Lucie Manette & Madame Defarge: Contrasting Women in A Tale of Two Cities
“We were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” (Dickens, 1).
When reading A Tale of Two Cities for the second time (the first time for fun, in high school), I picked up more complex ideas with my prior education of literary criticism, including how to read more closely with a specific theoretical approach in mind. This is what I did while reading Charles Dickens’s timeless novel A Tale of Two Cities while searching for major themes and arguments surrounding gender, which was not very difficult with two major female characters: Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge. Two very different and complicated female figures who play extraordinary parts throughout the plot and while some argue that one is the heroine of the story and the other the antagonist, there is more to be said about the agencies and roles of these women. Although the story takes place during the 18th century of the French Revolution, Dickens wrote the novel in 1859; in my opinion and the opinion of literary critic Lisa Robson, Dickens is saying something significant about the roles of women during 18th and 19th century Europe. Lisa Robson’s essay “The Angels in Dickens’s House: Representation of Women in a Tale of Two Cities” is an interesting source that has given me insight on an entirely different perspective of the women in Dickens’s novel, A Tale of Two Cities. By summarizing and evaluating Robson’s essay on Dickens’s representation of female characters in A Tale of Two Cities, I hope that my new found interpretation can shed a new light to readers of classic literature. Enjoy!
A Tale of Two Cities follows the story of several smaller plots interwoven into an interesting character network, and I became interested in the intricacies of the two main female characters: Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge. These women are very different individuals with contrasting personalities and representations overall. For those of you who have not read A Tale or need refreshing, Lucie is Dr. Manette’s loving daughter who constantly shows the characteristics of an “angel in the house”, which is a Victorian phrase for the idealized woman of the Victorian era. A poem entitled “The Angel in the House” by Coventry Patmore describes this:
“She casts her best, she flings herself.
How often flings for nought, and yokes
Her heart to an icicle or whim,
Whose each impatient word provokes
Another, not from her, but him;
While she, too gentle even to force
His penitence by kind replies,
Waits by, expecting his remorse,
With pardon in her pitying eyes;
And if he once, by shame oppress’d,
A comfortable word confers,
She leans and weeps against his breast,
And seems to think the sin was hers;
Or any eye to see her charms” (Patmore),
This poem is notorious for representing the ideal woman caught in the gender binary of the 19th century. Throughout the novel, we can see young Lucie’s mannerisms that seem to follow the characteristics above: she strives to please and care for her father, husband and others around her with total grace and strength. In fact, I made the connection that the second section of the novel titled “The Golden Thread” ties in to Lucie’s character, especially through the evidence of her relationship with her father:
“Only his daughter had the power of charming this black brooding from his mind. She was the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery: and the sound of her voice, the light of her face, the touch of her hand, had a strong beneficial influence with him almost always” (Dickens 60). Although Lucie does not resemble all of the qualities of the poem describing her as “The Angel in the House” per say, she does strive to protect and nurture her father, taking up the role as the woman of the household to keep things together. She does not seem to convey weakness like the poem illustrates, but she is portrayed as a pleasant, dainty woman as mostly always represented in the Victorian era.
On the other hand, Madame Defarge is the wife of Mounsieur Defarge, a wine shop owner and revolutionary of the French Revolution, believing that the aristocracy is corrupt and that society must change. When we read the chapters involving Madame Defarge, Dickens notes that she is always knitting; later we learn that she is actually knitting the names of the aristocrats who should die for the revolutionary cause. Unlike Lucie, Madame Defarge is ruthless and thirsty for vengeance. Dickens describes Madame Defarge as we are introduced to her in Chapter 5:
“Madame Defarge was a stout woman of about his own age, with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything, a large hand heavily ringed, a steady face, strong features, and great composure of manner. There was a character about Madame Defarge, from which one might have predicated that she did not often make mistakes against herself in any of the reckonings over which she presided. Madame Defarge being sensitive to cold, was wrapped in fur, and had a quantity of bright shawl twined about her head, though not to the concealment of her large earrings. Her knitting was before her, but she had laid it down to pick her teeth with a toothpick” (Dickens 24).
We can see the obvious contrasts between Lucie and Madame Defarge, not only in their personality traits but their mannerisms and roles in society. Even before we are aware of what she is really doing with her knitting, we can see that while Lucie is soft and courteous, Defarge is sharp and loud which we can tell by her wardrobe and her facial expressions. I found this stark contrast so interesting! Defarge is almost the total opposite of Patmore’s “idealized woman” from his poem. Its like Dickens is trying to make us think about gender in this time period. Hmm..
