The fact that she likens herself to the witches using supernatural imagery “Come you spirits” would symbolise treachery and treason to an Elizabethan audience, backs up the opinion that she is truly evil. She renounces her femininity and thus becomes asexual. “Unsex me here”, she tries to suppress her true nature and here filial affection by denying her instinct , all for her husbands “vaulting ambition”, “come to my woman's breast and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers”. It is immediately as if she has become a fourth witch. The tremendous use of gory and paranormal imagery “make thick my blood” disgusts even a modern audience making her appear more like a monster parallel with “the secret black midnight hags” than a woman.

Lady Macbeth probes her husbands weaknesses by questioning his manhood “Are you a man?” , order to coerce him into killing Duncan. She is a rhetorical device, a verbal force that inspires her dithering husband, “But screw your courage to the sticking plate”. Manipulating her husband through taunts of unmanliness “ when you durst do it, then you are a man” shows her cruel nature, if we consider Macbeths bitterness to the fact that he cannot have children and so has accomplished nothing but a “barren sceptre”.

Perhaps the popular hatred of Lady Macbeth rests on her travesty of the Madonna ideal. She is characterised in terms of a few fundamental qualities, courage, determination and an extraordinary ability to deny all moral instinct by focusing her heart and mind on the matter at hand. “infirm of purpose”. She shows her steely resolve and her willingness to achieve the “ornament of life” by claiming “I would while it was smiling in my face/have plucked the nipple from it's boneless gums and dashed it's brains out”. These words offend the universal taboo, although they are only words, they still have the same effect of inspiring and impressing her husband who refers to her as “undaunted metal”. Each corporal agent to this terrible feat, by her monstrous and hideous claims of devotion to him.

Although Lady Macbeth goads him and taunts her husband “live a coward”, in reality she admires him. “thou wouldst be great art not without ambition, but the illness should attend it”. It is ironic that she views his virtues as his faults, which demonstrates how her morale judgement is distorted “too full o'th' milk of human kindness”. She sneers at his morality but praises his ambition. Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth who is unable to equivocate “look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”. The play has a fugal quality because of the counterpoint running through it and the fact that Macbeth is so influenced by his wife. Macbeth echoes his wife “false face must hide what the false heart doth know”. Lady Macbeth may have taught Macbeth the art of equivocation but it is he who became the master.

Lady Macbeth hides her true feelings of fear and depression from her husband. Only through the use of soliloquy do we find out about her inner turmoil brought on by her continual suppression of her guilt. “here's the smell of blood still”. Perhaps Macbeth has never seen this sentiment in his wife. She always plays a supporting role. The dynamic of their relationship depends on her strength and his need for this strength to fuel is “vaulting ambition”. She does not reveal her maternal instincts such as the inability to kill Duncan “had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done it”. This undermines her appearance as a woman of “undaunted metal”, as it portrays her human side.

It is ironic that Lady Macbeth is originally a realist, unlike her husband, and lacks the philosophical dimensions which should have deterred her from the murder of Duncan. She mitigates the consequences of the “sacrilegious” deed “a little water clears us of this deed”. She orders Macbeth three times to “consider it not so deeply”. It is also ironic that she develops an overactive compulsive disorder or cleaning her hands which proves her inability to continue equivocating and living with her guilt after trying to look after her husbands mentally frail state above her own. “those deeds must not be thought after those ways, so it will make us mad”. She sacrifices everything for her husband “vaulting ambition” but in the end her blood stained hands haunt her and drive her to distraction. “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”. She is by now wallowing in her guilt, but note she never communicates this to her husband. Yet alone she expresses her real feelings. She feels no triumph “our desire is got without content”. She would rather be dead then “by the distraction dwell in doubtful joy.”

But still she supports Macbeth, listens to his woes about his troubled mind “full of scorpions”, always playing the subordinate role. The murder of Duncan alienates Macbeth from heaven and created a rift between himself and his wife. It is she who feels the most isolated. “how my lord! Why do you keep alone?”. She invests heavily in her husband who never seems to support her. She is no longer his “dearest partner in greatness”, or his confidante and she is obliged to ask for an audience with him. “say to the king I would like to attend his leisure”. She is distraught by the fact their former intimacy is a thing of the past which again undermines the myth of the maligned woman and reveals a character both frightening and pathetic. After playing a subordinate role she takes control in the banquet scene which mentally exhausts her fragile mental state and marks the end of her active role in the play.

Although like her husband, it is insecurity that is her undoing, there is no question that guilt and remorse are what untimely destroy Lady Macbeth. Her total absence from Act 4 is Shakespeare's way of registering her discarded statues and her utter irreverence to Macbeth. The character that now emerges is vulnerable, guilt ridden and a pathetic shadow of her former dominant self. The doctor diagnoses her a “sickness of the heart, a mind diseased”.

Her subconscious now takes over, and it is filled with the feelings she refused to address when there was still time. She begins to show some moral shame and bears responsibility for Duncan “who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”. She also shows remorse for the death of Banquo and Macduff's family. “the thane of Fife had a wife”. When Malcolm later refers to her as a “fiend-like queen”, he is inaccurate. The fiend in Lady Macbeth was expunged before she became queen. The piteous waif who unwillingly broadcasts her own guilt is a far cry from the screaming harridan of the earlier acts.

Only by committing her sin does Lady Macbeth discover her true nature which became “sorely charged”. Maybe the monster in her was always artificial and it was Macbeth who loved and needed her strength which forced her to extinguish her maternal instincts. Her suicide is simply declared “the Queen is dead my Lord”. Her small stature in his mind and in the closing act is a poetic counterpoint to her striding power in earlier acts. She is ultimately redeemed by the degree of her guilt, she passed from woman, through monster and back again.

