English Literature D04-K50 ENGLISH LITERATURE DRAFT Main characteristics: 1. The gift of the Magi by O.Henry 2. Hope by John Galsworthy Hope is a short story written by John Galsworthy included in a book called “A commentary”. The story’s title is Hope however it illustrates a picture of a poor lam man. He used to be a depth seaman. After an accident, his leg had shrunk and become shorter than it should have been. Getting away from sea, he drags his shrunken limb through the ground, finding groundsels – food for caged canaries, to earn some pennies for him and his wife’s life. Through the story, the seaman appears as a self-respected, courageous, optimistic, and responsible man. He is self-respected because he takes no advantage of his lame leg. His customers may think that he wanted to take something out of his lame leg. In fact, he can do that if he likes. However, he is too self- respected to receive any advantage from his lame leg. He is courageous because he is a trier form year’s end to year’s end in spite of his illness. If any other man was in his condition, they may die or drop out. But this old man is different; he always says “I hold on till I drop”. In the story, the author also compares the old lame man with a clipped-wing bird. The bird has clipped wings; the man has a lame leg. But both try to regain the air: “On such occasions his gray blue eyes, which had never quite lost their look of gazing through sea – mists, would reflect the bottom of his soul, where the very bird of weariness lay with its clipped wings, for ever trying to regain the air.” He is optimistic because he believes in the future. In the story, the author wrote: “To the dispassionate observer of his existence it was a little difficult to understand what attraction life could have for him …”. It is clearly that people cannot understand what attracts him in his blacken life and what helps him to put up with “the blackness of his continual tolls and pains”. The writer also explained: it seems, on the whole, unreasonable was worse in this life. And in the matter of a life to come, he would dubiously remark: “My wife‘s always telling me we can’t be worse off where we’re going. And she’s right, no doubt, if so be as we‘re going anywhere”. It means that there is nothing worse than his current condition; therefore, he always looks forward to the future He is responsible because he tries to care his family. He has many things to thought of his gouty rheumatism, of herrings for his tea (his family’s meal), of his arrears of rent, not only of his lame leg. Obviously, his supports for himself and his ill wife without any help show his responsibility. John Galsworthy devoted virtually his entire professional career to creating a fiction but entirely representative family of propertied Victorians – the Forsyte. However, there are some short stories that strike a deeper chord of our sympathy and emotion…. 3. My Oedipus Complex by Frank O’Connor To help readers get an overall understanding of the story “My Oedipus Complex”, the explanation of the phenomenon “Oedipus Complex” and the short summary have been introduced. A thorough insight, 1 English Literature D04-K50 however, of the story asks for more careful analysis, especially about the main character of the story – Larry. It can be said that his distinct characteristics are fully and impressively depicted with the author’s special writing technique. Larry appeared at the beginning of the story as a five year old little boy. Like other children of the same age, he was typically childish and naïve, which was expressed throughout the story with his specific actions and thinking. During the 1 st world war, he lived with his mother since his father was in the army. He saw that his house was the only house in the terrace without a new baby. He talked that with his mother, but she said they “couldn’t afford till father came back from the war because they cost seventeen and six”. How do you think about this explanation? It’s simply a joke or a trick for children because they are so naïve and simple. Larry should leave readers deep impression when he compared: “The Geneys up the road had a baby, and everyone knows that they couldn’t afford seventeen and six”. This led him to think of “a cheap baby” and his mother “wanted something really good”. For the little boy, the presence of a new baby was just like the appearance of “something” new which could be bought at high or low price. The detail could refer a new baby in Larry’s eyes to a doll. How childish he was! When he mother asked him to pray for his father, he “asked god to send father back safe from the war”. Unlike his mother, “little indeed did I know what I was what I was praying for”. That made obvious difference between adult’s thinking and that of a child. He did that just as following his mother’s word, not for anything else. His childish characteristic was also described through the way he realized the world around him. Under the eyes of a five year old child, every action of his parents was seen from a very different angle. When he walked with his father into the town, with his own observance, his father “had no proper interest in trams, ships and horse”. Only children with their childish psychology should pay attention to such things, but should not adult, of course. In the world of a child, very normal things sometimes also put in serious actions and that’s the case of the little boy. As he saw, …At tea time ‘talking to Daddy’ began again, complicated this time by the act that he had an evening paper, and every few minutes ,he put it down and told mother something new out of it. I felt this was a foul play…” That his mother talked to his father is a very serious thing and has great effects on him. Readers also see the phrase “talking to Daddy” is put in quotation mark elsewhere in the story when Larry showed his childish attribute. Being childish is one of the most notable characteristics of the main characteristics of the main character. In addition, the boy was also characterized with jealousy of a child. He was jealous of no one but of his own father. With the man’s presence in his house, Larry had to witness squeeze between mother and him and that made him feel “uncomfortable”. His mother could have hugged him only before his father turned back from the war. Now his mother seemed to give her love to “the total stranger”, not to him anymore. He was envious with what the man was receiving and he had to gain what should belong to him, he thought. “Man for man, I was prepared to compete with him at any time for mother’s attention”. The unpleasant feeing of jealousy was on surge in his souk when his father “had it all made up for him by another people, it left 2 English Literature D04-K50 me no chance. Several times I tried to change the subject without success”. He even felt jealous when his mother talked with his father, not with him. He had been familiar with the self-centered world in which his mother gave all her love and care to him. That world now seemed to having gone far away due to the man’s being, his jealous feeling was certainly inevitable, and it could be even said that all his feelings towards his father derived from his jealousy to him. Readers may wonder why Larry did such actions with his father. Was his so childish to learn their relationship or any other reasons? The answer might even lie in his selfish personality being more likely to prevail since his mother once gave all her love to him. It seemed that he now had to share the exclusive privilege to a “total stranger”. His being selfish made him “rack my brain to know what to do with him”. He even thought “Either father or I would have to leave the house. I wanted to be treated as an equal in my own home”. He felt uncomfortable when his mother let the man sleep in the same bed, which she had once said to be unhealthier. In his eyes, it was obvious that she was so partial with the man. For his father, his mother asked him to be quiet, not to wake the man. “I wanted to talk. He wanted to sleep – Whose house was it, anyway?” The above characteristics are the main ones associated with the little boy Larry. Apart from these, he was also imagine and sensitive. How beloved he was when he imagined the talk between Mrs. Left and Mrs. Right when putting his feet out from under the clothes. In his invented drama situation, the lifeless objects also had their own personalities. Mrs. Right was “demonstrative” and Mrs. Left was “mostly contented herself”. His sensitivity was seen clearly through his psychology in the morning when he woke up with his promise of not waking his father. “I didn’t feel in the least like the sun in deed. I was bored and so very, very cold. I simply longed for the warmth and depth of the big feather bed”. 4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte The development of Jane Eyre’s character is central to the novel. In the extract (when Jane, after living far from her master for a long time, decides to come back to Thornfield Hall), Charlotte Bronte portrays her Jane Eyre as a strong-willed and decisive, devoted to love and faithful woman with sensitivity despite her physical unattractiveness. In fact, Jane is not physically attractive, “Nobody but him thought her so handsome. She was a little small thing, they say, almost like a child” - says the inn-keeper. However, she possesses her own inside beauty with many good virtues. Jane is described as a woman of strong will and determination. When St. John tries to persuade Jane to marry him and go to India with him to become a missionary’s wife, she refuses gently but strongly. “My spirit is willing to do what is right; and my flesh, I hope, is strong enough to accomplish the will of Heaven…” She decides to terminate her musings “I will know something of him whose voice seemed last night to summon me”. She is not very well but she does not want to waste any second to meet her beloved master so she decides to go to Thornfield Hall alone in such an overcast and chilly morning. Her feelings now are like “the messenger- pigeon flying home” which expresses her excitement and joy. 3 English Literature D04-K50 Besides, Jane is faithful and devoted to love. Refusing strongly St. John’s proposal shows that Jane is very faithful to her true love - Mr. Rochester. She lives far from her lover for a long time and now she is rich, and a young man who loves her very much is still waiting for her but she always thinks of her beloved master. She is so worried about him that she decides to meet him as soon as possible. The way she calls Mr. Rochester “my beloved master” lets the readers see how much she loves and admires him. In the past, a year ago when on the road to Thornfield, Jane was so hopeless and objectless but now she is very happy because she is on the way returning to her true lover. However, inside her, happiness is mixed with worries. She is worried a lot about her master’s fate, if he is stone-dead or not. When she sees Rochester’s mansion, she stops at distance and a little bit hesitates but her love and decision are so strong that she grows very “bold and reckless”. The desire for seeing him again is much greater than any natural force. Her heart seems to stop beating when the man says “the late Mr. Rochester”, and when she knows her master is still alive, “I breathed again, my blood resumed its flow… God bless him wherever he was.” Especially, Bronte has made the readers realize Jane’s great love for Mr. Rochester when Jane decides to come back to her master and look after him even he is now useless, stone-blind and a cripple. She wonders a lot of things in her mind with many questions: “Who besides him is there? His lunatic wife; and you have nothing to do with him: You dare not speak to him or seek his presence. You have lost your labor, you had better go no farther.” She wants to meet her beloved master but she is afraid that he is beside his wife and she surely has nothing to do with him. Gradually, she gets confused “Could I but see him! But a moment, surely, in that case, I should not be so mad as to run to him? I cannot tell – I am not certain…Who would be hurt by my once more tasting the life his glance can give me? ” She neither wants to be hurt nor makes her beloved master do. She is too sensitive. There exist many contradictions and complicated feelings within her. However, above these, her love for her beloved master is greater than everything on the earth. 5. The Sequel of my resolution by Charles Dickens In the extract “The sequel of my resolution”, David is described as a courageous, determined, strong- willed, but sentimental boy. “The sequel of my resolution” describes the journey of David from London to Dover to find his aunt. David seems to be very sentimental about the things around. He feels sorry for Mr. Dolloby when this man tells him that he would rob his family if he bought David’s waistcoat at the price David requires. David is too kind to realize the trick of Mr. Dolloby. He is unhappy for the man’s family while that man does not feel sorry at all when he cheats a small, poor child like David. The first day sleeping outside alone, he thinks “Never shall I forget the lonely sensation of first lying down without a roof above my head”. David always thinks of his mother and aunt. His mother’s picture in his mind encourages him on the way to Dover. On the road David also meets ruffians who abuse him. The ferocious tinker, who robs David’s silk handkerchief, knocks the woman going with him right in front of David’s eyes. Witnessing these things, David says “I never shall forget seeing her fall backward on the hard road, and lie there with her bonnet tumbled off, and her hair all whitened in the dust; nor, when I looked once from a distance, seeing her sitting on the pathway, (which was a bank by the roadside), wiping the blood from her face with a corner of her shawl, while he went on ahead.” Despite difficulties, loneliness, hunger and thirst, David proved to be very courageous and determined. He claims “In the midst of my distress I had no notion of going back”. When he sells his jacket to an old, cunning 4 English Literature D04-K50 man, though the old man denies paying David money; despite the scary, David tells him “humbly” that money is what he wants and “that nothing else was of any use” to him. And though David is so scared that each time the old man induces him to consent to an exchange he is filled with tears, he resists all these overtures and sits outside the shop waiting patiently for the money or the jacket. Another example of David’s determination is that after the incident with the tinker, when he sees any of these people coming, he turns back until he can find a hiding-place, where he remains until they has gone out of sight. Finally, after many struggles