I learned about Patmore’s “The Angel in the House” poem last semester in my Victorian Era in Literature course, so when I came across Lisa Robson’s essay “The Angels in Dickens’s House: Representation of Women in a Tale of Two Cities”, I became very intrigued to establish more connections that I may not have discovered. Robson introduces many new concepts that add to my interest of this topic in A Tale of Two Cities. For example, even though these two women have many differences, Robson explains that they have one thing in common: their conventionality. Robson writes, “As participants of in the turbulent French conflict of 1789, these representatives of Dickens’ female characters are often seen in unconventional situations and positions, exposing social problems and exploring new spaces for women to inhabit. In fact, A Tale of Two Cities seems to allow women to break free from traditional sexual boundaries only to recontain them more forcefully in their traditional positions” (Robson 235). In laymen’s terms, Robson makes the argument that it is a positive thing that the women are represented in these roles because they can show a different side to the repressing roles they were placed in before. For instance, Lucie would normally be seen as a people-pleaser in her doting daughter/wife role; however, she is more than that. She is a redeemer, especially to her father. Robson explains this in detail: “Lucie reclaims her father from his mental abstraction, bringing him back to life from his living death in prison. It is Lucie’s feminine attributes, her trust, her kindness, her unselfish concern, her willing self-sacrifice, which gradually coax the old man to rejoin the living world” (Robson 235).
Madame Defarge is often characterized as a cold, revengeful woman; however, this alone illustrates that not all Victorian women are meant to be placed in a kind of cookie-cutter fashion. Madame Defarge is NOT in the home. She is always seen in the wine shop alongside her husband, while most women would be in the home, doing what they were expected to do: cleaning, cooking, taking care of the children. Madame Defarge’s role undermines society’s view of the “Angel in the House” stereotype. Robson describes Defarge as “neither the submissive victim nor saintly savior” (Robson 238). Bravo Dickens!
So much more could be said about these two representations of Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities but I simply had to narrow it down to the most interesting ideas I found in my research. I encourage you all to expand your minds beyond the basic words of the text. You never know what new concepts will jump out and inspire you to learn more. I read the classics growing up, but after gaining more education and experience, I have found ideas that I didn’t notice or realize the first time! Thank you for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed learning something new with me.
Works Cited:
Daniel Shore, an assistant professor of English at Georgetown University, writes a compelling article on Milton’s Paradise Lost called Why Milton is Not an Iconoclast. Shore’s credible work has appeared in Critical Inquiry, and this essay will be part of his book, 
Three things that I learned about the text from this source is that Adam is kind of rude when he talks about Eve and is very belittling towards her, Milton enjoys playing with the etymology of words, and Milton also enjoys using words with multiple meanings and creating his only little puns that really make the reader think about the true meaning of his literary work.
Furthermore, Erickson takes note of Abdiel, one of the faithful servants in Paradise Lost, which is interesting because it’s argued by Erickson that Milton thinks “the faithful soul does not follow the thundering herd” (391). In the Catholic Church, a famous teaching is that angels and saints are our friends who keep us close to God. However, that would imply following a crowd of examples, whereas Milton believes faith is between an individual and God alone. With this in mind, I am left wondering why Milton has the angel Raphael speak to Adam within Paradise Lost, rather than having God speak directly to Adam? Nonetheless, I am intrigued by Erickson’s reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost, for it forced me to look at the work from a perspective that I had not been introduced to yet.
Samuel Fallon of Yale University writes on a series of questions regarding God’s position in Paradise Lost in his article, “Milton’s Strange God: Theology and Narrative Form in Paradise Lost.” The three most important questions that he attempts to answer or debunk are:
Herland was easy to read. Not easy in the sense of a children’s book, but ‘easy’ in the sense that it did not bombard me with a wall of text. It was, in fact, quite a pleasure to read, with some reservations of course, nothing is perfect. It does a great job displaying the assumptions we as a race make according to sex. And I do not refer simply to females (which was obviously the dominating feature of the book), but to males as well. We as… well, humans, make so many assumptions, and not only activities, but mannerisms, and appearance and such, and apply them to a specific sex. Such as, women must tend to the kitchen, take care of the children, and mind the house, while men must go do the intense physical work, and bring money home, and such… I admit to conforming to these stereotypes a bit. As a male, try, often to no fruition, to do things that are acceptable of a male. I say ‘often to no fruition’, because, I think to some extent society has dulled its expectance of a person’s attitude, activities, and such according to his or her sex. I felt a certain creeping sensation, and not a good one, going into the first third of the book. The talks about it we had in class only made it worse. I admitted before to conforming to societal definitions of one’s sex, and, I found the notion that the three main characters were becoming ‘young, mischievous children’ rather sickening, honestly.
Should feminists acknowledge Milton’s efforts to give women full dignity and freedom in a male’s environment or should no feminist have any polite thing to say about Milton’s work in Paradise Lost. The article The Mischief-Marking of Raphael upon Adam and Eve will debate whether Milton “had” to write Paradise Lost book four the way he did because he lived in a male-dominated society or if he had freedom to write as he desired. According to author Corinne Abate, Milton had guidelines that had to write within a “Christina framework” but “had just enough room to maneuver around such guidelines.” To summarize the rest of the article Eve remembers her birth and was ultimately born to be Adam’s companion and decides voluntarily to welcome and accept Adam. Adam and Eve consider each other as inseparable, equal soul mates brought together by God to stay that way forever. In book five Eve has a dream and Raphael is sent to them to explain the meanings of the dream. Eve makes dinner for them and Raphael tells “Adam” to “warn thy weaker.” Eve is sitting right next to Raphael and Adam and therefore Adam does not see Eve as the weaker partner in the marriage. Overall this articles shows that feminists should acknowledge Milton’s effort to give Eve freedom in a male society.
