analysis essays thesis statement

Memeber Login Password

Ondix Content Search

Title or Description

Subject

School

Teacher

Display Results Per Page

10 20 50 100

Frankenstein: The Subjectivity of the Character "Safie"

Frankenstein: The Subjectivity of the Character "Safie"

Even though she is only mentioned in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for a
relatively brief period, the character, Safie, is very interesting as she is
unique from the other characters in that her subjectivity is more clearly
dependent on her religion and the culture of her nation. Contrasts can be made
between the Orient and the European society which attempts to interpret it.
Often, this creates stereotypes such as western feminists that have viewed
"third-world" women as "ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, religious,
domesticated, family oriented, (and) victimized"(Mohanty 290). Of course, some
of these things could also have said of European women of the time period,
although noone would argue the point since Oriental women were viewed as being
more oppressed. Strong contrasts can also be made in relation to the differences
between Safie's development as a foreign character and her subjectivity as a
female character in relation to those of the other female characters of the book.
While the other female characters lack depth into how their religion and culture
affect them, Safie's religion and Arabian culture sculpt her into a subject with
feminist qualities juxtaposed against her fulfillment of European domestic
ideology.
Many theorists, such as Benveniste who said, "Consciousness of self [or
subjectivity] is only possible if it is experienced by contrast," argue that
one's subjectivity can only exist in their relation to the Other(85). The
subject's relation this "Other" depends on which aspect is being examined. For
example, when dealing with gender, it would be the relationship between Man and
Woman and when dealing with nationality it would be the relationship between
Native and Foreigner. Thus, the character of Safie was defined in terms of her
relationship to those around her. In the Turkish society, her role would have
been to fulfill positions of lesser rank, such as a daughter to her father or a
woman in relation to the dominant men, and when in Europe, as a foreign Turk in
relation to native Europeans. These relationships, however, were significantly
affected by the teachings her Christian Arab mother instilled in her. Her mother
"taught her to aspire to higher powers of intellect, and an independence of
spirit" which in either Turkish or European society, though more so in Turkish
society, were in discord with the standard position and femininity of women.
Both societies viewed women as having a "natural" tendency to be unassuming and
docile and, in addition, it would be considered unfeminine to seek something
more than their domestic role. Safie does not go to the extent of wishing for
something more than a prescribed domestic role, she merely preferred the
European version of that role. This role apparently differs from the Arabian
role primarily in that the European society which she longed to join was
associated with the Christian religion and practices that she has been taught to
adore and which would be forbidden in the Arabian society. In desiring the
European role and wishing to marry a Christian, she does not break the apparent
confines of her feminine role but the confines of her Arabian culture. By
believing in the qualities expressed by her mother, and by displaying them in
her venture to violate her father's will to find Felix, she shows that her
subjectivity was not based on the opposition of women versus empowered men, as
might seem the norm, but was instead more distinctly based on the opposition of
religiously submissive women in her culture versus the Christian woman, inspired
by the freedom she experienced before being seized by the Turks, that her mother
was. Safie's affinity for the Christian religion is best shown in her revulsion
at the prospect of returning to the Turkish land and her desire to marry a
Christian and remain in Europe.
In addition to the her unique religious point of view, Safie was also
influenced by her Arabian culture but, however, Shelley does not go into much
depth this aspect of Safie and stops at only a superficial, prejudiced
description of the Turks. In fact, there are Eurocentric biases against the
Turks throughout the portion of the book dealing with Safie. In order to examine
why Mary Shelley included such biases in her work, one must first acknowledge
the distinct possibility that as she wrote Frankenstein, she carried with her
some prejudices of the Orient. This argument is supported by Edward Said's
statement:
For if it is true that no production of knowledge can ever ignore or
disclaim its author's involvement as a human subject in (their) own
circumstances, then it must also be true that for a European...
studying the Orient there can be no disclaiming the main
circumstances of (their) actuality: that (they come) up against the Orient as a
European... first , as an individual second(Said 306). Thus, Mary Shelley's
somewhat slanted portrayal of Safie and her father is not only unintentional,
but a symptom of "ethnocentric universalism", or having a single, stereotypical
view of an entire community(Mohanty 290). When extended to Western views of the
East, this view is more specifically referred to as "Orientalism." Orientalism
is defined as "a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the
Orient's special place in European Western experience" which "has less to do
with the Orient than it does with (the Western) world"(Said 303, 307).
These biases, apparently inherent to many European writers, are most
prominently displayed in the role of Safie's father who is depicted as
traitorous and oppressive. This ethnocentrically is best shown when his command
