Female Innocence and Violence in Literature

Female Innocence and Violence in writingsFor maximum literary effect, sensationalism and military unit cod to be set with female pureness and vulnerability. Discuss with reference to the Tale of twain Cities by Charles heller and The wo opus in White by Wilkie Collins.The act quote is probably too fixed. Generally, there can be no such prescriptive methods for writing literature, however, there is certainly evidence to repoint that when contradicting qualities or opinions are presented in close proximity, the intensity of the situation is heightened. Milton utilize this technique in Paradise Lost assembling a unmortgaged universe comprised entirely of polar opposites and with bring unwrap ambivalence or moral marrow ground. Hence in Milton, every physical or mental piazza is in effect generated and defined by the absence of its opposite counterpart. So darkness is the complete absence of light, and evil is the complete absence of slap-up etc. ogre and Collins use of juxtaposition in their myths is more(prenominal) reticent than Milton though with a similar intent and evident forthwith in the opening passage of a Tale of Two Cities It was the topper of times it was the worst of times in short, the period was so farthest corresponding the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for tidy or for evil, in the superlative degree of resemblance only. The quote is to a fault an admission on behalf the nature of the novel itself and it is with this superlative degree of comparison that we will be made to receive much of the events that unfold, and discover in the process that no such fixed model can justly express clement nature which is too often ambiguous or prone to change.Both authors were aware that their novels were to be published as serialisations and so there was a very real need to maintain the lecturers inte domiciliate amidst chapters. It is possibly with this concern in brain tha t the authors penned their mild heroes into lurid depictions of violence and human brutality since the jarring of dangerous and evil makes for shocking subject matter and invariably what is shocking is withal powerful. With Dickens novel as with Collins the real dramatic accent is wee-weed by placing powder-puff champions of goodness and temperance within a manful context of immorality and violence. As well as the perceived bank none argueed by innocence and guilt, frailty and brutality, patience and impulsion, there is also a subtle contrast amid an inner macrocosm and an outer one. A domain of a function of the soul, which is implicit and inherently good, and a creative activity of the physical or the dead body which is explicit and outwardly evil. In both novels, the language separates in a similar way outwardly graphic and sensational, yet with a subtle and often more powerful subtext. The texts of both novels are readyed in conflict and perpetuate a sense of tens ion so it serves us well to do close readings of a short passage as much as an overview of the whole.We shall take first this passage from Wilkie Collins The Woman in WhiteThe boat-house was large enough to hold us all, solely Sir Percival die harded out stead trimming the last new stick with his pocket-axe. We three women found plenty of room on the large seat. Laura took her work and Madame Fosco began her cigarettes. I, as customary had nothing to do. My afford always were and always will be as awkard as a mans. The account good humouredly took a bottom many sizes too dainty for him, and balanced himself on it with his back against the side of the shed, which creaked and groaned under his weight. He put the pagoda cage on his lap, and let out the mice to crawl over him as usual. They are pretty innocent- smell small-minded creatures, exclusively the sight of them creeping about a mans body is for some reason not pleasant to me. It excites a strange antiphonal creeping i n my own nerves and suggests hideous ideas of men destruction in prison house with the crawling creatures of the dungeon preying on them undisturbed.Marians narration begins as matter of fact and get goings imagined and complex. From the start of the passage to the expiry her attention is drawn from objects and characters far away from her, closer in to those touch her, then to her own self and indistinguishability, and finally the introspective and private thoughts of her own mind. The first sentence plagiarises the idea of a separate world of violence lying outback(a) Marians own. She highlights Sir Percivals decision to remain outside despite the boat-house being large enough to hold us all so she could be implying an obstinacy in his treats or perhaps more likely, she may be perplexed by his behaviour. The very action of trimming a stick with a pocket axe carries miscellaneous connotations with violence and masculine sexuality. It is of course an arbitrary occupation o f his time and serves as a meaningless and almost sinister method of dis alliance between himself and the others and hence a source of confusion. Marians next newsmonger We three women, at once it unites the women together as a concept or a quality of femininity and further separates them from the singular identity of Sir Percival. Marians language is deeply characterised by ideas of masterment. The ladies sit within and they are easily accommodated we three women found plenty of room on the large seat. This statement contrasts directly with her comment about the count on a little later, who took a stool many sizes too small for him, and balanced himself on it with his back against the side of the shed, which creaked and groaned under his weight a sentence which trails on for longer, more involved and awkward. The Count and Sir Percival, by their ill at ease(p) inflexibility, rebel against and test the physical world. Their presence is more palpable and harder to contain unlik e the women who are compliant, slight and ensconced by the physical world. This whole externalize is a dilution of the revolutionary world as emasculated, savage and violent the container and oppressor of feminine goodness.As we absorb seen the direction of Marians thought is