literature is a mirror of life essay 500 words

Literature is the Mirror of Life

This essay about the concept that “literature is the mirror of life” explores how literary works reflect, interpret, and influence reality. It discusses how authors use characters, settings, and plots to mirror societal conditions and personal experiences across different eras, enhancing our understanding of historical and cultural climates. Literature employs devices like symbolism and allegory to emphasize complex life themes, such as alienation and identity, making them more accessible. Additionally, the essay highlights literature’s role in fostering empathy and broadening perspectives by offering diverse viewpoints. It also considers literature’s capacity to inspire societal change, citing historical examples like “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The essay concludes by affirming literature’s ongoing relevance in addressing modern issues, thus continuing to reflect and shape human experiences and ethical considerations.

How it works

The assertion that “literature is the mirror of life” is not just a poetic or metaphorical observation—it is deeply rooted in the way literature reflects, distorts, interprets, and even shapes the reality it depicts. Literature offers more than an escape into fictional realms; it provides profound insights into human nature, societal structures, cultural norms, and the personal and collective experiences of people across different times and places.

At its core, literature serves as a reflective surface in which the complexities of life are projected and explored.

Whether through the tragic quandaries of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the societal critique in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” or the dystopian future envisioned by George Orwell in “1984,” literature has always had the power to mirror the societal and existential conditions of its era. Each narrative, character, and setting provides a window into the author’s world, offering contemporary readers a chance to witness the historical and cultural climates that shaped these works.

Moreover, literature does not merely replicate life in a straightforward manner; it often enhances or alters reality to draw attention to specific themes or issues. By employing devices such as symbolism, allegory, and irony, writers can highlight aspects of life that may go unnoticed or are too complex to be observed directly in everyday experiences. For instance, Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” transforms the protagonist into a giant insect to explore themes of alienation, identity crisis, and the absurdity of existence—issues that are universally relatable, yet difficult to discuss openly without the veil of fiction.

This reflective quality of literature also allows for a multiplicity of perspectives, enabling readers to see life through the eyes of characters vastly different from themselves. This is not just an academic exercise; it cultivates empathy, broadens understanding, and challenges preconceived notions. Reading about the struggles and triumphs of a character from a different background or society can forge a deeper understanding of the diversity and complexity of human experience. For example, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah” offers insights into the life of a Nigerian woman navigating her identity in America and the UK, providing readers with perspectives on race, immigration, and globalization.

The relationship between literature and life is also dynamic. While literature mirrors life, it also has the profound capacity to influence and inspire changes in readers’ lives. By presenting ideals, critiquing societal norms, and envisioning alternative realities, literature can motivate change. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” for instance, played a notable role in shaping public opinion about slavery in America before the Civil War, illustrating how literature can not only reflect societal attitudes but also actively influence them.

In contemporary terms, literature continues to serve as a critical mirror, reflecting modern dilemmas and innovations. The digital age, for instance, has spawned novels that explore the implications of internet privacy, artificial intelligence, and other technological advances. These narratives help readers grapple with the rapid changes shaping their lives and may guide ethical considerations and policy decisions.

In conclusion, to say that literature is the mirror of life is to recognize its role as both a reflector and shaper of the human condition. It captures and reveals the nuances of human emotions, societal shifts, and moral dilemmas, offering both a reflection and a critique of the world it depicts. Through literature, we not only see life more clearly but are also inspired to imagine what it could be, making literature an indispensable part of our understanding of ourselves and our societies.

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Essay on Literature In Our Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on Literature In Our Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Literature In Our Life

Introduction to literature.

Literature is a big part of our lives. It includes books, poems, plays, and other writings. We use literature to learn, to feel emotions, and to understand other cultures and times. It helps us to think and to grow.

The Importance of Literature

Literature is important because it lets us see the world in new ways. By reading, we can experience other people’s lives and feelings. This can make us more understanding and kind. It can also inspire us to do great things.

Literature and Education

In school, we read a lot of literature. This helps us to learn about language, history, and science. It also helps us to improve our thinking skills. By reading, we can become smarter and more knowledgeable.

Literature and Entertainment

Literature is also a great way to have fun. We can enjoy exciting stories, funny poems, and interesting plays. This can make us happy and relaxed. It can also help us to be more creative and imaginative.

In conclusion, literature is a very important part of our lives. It helps us to learn, to feel, to understand, and to enjoy. So, let’s keep reading and enjoying literature!

250 Words Essay on Literature In Our Life

What is literature.

Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. It includes books, poems, plays, and other written works. Literature is a mirror of society, showing us the world and our place within it.

Role of Literature in Our Life

Literature plays a key role in our life. It can entertain us, make us think, or even make us cry. It is a way for us to experience different cultures, times, and places. Reading literature can help us understand other people’s feelings and viewpoints.

Learning from Literature

Literature is a great teacher. It can teach us about history, science, art, and so much more. By reading books, we can learn about different parts of the world, different ways of life, and different ideas. This can help us become more open-minded and understanding.

Expression through Literature

Literature is also a way for us to express our feelings and ideas. When we write, we can share our thoughts and emotions with others. This can help us feel understood and connected to other people.

In conclusion, literature is a vital part of our life. It helps us understand the world around us, learn new things, and express our feelings. So, let’s keep reading and writing to grow and learn more about the world.

500 Words Essay on Literature In Our Life

Introduction.

Literature plays a crucial role in our lives. It is more than just words written on a page. It is a mirror that reflects society, a window that allows us to look into different worlds, and a tool to teach us about life.

The Power of Stories

From the time we are small, we are told stories. These tales, whether they are from books, movies, or our family members, help us understand the world. They teach us about good and bad, right and wrong. They show us different ways of living and thinking. In this way, literature helps us learn about ourselves and others.

Learning from Characters

In literature, we meet many characters. Some are brave, some are wise, and some are just like us. These characters face problems, make decisions, and learn lessons. By reading about their experiences, we too can learn. We can see how they handle situations and what results from their actions. This can guide us in our own lives.

Exploring Different Worlds

Literature also takes us to places we may never visit in real life. Through books, we can travel to distant lands, explore outer space, or even visit magical worlds. This not only entertains us but also expands our understanding of the world. It opens our minds to new ideas and possibilities.

Understanding Society

Literature reflects society. It shows us the customs, beliefs, and problems of different cultures and times. By reading literature, we can learn about history and social issues. This can help us understand why things are the way they are today. It also teaches us empathy as we read about the experiences of different people.

Improving Language Skills

Reading literature improves our language skills. It introduces us to new words and phrases. It shows us how to express our thoughts and feelings in a beautiful and effective way. This can help us in our studies and in our daily communication.

In conclusion, literature is a vital part of our lives. It teaches us, entertains us, and opens our minds. It helps us understand ourselves, others, and the world. So, let’s keep reading and let literature enrich our lives.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Literature as a key to understanding people, society and life.

ARTICLE | May 28, 2018 | BY Janani Ramanathan

This article uses Jane Austen’s 19 th century novel Pride and Prejudice to illustrate the power of literature as a source of knowledge that transcends the insights of history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and conventional literary criticism. Pride and Prejudice shows how England avoided a French Revolution of its own. The story depicts the process of social integration that resulted in the harmonious integration of different classes in the country. Through every character and incident in the story, Austen depicts the rising aspiration among the lower classes, and the reluctant willingness of those above to accommodate this aspiration. The English aristocrats sacrificed their egoistic pride and prestige to save their heads. In the marriage of Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, in the friendship between Darcy and Bingley, in the rise of Collins, the fall of Lady Catherine and the exploits of Wickham, Austen portrays a society that is giving up the old world order and embracing change. Pride and Prejudice is also a profound study of human psychology. Austen portrays five very different characters in the five Bennet girls, all from the same stock, but at the same time shows us with mathematical precision how each of the girls is a unique combination of the various characteristics of Mrs. and Mr. Bennet. The story is full of profound insights into human nature that cannot be obtained from studies of psychology or biography. It shows how the constant altercations between Mrs. and Mr. Bennet are more than an expression of the underlying rivalry between the couple. They are also an outcome of a marriage between two different classes. The role of a well developed individual in spearheading a revolution or social movement is seen in the changes Darcy and Elizabeth are able to bring about with their strong individuality. Austen’s in-depth knowledge of human nature creates men and women with characteristics that are perfectly true to life. Pride and Prejudice goes beyond a study of the individual and the society. It is pervaded with a deeper knowledge of the character of life itself. Some or perhaps all of these great truths were known to the ancients but forgotten or rejected by the modern mind so preoccupied with the external appearances of things. But Austen has consciously or subconsciously exquisitely captured many of these truths of life with the apparent effortlessness of a true master. Do our words come true? Can our thoughts and attitudes determine the events in our lives? What is the science behind coincidence? Is there such a thing as chance? Through Pride and Prejudice, Austen gives us the answers and illustrates the precise laws according to which life works. She even possesses insights into life missed by the renowned Shakespearean critic A.C. Bradley. Literature entertains and educates us. It can teach us about the past, help us understand the present and empower us to create the future. Read with this insight, Pride and Prejudice, as all great works of literature, offers us all the knowledge required to promote individual accomplishment and human welfare. New canons of literary criticism need to be evolved that discover the knowledge of life in literature.

“ Life is the raw material from which the creative imagination of great writers generates works of fiction that are truer than life—truer because they probe and reveal more deeply its real character. ”

1. Understanding the Character of Life

Entertaining literature enthralls us with suspense, humor and the intense action of an engaging plot. Superior literature transcends mere action. It presents to the reader the author’s insights into human character and reveals the complex ways in which human character, action and circumstance interrelate to generate chains of consequences and results. Still finer literature reveals the complex interactions between action, individual character and the evolving character of the society in which the action takes place. The greatest literature goes still further. It reveals not only insights of individual and social character but of the character of Life itself. A new genre of literary criticism that studies literature as a mirror of life and draws from it deeper insights into the character of Life will open up a window to the profound wisdom that resides in our vast repository of world literature. Even personal experience cannot match its value, for in our own lives we are but half-conscious and too involved in the action to truly decipher its significance. Only the knowledge that comes from direct spiritual experience can exceed the intuitive perceptions of great literature. And like the scientist who in recent centuries has acquired more and more powerful instruments to delve more deeply into the mysteries of the infinitesimal and the infinite, we shall find that great literature offers an unending revelation both of the minute details revealed by critical analysis and the integral knowledge offered by a synthesis that exceeds the limitations of mental logic to reveal the logic of the infinite.

2. The True Purpose of Literary Criticism

“ The more subtle the message, the more powerful it comes across. ”

‘Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on’, Austen advised her niece in a letter, and her novel Pride and Prejudice seems to be just such a story. It is about the Bennets and their neighbours the Lucases in the village of Longbourn. The story follows the lives of the members of the two families, their relatives and friends over a period of a year. In the little bit of ivory on which she worked with a fine brush, as she described her own work, there are plenty of dances and dinners, disappointments and heartaches, engagements and weddings. Many have criticized Austen for her commonplace stories with fairy tale endings. Raymond Williams, author and critic, uses her own classic opening line to summarize his criticism of her work: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Austen chose to ignore the decisive historical events of her time.’ But Austen did not ignore anything. It was her critics who have missed the point for over two centuries. In her works, Austen writes about the condition of the church, the decline of aristocracy, the treatment of the poor, greater rights for women, the rising aspirations of people and the French Revolution. She shows us how England managed to avoid a similar revolution. Her books, as all great literature, offer insights into human psychology. They go further and reveal the great truths by which society and life function. They analyze the science behind chance happenings and lucky coincidences. They offer us all the knowledge required to promote individual accomplishment and human welfare.

