Discourse Analysis of Thomas Jackson Rice’s “Consuming High Culture: Allusion and Structure in ‘The Dead’”

“Such boon we accord in due measure. Life’s term                            “How my body stands in the world

We lengthen should any be moved for love’s sake                              I do not know. So privileged is this rim

To forego life’s fulfilment, renounce in the germ                                of Ptolomea, that often souls fall to it

Fruit mature – bliss or woe – either infinite.”                                      before dark Atropos has cut their thread.”

 --    Apollo and the Fates, Robert Browning                                           --    The Inferno: Canto XXXIII, Dante Alighieri

In James Joyce’s short story “The Dead”, the main character Gabriel digresses for a brief moment to contemplate his decision to include a quote from a poem by Robert Browning, fearing its lines would “be above the heads of his hearers” (Joyce, 24). Eventually choosing not to include the quote, the reader is left challenged by Joyce to fill in the holes. In his New Historicist essay “Consuming High Culture: Allusion and Structure in ‘The Dead’”, Thomas Jackson Rice attempts to fill the absence Joyce has intentionally left by using textual evidence from “The Dead” itself, while considering Joyce’s other work Ulysses, Robert Browning’s poetry, and another important text, Dante’s Inferno, that may have influenced the thematic choices made by both Browning and Joyce. 

The Mortal Dead: Symbolic Analysis of the Setting in James Joyce's "The Dead"

          James Joyce wrote an assembly of fifteen short stories, published in 1914 under the collective title Dubliners. These stories depicted the average life of middle class Irishmen during the early 1900’s and their hardships, especially the struggle of human acceptance of death. In the final story, The Dead, Joyce explores this universal theme of mortality. One of the most important supporting symbols is the setting: the story takes place in the middle of a winter snowstorm in Ireland at the old home of Morkans on the night of the Feast of Epiphany, ending the next morning in a dark hotel room. 

Sonnet to Science by Edgar Allan Poe Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe is an American author and poet who was heavily influenced by the Romantic Movement in literature during the 19th century. Written during the time of the Industrial Revolution in America, “Sonnet: To Science” is the embodiment of romanticism ideals: to revolt against the Age of Enlightenment’s ideals and the prominence of the scientific rationalization of nature. Through the use of figurative language, including personification, metaphor, and symbols, Poe uses a traditional English sonnet to create a declaration of accusation against Science. 

Logical Fallacies in an excerpt from “The Lottery”

“They do say,” Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, “that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.”

                Old Man Warner snorted. “Pack of crazy fools,” he said. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Use to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery,” he added petulantly. “Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody.”

                “Some places have already quit lotteries,” Mrs. Adams said.

                “Nothing but trouble in that,” Old Man Warner said stoutly. “Pack of young fools.”

Freud’s Influence on “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

        Sigmund Freud’s theories on sexual repression are quite prevalent in “A Rose for Emily”. Emily has been raised her entire life by a controlling, overprotective father who never let her pursue any suitors, running them off every time they came around to call on Miss Emily (151).  Her father has denied her of any normal interactions with the opposite sex, and as Freud theorizes, repression, especially sexual repression, can lead to mental illness or neurosis. Her actions after her father passes away, which the townspeople are hesitant to call “crazy” (151), are actually symptoms of her neurosis. Neurosis, according to Freud, is caused by two factors: 1) sexual repression and 2) childhood trauma (especially sexual abuse). This leads to the interpretation that her father had not only repressed her sexual growth, but sexually abused her. The townspeople claim “she would have to cling to that which had robbed her” (151), they were right; she clung to the man who robbed her of ever having a normal, functional sexual relationship for the rest of her life.

Sexuality in Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves"

The classic fairy tale character Little Red Riding Hood is the epitome of obedience and innocence. Angela Carter replaces this stereotypical Little Red with a wise young heroine who manages to tame the wolf and find herself along the way. The final moments of “The Company of Wolves” depict the young girl refusing to be afraid of the wolf and giving herself over to him freely. This ending supports Carter’s idea that in order to survive, women cannot succumb unwillingly to the “wolf”, but rather choose to give themselves by being in command of themselves and their bodies.