In class, we’ve read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. While reading, I found myself drawn to a specific detail. I was intrigued by the women who helped lead the French Revolution by knitting codes and names in order to keep the movement organized. Knitting of all things! I found this idea fascinating because I have recently learned to crochet and have been spending quite a bit of time learning different aspects of the craft. I know that knitting and crocheting are two different things, but I still felt that I could connect to these women. I found it interesting that something so simple became a major part of the story. Basically, I thought that Dickens portrayed these knitting women in an extremely clever way.
Scholars have specifically researched the significance of codes used within the work. Jim Barloon wrote an article entitled, “Cryptic Texts: Coded Signs and Signals in A Tale of Two Cities.” This article also focuses on Dickens’s use of codes within the novel. Barloon’s central argument within the article states that the use of codes within the novel force readers to question the way they perceive the story, their world, and themselves. Basically, the article implies that Dickens purposely blurs the lines between words and their meanings. For instance, Barloon provides evidence that shows how, throughout the novel, names of characters constantly detach from their meanings and documents are misplaced from their original locations. In one part of the article, Barloon focuses in specifically on Madame Defarge. Barloon states, “Using ‘her own symbols’ Madame Defarge weaves a story — a loomed Doomsday book — that only a close-knit coterie of readers can comprehend”(Barloon 264). Barloon concludes his article with a statement that I felt perfectly summarized his main argument. He wrote, “Dickens shows that the inevitable medium for conveying truths — or events or realities — is not transparent, but contingent and meditated”(270).
After all the paranoia that the Koreans had of being forced into unequal treaties with the western powers like China had been forced into, their main downfall came from another Asian nation, Japan. 2) Japanese expansionist policies would ultimately lead that nation into conquering Korea in 1910 and controlling her until the end of World War Two.
This article centers around the idea that Eve is based off a sort of vine motif – that is, that she is something of a beautiful, fruitful thing that must cling to something else to survive. And that ‘something else’ in this case is Adam. From reading this I’ve come to realize that this metaphor fits their relationship quite perfectly and I have learned that Adam and Eve are often compared to the plants in Eden that they’re always tending to. And while I had previously recognized that Milton turned on his own words quite often, this article helped me understand the full extent of it. Eve is laid out to be Adam’s wife, the subservient of the two and the inferior. This trend continues for many of the books but then there is a gradual shift where the reader can notice Milton’s phrasing becomes more powerful in Eve’s stead and the metaphors begin to lean in her favor. The vine becomes stronger than the elm and is more useful; providing fruit and beauty while the elm does nothing more than support. Lastly, I learned that Adam’s role in Eden was always the ‘gardener’. The article explains how the explanation of the plant life he’s suppose to tend is quite similar to Eve’s first description, with her hair likened to ‘tendrils’ much like an unruly plant he’s supposed to prune and keep in place.
After reading and discussing Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, I really enjoyed how fleshed out the three main characters were. Each of these men had specific and uniquepersonalities making them very strong and relatable characters. Terry is the traditional manly man, bull-headed, and set in his ways. Jeff is more laid back and has a softer soul. Van is somewhat a combination of these two and acts as the leader of the group in many ways. He has an opinion of how the world is, but he is open to understanding new ideas and concepts. The fact that all three of these men are different and realistic makes the novel more enjoyable to read. The unique qualities of the men play an important role when they all get married near the end of the novel. Terry marries Alima and their marriage is rough, to say the least. He believes that she is essentially his property and she must obey her husband. He also believes that women like to be seen as possessions to their husbands. Jeff marries Celis and although their marriage is better, it still has its flaws. He is a bit overprotective of his wife and carefully helps her in all things. He basically worships her and puts her on a pedestal like a goddess. Van marries Ellador and their marriage is the best of the three. They see each other as equals and care for one another wholeheartedly. They are happy being married and their lives are enjoyable. “While Jeff’s ultra-devotion rather puzzled Celis, really put off their day of happiness, while Terry and Alima quarreled and parted, re-met and re-parted, Ellador and I grew to be close friends. We talked and talked. We took long walks together. She showed me things, explained them, interpreted much that I had not understood,” (Gilman 90-91). Van and Ellador had a friendship based on equality and respect for one another that eventually led to love later on. They had the happiest and most successful marriage. Terry’s marriage was not successful because he viewed Alima as his possession and not his equal. Jeff’s marriage was not successful either because he worshiped Celis so much that he was below her, resulting in the two of them being unequal in their love. I believe that Gilman notes the importance of an equal relationship in marriage. It is through this in which she believes people should strive to better themselves and to be better for their partner. An equal marriage is a happy marriage.
ls for its new conquest but it is clear now that what the French wanted and their westernization actually made things worse for the Vietnamese’s. What they might have told the world was clearly not what they practiced. The French destroyed the Vietnam school system and infrastructure that was in place, a terrible loss (1, 95). Then destructive companies such as Michelin took part in what can be termed as “… cultural genocide…” when they lured the peasantry onto their rubber plantations and then stripped them of their own identity, giving them numbers to replace their names and forcing them to work hard labor (1, 95-97).
