The Stone Angel Essay -- English Literature Essays

The Stone Angel Self-Inflicted Isolation and Loneliness â€Å"I never realized until this moment how cut off I am.† (Laurence, 1988, 294) In the novel The Stone Angel, author Margaret Laurence portrays a lonely old woman by the name of Hagar. Over the course of the novel, Hagar reflects back on the memories that have created the story of her life. Hagar is a deeply lonely woman, and much of that loneliness is self-inflicted. This mental isolation is caused by her stubbornness, her pride, and the blindness that she has towards any opinion other than her own. Hagar Currie-Shipley is a very stubborn woman at the age of ninety. She is very set in her ways, and does not appreciate being told what to do. The reader is introduced to this stubbornness when Hagar is brought to Silverthreads nursing home to view the location. Upon this discovery, Hagar attempts to run away, only to find herself lost in a forest. However, this stubbornness is not a new characteristic of Hagar’s, for she has been this way since early childhood. I wouldn’t let him see me cry, I was so enraged. He used a foot ruler, and when I jerked my smarting palms back, he made me hold them out again. He looked at my dry eyes in fury, as though he’d failed unless he drew water from them. He struck and struck, and then all at once he threw the ruler down and put his arms around me†¦ â€Å"You take after me,† he said, as though that made everything clear. â€Å"You’ve got backbone, I’ll give you that.† (Laurence, 1988, 9-10) This passage shows Hagar’s ability to hide her true emotions, which is a tool that she uses a lot later on in life. She later talks of making love to her husband, Bram, stating that even when she did enjoy it, â€Å"He never knew. I never let him know. I never spoke aloud, and I made certain the trembling was all inner.† (Laurence, 1988, 81) Also, early on in life, when her brother Dan was dying of pneumonia, she could not bring herself to perform his final wish. He cried for his dead mother, and Matt had asked Hagar to wear an old shawl, to act as their mother, and hold Dan, but Hagar could not bear the thought of portraying someone as weak as her mother. Her heart seems to be made of stone, much like the stone angel that her father had imported from Italy for her mother’s grave. Hagar kept all of her emotions bottled up inside. After Bram died, she did not allow herself to cry. It w... ...d to send Arlene to Toronto. When John tells Hagar about the move Hagar pretends to know nothing about it. John informs her that she â€Å" ‘always bet on the wrong horse,’ John said gently. ‘Marv was your boy, but you never saw that, did you?’† (Laurence, 1988, 237) it really opens Hagar’s eyes. She realizes that she has been wrong in her favoritism, although she will not admit it until later on after John is dead. When she is lying in her hospital bed many years later, she lets this realization be known, telling Marvin â€Å" ‘You’ve not been cranky, Marvin. You’ve been good to me, always. A better son than John.’† (Laurence, 1988, 305) Sometimes these realizations come too late. The self-inflicted isolation that Hagar feels is a result of her stubbornness, pride, and blindness towards other views. Her past has shaped her to become the bitter, stolid, rigid old woman that she is in the novel, also greatly contributing to her mental isolation. This isolation is a result of the personal decisions and actions that she has made throughout the course of the novel. â€Å"Every last one of them has gone and left me. I never left them. It was the other way around, I swear it.† (Laurence, 1988, 164) The Stone Angel Essay -- English Literature Essays The Stone Angel Self-Inflicted Isolation and Loneliness â€Å"I never realized until this moment how cut off I am.† (Laurence, 1988, 294) In the novel The Stone Angel, author Margaret Laurence portrays a lonely old woman by the name of Hagar. Over the course of the novel, Hagar reflects back on the memories that have created the story of her life. Hagar is a deeply lonely woman, and much of that loneliness is self-inflicted. This mental isolation is caused by her stubbornness, her pride, and the blindness that she has towards any opinion other than her own. Hagar Currie-Shipley is a very stubborn woman at the age of ninety. She is very set in her ways, and does not appreciate being told what to do. The reader is introduced to this stubbornness when Hagar is brought to Silverthreads nursing home to view the location. Upon this discovery, Hagar attempts to run away, only to find herself lost in a forest. However, this stubbornness is not a new characteristic of Hagar’s, for she has been this way since early childhood. I wouldn’t let him see me cry, I was so enraged. He used a foot ruler, and when I jerked my smarting palms back, he made me hold them out again. He looked at my dry eyes in fury, as though he’d failed unless he drew water from them. He struck and struck, and then all at once he threw the ruler down and put his arms around me†¦ â€Å"You take after me,† he said, as though that made everything clear. â€Å"You’ve got backbone, I’ll give you that.† (Laurence, 1988, 9-10) This passage shows Hagar’s ability to hide her true emotions, which is a tool that she uses a lot later on in life. She later talks of making love to her husband, Bram, stating that even when she did enjoy it, â€Å"He never knew. I never let him know. I never spoke aloud, and I made certain the trembling was all inner.† (Laurence, 1988, 81) Also, early on in life, when her brother Dan was dying of pneumonia, she could not bring herself to perform his final wish. He cried for his dead mother, and Matt had asked Hagar to wear an old shawl, to act as their mother, and hold Dan, but Hagar could not bear the thought of portraying someone as weak as her mother. Her heart seems to be made of stone, much like the stone angel that her father had imported from Italy for her mother’s grave. Hagar kept all of her emotions bottled up inside. After Bram died, she did not allow herself to cry. It w... ...d to send Arlene to Toronto. When John tells Hagar about the move Hagar pretends to know nothing about it. John informs her that she â€Å" ‘always bet on the wrong horse,’ John said gently. ‘Marv was your boy, but you never saw that, did you?’† (Laurence, 1988, 237) it really opens Hagar’s eyes. She realizes that she has been wrong in her favoritism, although she will not admit it until later on after John is dead. When she is lying in her hospital bed many years later, she lets this realization be known, telling Marvin â€Å" ‘You’ve not been cranky, Marvin. You’ve been good to me, always. A better son than John.’† (Laurence, 1988, 305) Sometimes these realizations come too late. The self-inflicted isolation that Hagar feels is a result of her stubbornness, pride, and blindness towards other views. Her past has shaped her to become the bitter, stolid, rigid old woman that she is in the novel, also greatly contributing to her mental isolation. This isolation is a result of the personal decisions and actions that she has made throughout the course of the novel. â€Å"Every last one of them has gone and left me. I never left them. It was the other way around, I swear it.† (Laurence, 1988, 164)

