic of interracial relations that defined mother” (116) where mother is the name of a strict social order. In the midst of this, it is not easy to show transgression from a trodden path. Therefore, this postmodern trait is not only in her novel, but also in her character itself.

Conclusion

In short, the novel The North China Lover is a new type of fiction which has gone beyond the modern fiction. It has rather displayed the features of postmodernism where the narration crosses all the modern boundaries. Not only is the text studded with intertextuality as the writer has woven her own autobiographical detail into the novel, but also that it has crossed the boundaries of self-representation. It is rather a second sequel of the first novel, The Lover. Moreover, the writer has also interwoven the history and fiction into a single story. Therefore, it is also a model of Linda Hutcheon’s historiographic metafiction. However, the author has gone much ahead in in it and has presented her own story in self-reflective mode. This means that she has given full reflection to her story before writing it on the paper in such a way that it seems as if she recalls some memory and pen it down and then recalls another one. This is a unique amalgamation of history and narrative in a way that the author has projected her own subject in it.

This sort of temporal distortion of reality to project it as a truth has rather blurred the vision and difference between the author and the character. That is why it seems somewhat fragmentary or a work of pastiches as if it is jotted own. However, in the midst of this fiction, Duras stands tall as postmodern feministic character and author who has presented such a strong character of the child in such a stifling symbolic order. The gender identity and sense of sexual empowerment runs deep down in her character which in other words mean in her. This project is more than the society around her could endure. Therefore, she could be stated as a postmodern writer and figure not only because she has wrote such a strong novel, but because she has painted such a strong picture of her own defiance in such a patriarchally dominant society where even mother figure cannot be defied. However, the child as well as the author, both defined almost all the figures and even symbolic order of the society in which they grew up. If seen through the prism of intertextuality of narrative, metafiction, pastiche, temporal distortion of reality, fragmentation, postfeminism traits and above all the self-reflective narrative, then The North China Lover is a postmodern novel as it bears almost all the traits of a postmodern fiction and still has the taste of a narrative that can be turned into a movie or a play.

Works Cited

1. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and Subversion of Identity. New York. Routledge. 2003. 30-35.
2. Duras, Marguerite. The North China Lover. United States of America: New Press, 1992.
3. Forsdick, Charles & David Murphy. Francophone Postcolonial Studies: A Critical Introduction. New York. Routledge. 2003. Print. pp. 259-260.
4. Guattari, Felix. Chaosmosis; An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm. Indianapolis. Indiana University Press. Print. 12-18.
5. Hutcheon, Linda. “Historiographic Metafiction: Parody and The Intertextuality of History.” TSPACE. n. d. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
6. Kempber, Ben. ” Cheep Goods in a Gorgeous Gown.” Chicago Theatre and Concert Reviews. 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
7. Ladimer, Bethany. “Wartime Writings, or the Imaginary Lover of Marguerite Duras.” Studies in 20^th & 21^st Century Literature, 33.1 (01 Jan. 2009): 103-117. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
8. Naoki, Sakai. “The West-A Dialogic Prescription or Proscription?” Social Identities 11.3 (May 2005): 177-195. Print.
9. Rushdie, Salman & Timothy Garton Ash. ” Marguerite Duras’s The Lover: But, but, but … did it really happen?” Stanford University. 04 May. 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
10. Sharma, Ramen & Dr. Preety Chaudhary. “Common Themes and Techniques of Postmodern Literature of Shakespeare.” International Journal of Education Planning & Administration 1.2 (2011): 188-198). Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
11. Sample III, C. K. “Life And Text As Spectacle: Sacrificial Repetitions In Duras’s The North China Lover.” Literature Film Quarterly 32.4 (2004): 279-287. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
12. Taylor, John. ” Fuse Book Review: From France with “L’Amour” — A Neglected Volume by Marguerite Duras.” The Art Fuse. 09 Jul. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
13. Todd, Ruby. “Writing Absence: A Case Study of Duras’s The North China Lover.” Deakin University. n. d. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
14. Tryneicka, Aleksandra. “The Bildungsroman Revisited: J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in The Rye” and M. Duras, “The Lover” and “The North China Lover”: An Intertextual Study of the Genre.” International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 08.7 (2015): Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

Relevant Questions Postmodernism in The North China Lover

1. How does Marguerite Duras employ postmodernist narrative techniques and structures in The North China Lover to challenge traditional storytelling conventions and engage the reader in a different way?
2. In what ways does The North China Lover explore the theme of identity and reality through a postmodernist lens, particularly concerning the blurred boundaries between the protagonist’s personal experiences and the fictional world she creates?
3. Discuss the role of intertextuality and metafiction in The North China Lover and how these postmodernist devices contribute to the novel’s overarching themes and the reader’s understanding of the narrative.

