Abstract This paper describes that both Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath were victims of the 1950 middle-class woman's assumed passivity; both of these women reveal in their work the inner-turmoil of being choked by a masculine world. The paper states that Sexton and Plath are classified as confessional poets because their writings detail with honesty the journey from discontent to mental instability with few societal constraints impacting their works. The author believes that the poetry of both Sexton and Plath is a catharsis of their Electra complexes and reflects their struggles to accept their womanhood amid worlds dominated by their fathers.
From the Paper "Plath's experiences as a masculine sacrifice are conveyed in her writings with much more hostility than are Sexton?s, her involvement with the father-daughter relationship of the Electra complex a deeply-rooted emotional disturbance that affected her marriage as well. Consumed by an overwhelming guilt, Plath resents anyone who has power over her, at the same time despising herself for her vulnerability. Unlike Sexton, Plath is neither able to laugh about her role in the Electra complex nor tease about the sexuality of it, for the emotions bombarding her are too complicated, especially since, as her poetry indicates, she loathes her cold, stern, dark father."
Abstract The paper describes the main theme of the book, which is about a boy growing up in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century and his decision to dedicate his life to writing. The writer explains how the main character, Stephen Dedalus, is limited by his Irish Catholic upbringing and environment. The writer shows how, as Stephen grows, he begins to express his individuality. In conclusion, the writer states that in the end of the novel, Stephen's struggle for independent artistic identity remains unfulfilled and compares his expressive stance as one that has so deep an investment in the linguistic formulations of a Catholic confessional, so as to be indivisible from them.
From the Paper "Joyce's portrayal of Stephen Dedalus dramatizes for readers how the young artist's insufficiently sophisticated dependence on an inherited mode of subjectivity prevents his achieving precisely this kind of critical aesthetic consciousness. Only when the Irish writer's words exposed themselves as a nexus of cultural interplay would Ireland begin to emerge from its self-imposed cultural tutelage. By fashioning his text to reveal the irreducible complexity of Irish social and cultural life, Joyce interprets the fallacy that any singular discourse can wholly and completely embody Irish culture. The stylistic and narrative shifts that characterize A Portrait symbolizes to the novel's audience a fuller understanding of Ireland's uniqueness than had previously been attempted in Irish literature, and seek nothing less than a revolution of the national mind."
This paper explores the theme of people inadvertently revealing hidden truths about themselves while talking about things seemingly trivial in Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess".
780 words (approx. 3.1 pages), 0 sources, 2005, $ 27.95
Abstract This paper explains that Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess"
is a dramatic monologue spoken by the Duke of Ferrara. The author points out that, given the title, the poem appears to be about the late wife of the Duke, whose portrait is being shown to a visitor, as the Duke negotiates for his next Duchess; however, the Duke reveals much more about himself and his role as a husband than he does about his late wife. The paper relates that "My Last Duchess", typical of this type of poetry, overtly is about a painting but the covert meaning is confessional. The author underscores that, in the lack of distinction between the portrait and the woman, the Duke reveals his feelings, that women are the possessions of men and are only good for their beauty.
From the Paper "The speaker makes a shift in the poem and goes from discussing the qualities of the painting itself, to making jealous hypotheses about why the woman in the painting is blushing. He also says to his listener "not the first / are you to turn and ask thus" (12-13), but the listener did not ask. This implies that the Duke has been suppressing this jealous rant and has been waiting for an opportunity to let the beast out for a high-spirited run. The fact that he says the listener is not the first to ask is probably more likely to mean that the listener is not the first person the Duke has revealed this to."
Abstract Confessional poets often write about their own personal experiences, without filtering painful emotions. One of the 1960s most influential confessional poets, Sylvia Plath, used the anger and grief that stemmed from her father's death when she was only eight as the subject of many poems. This paper discusses tone in two of the most well-known Plath poems, "Daddy" and ?Lady Lazarus,? in which she tackles her depression in very different ways. It shows how Plath's word choice in both poems creates two opposing tones on similar subject matter. In ?Daddy,? Plath is clearly filled with bitterness and rage, but she is almost playful and sarcastic in ?Lady Lazarus.? The paper shows, too, how Plath channels her own personal world of suicidal escape in both poems, but she clearly changes tone in each by selecting words with specific meanings. Biographical information on Plath is also included.
From the Paper "Plath conveys this instability in her poem ?Daddy.? Written in 1962, twenty-two years after her father's death and just one year before her suicide, "Daddy" is not only an obvious cry for help but also a stream of unabashed rage toward the father who left her, the husband who betrayed her, and the circumstances that ultimately left her alone. Plath chooses words like ?Aryan eye,? ?swastika,? ?Fascist,? and "devil" to associate with her father ("Daddy" 44, 46, 48, 54). All of these words conjure feelings of hatred and liken the father in the poem to someone like Adolf Hitler, a historical figure whose name is almost synonymous with oppression. This comparison is even more evident when Plath describes her father's Hitleresque "neat mustache" and "bright blue" eyes ("Daddy" 43-44). Plath, as the speaker in ?Daddy,? calls herself a Jew and speaks from the perspective of an innocent who has been wrongly persecuted ("Daddy" 40)."