(1)
Queen Min, or Empress Myeongseong was a very fascinating part of the reading to me. I became even more interested about her after our discussion in class. We talked about how Queen Min was smart and intelligent but she was also not above corruption. She wanted to open up Korea to the west and she also ended the Tonghak rebellion, which was a big deal that involved much of Korea. This is significant because I feel like she must not have been liked by a lot of people during the time she was alive.
As the title indicates history appears to be cyclical in nature. As I was reading about the rubber plantations in Vietnam I could not help but compare the experiences to those other oppressed peoples have experienced throughout history: the holocaust, African-American slavery in the US, Colonialism in Africa, Japanese internment camps in the US. Those who were coerced to work in the plantations were given numbers in place of names “. . . to eliminate the French need to master Vietnamese names.”2 This level of racism and cultural genocide is akin to the dehumanization that seems prominent in all nations and cultures at one time or another throughout the annals of history. I know there are probably hundreds of books written on the subject but why do you think that is the case? Is racism just inherently part of human nature? Are we so averse to those slightly different from us that we must separate them from ourselves with arbitrary social stereotypes?
Even within the Choson Dynasty, arguably Korea’s high point of power, infighting and a widening in the distance between factions prevented much development, outside of the development of an alphabet(2). To top that off, this era saw the onset of a list of invasions, a trend that would span with fair consistency from the 15th century all the way up to the mid-20th. Players in this game were usually China against Japan, but there were guest appearances by Manchuria, the Jesuits, Russia, and even the USA in one of the instances of the Cold War getting a little bit hot. The bottom line of my rambling here is that Korea just has not had the chance to stand tall and proud for all the feet planted into its back. Maybe, considering this, North Korea has a little bit of reason to be surly at everybody…
A topic that I felt wasn’t covered very well in the reading and I was interested in was Quoc Ngu, which literally means “national language”. It was created by Portuguese missionaries who used a Roman inspired alphabet as a base. French missionaries modified more in depth and it was primarily used by Christian communities. I find this odd because quoc ngu was looked at as a national symbol and a way to preserve culture when the language already had Christian and French roots. This language is spoken by 82 million people. The alphabet associated with quo ngu has 29 characters, which consist of twenty-two English letters (F,J,W,Z are missing). Seven of the other letters are diacritics, which are used to show Vietnamese tones. Some examples are; á, ê, ô. The picture to the right shows a couple lines from Tale of Kieu in quoc ngu, notice the English influence on the lettering.
-Up to this point of the class, we have seen extensively how the search for a cultural identity in the 17th and 18th century has impacted East Asia. The Western influence is certainly a part of the process. However, this blog will focus on the circular dilemma of identity, civilization, and factions in Korea. It is only appropriate to use a such illustration, as it the way the eastern countries view progress.
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other (pg. 8, A Tale of Two Cities).
Joseph Fredericks 
Xiong Lor 
Kevin Beilman 
Cody Rabinek 
one of the main ideologies that come from owning colonies is that of racism. sometimes it comes from owning a colony and sometimes it comes from a justification to own a colony. the Japanese had beliefs about both westerners and the Chinese. these thoughts are explained in Natsume Soseki’s novel Kusamakura. in this novel many ideas are told from the perspective of a Japanese painter. he explains his views on the Chinese in his book saying, “All such Chinese household furnishings, indeed, have the same rather dull unimaginative quality. one is forced to the conclusion that they’re the inventions of a race of patient and slightly slow-witted people”(84).
Also, important to note is that the Boxer Rebellion consisted mostly of the peasant class. “There was no central leadership; Boxer bands would coalesce, attack Christian converts, and fade away,” (3) goes further and explains that they were able to cause an intense case of chaos without the leadership of a counsel or even a general. Even with the aid from Emperor Cixi and the Imperial army, the Boxer Rebellion maintained without a true central leadership and mostly peasants.
It has been said that Lambeau Field is one of those places someone must visit before they pass, although I have been to many places that surpass the grandiosity of this place in particular, I admit to myself that this arena, this stadium, is quite the beautiful spectacle. The towering statues dedicated to some of the franchise’s best individuals welcome you as you walk to the entrance. I once again feel at ease, escaping the crowd that had been leaving the stadium, alone once more to admire the beauty of the structure, the towering steel of forest green, a clock reading 15 minutes fast, and a giant of a trophy stature greeting you before the pro shop. As I enter the main entrance I am greeted with a wide open area, with flags of the teams past most precious players: Don Hutson, Bart Starr, Reggie White, and many more. I rise up the many floors in the elevator and arrive in the wings of concessions that are usually packed with people anxiously awaiting their food to get back to the game. As I walk out my eyes widen and sparkle at the sight before me, a tremendous field of green surrounded by seating and screens, certainly a sight to behold, my words cannot to compare to what my eyes have seen, and words do no justice to the beauty of this field.