For a king, the choosing of a wife was a highly political affair. Henry III thought that the main point of royal marriage lay in the strengthening of political ties. For Edward III childbearing was the main point when he chose to marry Philippa of Hainault because of her broad hips, rather than her sister. He was proven right in the event, as the marriage showed nine surviving children to its credit. John of Gaunt, one of their sons, is ancestor to a huge proportion of people in England, as well as to the Queen and the aristocracy.

But Hilton is more interested in the women's side of the bargain. Her investigation brings forth the history of these remarkable women quite at odds with their demure portraits, their aloof tombs, or the saint-like images in ancient texts. Living in the heart of power they had power. Each of them used it in her own fashion.

Hilton highlights the ambiguity of the role as Queen Consort and provides a full portrait of each of the Queens. She forcefully dispels any idea one might have had about powerless medieval brides used as pawns in diplomacy. These women had clout and used it, as shown by Eleanor of Aquitaine who was probably the most powerful woman of her time.

For Hilton, the main outflow of this queenly power manifested itself in pleading for mercy, in interceding, and in charity, thereby providing a counter-balance to the absolute power of the king. The most famous incident of all is Philippa's rescue of the citizens of Calais in 1347. The incident has been commemorated as late as 1889 by Auguste Rodin in a monumental bronze ensemble, or 1914 in a play by Georg Kaiser.

from Flickr

It is a mixed lot that is presented in the book, obviously. It took me longer than normal to read it, because keeping all the Isabellas and Matildas straight is an effort. Hilton helps hugely with this by providing detailed genealogies to sort them into the time frame. All the same I was swearing more than once at unimaginative medieval parents.

The book is a good read and makes one want to know more about these women at the centre of power.

Nineteenth-Century Series Books

Series fiction has been most popular in the United States, where the first continuing-character series for girls began in 1841 with Jacob Abbott's Cousin Lucy stories. Typical of many early- and mid-nineteenth-century series, the Lucy books offered instruction in middle-class mores and Protestant moral virtues; they were also the first example of what became a common form of girls' series-the “tot” story, which focuses on a very young child whose mild adventures are tailored to audiences of the same age. The six Cousin Lucy titles established a pattern of location that was often repeated in girls' series: early volumes, such as Cousin Lucy at Study, show the protagonist(s) in such domestic situations as home and school, whereas later volumes, such as Cousin Lucy Among the Mountains, reflect more public settings and experiences. Although a few girls' series began in the 1850s, it was the 1860s and 1870s that fully established the popularity of the form. More than fifty new series, many linked by theme and published by religious presses, began during these decades. Among the most widely read authors of this period was Rebecca Clarke, who wrote as “Sophie May.” Her first and most successful series, Little Prudy, began in 1863. Intended for elementary-age readers, the episodic stories featured Prudy Parlin, age 3 at the start of the series. Sophie May used characters from the Parlin family to create other successful series, including Dottie Dimple (1868-1869) and Little Prudy's Children (1894-1901). While May's books contained the moral and other lessons typical of juvenile fiction of the time, her characters were often more lively and realistic than those featured in other didactic literature. Series for older girls also gained popularity as the nineteenth century advanced. Two that remained in print into the twentieth century were Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's Gypsy Breynton series (1867-1868) and the What Katy Did books (1872-1891) by “Susan Coolidge” (pseudonym of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey). The main characters, Jemima “Gypsy” Breynton and Katy Carr, illustrate some of the gender issues that inform many girls' series. Contrary to modern stereotypes of Victorian-era heroines, neither Gypsy nor Katy is passive or demure. Instead, each represents a common nineteenth-century fictional type: the energetic girl who actively tests out gender codes. In both cases, the characters are ultimately socialized into the prevailing gender roles of the white middle class; that is, they come to accept the public and domestic restraints imposed on “good” girls. Yet importantly, both series insist that part of what it means to be properly “womanly” is to be unafraid and independent, albeit in carefully circumscribed, nonmasculine ways.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Protestant Christianity remained an important thematic influence in most girls' series. One of the longest-lived and best-selling nineteenth-century series was overtly evangelical. Martha Finley's Elsie books (1868-1905) trace the life of Elsie Dinsmore, a saintly, submissive Southern heiress whose faith sustains her during her lonely, half-orphaned childhood on a rich antebellum plantation, through her girlhood, marriage, and widowhood, and into a happy old age as a much loved great-grandmother. Although often criticized for their melodrama, racism,

and parochialism, the Elsie books nonetheless demonstrate the emotional power of sentimental fiction.

Twentieth-Century Series Books

 

By the end of the nineteenth century, explicit religion and moral didacticism were on the wane in girls' series fiction-at the same time that the number of series waxed dramatically. In the 1890s, twenty new girls' series debuted in the United States; between 1900 and 1920, more than 150 new series appeared. The range of periods, themes, and settings was vast. There were historical series, travel series, tot series, school and college series, adventure series, war service series; series about Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls; and series set in the West, the South, and New England.

Reflecting both an increasingly mobile society and shifting gender and class roles, more and more books after the turn of the century focused on girls as adventurers who moved far beyond family and domestic settings. There were series titled Motor Girls (1910-1917), Motor Maids (1911-1914), Automobile Girls (1910-1913), Girl Aviators (1911-1912), Ranch Girls (1911-1924), and Outdoor Girls (1913-1933). Characters traveled all over the United States and the world; during World War I, many served in France as nurses and ambulance drivers in series titled Khaki Girls (1918-1920) and Grace Harlowe Overseas (1920). As with earlier books, the series of the early twentieth century reflected, reinforced, challenged, and helped create cultural definitions of gender, class, race, and sexual identity.