How the writings of these writers, in the form of confessional essays for DeQuincey and elaborate, fantastical poems for Coleridge, offer great insight into what opium does to the creative mind.
2,801 words (approx. 11.2 pages), 2 sources, 1999, $ 83.95
From the Paper "Thomas DeQuincey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were both completely addicted to opium throughout most of their respective careers. Their writings, in the form of confessional essays for DeQuincey and elaborate, fantastical poems for Coleridge, offer great insight into what the drug does to the creative mind. While there are many similarities between DeQuincey's descriptions of the pleasures and pains of opium and some of Coleridge's more blatantly opium induced poetry, there is a fundamental difference. While the effect of opium on the raw materials of these two minds is similar, the reactions of these two minds to opium is vastly different."
From the Paper "In the 1960's, a new school of American poets emerged whom M. L. Rosenthal, in his book The New Poets, labelled "The Confessional Poets" (Phillips 1973). Confessional poets distinguished themselves by their frank, autobiographical work detailing their experiences and, frequently, their personal weaknesses and failures. The poetry itself, like the subject matter, was often raw, lacking a crisp, predictable metrical structure, and confessional poets expressed themselves in the first person, using straightforward, unadorned language. Although one can find examples of "confessional" poetry dating back to Ancient Greece, and the inklings of confessional poetry as we know it can be found in the work of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, the modern school traces its immediate roots to Robert Lowell and his part prose, part poetry book Life Studies..."
Abstract This paper examines Alice Walker's "The Color Purple", a confessional and uninhibited look at the life of Celie, a poor, black woman in the Deep South. It discusses how Celie's life is a complicated story of both community and individuality and how as a woman, she is surrounded by societal expectations and traditional gender scriptings. It shows how the story is a contrast between the traditional gender roles and while some characters embody certain behaviors and attitudes indicative of their sex, others denounce the long-holding patriarchy defining sexism and gender interactions. It evaluates how, in developing each of her characters throughout the novel, Walker overtly specifies how each does not meet the conventional mold.
From the Paper "As the bonds between Celie and Sofia grow following their original clash, Walker introduces another female character. This time, the semi-famous former lover of Mr.____ comes to stay at their household while she recuperates from a grave illness. At first, Shug Avery is hateful towards Celie. She mocks her good intentions, orders her around, and calls her ugly. Yet Celie feels nothing but awestruck towards this woman. Celie also begins to have conflicting erotic feelings for Shug; feelings she does not understand when seeing Shug naked and giving her a bath. The course of this relationship drives towards lesbianism. "
A discussion of why the main character, Werther, in the novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther", by Goethe, is well-suited to the single-voiced, epistolary form.
1,763 words (approx. 7.1 pages), 0 sources, 2004, $ 56.95
Abstract This paper examines Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther". It looks at how the main character, Werther, has the raving, emotional lunacy and foolish-but-guiltily-enthralling confessionalism that can hold readers' attention, although the novel is low on plot and driven almost entirely by one man's series of egocentric letters. It also analyzes how Werther's intensely unstable and emotional personality, as well the voyeuristic feel of his ultra-personal letters, makes him just the kind of character that can enamour or disgust, but nonetheless hold the attention of readers through the first 124 pages of long-winded, epistolary inaction, and how the success of Werther's story within the epistolary form would not be possible in other forms of narration.
From the Paper "The excessive emotions that these very mundane events trigger in him would seem ridiculous in a form that does not consist of very intimate personal letters that border on diary entries. In the epistolary form, Werther's constantly oscillating feelings are able to hold the readers? attention because of their passionate, in-the-moment quality and voyeuristic appeal. Although Werther is ostensibly writing to his friend Wilhelm, he may as well be writing to himself in a diary. We are never shown any letters of Wilhelm's in response, and Werther vehemently rejects much of Wilhelm's advice, even bordering on cruelty at times."
Tags: century, eighteenth, inaction, letters, narration
Abstract This paper briefly examines the language of doubleness in Eliot's poem. It explains how T.S. Eliot prepares the reader to sense the confessional tone of this monologue uttered by a man helplessly at war with himself.
From the Paper "In the passage from Dante's Inferno, Count Guido da Montefeltro states that he believes himself free to be honest because the person he reveals his secrets to will seemingly never return from hell. By choosing this passage, Eliot succeeded in two important objectives: the first is to equate the "hell" of eternal damnation in Dante's story to the hellish insecurity of the Prufrock's self-deprecating state of mind where Montefeltro's assertion that his words wont return to earth are linked to Prufrock's certainty that no one will listen to him or understand his intentions accurately, and secondly, he succeeds in establishing a tone of secrecy and a sense of alienation to which the reader will imagine she is privy to as she observes the contradictions of the speaker's fractured ego."