Introduction to Human Nature in “The Cask of Amontillado”

The time and human nature in “The Cask of Amontillado” shows the skill of Edgar Allen Poe in dealing with these realities. In fact, human nature is very complex and strange that we cannot exactly understand what they want to do and what they feel. It is often in the nature of humans they they feel jealous of whom they try idealize, hide their hatred and prejudice and finally kill to whom they praise the most. We can find the example of such a human being depicted in the story. Poe has wonderfully created two interesting characters; one is Montresor, an egoist, who cannot tolerate any a minor insult, while the second is Fortunato, a man always likes to insult his friends and consequently faces Montresor’s annoyance. Though Montresor is a well-reputed man, he decides to teach a lesson to Fortunato and take revenge. So, he makes a plan as he knows the weaknesses of his friend and drinking is one of them, he uses this point to achieve his target. He knows all the tricks trap a person. Hence, to trap him, he waits to let him drink and lose his consciousness. For readers, it is quite natural that they are curious to know whether Montresor would execute this sinister plan or not. But the reality is, he would. Not only Montresor deceives Fortunato, but also exploits his weakness of routine drinking and manipulates time and occasion to slay him.

Nature of Montresor in “The Cask of Amontillado

Montresor is a great deceiver and he deceived Fortunato beautifully showing skill of Poe in uncovering human nature in “The Cask of Amontillado”. Gabbard terms Montresor a trickster stating that “By some unknown offense, he carefully decides to exact revenge on Fortunato, and dupes him in traditional trickster style into his assassination” (Correa Gabbard), but does it carefully. He does not show it at all. He behaves deceptively as Cynthia states in her criticism of the story, “Montresor is behaving as his own opposite in his dealings with Fortunato” (Bily). However, when it comes to the idea, it strikes him. When he meets him, his mind was clicked with an idea that now the time has come to avenge upon him before making any delay and he loses everything. So, he moves forward, telling him, “I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado” (Poe 573). He thinks that of his curiosity and again says about having doubts since he has no experience whether he has paid the right amount or was that too much expensive. Montresor then refers Luchresi, “I was on my way to Luchresi” (573) and bitterly he adds that only he can do that. Fortunato gets furious and envious after having listened this. Right at this moment, Monstresor understands that he has planted the seeds of revenge in his heart. He affirms that now he will keep repeating the name of Luchresi in his ears and then Fortunato would have no choice except coming to his “palazzo” (573) hence, he could do whatever fate has stored for him there. It is because as stated by Baraban in her article, “Being a descendant of a powerful aristocratic family, Montresor could not possibly let Fortunato insult him with impunity” (Baraban). To readers’ surprise, he was there already because he had lost his senses showing the fragility of human nature in “The Cask of Amontillado”.

Montresor Showing Human Nature in “The Cask of Amontillado”

Montresor is mindful and knows his drinking habit and also knows that Fortunato would drink a lot on this special moment of “the carnival season” (573) as majority of the people in the town are already taking a lot of drink. Due to carnival the household servants have gone on their leave, as there is enjoyment and hustle and bustle around which fills the environment with loud laughter. Hence, this is a perfect timing to strike. He knows that a perfect poison made up from combination of wet catacombs and nitre would surely put him to cough though he is showing that he is taking care of him. Besides that, he was constantly giving him “Medoc” (576) along with “flagon of De Grave” (576) until he is assured that now it would be impossible for him to recover. Despite instigating him, he is insisting him not to take more drink because its destroying his health and putting effects on his ego being a connoisseur of wine (Sova 2007). However, he does not stop drinking till he feels unable to be rescued. So, Montresor is glad to successfully trapped him by exploiting his obsession against him and whenever he would see that he might move around any time, he could hand-cuff and put him to the granite wall. But, Fortunato is not able to do anything because “he was too much astounded to resist” (578). Montresor starts collecting stones, and begins constructing a strong cover of wall with his trowel. Initially, he is not able to hear anything clearly, however, the “vibrations of the chain” (577) when, the full wall is constructed and covered him and blocks off the outside view, and he could only hear from inside of the wall “a very good joke” (578). Montresor does not take pity on him and fills up all the holes in the wall and then said to Fortunato, “let us be gone” (578). Hearing this statement, Fortunato is completely shocked and frightened that it is not a joke but a reality he is trapped and then pleads “for the love of God, Montresor” (578) but he replied sardonically, “For the love of God” (578). So, eventually, he wins success in his idea of taking revenge and now was full of pride, vengeance and ego, that Poe has done through uncovering human nature in “The Cask of Amontillado”.

