World University of Bangladesh

19th Century Literature 2

(ENG 416)

Term Paper

Submitted by:
Tashfeen Ahmed
Roll # 1425
Batch: 46/A
(Department of English)
 1. Why are love triangles so common in literature? Discuss this issue with
reference from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.

A Tale of Two Cities, originally published from April through November of 1859,
appeared in a new magazine that Dickens had created called All the Year Round.
Dickens started this venture after a falling-out with his regular publishers. Indeed,
this period in Dickens’s life saw many changes. While starring in a play by Wilkie
Collins entitled The Frozen Deep, Dickens fell in love with a young actress named
Ellen Ternan. Dickens’s twenty-three-year marriage to Catherine Hogarth had
become a source of unhappiness in recent years, and, by 1858, Hogarth had moved
out of Dickens’s home. The author arranged to keep Ternan in a separate residence.

Dickens’s participation in Collins’s play led not only to a shift in his personal life,
but also to a career development, for it was this play that first inspired him to write A
Tale of Two Cities. In the play, Dickens played the part of a man who sacrifices his
own life so that his rival may have the woman they both love; the love triangle in the
play became the basis for the complex relations between Charles Darnay, Lucie
Manette, and Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. Moreover, Dickens
appreciated the play for its treatment of redemption and rebirth, love and violence.
He decided to transpose these themes onto the French Revolution, an event that
embodied the same issues on a historical level. In order to make his novel
historically accurate, Dickens turned to Thomas Carlyle’s account of the revolution.
Contemporaries had considered Carlyle’s version to be the first and last word on the
French peasants’ fight for freedom.

The story revolves around the lives of the three main characters, Charles Darnay,
Lucie Manette, and Sydney Carton, during the time of the frightful French
Revolution. At first glance, the book may seem to be full of darkness, danger, and
despair, but A Tale of Two Cities is a story of love and hope.
 At first, the story seems to be tragic, depressing, and perilous, but with an
optimistic eye, you can see that it is filled with devoted love and aspiring hope. Acts
of love appear throughout the dramatic novel. A first example is the love triangle
that involves the three main characters; both men loved the beautiful Lucie Manette.
But Lucie only loved and chose one of them and the two eventually married.
Another example of an act of love from the book is of Charles Darnay. It was love
for his fellow cherished people that drove Charles Darnay's decision to go back to
France to save a friend from the heavy gloom of the guillotine. Equivalently, it was
also her loving affection for Darnay that made Lucie Manette follow him to France
to save him from the hands of the vengeful Revolutionaries. Furthermore, it was his
deep fondness for Lucie that swayed Sydney Carton to commit his selfless sacrifice.
Consequently, where there is love there is hope too; the hope that everything will be
better. The three all hoped for the best outcome in their situations. Their inner
prayers were finally answered by a generous solution. This heroic act was committed
by Sydney Carton.

A Tale of Two Cities is a prime example that there is always an amazing chance for
a person to change for the good if they so decide for themselves.
Despite giving the impression of a book of sadness and despair with numerous
twists and turns, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens serves as a beautiful
reminder to stay hopeful especially during the dark, stormy nights, and to believe in
the awesome power of love. I recommend this book to my fellow hopeful romantics,
history and literature enthusiasts, and even pessimistic people. I am confident that
through reading this book, the reader may be reminded of the true meaning of love
and to not only hope for better days but to be the one to create the best.
And so this can be a great example for which love triangles so common in literature.
 2. Critically Illustrate Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy reads
like a Greek Tragedy of Fate.

In the Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Tess spends several months at
this job, resisting Alec’s attempts to seduce her. Finally, Alec takes advantage of her
in the woods one night after a fair. Tess knows she does not love Alec. She returns
home to her family to give birth to Alec’s child, whom she christens Sorrow. Sorrow
dies soon after he is born, and Tess spends a miserable year at home before deciding
to seek work elsewhere. She finally accepts a job as a milkmaid at the Talbothays
Dairy.

At Talbothays, Tess enjoys a period of contentment and happiness. She befriends

three of her fellow milkmaids—Izz, Retty, and Marian—and meets a man named
Angel Clare, who turns out to be the man from the May Day dance at the beginning
of the novel. Tess and Angel slowly fall in love. They grow closer throughout Tess’s
time at Talbothays, and she eventually accepts his proposal of marriage. Still, she is
troubled by pangs of conscience and feels she should tell Angel about her past. She
writes him a confessional note and slips it under his door, but it slides under the
carpet and Angel never sees it.

Angel agrees to help Tess, though he cannot quite believe that she has actually
murdered Alec. They hide out in an empty mansion for a few days, then travel
farther. When they come to Stonehenge, Tess goes to sleep, but when morning
breaks shortly thereafter, a search party discovers them. Tess is arrested and sent to
jail. Angel and Liza-Lu watch as a black flag is raised over the prison, signaling
Tess’s execution.
Hardy seemingly inverts the concept of tragedy, insofar that, as opposed to an
imitation of the joys and dejections of life, Tess is used on an individual level to
paint a bitter portrait of realism and inculpate the society which dictates such
melancholy. Rather than purging the audience of their inner turmoil through a,
typically male protagonist; Hardy humanizes Tess's condition: men embodying the
authority of God- the figures of Angel (biblically symbolizing the hope of
redemption for the fallen woman ) and Alec (signifying impious temptation)
dominating the course of the maiden. The cosmos and God's which are to blame for
our misfortunes are demeaned to a very factual level: it is men whom oppress her
through ignorance of their own faults and exacerbation of hers; as she is ultimately
judged by societies' delineation of ethics.