Abstract In his poem, "Beds", Charlie Smith charts his journey through addiction, through a catalogue or 'heaping figure' of beds he has known throughout his life. The paper examines this technique and the importance of metaphor as tool for raking through challenging subject matter.
From the Paper "Whatever one chooses to call the technique, Smith's handling of it is masterly. He takes an everyday object and uses it as a vehicle through which to explore a situation and its accompanying emotions. He continually implodes the object through constant re-inspection, "heaping" one kind of bed upon the other, exhausts it, turning it over and over, examining it ever closer until it ceases to be merely a bed and becomes a metaphor for each step of his journey. Smith's catalogue of beds are the landmarks of his recovery."
Abstract This paper analyzes and reviews the major themes and concerns in Michel Foucault's 1976 book "The History of Sexuality: Volume 1." The paper discusses how the book explores labeling and language control behavior. The paper also relates to the book's assertion of the power of the Christian confessional and psychiatry to control sexual behavior. The paper investigates how sexuality is a product of a time and a place and concludes with a discussion of the ramifications of self-consciousness about sexual desire.
From the Paper "The main argument of Michel Foucault in his book "The History of Sexuality: Volume 1" centers on his overall theory that the role and function of power control forces behind the history of sexuality. He maintains that there is a link between power and knowledge as well..."
Tags: Sexuality, Foucault, Power, Christianity, Freud, Psychiatry, Sex
Abstract The moral precepts of child labor are analyzed in this paper, by depicting the historical and confessional stories of children and their lifestyles in factories or in the mines of Great Britain. By understanding the cruelty of long hours and choice of children as young as 7 years old to work in these environments, the writer points out that there is a direct issue of immorality on the part of the industrial system of England, by exploiting these children to do the work grown men and women should have accomplished.
From the Paper "This study examines the industrial revolution through the scope of child labor, which was paramount to the mass production methods that were occurring within textile factories and mines of England. In this manner, many young children were forced into work due to the lack of economic stability for the poor working classes. Furthermore, the child labor of the British industrial revolution offered little job security, even though guilds would take in apprentices under certain nefarious guidelines."
Abstract The paper explains that the curatorial premise of the hidden self is conveyed in both direct and indirect methods in relation to the self-portraits studied in this format. The paper discusses how by utilizing the indirect method of realizing the abstract self in the works of Van Gogh, Schmidt-Rottluff and Cindy Sherman, the works of Oursler and Richter convey direct confessional statements on the hidden self that the artists seek to bring out in their works. The paper concludes that in this manner, the hidden self is revealed in different manners and through the different mediums over the last two centuries.
From the Paper "This study will examine five self-portraits by artists from different eras within the curatorial premise of both direct and indirect aspects of the "hidden self". Through this scope, the artistry of Van Gogh, Richter, Oursler, Sherman, and Schmidt-Rottluff will be examined to reveal the differing sense of hidden self that lies behind each of these works. By examining the nature of the hidden self, one can find that these artists convey problematic issues of personality in the cultures through the different art mediums of the past two centuries."
Abstract In this paper, it is shown that Uchida's historical recollection of the American interment camps of Japanese Americas is biased and circumstantial. Of course, the experiences of this author reflect the true-life events of one person's account of the interment, but do not provide a non-biased approach to histrionics of these incidents. Although confessional accounts, if used over a wider population, might give a broader look into this historical malady, the paper shows that Uchida makes no argument to portend the accounts are other than the author's own.
From the Paper "The issue of Japanese internment during World War II was the critical issue surrounding sovereignty of American citizens that were singled out in the American homeland. Uchida does not present a objective point of view simply because of the accounts that are provided and given by the author relating to historicity. Of course, personal documentation of the interment camps at Tanforan and Topaz reflect an important view of life for Japanese when being imprisoned, but Uchida does not make historical accusations that can explain overall societal and historical legitimacy of this era in American history."
Abstract In this paper, Lewis offers a personal account of the cutthroat world of Wall Street, as seen through his own personal experiences. In this manner, the reality of interpersonal relationships in his professional life often result in the author delving deeper into the belly of the money hungry beast within the Salomon Brothers firm. Although he does seem to represent a confessional approach in his narrative, Lewis often makes claims as to how Wall Street operates without the benefit of quantitative analysis in regards to how financial institutions really operate.
From the Paper "The central aim of "Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis is to present the reality of the Wall Street and the wanton greed associated with trading. There are many books that I have read about Wall Street that provide instructional or "self help" approaches to becoming a successful business person in this type of environment, but Lewis's perspective teaches the most about the realities of trading life. By having used his own personal experience to reflect the business environment he had to survive on a daily basis, the cruelty and passive aggressive behaviors of his "gentleman" business associates often resulted in nightmarish greed and excessive monetary squandering."