Conclusion

In nutshell, in the words of Wanamaker, “the theme of revenge is the major theme in the story” (Wanamaker). What we have understood from this story after uncovering human nature in “The Cask of Amontillado” is that Montresor has manipulated the weaknesses of his friend and waits for the right time to implement the right strategy of taking revenge. He cunningly plans and makes to appear the real occasion as a coincidence, and makes another moment appear accident where Fortunato happens to drink by chance. Besides that, by repeatedly mentioning the name of his rival in his ears he invokes jealousy in Fortunato, consequently he would react and try to escape from this tension by drinking. Due to excessive drinking, he could not judge his evil intentions that Montresor is holding him on arm while taking him to palazzo. He is doing all this in order to satisfy his egoistic nature by continually telling him he is a great man and he had exceptional taste for vine, but kept on giving him Luchresi, which he unknowingly took and fell into his trap. While taking this drink, though he is mentioning about his declining health and knows that this would make his condition worse but this instigates him to take more drink to show that his health is not in bad condition and he can consume more. Montresor’ s clever planning helps him taking revenge without even does not let him to have any doubts till the final  moment, instead he was thinking Montresor was just joking. Thus, we may say that Montresor has taken revenge on his friend through proper planning without allowing him to overreact.

Work Cited

1. Baraban, Elena V. “The Motive for Murder in The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe.” 2003. RMMAL. Web. 26 Nov. 2014 <http://rmmla.innoved.org/ereview/58.2/articles/baraban.asp>.
2. Bily, Cynthia. “The Cask of Amontillado Criticism by Cynthia Bily .” 02 May 2010. Edgar Allen Poe: Biography and Writings. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. <http://bio-edgarallanpoe.blogspot.com/2010/05/cask-of-amontillado-criticism-by.html>.
3. Gabbard, ALC. “The Figure Of The Trickster In Poe’s “Hop Frog” And “The Cask Of Amontillado”.” 2009. Web. 26 Nov. 2014 <www.juliojeha.pro.br/evil_poe/alexandraGabbard.pdf>.
4. Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Cask of Amontillado.” Zweig, Edgar V. Roberts & Robert. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New York: Longman, Robert Zweig. 573-579.
5. Sova, Dawn B. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Infobase Publishing, 2007.
6. Wanamaker, Christopher. “An Analysis of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado.” 2011. Web. 26 Nov. 2014 <http://cwanamaker.hubpages.com/hub/An-Analysis-of-Edgar-Allen-Poes-The-Cask-of-Amontillado>.

Relevant Questions about Human Nature in “The Cask of Amontillado”

1. What insights into human nature in “The Cask of Amontillado” can be gleaned from the actions and manipulation of characters, specifically regarding the desire for revenge and the capacity for cruelty?
2. How does Edgar Allan Poe employ Fortunato’s pride and arrogance to examine the complexities of human nature in “The Cask of Amontillado,” particularly focusing on vulnerability to manipulation and the consequences of one’s actions?
3. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” what does Montresor’s willingness to commit murder reveal about the moral and ethical boundaries inherent in human nature, and how does it highlight the depths individuals can descend to when driven by vengeance and their own perceived moral superiority?

