...An Ethics of Reading At the age of nine, Edith Wharton fell ill with typhoid. The local doctor told her parents nothing could be done and that their daughter would soon die. Only the ministrations of another physician, who happened to be passing through town and was prevailed upon to examine the girl, saved her life. Her fever fell, and the young Wharton began to recover. During her convalescence, she read voraciously. One of the books she was given contained a “super-natural” tale — a story which turned out to be, in Wharton’s own phrase, “perilous reading” (Wharton, p.275). In the original manuscript of her autobiography, Edith Wharton describes how reading this uncanny story occasioned a relapse, which brought her, once again, “on the point of death”: This one [book] brought on a serious relapse, and again my life was in danger and when I came to myself, it was to enter a world haunted by formless horrors. I had been a naturally fearless child; now I lived in a state of chronic fear. Fear of what? I cannot say — and even at the time, I was never able to formulate my terror. It was like some dark undefinable menace forever dogging my steps, lurking, threatening; (pp.275‑6).[1] According to Wharton, an act of reading plunged her body back into fatal illness. The young Edith Wharton did recover from the relapse, but its uncanny effects continued to haunt her well into adulthood. In “Women and Madness: the Critical Phallacy” (1975), Shoshana Felman tells another uncanny...
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...APA Referencing 2007 Note: this page is only an introduction to the APA (American Psychological Association) referencing system. For a comprehensive guide please refer to: American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington DC: APA. It is very important that you check the assignment guide for your Department or School as some details, e.g. punctuation, may vary from the guidelines on this page. You may be penalised for not conforming to your school's requirements. What is Referencing? Referencing is a standardised method of acknowledging sources of information and ideas that you have used in your assignment in a way that uniquely identifies their source. Direct quotations, facts and figures, as well as ideas and theories, from both published and unpublished works, must be referenced. There are many acceptable forms of referencing. This information sheet provides a brief guide to the APA referencing style for in-text citations and for creating the Reference List (examples are below). Within the text of the assignment the author’s name is given first, followed by the publication date. Include page numbers for direct quotations and also where it is useful to provide a page number. A reference list at the end of the assignment contains the full details of all the in-text citations. Why Reference? Referencing is necessary to avoid plagiarism, to verify quotations, and to enable readers...
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...Threshold experiences in the novels My Antonia and The Age of Innocence In any a piece of literature setting is an essential pillar of narrative construction: it not only includes some factual information about time and place or provides the background in which the events take place, but also has the power to shape the habits and attitudes of their users, or characters. Both Willa Cather in My Antonia and Edith Wharton in The Age of Innocence create the particular narrative texture that implicates some dynamics, i.e. some shifts and changes – on the one hand, the setting of the novels continually changes, and this invariably entails the changing of the characters. Since the setting doesn’t remain static, each time it changes there should be some “turning point”, from which moment on the further development of events becomes completely different. But what exactly this turning point is, what are those “triggers” that help to create this dynamic picture, how can we trace the changes and the molding and development of characters’ personalities, the changes of their identities? The thing is that the authors of both above-mentioned novels create series of “threshold experiences” taking place at the most significant, climatic points in the lives of the protagonists, acting like triggers, indicating some transformations in the outer world of the characters that entail the changes in their inner world as well. These thresholds operate on all levels: separating the interior...
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...The Novella of Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, is a tragedy. Ethan Frome suffered tragedy because of his character flaws, errors in his judgment, and forces beyond his control. Ethan Frome married a woman, Zeena, he was lonely and not truly in love with her. When her cousin, Maddie comes to live with them Ethan becomes infatuated with her. When Maddie has to leave, Ethan and Maddie decide to kill themselves so they never would have to leave one another. In the novella of Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, Ethan is a unique character who suffers a downfall due to character flaws, and errors in judgment, and most important forces beyond human control to in which he gains wisdom. Ethan Frome is a unique character who suffers a downfall in the tragedy of Ethan Frome for several reasons. Ethan is unique because he stands out in society. Ethan was a very tall, big man, but, “It was not so much his great height that marked him…it was the careless powerful look he had, in spite of a lameness checking each step like the jerk of a chain” (3). Ethan, because of his downfall looks tired and old. “There was something bleak and unapproachable in his face, and he was so stiffened and grizzled that [the reader] took him for an old man and was surprised to hear that he was not more than fifty-two” (3). Ethan Frome is unique compared to the rest of society. Ethan truly suffered at the end of the novella. Ethan tried to kill himself with Maddie so they could be together forever and not have to be with Zeena...