to his daughter is unfairly termed a "tyrannical mandate"(Shelley 110). Although
the command can easily be considered unjust in its betrayal of the life indebted
vow made to Felix, it cannot be considered more oppressive than a European's
command to his daughter. Oppressive commands from European men are sure to have
happened since a European father's position in his family is relatively absolute
in that they are the head of the household and in that society, none within the
household have greater authority. The ratio of power between men and women is
more slanted in Turkish society as is evident in the existence of harems and the
fact that women have the possibility of achieving societal rank and ownership of
property in European society and it is for these reasons, as well as her
religious conflictions, that Safie feels Turkish life to be oppressive. The
Turkish father's exercise of control over his daughter is not the simply a
Turkish practice as Mary Shelley implies it to be. This Orientalist view of the
Turks is much like the stereotypical story of the "noble" European rescuing an
Arabian damsel from the harem of the "evil" Turkish tyrant and then claiming her
as his. Thus delivering her from one, Orientalistic, form of servitude to
another, more "proper" and European, form of servitude. Of course, Safie breaks
from this stereotype in her almost feminist "rescue" of herself.
This ethnocentrism does, however, help increase the contrast between
Safie's subjectivity with that of other Arabian women, making her more
distinctly feminist, as well as more European in her distaste for some Arabian
ways and thereby a more suitable wife for Felix. Safie felt that what her father
was doing was wrong and, in acting on these beliefs to satisfy her and Felix's
happiness, she performed the most feminist act in the book and thus, was the
most feminist subject. Some might also consider her feminist for her era simply
by her rebelling against and eventually disobeying and abandoning her father.
But as was previously mentioned, Safie was "almost" a feminist in that she was
merely more feminist than the other female characters. Both Justine and
especially Elizabeth were typically feminine, meaning that they fitted and
fulfilled the stereotypical "iconic femininity" which includes being a nurturing,
domestic of ideal beauty and grace which must be protected by the dominant man.
As they fulfilled this role, they were strictly non-feminist as feminist roles
gravitate towards breaking such roles and, in fact, sometimes attempt to define
themselves outside of men. Though Safie comes closer than either Justine or
Elizabeth, she does not fulfill the feminist role, but rather supports the
"iconic feminine" role less completely than the others. She has feminist aspects,
shown in her efforts to maintain her "independence of spirit" by remaining in
Europe and by, more obviously, rebelling against her father and the
authoritative role he represents. But, since she does not rebel against her
domestic role and, in fact, rushes to it with Felix, she is primarily a slightly
non-feminist role among heavily non-feminist roles. Some critical readers might
say that there is an apparent conflict between the independent nature instilled
in her by her mother versus the oppressive nature of either European or Arabian
society, or enlightenment and domestic ideology. However, the issue of the
apparent conflict is resolved when realizing that the independence her mother
gave her was directed against the Arabian society they were forced to live in.
There was no evidence that her mother instilled any preconceived notions of
rebelling against the male dominated society in general, especially the
Christian European society which Safie had come to appreciate.
Though Safie was from an Middle Eastern culture, her mother's adherence
to a Christian belief system influenced Safie's subjectivity and caused her to
experience feelings more consistent with those of European women than Middle
Eastern. In addition to this ideology, her mother also instilled a grain of
feminist subjectivity which prompted her to resist the strong subjectivity put
upon her by the phallogocentric, male dominated society in which she lived,
encountered both in Turkey and Europe. However, this resistance was in the form
of religious preference and her willingness to eventually disobey and rebel
against her father's wishes and did not take shape in common occurrence. She
subscribed to the socially common doctrine of women's domestic position and
norms of femininity. In fact, she was, in a manner, willingly given as property
to Felix, supporting what Irigaray referred to as "women on the market."
Although her father promised her to Felix without asking her, when she learned
of the deal she did not react aversely to it but in fact "exhibited towards him
the simplest and tenderest affection"(Shelley 109). As for her feminine
subjectivity, her beauty, manner, and poise, combined with the male society's
reaction to her, placed her as typically feminine even though some might view
her slight resistance and willingness to venture forth in order to find her man
as "a masculine energy and enterprise lacking in the novel's other women"(Smith
283). In conclusion, through her mother's teachings, she was able to gain a
slightly different subjectivity than might have otherwise occurred as society,
attempted to mold her to fit its place for her. And this role differed from the
other female examples given in the work in her strong motivation to achieve her
desired European role, which was more similar to the other female roles in the
book in that it fulfilled the domestic ideology of the European society. The
society itself was phallogocentric and, by nature, riddled with its own
subjectivity, such as the Orientalism inherent in Europe, which attempted to
examine the Orient which had "a brute reality obviously greater than anything
that could be said about them in the West"(Said 304).