Introduction to Narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart”

The anonymous narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” written by Edgar Allen Poe is a bewitching character, who arrests the attention of his readers through his self-confessing monologue. He is engaged in the monologue in exposing his self of how he could not brook the old man merely because of his vulture like eye “with a film over it” (Poe 372). Although the narrator can impress upon the naïve audience, a sane mind can question the very reason of this heartless murder of the old man about whom the narrator asserts that he loves him. The narrator clarifies his position that except suffering from a minor disease of hearing, he does not have any ailment, and that it is only the idea that haunts him throughout the attempts he made to enter the old man’s room and kill him. With focus on the thinking of the narrator, Edgar Allen Poe beautifully exposes his mental illness in his story “The Tell-Tale Heart” though his language, stressing upon his obsession of murdering the old man and his acute hearing.

Narration in “The Tell-Tale Heart”

The narrator narrates his tale of killing the old man in cold blood in the first person. This shows that he is not a reliable person. The use of first person “I” at every other place stresses upon the fact that the narrator is perhaps egoistic or narcissist, but it has made his language very easy, direct and straightforward. Commenting on this aspect of the use of language by Poe in this story, Paul Witherington argues in his paper, “The Accomplice in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart'”, that “The story’s plainness and simplicity, in fact, seem the means by which the narrator’s madness is rendered transparent” (471). It is because the audience cannot judge a dumb fellow. They are able to understand a person or character through his language. In this connection, the narrator here speaks very easy, to-the-point and direct language comprising very short sentences, which reveal his mental illness. He himself is aware that he is suffering from a mental ailment, but then who can confess to be suffering from such an ailment. That is why he tells that his sense of hearing is sharp and acute, but he does not accept that he is mentally disturbed. He rather lets the readers to assess his language of confession that regarding his nervousness, but the readers cannot conclude that he is mad, because he can narrate the whole story of the murder in minute detail as he inquires then, “but why will you say that I am mad?” (372). He continues inquiring the same question from his readers after telling some details. The use of these rhetorical questions, overuse of comma, dashes and hyphens demonstrate that the person is mentally ill. However, this also points to the obsession of the narrator.

Eye in “The Tell-Tale Heart”

The narrator himself points it out in the very beginning that it is the eye, which is the object of his obsession, as he says, “He had the eye of a vulture”, adding “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold” (372). In this connection, Hollie Prichard quotes Wilhelm Stekel that he “suffers from a fixed idea” adding that here “the eye becomes the narrator’s obsession” (qtd. 145).  Exactly in the words of Wilhelm Stekel, the narrator confesses it saying, “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain” and then he added, “it haunted me day and night” (Poe 372). The narrator gives several hints of this idea on which he has focused, saying, “I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work” (373). When finally, he finds it open, it makes him to direct the ray of the lantern, with which he used to enter his room, upon that eye. However, it is not the eye which motivates him to fall upon the old man in the end. It is rather the “over-acuteness of the sense” of his hearing (374).

Nervousness of Narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart”

The narrator states it in the very start that he is only nervous, and that his sense of hearing has become acute. He states that he could hear sounds from heaven and hell and every nook and corner around him. However, when he finds an idea of killing the old man for, it is not the idea that stimulates him to do the final task of suffocating the old man with the blanket, but it is the sound of his heart. The narrator admits is that he starts hearing the sound of the old’s man heart, which increases his anger, as “the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage” (375). This beating of his heart increases so much so that he decides to kill him, for it could be heard by the neighbors, thinks the narrator. Then he decides that the final moment of the old man has come and kills him. Even this is his hearing which makes him confess his crime before the policemen, who come to inspect the reason of a shriek heard by the neighborhood. They are satisfied, but he could not brook the beating of the old man’s heart, and finally confesses his crime before them.

Conclusion

In short, the monologue of this anonymous narrator is self-confessing. The first person account is as much unreliable as it is a reflection of the mental state of mind. By focusing on his thinking narrative, Poe has exposed his mental illness which he himself confesses but divulges the reader into accepting his own version of the story. Poe has further stressed upon his obsession with the idea of the eye of the old man, and his sharp hearing. Both contribute to motivating the narrator to kill the old man, but then the sharp hearing also contributes to his confession before the policemen. Therefore, the language, the obsession and the mental illness of the narrator is obvious in his self-confessing monologue in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Works Cited

1. Poe, Edgar Allen. Poe’s Short Stories. London. Penguin. 2011. 373-377.
2. Pritchard, Hollie. “Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.” Explicator 61.3 (2003): 144-147. Humanities Source. Web. 20 May 2016.
3. Witherington, Paul. “The Accomplice in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.” Studies in Short Fiction 22.4 (1985): 471. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 20 May 2016.