Nancy Drew and Series Mysteries

 

Book production overall slowed during the Depression, but even in the 1930s, more than sixty new girls' series began, including some, such as Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books (1932-1943), that would become literary classics. Probably the best-known series from the 1930s featured a character who stands as an icon of the independent, intrepid girl leader: Nancy Drew. The series began in 1930, continued through multiple revisions and spin-offs, and was still being published in 2007. Nancy was the invention of the prolific Edward Stratemeyer, creator of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. He produced many girls' series by preparing character descriptions and plot outlines that were expanded by ghostwriters into finished novels. Although the Nancy Drew series was often disdained by teachers and librarians, it was enormously popular with readers, who liked the predictable plots, intriguing mysteries, and streamlined characters. Nancy herself was a fairly one-dimensional paragon of cleverness, skill, and bravery. Yet instead of making her seem distant and unapproachable, her perfections helped account for the series' success. A more realistic character, one more fully developed and individualized, might not have appealed to as wide a range of readers; girls would have found it more difficult to adapt her traits to themselves.

Another important reason for the success of Nancy Drew is genre: the books are mysteries, a form that dominated girls' series in the 1930s and later. After Nancy Drew became a best seller, the Stratemeyer Syndicate created other mystery series, among them the Dana Girls (1934-1979) and Kay Tracey (1934-1942); additional mysteries included the Judy Bolton books (1932-1967) by Margaret Sutton and the Trixie Belden series (1948-1986), begun by Julie Campbell Tatham and continued by ghostwriters using the pseudonym Kathryn Kenny. Even the career and romance series of the 1950s and later often contained mysteries as well. Their appeal is clear: not only do puzzles provide a ready-made plot structure, but the solutions also offer a comforting sense of order andreason, giving readers a world in which even the most confusing conundrums have answers. Mystery series remained perennially popular, but cultural changes after World War II brought about corresponding changes in girls' fiction. The social and gender conservatism of the 1950s supported a market for domestic series that focused on family and on heterosexual romance; popular authors of such books included Janet Lambert and Anne Emery. When characters had careers, they tended, like nurse Cherry Ames (1943-1968), to hold traditionally female jobs. In general, series remained white and middle class. As in earlier years, the few Jewish, nonwhite, or working-class characters who did appear served primarily as villains, clowns, or grateful recipients of charitable largesse. A few exceptions existed, however. Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind series (1951-1978), for example, is about an urban Jewish family.

Contemporary Series. The popularity of series books as a whole declined in the 1970s but, as the Girls' Series Book Checklist points out, the format underwent a renaissance in the late 1970s, when publishers began increasingly to produce children's books as paperback originals. Hundreds of new series appeared, most linked by character, but also by location, format, or theme. Readers' interest in formulaic stories about romances and friendships continued into the 1980s and 1990s, as demonstrated by the phenomenal success of creator Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High books (1983-2003) and their many spin-offs. As in the culture at large, sex (at least heterosexual sex) was treated increasingly openly in girls' series after the 1970s, and girls' series tended to follow the same trends prevalent in adult fiction. In the 2000s, for instance, the adult vogue for “chick lit” led to such girls' series as Gossip Girls (2002-), which combined romance and shopping with sex, alcohol, and soap-operatic tales of treachery and jealousy. Literary series such as Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy trilogy (1964-1978) and Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik (1979-1995) continued to be published, as did series for younger girls. Popular protagonists for younger girls included Beverly Cleary's brash but lovable Ramona Quimby (1968-1999) and Barbara Park's Junie B. Jones (1992-). Ann Martin's best-selling Baby-sitters Club (1986-2000) featured girls of middle-school age.

As the twentieth century neared its close, some series began to include more racial and ethnic diversity, but the characters were usually displaced into the past, and the series themselves often engendered controversy. The American Girls collection of historical fiction for younger girls included series about an African American (“Addy”; 1994), a Hispanic (“Josefina”; 1997-1998), and a Native American (“Kaya”; 2002). Some critics, though, find these books inauthentic. The Dear America stories (1996-2004), linked by the format of historical diaries, featured characters of varied social class and race, with volumes contributed by such significant authors as Newbery Medal-winner Karen Hesse and African American writer Patricia McKissack. The series has been controversial, however, with some Native American critics, for example, objecting to the racial messages of Ann Rinaldi's My Heart Is on the Ground (1999).

The sheer number of series by U.S. authors can obscure the fact that girls' series existed in other Anglo countries, too. In England, the girls' school story, with its lessons about gender and class, dominated the early decades of the twentieth century; series such as Elsie J. Oxenham's Abbey Girls (1914-1949) and Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School (1925-1970) found large readerships. Other genres were popular as well. Canadian writers also produced girls' series; probably the one best known in the United States is Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908-1939). Reflecting the Cinderella plot popular in many girls' books, this series follows the orphaned Anne Shirley from her adoption as a child through her years as a teacher, and on to a happy marriage and motherhood.

For the most part, girls' series fiction both consciously and subconsciously informs readers what it means to be female in Anglo cultures-particularly what it means to be a female who is white, middle class, and Christian. Because much of the series' appeal comes from the comfort of their familiar characters coupled with often exciting adventures, the durability of the form is unsurprising.

The narrator of a novel is an often-overlooked character. When reading, we rarely take into account how the background and personality of the narrator could influence the retelling of events. In The Woman Warrior, Hong Kingston gives the book a distinctly feminine tone by making herself an involved and opinionated narrator. The stories here effect “Maxine” on a much more personal level. She relates each story to her personal life. In “No Name Woman”, Maxine compares her aunt's possible adultery to how she herself coped with boys in school. “As if it came from an atavism deeper than fear, I used to add “brother” silently to boys' names. It hexed the boys, who would or would not ask me to dance, and made them less scary and as familiar and deserving of benevolence as girls” (WW 12).