In a sense, Hardy mirrors the ideology of the Greek tragedy, to the extent that, just as
the knowledge that the perennial intervention of the God's relieves us of the blame
for our destinies; the invisible construct of society with its judgments on sexuality,
womanhood, morality and status are entirely accountable for the demise of Tess.
Hardy propagates this concept of accountability through the unorthodox addition of a
narration throughout; often satirically mocking the concept that Tess is vilified by
the God's for her actions- noting that 'Providence must have been sleeping' at the
moment in which the maiden's fate is determined by rape.
Rather than being propelled by action, Hardy speculates on the events occurring, the
human witness punctuating the novel, suggesting that intervention and a divergence
of fate is entirely possible; just as, as the author, Hardy has the ability to manipulate
and/or alleviate the deterioration of Tess.
 3. Apart from knowing the storyline of a novel, getting to know its themes,
motifs and symbols can be like entering a room fully. Critically discuss
the point with reference To Silas Marner by George Eliot.

In Silas Marner by George Eliot if we look at the following themes, motifs and
symbols, we find these:

Loneliness and Despair

A common theme in literature is "loneliness". Throughout this novel, many
characters experience their own type of loneliness or isolation. It is very interesting
to track this theme and its implications as the story progresses. Some characters have
physical isolation or loneliness, such as Silas. Other characters exhibit mental
loneliness, like Godfrey. He experiences loneliness when he cannot tell the ones he
loves the truth about his lies.

Betrayal, Blackmail, and Lies

Many characters will are lied to, blackmailed, or betrayed. Silas is betrayed by
William in Lantern Yard, as well as by those who cast him out of town. He was also
betrayed when Dunstan stole his money. The theme of lies is most evident with
Godfrey. By concealing his secret marriage, hiding the fact that Eppie was his child,
and lying to Nancy, it inevitably costs Godfrey what was truly important to him.
Overall, these themes are important to the story, demonstrating corrupt deeds are
never rewarded.

Trust
Silas has a very hard time learning to trust people. Having been framed and then
stolen from, Silas does not find trusting people to be an easy task. It is only in the
end when Eppie proves her love to Silas that he believes in love and the people he
loves.
Money
Silas’ money becomes a symbol of his own demise. He begins to worship his gold
coins and believes that the faces on each are his friends. His attachment to inanimate
object shows his lack of trust in others. He fixates on the gold coins because, unlike
people, they cannot betray him, leave him, or forsake him.

The Loom
Silas’ loom is a major symbol in his life. Despite being his means of income, the
loom also symbolizes Silas’ solitude and his industrious nature. It also aids in
portraying Silas’ desolate life and adds to the metaphor of Silas as a spider: hunched
over his loom, with his rather large, protruding eyes, weaving constantly.

The Hearth
As a universal symbol, hearths typically represent the warmth and happiness of a
home. For Silas, it symbolizes much more. It represents the gift that came to him, his
child Eppie, and the love that he found after he had been forsaken and stolen from.

So from the above aspects we can clearly see that symbols, motifs and themes of a
novel will let you enter into it fully and deeply.
 4. How do you prove that Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre represents 19th
century women’s emancipation or their aspirations for it?

Jane Eyre’s message of gender equality, individuality, and female empowerment is

the foundation of why the text is considered central to the feminist canon. Charlotte
Bronte broke conventional stereotypes to create a work that empowers women. The
characterization of Eyre rejects the contextual norms of women being subservient
and dependent on male control.

Eyre’s characterization highlighted the value of independent thinking and equality

while challenging the subordinate depiction of women within literature. Thus, the
values of equality, female empowerment, and independent identities that the text
embraces demonstrate why it is central to the feminist canon.

Women were expected “to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting
stockings”. This quote expresses the way women were praised for trivial pursuits
rather than their intelligence, wit, or strength.

However, Eyre insists one “should never depend on a fellow-creature” for their
personal fulfillment, which puts her in juxtaposition to these expectations. Eyre
defies the role of a subordinate female by refusing to be objectified by Rochester.
For instance, Rochester tries to objectify her and to make her fit his ideal of a woman
by buying her expensive jewels and clothes. It would have been easier to accept this
treatment because it would have ensured Eyre’s financial security.
Most women in the Victorian age were molded into the frame of dependent domestic
creatures. In this paper a new image of empowered Victorian woman is conducted
through Charlotte Bronte’s selected novel Jane Eyre.
The basic aim of this is to find the role of social class issues, and Victorian gender
prejudices in oppressing women and heading the protagonist Jane to maintain her
socio-economic empowerment. To achieve the aforementioned aim, this research
employs the Feminist Marxism and Postcolonial approaches to exhibit the
patriarchal and gender barriers that most Victorian women had to cross over in order
to achieve their selfhood. Ergo, it explores the Victorian Era’s social conditions
focusing on the Industrial Revolution’s impact. Secondly, it examines the patriarchal
traits and gender codes which oppressed Victorian women, and brought them into
madness just because of their attempts to reach the freedom men had always
enjoyed.

Finally, it represents the Victorian woman in her struggle to finally reach her
autonomy. In this regard, this research is helpful to convey the different ways
through which a woman can overcome the oppressive and sexist societal norms.
Importantly, it concludes that Victorian females can make themselves heard and
influential by participating in social issues and challenging male’s authority in the
Victorian society.

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