Works Cited

Beneviste, Emile. "Subjectivity in Language." Course Reader. 83-88

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and
Colonial Discourses." Course Reader. 289-300

Said, Edward W. "Introduction to Orientalism." Course Reader. 303-312

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Johanna M. Smith. Boston: Bedford Books,
1992

Smith, Johanna M. "'Cooped Up': Feminine Domesticity in Frankenstein." Bedford
Books, 1992 270-285

!

0

Other Keywords:
A Midsummer's Night Dream, Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Streetcar Named Desire, Invisible Man, A Tale of Two Cities, Absalom Absalom, Achilles, Huckleberry Finn, Adam Smith, Aeneid, Shakespeare, Agamemnon, Twain, Albert Camus, Oedipus Trilogy, Albert Einstein, Odyssey, Alchemist, Alexander Pope, Theodore Dreiser, Great Gatsby, Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Walker, Dante Alighieri, All Quiet on the Western Front, Slavery, All the King's Men, William Wordsworth, All the Pretty Horses, Allen Ginsberg, America, American Revolution, Ralph Ellison, American Tragedy, Society, Washington Irving, Amis, Amy Lowell, Ancient Empire, Sonnets, King Lear, Ancient Empire, Angelou, Sonny's Blues, Animal Farm, William Shakespeare, Anna Karenina, Anne Frank, Anne of Green Gables, Anne Sexton, Antigone, Anton Chekov, Antony and Cleopatra, Aphra Behn, Apology, Aristotle, Aristotle's Ethics, Art of War, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Miller, Arthur's Court, Samuel Taylor Coelridge, Artist, As I Lay Dying, Atlas, Atomic Bomb, Austen, Autobiography of Malcolm X, Awakening, Aztecs, Bacon, Barn Burning, Raymond Carver, Bartleby the Scrivener Battle of Bean Tree theses Silas Beatrix Potter Beloved Ben Jonson Nathaniel Hawthorne Benito Cereno, Benjamin Franklin, Beowulf, Berkeley, Berlin, Beth Norton, Billy Budd, bin Laden, Black Boy, Sylvia Plath, Black Cat, Black Like Me, Black Studies, Blake, Bleak House, Albert Einstein, Bless Me Ultima, Bluest Eye, White Fang, book report, books, Stephen Crane, Brave New World, Braveheart William Butler Yeats British Brown C. S. Lewis Robert Frost Caesar Caged Bird Sings Salman Rushdie Samuel Beckett Call of the Wild Camus Candide Yellow Wall Paper, student, Canterbury Tales, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Captain, Carew, Carl Sandburg, Raisin in the Sun, Carlos Williams, Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, Catcher, Ceasar, Young, Zora Neal Hurston, Century, Franz Kafka, Slaves, character analysis, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, William Blake, Charlotte, Chaucer esays Chocolate War Chopin Christopher Marlowe Wife of Bath Chrysalids Chrysanthemums Churchil Claude McKay Cold War college, Wuthering Heights, Colonial, Comedy of Errors, Scarlett Letter, Comedy, Community policing, Community, Tess, Testament, Conan Doyle, Connecticut Yankee, Conrad, Sinclair Lewis, Cottage, Count of Monte Cristo, Crane, Creon, Crime and Punishment, Crime Crito Crowe Ransom Cry the Beloved Country CS Lewis Cuckoo's Nest Susan Glaspell Culture Curse D. H. Lawrence Dante Alighieri, Dante, David Copperfield, Dean Howells, Death of a Salesman, Death, Arthur Miller, Declaration of Independence, Descartes, DH, Diary of Anne Frank, Dickenson, Dickinson, Dimmesdale, dissertation, Divine Comedy, Doctor Faustus, Jonathan Swift, Doctor Seuss, document, Doll's House, thesis, Don Juan, Don Quijote Donne