Austen ignores neither the historical events of her time, nor the social conditions of her land. She was born during the American Revolution, and England was at war throughout her life. She wrote her six novels during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. She had two brothers in the navy, and one in the army. Her cousin married a French nobleman who was later sent to the guillotine. Unlike other European countries, England had not imposed a ban on newspaper reports about the Revolution initially. Groups that were loyal to varying degrees to the principle of the Revolution found support in England. Their meetings and pamphlets received wide attention. As a result of all this, Austen was clearly aware of and touched by the socio-political movements of the period. So when a fierce war was raging in a neighbouring country, and aristocrats were being beheaded, how could she be engrossed in a tale of country girls, their dresses and dances, their affairs of love and marriage?

To this, there is a simple, incontrovertible response, that contrary to the generally held belief, and in spite of her own advice to her niece, Austen was not writing simply about three or four families in a country village. It is not possible for any writer, especially one of Austen’s stature, to create something that is not true to life. Great writers consciously or subconsciously reflect truths of life and the happenings in society in their writing. No creativity, not even in a tale of fantasy or science fiction, can describe something that is untouched by the trends and values of society, either current or pertaining to some period in history. Life is the raw material from which the creative imagination of great writers generates works of fiction that are truer than life—truer because they probe and reveal more deeply its real character. Life, no matter how disguised as fiction, is the reality they portray in people and events. Some writers describe them explicitly. They weave historical events into their story, the very plot is based on these events. In Les Misérables , Victor Hugo devotes entire chapters to the Napoleonic Wars and the 1832 June Rebellion. Other writers describe historical movements more implicitly. In Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield , the Industrial Revolution and its impact on Britain form the backdrop of the protagonist David’s life. There are yet other writers whose works capture social changes more subtly. This is where Austen fits. The more subtle the message, the more powerful it comes across. Moreover, she had a compulsion to be subtle.

Mindless violence rapidly replaced the ideals of the Revolution across the English Channel. Then England became engaged in prolonged wars with Napoleonic France. The English government that had not gagged the press initially became stringent. Any pro-Revolution sentiment became treasonous. Not only the views challenging the monarchy, but any view that seemed to question the status quo in society, be it the social structure, law, government policy, or the power of the church was considered treasonous. The climate of fear, insecurity and uncertainty that prevailed in the country induced as well as provided an opportunity for the government to crush any revolutionary and reformist ideas. In order to limit the spread of ideas and information, the government imposed a substantial stamp duty on newspapers, which the working class press was unable to afford. This restricted the spread of ideas among people of the working class. Authors, printers and publishers could be prosecuted for seditious libel, a tactic used by the government to silence criticism and quell any demand for reform. In 1789, discussion and comment on the Revolution were prohibited on theater stages. Even fiction could not broach on a radical idea. At such a time, Austen could not but be subtle in her critical social commentary.

Pride and Prejudice , to which we limit our focus here, is about the French Revolution, and the peaceful social evolution in England as a response to it. Through the characters and events in the story, Austen makes a critical social statement in an atmosphere that does not permit her to state her case more explicitly. She portrays what is happening around her in so subtle a manner that we almost miss it. But in every dialogue and description, Austen captures truths of society. All the characters’ aspirations, attitudes and acts reveal them. Their friendships and relationships are determined by them. The success and failure of their initiatives echo universal truths. There is no mention of war or revolution in Pride and Prejudice . However, when we look beneath the surface of the story, we find the clear impact of the movement across the Channel on British society.

Helena Kelly, in her book Jane Austen, The Secret Radical, 1 analyzes in great detail every line of Austen, and shows how the author reveals views on political and social issues of the day when one reads between the lines. Living and writing at a time when any criticism of the status quo was seen as disloyal to the country, Austen had to write warily. Kelly argues that Austen’s conscious or subconscious attitudes are depicted through her characterizations—such as in a comic clergyman and a boorish aristocrat. But Kelly has stopped short of taking the analysis to its logical conclusion. For the artist’s intention is only of relative importance. What is more important is the nature of reality revealed in and through her works. That is the true purpose of literary criticism and of all art.

England had seen its own revolution a century earlier. It did not need such a violent uprooting of its social values. It had subconsciously imbibed the principles that formed the basis of the French Revolution. In fact, this was the reason its own version of the revolution, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, had been of a very different nature from the French. It had been bloodless and paved the way for the modern English parliamentary democracy. England was thus spared a revolution because it adopted a peaceful evolution.

The British society was stratified and class distinctions were present. But unlike in France, the distinctions were not rigid. With every century and then every decade, it became more and more easy to cross these boundaries. Birth was not the sole determinant of a person’s destiny. One could be born in the working class, and find a way up the social hierarchy, to the trading, middle, landed, and even the aristocratic classes. Work, income, fortune, marriage, valour, ambition, enterprise and talent were different paths that could take one into the highest circles of British society. Whereas in France, birth quite determined everything in life from the beginning till the end. This absolute rigidity resulted in the French aristocrats losing their heads to the guillotine. The contrasting flexibility in British society, giving a thought to others below, lending a hand to those in the lower rungs, and accepting new entrants into their circles saved the aristocrats their heads. They were not always done voluntarily or willingly, but the social progression followed that general direction.

The English historian G. M. Trevelyan said that if the French nobility had been capable of playing cricket with their peasants, their chateaux would never have been burnt. It is on the record that on that July day in 1789 when the Bastille was stormed, some 300 miles away in Hampshire, the Earl of Winchilsea was playing cricket, and was bowled out before he could score a single run, by an untitled man named William Bullen. Whether it was playing cricket with a commoner that saved the Earl’s castle or not, it was definitely embracing other classes that saved the English nobleman his future. Cricket, football, or any other sport would have served the purpose, it was the underlying principle. The British played without segregation, aristocracy, gentry, traders, workers and all. This interplay across classes allowed integration in society. This silent evolution that saved England its revolution is captured in Austen’s romance of Elizabeth and Darcy, who hail from different echelons of society. Every page of Austen’s writing is an alternative social treatise.

3. The Process of Social Development

Pride and Prejudice begins with news of the arrival of a wealthy bachelor, Charles Bingley, at Netherfield Hall in Hertfordshire. But actually, the story begins much earlier. Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Bennet had been a young gentleman with an estate that provided him a comfortable 2000 pounds a year. Mrs. Bennet’s father had been an attorney in the nearby town of Meryton. He had been fairly successful and left his daughter with 4000 pounds. Her sister had married their father’s clerk who had succeeded him in business. Her brother was employed in trade in London. Mrs. Bennet had however set her sights higher. She was silly and foolish, but also very beautiful and vivacious. She wished to rise in society. Work and the trading class were not for her. Neighborhood dances and parties brought her and Mr. Bennet, the landlord of Longbourn estate, together. The charm of her youth and beauty, combined with the indiscretion of his own youth, led to their marriage. The first seed of social evolution that harmoniously wedded the landed upper class and the rising middle class was sown. Mrs. Bennet is now the mistress of Longbourn, and of the most prominent family in the neighborhood. Her sister, brother and their families are welcome at Longbourn, and her own daughters visit them in Meryton and London regularly. The girls have among their friends daughters of tradesmen and wives of soldiers. They are particularly close to the family of a neighboring knight. This union of one man and one woman symbolizes the larger union of two classes. It results at a macro level, in a gradual merging of various diverse sections of people and social groups.

Mrs. Bennet’s aspiration for social rise continues and intensifies. Having become the mistress of Longbourn and found a foothold in the upper class, she sets about the task of having her daughters elevated further. When Bingley, with an income of four or five thousand pounds a year, occupies the neighboring estate of Netherfield, she exclaims, ‘ If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield... and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for .’ This young man has recently inherited the fortune his father made in trade. Colonization and expanding trade were beginning to change the economic climate of the country. People were no longer dependent on the farmland for sustenance. Colonies supplied raw materials and served as vast new markets; railroad and shipping industries were developing; factories were coming up; and towns and cities were developing and expanding. Anyone with enterprise and diligence could improve his fortune. A new middle class was formed, that constantly sought to imitate and eventually join the wealthy classes. The social climate sanctioned this aspiration. Thus, Bingley, with his father’s money that had been earned in trade, is trying to join the higher ranks. He has given up trade since the wealthy did not work or need to earn a living. He spends all his time hunting, riding and in such leisure activities. He keeps a house in London and an estate in the country. His friends are from circles that are more suited to his new life style. His closest friend, Fitzwilliam Darcy, belongs to an old, landed family. Bingley looks up to Darcy, is almost subservient to him, and brings him along to his new country home near the Bennet family. Darcy accepts Bingley’s friendship and his invitation, and almost takes responsibility for the new entrant to his class. Just like the marriage between Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, the friendship between Bingley and Darcy is another facet of the social evolution that Austen captures in her story. Britain provided the opportunity for people to work their way up from the lower classes in one generation. The next generation found acceptance, sometimes readily, sometimes reluctantly, in the social circles above.

Darcy follows Bingley readily enough to his new estate, Netherfield Hall. However, he is more reluctant to accompany Bingley to the dances and dinners in the country. Bingley’s rise is recent, and unlike some nouveau riche who are impatient to disown their humble roots, he is just as comfortable with the unsophisticated villagers as he is with the aristocrats. However, Darcy refuses to mix with the people of Hertfordshire. They are not exclusive enough for his taste. He is affronted when they speak to him. He finds their manners and values vulgar. He is eager to maintain his distance and distinction socially, if not physically. He comes to the first ball and is haughty and aloof. He does not find any girl good enough to dance with. To do so would be a punishment, he says, within earshot of the second Bennet girl, Elizabeth. Finally, it is this same girl to whom he proposes marriage, not once but twice. When his second attempt is successful, and his ‘dearest, loveliest Elizabeth’ accepts him, he feels a happiness that he has never felt before. His friend Bingley becomes engaged to the eldest Bennet girl, Jane, and the story concludes with the double weddings of the two friends with the two sisters. This ‘fairy tale’ ending for which Austen has been criticized is yet another symbolic step in the direction British society was taking. The highest levels of the landed gentry forged lasting relationships with the lower levels, erasing social boundaries. Darcy who was among the first circles in the land marries a girl without a fortune, the daughter of a modest landowner, with ties to the working class in the country and tradespeople in London. Bingley and Jane’s wedding too bridges a similar but narrower gap.

Austen captures this same movement in numerous events in the story. Collins, the Bennet girls’ cousin, has very humble beginnings. He finds employment in the church in Rosings Park, Lady Catherine’s estate. The Lady is Darcy’s aunt, and belongs to one of the oldest and wealthiest families in the country. Collins’ family is of the most modest means. But the new social atmosphere sees Collins invited frequently to tea and dinner at the Lady’s estate. He enjoys his social elevation; she needs his sycophancy for her own self-aggrandizement. In this symbiotic relationship between two classes, Austen deftly paints many pictures. The merging of two ends of the classes is reflected again here. The Lady’s foolish and boorish ways show the decadence that is set in the upper classes. The parson’s servility shows the lack of divinity and values in the Church.