Relevant Questions about “The Tell-Tale Heart”

1. How does the unreliable narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” contribute to the story’s atmosphere of suspense and psychological horror, and what literary techniques does Edgar Allan Poe use to convey the narrator’s descent into madness?
2. What insights into the narrator’s character and motives can be gleaned from the way they describe their obsession with the old man’s eye, and how does this obsession shed light on the theme of irrationality and obsession in the story?
3. How does the first-person point of view in “The Tell-Tale Heart” affect the reader’s perception of the events and the reliability of the narrator’s account, and what role does the reader’s own interpretation play in the overall impact of the narrative?

Introduction to Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri, in her book, Interpreter of Maladies, has beautifully captured the dilemmas of Indian immigrants and their love for their culture irrespective of their Indian origin. When they are in some other country, they tend to forget whether they are enemies or friends and also observe the same seamy side of life that they leave in their home country. Interpreter of Maladies is a bouquet of such stories starting from the very first about the same experience and then “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” and the last one “The Third and Final Continent.” However, the common thing between both these stories is that both the protagonists narrate their respective stories in first person, love their cultures, and demonstrate their sympathetic nature that is almost universal.

Characters of Stories of Interpreter of Maladies

In the first story of Interpreter of Maladies, Lilia is just 10 when she becomes habitual of taking a candy from the visitor Mr. Pirzada, and carries on narrating this in her first-person voice until the end of the story. Although she uses the passive voice in the first part of the story, leaving her identity ambivalent, she ultimately declared her ‘I’ in the second paragraph from here to onward, she carries on with her first-person narration until the end. However, the story “The Third and Final Continent” starts with “I left India in…” which shows that the protagonist does not mince words in narrating his own voice and his own perspective. He carries on with his story about his residence in the United Kingdom, preparation and arrival in the United States, his own marriage, and his living with Mrs. Croft, and until the end, everything is given in the first person. This use of first person lends maturity and credibility to the narration as the readers also join the narrator in his story. For example, when Lilia talks about the politics and war between India and Pakistan, we also join this. Similarly, when the last man of the story narrates how he first comes to love his wife in America, that is also heart-touching and credible.

Local Cultures in the Stories of Interpreter of Maladies

Secondly, both the stories from Interpreter of Maladies seem to have a voice of their own about the culture in which the author has lived and has been brought up. As an Indian, she keeps a special flavor for Pakistan and India in her story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” in which she narrates her culture and her mother and father’s love for Mr. Pirzada, who comes to have a meal with them, only due to having been from the same culture. She narrates his full story and also feels how nervous he got when he heard about the war. She not only takes interest in the political situation back home but also feels sympathy with Mr. Pirzada due to the situation in which her daughters were caught back in Dhaka in that “I began to convince myself that Mr. Pirzada’s family was in all likelihood dead” (Lahiri 35). In a similar fashion, even when Mala arrived in the United States, she was sheepish and he was shy and they both started loving with Mrs. Croft urging them. He shows this by saying that “We at with our hands” (210) which he used to do at home in his own country.

Human Nature in the Stories of Interpreter of Maladies

Human nature and its sympathy are quite universal in the stories of Interpreter of Maladies. Lahiri has beautifully shown it through Lilia and Mrs. Croft. Although Mrs. Croft knows that he does not study or work in MIT as she used to ask about Harvard or Tech, she offers him a room and he, on his part, also starts showing his generous nature toward Mrs. Croft. When Helen came, being her only daughter, “she came and went, brining soup for Mrs. Croft” (206), while Lilia feels very bad for Mr. Pirzada when she learns that his seven daughters at home back in Dhaka are in danger of being killed in the war. She showed this sympathy for them as “I prayed that Mr. Pirzada’s family was safe and sound” (35) which demonstrated that sympathy is a universal human quality irrespective of continent or country. Mr. Pirzada is a Pakistani and Lilia and her family are Indians, but they love one another as they are from the same region and share the same language and culture.