Just hours before, there had been thousands sitting in this very arena, players down on the field battling for victory, “By Heaven! it is a splendid sight to see….Their rival scarfs of mix’d embroidery/Their various arms that glitter in the air” (39). Green and gold clashing with the blue and silver, what a sight it must have been for the screaming fans, to see their team prove triumphant against the losing side. Alas, what does this all mean? Such barbaric games does nothing but belittle the distinction of this great ground. The brutality between fans and players, the trash left on the ground, the torn up grass, everything beautiful about this precious and most important landmark ruined for a few hours of degrading human activity.
This means that he doesn’t actually understand the ways a woman can fit into society and those ways are the same as any man. If Bellamy had really wished to convince the reader that this type of society was possible he would have had to make it a more accurate reflection of the peoples that make up real society. That would mean including women and people with any differences at all. Instead Julian is so completely removed from the actual world of Boston 2000 that it seems rather like there are no other people in the world besides the ones he speaks with. If he had been taken to interact with these different groups and actually gotten the chance to question them himself rather than accepting everything that is said by the Leete family Bellamy would have been much more successful in creating an actual society women and all.
The novel by Soseki was not something I thought would be enjoyable to read. The reason for this is the very simplistic style that the story was written in. However, it turned out that it does manage to capture the attention of the reader even if it is in an unusual manner. This is not because of any exciting plot that one would usually expect in a novel but rather due to the narrators unique perspective on the world he finds himself in. The reader is also drawn in by the strange and mysterious characters. It is clear that each of them has a back story that would be fascinating to discover it also seems like the reader is never going to get told that story. Oddly thought he book still makes me start to drift off into sleep every time I pick it up. This is just a mark of how good a job Soseki did at accomplishing the goals they set out to though. Part of the point of this novel is to impart a feeling of tranquility onto the person reading it and this is certainly a success. That feeling manages to surround the reader and while it can cause sleepiness it can also cause one to reflect more deeply on the themes of the novel. In a sense this is perfect since Soseki was not seeking to write a grand adventure story but rather something that would help the reader to come to a calm and centered state.![Antonio de Pereda [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i1.wp.com/www.uwgbcommons.org/wp-content/uploads/cache/2015/02/779px-Antonio_de_Pereda_-_Allegory_of_Vanity_-_Google_Art_Project/59850128.jpg?w=760)
In his utopian novel Looking Backward, Edward Bellamy presents futuristic Boston as a wonderful place for women. One aspect that Bellamy addresses is how domestic work has changed for women. Dr. and Mrs. Leete describe how housework has been eliminated with the industrial army taking over cooking, mending, cleaning and other menial tasks. Marvelous devices have also been invented to lighten the work (79). The thought of having no housework is very appealing, especially since I have 4 kids and a dog and they make a huge mess. What a heavenly world Bellamy visualizes for women! Yet, the skeptic in me really wonders if such an idea is even plausible. Did Bellamy really understand what running a household entailed? I had to wonder if he had much experience with housework in the the 19th century.
In Edward Bellamy’s novel, Looking Backward, Bellamy envisions a socialist America that is supposed to be the most utilitarian and ideal economic and social system. Bellamy’s utopian depiction of Boston, Massachusetts in the year 2000 relates to Jeremy Betham’s idea of utilitarianism by attempting to maximize the pleasure of its citizens by taking care of their material wants and needs. However, Bellamy’s utopia is inherently materialistic, being based on the assumption that the key to happiness is rooted in one’s material desires being fulfilled. This system proves to be problematic as it really only satisfies humanity desire to consume. While Bellamy’s utopia is ideal, it is mostly just on a sensory level: no one is cold, hunger, or impoverished. This “ideal” society does not entirely take into account philosophical, spiritual, or mental aspects that can lead to happiness or lack thereof. Bellamy just kind of assumes that if one’s basic physiological needs are met and one’s thirst for luxury is slaked, one will just simply be happy. While I do think that this idea is rather naïve, it is understandable given the time period in which Bellamy wrote Looking Backward. Given that the distribution of wealth in America was far more unequal than today’s society, a system that just took care of everyone’s needs and desires seemed like a feasible solution to achieving happiness. Also, psychology was just beginning to establish itself across the world, and concepts concerning happiness like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and adaptation-level phenomenon would not be conceptualized until the later half of the 20th century. Despite these short-comings, of which most could not be helped, Bellamy’s ideas in Looking Backward were still revolutionary to say the least.
I should admit to the reader, right off the bat – I do not read many books. I implore you, dear reader, not to think that I hate books, rather, know that I am for lack of better terms, bad at reading them, and even worse at dissecting them. When reading a book, for the vast majority of attempts I make, all I am able to see is an intimidating wall of words that I must soldier through in order to have the vaguest understanding of what they mean. I am sorry to admit that this was most certainly the case with Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward. However, there is always good to be found within bad, as I will state here.
