The Purpose of Sati in Jane Eyre Essay -- Jane Eyre Essays

The general image of Sati and the reasoning that surrounded it filled the Western imagination with repulsion as well as admiration. In the nineteenth century, Westerners publishing diaries of their travels always included their experiences when viewing Sati. Although these travelers, usually men, watched with horror, they also admired the courage and the dignity of the women involved (Hawley 3). What was known in England of Sati was from the accounts of the colonial officials and travelers who witnessed it (Courtright 28). It would not surprise one to assume that Charlotte Bronte, in her drive for knowledge and her stand on women's freedom, would have taken an interest in such an act; and indeed she incorporates it in Jane Eyre. In 1829, the British government prohibited the act of Sati. Twenty years later, Charlotte Bronte presents a text in which she presents the "topos of feminism in imperialism" (Perera 80). With the use of the custom of Sati, Charlotte Bronte writes a novel whic h coveys the contrast between the east and the west, the old and the new, revealed sexuality and repressed sexuality. The two characters, Jane and Bertha, each represent a different region; while Bertha represents the East and the ancient, Jane represents the new and the modern. Dorothy K. Stein finds that Sati was a motif used for feminist discussions in Victorian England: [Sati] did not occur in England, but many manifestations of the attitudes and anxieties underlying the practice did. Nineteenth-century respectability in both England and India divided women into exalted and degraded classes, not only on basis of actual or imputed sexual behavior, but also on the basis of whether that behavior was at all times controlled and supervised, pref... ... the anger that she had expressed as a young girl, due to the fact that her society does not accept it. This anger that she once held inside is prevelant in Bertha's act. It is in the Red Room that Jane "became increasingly alive with bristling energy, feelings, and sensations, and with all sorts of terrifying amorphous matter and invisible phantoms" (Knapp 146). This igniting energy and flow of feelings, are very similar to those that Bertha realises at Thornfield. With the death of Bertha, Jane is now able to live with the man she loves. Bertha's death precedes a successful union between Rochester and Jane. When they are finally reunited, they are equal (Showalter 122). When Rochester and Jane finally get together, their relationship succeeds due to the fact that he has learned how it feels to be helpless and how to accept the help of a woman (Showalter 122). The Purpose of Sati in Jane Eyre Essay -- Jane Eyre Essays The general image of Sati and the reasoning that surrounded it filled the Western imagination with repulsion as well as admiration. In the nineteenth century, Westerners publishing diaries of their travels always included their experiences when viewing Sati. Although these travelers, usually men, watched with horror, they also admired the courage and the dignity of the women involved (Hawley 3). What was known in England of Sati was from the accounts of the colonial officials and travelers who witnessed it (Courtright 28). It would not surprise one to assume that Charlotte Bronte, in her drive for knowledge and her stand on women's freedom, would have taken an interest in such an act; and indeed she incorporates it in Jane Eyre. In 1829, the British government prohibited the act of Sati. Twenty years later, Charlotte Bronte presents a text in which she presents the "topos of feminism in imperialism" (Perera 80). With the use of the custom of Sati, Charlotte Bronte writes a novel whic h coveys the contrast between the east and the west, the old and the new, revealed sexuality and repressed sexuality. The two characters, Jane and Bertha, each represent a different region; while Bertha represents the East and the ancient, Jane represents the new and the modern. Dorothy K. Stein finds that Sati was a motif used for feminist discussions in Victorian England: [Sati] did not occur in England, but many manifestations of the attitudes and anxieties underlying the practice did. Nineteenth-century respectability in both England and India divided women into exalted and degraded classes, not only on basis of actual or imputed sexual behavior, but also on the basis of whether that behavior was at all times controlled and supervised, pref... ... the anger that she had expressed as a young girl, due to the fact that her society does not accept it. This anger that she once held inside is prevelant in Bertha's act. It is in the Red Room that Jane "became increasingly alive with bristling energy, feelings, and sensations, and with all sorts of terrifying amorphous matter and invisible phantoms" (Knapp 146). This igniting energy and flow of feelings, are very similar to those that Bertha realises at Thornfield. With the death of Bertha, Jane is now able to live with the man she loves. Bertha's death precedes a successful union between Rochester and Jane. When they are finally reunited, they are equal (Showalter 122). When Rochester and Jane finally get together, their relationship succeeds due to the fact that he has learned how it feels to be helpless and how to accept the help of a woman (Showalter 122).