Conclusion

In short, Lahiri has beautifully summarized human nature, human love towards common culture, love for the sufferings of others, and sympathy for the miseries in her Interpreter of Maladies. She has demonstrated this through her characters of Lilia and the man who goes to study in the United States and then calls his wife Mala with him. Both show that they not love their own culture but also are human beings and can sympathize with others. He does this with Mrs. Croft when she breaks her hip and she with Mr. Pirzada when he does not learn about his family. In short, Lahiri has beautifully summed up that the same human nature is living everywhere whether in America or back in India.

Works Cited

1. Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Penguin. New York. 2010. Print.

Relevant Questions about Interpreter of Maladies

1. How do the experiences of the characters in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” and “The Third and Final Continent” collectively reveal the author’s perspective on the universality of love?
2. In what ways do the stories “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” and “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrate that love, compassion, and human connection can bridge cultural divides and foster a sense of belonging, even in unfamiliar or challenging circumstances?

Introduction to The Milagro Beanfield War is a Clash of Cultures

Although it seems there is commercial interest between the developer tycoons and the people of the Milagro in The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nicholas, the real presentation of the novelist is about the combined efforts of the law-cum-development of the culture that is reeling under the pressure of commercialism. This is rather an attack of the new culture, the culture of profit, and the culture of development. The folks of this besieged little village little know about this saving their own survival that is also a cultural construct for them. The symbolic act of Joe Mondragon sets a war that initiates an all-out invasion of the developers who have already initiated several projects including the Miracle Valley. The cultural war of this Hispanic community, shown in The Milagro Beanfield War, having chickens, sheep, pigs, and little alleys as major sources of income, starts with the Anglo-backed corporation comprising ski slopes, recreation areas, golf courses, and dams. Amid this wrangling when even, the locals abuse the initiator, Joe, saying, “What is this little pint son of a bitch want to cause a trouble for?” (Nicholas 1), where nobody is going to support him. Despite this, he becomes an accidental dissident in the midst of this brouhaha which sets the stage for a confrontation and finally his own escape that ends on his returning back with the help of the higher authorities, making the locals ultimate winner, and him a cultural hero. Although this cultural war is being fought on an individual level, soon it becomes a rallying point for the locals that brings a victory for the local culture and abatement for Joe, the revolutionary.

Resistance in The Milagro Beanfield War

Exactly like every other resistance, this cultural resistance starts from an individual who happens to be the only male character of the novel, The Milagro Beanfield War, and stays until the end. Having no specific heroic qualities, Joe has this quality that he initiates it in merely his stubbornness towards the progress-oriented junta that has launched several development projects in Milagro. The little field of Joe, which became a central point of this war, is lying near the Roybal ditch that he breaks. Although Joe sets the stage, it is Turnquilino Jeantet who first puts this idea in everybody’s mind when he starts telling everybody “You watch. The conservancy district and the dam is a dirty trick. Like the 1935 water compact, it’s one more way to steal our houses and our land” (34). This is heard by everybody, including Joe Mondragon who then takes up his shovel and boots and before the dusk spreads, makes a breach and starts irrigating his little beanfield left in this encroachment drive. Jeane George Weigel, talking about the film of this novel says that before this breach, the village “is dying because most of the water has been diverted to a large development…and one man’s action  brings life back to the tow” (Weigel) who happens to alone Joe. In fact, everybody is feeling the pinch of water scarcity The Milagro Beanfield War, but nobody has the foolish courage to lead others.

Significance of a Lone Act in The Milagro Beanfield War

The little individual in The Milagro Beanfield War act leads to a collective resistance in a way that even the initiator is not aware of the significance of his act. It is because his action is done in resistance but this resistance is the survival of the culture with which the lives of more than five hundred residences is attached. This happens first when the news reached at the store of Nick Rael where more than six people are present. However, they show their reaction contrary to the first full meeting as they are afraid of the developers more than their own survival. All the three men among those six first comment totally against calling Joe runt, stupid and a bad guy. However, when the first meeting takes place, this little breach takes the shape of a collective responsibility where two women also represent their population. It is actually the impetus put by Ruby Archuleta that might have already a premonition about him, “I knew Jose Mondragon could not go through his entire life, without attempting one great thing” (76). And this perhaps she has sensed in their first meeting in which she extends all out support for him that becomes a motivation factor all others. Antonia Darder states that it is the survival of the Chicano identity lies in resistance to “cultural domination, psychological abuse and physical hardship” (Darder 152). This means that it is a collective cultural resistance in The Milagro Beanfield War against another cultural domination that Nicholas has portrayed in this novel.