Collins’ father-in-law, Sir William Lucas, had been a trader in Meryton, the town neighboring Longbourn. He had happened to receive a knighthood, and promptly closed shop to retire in the country and enjoy his knighthood. A trader could find entry into the king’s court, and become a knight! His daughter, Charlotte, is an unmarried twenty seven year old girl without beauty or fortune. Austen takes this girl who has been visiting Longbourn estate for many years to meet her friends the Bennets, and makes her its mistress. After her marriage to Collins, who is the heir to the Longbourn estate, Charlotte is set to succeed Mrs. Bennet in the position of prominence in the locality. Sir Lucas’ knighthood and Charlotte’s elevation through marriage to Collins are again Austen’s portrayal of the social changes taking place in the country. Lowly people are raised to heights they have never imagined, and find entry into circles they had earlier admired from a distance.

Wickham, the son of Darcy’s estate steward, had not stopped with simply admiring, he had coveted Darcy’s lofty position all his growing years. Where his father had been happy to serve, Wickham wants to be master. He connives with the family governess to convince Darcy’s sister Georgiana to elope with him. This will gain him Georgiana’s fortune of thirty thousand pounds, as well as entry into the house, he need no longer be restricted to the employees’ quarters. Two employees of the Darcy estate daring to breach the social boundaries violently and commit this act of social violence on Miss Darcy shows the daring in the lower classes, and the weakness in the upper. An unexpected visit by Darcy results in the detection and prevention of the scheme. Later, Wickham carries out something similar with Lydia, the youngest Bennet girl. Darcy has all his life disliked Wickham, with very good reason. In his brief acquaintance with Lydia, he has seen no reason to think well of her. He belongs to a wealthy, distinguished family, and used to consider contact with anyone outside his social sphere a pollution. But the changing conditions, aided by his love for Elizabeth, make Darcy go in search of Wickham and Lydia, in areas he would otherwise not visit, with the assistance of people he would much rather avoid. He gets the two married, repays Wickham’s debts, procures him a job, and salvages the Bennet family’s reputation. The highest in the land stoops to save, for a number of reasons, a low scoundrel, a thoughtless girl and a family he initially considered unfit to relate to.

Whereas the earlier generation among the lower classes was happy to be at the service of aristocrats, the next generation is no longer content to be in the subservient position. Forgetting for a moment Wickham’s morals and values, one sees in his attitude the resentment of the lower classes to remain where they are. They want to rise, and what comes out as servile fawning in Collins’ case expresses as devious stratagem in Wickham. The social climate permits Wickham his ambition. He is not called out to a duel by Lydia’s family, he is not murdered or sent to jail. The Bennets and Darcys continue to support him and his wife, and grudgingly accept him into their family circle. It takes Austen’s genius to make Darcy and the son of his former steward both sons-in-law and hence, in some regard, equal in the Bennet family.

“ The English aristocrat gave up his superiority, and saved his head, unlike his French counterparts who absolutely refused to bow down, and ultimately lost all. ”

The shades of Pemberley, the Darcy estate would be polluted, fears Lady Catherine de Bourgh, because of her nephew Darcy’s connections with the Bennet family. She is titled, and even higher than Darcy in the social order. She is forced by circumstances to go to Longbourn, to attempt to bully and coerce Elizabeth into giving up Darcy. When her threats fail to have any impact on Elizabeth, Lady Catherine is unable to comprehend it! She is steeped in class consciousness, and tries to maintain the old order. She is unable to understand, let alone accept, change. But her attitudes and beliefs are fast losing ground, and in the face of the powerful changes taking place in society, she and her opinions are swept aside.

The stratification of society was in fact based on real differences in cultural attainment. A class that owned vast acres of land and great wealth had the leisure and means to improve itself culturally and intellectually. This further widened the social differences between itself and the rest of the population, and raised real barriers to compatibility and harmony between the classes. These differences were self-reinforcing. The barriers which egalitarian modern society today tends to dismiss as mere prejudice did exist, as Lady Catherine insists. The long gradual decline of aristocracy leads us to overlook the real cultural attainments which characterized their ascendency and long period of social dominance. However, the barriers were fast becoming flexible, thanks to developments in science, trade, travel, empire building, education and economic progress. That is how the sons of traders are able to enter higher social circles and daughters of country attorneys can marry the landed gentry. To Lady Catherine’s great indignation, Elizabeth does marry Darcy and enter Pemberley. She declares she will have nothing to do with the couple anymore. But eventually, she responds to her nephew and his wife’s reconciliatory invitation, and visits them. In the story, she represents the last citadel of the old world order that crumbles, giving way to a more integrated and inclusive society. Austen shows how those who bowed to change, gracefully or otherwise, survive. Pemberley that had been the seat of the distinguished family of the Darcys is now open to the relations of Elizabeth. The runaway sister and her soldier husband visit. Elizabeth’s mother and aunt, the daughters of a town attorney, can come. Most welcome are her uncle and aunt, the Gardiners. This uncle in trade who lives in an unprestigious locality in London has impressed Darcy with his culture, refinement, intelligence and fine values. He makes Darcy renounce the stereotypes he had formed of people outside his social sphere. A young man from one of the highest levels in the land receives an important lesson from a city tradesman, and is thankful for it. The English aristocrat gave up his superiority, and saved his head, unlike his French counterparts who absolutely refused to bow down, and ultimately lost all.

The British government had banned any mention of the French Revolution in fiction, and even if Austen had wanted to talk about it, she could not have. But instead, she depicted without commentary the changes that were taking place in British society, changes that had prevented a similar revolution there. Pride and Prejudice is the story of romance in the Bennet household, and Elizabeth and Darcy are its hero and heroine. But at the same time, Pride and Prejudice is also the story of the peaceful social evolution that took place in Britain, as a subconscious reaction to the movement across the Channel. Upward social mobility replaced the relatively static barriers that prevented social movement between the classes. Whereas in France, the impenetrable walls of class compelled violent revolution. This is one of the profound insights that can be drawn from the book about the social process that was taking place at that time, and about the process of social evolution in general. If one novel can provide us such a perspective of human history, what would a deeper understanding of all literature give us? And this perspective is only a fraction of what Pride and Prejudice itself can offer. The genius of Austen goes far beyond tracing social processes.

4. Human Psychology and the Individual

Literature that is true to life offers intuitive knowledge about human nature, rarely found in textbooks on psychology, history or biography. Is everything that comes to us related to us in one way or another? Do we sanction, subconsciously, every act in our lives? Do aspects of the non-physical plane, such as our words, thoughts, emotions and attitudes have the power to manifest themselves in the physical plane? Does every outer event reflect the inner state of our consciousness? In Pride and Prejudice , Austen shows the unmistakable connections between the inner and outer worlds. She depicts five unique characters in the five Bennet girls, but at the same time shows us with mathematical precision how each of the five girls is a combination of the various characteristics of Mrs. and Mr. Bennet.

Mr. Bennet belongs to the landed gentry. He is an educated and well-bred gentleman, with an estate and a comfortable income. He has high values and principles. He is not mercenary. On hearing that Elizabeth is engaged to Darcy, he warns her against marrying for money. Later when he learns the truth about the man, he respects Darcy’s character, not his wealth or status. He has been born and brought up in plenty, and has no petty traits. He is also intelligent. From just reading Collins’ letter, he can make out that the man is an absurd mixture of servility and self-importance. He is perhaps the one person in Meryton who sees through Wickham from day one. His daughters are immensely relieved, and his wife wildly happy on receiving the news of Lydia’s marriage. But Mr. Bennet sees the truth behind the development. He realises that a huge amount of money must have changed hands before this can be brought about. He declares “Wickham’s a fool if he takes her with a farthing less than ten thousand pounds”. If he can see through Wickham, then why does he not stop his daughter Lydia from going to Brighton? Mr. Bennet does not because he cannot be bothered to take the trouble. Having erred in his choice of wife, he prefers to distance himself from her ambitions and schemes, taking refuge in books in the solitude of his library rather than facing her in open combat for supremacy in the daily life of the family. Mr. Bennet is content with watching and being amused, he does not act. Be it Mrs. Bennet’s lack of sense, Lydia’s wild behavior, Jane’s disappointment, or Elizabeth’s concerns, he is a bystander, laughing silently. He has failed to provide for his family. He does not attempt to control his wife or discipline his daughters. He refuses to exert himself. He lacks the energy and mental will for the task. His wife is a quite perfect contrast to him.

Mrs. Bennet, the beautiful daughter of a country attorney, has married a land owning gentleman and risen in society. She wants her five daughters to rise further. She relentlessly pursues the task of finding suitable—that is wealthy—husbands for her girls. Her aspiration is so great she simply seems to draw eligible men from all parts of England towards Longbourn. While her husband thinks and understands more, and talks and acts less, Mrs. Bennet wastes no time in exercising her mind. She believes only in taking initiative. She is strong, seems to have infinite energy, and never gives up. When Bingley arrives in town, she plans and schemes to make him fall in love with Jane. Her constant mood swings and irrational behavior are beyond others’ understanding. She has no sense of social propriety. She is only aware of what she wants.

The five Bennet girls are all unique, each with her own characteristics. Jane is pleasant, beautiful, and thinks well of everyone. Elizabeth is a strong individual, intelligent and with positive values. Mary is dull and lacks energy. Kitty is petulant and irresponsible. Lydia is foolish, strong willed and full of energy. But none of them have even a single aspect of their nature that cannot be traced to one or the other of their parents. Jane receives all her beauty from her mother. Like her, she is also without keen intelligence. She gets her natural goodness from her father. Like him, she is also without much energy or initiative. As a reaction to her mother’s boorishness, she develops the opposite, a pleasing social behaviour. Next is Elizabeth who owes her strength of will and energy to her mother, and intelligence, positive values and pleasant manners to her father. If Elizabeth has got the best combination from her parents, the exact opposite seems to have been reserved for the next daughter. Mary’s foolishness is her mother’s; her lack of energy is her father’s. Kitty knows about Lydia’s planned elopement, but does not bother to inform her parents. Such irresponsible behaviour is from the father. She finds nothing wrong in eloping, her sense of right and wrong coming from her mother. Lydia is irresponsible in not giving a thought either to her own or her sisters’ future before eloping. This again is like her father. All the rest of her nature, the impulsiveness, initiative, foolishness and wild energy, are from the mother.

Austen goes further in her analysis of human character. One likes the child who is most like oneself. Of Mrs. Bennet’s two great characteristics, her beauty and foolish impulsiveness, she has passed on one to her eldest daughter Jane, and the other to the youngest, Lydia. Jane and Lydia happen to be her favourite children. Mr. Bennet is endowed with values and intellect that he has passed on to Elizabeth, sparing a little for Jane. Not surprisingly, his two favourite daughters are Elizabeth and Jane, in that order. Just as parents are able to identify most with the children who are like themselves, they seem to identify least with the children who are most like the partner, especially in a not so harmonious partnership as in the case of the Bennets. Elizabeth is the least favorite of Mrs. Bennet’s, and Mr. Bennet is glad to keep a distance from Lydia.