Dorian Gray Dostoevsky Douglas papers Sir Gaiwan Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dracula Glass Menagerie Sherlocke Holmes dream dreams Dryden, Dubus, DUrbervilles, Dying, Dylan Thomas, E. A. Poe, Shakespeare's Comedies, E. M. Forester, E.E. Cummings, Moby, Economics, Edgar Allen Poe, essay, Edith Wharton, Edmund Spenser, Electra, Elektra, Eliot, Elitism, Elizabeth Barret Browning Elizabeth Bishop Elliot Ellison Emancipation Emerson Emily Dickinson Scarlet Emily Dante Alighieri Vergil Emma Tale, Emperor Jones, Enemy of the People, English research, Enlightenment, Eodipus, Equus, Erich Remarque, Ernest Hemingway, Ernest, Erye, esay, C.S. Lewis, Euclid, Eugene O'Neill, Eumenides, European, Euthyphro, exam, existence, Exit to Eden, Eyre, Ezra Pound F. Scott Fitzgerald Fahrenheit 451 Fahrenheit Farewell to Arms Farewell to Manzanar book reports Farewell Faulkner Faust Walt Whitman Fenimore Cooper Fiction Fires of Jubilee Fitzgerald, Flann O'Brien, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Forest, Francis Bacon, Street car, Francis Scott Key, Frankenstein, Sarah Orne Jewett, Franz Kafka, Frederick, free essays, Freedom, French Lieutenant's Woman, Freud's dreams, Frey, Frost, Fuentes, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gaiwan, Voltaire, Gatsby, Caeser, Gentleman, Geoffery Chaucer, George Bernard Shaw, George Eliot, George Orwell, German Germany Dorian Grey Gertrude Stein Ghosts termpapers, Gilgamesh Glass Menagerie Go Down Moses God exist God Goddess essays, Elizabeth Barret Browning termpaper Godfather Good Earth, Goodman, Gorbachev, Gore Vidal, Granny Weatherall, Grapes, Great Expectations, Great Gatsby, William James, Greek Mythology, Greek, Green, Greenleaf Whittier, Gulliver's Travels, Hairy Ape, Hamlet, Hans Christian Anderson, Hard Times, Virginia Woolf, Harriet Beacher Stowe, Odyssy, Harriet Jacobs, Hart, Hawthorne, essays about, Heart of Darkness, Heart Hedda Gabler Hemingway Hemingway's Short Stories Henrik Ibsen Anton Chekov Henry David Thoreau Henry IV Henry James Miller Henry V Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Society Herman Melville Hermann Hesse Hester Prynne, Hippolytus, History, Hitler, Rudyard Kipling, Hobbit, Homer, Horse, Huck Finn, Hyde, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Ibsen, Iliad, imagery, Oedipus, Immanuel Kant, Immigration, Imperialism, Incas, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Inferno, Inherit the Wind, Shakespeare's Plays, Invisible Man, Issac Newton, Ivan Ilyitch, J. D. Salinger, J. R. R. Tolkien, J.D. Salinger, Catch-22, Jack London, Jack Schaefer, Jackal James Baldwin James Fenimore Cooper James Joyce James Thurber Jane Austen Jane Eyre Jane Jean Jacques Rousseau Jean Louis Jack Kerouac Jean Toomer Jean-Paul Sartre Jekyl, Jewish, Jimmy Hendryx, Uncle, John Donne, John Dryden, Greenleaf Whittier, Wuthering, Grisham, John Keats, John Locke, John Milton, John Steinbeck, John Updike, Sir Gawain, Johnathan Swift, T. S. Elliot, Joseph Conrad William Faulkner student Joy Luck Club Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Jubilee Juliet Julius Caesar Julius Jungle Book Willa Cather Kafka Kate Chopin Katherine Anne Porter Keats Shelley Kill Killer Angels King Arthur King Arthur's Court King Lear King, Knight, Kurt Vonnegut, Shakespeare's Tragedies, Don Quixote, Labor, Walden, Lady Macbeth, Lancelot, Langston Hughes, Last of the Mohicans, Lazarus, Lear, free