indwelling only when her language and the use of symbolism give an added suggestion of woful from an open, free space, to a confined, interior space. Initially Marian uses words like outside and phrases such as plenty of room but her correct of thought finishes in reflection on Pagoda Cages, on prison and the dungeon. Herein lies the annoyance for Marian. Her language is the language of oppression and confinement My hands always were and always will be as awkward as a mans. Her use of the phrase always were and always will be excludes all sense of hope and the awkwardness of the repetition is emblematic of her jaundice and resent of the awkwardness of her situation. Her use of the word awkward itself i s interesting, used as much no doubt as the implied opposite of delicate or relaxed and the whole image of a woman being burdened with the tools of mans violence towards the world is a powerful one.The shift in Marians observation of mice running freely over the Counts soul, to an imagined picture of rats crawling over a morbid prisoner is a much more tangible instance of frailty and innocence played against sensational annoyance. The real power of the text here lies in the compression of a quaint image into a one which repulses. scarce further it suggests there is a macabre bent in Marian or an inclination of thought towards something deeper and darker than her reality. Can it be that she relates with both images the pretty-innocent looking creatures (my italics), how she and women seem to be, or should aspire to become, and men dying in prison with the crawling creatures of the dungeon preying on them undisturbed, how she and other really olfactory property?We will turn now t o the following passage from the last chapter of Dickens A Tale of Two CitiesThe second tumbril empties and moves on the troika comes up. Crash And the knitting-women, neer faltering or pausing in their work, count cardinal.The hypothetic Evremonde desc wipeouts, and the seamstress is lifted out next after him. He has not relinquished her patient role hand in getting out, but lock away holds it as he promised. He gently places her with her back to the crashing engine that ever whirs up and falls, and she looks into his face and thanks him. nevertheless for you dear stranger, I should not be so composed, for I am naturally a paltry little thing, faint of total nor should I have been able to raise my thoughts to Him who was put to death, that we might have hope and comfort here to-day. I think you were sent to me by HeavenThe two stand in the fast-thinning gathering of victims, but they speak as if they were alone. Eye to eye, voice to voice, hand to hand, heart to heart, the se two children of the Universal Mother, else so replete(p) apart and differing, have come together on the dark highway, to repair home together, and to rest in her bosom.Dickens tale is related in the third person and there is consequently less room for personal introspection, the like we cut in Marians narration (although Dickens does dispense with this ruler to allow a voice to Cartons final thoughts in the last lines). However, Dickens presents a more sensational description of the world outside his characters. The opening of the passage here imparts a sense of horror by the alarming regularity and routine of the public execution. The relentless violent death punctuated consistently by the knitting women as they count towards the heroes death. Throughout this passage, Dickens offsets the outside world of motion and with the interior capsule of calm between Carton and the tragic seamstress. The language of impending doom empties and moves on, never faltering or pausing, the crashing engine that constantly whirs up and falls, and the fast-thinning throng of victims, is juxtaposed with language of stillness, timelessness and peace not relinquished her patient hand, still holds, so composed stand alone. spare in this passage is a contradiction between the real world of horror and the machinery of violence, and the seamstress admission of her own vulnerability I am naturally a poor little thing, faint of heart. But where in previous parts of the novel this opposition was played out with the effect of crushing feminine innocence and creating suspense and horror as a consequence, at this point the woman finds strength in her company. In fact the arrangement of her statement reinforces this idea. But for you dear stranger, and my thoughts to Him surround her admission I am naturally a poor little thing she takes comfort between these objects. They surround her and protect her from the brutality of the outside world.In this closing chapter of the novel, wh en finally the fragility of female innocence collides with the horror and mechanics of the revolution, Dickens actually draws a crucial separation between the two concepts. United in love, the protagonists fall away from the physical world the guillotine a machine which by designs cuts people in two The two stand in the fast thinning throng of victims, but they speak as if they were alone. In this final point of the novel the characters break free from their context. In fact, Dickens uses different paragraphs to describe the human moments and the fall of the tumbril blade as though the outside influences have no control over the characters. Eye to eye, voice to voice, hand to hand, heart to heart, where the novel has been an exploration of pairs of opposites, the best of times, and the worst of times, it champions as it denouement pairs of equals and connection quite a than argument. The passage unites two concepts into one, so The two stand become in transformation they speak. T hough they are two children, they are born of one Universal Mother, and though so wide apart they have come together.What is important here, is that Dickens has chosen to create a different literary effect at the end of his novel from that outlined in the title, by a confrontation of equals rather than opposites. It may show that the collision of brutality and compassion work to create shock and suspense during reading but it is with one motivation that a reader continues through these moments and that is to reach a fitting harmony.