“ Experiential, subjective truths that touch the emotions have a greater learning impact than abstract scientific knowledge in a textbook. ”

There is a constant tension, sometimes humorous, sometimes bitter, between Mrs. and Mr. Bennet. When Mrs. Bennet and her daughters return from the assembly where they meet Bingley for the first time, Mr. Bennet is unusually awake late in the night, waiting for their return. With an astonishing insight for a young unmarried woman to perceive in parental relations, Austen tells us that Mr. Bennet stays up hoping to hear that his wife is disappointed in Bingley. A good marriage for one of his daughters would be welcome, and he shares his wife’s concern for their future. But the rivalry with the wife is so intense that it overrides even his goodwill for his daughters. He would like to see his wife’s plans stymied even if that means disappointment for the girls. So he would like to hear that Bingley turned out to be a disappointment, there is no chance of one of his daughters profiting by the new connection, and Mrs. Bennet has no reason to celebrate. He displays the same behaviour when Elizabeth rejects Collins’ proposal. Charlotte gets engaged to Collins instead, leaving Mrs. Bennet disappointed and enraged. Mr. Bennet has five unmarried daughters on his hands, the estate is entailed to cousin Collins, neighbour Charlotte Lucas is to become its mistress. But all that Mr. Bennet cares for is to enjoy his wife’s disappointment. Apart from the rivalry between Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, this tension is also an outcome of the marriage between the two classes to which they belong, the working class that is striving to rise and the upper class that is struggling to accept the new world order.

Austen has captured such minute elements of human psychology in her portrayal of the Bennet family. Shakespeare critic A.C. Bradley talks about Jane Austen’s “ surpassing excellence within that comparatively narrow sphere whose limits she never tried to overpass... which... gives her in that sphere the position held by Shakespeare in his .” If such knowledge of human psychology can be learnt from one of the six novels written in Austen’s narrow sphere, then what is the learning potential from Shakespeare and other great writers! Such knowledge is impossible to obtain from a textbook of psychology for the simple reason that experiential, subjective truths that touch the emotions have a greater learning impact than abstract scientific knowledge in a textbook. Such knowledge that touches the human emotions can be found only in literature. Take the first assembly at Meryton for instance. Bingley and Darcy have newly arrived in the neighbourhood. Bingley has just taken a house of his own. He has been invited to a ball. Everyone seems to take an interest in him. He is dancing with the prettiest girl present, Jane. All these make a usually tractable person who waits for Darcy’s approval before taking a step actually give Darcy an order. He finds Darcy standing by himself, and says he will not have him stand in a “stupid” manner. You had much better dance , he orders his friend, offering to introduce Jane’s sister to him. This is the one occasion in the entire story spanning a year where we find Bingley speaking in this way to Darcy. Darcy usually takes decisions, and Bingley complies, even in matters such as whom Bingley should fall in love with, and whom he can marry. But this temporary aberration, which Austen’s genius captures with the alertness and clarity of an expert photographer, results from the momentary reversal of their fortunes. Darcy stands alone, while Bingley is clearly adored by the crowd and has a very pleasant and beautiful girl for a dance partner.

Darcy gives an uncharacteristic response in return. In a voice loud enough to be overheard by Elizabeth, he curtly describes her as just ‘tolerable’ to look at, and dismisses Bingley’s offer saying dancing with her would be a punishment to him. An educated, well-bred gentleman from a wealthy and distinguished family speaks ill of a country girl in her hearing, and insults her in public. It appears inexplicable, unless Darcy is really as boorish as Elizabeth comes to believe. The truth is that Darcy is attracted to Elizabeth. The attraction is subconscious and therefore not under his control. The dislike of Meryton’s common vulgarity is a well-formed conscious attitude which he is proud to proclaim. The ungentlemanly act of expressing his opinion so loudly that Elizabeth could overhear it, is not in his character—at least the conscious part of it—but beyond his control. This initial act at their indirect contact announces the inner conflict that will possess him and compel him to propose to her at Hunsford almost against his will and it anticipates in the beginning the final outcome of the story. But why? The rude act is reflective of the internal turmoil in Darcy. He hates to move in social circles outside his own. But he makes Bingley his friend and accepts the invitation to go to Hertfordshire. He claims that he does not enjoy the company of the country people, yet he accompanies Bingley to the dance. He believes in the superiority of his class, but he finds in Elizabeth and some of her friends and family qualities that he can admire. He does not want to fall in love with Elizabeth, but he is unable to stop himself. He cannot embrace change, although he knows he has to. This internal conflict in Darcy results in the insulting words. He does not intend to hurt or offend her, but the jarring words are an echo of the inner clash between his mind and emotions. He thinks he should not marry her for her family and her class, although he loves her. This is not mere story telling or artistry. It is intuitive perception of human character and life.

As almost universally proclaimed, Darcy is Austen’s best hero. Austen has a deep and mature insight into human nature that is far from romantic fantasy. It may or may not reflect her own personal experience in romance as some critics conclude. However, it expresses a clear dispassionate knowledge of the complexity of human character that exceeds in its subtle complexity the superficiality of most prevailing psychological theories. A deep study of literature, be it Austen, Shakespeare or any other writer, can make real and concrete to our experience what scholarly articles only theoretically describe.

5. A New Science of the Arts

Every story has a beginning. ‘Once upon a time’, ‘In the year 1856’, ‘There once lived in a village’, ‘In the kingdom of’, ‘It was a sunny morning’, and so on. We accept that as the beginning of the story. We read it from that point and do not ask what happened before that time, why does the story start in that year and not a year earlier, why is it set in this city and not that, why is the protagonist given that name and not any other, or why does this family have exactly this number of children, and not one more or one less. We accept the given conditions as the beginning of the story and go on to trace the causality of subsequent events from that point onwards. We do not question why the story begins where it does.

Science does not know why there was a Big Bang. Physicists extrapolate backwards in time to one picosecond, a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, and explain the universe, the development of its electronuclear force and magnetism, the formation of all matter from the hydrogen nuclei to the stars and planets, up to the evolution of plant and animal life. But they still do not know why there was a Big Bang, or what existed before that.

Biologists try to explain everything from the advent of the first living cell onwards: when and where life first appeared, how the plant kingdom became diversified, how animal life first appeared in the sea and then spread and evolved into complex species, how some species became extinct and others adapted and survived. But any effort to explain how that first carbon compound came to life as a living cell is purely speculative imagination.

Even an infinitesimal difference in the atomic bonding of an element such as Hydrogen or Carbon would have left Earth without life as we know it today. So what determined those right conditions? Physics starts with constants and explains matter. Biology starts from the first living cell and describes life. But Science does not have an answer to the question, ‘How and why did it all begin in the first place?’. Science describes these phenomena as singularities, but description is not explanation. Naming phenomena is not knowledge.

All physical science is based on the past determining the future, but today, a new science has emerged, the science of Anticipation 2 . The future is being studied to determine the present. It is now recognized that the future can shape and determine the present, whether consciously through our values, ideas, dreams and aspirations or subconsciously through our deepest fears and biological conditioning. If we take this science to study the arts, then, instead of beginning a story by implicitly accepting the initial conditions, a new and intriguing question arises: what happened before the beginning, before the Big Bang!

Austen’s Pride and Prejudice begins with the arrival of the friends Bingley and Darcy in Hertfordshire. As we saw earlier, the characters reveal great insights into human psychology. Their actions and experiences also reflect the emerging social process. We can go further.

Countless are the lovers of this lively romance, yet few are those who have delved beneath its superficial charm, delightful humor, entrancing energy and emotional intensity to uncover the profundity of wisdom it contains. To the occidental intellect, society is an empty space, a playing field in which the separate and independent lives act and interact with one another. But to the Asian mind, society is a living organism of which every individual member is an inseparable part, a universal unified existence, as real in itself as any living, breathing, feeling individual.

“ We need to delve deeper into the context, circumstances and individual character of the players to discover principles and forces that are concealed by the veil of chance and accident. ”

Literary criticism is an Occidental science, an attempt to apply the analytic mental faculty to the comprehension of that which cannot be divided, for Life is an integrated whole that can only be understood in totality and in context. The limitations of analysis can be found even in the most profound works of literary criticism. Some great critics sense its importance but struggle to reconcile it with a rational view of life.

In Act IV of Hamlet , Hamlet’s uncle, King Claudius, dispatches the young prince to England as a representative to the English king accompanied by two courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who have been secretly missioned by Claudius to ensure that Hamlet never returns alive to Denmark. Claudius’ sealed letter to the English monarch denounces Hamlet as a traitor and threat to his realm and calls on the English king to remove the threat. On the ship to England, Hamlet awakes restless during the night. An intuitive suspicion prompts him to sneak into the cabin of the two courtiers, unseals the king’s missive and discover the fate that is awaiting him. He reseals the letter using the signet ring he bears as Prince of Denmark and replaces it.

So far, the story conveys the high drama and passion one would expect from great tragedy. But then something remarkable occurs. The following morning, the ship conveying Hamlet to England is attacked by pirates. In the intense combat that ensues, Hamlet boldly jumps into the pirates’ ship demonstrating his leadership as prince of the realm. Surprised by the intensity of resistance they meet, the pirates withdraw to their own ship and the ships separate. Hamlet finds himself alone with the pirates, their prisoner. But once he reveals his identity and offers them a reward, he readily secures swift transport back to Denmark where he pursues his confrontation with Claudius that ultimately ends tragically in the death of Claudius, the queen, Laertes and the prince himself.

Commenting on this incident, A.C. Bradley 3 acknowledges the right of the dramatist to employ dramatic device reflecting the admission of chance in the course of tragedy. Bradley’s profound insight into human nature exceeds that of all but the greatest psychologists and sometimes seems to rival that of Shakespeare himself. But his view, like our own, is obscured by the narrow perspective of early 20 th century scientific material culture. He never considers another explanation because he lives in an age in which knowledge of life has been reduced to a philosophical abstraction rather than a living vision of reality. He acknowledges accidents as a prominent fact of human life. He never considers the possibility that Shakespeare has perceived and is either consciously or subconsciously pointing to a deeper truth of life that can attract our attention only when it occurs in circumstances that appear inexplicable according to any normal conception of causality. A cursory review of the great literature of the world reveals that these works are replete with such inexplicable incidents, unnecessary and avoidable to the logical mind, irrational and implausible to the scientific intellect, other than as expressions of the inherent uncertainty and randomness of life, but natural and extremely common to the vision of those who perceive the deeper workings of life in its integral reality.

If the determining influences of fate, chance and accident are all we can learn from such incidents in great works of literature, we may well have grounds for questioning their greatness. But it is not. For awakening to the reality of the unexpected and inexplicable is only the first step in the revelation of the character of life and the greatness of the author’s vision of it. We need to delve deeper into the context, circumstances and individual character of the players to discover principles and forces that are concealed by the veil of chance and accident. Pride and Prejudice can be used as raw material for that inquiry. Without psychology, philosophy, or intellectuality, it reveals a relationship between our subjective thoughts and feelings and the response of life around us. Not only Pride and Prejudice , any of Shakespeare’s plays or the works of Hugo, Dumas, Trollope, Hardy, Tolstoy or the great Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana suffice for the purpose of discovering the character of life and its ruling principles. Literature has amassed vast volumes of experiential knowledge of human nature acting in life. It is a great field for studying not only human psychology and sociology, but also understanding the relationship between our inner thoughts and the external acts in life.

Of course, without the arrival of Bingley and Darcy at this place and time, there is no story, no Pride and Prejudice . We can give a plausible explanation in hindsight, much as by looking in the rear view mirror, we can tell where we have been. Bingley has come into a considerable fortune. He enjoys the respectability that comes from being a wealthy gentleman, and would like to take on the trappings of that class. He would like to go to the country for the summer, to a place not too far away from the attractions of London. He would like to rent a large house, until he is ready to buy an estate of his own. He needs to cultivate friendship with a man from the highest circles in the land, as Darcy is. He wishes to own a carriage, indulge in shooting and have a life style appropriate to his newly found status. He happens to receive a recommendation about a place in the country at a short distance from London. But none of these reasons distinguishes Bingley’s coming to Hertfordshire, selecting the estate of Netherfield, when Jane, twenty-three years of age, beautiful and good natured, is waiting to find a suitable man she can love and marry. Science, in such a situation, assumes it is singularity or chance. But is it possible that the key to the whole story of Pride and Prejudice , and similarly, to many stories including those of our own lives, is in understanding why that first step was taken? And then go on to understand the next step, and the next step?

Early in the story, the Bennet girls go out for a walk and have an interesting encounter. Their cousin Collins, who is on a two-week long visit, accompanies them. The youngest Bennet girl, Lydia, seeks news about one of the soldiers who have just been posted in the nearby town of Meryton. Their father is eager to be rid of the annoying company of Collins. So he encourages all the girls to go out, taking their cousin with them. Meanwhile, Bingley and Darcy set out towards Longbourn to call on the Bennets. Bingley particularly wants to meet Jane, who has just recovered from an illness. As the girls enter Meryton, their attention is caught by the good looking and charming soldier, Wickham. Just as they exchange greetings, Bingley and Darcy ride into town and come upon this group. Here are three parties, comprised of people who have been acquainted for periods ranging from a few weeks to a few minutes. Darcy and Wickham alone have known each other since childhood. They have always had a turbulent relationship, and would like to avoid each other. The Bennet girls did not know of Wickham until they meet him in town. They did not expect to meet Bingley, and do not care to meet Darcy. Collins is without any other expectation than to marry one of the elder Bennet girls. Life brings this disparate group together as they all walk or ride into Meryton at the same time. At the end of the story, they have all become interconnected through marriage. Bingley and Jane are married. So are Darcy and Elizabeth. Collins marries his cousin Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte, and through his cousin, becomes related to Darcy. The soldier ends up married to Lydia. Wickham who tried and failed to become Darcy’s brother-in-law by eloping with Georgiana ends up as his brother-in-law through Elizabeth’s marriage to Darcy. Seven of the eight people who are to become related thus, are brought together by life a year earlier, without their conscious will or intention. A chance event? An amazing coincidence? A dramatic literary technique used by the author? Luck? Or is there another explanation? Does life indicate the end subtly in the beginning?

In saying Austen wrote fairytale endings, critics mean she gives everyone, or almost everyone what they want at the end of the story. In dismissing the outcome as romantic fantasy, we fail to recognize what every high achiever intuitively perceives—the power of aspiration for self-realization in life. In Pride and Prejudice , we definitely see that almost all get what they aspire for. Jane and Bingley wish to marry pleasant, mild mannered people, and they find each other. Elizabeth and Darcy wish to marry those they can respect and love. Their longings are fulfilled. Lydia gets a more than dashing husband, and adventure too in ample measure.. Wickham wants to become Darcy’s brother. He hopes and fails to do so by marrying Georgiana, but succeeds through another path when he and Darcy marry sisters! Collins wants to be at the feet of aristocracy. He firmly establishes himself near it, first by acquiring Lady Catherine as his patroness, then when his cousin marries Darcy. Charlotte wants physical and social security, and she gets just that in her marriage to Collins. Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters married, and gets three of her five girls married in a single year. Mr. Bennet wants some peace and quiet, and the best for Jane and Elizabeth. Life grants him all these. Everyone’s true aspiration is fulfilled. Are all our deep, intense aspirations similarly fulfilled in life? Even Lady Catherine, who claims that she loves to be useful, succeeds at least in this measure. In her attempts to prevent Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage, she unintentionally plays the role of a messenger and prompts Darcy to propose to Elizabeth. She has, indeed, been very useful, though not in the manner she intended!

When news of Bingley’s arrival comes and the Bennet family is excited at the thought of a marriage, Lydia exclaims that she would like to be the first in her family to get married. And she becomes the first! After her elopement with Wickham, the two are caught and a marriage is hastily arranged. Do all our words come true? We see an instance of the same phenomenon in the author’s life. Austen wrote in a letter to her sister Cassandra, “I write only for fame.” This was in 1796, fifteen years before she was to have a book published. Till the publication of Sense and Sensibility in 1811, her readership was limited to her own family members and friends. So her mention of fame was more a facetious remark. 222 years on, life has obediently given Austen spectacular fame. And just as she implied that she was not writing for profit, she was granted about 600 pounds from the publication of four novels in her lifetime, nothing more. But numerous stage and movie adaptations, sequels and spin-offs, museums that enshrine her life and societies dedicated to her works have given her just what she asked for, fame!

“ Reconciling art and science, the subjective and objective views of reality through literary criticism may well provide a means to transcend the limitations of a purely material life science and discover a true science of life. ”

Bingley’s sister Caroline teases Darcy over his future mother-in-law Mrs. Bennet, all the while hoping to marry Darcy herself. Unfortunately for her, the hypothetical joke comes true. Does life have a sense of humour? At the first ball, Bingley chooses Charlotte for the first dance. The choice turns out to be a subtle indication. Charlotte is the first in the story to be married, though not to Bingley! Does life always throw out such pointers? When Charlotte announces her engagement to Collins, Elizabeth responds with an unthinking, insensitive ‘Impossible!’ When she informs her family of her own engagement to Darcy, the same word is echoed. When we say history repeats, we have in mind large scale political happenings, mass movements, and events based on great ideals. Do even our little, individual acts repeat in our day to day lives? Is there a pattern to the repetition? Can literature give us the knowledge to make sense of apparent coincidences?

When Elizabeth is on a holiday with her aunt and uncle the Gardiners, she is persuaded by Mrs. Gardiner to visit the Darcy estate at Pemberley. Elizabeth last met Darcy at Hunsford when he proposed to her boorishly, she turned him down, and the encounter ended in a heated argument. Both of them had parted, wishing never to meet each other. But gradually, subconsciously their feelings have undergone many changes over the past few months. Elizabeth reluctantly agrees to go to Pemberley only after she learns that Darcy is not in town. However, once she sees the place, she is greatly impressed by the beauty and elegance of the house and the grounds surrounding it. She feels a twinge of regret for having turned down such magnificence. After hearing a glowing description of the master by Darcy’s old housekeeper, Elizabeth is filled with a gentle sensation towards him, and a deep sentiment of gratitude for what he had offered in proposing to her six months earlier. After leaving the house, as Elizabeth is walking in the grounds, Darcy suddenly comes into view. He has returned a day earlier than planned. He is also a changed man now, and renews his relationship with Elizabeth after a long abrupt hiatus. Her recent change of attitude is immediately followed by a sudden change of circumstances. Does life respond to our deepest thoughts and feelings?

Literature is filled with such curious incidents and ironies, seeming coincidences and lucky or unlucky meetings. Life is full of them too. Literature reflects life. Early societies and ancient wisdom from around the world claim to have discovered relationships between human consciousness and life events which the modern mind summarily dismisses as superstition. Science studies objective external facts and regards subjective inner experiences as secondary or incidental, rather than causal factors. Literature revives the debate which science ignores or dismisses as unscientific. It intuitively points to a knowledge which rational thinking overlooks, ignores or dismisses. Reconciling art and science, the subjective and objective views of reality through literary criticism may well provide a means to transcend the limitations of a purely material life science and discover a true science of life.

• Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group), 22-30
• Roberto Poli, “Anticipation: A New Thread for the Human and Social Sciences?,” Cadmus 2, no. 3 (2015): 23-36.
• A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy (London: Macmillian, 1971), 9-10.

About the Author(s)

• Individuality
• Volume 3 Issue 4

Importance of Literature in People Life Essay

Introduction.

Literature is still important, especially the radical one that tends to be challenging in many respects. It is good for people who have critical thinking and step out of the ideational comfort zone that conformity offers. Through such works as Don Quixote and Madame Bovary, one has the opportunity to live other lives through the novels’ characters. Literature can move beyond the confines of time and space. It helps reconcile, momentarily, with whatever unhappiness we have about our lives.

However, in the long run, the fantasy part of fiction paradoxically helps keep a reality check. If a novel helps us to travel momentarily outside our current times and beyond our geographic locations, in the long run, it makes us more aware of the limitations of our reality. Because some literature depicts a perfect world, after we read it we become aware of what is wrong in our reality and what should be changed for the better.

Regarding this power to incite challenging the status quo, some social institutions like the Government and the Church may be keen on censoring given works. However, it is difficult to say which work may create an upheaval because different people react differently. Moreover, the aesthetic of a book is not a criterion, as Uncle Tom’s cabin shows, for despite being aesthetically a flat novel, the significance of its theme –slavery- had influenced the then-American society.

In the end, challenging the status quo is what has made humanity progress. All the scientific and technological progress and the evolvement of such issues as human rights has been achieved because the status quo was being questioned. Therefore, the seditious quality of literature has a positive aspect to it.

Another important aspect of literature resides in language. The development of language goes on par with the development of communication within society. We have access to a wide range of words that help us express ourselves. Because society is made of individuals, many society members developing their language skills and by extension, their expressiveness will help develop communication in the society as a whole. As language develops through literature, the society to which it belongs becomes grows richer and people express themselves better.

Society becomes also richer from an ideational point of view. Indeed, thought develops and is expressed through language. Ideas without words are abstract concepts. Language is what gives them shape and makes them somehow more concrete. It is through words that we can formulate and grasp ideas. So the scope of influence of language is both verbal and intellectual.

Finally, it should be noted that media can never fill the shoes of literature. At the level of language, audiovisual media does not use language that measures up to literary language. Media language is prosaic and relegated to a secondary position. It seeks the minimum of oral expression. Therefore, the progress and continuity of language are linked to the continuity of literature. This primary role of the literature shows that the claim that books are obsolete is wrong.

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• Importance of Literature: Essay

Literature is the foundation of life . It places an emphasis on many topics from human tragedies to tales of the ever-popular search for love. While it is physically written in words, these words come alive in the imagination of the mind, and its ability to comprehend the complexity or simplicity of the text.

Literature enables people to see through the lenses of others, and sometimes even inanimate objects; therefore, it becomes a looking glass into the world as others view it. It is a journey that is inscribed in pages and powered by the imagination of the reader.

Ultimately, literature has provided a gateway to teach the reader about life experiences from even the saddest stories to the most joyful ones that will touch their hearts.