essays, Leaves, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Leo Tolstoy, Les Miserables, Tony Morrison, Lesson Before Dying, Lesson, Letter, T.S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Students, library, Life of Frederick Douglas, Light in August, Light, Literature, Little Women, Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Rings, Lord Tennyson, Lord, Lost, Louis Aragon, Lovelace Love's Labour's Lost Lowell Macbeth macroeconomics microeconomics Madame Bovary Main Street Makepeace Thackery Malcolm X Mallory Maltese Falcon Mann Manzanar Margaret Atwood Mark Twain Marlowe Marner Martian Chronicles Martin Luther King Mary Shelly Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Masque of the Red Death Matthew Arnold Maya Angelou Maya Mayans, Mayor of Casterbridge, Mcbeth, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, McKay, Measure for Measure, Melville, men, Menagerie, Merchant, Merry Wives of Windsor, Toni, Metamorphosis, Mice, Gaiwan, Drayton, Midsummer's Night Dream, night's midterm, Miguel de Cervantes, Milton, Moby Dick, Mockingbird, Mohicans, Monte, Moon, Moore, Morrison, Mortal Moses Mourning Becomes Electra Movement Much Ado about Nothing Muir My Antonia Mythology Nabokov Named Desire Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas Nashe Nathaniel Hawthorne essays on Native American Native Son Native New Testament Newton Night, Norman Mailer, Odysey, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oedipus destiny, Of Mice and Men, Okri, Old Man and the Sea, Erich Remarque, Old Testament, Oliver Twist, Wendell Holmes, Oliver, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Oscar Wilde, Othello, Outsiders, Ovid, book, Ovidius, Ox-Bow Incident, paper, Paradise, Parliament, Peace, Pearl, Penn Warren, Pepys, essays on Pericles Phaedo Phillis Wheatley Pickwick Picture of Dorian Gray Picture Pigs Pilgrims Plague D.H. Lawrence Plath Plato Plato's Republic Poe Poem Poe's Short Stories Poet Political, Politics, Pope, Shakespeare Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, John Updike, Portrait, Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice, Pride, Prince and the Pauper, Prince, Proclamation, Prologue, Vladimir Nabokov, Punishment, Pushkin, Quixote, Rainman, Raisin in the Sun, Raleigh, Ralph Ellison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Raven Raymond Carver Edith Wharton Red Badge of Courage reference Religion Rene Descartes report Republic research paper Return of the Native Revolution Richard II Mary Shelly Richard III Richard Wright, Richard, Rings, Rise of Silas Lapham, Rivals, Robert Browning, Robert Frost, Oedipus fate, George Orwell, Robert Lowell, Homer, Robinson Crusoe, Great Expectations, Jeffers, Rocking Horse Winner, Roger Chillingworth, Romeo and Juliet, Poems, Romeo, Rudyard Kipling, Russia, Rye, sale, Salesman, Salinger, Salman Rushdie, Samuel Beckett, J.R.R. Tolkien, Samuel Clemens, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coelridge, Sandburg, Sappho, Sarah Orne Jewett, Saroyan, Sartre, Satan Sawyer Leo Tolstoy Scarlet Letter Schaefer school Science Screw Sea Seamus Heaney Thomas Hobbes Secret Sharer Secret Self reliance Hawthorn Self Huckleberry Oedipus Rex, Self-reliance, sell, Sense and Sensibility, Separate Peace, Ovid, Separate, Sexton, Shadows, Shakespear, Dylan Thomas, essays on, Sharer, Sherlock, E. E. Cummings, Shooting an Elephant, Shrew, Siddhartha, Silas