From the Paper "Marge Piercy's poem "A Work of Artifice" shows how the artifice of men is used to dwarf and shape objects into designs that they find pleasing and controllable, but that tricks the objects out of their natural growth and destiny, and denies them their individuality. For example, the author uses the bonsai tree as a symbol to show how men control and prune a thing into a small, delicate work of art, but the bonsai has been artfully deceived out of its potential to grow eight feet tall. "
A comparison of the treatment of reality and illusion in the novels, "Un Amour De Swann" (Swann's Love), by Marcel Proust, and Andre Gide's "Les Faux-Monnayeurs" (The Counterfeitors).
Abstract This paper is a discussion of how, in both "Un Amour de Swann" and "Les Faux-Monnayeurs," fictional realities are exposed for their illusory nature, and the inner life of characters' fantasy and imagination is shown to be more real than the outer world they inhabit. In both cases, outer reality is shown to be a limited, disappointing, and inherently false area, and the artifice in a fictional reality is highlighted in order to direct our attention to the artifice in our own lived reality. It explains that, while Proust directs readers towards the 'time of our inner lives' as the space of true meaning and experience, Gide believes that action can be taken to expose the falsity inherent in the outer world and emancipate ourselves from the illusions we are enslaved to.
From the Paper "Proust's Un Amour de Swann and Gide's Les Faux-Monnayeurs are both concerned with the borderline between reality and illusion, and between the inner world of the self and the outer world of physical reality. Both novels contain characters who live in a reality they can neither experience fully, interpret objectively, or escape from, and both novels present a fictional reality exposed for its falsity in order to lead the reader to question the 'sincerity' of his own self and the nature of his own reality."
Abstract This paper examines how Patricia Hightsmith's characters, as interpreted by Alfred Hitchcock on the screen, are interpreted from a moral point of view. The author analyzes how Hitchcock incorporated Highsmith's literary technique to develop these characterizations in the film.
From the Paper "Riding on a train is, in life as well as in film, a curious situation. It draws together strangers of apparently different backgrounds. It is a situation of forward motion, a fact conveyed by the film's use of train sounds, from the beginning shriek of a train whistle (paralleling the shriek of a murdered victim) and also through such sounds as the churning engine. The sight of the wheels pulsating forward on the tracks also suggests such propelled, forward motion. Yet a train is not only a representation of forward motion, for tracks cross, the train must stop at certain points, and in a similar way individual's lives cross and intersect."
Tags: Hitchcock, Highsmith, amorality, literary, artifice, homoeroticism, film, tom, ripley
Abstract Like all great novels, James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" may be read on several levels. On the primary, narrative level the novel concerns the growing to maturity of Stephen Dedalus in Ireland at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. However, on a deeper, symbolic level the novel focuses on a theme of escape from the traps of Roman Catholic dogma, family entanglement and Irish nationalism. Central to this theme is the mythological image of the labyrinth which is integral to the symbolic structure of the novel and the representation of Stephen's flight to artistic freedom from his imprisonment by the above forces.
Abstract This paper compares critical interpretations of two poems: "Living in Sin" by Adrienne Rich and "Work of Artifice" by Marge Piercy (sometimes called "The Bonsai Poem"). The distinction between the two poems, as seen by literary critics, is one of degrees of responsibility. However, both poems describe the torturous prison of domesticity and the loss of power that "feminine" women experience.
Abstract This paper examines how, in "The London Merchant," George Lillo's character, Sarah Millwood, is unique and how, in Darah, the reader sees a combination of Lady Macbeth, the Marquise de Merteuil, and Mrs. Marwood. It looks at how Millwood possesses strength, cunning, artifice, parasitical avarice, and a keen ability to read other people. It also explores how Millwood can discover their weaknesses, play upon those weaknesses deftly and without remorse, and uses her feminine beauty and sexual prowess to squeeze riches and tribute from gullible men.