Integrating herself into the talk-stories serves as a testament to Maxine's womanhood. In “White Tigers”, Maxine places herself in the shoes of Fa Mu Lan. “She said I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a warrior woman” (WW 20). Instead of simply reciting various talk-stories, Maxine uses each one to develop facets of her femininity. She takes on each story as a life lesson. The female nature can be associated with strong emotions, and Maxine's comparison of her life to the stories

As narrator in China Men, Maxine is much less personally involved in The Woman Warrior. Not only is she less present in the book, but she uses the talk-stories more to provide commentary on men's behavior rather than as a parallel to her own experiences. The grandfather in “The Father From China” exemplifies this theme in his doting over the female baby. “He walked slowly, adoring the peachy face. He sat by the side of the road to look at her. He counted her pink toes and promised that no one would break them. He tickled under her chin” (CM 20). Instead of taking the story and comparing it to herself, Hong Kingston elaborates more on the individual characters from a distance.

Characters in China Men also are less emotional then those in The Woman Warrior. “He grew the habit of clamping his mouth shut in a line, and the sun baked that expression on him.” (CM 114) Bak Goong keeps his thoughts and feelings inside of him, instead of expressing himself. The stories in China Men lack the emotional and personal involvement that was seen in The Woman Warrior. The author's perspective here can be seen as being representative of the masculine nature of not having ones emotions so close to the surface.

Hong Kingston supported this difference in an interview with the New York Times in 1980:

''In a way, "The Woman Warrior" was a selfish book. I was always imposing my viewpoint on the stories. In "China Men" the person who "talks story" is not so intrusive. I bring myself in and out of the stories, but in effect, I'm more distant. The more I was able to understand my characters, the more I was able to write from their point of view and the less interested I was in relating how I felt about them.'' By doing this, Hong Kingston draws parallels between the emotional make-ups of men and women.

In "Doe Season", Andrea wants to become accepted in the all-male group she hangs out with. Yet, she feels alienated and lonely because she seems to be the odd one out in the group. This alienation is noticeable at the start of the story when she expresses her dislike for Mac. Mac teases and pulls pranks on her. She believes Mac is stupid. This shows Andrea's feminine side which she tries hard to conceal.

Another instance in "Doe Season" when Andrea feels alienated was the men are talking about deer. She comments that she sees a deer behind their house. Charlie Spoon reasons it is because deer instinctively know when the hunting season is. Then they all laugh about which makes Andrea confused. The whole conversation about deer makes her feel out of place.

The primary concept of the story revolves around Andrea's relationship with his father. Andy wants to please her father. Her father takes her to a hunting trip to test if she can be a part of the man's world. Her father asks her to shoot a deer and then made her watch as he and Charlie Spoon gut the deer. At the cost of displeasing her father, Andy could not deny the fact that she has to remain true to her identity. She chooses to be true to herself in the end as symbolized by running away from the assembly of men gutting the deer.

In "Doe Season", there are a number of symbolisms such as the sea and the forest. When Andy talks of the sea and how it reminds her of mother's love for it, she admits hating it which is one clue that she does not want to be associated with femininity of any kind. The sea symbolizes womanhood and the forest symbolizes manhood. Andy expresses extreme dislike for the sea and an interest of the woods. She never really likes the woods per se but is fascinated by it.

To show the contrast of how she feels about the sea and the forest, she sees the forest as deep and immense, while she refers to the sea as huge and empty. This implies that Andy sees the man's world as a impressive and fascinating while that of a woman's is meaningless and empty.

Doe Season ends with Andy watching “her father's knife sliced thickly from chest to bell to crotch” (354). When Andy's father begins to gut the deer, Andy has an epiphany. She realizes that, no matter how much she tries, she cannot become part of the male society. She then runs away from everyone. This gesture of turning her back and fleeing from her male companions shows that she finally accepts the fact that she is different from men. Unbeknownst to her, the transformation within her is already complete. Then she listens to the sound of the wind which aptly reminds her of the “terrible, now inevitable sea” (354). The sea now becomes inevitable, owing to the fact the she recognizes she can no longer deny her true identity. She turns from the woods. which suddenly became strange to her, to the calling ocean, heeding her real destiny- that of becoming a woman.

In the past, men and women have been treated very differently with regards to rights and status. Women were seen as subservient. Women also had to protect their virginity to maintain their eligibility for marriage.

Men often used their authority and status to take advantage of women, sexually, which would mean that the women would lose their virginity, which they had preserved, and there was nothing they could do about it. If the upper class woman became pregnant after being raped, her and her “bastard” child would be cast out of society and the woman would never marry a wealthy gentleman, as the upper class men would only marry a virgin. The three poems demonstrate the change of language and attitude as time has gone by, like the way Andrew Marvell expressed in “To His Coy Mistress” to his intended audience that she should sleep with him while she has the chance putting a lot of pressure on her. On the other hand John Cooper Clarke gives his audience a warmer feeling, a feeling that there is no pressure, a feeling that the person he wrote it for has a choice whether to be with him or not.

The religious myth of Adam's first wife “Lilith” is a perfect example of the way that women had to accept inferiority to men. Lilith had to remain below Adam during sexual intercourse just like women had to remain below men when it came to issues such as politics and employment. Men believed a woman's place was in the home. Men even used women to seal business deals by making them marry whoever they were dealing with. If a woman was to deny her inferior position under men she would be demonised meaning that she would be accused of being a witch.