While reading Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, I found the idea of servitude in both time periods very interesting. In the late 1880’s, people were so focused on competition. The most important thing was to be on top of society and live the luxurious life. A job as a waiter or factory worker was looked down upon in disgust by the fortunate few of the upper class. On the contrary, in Bellamy’s future utopia of 2000, the act of servitude was deemed honorable and looked at with a great deal of respect. There was also a sense of community in Boston in 2000 and people were treated as equals. Unlike the 1880’s, there were no negative connotations associated with servitude. In the book, Dr. Leete explains to Julian, “In your day a man was not ashamed to be grossly ignorant of all trades except his own, but such ignorance would not be consistent with our idea of placing everyone in a position to select intelligently the occupation for which he has most taste,” (Bellamy 59). The focus on selfish needs and desires was a thing of the past. In this utopia, people were kinder to their fellow man and the career that he had. This particular idea in Bellamy’s utopia is actually better than what we have in the real world. There is a stigma attached to certain jobs that people occupy today. For example, people may think of a custodian as a dirty, smelly person who is unintelligent and uneducated. In reality, custodians are very important to our society. Without them, our facilities would be messy and trashed with garbage everywhere. Whether a big businessman or a pizza delivery guy, everyone plays an essential role in our society and no one should ever be looked down upon for the kind of work they do.
monasteries; destroying Buddhist statues; and taking over people’s graveyards”, destroy all foreign things and push all foreigners out of China by any and all means. What made this rebellion so different from the rest is the fashion the Boxers did it with. The Boxers were a secret society of men who dedicated their lives to learn martial arts but also because of these skills believed they had spiritual powers. One of which being about to deflect bullets with their bare 
in response to West, suggested that, “Let us begin with a number of small items wherein we economize wealth as compared to you. We have no national , state, or municipal debts, or payments on their account. We have no sort of military or naval expenditures for men or materials, no army, navy, or militia. We have no revenue service, no swarm of tax assessors and collectors. As regards our judiciary, police, sheriffs, and jailers, the force which Massachusetts alone kept on foot in your day farm more than suffices for the nation now.”2 This passage made me consider how exactly our government decides to dedicate resources to one particular area. Vast amounts of money are spent on defense budgeting, justice system, and paying interest on the debt we have already taken on as a country. Dr. Leete goes on to suggest there are many other economic factors that go into making future Boston a feasible idea. It is an intriguing idea that what if we could decide to slim down our defense budget and shift some of that funding into education, which is an extremely small piece of the pie. What if we could do that without everybody freaking out. What draws me towards Bellamy’s world, although admittedly it is not perfect, is that there is a major shift on national priorities from what we are used to, and while it is not something that can be changed overnight, what if by thinking about and discussing topics such as this we can simply start trending in the right direction?
Problems with Shogun.
Early in Natsume Soseki’s work, Kusamakura, it is evident that the human pressures of tradition, modernization, and the overall Western influence on Japan is a burdensome endeavor. In fact, I had to pause and reflect by asking the following question: “To what extent should one go to escape the challenges of life and find true identity?” After all, Soseki identifies such challenges at the outset of his work: “So if this best of worlds proves a hard one for you, you must simply do your best to settle in and relax as you can, and make this short life of ours, if only briefly, an easier place in which to make your home” (Soeski, 3). For
Looking Backwards: this book, carries with it an assortment of concepts that are definitively worthy of positive and negative criticisms, in regards to the content presented, and the means of how the author, Edward Bellamy presents it. The overview of the American Utopia, many speculate, to be reminiscent of socialism, the grandfather to communism, as the wealth is distributed throughout the community. For those who are uncertain of the story: the Protagonist from 1887 falls into a trance-like sleep and awakens in the utopia of 2000, where most of his previous societal systems dissolved into the new, socially-equal order Without going to deep into explanations of how the society was run in the year 2000 (Bellamy’s 2000), several criticize that his book was overall, idealist, and non-factual. The drastic shift into Bellamy’s utopia and its ideals contrasts greatly from currently-known human nature, and is therefore affected by our personal biases, these being our own government and era of current residence (2015) in the process. Due to this variant, a detailed explanation of the means were expected in order to give it functional credence. While these criticisms are true, it must also be conversely looked at a literary standpoint in its presentation. If Bellamy introduced his ideals in a more statistical context, he may have not properly reach as wide an audiences as intended, as his goal was to make his ideals appealing to an individual’s moral ethics, while trying to enlighten those about the inadequate treatment of the lower classes. Despite this, the balance between story and are virtually nonexistent, as Bellamy’s characters speak in continuous prose, occasionally broken up to assure the reader of the setting. all this being said, Bellamy offers something that many Utopian novels at the time didn’t focus on: In exposing the plights of the lower classes of the industrial age, he points out the flaws with societal structure to a otherwise-ignorant community, pointing out what must be fixed first in order to obtain a better nation: a concept which is still an applicable concept in our modern society.
which are traditional Scottish dances. During their primary schooling they teach all of these different ceilidhs just like we are taught to square dance. 