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...Grace Ansley appear to be old friends, returning to a familiar place to enjoy past times. A deeper look exposes hidden truths about each woman. Wharton uses symbolism in “Roman Fever” to imply the existence of the dark secrets that come between Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade. In life, friendship is known to have its twist and turns, loops and pulls. The art of knitting is used to display the intertwining lives of Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade. “Mrs. Ansley…had reached a delicate part in her knitting. “One, two, three-slip two…” (Whaton 118). Knitting is a precious, delicate, yet tedious task; although it is very familiar to her she must still concentrate and work at it because the wrong “slip” could cause the entire work to be ruined (much like friendships). On the surface, Mrs. Ansley seems to be the weaker, meeker friend but slight clues denote that there is more to her. “Half guiltily she drew from her handsomely mounted black hand-bag a twist of crimson silk run through by two fine knitting needles” (114). Her actions are timid though symbolically she is strong. The color black is significant with death, darkness, and/or ill will. Crimson is equivalent to red which means passion, aggression, love, and/or lust. Ultimately, Mrs. Ansley’s dark, passionate, lustful insides suggest she is not as mild mannered as she is putting off. Wharton also uses the afternoon light, an archetypal symbol, as a reference to the passing of time, both literally and figuratively. The luncheon-hour...
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...Essay #7 Beauty is ineffectual without care and effort. It is a natural element that can only continue in the presence of action. Mabel Osborne, like the red blossoms of the beautiful geranium, had a natural beauty to share: love and happiness. But as her life went on, it looked as though she did not benefit from her congenital quality. She was not able to use her happiness to receive the love she expected Spoon River to reciprocate. This resulted from the few flaws in her procedure that immobilized her chances to obtain the results she wanted. These flaws included her inability to express her feelings, and her inability to take the plunge and tell Spoon River her situation and desires. Her valuable beauty faded when she assumed Spoon River understood her emotions, and when she waited her whole life for the same emotions in return. One’s frailty to apply one’s beauty, in conjunction with physical force, results in the inability to obtain one’s yearning. Mrs. Williams and Ethan Frome, with rough experience, realized that this was the only way to obtain what they desired. Osborne made it seem as though she had an acceptable reason to why she never took action to express her feelings. She claimed that she could not speak due to her purity and simplicity. “[I] withered before your eyes, Spoon River, thirsting, thirsting, voiceless from chasteness of soul to ask you for love” (Masters 14-16). Osborne characterized herself as a celibate and simple woman who...
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...them. Since the beginning of human existence love has been the ultimate prize in life. Love is having someone to pass the days with and reassure each other that everything will turn out ok. Unfortunately, this prize is unobtainable for many and for many different reasons. Some people are not meant for love, refuse love, or for the rare case have fallen in forbidden love. Forbidden love is seen all to often; whether it is Romeo and Juliet or Ethan and Mattie, there is no escaping the curse. Ethan and Mattie have a forbidden love; after all Ethan is married to a relative of Mattie. Their situation is far from easy becuase unfortunately the author, Edith Wharton, intended it this way. Within Ethan Frome it can be disputed that, Wharton, intends for the love of Ethan and Mattie to never have a chance. Throughout the book, Wharton descriptively wrote scenes, which depicted their love having no fighting change, specifically against Zeena. Any moment in which Ethan and Mattie are alone or in some cases within a sensuous moment there is interference. Throughout the novella Ethan and Mattie show signs of deep connection varying from innocence to pure sexual attraction. Ethan is aware of his strong feelings for Mattie but is also aware that it is forbidden. “ It pleased Ethan to have surprised a pair of lovers on the spot where he and Mattie...
