Lauren Dudley
10-17-13
WGS201

1. “A woman on a pedestal” is simply broken down to that someone is seeking our culture’s standards. Also, after they feel as if they have met the standards we, as people have the thought process called “one upping.” Once someone has put themselves on a pedestal and then someone decides that their own personal experience is actually more important than the other person. The woman in the beginning is on a pedestal, so to speak. The second woman who was talking about her own experience to make the attention turn toward her, is now on a pedestal because she seems to be more superior to the first woman. 2. The artist’s studio becomes a metaphor for the mind of the devoted lover, filled with pictures of his beloved upon which he “feeds.” The model in this piece is depicted as a child in lines three and in line five she is seen as a queen in lavished clothing. There is an ambivalence about how we are to view the artist’s love: as idealized and hopeful or as delusional and foolish. The issue of true likeness is played on by the association of the mirror in line 4. It offers an authentic, honest representation of the painting, the irony being that the painting itself is not a true likeness but an idealized one. In lines 5-7 it shows one of the main ideas of this sonnet, which is that love can be perceived in any way, just like an artist can paint their muse in different settings and poses. Another theme of the poem is the difficulty of viewing a person objectively, free from the influencing perspectives of others. It is the mirror that ‘gave back all her loveliness’, but the way the mirror avoids the ‘screens’ to reach the painting behind seems to suggest that on some level this is the most profound, honest representation – the one hidden from the view of casual judgments. The final lines foreground the difficulty of seeing someone ‘as she is’ as opposed to in a ‘dream’, if there is a difference at all. The overall mood of the poem is playfully fond, generously portraying both artist and subject as devoted and worthy of devotion. However the sonnet also provokes questions about the validity of love’s viewpoint and of beauty which it cannot answer. 3. In Atla’s “Pretty” a woman talks about her self-beauty and how she sees herself. The opening of the poem begins at a table with seven other women and she is comparing herself to all of them. In the story she says, “it drives me crazy and actually prevents me from enjoying situations.” Later she goes to the med and begins to look around to compare herself to the other women there. She says that every time she goes there she knows that she’ll be able to find one woman who was prettier. However, that other woman is prettier than her, but she realizes that she is prettier than the other women there so she becomes confident in herself. In this story it seems to be that this woman is constantly arguing with herself to see that she is pretty and not every woman she sees is prettier. She eventually goes to see a therapist so she obviously has some self-image and confidence issues. 4. In “The Loreley” this woman who is depicted as a beautiful mermaid brushing her hair with a golden comb and singing is the reason why so many boats have wrecked. In the beginning a boat man is being lured to his death by this beautiful woman. He sees her as the legend says “combing her hair with a golden comb on her rocky bower.” The boatman then goes to the beautiful woman and is distracted by her beauty. After he is distracted it ends up resulting in him losing his life. This poem is also a legend that is believed to still be living. 5. In the story “The Girls in their Summer Dresses” the man is seen several times looking at other women when he is with his wife. His wife becomes very enraged about this situation. His wife tries to get his mind off looking at these women so she suggests that they should just spend the day doing nothing planned. She thinks that if they do things off of impulse then it will keep his mind off looking at women. However, she sees that this does not help. She finally becomes outraged and says to Michael, “You always look at other women, everywhere. Every damned place we go.” Frances is trying to figure out why he is looking at them and why he isn’t looking at her. She feels as if that he is attracted to other women besides her. He explains to her that he merely just likes to look at everything around him. He says that God gave him eyes and he looks at men and women along with everything around him. At the end of the story Frances gets up from the table and walks to the telephone across the room and Michael looks at her the same way he looked at other women she just doesn’t see it. Also, in the poem “With No Immediate Cause” women are depicted as sex objects because this poem is talking about how women are raped, molested, and beaten. This shows that in some relationships some women and girls are treated poorly. The poem says “the young men on the train might beat some young women later in the day or tomorrow.” This just shows that you never truly know the people around you in their everyday life, and what they’ve done. 6. In “My Lover is A Woman” the narrator is a black woman whose lover is a white female. She says, “ when I hold her- feel her warmth- I feel good- feel safe.” As the poem continues she talks about how her family would call her names and belittle her and her partner. Her family would say that it’s okay for her to come visit but to not bring her friends, or partners, and to not tell her mother. The poem goes on to talk about her partners physical features, she has blonde hair and blue eyes. At the end of the story, she talks about going to a gay bar and people shun her and she doesn’t understand what people see wrong. Also, at the very end she thinks about all that her parents have taught her and said to her in life and then she grabs her lover’s hand and holds it tighter because she knows that they’ll be there for each other through good and bad. 7. Mrs. Mallard has serious heart troubles and she was told at the beginning of the story very easily about her husband’s death. Her sister was the one to tell her in very broken sentences hinting so it wouldn’t shock Mrs. Mallard instantaneously and cause heart failure. After hearing the news Mrs. Mallard had locked herself in her room and grieved. She would sit by the window and stare out into the sky for a long period of time emotionless unless a sudden sob came about. She then began to think to herself and then one word came out of her mouth three times, free. She had felt free at last now that her husband was gone. She could live for herself and not have to worry about someone else. Once she had this over joyous feeling she was shouting, “Free! Body and soul free!” Josephine began to worry while sitting outside the door. She began to beat on the door and demand that Louise should open it. Louise assured her that she wasn’t hurting herself or becoming more ill she was just overjoyed of the elixir of life. Finally, she had come out of the room to descend down the stairs with her sister. Once they had reached the bottom of the stairs they realized someone was opening the door. It was Mr. Mallard coming inside. He had been far away from the accident that Josephine had spoke of to Mrs.Mallard. Once Mrs. Mallard had seen him she drop dead on the floor and died of heart disease. The book refers to her death as “of joy that kills.” She had this overwhelming happiness and it suddenly was swept away from her. 8. The concept of “Woman Becoming” is that the stories in this section are about women who have had to overcome something in their lives and noticing how it made them what they are today. In the story “Trifles” a woman is being accused of killing her husband. There are two women that come with the county attorney and the sheriff to investigate. They also end up standing up to Mrs. Hale because they believe she did murder her husband. The canary seemed to be as if it was Mrs. Hale’s only friend to talk to. When this canary sang it made her feel free. Whenever her husband smashed the door of the bird cage and killed the canary I believe she killed him out of revenge. This is quite a different way to handle a situation, but she did get out of her failing marriage and no longer had to worry about him anymore.