Lilith is said to have been Adam's first wife before Eve meaning she was the first woman ever created by God. Lilith exists in all religions as a demon that rebelled against women being treated as inferior beings by men. After Adam's and Lilith's dispute Lilith left the Garden of Eden and never returned despite Adam's and the three angels efforts, who of which he called upon to bring her back to the garden. Lilith believed that women should have equal rights to men, which is completely the opposite way women were meant to act in Victorian Britain. Women in Victorian Britain were expected to “remain pure” and “clean” apart from during menstruation when they were considered to be unclean. Women were also not encouraged to do anything to even remotely advertise herself to other men.

“To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) is about a seventeenth century gentleman who is trying to “woo” an unmarried woman into having a sexual relationship with him. Andrew Marvell uses false flattery and even threats to persuade his intended viewer to spend the rest of her days with him. The second poem I read was called “The Beggar Woman” by William King (1663-1712) and is about a gentleman out hunting with some companions who spots a beggar woman in the woods. The man “rode astray” from his companions, approached the woman and persuaded her to “retire” with him into the woods to have sex. This poem has an interesting twist as the woman manipulates the man into taking the child, which she had on her back, thus avoiding having sex with him. The third and final poem was “I WANNA BE YOURS” by John Cooper Clark, which is about everyday objects being used to describe what he would do for his intended lover, such as “let me be the electric heater, you get cold without”, Which means he wants to keep her warm.

The theme of seduction is portrayed very differently between the 3 poems. In “To His Coy Mistress” the poem is more threatening than seductive, which was not necessarily a bad thing at the time, because women didn't really have much choice, as they didn't have the same rights as women do today. In “The Beggar Woman”, the man tries to persuade an unusually clean beggar woman with a baby tied to her back, to follow him into the woods to have sex. Again women didn't have much choice as men were still regarded as superior to women. “I Wanna Be Yours” could be seen as the most seductive of the three poems, as there are no threats and the woman is given a choice in the matter.

In all three poems the men want something from the women. In “To His Coy Mistress” the man wants the woman to have sex with him. Which is fairly obvious as the majority of his poem could be considered to be about physical intimacy. “And tear our pleasures with rough strife” meaning to break the woman's virginity, which is quite old language which wouldn't be used today. And “Let us roll all our strength, and all our sweetness, up into one ball" demonstrates that the man wants to have sex with the woman. In “The Beggar Woman” the man merely wants to have sex.

“He often asked her to expose”, meaning to undress demonstrating how eager he is and if he'd been doing it “often” then she must have said no each time. Which I find to be very immoral because he kept trying to persuade her to despite it not being her wish. In “I Wanna Be Yours” John Cooper Clarke only wishes for the woman to go out with him with only a slight reference to physical intimacy. “if you like your coffee hot, let me be your coffee pot” could represent the physical passion he has for her. Like in the first poem John Cooper Clarke actually gives the reader a choice whether they want to go out with him or not which is moral because he says “let me” meaning it's her decision, he's not forcing her.

The structure of “To His Coy Mistress” is set out in three verses with a discourse marker at the beginning of each one meaning that each verse had a phase of love. “Nor would I love at lower rate”, “Thy beauty shall no more be found” and “Let us roll all our strength, and all our sweetness, up into one ball” portrays how the poems twist from positive to negative to positive and conveys the image of how the man wants the woman and threatens her to be with him. The structure of “To His Coy Mistress” does help deliver the poet's message because it tells his intended viewer how he feels about her. First he describes what it would be like if she denied him and last but not least in the third verse he describes what it would be like if she agreed to be with him.

“To His Coy Mistress” ends with a more positive view saying that even though they can't stay together forever, they shall enjoy the time they will have together. “The Beggar Woman” ends with the woman leaving the man with the baby tied to his back and saying that she trusts the baby to him with all her heart, which is more of a sad ending yet funny with some “in your face” humour. Also it has some form of irony, as the man wanted to have sex with the woman possibly leaving her pregnant yet he was left with a baby. “I Wanna Be Yours” ends saying that he doesn't want anyone else just the woman he wrote the poem for. Out of all the three poems I found “I Wanna Be Yours” to be the most successful because it is more modern and has an erratic rhyme scheme with no punctuation to show his dedication to the woman the poem was for.

I found “I Wanna Be Yours” to be the most seductive of the three poems because it does not have any negative points and it treats women equally to men. I think that only the woman in “I Wanna Be Yours” is reminiscent of Lilith because John Cooper Clarke is giving her a choice with equal rights just like Lilith wanted. For the time “To His Coy Mistress” could be considered successful as women didn't have equal rights to men but now I would consider “I Wanna Be Yours” to be the most successful because it is more sweet, more positive and gives the woman a choice.

This has always been and will always be. In fact, it is an essential law of Nature. The tragic element unfolds when this law expresses itself in human terms. Here, life consumes life in a desperate bid to perpetuate itself. In this novel, the character of Tess depicts one aspect of this strange tragedy.

The manner of her first appearance in the novel is noteworthy. It serves to emphasise the fact that she is really the fairest flower on the bough. Moreover, the writer makes a conscious effort to convey the timelessness of the tragedy that is to unfold before us. For this, he describes the club-walk at Marlott. This surviving custom from an ancient pagan ritual serves to begin the story on a metaphysical note. The gathering of women, both young and old, forms the background for the portrait of Tess who is the fairest of them all.

She is depicted as being a fine and handsome girl : “…her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape.”

A red ribbon in her hair is another distinguishing feature of her physical appearance. The writer is subtle enough to keep this first description in a low key. And, his artistic use of symbolism and suggestion makes it clear that something more than just a girl is being described.