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...The Role of Women In The Age of Innocence, a satiric account of the society of New York, women play a major role in the development of the plot. This novel, by Edith Wharton, is about a society that controls its individuals, particularly women. For many years, women have followed the same customs and traditions and have not been given the opportunity to develop new talents and encounter new experiences. The women have been carefully trained not to possess “the experience, the versatility, [or] the freedom of judgment” (Page 38). This conventional society ignores reality and pretends to act innocently. “In reality [they] lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs” (Page 39). Women are expected not only to be pure and innocent, but also to pretend to be oblivious of the unpleasantness of society. May Welland and Ellen Olenska, two of the main female characters of the novel, set the conflict and develop the story with their contradicting personalities. The protagonist, Newland Archer, is a wealthy lawyer that is happily engaged to the pure and innocent May Welland. May is the perfect model of a wife in that society. She is a traditional woman that has been pressured by her family to remain unimaginative and predictable. She is conventional and a typical conformist. Because society has trained her not to speak of unpleasantness, May ignores unsettling situations, particularly...
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...This line closely represents Frome’s dreams because they do infact “stink like rotten meat.” Similarly to the smell rotten meat, Frome’s dreams constantly linger and remind him of what could have been. In the novel the author states “Ethan's love of nature did not take the form of a taste for agriculture” (Wharton, 62). This tells us Ethan had no intention of taking over the family farm, but reality strikes again. With the death of his father and his wife’s illness he had no choice but to take over the farm. This would force Ethan to abandon his dreams and cause the memory of them to...
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...The Age of Innocence The Age of Innocence is a romance and tragedy novel written by Edith Wharton. This story is about how a gentleman, Newland Archer, is getting married to May Welland, the daughter of a high status family, but falls in love with her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who moved to New York City from Europe. He attempts to run away with Ellen multiple times but she refuses to, she also understands that they cannot be together, especially since Newland is already engaged to her cousin. Although he realizes this, he constantly makes excuses to see Ellen and spends time with her nonstop. Throughout the story, Newland, who is a sophisticated gentleman becomes greedy for women, and is depressed because he realizes that life cannot...
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...used; however this refers to a list of related source material that is not necessarily cited in the document. Remember: • A list of references should appear on a separate sheet of paper at the end of an assignment and is generally titled References. • This list contains bibliographic details of every work cited in your assignment. • The list must be arranged alphabetically by authors’ surnames. If there is more than one work by the same author, then arrange chronologically i.e. earlier publication dates before later dates. • All reference sources (e.g. books, journal articles, websites etc.) are listed together in one continuous reference list. • Correct punctuation is important. • Note minimal capitalisation of book titles and maximal capitalisation of journal titles. Example: Reference List Website If a book, or a journal article or a document on a website has no author, bring the title of the book, article or document to the front. ABC 2010, The Drum, analysis and views on the issues of the day, viewed 13 January 2010, Becher, T 1990, ‘The counter culture of specialisation’, European Journal of Education, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 330-6. Bourassa, SD 1999, ‘Effects of child care on young children’, Proceedings of the third annual meeting of the International Society for Child Psychology, International Society for Child Psychology, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 44-6. Conner, ML 2004, Ageless learners: andragogy and pedagogy, viewed 19 October, 2007, Dawson, P 2004, Creative writing...
