Month: October 2019

Joyce changes one’s expectations by subtly shifting the narrative from one character to another. He starts out the story by focusing on Lily and describing the apparent rush that she’s in trying to do various things. Based on this it seems that the story will be focusing on Lily and possibly her life as the housemaid. But then Joyce shifts the story onto the Misses Morkans and their party. From this transition I figured that an issue might arise from the party affecting the three sisters, but as the story progresses it then shifts onto Gabriel. As the story starts to focus more and more on Gabriel it becomes apparent that he’s submissive in thought and emotional expression. Knowing and starting to understand his personality based on his interactions at the party foreshadow how this could be an issue later on in the story, of which it is. Once the party comes to an end the story shifts focus from solely Gabriel and onto his wife, Gretta, as well. While I wasn’t expecting Gretta to reveal the love she still had for the guy from her hometown, it did add an interesting twist to the story. This twist also being one that mentally and emotionally challenges Gabriel in a certain way because of his personality.

How does Joyce change your expectations as a reader throughout the story? e.g. your idea of what the story is about and what kind of story you are reading might have changed at a few points throughout the story.

As a reader, I have to say I was surprised and confused at the same time. Joyce seemingly weaved out a plot twist throughout the entirety of this story. The author began the story with Lily, a side character, instead of introducing the protagonist first. The author mentioned the protagonist: Gabriel, about a quarter way into the story, which made it confusing to determine who was actually the intended protagonist of her story. While reading the story, my initial thought was that Gabriel must have been an intelligent man and he lived a happy married life. However, the events that followed turned out to be almost the complete opposite of my original thought. Quite frankly, Gabriel was not a sociable person and he seldom cares about others’ feelings. To some extent, he has trouble comforting others because he feels that if he continues the conversation it would only worsened the situation. Gretta, Gabriel’s wife, was not an innocent and caring wife like she seems to be. Toward the end of the story, she unfold her unfortunate past to Gabriel. This part of the story was shocking to both Gabriel and the readers because Joyce depicted Gretta as a loyal and devoted wife. However, this event lead to the downfall of the couple. Gretta had always love Michael, a man who passed away due to a tragic event. Gabriel was more or less a replacement of Michael, but he wasn’t aware of that until the end of the story. I was expecting a more well-rounded or joyful ending; it didn’t turn out like I hoped for. Lastly, Joyce added different turning points within the story, which made the overall community seem like a dystopia society.

~ Neo

What is the relationship between the living and the dead in the story? How does Gabriel’s speech relate to his realization at the end of the story?

Throughout the story, he living think about the dead constantly. Gabriel wants the dead to remain in the past. He gives the speech to remind everyone that reminiscing is not what they should do. After thinking about Michael Fuery’s death, Gabriel starts to feel somber. In the end, he realizes that once he is dead, the living will forget about him just like he insists they forget about all the deceased.

How and why does Hurston use dialect in the story? Note that the characters’ speech and the narrator’s are in different dialects, with the former being Southern African-American speech and the latter being more traditionally grammatical American English, and so the story has two registers of diction.

It is very noticeable and clear that Hurston uses both South African-American dialect when the characters speak and traditionally grammatical American English during the narration. Hurston intentionally switched between two dialects for many reasons. First, adding a dialect brings liveliness to the story. It adds voice to the characters, making the story seem more realistic and bringing it to life. Because of this, “The Gilded Six-Bits” could easily be a true story. This helps readers relate to it more, as it makes the characters of the story become more human-like rather than just characters made up by Hurston. Another reason Hurston uses dialect is because dialect is often used to say phrases that do not mean the same in another dialect. For example, “making feet for shoes” is quoted with the South African-American dialect and it wouldn’t give the same feeling if it was directly translated in American English. Some phrases in a dialect are more meaningful when phrased with a dialect rather than translating it. The use of South African-American dialect also emphasizes that their culture was a little different, making the story more unique than if it was all written in American English. Hurston’s use of dialects added to the story and made it more lively and interesting.