Discuss the writers use of the supernatural Essay

The two stories resemble each other with the idea they communicate with the reader, that people should respect the supernatural. In the Withered Arm, Thomas Hardy develops why we should fear and respect the supernatural by showing that by mocking Gertrude about her medicines and counter curses, Farmer Lodge ended up with a dead son and a dead wife. He also ended up selling all his land because he could not endure staying in the village with everyone gossiping about him. Also by keeping the tempo of the story fast and building up to all the supernatural events keeps us tense. In the Monkey’s Paw, Sergeant Major Morris warns the White family about the consequences of the wishes the paw grants. However the White family do not take heed of the warning and take advantage of the paw and in doing so, they end up with their son dead, Mrs. White acting senselessly to try and bring back her son and Mr. White having to wish his son back to the grave. The author is trying to tell us that if you do not respect the supernatural and take advantage of it, you will feel its wrath. The two stories are alike in other ways. Both stories involve young innocent people suffering. In the Monkey’s Paw Herbert died for his family’s foolishness. Whilst in the Withered Arm it was Rhoda’s and Farmer Lodge’s son that was innocently sent to the gallows. Another similarity is that people that were selfish earlier on in the stories are punished in the end. Mr. White is self-seeking at the start of the Monkey’s Paw and does not take Sergeant Major Morris’ advice and his son dies as a result. In the Withered Arm Farmer Lodge is punished for his negligence shown to his son and his failure to accept the responsibility for his son. The consequence for this is the eventual hanging of his only son. Also both stories have ironic twists. In the Monkey’s Paw the family wishes for two hundred pounds and after the money doesn’t appear straight away, Herbert says â€Å"Well I don’t see the money, and I bet I never shall. † The wish eventually does come true and the money is handed over to the family but only as an insurance payout for Herbert’s death at the factory. So the irony is that Herbert will never actually see the money. In the Withered Arm the ironic twist is that when Gertrude was waiting for a hanging she got so desperate that she used to pray for a hanging â€Å"O Lord, hang some guilty or innocent person soon! † It turned out her prayers were answered but the man seen to be in the wrong turned out to be Farmer Lodges’ and Rhoda Brooks’ son but it seemed the boy was wrongfully charged with arson. At the hanging, Farmer Lodge and Rhoda were present in the crowd and once Gertrude had realized the hung man must be their son, she entered a sense of shock. This proved too much for her and she died. The irony is that she prayed for a man to be hung, so that she could cure herself but the man in the end was her husband’s son and this did the opposite of curing her and the shock of it all ended her life. In conclusion, the writers use the supernatural to show the reader that if you ridicule the supernatural, it will backfire on you and you will feel the consequences greatly. Also they try and make you scared of the supernatural by making the paranormal events happen to normal people. Meaning it could have been you instead.