Explain what Plato meant by the Form of the Good Essay

Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher whose writings and theories have greatly influenced the development of Western philosophy. Perhaps his most famous theory is that of the Forms – pure ideas or concepts of what a THING is. It was Plato’s belief that as well as this world, the material world – or the world of Appearances, as he called it – there exists another dimension, where the true Forms of everything in the material world reside; Reality, or the realm of the Forms. A Form, by Plato’s reckoning, is eternal, perfect and unchanging, unlike the images or shadows of Forms that we see in the world of Appearances. In the material world, nothing is perfect, everything changes and eventually everything dies. However, Plato was a dualist, so he believed that as well as our mortal body we also have an immortal soul which existed before and will exist after our time in this world of appearances. The place where our souls resided before we were born and will return to when we die is the realm of the Forms. This, according to Plato explains why we have an innate (though dim) recollection of what Forms are, and why we can recognize things like beauty and justice without being taught. Plato believed that the true philosopher was the one who knew about the Forms and was trying to appreciate and understand the Form of the Good. The Form of the Good is the highest in Plato’s hierarchy of Forms, the highest reality. It is the source and the unity of all the other Forms, and illuminates them so that if one has understanding of the Form of the Good, they have understanding of all the Forms. In Plato’s analogy of the Cave, the Good is represented by the Sun, which is the source of all the objects that the escaped prisoner finds above ground. The Sun makes all the things above ground visible, just like the Form of the Good makes all the other Forms understandable. The Analogy of the Sun by Plato tells us more about the Form of the Good. Plato believed that sight was the â€Å"most noble† of the five senses, because the other four require only two things, a sensor and a sensed (eg. an ear and a sound, a nose and a smell). Sight, however, requires three: an eye, a thing to be seen and the sun to provide light and make it possible for the eye to see it. Plato likens sight to reason; reason requires somebody to understand/to be enlightened, a thing to understand, and the Good to make it possible to understand it. The Form of the Good cannot ever be wholly present in the world of Appearances; however it can, like the other Forms, be reflected in a variety of ways. This, Plato argues, is the reason why we can call so many different things â€Å"good† – because they all correspond to the true reality of goodness at least in part. A cake can be called â€Å"good† if it satisfies someone’s hunger and pleases their taste buds; a chair can be called â€Å"good† if it is comfortable and doesn’t break when you sit on it; a person can be called â€Å"good† if they are kind to others, or if they volunteer in developing countries. But the Form of Good is all of these things, and more than all of these things, says Plato, and because all the Forms come from the Form of Good, every time Truth or Beauty or Justice is reflected in the world of Appearances, Good is being reflected too. Some people think that Plato’s theory of the Form of the Good doesn’t work, because, they argue, around the world and through the ages there are different concepts and understandings of what it means to be good or what a good thing is, so there cannot possibly be a perfect singular Good to which all these different actions and people agree with. These people are known as moral relativists and they do not believe there is absolute morality, rather one must decide what is right and wrong from the particular situation they are in. For example, in some cultures, it is never a good thing to take a life, even if that person has done terrible things including taking lives themselves. However, in other cultures, if the person has done terrible things society will agree that they should be executed for the good of the rest of society and to protect them from future crimes that the person could commit in the future. Plato was a moral absolutist, someone who does believe in a total, unchanging good. Moral absolutists would argue that just because not every culture recognizes the true goodness for what it is, that doesn’t make it any less good.