Gradually and skilfully, the writer fills in the concrete elements of her portrait. For example, he tells us that she has an oval face, deep dark eyes and long heavy clinging tresses. In fact, the description becomes very detailed : “The teeth more regular, the red lips thinner than is usual in a country-bred girl.” Her innocent beauty is summed up very aptly thus : “ It was a luxuriance of aspect, a fulness of growth, which made her appear more of a woman than she really was.”

And, there is a lot more to her than just physical charm. She has a very tender and caring disposition which indicates an extremely sensitive nature. This is evident in her deep concern for her family. In fact, one marvels at her love for her uncouth mother and her good for nothing father. And, her attitude towards Liza-Lu is a sublime combination of sisterly and motherly love.

Significantly, these very qualities make her vulnerable to disaster. Her beauty attracts Alec’s predatory passion while familial her devotion puts her completely at his mercy. Tess also has a well-defined sense of right and wrong. This too adds to her misery by ravaging her with guilt after her seduction.

But, this unfortunate girl has great inner strength. At no time do we see her head bowed in defeat. Even her pleadings with Angel do not convey a sense of weakness. Rather, they show a woman fighting desperately for her rightful place in life. This is why she remains dignified when he leaves her. This dignity is evident in all phases of her life. Dairyman Crick and her other co-workers have the highest regard for her. Even Alec cannot dismiss her as just another sexual conquest. His urge to marry her points in this direction.

Tess suffers the worst inner conflict in her attitude to marriage. Having lost her virginity to Alec, she finds herself in love with Angel and becomes his wife. Then, he abandons her and she is again pursued by the man who ravished her. And, she submits to him again with bitter resignation : “Once victim, always victim—that’s the law!” From this point on, she is no longer just a person. She becomes a personification of the cruelty that life inflicts on itself. Her murder of Alec is her last desperate attempt to right the wrong that Nature has inflicted on her. But, this time, even the repentant Angel cannot save her from the retribution which follows.

Tess is hanged as a convicted murderess. But, her death has a poetic poignancy to it. She once broke the necks of some wounded pheasants to put them out of their misery. Perhaps, this was the only kindness that was ever repaid to her. In crafting her character, Hardy has exhibited something more than just mastery over craft. He brings to Tess a burning passion and a wistful sadness plumbed from the depths of his soul. Tess does not belong to one place of time. And, her tragedy is not confined to any one aspect of life. She is more an idea than a person. And, her pain stretches to encompass all of humanity.

There is a measure of defiance in his gesture of using the sub-title “A Pure Woman”. This leaves no doubt as to his stand on the matter. Moreover, he evinces a clear emotional commitment by following the sub-title with a quotation from Shakespeare :

“…Poor wounded name!

My bosom as a bed shall lodge thee.”

Tess is first shown participating in an ancient pagan ritual at Marlott. The writer describes her in a manner calculated to set her apart from the others :

“She wore a red ribbon in her hair, and was the only one of the white company who could boast of such pronounced adornment.”

This flash of red colour is quite out of place in the pallor of the white dresses, white flowers and peeled willow wands. It distinctly suggests the presence of flesh and blood against an otherwise sterile background. The colour is mentioned again when Alec crosses her path as :

“one who stood fair to be the blood-red ray in the spectrum of her young life.”

This device makes it clear that the writer wants to show Tess as being both a physical and a spiritual entity. By doing so, he establishes the pure innocence of her soul and the vulnerability of her body to defilement. Nature's role in this precarious balance is shown thus :

“It was a luxuriance of aspect, a fulness of growth, which made her appear more of a woman than she really was.”

This reckless extravagance of Nature on the one hand and a poverty of means on the other place Tess in the dangerous proximity of Alec D'Urberville. He, on his part, is impelled by the same forces which make the strawberries luscious, the roses sweet-scented and Tess a woman much before her time. Still, she remains quite above his ardent advance. Significantly, this has nothing to do with any studied modesty on her part. Rather, it is an angelic purity of mind which lets her get no inkling of his thoughts.

This innocence combines with fatigue to lull her to sleep in the forest on the way back from Chaseborough. And, Alec comes to her groping through the tangled thickets of desire grown wild. This is the point from where onwards Tess is regarded as being guilty of “ritual uncleanness”. We may grant that she was a partner in-if not a party to-her own violation. We may even agree with those who see much more in Tess' staying on at The Slopes after this. But, when she does leave, her exchange with Alec tilts the balance the other way. Her self-evaluation is amazingly clear and candid when she tells him :

“My eyes were dazed by you for a little, and that was all.”

Alec dismisses her explanation with an extremely cynical retort. But, Tess' rejoinder is both passionate and eloquent :

“Did it ever strike your mind that what every woman says some women may feel.”

This remark is enough to show that physical violation has not destroyed her inner purity. But, tragically, this very inner purity ravages her with guilt at her condition. One wonders who is the purer-she who mortifies herself again and again or her mother who closes the chapter with a thick-skinned acceptance of the bitter fact.

Tess' large heartedness is quite unexpected in one so immature. Throughout the ordeal of the birth and death of her child, she manages to confine her pain within herself. Even her solitary complaint has the sweetness of a prayer about it :

“But perhaps I don't quite know the Lord as yet.”

Such patience can only be regarded as saintly. And, this is only the beginning of her tribulation. She is destined to be abandoned by the only man she ever loves and then to be yet again at the mercy of her seducer. Her torturous soul-searching about which of the two must be her husband is heartrending.

It is true that her act of murdering Alec is gruesome and shocking. In fact, it appears to be motivated purely by a desire for revenge. But, at this stage in the novel, Alec has come to symbolise the cruelty of all human desires. And, Tess symbolises the human yearning to rise above the dust and ashes of this sad state of affairs. Her death by hanging shows that purity can only be attained by killing at least half of all that is human in us.