David finds his aunt’s house. Acknowledging she is a sharp, gruffish and formidable woman who does not stand anything, David is still very brave when waiting to introduce himself and make his first impression to her with ragged shoes, dusty sunburnt, half-clothed figure, and tangled hair. Writing techniques 1. Hope by John Galsworthy John Galsworthy is a novelist in English realistic literature. His work is often about human with the material of normal daily existence, and he treats it in exact details, often in trivial details. “Hope” is also a story belonging to this theme. In the story “Hope”, John Galsworthy use two techniques like symbolism and comparison. The symbolism is represented in the sentence: “On such occasions his gray blue eyes, which had never quite lost their look of gazing through sea-mists, would reflect the bottom of his soul where the very bird of weariness lay with its clipped wings, for ever trying to regain the air”. Here, the gray blue eyes of the old man reflect the bottom of his soul like the weary bird with clipped wings are thirsty for the air. The symbolism is also in the sentence: “In the crowded highway, beside his basket, he stood, leaning on his twisted stick, with his tired, steadfast face, a ragged statue to the great, unconscious human virtue, the most hopeful and inspiring of all things on earth, courage without hope”. The other technique – comparison is expressed in “But, as a rule, he stood or sat silent, watching the world go by, as in old days he had watched the waves drifting against his anchored fishing – smack, and the look of those filmy – blue, far – gazing eyes of his, in their extraordinary patience, was like a constant declaration of the simple and unconscious creed of man: “I hold on till I drop”. Here, the image of the world go by is compared to the waves drifting against anchored fishing – smack; and his filmy – blue, far – gazing eyes is compared to a declaration of the simple and unconscious creed of man. His writing techniques – symbolism and comparison represented in Hope make the story more vivid, rich in images, and express successfully the mood as well as hope for life of the old man. 2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Refined and complex sentences It can be said that Charlotte’s English is noble English. We do not have to read so far in Jane Eyre to realize that the structure of the sentences is complex; phrases and clauses are elaborately interwoven. She never oversimplifies her ideas. She expresses precisely what she wishes to conveys by means of a series of ideas in an interconnected web. That is the reason why picture she draws of both people and scenes are unforgettable. For example, at the very beginning of Jane Eyre, she writes: "I never liked long walks, especially on chilly 5 English Literature D04-K50 afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed". Another example is her description of the scene near Thornfield Hall: “It was a journey of six and thirty hours. I had set out from Whitcross on a Tuesday afternoon, and early on the succeeding Thursday morning the coach stopped to water the horses at a wayside inn, situated in the midst of a scenery whose green hedges and large fields and low pastoral hills (how mild of feature and verdant of hue compared with the stern North - Midland moors of Morton!) met my eyes like the lineaments of a once familiar face”. It can be seen from these examples that her sentence is complex but at the same time it is a refined and beautiful one. 3. The Daffodils by William Wordsworth “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth is a typical poem of the Romantic Movement and incorporates the ideas and aspects that are essential in romantic poetry. In “Daffodils”, William Wordsworth uses many techniques such as simile, personification, word order change and these techniques appear in each stanza. In the very first sentence of the first stanza, the reader can see the image of the man compared to a cloud through a word “as” to describe his loneliness. However, in the second, the man’s mood change much since it is compared to “the stars that shine”. In this stanza, he feels much happier because of the beauty of flower, so by that way, he expresses his love of nature. In the poem, William Wordsworth also uses personification to personify the flower daffodils as an active creature through words such as “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”, “spright”, “glee”, “jocund”. These words describe exactly the mood of cheerfulness of the man. The technique word order change is used quite frequently to emphazise the changes in mood of the man. This technique is used four times in these following sentences: “Ten thousand saw I at a glance” “What wealth the show to me had brought” “For oft, when on my couch I lie” “And then my heart with pleasure fills” The right order of these sentences is: “I saw ten thousand at a glance” “What wealth the show had brought to me” “For oft, when I lie on my couch” “And then my heart fills with pleasure” The writing techniques William Wordsworth used in “Daffodils” really take efficiency in expressing his mood as well as his love of nature. 