The Lady in the Looking Glass

I love the way this piece starts! Woolf immediately starts by telling how the looking glass, like a "open cheque books or letters confessing some hideous crime," tells all that needs to be said. The looking-glass tells the truth about the mistress of the house, Isabella. It tells all that she does not wish known. She leads a mysterious life as a spinster and in the mirror we see what I sabella projects to the world:

Isabella had known many people, had had many friends; and thus if one had the audacity to open a drawer and read her letters, one would find the traces of many agitations, of appointments to meet, of upbraidings for not having met, long letters of intimacy and affection, violent letters of jealousy and reproach, terrible final words of parting (2384).

However, barring all of that, Isabella life had not turned out as intended, she is an old maid, who lives alone and has very few friends. When Isabella looks intot he mirror she sees the truth within herself that she cannot hide.

Here was the hard wall beneath. Here was the woman herself. She stood naked in the pitiless

light. And, there was nothing. Isabella was perfectly empty. She had no thoughts. She had no friends. She cared for nobody. As for her letters, they were bills (2385).

It's funny how we often make assumptions about other people before we even know them, it takes time to truly no someone and even then you only know what they are willing to show. You never know the thoughts and memories that plague a persons mind when there is no one else around. The true Isabella is trapped in the looking-glass, where only she can see her.

Prufrock

To whom is the speaker addressing his words? He often uses the phrase "you and I." In these words I believe Eliot wants us to step into the shoes of Alfred J. Prufrock. The words are written as though Alfred is inviting us, the readers, to join him as he takes this trip. I believe that Alfred J. Prufrock is looking for a woman. And his words are directed towards that woman. It is she that he invites to "the muttering retreats/ Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels/ And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" (2347). Prufrock is trying to convince himself to take a chance:

I grow old … I grow old …

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me (2350).

Alfred J. Prufrock is looking to take a chance with a woman; however his insecurities are a hinderance.

And indeed there will be time

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—

[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—

[They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin”] (2348)!

Prufrock turns back rather than face the woman to which he is referring. His insecurities get the better of him and ultimately he never ventures out to claim this mystery woman.

Araby

I really feel for the young boy in this tale. I think we have all been in a predicament where our doing something we really wanted depended on your parents or older sibling taking you there.

It's the same story every time:

1. You promise you friend or worse your crush that you can or will do something, "If I go, I will bring you something". You ask permission, everything is all set up, all you have to do now is wait.
2. You spend all day thinking about that one thing; you even remind them and they say, "Yes, boy, I know" (2276).
3. Then hours later than scheduled "At nine o'clock I heard my uncle's latchkey in the hall door [...] He had forotten" (2276).

That one thing was so important to you and you parents just

forgot. How frustrating is that?! And now, you have to go back and feel like a disappointment, while no one else seems to understand why it was such a pressing matter to begin with. This among many reasons is why teenagers often say "Parent just don't understand!"

Maud of Troy

Yeats story is the classic tale of unrequited love. "Why should I blame her that she filled my days" (2246). Yeats has proposed to the same woman repeatedly for several years. He even proposes tot he woman's adopted daughter 30 years later... However, he sees nothing wrong with this. He feels that more men would feel his plight if they allowed themselves to desire her as he does (2246). In No Second Troy, he compares her to Helen of Troy whose beauty was enough to set the two nations of Greece and Troy at War for ten years.

While he does not blame Maud for his love her wonders why she is so "high and solitary and most stern". Maud did accept a marriage proposal from another man; however they divorced shortly after. And still she did not accept Yeats advances. Again it is not her fault "what could she have done, being what she is?/ Was there another Tray for her to burn" (2247)? It is not her fault that he loves her. it was inevitable for her to affect him in such away. He is the only Troy for her to burn.

To Francis Collision

Was this really necessary?!

Shaw mentioned that Collison adores, "Pigeons &Persian cats& guinea pigs & rabbits [...] toads & newts." Obviously a man who sees fit to surround himself with such revelries, finds them to be appropriate gifts. I'm sure that Collison was unaware of Shaw's previous experience with a canary. "I once had a canary, a little green brute that flew in through the open window one day & would not go away. I hated it and it hated me. (2152)" Without prior knowledge of Shaw's affliction to canaries, I feel that Collison did not do anything intentionally to agitate Shaw. Collision was showing Shaw his gratitude for his loan and Shaw pretty much stomped all over it.

I did find it amusing that he tried to drop hints as to more appropriate gifts. "Now if you had sent me a sea-gull or a nightjar (the nightjar is my favorite bird) I could have let it loose & watched it flying & stalked it with a camera" (2152).

Talking with the moon

Hardy looks up from his writing to find the Moon staring down at him. When he ask the Moon what he is doing, his response it startling:

Oh, I've been scanning the pond and hole

And waterway hereabout

For the body of one with a sunken soul

Who has put his life light out (2162).

This poem was written during World War I, so I believe that when Hardy uses the term "the pond," he is speaking about the men that were fighting and dying in Western Europe. This region has commonly referred to as "the pond". These men who are fighting in the War, many of whom are having their "life light" put out each day. And during a time like this:

I am curious to look

Into the blinkered mind

Of one who wants to write a book

In a world of such kind (2162).

When the world is at war, Hardy is trying to write. Is this his subliminal way of saying maybe his timing is wrong? Maybe he can be of better use in another capacity. Writing seems like such a mundane task in a world at war.

I like how he animates the Moon. It makes me wonder if the Sun, Moon and Stars could sit back and watch us, what would they have to say about what they see?

The Horrors of Governessing

Among the traditional roles of women is being a wife, a mother, and a homemaker. Here, Charlotte Bronte is writing a letter to her sister, Emily, while working as a governess for the Sidgwick family. Duties that consist of "oceans of needlework, yards of cambric to hem, muslin nightcaps to make, and above all things, dolls to dress (1524). Charlotte dislikes her position, the children, and the woman she works for. I like this reading because it tells the story of a woman who dislikes the mediocre position to which women are assigned. Growing up as a tomboy, I have always been an advocate for women who do not find person satisfaction with gender norms. I think her description of the life of a governess gives an accurate depiction of women at the time:

I see now more clearly than I have ever done

before before that a private governess has no existence, is not considered as a living and rational being except as connected with the wearisome duties she has to fulfill (1525).

In Victorian society, a woman is just another worker in the home. She is a maid, mother, and mistress.