From a very young age, many are exposed to literature in the most stripped-down form: picture books and simple texts that are mainly for the sole purpose of teaching the alphabet etc. Although these are not nearly as complex as an 800-page sci-fi novel, it is the first step that many take towards the literary world.

Progressively, as people grow older, they explore other genres of books, ones that propel them towards curiosity of the subject, and the overall book.

Reading and being given the keys to the literature world prepares individuals from an early age to discover the true importance of literature: being able to comprehend and understand situations from many perspectives.

Physically speaking, it is impossible to be someone else. It is impossible to switch bodies with another human being, and it is impossible to completely understand the complexity of their world. Literature, as an alternative, is the closest thing the world has to being able to understand another person whole-heartedly.

For stance, a novel about a treacherous war, written from the perspective of a soldier, allows the reader to envision their memories, their pain, and their emotions without actually being that person. Consequently, literature can act as a time machine, enabling individuals to go into a specific time period of the story, into the mind and soul of the protagonist.

With the ability to see the world with a pair of fresh eyes, it triggers the reader to reflect upon their own lives. Reading material that is relatable to the reader may teach them morals and encourage them to practice good judgment.

This can be proven through public school systems, where the books that are emphasized the most tend to have a moral-teaching purpose behind the story.

An example would be William Shakespeare’s stories, where each one is meant to be reflective of human nature – both the good and bad.

Consequently, this can promote better judgment of situations , so the reader does not find themselves in the same circumstances as perhaps those in the fiction world. Henceforth, literature is proven to not only be reflective of life, but it can also be used as a guide for the reader to follow and practice good judgment.

The world today is ever-changing. Never before has life been so chaotic and challenging for all. Life before literature was practical and predictable, but in the present-day, literature has expanded into countless libraries and into the minds of many as the gateway for comprehension and curiosity of the human mind and the world around them.

Literature is of great importance and is studied upon as it provides the ability to connect human relationships and define what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, words are alive more than ever before.

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17 Comments

Indeed literature is the foundation of life, people should know and appreciate these kind of things

its very useful info thanks

very helpful…..tnx

Hi, thanks!

First year student who wants to know about literature and how I can develop interest in reading novels.

Fantastic piece!

wonderful work

Literature is anything that is artistically presented through writtings or orally.

you may have tangible wealth untold, caskets of jewels and coffers of gold, richer than i you could never be, i know someone who told stories to me.

there’s a great saying that “the universe isn’t made up of at atoms, its made of stories” i hope none will argue this point, because this is the truest thing i have ever heard and its beautiful…….

I have learnt alot thanks to the topic literature.Literature is everything.It answers the questions why?,how? and what?.To me its my best and I will always treasure and embress literature to death.

I agree with the writer when says that Literature is the foundation of life. For me, reading is the most wonderful experience in life. It allows me to travel to other places and other times. I think that also has learnt me to emphathize with others, and see the world with other´s eyes and from their perspectives. I really like to read.

This is the first time i am presenting on a literature and i am surprised by the amount of people who are interested on the same subject. I regret my absence because i have missed much marvelous thing in that field.In fact literature is what is needed by the whole world,it brings the people of different culture together and by doing so it breaks the imposed barriers that divided people.My address now goes to the people of nowadays who prefer other source of entertainment like TV,i am not saying that TV is bad but reading is better of.COME BACK TO IT THEN.

literature is a mirror; a true reflection of our nature. it helps us see ourselves in a third persons point of view of first persons point of view. it instills virtues and condones vices. literature forms a great portion of fun and entertainment through plays, comedies and novels. it also educates individuals on life’s basic but delicate and sacred issues like love and death. it informs us of the many happenings and events that we would never have otherwise known about. literature also forms a source of livelihood to thousands of people, starting from writers,characters in plays, editors, printers,distributors and business people who deal with printed materials. literature is us and without it, we are void.

I believe that life without Literature would be unacceptable , with it i respect myself and loved human life . Next week i am going to make presentation about Literature, so i benefited from this essay.

Thanks a lot

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Literature Is Called The Mirror Of Life Essay Example

• Pages: 4 (914 words)
• Published: July 23, 2018
• Type: Article

This age is called the age of science, yet' we can’t deny the importance of literature in our lives. Literature is called the mirror of life; it is also called a mode of the expression of feelings and emotions. As long as human beings do have emotions and feelings, literature will be created and literature will be read. It gives a way to one's thought, modifies and brings new dimensions. It relaxes you when you are tense' enlightens your dark mind and lightens your heavy heart. This age is called the age of science, yet' we can’t deny the importance of literature in our lives.

Literature is called the mirror of life; it is also called a mode of the expression of feelings and emotions. As long as human beings do have emotions and feelings, literature will be created and

literature will be read. It gives a way to one's thought, modifies and brings new dimensions. It relaxes you when you are tense' enlightens your dark mind and lightens your heavy heart. “Roselily” by Alice Walker, is one of the literatures that I really liked. In the short story Roselily, Alice Walker tells two stories in one.

The most obvious story is the one about the Black American woman Roselily, who stands before the alter, just about to marry a muslim, while she thinks about her past, wonders about the future and is questioning whether she is making the right choice. The other, hidden story is the story about Black American women in general, their history and their ongoing search for something better. The way I understand the short story, Roselily`s story is

as it is presented to the reader through Roselily’s thoughts as she is in the middle of her wedding, a reflection of Black Americans` and women in particular situation around the 1960s.

At this time, Blacks are free Americans with the equal rights as other Americans, in theory. Roselily is an independent woman of her time, but being a single mother of four children, working long hours for most likely lousy wages in a sewing plant, she is far from free. The Blacks are no longer slaves in the cotton fields, they are now paid slaves in the refinement industry. Roselily is most aware of her situation, and she is willing to leave her past and start a new life with a new man. She has probably been searching for a better life for quite some time, by being with different men, who all could give her a child, but not a new life.

I am sensing an urge in Roselily, to move on, symbolized by all the cars described in the short story: They are constantly moving from one place to another, they give you mobility, prevent you from being stuck somewhere you do not want to be. Roselily knows that she does not want to stay in the sewing plant, she knows that she wants to move on to something better, but she does not know what better is, and she certainly doubts if what she has chosen will be better than what she had. Her divided personality is like the different groups of Blacks in the civil rights movements.

Some Blacks wanted segregation, some wanted their own nation, some

wanted to be more African, some wanted to live like the White Americans, some were Muslims and some were Christians. They all agreed that their current situation was not acceptable, but they did not know how to improve it. At the same time as Roselily wants to start a new life, she is afraid of losing her roots. She pictures her children «exalted on a pedestal, a stalk that has no roots», and «She wonders how to make new roots».

Alice Walker here describes Black Americans and probably also her own search for identity. Which heritage is the right one; the one from their Black American ancestors, or the one from the African ancestors? As Roselily is about to marry, about to go to Chicago and start a new life with her husband, she is starting to regret her decision and faces the truth: Just like Black Americans went from the slavery in the cotton fields to paid slavery in the sewing plants, she is now moving to the slavery of Islam. She thinks of his religion and sees ropes, chains, handcuffs.

She thinks of Chicago, her new home, and realizes that all she knows about the place is Lincoln, the president. President Lincoln abolished the slavery, but that did not free the Black Americans. Alice Walker shows feminism in this literature. Most of her works depicts racism, sexism, feminism, troubled relationships, and isolation. Alice Walker was the eighth child of sharecroppers. Despite the economic hardships of her family, she was remarkably dedicated to her education and graduated with degrees from both Sarah Lawrence and Spelman College.

While attending school, Walker became

frustrated with the lack of literature on the culture and history of the black experience, so she challenged educational institutions to create a representative curriculum. In the 1960s, she became involved in the civil rights movement. Her experiences became the basis for her excellent novel Meridian. Her best-known work, however, is The Color Purple. Critics and audiences alike have praised its richly drawn female characters and seemingly effortless use of black vernacular. Although she has written six novels, Walker remains very active politically, championing women’s issues and women’s work.

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Reflection on Literature as a Mirror and a Didactic Mode to Society: A Mini-review of Multi-genres

This essay is concerned with genres of Literature and their relevance to society. The author carries out a mini review of various literary works showing how many authors or critics have stake in human life at socio-cultural, economic and political levels. The author uses mainly interpretive literary analysis with particular emphasis on some literary generic elements viz characters and themes affecting them in each genre. Going through a section of authors from both African and Western cultures, the author brings the reader to understand how Literature and society are intertwined as they need each other.

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Like sociology, Literature is concerned with man"s social world, his adaptation to it and his desire to improve it. Literature is a social institution, which uses Language as its medium. Literature represents life and to a large extent, a social reality. An ideal literature therefore reflects the happenings in its society. It reflects the economy, politics, religion and culture of its society. It consequently mirrors the diverse mood and tempers of its society. Specifically, African Literature is a vital tool in the hands of African literary artists, used to criticize the social, economic and political situations in their African society with the aim of challenging and proffering solutions to the unpleasant and oppressive practices by its leaders and the led. This particular inquiry examines how Otagburuagu"s "Echoes of violence" and Osorfisan"s "Colours Makes the Thunder King" have revealed the political situations in Nigeria. This exploration is anchored on the sociological theory of literature. This theory studies the correlation between Literature and society as the different norms of behavior in different societies and they are reflected in their respective literature; descriptive data analysis technique, primary and secondary data collection methods. This study reveals that African literary writers have taken the position of judges, Umpires, national reformers, civil right activists and cultural revivalists all for the emancipation of Africa and Africans.

rejoice dalut

Edwin C. Onwuka

The significant impact of literature and history on society cannot be overemphasized. The relationship among them has continued to attract critical attention since Plato. That affinity has been explored so much by African writers that it has assumed the status of a literary ideology peculiar to Africa. Though the debate on it is no longer as strident as it had been in the latter part of the last century, the socio-political conditions that engendered the corpus of African works suffused with historical and societal issues are still firmly entrenched in the continent. In spite of this, many new writers, perhaps too sensitive to some Western critics who condemn African literature as sociological studies bereft of artistic qualities, have begun to dwell on issues of little relevance to the immediate socio-political and cultural needs of the continent. In reappraising the views of some prominent literary scholars on the symbiotic relationship between literature and society, this paper reiterates that for literature to remain a veritable tool and agent of social change, it must continue to reflect the conflicts and crises thrown up by the society. By highlighting these views, it attempts to refocus the attention of contemporary writers, their readers and critics on the uncompleted task of arresting an African continent fast sinking in the rot of corruption, oppression and other social ills. One way to achieve this is through the production of a vibrant literature that not only identifies the source of the problems but also sensitizes its consumers to change the course of social development positively.

Journal of Arts and Humanities

Adeyemi Ogundokun

Journal of Studies in Social Sciences

Faction is not as a result of poverty of imagination or good thinking; rather it is a trend, which provides remedies for the new desire to learn and be entertained at the same time in this fast-changing world. This paper is another attempt to join voice to the debate on the fact that literature has a significant role to play in the reconstruction of human society for a better living. An activist who writes literature and seeks the establishment of a new way of life adopts a method which consists of social criticism; designed to expose the misery caused by the existing laws and institutions as well as construction, which in other words is the disclosure of a new and friendlier system. As a perfect glass partakes in the color of the light it transmits, so is the transparent medium of literature which shares the beauty of its content. Literature provides social stimulation plus curiosity about life. Its psychological potency is the connection it enjoys with life generally. It eventuall...

