The Unknown Citizen

This poem by W.H. Auden exemplifies a theme that has already been portrayed by two texts so far in class. The first being "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," by Ernest Hemingway, and the second is Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych." However, as opposed to the direct confrontation with the theme in the other two texts, the poet in this texts fervently supports this man's doing, and his perfect role in society. The poem intends to leave the reader with a little pit in his or her stomach saying that "this perfect life being lived does not sound so perfect now that it is being described in all its glory." In no way does the poem ever directly say it to the reader, but this society dominated life shines negatively in the reader's eyes as the poem provides the outside view of a societally perfect life with the hope that the reader will abandon his or her attempts to achieve such a life. The rhyme scheme can be seen as an undertone to this theme as it is disorderly and abrupt with only a few rhymes. It gives the reader the feeling that something is "not quite right."

Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116)

This sonnet is Shakespeare's definition of love. Loves definition, according to Shakespeare, contains such a love that is everlasting, untempered, unyielding, and true. Love must be shared between two people who admit their problems openly and these "impediments" must be accepted by both parties and whether the traits are virtuous or not, they must not hurt the love shared. The Shakespearean-form sonnet is a heartfelt and romantic expression of love with the credibility of Shakespeare's writing thrown on the table to defend its description. He knows how good he is and uses his reputation to defend his point.

The Flea

John Donne's poem takes a intellectual approach towards the sanctity of maidenhood. The poem can be visualized as a man and a woman sitting in a room in which a flea bites first the man, then the woman, and just as she moves to kill it, the poet speaks. It can be seen as a poem of seduction, an attack at religious hypocrisy or both. The man's reasoning is that the blood shared inside of the flea has no effect on the woman's innocence, so why should they hold back from anything else. By the imagery of blood being shared, they have already become "more than married." Her attempts to kill the flea are explained as an even worse sin because she would be taking three lives so she might as well submit to him if she is going to commit such a mortal sin anyway. The rhyme scheme groups ideas into two rhyming couplets and one triplet for each of the three stanzas.

Respice Finem

Respice Finem means "Look to the End." Ivan had this saying engraved on a pendant that he wore along with the other "fashionable" apparel he bought after getting a law job. The irony in this is that Ivan never looked toward the end and realizes that only when faced with death. He was caught up in the selfish pursuance of his career and any other superficial, worldly pleasures available. He neglects the fact that he will one day die and therefore lives a shallow life with little care for anybody but himself. He never suspected his health would someday fail and he would need people who cared about him to be there for him.

Ivan Ilych's Simple, Ordinary Life

"Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible."

This quote portrays the most important theme in this story. All of Ivan's mental and emotional sufferings are direct products of this theme in his life. His proper pursuit of what is proper in society leaves him empty, friendless, and with no satisfaction in life. He climbed his career ladder successfully, provided for a family that society thought was the best for him, and died in a nice house with nice things in it. The main point of the narrator here is that society does not know what is best for you or what makes you happy, and it does do not care. The high class people Ivan surrounded himself with in order to advance in society were only hanging around with him in order to advance themselves.

Unreliable Narration: "The Yellow Wallpaper"

An unreliable narrator in a story is a narrator whose perception and views are jaded by an outlying disturbance; insanity in the case of "The Yellow Wallpaper." However, more information can be shared by an unreliable narrator than a more conventional narrative voice in some cases. For example, in "The Yellow Wallpaper,"a third person narrator would most likely neglect the reasoning behind the protagonists decent into insanity, and would fail to correctly note the feelings that motivated her peculiar actions. The unreliable narrator in the story, despite disorienting the reader at times, traces a clearer, more thought-provoking path than would a third-person omniscient narrator.A third-person omniscient narrator would more than likely dismiss her madness as an incurable degenerative disease as opposed to the fact that it was her treatment instead that was the culprit in her demise.

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

This story depicts the degeneration of a depressed/anxious woman in to total insanity told in her perspective. Forced to move to an isolated mansion for the summer by her husband in order to treat her anxiety, she is told not to work or to have any tiring interaction with anybody. The story is told through a series of journal entries throughout the summer months; a journal which she is keeping in secret. The first person point of view contributes a lot to this story because it provides a somewhat coherent path toward insanity for the protagonist. The antagonist in this story is, in fact, the yellow wallpaper which, though inanimate at first, comes to life for the author by the end of the story and actually fuses with the protagonist. The story, had it been written in third person, would have lost the effect of connecting the reader with the author. A reader of this story written in the third person would have immediately seen the insanity the woman was portraying early on. In the first person, the reader is able to see how insanity really comes to be: the person becoming insane always thinks they are doing the sane thing with their actions. The author provides justification for each of the queer actions and insights she shares about the yellow wallpaper and, under the isolation of not being able to work, write, or visit, begins to believe more and more illogical hypotheses. This story is meant to be a sort-of outcry against the treatment for anxiety most physicians rendered during this time. Isolated from work and all normal activities, the treatment is actually the cause for the woman's descent into insanity.