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...Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition) and http://www.apastyle.org/. Instructions Alphabetize each entry in a works cited list by the first letter, ignoring the articles A, An, and The. Indent subsequent lines of entries one-half inch. Names: Use initials for first and middle names. Titles: For articles, chapters and books, capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns. Fully capitalize periodical titles. Dates: Publication dates use the order year, month day. The access date uses the order month day year. If no publication date is available, use "n.d." in place of date. The following examples are citations from EBSCO databases. If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available. Different styles may apply when citing print and other sources. Journal Article Pattern: [Author last name], [First initial]. [Middle initial]. ([Publication year]). [Title of article]. [Title of journal], [Volume number]([Issue number]), [Page number starts]-[ends]. [Document Object Identifier] Example: Silva, L. (2007). Epistemological and theoretical challenges for studying power and politics in information systems. Information Systems Journal, 17(2), 165-183. [Document Object Identifier] Journal Article w/ No Author Pattern: [Title of article]. ([Publication year]). [Title of journal], [Volume number]([Issue number]), [Page number starts]-[ends]. [Document Object Identifier] Example: Epistemological and theoretical challenges...
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...A Guide on How to write a research paper 1. Establish Your Topic * Genuinely interests you. * Read and think about what you'd like to do. * Narrow it down to something more manageable (e.g.: Too general: Ancient Egypt. Revised: The building of the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. * Brainstorming to get ideas. 2. Identify the goal of the paper * An argumentative research paper: argues for one point of view. The issue should be debatable with a logical counter argument. * An analytical research paper: offers a fresh look at an important issue to persuade audience that it is important. 3. Look for Sources of Information * Books, magazine articles, and internet articles. * A research paper should use at least four sources. * The academic credibility of a source could be considered. * Make note of page numbers, URLs, and quotable passages for citation. 4. Read Your Sources and Take Notes * Use index cards to relate ideas from different sources. * Keep source information on the other side of the cards. * Use quotation marks for “copy/paste” to avoid PLAGIARISM. * Organize your note cards by subtopic to make an outline. 5. Write a First Draft * Table of contents. * Introduction (let the reader know what the topic is, inform the reader about your point of view, arouse the reader's curiosity to read more). * Body (Limit each paragraph to one main idea, prove your points continually by using specific...
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...Thank you for allowing me to read your essay. I feel that I know you after reading it, in fact I felt that we had sat down over a coffee and had a chat. I felt throughout reading it that you were exploring your personal experiences and what you had learnt about yourself through the years. I enjoyed your anecdotes that give strength to your reasons on why you feel this area of your work is a strength. I enjoyed how you discussed your previous work career and all its perks and how this all lead from personal experience into a new career path for you. This showed how much passion really is important to you and something that should be valued in the care community. I would like to note that I did not feel that I knew your personal strength until half way through the essay. I felt that you needed to identify this in your introduction . Maybe add it to your first statement: Making my career switch recently…that I possess strengths such as my passion for my work. Not sure how you would like to word it, just that it is needed in the introduction. I feel you may also benefit from splitting your introduction around the area that you state : However, I never truly felt I had strength or ability in any of it. I feel that this could be your first paragraph, see how you feel I just think it will make it a stronger essay. It would need to be slightly re worded such as : Working in corporate management I never felt like I had any strengths (i would leave out abilities). I found...
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...This article was first published on Salon, a website that has an audience favoring liberals more than conservatives. This article also has an audience of a younger generation that follows hit movies. Garett Reppenhagen served as a Cavalry Scout Sniper with the 1st Infantry Division in the US Army, and is also a veteran advocate and social justice organizer. Garett’s background has a lot of relevance to this topic. I would say he is credible towards this whole subject. He is qualified to make judgment and criticize the way this movie is trying to depict Iraq. Garett’s extrinsic ethos is that he has served in the military. He has made a profession of being a real life sniper so he knows most of the scenarios that go on in the movie. He could also describe what goes on as you enter a war zone and how each and every person reacts. Garett states, "But viewing the war only through his eyes gives us too narrow frame." I believe this quote shows he cares about the audience because he wants to share that the frame of Iraq is not narrow, in fact it is on the contrary. Iraq is full of hospitality, proud history, and old-soul wisdom. This quote also shows virtue and goodness because he does not make the mistake of thinking the Iraqi’s are savages, like the movie may portray. Practical wisdom is also shown in this quote because without it Garett would not know that Chris Kyle’s views are narrow, but instead they should be broad and more flexible. The tone of this particular article is straightforward...
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