What Is a Weasel Word

A weasel word is a  modifying word that undermines or contradicts the meaning of the word, phrase, or clause it accompanies, such as genuine replica. Also known as a  weaselism. More broadly, weasel word may refer to any word thats used with the intention to mislead or misinform. The term was coined by author Stewart Chaplin in 1900 and popularized by Theodore Roosevelt in a speech in 1916. An Early Example of the Term In June, 1900, the Century Magazine published a story entitled The Stained Glass Political Platform, by Stewart Chaplin, . . . and on page 235 these words occur:Why, weasel words are words that suck all the life out of the words next to them, just as a weasel sucks an egg and leaves the shell. If you heft the egg afterward its as light as a feather, and not very filling when youre hungry, but a basketful of them would make quite a show, and would bamboozle the unwary.This is the origin of the term Colonel [Theodore] Roosevelt has made famous.(Herbert M. Lloyd, letter to The New York Times, June 3, 1916) Help as a Weasel Word Consider the weasel word help. Help means aid or assist and nothing else. Yet as one author has observed, help is the one single word which, in all the annals of advertising, has done the most to say something that couldnt be said. Because the word help is used to qualify, almost anything can be said after it. Thus were exposed to ads for products that help keep us young, help prevent cavities, help keep our houses germ-free. Consider for a moment how many times a day you hear or read phrases like these: helps stop, helps prevent, helps fight, helps overcome, helps you feel, helps you look. (William H. Shaw, Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases, 7th ed. Wadsworth, Cengage, 2011) Faux Words I love the word faux. I first really learned to appreciate this word watching the home-shopping channels, which addicted me for many months. In their glamorous parlance, vinyl became faux leather and cut glass became faux diamonds. The word itself is deceptive; it doesnt look the way it sounds. And when you insert it before a noun, that noun ends up taking on the exact opposite meaning. (Jeanne Cavelos, quoted by Lewis Burke Frumkes in Favorite Words of Famous People. Marion Street Press, 2011) First, faux research yields a faux answer to a clinical question. Then faux education assures that doctors everywhere hear about it, so they can write millions of prescriptions based on the faux information. Bribes and kickbacks sometimes grease the skids. (Marcia Angell, The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It. Random House, 2005) Here Are Some Weasel Words So. This piece is about how public figures and now members of the general public have started prefacing something they are about to say with the word so when it is a packaged exercise in self-presentation. So is the new look. . . .There have always been words swilling around the cultural lexicon signalling artifice and there are others around at the moment. Prefacing a package with I would like to say or To be honest are hardy perennials. But so is the weasel word of the moment, spreading into general usage.Last Monday evening, a member of the public was interviewed on Radio 5 Live outside Buckingham Palace. Asked why she and her friend had come there, she began: So. We went out to dinner together and both received texts from our husbands at the same time saying that the royal baby was born. So has become a way for a person to begin delivery of a packaged account of themselves. (Oliver James, â€Å"So, Here’s a Carefully Packaged Sentence That Shows Me in My Best Light.† The Guardian [UK], July 26, 2013) Reportedly as a Weasel Word As an old Time writer, I immediately spotted, in two consecutive sentences, the weasel-word reportedly, the Time-honored hedge against the possibility that the facts in a given sentence might not hold up to reasonable scrutiny. (John Gregory Dunne, Your Time Is My Time. The New York Review of Books, April 23, 1992) Arguably as a Weasel Word Weasel words also occur in arguments. Consider the following:Since paying a worker the current minimum wage is arguably the same as having a slave, and since slavery is illegal under the Constitution, the current minimum wage ought to be outlawed.All this seems fairly straightforward until we look closer at the little weasel word arguably. To give an argument is not necessarily to give a good argument. (Malcolm Murray and Nebojsa Kujundzic, Critical Reflection: A Textbook for Critical Thinking. McGill-Queens University Press, 2005) To conservative rhetors in Congress, whatever is not blandly or angrily populist is elitist. In their resort to this weasel word, the patriotically correct on the right are as bad as the politically correct on the residual left. (Robert Hughes, Pulling the Fuse on Culture. Time, Aug. 7, 1995) There are . . . understatements to avoid the truth, such as economic adjustment for recession. There are broad abstractions for an unacceptable term or idea: downsizing for slashing employment, masking words such as preowned for used, and PC euphemisms such as economic deprivation for being poor. (Paul Wasserman and Don Hausrath, Weasel Words: The Dictionary of American Doublespeak. Capital Books, 2006)