6 English Literature D04-K50 Summary 1. The gift of the Magi by O.Henry Della and Jim Young, the main characters in “The Gift of the Magi,” is a young married couple with very little money. On the day before Christmas, Della counts the money she has saved for months. She has only one dollar and eighty-seven cents, hardly enough to buy anything at all. However, Della determines to find a way to buy Jim a present he deserves. Jim and Della have two possessions of which they are both proud. One is Jim’s gold watch. The other is Della’s hair, lustrous, shining, and falling past her knees. She decides to sell her hair for twenty dollars to buy a platinum watch chain for Jim. With the shorn hair, Della waits nervously by the front door for Jim. When he comes in and sees Della’s hair, he says nothing. He draws from his pocket Della’s Christmas present. It is a set of combs for her hair, which she had been admiring in a store window for a long time. Della gives Jim his present, but he does not pull out his watch to fit to the chain, for he has sold his watch to buy Della’s combs. 2. My Oedipus Complex by Frank O’Connor Frank O'connor "My Oedipus Complex" was a story about five years old boy, Larry, who grew up in his own safe world with just himself and his mother. However, when his father, a man whom Larry hardly knew, returned from World War I, there was a constant battle between the two for the mother's love and attention. Larry became upset, irritable and jealous. At one point, he even wished God would create another war and take away his father. Larry was a creative and imaginative boy. He gave his legs names Mrs. Right and Mrs. Left and invented dramatic situations for them in which they discussed the problems of the day. Several times in the story, Larry often mentioned he want a baby in the house. And once the father returned home he got his wish. But Larry was not happy with the arrival of little Sonny. Sonny changed the interaction between the whole family. Now it was not only Larry who was second best in her mother's book but also Larry's father. Larry felt sympathized for his father who was then the same as him. At the end of the story, Larry and his father were friends and he received a present from his father on the Christmas. 3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte The story is about life of Jane Eyre- a ten-year-old orphan, living unhappily with her wealthy, cruel cousins and aunt. Jane is sent to Lowood School where she suffers further hardship under the rules of the cruel, hypocritical and abusive headmaster, Mr. Brocklehurst After teaching for 2 year, Jane works a governess at the estate of Thornfield. Here, she falls secretly in love with her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. Their relation improves to a new stage when Jane saves Rochester from a fire and then he proposes to her. 7 English Literature D04-K50 In the wedding day, Jane discovers that Mr. Rochester already has a lunatic wife. Jane is very upset to leave Thornfield. In penniless and hungry conditions, she is taken by St. John, Diana and Mary to live in their home at Moor House. One night when she hears Rochester’s voice calling her name over the moors, she decided to go back Thornfield. They rebuild their relationship and soon marry. After two years of blindness, Rochester regains sight in one eye and is able to behold their first son at his birth. They have a very blissful life and enjoy the perfect equality in their life together. 4. The Sequel of my resolution by Charles Dickens David runs all the way to Dover to find Miss Betsey Trotwood – his only relative when he has only three-half pence. Along the way, he sells most of the waistcoat, then the jacket he is wearing in order to buy food to survive. The shopkeepers who buy the clothes take advantage of him, and travelers abuse him on the road. Though selling clothes, he has no money for a lodging house; David has to sleep outside at night in loneliness near a haystack in a corner– a dark and silent space. The journey frightens him and leaves a deep impression in his mind. When he finally reaches Dover, he has trouble locating his aunt's house. Then he finally finds her house when he is in extremely bad condition: he has no money and has nothing left to dispose of; he is hungry, thirsty and worn out, which makes him ashamed. Miss Betsey is a tough, sharp woman, so David is afraid of telling her that he was her nephew. In spite of this, he still waits to introduce himself to, and make his first impression on his formidable aunt- Miss Betsey Trotwood. Finally, he decided to go softly in, stood besides her, touching her with his finger and introduced himself to her. 8