The collection consists of 18 short poems, none of them written in verse, but mainly subdivided into stanzas of 3 lines each. There are only 5 exceptions to this rule, more precisely in "The God Fit" (p. 40), "The God Coup" (p. 41), "God's Beloveds Remain True" (p. 47), "God's Mother" (p. 48) and "God's List of Liquids" (p. 52). Both in "God's Mother" and "God's List of Liquids", the formal differences seem to hint on the idea of structure and order. Both poems contain a list, which could be interpreted as an allusion to God's habit to organise, to set up a framework or even a divine master plan. "The God Fit" ends in one single line, "The God Coup" is a four line poem and "God's Beloveds Remain True" is not subdivided into stanzas at all. The underlying connection between these three poems is the desperation that lies in feeling abandoned by God. People try "to escape God who is burning" (p. 40, l. 6) while they feel "untended" (p. 40, l. 7). He is described as "a grand heart cut" (p. 41, l. 1) and while "man surges" (p.41, l. 2), he does nothing more than "tarry" (p. 41, l. 4). In contrast to the descriptive address of "The God Fit" and "The God Coup", the voice of mankind expresses itself in "God's Beloveds Remain True", bewailing the status quo. The irony of feeling helpless and forsaken while "Chaos overshadows" (p. 47, l. 1) and not having the option to leave God behind because they "have been instructed to call this His love" (p. 47, l. 29) clarifies the forlorn position of God's beloveds. The term "beloveds" itself bears a sarcastic undertone when the speaker tells about them being "strangled by bitter light" (p. 47, l. 3), even "slit and drained out" (p. 47, l. 20). "The God Fit", "The God Coup" and "God's Beloveds Remain True" form a trilogy of misery, leading from God's infernal terror over God's indifference regarding mankind to God's tyrannical leave-no-options policy.

Another aspect of God is discussed in "God's Woman" (p. 46) and "God Stiff" (p. 46). These two poems ostensibly deal with the role of women in the process of creation. God asks "His woman" (p. 46, l. 1) whether she is "angry at nature" (p. 46, l. 1) without making clear what exactly he means by the term "nature".

The woman replies that she does "not want nature stuck / up between" (p. 46, l. 2f) her "legs on" (p. 46, l. 3) his "pink baton" (p. 46, l. 3). Furthermore, she does not want it "ladled out like geography whenever" (p. 46, l. 4) his "buckle needs a lick" (p. 46, l. 5). The image of God suddenly undergoes a change from supernatural fiend without a cause to a sexist male creator, who formed man after his image but forgot about the humiliating position of women in creation altogether. The idea of devising a reproduction process in which one (the male) has to penetrate the other (the female) in order to soil the female body with the actual semen and, thus, secure the species' population is portrayed as unnecessary and degrading. His possibly uttered excuse does not convince the woman of the necessity of the human spawning procedure and God is cornered with the question "what do you mean Creation" (p. 46, l. 6). This negative image is underlined in "God Stiff" by the fact that for the woman, "His zipper going down" (p. 46, l. 6) sounds like the word "Treachery" (p. 46, l. 6). If God really created man after his image, all negative and sexist behavior patterns of men must originate from God himself. He is part and root of all sexist male behavior.

The portrayal of God is completed in "God's Justice" (p. 49) when the reader is told that "in the beginning there were days set aside for various tasks" (p. 49, l. 1). One of those days was reserved for God to create justice, but instead "God got involved in making a dragonfly" (p. 49, l. 3). Watching his new creation, he "lost track of time" (p. 49, l. 4) and completely forgot about his actual plan to bring justice to the world. In deep fascination, God beholds the dragonfly, every little detail catches his eye and his attention. He is described as the stereotype human male who just found a new toy, be it some sort of electronic entertainment device or some other trivial matter. All his effort and all his devotion rests with something that can, objective, be seen as far less important than e.g. the concept of justice, yet there is no Sign of God being about to take notice of this antagonism. He is characterized as being rather unreliable, and assuming that there are at least 2 million[3] different species of animals on this planet to fascinate him, expectations for justice to be created are sure to be disappointed.

One intriguing fact is the textual connection between "God's Woman" and "God's List Of Liquids". In the latter, the list of liquids ends with the substantive "Time" (p. 52, l. 16). The context of this list is that "God had the book of life open at pleasure" (p. 52, l. 3) and was arranging terms under the headline "For I made their flesh as a sieve" (p. 52, l. 6). However, the noun "Time" also appears in "God's Woman" when God urges his woman to choose between "Fire. Time. Fire"

(p. 46, l. 8) Taking into account the contents of "God's Woman" and "God's List Of Liquids", it seems probable that God lets his woman choose between pleasure (the term "Time" appears on the page "PLEASURE" of God's book of life) and desolation (the desolation of fire when God "is burning" as on page 40, line 6 of the poem "The God Fit"). It remains uncertain what his woman chose, but the idea of both concepts having the potential to negatively alter the "flesh" (p. 52, l. 6) of man, one by burning, one by aging, leaves the conclusion that even the items considered as pleasure by God carry a foul side effect for his creation.

Carson describes God as not being compatible to the human nature. What God considers a pleasure is considered a curse by man. God is differently minded than we are, and due to this fact, he lost interest in us a long time ago. "Our blind gestures / parodied / what God really wanted" ("My Religion", p. 40, l. 27ff) and God reacted by retiring from his business of taking care and pursued his ambitions and hobbies such as creating more simple, but also more beautiful things such as dragonflies. What for us feels like God's anger or the impression that we were abandoned could just be the frustration and resignation of a God who created a being that is unable to conceive him. Carson appears to pity God and she intends to hold up her faith to support God until "all the people in the world" ("My Religion", p. 39, l. 8) find out just "how simple it would have been" ("My Religion", p. 39, l. 5) to give God "this simple thing" ("My Religion", p. 40, l. 32) that he really wanted. God is not there to help us, he needs our help until we have learned to see and listen, or as Carson says it "my religion makes no sense / and does not help me / therefore I pursue it" ("My Religion", p. 39, l. 1ff).