Journal for Foreign Languages

Literature is an open concept and a creative art which expresses human history, experiences, imagination, observations, predictions and suggestions at a particular time in a given society. Either as fiction or non-fiction, literature can be rendered in both spoken and written words. It is often argued whether literature is for itself or the development of the society that produces it. This study, therefore, interrogates how the selected Francophone African novels, namely Sembène Ousmane’s Les bouts de bois de Dieu, Mariama Bâ’s Une si longue lettre, Ferdinand Oyono’s Le vieux nègre et la médaille, Aminata Sow Fall’s La grève des bàttu, Patrick Ilboudo’s Les vertiges du trône and Fatou Keïta’s Rebelle, depict the function of literature. The novelists are selected because of their inclination towards the social transformation paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to raise people’s awareness and mobilize them towards positive change. Based on close reading, the paper is built around M...

Roshni Duhan

That literature is a reflection of the society is a fact that has been widely acknowledged. Literature indeed reflects the society, its good values and its ills. In its corrective function, literature mirrors the ills of the society with a view to making the society realize its mistakes and make amends. It also projects the virtues or good values in the society for people to emulate. Literature, as an imitation of human action, often presents a picture of what people think, say and do in the society. In literature, we find stories designed to portray human life and action through some characters who, by their words, action and reaction, convey certain messages for the purpose of education, information and entertainment. It is impossible to find a work of literature that excludes the attitudes, morale and values of the society, since no writer has been brought up completely unexposed to the world around him. What writers of literature do is to transport the real-life events in their ...

Plataforma Revistas Comunicación , Index Comunicación Revista Científica de Comunicación Aplicada

Abstract: This essay will link African women’s writing to culture, including literary culture and the politics of literature. It describes how African women’s literature can act as a mirror, reflecting African cultures to Africans, and how it can serve as a window and a door, revealing African cultures to those outside of them in whole or in part. It ends with a description of “communal agency,” an example of how scholarly writing can act as a door for both those who are and are not a part of a literature’s culture. Resumen: Este ensayo vincula las obras de autoras africanas con la cultura, tomando en cuenta la cultura literaria y las políticas de la literatura. Describe cómo la literatura de mujeres africanas puede actuar como espejo que refleja a los africanos la diversidad de su cultura, y cómo puede servir de ventana y puerta: qué desvelan las culturas africanas, parcial o totalmente, ante los que viven fuera de estas. Termina con una descripción de “agencia comunitaria”, un ejemplo de cómo los textos académicos pueden funcionar como puerta tanto para los que forman parte de la cultura literaria como para los que no son parte de ella.

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Literature and Life

• First Online: 11 October 2018

Cite this chapter

• Ranjan K. Ghosh 2  

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy ((BRIEFSPHILOSOPH))

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The chapter deals with the relation between literature and life. A literary work is to be viewed in its totality and for the quality of experience it evokes. Literature borrows elements from life, but it creates an autonomous domain that is invested with an uncommon import. For that matter, a literary work being in the nature of fiction performs the useful task of making sense of life as such and makes us see it in a new perspective. It is argued that even though the domain of artistic creation is autonomous in character, it helps one to make sense of life. There is also discussed here the alleged opposition between literature and philosophy and that while literature deals with a fictional world, the main concern of philosophy is truth. It has been pointed out that literature makes available to us the truth about life by presenting it as a “closed form” exemplifying the internal coherence and connectedness of various elements in it.

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Langer ( 1953 ) (Her central thesis has been developed here).

McAdoo ( 1992 ). For a detailed critical analysis of the point raised by McAdoo, see also Ghosh ( 1996 ).

For a discussion on this, please see Mitias ( 1986 ).

As quoted by McAdoo ( 1992 , p. 131).

See Tagore ( 1994 impression, pp. 56–67).

Dilman, I. (1995, July). Art and reality: Some reflections on the arts. Philosophical Investigations, 18 (3).

Article   Google Scholar  

Ghosh, R. K. (1996). Notes towards understanding art/life divide. JICPR, XIII (3).

Google Scholar  

Hausman, C. R. (1986). Insights in the arts . The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.

Kivy, P. (1990). Music alone . Cornell University Press.

Langer, S. K. (1953). Feeling and form . New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

McAdoo, N. (1992, Spring). Can art ever be about itself. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 50 (2).

Mitchell, J. (1973). Truth and fiction. In Philosophy and the Arts: Royal Institute of Philosophical Lectures, 1971–72 (Vol. 10). Macmillan.

Mitias, M. H. (Ed.). (1986). Possibility of aesthetic experience . Martinus Nijhoff.

Scruton, R. (1974). Art and imagination . London: Methuen.

Shusterman, R. (1989). Analytic aesthetics . Basil Blackwell.

Tagore, R. (1994). The religion of man . Harper Collins impression.

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Ghosh, R.K. (2018). Literature and Life. In: Essays in Literary Aesthetics. SpringerBriefs in Philosophy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2460-4_4

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8.15: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 101141

• Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap
• City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.

While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the essay's thesis statement, and how do you know it is the thesis statement?
• What is the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph, and how does it relate back to the thesis statement?
• Where and how does each essay use evidence (quotes or paraphrase from the literature)?
• What are some of the literary devices or structures the essays analyze or discuss?
• How does each author structure their conclusion, and how does their conclusion differ from their introduction?

Example 1: Poetry

Victoria Morillo

Instructor Heather Ringo

3 August 2022

How Nguyen’s Structure Solidifies the Impact of Sexual Violence in “The Study”

Stripped of innocence, your body taken from you. No matter how much you try to block out the instance in which these two things occurred, memories surface and come back to haunt you. How does a person, a young boy , cope with an event that forever changes his life? Hieu Minh Nguyen deconstructs this very way in which an act of sexual violence affects a survivor. In his poem, “The Study,” the poem's speaker recounts the year in which his molestation took place, describing how his memory filters in and out. Throughout the poem, Nguyen writes in free verse, permitting a structural liberation to become the foundation for his message to shine through. While he moves the readers with this poignant narrative, Nguyen effectively conveys the resulting internal struggles of feeling alone and unseen.

The speaker recalls his experience with such painful memory through the use of specific punctuation choices. Just by looking at the poem, we see that the first period doesn’t appear until line 14. It finally comes after the speaker reveals to his readers the possible, central purpose for writing this poem: the speaker's molestation. In the first half, the poem makes use of commas, em dashes, and colons, which lends itself to the idea of the speaker stringing along all of these details to make sense of this time in his life. If reading the poem following the conventions of punctuation, a sense of urgency is present here, as well. This is exemplified by the lack of periods to finalize a thought; and instead, Nguyen uses other punctuation marks to connect them. Serving as another connector of thoughts, the two em dashes give emphasis to the role memory plays when the speaker discusses how “no one [had] a face” during that time (Nguyen 9-11). He speaks in this urgent manner until the 14th line, and when he finally gets it off his chest, the pace of the poem changes, as does the more frequent use of the period. This stream-of-consciousness-like section when juxtaposed with the latter half of the poem, causes readers to slow down and pay attention to the details. It also splits the poem in two: a section that talks of the fogginess of memory then transitions into one that remembers it all.

In tandem with the fluctuating nature of memory, the utilization of line breaks and word choice help reflect the damage the molestation has had. Within the first couple of lines of the poem, the poem demands the readers’ attention when the line breaks from “floating” to “dead” as the speaker describes his memory of Little Billy (Nguyen 1-4). This line break averts the readers’ expectation of the direction of the narrative and immediately shifts the tone of the poem. The break also speaks to the effect his trauma has ingrained in him and how “[f]or the longest time,” his only memory of that year revolves around an image of a boy’s death. In a way, the speaker sees himself in Little Billy; or perhaps, he’s representative of the tragic death of his boyhood, how the speaker felt so “dead” after enduring such a traumatic experience, even referring to himself as a “ghost” that he tries to evict from his conscience (Nguyen 24). The feeling that a part of him has died is solidified at the very end of the poem when the speaker describes himself as a nine-year-old boy who’s been “fossilized,” forever changed by this act (Nguyen 29). By choosing words associated with permanence and death, the speaker tries to recreate the atmosphere (for which he felt trapped in) in order for readers to understand the loneliness that came as a result of his trauma. With the assistance of line breaks, more attention is drawn to the speaker's words, intensifying their importance, and demanding to be felt by the readers.

Most importantly, the speaker expresses eloquently, and so heartbreakingly, about the effect sexual violence has on a person. Perhaps what seems to be the most frustrating are the people who fail to believe survivors of these types of crimes. This is evident when he describes “how angry” the tenants were when they filled the pool with cement (Nguyen 4). They seem to represent how people in the speaker's life were dismissive of his assault and who viewed his tragedy as a nuisance of some sorts. This sentiment is bookended when he says, “They say, give us details , so I give them my body. / They say, give us proof , so I give them my body,” (Nguyen 25-26). The repetition of these two lines reinforces the feeling many feel in these scenarios, as they’re often left to deal with trying to make people believe them, or to even see them.

It’s important to recognize how the structure of this poem gives the speaker space to express the pain he’s had to carry for so long. As a characteristic of free verse, the poem doesn’t follow any structured rhyme scheme or meter; which in turn, allows him to not have any constraints in telling his story the way he wants to. The speaker has the freedom to display his experience in a way that evades predictability and engenders authenticity of a story very personal to him. As readers, we abandon anticipating the next rhyme, and instead focus our attention to the other ways, like his punctuation or word choice, in which he effectively tells his story. The speaker recognizes that some part of him no longer belongs to himself, but by writing “The Study,” he shows other survivors that they’re not alone and encourages hope that eventually, they will be freed from the shackles of sexual violence.

Works Cited

Nguyen, Hieu Minh. “The Study” Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets, Coffee House Press, 2018, https://poets.org/poem/study-0 .

Example 2: Fiction

Todd Goodwin

Professor Stan Matyshak

Advanced Expository Writing

Sept. 17, 20—

Poe’s “Usher”: A Mirror of the Fall of the House of Humanity

Right from the outset of the grim story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe enmeshes us in a dark, gloomy, hopeless world, alienating his characters and the reader from any sort of physical or psychological norm where such values as hope and happiness could possibly exist. He fatalistically tells the story of how a man (the narrator) comes from the outside world of hope, religion, and everyday society and tries to bring some kind of redeeming happiness to his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, who not only has physically and psychologically wasted away but is entrapped in a dilapidated house of ever-looming terror with an emaciated and deranged twin sister. Roderick Usher embodies the wasting away of what once was vibrant and alive, and his house of “insufferable gloom” (273), which contains his morbid sister, seems to mirror or reflect this fear of death and annihilation that he most horribly endures. A close reading of the story reveals that Poe uses mirror images, or reflections, to contribute to the fatalistic theme of “Usher”: each reflection serves to intensify an already prevalent tone of hopelessness, darkness, and fatalism.