From the Paper "Millwood uses her artifice and parasitical avarice to manipulate Barnwell into embezzling funds from his employer Thorowgood and giving the money to her. Millwood's servant Lucy states, "Tis true the youth has scruples; but she'll soon teach him to answer them, by stifling his conscience" (278). Such is the Millwood's power to subjugate her victim's scruples and replace it with lustful passion. But eventually Barnwell's inherent honesty and remorse for embezzling his master's funds overcome his obsession for Millwood and he attempts to break with her; but his escape is not successful."
Abstract This paper explores the development of four concepts: The Golden Ration, fractals, platonic solids and the artifice of Escher. It then examines how these mathematical concepts can be applied to real life.
From the Paper "The concept 'golden section' was first used by Martin Ohm in the 1835 in his book Die Reine Elementar-Mathematik. The first everEnglish use was seen in the article of James Sulley in 1875 which appeared in the 9th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The symbol 'phi' was first used by Mark Barr at the inception of the 20th century in commemoration of the Greek sculptor Phidias, who was an extensive user of golden ratio in his works. Phi has surprising linkage with the continued fractions and the Euclidean algorithm for enumerating the Greatest Common Divisor of two integers and is also known as the Pisot Number."
Abstract This paper argues that, in E. B. White's poem "The Ring of Time", the circus ring and performer are metaphors for the mutability of time. The author points out that the poem reflects the ability to capture the moment through creation.
From the Paper "E. B. White's poem "The Ring of Time" is an attempt to capture the essence of creation against the backdrop of ever-changing time. Though by his own admission the narrator circus patron and writer admit he has failed in this effort, I ..."
Tags: time, creativity, human existence, inspiration, artifice, illumination, metaphor, circus, performers
This paper looks at the fall from grace of the title characters in the plays "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde and "Dr. Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe.
Abstract In this article, the writer looks at the characters Dorian Gray in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and Dr. Faustus in the play of the same name. The writer notes that in both Marlowe's and Wilde's tales of men overreaching the natural order, evil is primarily construed as transcending the natural, specifically of desiring eternal life, rather than bowing to the natural processes of change that are inherent in nature. Further, the writer points out that God's law is synonymous with nature, and both Faustus and Dorian Gray go against nature and embrace artifice and art. The writer concludes that for all of their unnaturalness and evil, the protagonists remain the most 'naturally' compelling characters of their respective dramas, given the unrealistic and 'unnatural' one-dimensionality and weakness of those individuals who are unfortunate enough to encounter Dorian and Faustus.
From the Paper "The seductiveness of both protagonists' ambitions for the reader, however, has provoked contradictory interpretations in the responses of critics and its more general audience. On one hand, both works seem to argue that obeying God's natural order and law regarding knowledge and morality is best. In short, do not seek to become a magician or seek to be young forever. But although Dorian Gray may read like an argument against art and artifice on one hand, it itself is a work of art. Furthermore, although "Dr. Faustus" argues against magic, the actors on the stage need to make use of 'magic' to portray the morality tale of the fall of the scholar from Wittenberg. This confuses the question of what is good or bad in both plays, especially since the 'good' characters like the old man who counsels Faustus to repent, or Basil and Sybil in Wilde's work, are the weakest characters."
Abstract This paper explains that, in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", the reader is provided three different narrative voices: Victor Frankenstein, the creature he has created, and Captain Robert Walton, intrepid explorer.
The author points out that, by peeling away the concentric layers of narration, the reader discovers that the words attributed to the Frankenstein's creature, specifically from Chapter XI to Chapter XVII, may simply be Victor's subjective interpretation of the creature's mindset and that the entire story may simply a fabrication authored by Robert Walton. The paper suggests that the the unreliable narrator issue reflects a larger theme touched upon in the novel, the tension between author and artifice.
From the Paper "The opening letters, attributed to Captain Robert Walton, provides the setting and occasion for Victor Frankenstein's narrative. At the end of Chapter IX, Victor agrees to hear his creature's tale, out of a sense of duty as creator. These are the two points in the book where the reliability of the narratives comes into question. Although Walton helps frame the larger narrative, his letters, which initiate and conclude the novel, poses the question whether Walton, not unlike the book's author, is concocting a "ghost story" for the sake of amusement, or whether this account is an accurate representation of actual events."