[1] Carson, Anne. Glass, Irony and God. Introduction by Guy Davenport. 1995. New York: New Directions. New Directions Paperbook, Fifth Printing. "The Truth about God", 39-53

[2] Carson, Anne. Glass, Irony and God. Introduction by Guy Davenport. 1995. New York: New Directions. New Directions Paperbook, Fifth Printing.

[3] Nisimov, Felix. The Physics Factbook. Edited by Glenn Elert. 2003. "Number of Species"

The first striking fact about the 31 poems contained in "Short Talks"[1] as it appears in Plainwater[2] is their length, they vary from one line (p. 31: "On Gertrude Stein About 9:30") to 20 lines (p. 42: "On The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deyman") while the majority consists roughly of about 10 lines. The poems further lack rime which could be intended to put stress on the content of the poems rather than the language. The very brief appearance of the poems in question underlines and supports the image of the author walking through an exhibition of paintings, works of art, or, more abstract, feelings and thoughts, while cogitating one piece at a time, paying full attention to the thoughts and feelings, connotations and associativities that this particular item provokes, but in the end leaving the scenery to proceed to the next item in line. Another supportive argument for the theory of the poems being intended as captions is the choice of the title scheme, all titles begin with the preposition “On”, followed either by the title of a painting (p. 37: "On the Mona Lisa") or by an expression or topic the author might have associated with a particular piece of art (p. 31: "On Trout"). In this case, the phrase “piece of art” also implies the artistic work of thought and idea.

Carson's language is unique, her style of expressing emotions (p. 41, "On the Youth at Night": “Terrific lava shone on his soul.”) and her metaphors (p. 43, "On Orchids": “We live by tunneling for we are people buried alive.”) underline the sensual and deep sensations that can be evoked when losing yourself in devotion to paintings, music or comparable works of the human intellect. Therefore, the caption theory seems probable.

The reader is witness to the inner monologue of an imaginary character (p. 39, "On Rain": “It was blacker than olives the night I left.”), sometimes possibly of the author (p. 37, "On Walking Backwards": “My mother forbid us to walk backwards.”) and sometimes it stays completely out of focus where the origin of the thoughts lies (p. 31: "On Disappointments in Music"). This stylistic device enables the reader to take part in the imaginative and creative process that lies behind the poems, to identify with the individual who took the chance to express ideas regarding the variety of paintings, to think, rethink and maybe even think on where the author stopped.

Furthermore, the occasional mentioning of philosophers' or artists' names (p. 30, "On Chromoluminism": “Seurat - the old dazzler - has painted that place.”; p. 31: "On Gertrude Stein About 9:30"; p. 31, "On Disappointments in Music": “Prokofiev was ill ...”; p. 32: "On Ovid"; p. 32: "On Parmenides"; p. 34, "On the Rules of Perspective": “These are the views of Braque.”; p. 35, "On Rectification": “Kafka liked to have his watch an hour and a half fast.”; p. 36, "On Sleep Stones": “Camille Claudel lived the last thirty years of her life in an asylum ...”; p. 37, "On Waterproofing": “Franz Kafka was Jewish.”; p. 38, "On the End": “Rembrandt wakens you ...”; p. 38: "On Sylvia Plath"; p. 40, "On Charlotte": “Miss Bronte & Miss Emily & Miss Anne used to put away their sewing ...”; p. 42, "On The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deyman": “One wonders if Elsje ever saw Rembrandt's painting, ...”; p. 43, "On Orchids": “... , writes Emily Dickinson in a letter ...”; p. 43, "On Penal Servitude": “Dostoevski went in ...”; p. 43: "On Hölderlin"s World Night Wound') stresses the image of diverse individual artistic pieces, but it also depicts one of the central possible arguments against the caption theory. When taking a closer look at the range of the names on record, we can count four distinct painters, but 12 artists of a different creative section (11 philosophers and writers, one composer). This leads to the conclusion that either the author has intentionally or subconsciously made a large associative link between a painting and other artistic fields or the caption theory is no longer valid for the loosely connected context of painting and caption.

The most hindering factor in finding a final solution and, thus, a final answer to the question whether the caption theory is probable or not is simply the absence of the original paintings. The objective of liberating the poems from their visual counterparts is intelligible, yet it leaves the reader not the option to take a look at the paintings as well or decide to blank them out when necessary; one could argue that the reader's freedom is restricted for the sake of the purity of literature.

For interpreting Carson's feelings, thoughts, connotations and viewpoints, for following her train of thought, for sympathizing with the ideas that obviously struck her while viewing certain paintings and for finding a deeper appreciation by seeking Carson's link between canvas, mind and word the display of the corresponding paintings would certainly be helpful, but for enjoying 'Short Talks' it is rather irrelevant. Assuming Carson's ability to build bridges across all boundaries of genre, style or variety, in the end it remains quite certain that the caption theory still finds support even in the present text format which lacks the original paintings. The overall feel and look (in a broader sense) of her collected poems tells us so.

References

[1] Carson, Anne. Plainwater. 1995. New York: Vintage Books. First Vintage Contemporary Edition, March 2000. "Short Talks“, 27-46

[2] Carson, Anne. Plainwater. 1995. New York: Vintage Books. First Vintage Contemporary Edition, March 2000