The obvious tragedy in this story seems to be that Mrs. Anerton fell in love with Rendle and was never loved back regardless of how she tried to twist the facts. But the truth is that she was loved; people forget love comes in many forms and while Rendle did not love her in a passionate sense she was indeed important to him whether he admitted it or not after all, “He had the genius of friendship, and he spent it all on me. Yes, you were right when you said that I have had more than any other woman.” He made her a muse because he connected with her soul, he enjoyed their conversations and her company, he found her comfortable that is all a way of loving someone. It is not the one-sided love that was truly devastating in this story it was this idea that because of her love she allowed herself self-delusion sparked by the opinions and gossip of those who read Rendle’s poetry.  The story clearly comments that as soon as whispers spread of her being the “Sylvia”from Rendle’s sonnet she became someone everyone sought after, why? Not because she was simply Mrs. Anerton but because to the outsiders she became Rendle’s Mrs. Anerton, his muse. In the story Mrs. Anerton even states that suddenly, “I was invited; people made up to me in the hope of getting to know him; when I was in London my door-bell never stopped ringing. Elderly peeresses, aspiring hostesses, love-sick girls and struggling authors overwhelmed me with their assiduities.” And because of all of this she couldn’t help but dilute herself into believing that maybe she was Rendle’s “Sylvia” after all as she states, “they almost made me think so too”. Her love clouded her ability to see the truth even though she states, “deep down, I knew he had never cared”. It has always been human nature to choose to believe in what satisfies self interest than in what is actually the reality. In addition, because of her love for him she fueled the fire and tampered with the letters to make it seem as though the passionate parts were left out. She lost herself, always wondering did Rendle love her, making excuses, tampering with the letters and indulging in the critics to the point that when she finally realized she had lost herself it began to hurt more. As she states, “At first I was afraid — oh, so much afraid — that you cared for me only because I was Silvia, that you loved me because you thought Rendle had loved me” the audience finally understands the true tragedy was that Mrs. Anerton no longer knew if she was worthy beyond her title as Rendle’s muse and that’s the true muse’s tragedy that they become just that, a muse. To the rest of the world they are forever connected to the artists, poets or writers who created them that title of “muse”.

How and why does Hurston incorporate the process of giving great value to seemingly small things (e.g. gifts, personal foibles or tendencies, inside jokes, games) into the story?

Hurston incorporates the process of giving great value to seemingly small things into the story by describing Joe and Missie Mays’ happiness through their little “fight”. “Shouting, laughing, twisting, turning, tussling, tickling each other in the ribs; Missie May clutching onto Joe and Joe trying, but not too hard, to get away”. Missie May is going through Joe’s pockets as if trying to rid him of all his property yet Joe enjoys this moment and lets her take everything. They are able to “fight” each other freely knowing the other person is enjoying the moment because this is like a tradition to them. Although little is given and taken what matters is the moment of happiness shared. Because the characters are not well off so they are easily satisfied with a little something, not only easily satisfied but they are happy just to have each other’s company. Although each person has their own level of satisfaction, readers can easily relate to their happiness of receiving a gift from a loved one and the gift gives the characters something to look forward to together making their life more interesting.

In Wharton’s short story Roman Fever, he discusses the friendship between the characters Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade. Although their status remained as friends even though Mrs. Slade knew about Mrs. Ansley’s secret admiration towards her husband, she continued to be friends with her. However, the relationship between Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade was never truly sincere ever again. Usually, friendships between two individuals influence their judgment, however, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade differ in how their judgment influenced their friendship. Mrs. Slade was unaware of the secrets Mrs. Ansley had which concealed their true intentions. This leads to keeping the friendship although Mrs. Slade knew about her feelings. In the end, their judgment also led to the end of their friendship. Mrs. Slade asked why Mrs. Ansley was sad for her and at the end of battling it out, Mrs. Ansley reveals that she had Barbara. Wharton intentionally ends the short at that line because it shows how their relationship was truly insincere and full of lies. Friendship should be made of people who truly care for each other and respect where it is a judgment-free zone. However, that one line represented that the friendship and judgment they both had were corrupted with jealousy, lies, and insincerity.

Consider Mary’s choices toward the end of the story. Why does she choose this life rather than another?

In the short story, The Muse’s Tragedy, by Edith Warton, there seems to be a love triangle between three characters: Lewis Danyers, Mary Anerton, and Vincent Rendle. Danyers loves Mary and decided to propose to her. However, her response to the proposal was not what Danyers expected. Mary rejected his proposal because of her one-sided love towards Vincent Rendle, a guy who she spent fifteen years working with together. Rendle never expressed his love for her. However, by spending fifteen years with him, she believes he will have some feelings towards her. However, it never happened. Mary had the option to accept Danyers proposal and be married to him. However, she rejected instead as she said the following, “Somebody must save you from marrying a disappointed woman– well, you say years don’t count, and why should they, after all, since you are not to marry me?”(37). She wants him to marry someone who is truly in love with him and not someone whose heart is towards someone else and not him.

Consider Mary’s role as Rendle’s muse and its relation to this problem–a person who inspires another person’s work but may not benefit from himself/herself–more generally. What is Wharton’s commentary here? To put it another way: what exactly is the muse’s tragedy in this case? What is most tragic about this story?

The muse’s tragedy, in this case, is Mary Anerton’s one-sided love for Vincent Rendle. Mary Anerton is a critic of Rendle’s books and she offered advice on his work. They had been together for almost fifteen years. Rendle never saw Anerton as a potential lover, but only as a friend and a muse. He grew quite comfortable around her and will often hang out with her. This led people to think that they were lovers and that Rendle wrote his poems of love based on her. Anerton supposedly represents “Silvia” from his sonnet. She wished that the rumors were true, and that Rendle had loved her but she knew he never loved her. She described Rendle’s actions as only from a friend to another friend, “he treated me as one man treats another…He never made love to me… The sonnets to Silvia, you say? But what are they? A cosmic philosophy, not a love-poem; addressed to woman, not to a woman!”.  This shows that only Anerton understood the true meaning of the poem, and instead of revealing the truth, she went along with it.

Anerton lives a life with a false perception of herself and from others. She became famous and people worshipped her as a celebrity just because they assumed she was Silvia. Anerton also wished it was true and built her life on that lie. She purposefully published their letters in a way that reveals that they had secretly loved each other. Deep down, however, She know it was all lies and struggles with her inner self that knows the truth and her outer self that is hopeful of their love. The most tragic element of this story is unrequited love that she never received and the battle between appearance and reality.

Consider the role of the setting in the story and the lives of these two women (and their daughters?).

The setting in the “Roman Fever” takes place in the late afternoon at the Roman terrace restaurant with views of the Colosseum, the Forum and other ancient sights in Rome. The setting in this story plays a big role in the lives of the two women, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade and their daughters. This is because it was the same restaurant Grace and Ansley met in their youth. Now, they return back twenty-five years later with each of their beautiful daughters running off to meet young men, setting memories of themselves in the past. Besides the fact that they ran into each other at the same place in Rome, Rome itself is significant in this story. Over the centuries, Roman Fever was used to describe the deadly disease that would occur frequently in Rome. Grace recalls the story of how her great-aunt Harriet sent her sister to pick out flowers in the forum. In reality, she wanted to expose her to Roman fever due to the fact that they were in love with the same man and as a result, she died. 

Similar to this incident, Grace also went out on a chilly evening after dark to meet Delphin at the Colosseum, the man who Alida was engaged to, after receiving a letter from him even though it was actually from Alida. Not only did Alida resent the fact that Grace fell in love with her husband, but she also became jealous of Grace’s daughter who she describes as a beauty with “an edge”. It is important that Wharton places the characters in a place where they have a sight of the ancient ruins surrounding them because it reflects on the characters’ pasts and symbolizes how the relationship between Grace and Alida falls apart. Furthermore, the time setting seems to always occur during the evening when it is dark which represents the deep dark secrets that the two women have been hiding from each other since they first met.