Chicano Victory in The Milagro Beanfield War

Although Joe has to flee, in his escape lies the final victory of the Chicano culture and Milagro villagers. Montana tracks Joe when he escapes to the nearby mountains. In the final moment, shots are heard, making Montana to run for his own life instead of catching Joe. However, then Shorty appears and states that the old man shot by Joe has recovered. The entire town comes to celebrate with Joe. Finally, there ensues a standoff in which the entire village backs Joe in his resistance against his arrest. This is a symbolic act in which he wins and the whole village wins. It is because the order comes from the government that this little incident might lead to a conflagration. Therefore, Joe is released and Milagro wins its war against the invasion. In fact, he clearly says that he is not a man to throw his “investment on the window” (476) at the end by which he means that he has his hand in it but he would like to lose in the face of resistance.

Conclusion

In short, the novel The Milagro Beanfield War, is a resistance of the dying cultures like Chicano. The modern culture of property development and commercialism is leaving nothing with the ancient cultural people expect to resist the relentless onslaught collectively. Although little acts of defiance make little impact, when everybody join hands and thinks in Ruby’s words that this little field represents all fields of ours, it becomes impossible to save hamlets like Milagro. However, when everybody joins hands, this collective strength even forces the higher authorities as high as the government to revoke the decision of investment. They do not show their cards but resistance makes them retreat though it is another thing that this domination comes in a more vigorous way in the shape of baits of development and progress for the locals that they immediately fell upon one by one and leave nothing for themselves to bank upon in The Milagro Beanfield War.

Works Cited

1. Nichols, John. The Milagro Beanfield War. New York: Owl Book Henry Holt LLC. 1994. Print.
2. Darder, Antonia. Culture and Difference: Critical Perspectives on the Bicultural Experience in the United States. Greenwood Publishing Group. Print.
3. Weigel, Jeane George. “Robert Redford’s Milagro Beanfield War in Truchas.” High Road Artist. High Road Artist. 30 Nov. 2010. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

Relevant Questions about The Milagro Beanfield War as A Clash of Cultures

1. How does the conflict between Joe Mondragon and the developers in The Milagro Beanfield War symbolize the clash of cultures between traditional, rural values and modern urbanization?
2. In what ways does the character Joe embody the clash of cultures in the novel, The Milagro Beanfield War?
3. Explore the role of religion and spirituality in The Milagro Beanfield War as a reflection of cultural clashes.

Introduction to “The Minister’s Black Veil”

Although Nathaniel Hawthorne has satirized Puritanism in his story “The Minister’s Black Veil” like other stories such as “The Young Goodman Brown” in which his irony and satire is at the peak, this story has been singled out as the best one in tone that is mild and the satire that is latent in sweet words. The story revolves around the character of Reverend Father Hooper who wants to become an icon of religious piety and wears a black veil in order to prove his piety to the world around him. However, it dawns upon him that this veil is serving a great purpose – hiding his true face from the people who also wear different masks in life. The speculation it stirs among the people range from his own mysterious thinking to his mysterious life and his being a sinner or sense of shame. Even it seems to some a “terrible thinking” (Hawthorne) though not when worn by women. The open and broadminded atmosphere of Milford in “The Minister’s Black Veil”suddenly erupts into abuzz on account this fanciful idea of wearing a black veil and the speculations it causes reaches his fiancé as well who meets him in her final meeting to entreat him to show her his face. However, Father Hooper does not budge and loses her. He continues with this, making the atmosphere more suspenseful and exciting until his end nears where he again tries to save his face and speaks that “every visage a Black Veil” (Hawthorne) by which he means that all are sinners. Through his characters and commentary of the other characters, the story has shown the Puritan’s belief about the existence of evil in the world, but also demonstrates the belief of all people as sinners and that there is a constant conflict between the good and the evil.

 Puritanism in “The Minister’s Black Veil”

The first point of argument about the commentary on Puritanism in “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is that he has presented the figure of Father Hooper to show how clergymen considered themselves superior to all others that “The first glimpse of the clergyman’s figure was the single for the bell to cease its summons” (Hawthorne). Considering all others inferior in piety, he starts wearing a black veil which rather stirs serious rumors about his personality. In a way, it is his attempt to raise a curtain between his self and the outside world in an attempt to create an aura about his religiosity. In this connection, it seems correct that his assessment of the public reaction proved true in that several sinners “cried aloud for Father Hooper” (Hawthorne) and that it has transformed him into an “efficiency clergyman” a post that he much desired. In other words, both of these references show that he has created his aura of an efficient representative of God whose word is final for the salvation of the all other sinners. This commentary of Hawthorne on the belief that evil exists in the world in the shape of everyone being the sinner. However, it is also interesting that this belief presented in “The Minister’s Black Veil” of being a pious and other sinner is at the heart of the Puritan dilemma.

Double Faces in “The Minister’s Black Veil”

Hawthorne has intended to show that though every person has two faces; the one is good to show to the people and other evil that he tries to hide, the dilemma of the Puritanism is that clergymen often find themselves in odds when facing the common people to whom they consider sinners.  This battle between the sinners and the pious seems to start very early in the start when Father Hooper tries to separate himself from other by drawing a veil on his face. However, this battle continues only in rumors and the impacts that it has on the people. It reaches its peak when Elizabeth tries to ask the minister to come down from his pedestal of piety and remove that veil asking “What grievous affliction hath befallen thee” (Hawthorne). However, he is so much adamant that he does not budge from his stand and simply refuses her، entreating that she should not leave him. As a representative of the uncovered public, she, too, does not withdraw from her position and the ultimately separation happens between the sinners Elizabeth is representing and him, the pious clergy community to whom Father Hooper is representing. This has been wedging of differences drawn by the Puritanism in the community to divide it on religious bases. The division in the community in “The Minister’s Black Veil” led to the war between the religious and the supposedly impious.

Piety in “The Minister’s Black Veil”

In fact, the minister in “The Minister’s Black Veil” has, from the very start, thought of other people as less pious and having drawn masks on their faces. Although it is not an open conflict, it has led to some type of friction between those who considered themselves pious such as the clergymen and those who are the common people of Milford. Father Hooper here separated himself even from the clergymen and ended upon creating conflictual relationships not only with the people but also with his own religious counterparts. This tension between the people and Father Hooper has led to speculations between both the parties; father us generalizing all the people as sinners and masking their evil natures, and people are thinking Father Hooper as a mystery. Elizabeth refuses to marry him on the same ground saying “Lift the veil but once, and look me in the face” (Hawthorne). The other conflict is between him and his counterparts that does not end even when Reverend Mr. Clark tries to remove his veil and Father Hooper springs up to stop him saying “on every visage a Black veil” (Hawthorne). In fact, this is the same wedge of rift created by the Puritanism on which Hawthorne has built his commentary through Father Hooper and his veil.

Conclusion

Briefly stating it, Hawthorne has used not only the description and situation of the story, but also the characters in “The Minister’s Black Veil” to comment on the state of Puritanism and its impacts on dividing the people on religious lines making them against each other merely on metaphysical thinking. The story has shown that it was thought that the world is full of evil and evil exists in the world. This has led the more religious people to think other people as sinners, making them fear God and be obedient. It has also created a sort of war between the supposed pious and supposed sinners, making them to stay at the mercy of the clergymen who consider them less pious. In the merrymaking world of Milford, the veil has torn apart all the notions of Puritanism and laid them bare for the people to see as given in the note about such clerical eccentricities.

Works Cited

1. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” PDC. n. d. https://pdcrodas.webs.ull.es/fundamentos/HawthorneTheMinistersBlackVeil.pdf. Accessed 25 Sep. 2022.

Relevant Questions About “The Minister’s Black Veil”: Commentary on
Puritanism

1. How does “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne serve as a commentary on the strict moral and religious codes of Puritanism, and what message does the black veil convey about the Puritan community’s attitudes toward sin and secrecy?
2. In what ways does the minister’s decision to wear the black veil symbolize the isolation and alienation often experienced by individuals who deviate from Puritan norms, and how does this reflect Hawthorne’s commentary on the consequences of nonconformity in Puritan society?
3. How do the reactions of the townspeople to the minister’s black veil shed light on the collective conscience and hypocrisy within the Puritan community, and what does Hawthorne’s portrayal of their judgmental attitudes suggest about the limitations of Puritanism as a moral framework?