While attending and dancing at my first ceilidh, I thought that I had stepped back into time and was in one of the Jane Austen movies. Hearn also talks about dancing in her article, and she states, “Austen discusses how country people dance impromptu as opposed to the more restricted decorum of urban society. The advantage to dancing was not just the socialization, of course, but the exhilaration of exercise while chasseing across the floor” (6). Hearn makes the argument that dancing was first a social calling but second the chance to stretch your legs and exercise. 
By promoting balls and assemblies the culture was promoting exercise. BBC news reporter Lucy Wallis wrote an article on the recreation of the Netherfield ball in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Wallis quotes Amanda Vickery, a professor of early modern history, who states, “The ability to dance was key to romantic success and the movements of the dance mimicked the to and fro of courtship, clumsiness was sexual suicide” (2). This makes sense because if you couldn’t dance you had an even more limited pool of potential places to meet suitors. 
Bechdel as an artist proves that you do not need to be dainty or feminine to be beautiful; that open-mindedness is the key to creating magic and that everyone is capable of being both beautiful and creating magic if they would just see the world in more dimensions. Many other readers felt uncomfortable by some of the graphics Bechdel chose to include, such as the cadaver in the funeral home on page 44 and the intimate scene between her and Joan on page 214. Much like the panel described in Persepolis however, adding these images were completely necessary. In Bechdel’s situation, the inclusion of these images was done so to depict the rawness of the situation. Bechdel’s novel stresses the importance of humility and not being afraid of ridicule or disapproval, something everyone struggles with, as we learn of the father’s not so innocent past. The panel I want to include and close with is the final image of Fun Home on page 231. “Is it so unusual for the two things to coincide?” Bechdel asks, and the answer is no. In actuality everything coincides in some way and being a true artist means having the ability to recognize that. Marjane Satrapi and Alison Bechdel recognize this to an extent not decodable.
ry first week of class we talked about the Bechdel Test, and through out the course if each thing we read would pass it or not. Today the Bechdel test is used for books, movies, and plays. Alison Bechdel created this test in 1985, and illustrated it in her work Dykes To Watch Out For in a scene called The Rule. In order to pass the test you have to look at each scene and determine these three factors: 1) is there a scene where there are two females?; 2) In the scene are they talking to each other?; 3) In those scenes are they talking about something other than a man?
As we can see, the appearance and length of one’s hair can be a dramatic, visible way of portraying one’s identity. As both of these stories are told primarily in pictures, it’s possible that the artists exaggerated the hairstyles of their heroines (themselves) in order to highlight this visible part of their identity. In the musical version of Bechdel’s Fun Home, the hair length of the heroine is even more apparent and significant, as Bechdel’s child, adolescent, and adult self are played by three different actresses, each with a different hair length.
Satrapi’s friend talks about contraceptives which are something that Satrapi is very unfamiliar with. On page 28, Satrapi’s friend calls her, “the pure, timid, innocent one who does her homework.” After that her friend tells her that she has been having sex for five years. Satrapi finds this very foreign and takes in all of the new norms that are common in Europe. The journey to Europe clashes with Iran’s traditional values and uptight rules. While living in Europe, Satrapi forgets a lot about where she comes from and who her family is. She entirely takes in European customs, but later realizes this is not who she completely wants to be either. She is close with her family and her home is in Iran. On page 39, Satrapi says, “The harder I tried to assimilate, the more I had the feeling that I was distancing myself from my culture, betraying my parents and my origins, that I was playing a game by somebody else’s rules.” To me, this is the peak of Satrapi’s identity crises. She is far away from her family in a foreign land and easily got swept away from her past. Not until later in her life did Satrapi get ahold of her life and create an identity for herself.
lendid deer I didn’t want to startle.” At the age of 19, Bechdel finally came out as a lesbian, but still had some loose ends to tie up with her father. The fact that she liked women and her father liked men is a huge similarity that they share. The two are not very close, so when Bechdel’s father finally starts to open up to her about her experiences, she feels as though she does not want to pry. Only now is she hearing about her father’s sexuality, and he appears to be not entirely comfortable with talking about it. On page 221, Bechdel asks, “but which of us was the father?” This is because she feels that her father should be the one trying to pry and ask questions about her life, but instead it was her. Her father is also the one who is keeping his sexuality a secret while Bechdel comes out as a lesbian. In many ways, she seems to be more comfortable with her sexuality than her father which makes her more of the adult in this aspect of their lives. As a child she was somewhat confused about her identity, but she is a mature and strong woman who has decided to come out, something that her father was never able to fully do.
However, besides just that, the panel I chose highlights another time Bechdel did not allow herself to simply conform to what her father wanted. It was not a huge moment in the book, just her arguing for her own choice for her clothing. It was subtle, but it was a time when she really stood for her decisions and reinforced my thoughts on whether she would be a feminist or not. In the panels preceding the one I chose, though Bechdel is wear a skirt her father got her, she decided to dress as she did on her own. Her father did not like it, but she kept her choice. I really believe Bechdel would be someone who would support the idea of having choices and not being oppressed and unable to make certain choices in life because of things like her gender or sexual orientation.
art, and self-determination to bring forward an important point in the book.