Marner, Sinclair Lewis, Sir Frances Bacon, Henrik Ibsen, Sir Issac Newton, John Locke, Sir Lancelot, free research papers, Sir Thomas More, Douglass, Sir Walter Scott, Skelton, Slave Sleepy Hollow image Snow Falling on Cedars Kurt Vonnegut Social Hierarchy Society Socrates John Keats, Solomon, Son, Albert Camus, Song of Solomon, Song, Sonnet, Oedipus the King, Flann O'Brien Sonny's Blues Sophocles Sophomore Sound and the Fury Soviet Union Spirit, Stalin, Star Wars, Stein, Cuckoo's Nest, Steinbeck, Stephen Crane, Stephen King, Zora Neale Hurston Steppenwolf Storm Stranger Streetcar Named Desire Jonathan Swift Students, Sula, Sun Also Rises, Jack London, Poe, Sun Tzu, Sun, Survival, Susan Glaspell, Swift, Sylvia Plath Sylvia Symbol Symbolism T. S. Eliot Tale of Two Cities Tales, Illiad, Taming of the Shrew, Tempest, Tender Mercies, Tennessee Williams, term paper, terrorism essays, Thomas Hardy, Tess D'Urbervilles, Testament, essays over, The Awakening, The Bear Bell Jar The Canterbury Tales Cask of Amontillado John Milton The Color Purple The Count of Monte Cristo, The Crucible, Ralph Elison, The Dead, Death of Ivan Ilyitch, Giver, The Grapes of Wrath, Great Awakening, Henry James, The Great Gatsby, Jilting of Granny Weatherall, The Jungle, Mayor of Casterbridge Paradise Lost The Merchant of Venice Mohicans The Prince The Scarlet Letter The Things They Carried, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Shakespeare, Theodore Dreiser, thesis, JRR Tolkien, Eugene O'Neill, Things Fall Apart, Third Reich F. Scott Fitzgerald Thomas Hardy Thomas Hobbes Thomas More Gatsby Thomas Wolfe Thoreau, Thorne, Thornton Wilder, Thurber, To Kill a Mockingbird, To the Lighthouse, Tolkien, Jubilee, Tom Jones, Tom Sawyer, Toni Morrison, Toomer, Transcendentalism Treasure Island Phillis Wheatley Treaty Versailles Trees Trial Trifles Truman research papers, Turn of the Screw, Twain, term papers, Twelfth Night, Miguel de Cervantes, Tess of D'Urbervilles, Twelve Angry Men, Twist, Louis Aragon, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Sun Tzu, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night's Dream, university Upton Sinclair Utopia Ezra Pound Vanity Fair Oedipus tragedy Vaughan Venice Vergil, essays, Verona, Vicar of Wakefield., Virgil, E.M. Forester, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Voltaire, Vonnegut, Walden Two, Wallace Stevens, Wallpaper, Walt Whitman, Walter Raleigh, Joseph Conrad, Washington Irving Weatherall Weldon When the Caged Bird Sings White Fang White Whitman Wicked Wife of Bath Wife Wild Duck, Willa Cather, Seamus Heaney, Invisible, Dissertations, William Blake, Jekyll, William Butler Yeats, Robert Browning, William Dean Howells, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, William Faulkner, Moby Dick, William Golding, William James, Thesis Statements, Benjamin Franklin, William Shakespeare, Menagerie, William Wordsworth essays Williams Winston Churchill Wiseblood Wolfe Sidhartha Women Woodrow Wilson Wordsworth John Donne World War I, Nathaniel Hawthorne, World War II, Tennessee Williams, World, reports, Wrath, Henry David Thoreau, Wright, write, Wuthering Heights, slave narrative, Dante's Inferno, Dante's Purgatory, Edmund Spenser, WWI, Joyce Carol Oates, Herman Melville, WWII, Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Yellow Wallpaper, Harriet Jacobs, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe