Spirit Of A Late Victorian Age Essays - English-language Films

Spirit Of A Late Victorian Age The Spirit of a late Victorian Age. With reference to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Stoker's monstrous figure, Count Dracula, has today reached epic and almost mythical proportions, like Frankestein (not the doctor), the Gordon Medusa, even Virginia Woolf (thanks to Albee). Like the aforementioned examples, what we associate in our minds to be these monsters, mostly conditioned by popular culture and Hollywood, are merely visual representation. In the novel itself, however, according to other essayists who have thoroughly examined this piece, Dracula represents an entire genre of thinking and human development, concentrated in the prose of literature. Mark M. Hennelly, Jr. identifies Dracula as an allegory of rival epistimologies in quest of a gnosis which will rehabilitate the Victorian wasteland; and as its conclusion dramatizes, this rehabilitation demands, a transfusion, the metaphor is inevitable, from the blood-knowledge of Dracula (Literature of the Occult, 140). By the Victorian wasteland the essayist here is referring the superfluity and the redundancy of the Victorians, particularly the nouveau riche and the middle class. The homes of these upper classes are lacking space as much as the small rooms in which the proletariat are forced to stay; the former lack space because of an accumulation of furniture and objects, the latter because of the smallness of the rooms themselves. The epistimologies in rival are the rational and the irrational. Beneath the ordered society of his time each [novelist of the Irrational] say an unordered chaos, a world disintegrating, a new order waiting to be established (Literature of the Occul t, 143). This duality between the rational and the irrational could only be captured in a novel that is unmistakably Gothic and Romantic. The novel begins with a travel diary (Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism, 35) of Jonothan Harkens, the young British lawyer who has been hired to handle Count Dracula's estate. Particularly, Count Dracula's strange castle which stands at the edge of a cliff. Jonothan Harkens becomes a prisoner (Dracula, 47) in this enormous tower in which there are no servants (Dracula, 32) and yet there is a redundancy of furniture and space and books. This device as a literary device works on the reader because he becomes engrossed in Harkens sincere writings and becomes a part of the castle. The castle itself represents one aspect of the Gothic, the second of which I will expatiate upon later. The castle itself becomes a body, a vessel, if you will, from which there is no escape unless the owner of the castle allows him to. There is a kind of Medieval morbidity that underlies this idea but what Stoker was doing was using the gothic genre to push against the rational and tend into the realm of fantasy and the occult. By rendering Count Dracula's as a silent character creates a stable focus for the rest of the changing narrators. That is to say, while the narration passes from Mina to Harkens to Lucy the castle itself remains a silent counterpart. Why is this important? Like I have mentioned earlier, there is a kind of Medieval morbidity to personifying the castle. This represents both the body and the spirit screaming to a God who as pious persons we must believe in but in actuality we never do get to see. There is no doubt that the Western European characters are at least nominal Christians or that the English characters are adherents to the Church of England, Carol Senf writes in Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism (67). A good example of this is when Jonothan Harkens is offered a rosary. I did not know what to do, for as an English Churchman, I have been taught that these things as...idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady (Dracula, 67). This kind of ambivalence and rival of epistimologies runs throughout the entire novel, where the very nature of duality is concentrated. The blood is the life, and for Victorian scientists, genetic material circulated in the bloodstream...because it contained the information that communicated the animal's or human's mental and physical makeup (Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism, 75). Although this theory is unmistakably Darwin, what it tends to identify is a group of people who believed in Darwin's biology and

Calibans resentment Essays

Calibans resentment Essays Calibans resentment Paper Calibans resentment Paper Power is one of the main themes of this play. Most of the characters seem to want power. In Act 3 Scene 2 Shakespeare presents Caliban in four different ways. He shown as servile and respective, he shows this by begging Stephano and asking Let me lick thy shoe and hes only respectful because Stephano has been nice to him valiant masterI thank my noble lordif thy greatness will. Caliban is lonely. Caliban is also shown as trusting because he has barely known Stephano and already trusts him enough to say that he will tell him all the secrets of the island. He trusts Stephano enough to tell him his story I say, by sorcery he got this isle. This shows that he has a social desire to communicate with people. Hes pathetic to trust so quickly but he only trusts quickly because of loneliness. Shakespeare also shows him as vindictive. Caliban hates Prospero for the way he has treated him, he resents Prospero and wants to get his own back because Prospero has hurt him even though Caliban has treated Prospero like a God. Revenge it on himwhen Prospero is destroyed. Caliban sounds desperate when he says wilt thou destroy him then? Calibans resentment is shown when Shakespeare uses alliteration and assonance, thou mayst knock a nail into his head this also sounds violent and physical imagery is used. Beat him enough; after a little time, Ill beat him too this sentence has alliteration as well. Ay, lord, she will become thy bed, I warrant, and bring thee forth brae brood this is not a very nice remark. Caliban is shown as sensitive and poetic as well and when it comes to his Island he talks about it ever so passionately because he loves it but he also hates the fact that he doesnt rule it. Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, that if I then had waked after long sleep, will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming, the clouds, methought, would open and show riches ready to drop upon me, that when I waked I cried to sleep again. He talks about Sycorax his mother in a sensitive tone. Be not afeard this is an onomatopoeia. I cried to dream again this is sensitive. This whole speech shows Calibans poetic side and tells of his dreams. He says that hes learnt language to curse but when he describes Miranda he is so poetic and persuasive with the extent of her beauty and he even uses a French word. The beauty of his daughter; he himself calls her a nonpareil. I never saw a woman but only Sycorax, my dam, and she; but she as far surpasseth Sycorax as greatst does least. By the end of the scene the audience probably has less sympathy for Caliban because hes planning to murder Prospero but they will despise him less as they know that hes lonely, desperate, stupid to trust others so easily, hes been brought up as a slave and he has got a sensitive side. In Act 4 Scene 1 Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo are near Prosperos home. Prithee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here; this is the mouth oth cell. No noise, and enter. Do that good mischief which may make this island thine own forever, and I, thy Caliban, for aye thy foot-licker this little speech shows that Caliban has got everything worked out but some garments catch Stephano and Trinculos eyes my kingthou kingbe quiet. Caliban is very angry at this stage, Stephano and Trinculo arent concentrating on the job in hand, hes serious about getting Prospero killed but they arent. Caliban gets really agitated and calls Stephano a fool The dropsy drown this fool! What do you mean to dote thus on such luggage? Lett alone and do the murder first. If he awake, from toe to crown hell fill our skin with pinches, make us strange stuff. Caliban is scared of Prospero torturing him again.  Ay, that I will; and Ill be wise hereafter and seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass was I to take this drunkard for a god, and worship this dull fool! Caliban here tries to get Prosperos forgiveness; he realises that hes made a mistake. When you talk about grace its at a religious level usually but Caliban is asking for forgiveness using a religious word. Caliban is described sometimes as a tortoise and at other times as a fish he is abused a lot because of his looks but the reader doesnt know what he really looks like because hes described in a lot of different ways. Shakespeare lets the readers mind imagine was Caliban looks like.  After having explored Shakespeares presentation of Caliban in The Tempest. I accept that Caliban has got a dark side but hes also got a good side, although it isnt shown as often, hes a sensitive being.