A Streetcar Named Desire Final Scene

Scene eleven (in some editions it is labeled as Act III Scene Five) of A Streetcar Named Desire takes place a few days after Blanche DuBois was raped by Stanley Kowalski. In between scene ten and eleven, how has Blanche processed the sexual assault? It seems that she has told her sister, Stella. however, having returned from the hospital with her first born child, and being fully aware that Blanche has become mentally unstable, Stella has chosen not to believe her story. Miss DuBois Is Being Sent Away Blanche still clings to fantasy, telling others that she is expecting to go away on a trip with her wealthy gentleman friend. During the last few days, Blanche has probably been maintaining her frail illusions to the best of her ability, staying hidden as best she can in the spare room, trying to hold onto what little privacy she has left. How has Stanley been behaving since the rape? The scene begins with yet another macho poker night. Stanley demonstrates no regret, no transformation -- his conscience seems a blank slate. Stella is waiting for a psychiatric doctor to arrive and take Blanche away to an asylum. She contemplates with her neighbor Eunice, wondering if she is doing the right thing. She refers to ​Blanches rape: Stella: I couldnt believe her story and go on living with Stanley! (Breaks, turns to Eunice, who takes her in her arms.) Eunice: (Holding Stella close.) Dont you ever believe it. Youve got to keep on goin honey. No matter what happens, weve all got to keep on going. Blanche steps out of the bathroom. The stage directions explain that there is a tragic radiance about her. The sexual assault seems to have pushed her further into delusion. Blanche fantasies (and probably believes) that she will soon be traveling on the sea. She imagines dying at sea, killed by the unwashed grape from the French Market, and compares the color of the ocean to that of her first loves eyes. The Strangers Arrive A psychiatric doctor and nurse arrive to take Blanche to a hospital for mental patients. At first, Blanche thinks that her wealthy friend Shep Huntleigh has arrived. However, once she sees the strange woman she begins to panic. She runs back into the bedroom. When she claims to have forgotten something, Stanley cooly explains, Now Blanche -- you left nothing here but split talcum and old empty perfume bottles, unless its the paper lantern you want to take with you. This suggests that Blanches entire life offers nothing of lasting value. The paper lantern is a device she has used to shield her looks and her life from the harsh light of reality. One last time, Stanley shows his addict disdain for her by tearing the lantern off of the light bulb and casting it down. Blanche grabs the lantern and tries to run away, but she is grappled by the nurse, and then all hell breaks loose: Stella screams and pleads for her sisters well-being.Eunice holds Stella back.Mitch, blaming the situation on his friend, attacks Stanley.The doctor enters and eventually calms Blanche (and everyone else). After looking at the kind doctor, Blanches demeanor changes. She actually smiles and says the plays famous line, Whoever you are - I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. The doctor and nurse lead her from the apartment. Stella, still wracked with mixed emotions, calls to her sister, but Blanche ignores her, perhaps now forever lost in her illusions. The Films Ending Vs. The Plays Final Moments It is important to note that in the Elia Kazan film, Stella seems to blame and reject Stanley. The movie adaptation implies that Stella will no longer trust her husband, and might actually leave him. However, in Tennessee Williams original play, the story ends with Stanley taking his sobbing with into his arms and soothingly saying: Now, honey. Now, love. The curtain falls as the men resume their poker game. Throughout the play, many of Blanche DuBois words and actions denote her revulsion of truth and reality. As she often states, she would much rather have magic, much rather live a fanciful lie rather than deal with the ugliness of the real world. And yet, Blanche is not the only delusional character in the play. Delusion and Denial During the final scene of A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience witnesses Stella adopting the delusion that her husband is trustworthy, that he did not, in fact, rape her sister. When Eunice says, No matter what happens, weve all got to keep going, she is preaching the virtues of self-deception. Tell yourself whatever you need to in order to sleep at night, in order to carry on with each day. Mitch adopts the delusion that Stanley is the only one responsible for Blanches undoing, eschewing any moral responsibility. Finally, even Stanley himself, the masculine character who prides himself on being down-to-earth, at facing life for what it is, falls prey to delusions. For one, he has always been more than a bit paranoid about her intentions, believing that Blanche has been trying to usurp him from his role as king of his castle. Just before raping Blanche he declares, Weve had this date with each other from the beginning, implying that Blanche has complied with the sexual act -- another delusion. Even in the last scene, while witnessing Blanches mental frailty in all its pathos, Stanley still believes that he has done nothing wrong. His powers of denial are stronger than that of Blanche DuBois. Unlike Stanley, she cannot skirt regret and guilt; they will continue to haunt her no matter how many illusions (or paper lanterns) she creates.