Persepolis is an autobiographical comic written by Marjane Satrapi that talks about her childhood that lead up to her adulthood during the time of the Islamic Revolution. Most of the story depicts the parts of her years as a child going through changes at her school to when she is off to college in a different country because her parents want to keep her safe. I feel as if the moral of the story is that you do not let anyone tell you who you are, be yourself and you will succeed in life. Knowing this, I went through the book and contemplated what panel was the right pick. Keeping that in mind I realized that the story passes the Bechdel test with flying colors do to the fact it was about a girl growing up during the time of the revolution and all she needs right now is her family. Throughout Marjane’s childhood she wants to know everything that is happening with the Revolution that she becomes way to curious that puts her in danger. Later on, Marjane becomes older and her parents decide that they don’t want her to be in danger anymore so they send her off to Vienna, Austria where she will be safe. Her parents promised that they would visit her in a year but weren’t able to keep that promise. As the years went by, she got the chance to grow and figure out whom she really is and when her mother decides to come and visit it brings Marjane joy and happiness. This is my favorite part of the whole story because it shows a great relationship between a mother and daughter because this is how it should be. This contradicts the part I chose in Fun Home because Allison’s mother wasn’t as welcoming about who she was compared to Marjane’s mother. This panel from pg. 203 really helps make the comic pass the Bechdel test because you don’t need a man to define who you are or to even be happy in life. All you need is to make the effort to become somebody. Also, being somebody who can make a difference in others’ lives. Yes, Persepolis passes the Bechdel test leaving the room to show how powerful a young girl can be growing up during the Islamic Revolution.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a scary look into what could be our future. Obviously Huxley created this novel in order to point out the flaws in our society. What’s truly terrifying is the fact that this novel was written in 1932, and in the eighty two years that this novel has been around, our society has only progressed more towards the world in his novel. It would be very difficult for our society to reverse any of the damage that is already done. Our only chance is to make sure that we do not go deeper into the hole that we have dug for ourselves. I would not like our world to look like that of Huxley’s world. All real education would disappear, deep meaning relationships, families, would all be gone. I do not know about you, but I enjoy thinking for myself and being an individual. I enjoy being able to feel true happiness, and not just contentment.
Did Oscar Wilde value the art of deception? In his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, the two prominent male characters lead double-lives,
In one of my favorite Terry Pratchett novels, The Thief of Time, there is a character named Lady LeJean. Over the course of the novel, she starts as an Auditor: a selfless, emotionless, rule-abiding being, to being transformed into a human for various reasons. As an Auditor, she wasn’t even a ‘she’, because the moment an Auditor admits that it is alive, it dies. When she takes on a human shape, she also takes on human emotions. This leads to a line that stood out to me: “Sanity is defined by the majority, and I am quite insane” (I would love to cite the book, but I unfortunately do not own a copy).
ng the actual court dates and things that happened in the Victorian Era. There are many different things that you can access once you get to the website. Once you click on the link to go to the old bailey court proceedings there are many things that you can do. The image on the right is of the page of the old Bailey archives. From this page there are many places that one can go.
is what you will see if you were to click on Crime, Justice and Punishment. One of the more interesting things that one can view from those tabs is the location of where the court house was. If you click on the tab labeled “Old Bailey Courthouse” it will bring you to the history about where the courthouse is located. You would see the image on the left. 
This page shows the reader images along with text that is helpful in understanding the history of this Courthouse.
This will allow you to search for a specific court proceeding or you can choose on of the tabs you can see on the left hand side of the screen. I would suggest that if you don’t know exactly what you are searching for but you know the year that it happened to click on the tab “proceedings by date”. This will take you to a screen that has many decades listed from the 1670’s all the way to the 1910’s. I clicked on the 1670s tab by doing so I was able to reach the image below.
From there one can click on a more specific date and the archive will pull up the proceedings from that specific day. You then have a choice to view either the overview of the proceeding or you can view the actual document.
What if, in our minds, history itself was quite literally a thing of the past? That is to say, the learning of anything relating to anything of the former simply did not take place. The idea here, of course, stems from Huxley’s similar concept within his dystopian novel’s framework. Within the early pages of “Brave New World,” this frightening idea is quickly brushed upon, the very speed of its brief mentioning speaking volumes in and of itself. Take the middle of the twentieth century, for example. When one tries to imagine not knowing of the Holocaust, it seems impossible, yet isn’t that exactly what Hitler and his Nazi regime used as one of their greatest weapons in the first place? The ability to mask, to hide via the use of marketing and media is one of the things they did best.
I really liked your document, your information is precise and in chronological order. I also really liked your choice of wording in your document. An example of your creative wording choice was;”…left China in a see-saw back and forth between Tradition and Modernizing.” This line is a perfect description of China feeling torn between the two topics. Two things that would have made your blog even stronger would have been to add a picture and to cite the sources you used. Otherwise Good Job!
This post was very enjoyable to read. It was informative, while also being easy enough to understand and learn from. I also thought it was interesting to see countries somewhat similar at the beginning of a century transform to become much different at the end.