It could be argued that the house of Roderick Usher is a “house of mirrors,” whose unpleasant and grim reflections create a dark and hopeless setting. For example, the narrator first approaches “the melancholy house of Usher on a dark and soundless day,” and finds a building which causes him a “sense of insufferable gloom,” which “pervades his spirit and causes an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an undiscerned dreariness of thought” (273). The narrator then optimistically states: “I reflected that a mere different arrangement of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression” (274). But the narrator then sees the reflection of the house in the tarn and experiences a “shudder even more thrilling than before” (274). Thus the reader begins to realize that the narrator cannot change or stop the impending doom that will befall the house of Usher, and maybe humanity. The story cleverly plays with the word reflection : the narrator sees a physical reflection that leads him to a mental reflection about Usher’s surroundings.

The narrator’s disillusionment by such grim reflection continues in the story. For example, he describes Roderick Usher’s face as distinct with signs of old strength but lost vigor: the remains of what used to be. He describes the house as a once happy and vibrant place, which, like Roderick, lost its vitality. Also, the narrator describes Usher’s hair as growing wild on his rather obtrusive head, which directly mirrors the eerie moss and straw covering the outside of the house. The narrator continually longs to see these bleak reflections as a dream, for he states: “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building” (276). He does not want to face the reality that Usher and his home are doomed to fall, regardless of what he does.

Although there are almost countless examples of these mirror images, two others stand out as important. First, Roderick and his sister, Madeline, are twins. The narrator aptly states just as he and Roderick are entombing Madeline that there is “a striking similitude between brother and sister” (288). Indeed, they are mirror images of each other. Madeline is fading away psychologically and physically, and Roderick is not too far behind! The reflection of “doom” that these two share helps intensify and symbolize the hopelessness of the entire situation; thus, they further develop the fatalistic theme. Second, in the climactic scene where Madeline has been mistakenly entombed alive, there is a pairing of images and sounds as the narrator tries to calm Roderick by reading him a romance story. Events in the story simultaneously unfold with events of the sister escaping her tomb. In the story, the hero breaks out of the coffin. Then, in the story, the dragon’s shriek as he is slain parallels Madeline’s shriek. Finally, the story tells of the clangor of a shield, matched by the sister’s clanging along a metal passageway. As the suspense reaches its climax, Roderick shrieks his last words to his “friend,” the narrator: “Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door” (296).

Roderick, who slowly falls into insanity, ironically calls the narrator the “Madman.” We are left to reflect on what Poe means by this ironic twist. Poe’s bleak and dark imagery, and his use of mirror reflections, seem only to intensify the hopelessness of “Usher.” We can plausibly conclude that, indeed, the narrator is the “Madman,” for he comes from everyday society, which is a place where hope and faith exist. Poe would probably argue that such a place is opposite to the world of Usher because a world where death is inevitable could not possibly hold such positive values. Therefore, just as Roderick mirrors his sister, the reflection in the tarn mirrors the dilapidation of the house, and the story mirrors the final actions before the death of Usher. “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects Poe’s view that humanity is hopelessly doomed.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” 1839. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library . 1995. Web. 1 July 2012. < http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeFall.html >.

Example 3: Poetry

Amy Chisnell

Professor Laura Neary

Writing and Literature

April 17, 20—

Don’t Listen to the Egg!: A Close Reading of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”

“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,” said Alice. “Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called ‘Jabberwocky’?”

“Let’s hear it,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that ever were invented—and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.” (Carroll 164)

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass , Humpty Dumpty confidently translates (to a not so confident Alice) the complicated language of the poem “Jabberwocky.” The words of the poem, though nonsense, aptly tell the story of the slaying of the Jabberwock. Upon finding “Jabberwocky” on a table in the looking-glass room, Alice is confused by the strange words. She is quite certain that “ somebody killed something ,” but she does not understand much more than that. When later she encounters Humpty Dumpty, she seizes the opportunity at having the knowledgeable egg interpret—or translate—the poem. Since Humpty Dumpty professes to be able to “make a word work” for him, he is quick to agree. Thus he acts like a New Critic who interprets the poem by performing a close reading of it. Through Humpty’s interpretation of the first stanza, however, we see the poem’s deeper comment concerning the practice of interpreting poetry and literature in general—that strict analytical translation destroys the beauty of a poem. In fact, Humpty Dumpty commits the “heresy of paraphrase,” for he fails to understand that meaning cannot be separated from the form or structure of the literary work.

Of the 71 words found in “Jabberwocky,” 43 have no known meaning. They are simply nonsense. Yet through this nonsensical language, the poem manages not only to tell a story but also gives the reader a sense of setting and characterization. One feels, rather than concretely knows, that the setting is dark, wooded, and frightening. The characters, such as the Jubjub bird, the Bandersnatch, and the doomed Jabberwock, also appear in the reader’s head, even though they will not be found in the local zoo. Even though most of the words are not real, the reader is able to understand what goes on because he or she is given free license to imagine what the words denote and connote. Simply, the poem’s nonsense words are the meaning.

Therefore, when Humpty interprets “Jabberwocky” for Alice, he is not doing her any favors, for he actually misreads the poem. Although the poem in its original is constructed from nonsense words, by the time Humpty is done interpreting it, it truly does not make any sense. The first stanza of the original poem is as follows:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

An the mome raths outgrabe. (Carroll 164)

If we replace, however, the nonsense words of “Jabberwocky” with Humpty’s translated words, the effect would be something like this:

’Twas four o’clock in the afternoon, and the lithe and slimy badger-lizard-corkscrew creatures

Did go round and round and make holes in the grass-plot round the sun-dial:

All flimsy and miserable were the shabby-looking birds

with mop feathers,

And the lost green pigs bellowed-sneezed-whistled.

By translating the poem in such a way, Humpty removes the charm or essence—and the beauty, grace, and rhythm—from the poem. The poetry is sacrificed for meaning. Humpty Dumpty commits the heresy of paraphrase. As Cleanth Brooks argues, “The structure of a poem resembles that of a ballet or musical composition. It is a pattern of resolutions and balances and harmonizations” (203). When the poem is left as nonsense, the reader can easily imagine what a “slithy tove” might be, but when Humpty tells us what it is, he takes that imaginative license away from the reader. The beauty (if that is the proper word) of “Jabberwocky” is in not knowing what the words mean, and yet understanding. By translating the poem, Humpty takes that privilege from the reader. In addition, Humpty fails to recognize that meaning cannot be separated from the structure itself: the nonsense poem reflects this literally—it means “nothing” and achieves this meaning by using “nonsense” words.

Furthermore, the nonsense words Carroll chooses to use in “Jabberwocky” have a magical effect upon the reader; the shadowy sound of the words create the atmosphere, which may be described as a trance-like mood. When Alice first reads the poem, she says it seems to fill her head “with ideas.” The strange-sounding words in the original poem do give one ideas. Why is this? Even though the reader has never heard these words before, he or she is instantly aware of the murky, mysterious mood they set. In other words, diction operates not on the denotative level (the dictionary meaning) but on the connotative level (the emotion(s) they evoke). Thus “Jabberwocky” creates a shadowy mood, and the nonsense words are instrumental in creating this mood. Carroll could not have simply used any nonsense words.

For example, let us change the “dark,” “ominous” words of the first stanza to “lighter,” more “comic” words:

’Twas mearly, and the churly pells

Did bimble and ringle in the tink;

All timpy were the brimbledimps,

And the bip plips outlink.

Shifting the sounds of the words from dark to light merely takes a shift in thought. To create a specific mood using nonsense words, one must create new words from old words that convey the desired mood. In “Jabberwocky,” Carroll mixes “slimy,” a grim idea, “lithe,” a pliable image, to get a new adjective: “slithy” (a portmanteau word). In this translation, brighter words were used to get a lighter effect. “Mearly” is a combination of “morning” and “early,” and “ringle” is a blend of “ring” and "dingle.” The point is that “Jabberwocky’s” nonsense words are created specifically to convey this shadowy or mysterious mood and are integral to the “meaning.”

Consequently, Humpty’s rendering of the poem leaves the reader with a completely different feeling than does the original poem, which provided us with a sense of ethereal mystery, of a dark and foreign land with exotic creatures and fantastic settings. The mysteriousness is destroyed by Humpty’s literal paraphrase of the creatures and the setting; by doing so, he has taken the beauty away from the poem in his attempt to understand it. He has committed the heresy of paraphrase: “If we allow ourselves to be misled by it [this heresy], we distort the relation of the poem to its ‘truth’… we split the poem between its ‘form’ and its ‘content’” (Brooks 201). Humpty Dumpty’s ultimate demise might be seen to symbolize the heretical split between form and content: as a literary creation, Humpty Dumpty is an egg, a well-wrought urn of nonsense. His fall from the wall cracks him and separates the contents from the container, and not even all the King’s men can put the scrambled egg back together again!

Through the odd characters of a little girl and a foolish egg, “Jabberwocky” suggests a bit of sage advice about reading poetry, advice that the New Critics built their theories on. The importance lies not solely within strict analytical translation or interpretation, but in the overall effect of the imagery and word choice that evokes a meaning inseparable from those literary devices. As Archibald MacLeish so aptly writes: “A poem should not mean / But be.” Sometimes it takes a little nonsense to show us the sense in something.

Brooks, Cleanth. The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry . 1942. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1956. Print.

Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass. Alice in Wonderland . 2nd ed. Ed. Donald J. Gray. New York: Norton, 1992. Print.

MacLeish, Archibald. “Ars Poetica.” The Oxford Book of American Poetry . Ed. David Lehman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. 385–86. Print.

Attribution

• Sample Essay 1 received permission from Victoria Morillo to publish, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 )
• Sample Essays 2 and 3 adapted from Cordell, Ryan and John Pennington. "2.5: Student Sample Papers" from Creating Literary Analysis. 2012. Licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported ( CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 )

Lit. Summaries

• Biographies

Reflecting on Sylvia Plath’s Mirror: A Literary Analysis

• Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” is a powerful piece of literature that has captivated readers for decades. In this literary analysis, we will delve deeper into the themes and symbolism of the poem, exploring the ways in which Plath uses language to convey complex emotions and ideas. From the mirror’s perspective to the speaker’s relationship with herself, we will examine the various layers of meaning in this haunting and unforgettable work. Join us as we reflect on Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” and the impact it continues to have on readers today.

Background on Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932. She is known for her confessional style of writing, which often explored themes of mental illness, death, and personal struggles. Plath’s most famous work is her novel, The Bell Jar, which is a semi-autobiographical account of her own experiences with depression and suicidal thoughts. Plath’s life was marked by tragedy, including the death of her father when she was only eight years old and her own suicide at the age of 30. Despite her short life, Plath’s work has had a lasting impact on the literary world and continues to be studied and analyzed today.

The Poem “Mirror”

Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” is a haunting and introspective piece that explores the themes of aging, identity, and the search for self. The poem is written from the perspective of a mirror, which serves as a metaphor for the speaker’s own self-reflection. Throughout the poem, the mirror reflects the changing appearance of the woman who looks into it, and the speaker reflects on the woman’s inner turmoil as she struggles to come to terms with her aging and changing identity. The poem is a powerful exploration of the human experience, and it speaks to the universal struggle to find meaning and purpose in life.

Symbolism in “Mirror”

One of the most prominent literary devices used in Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” is symbolism. The mirror itself serves as a symbol for self-reflection and the harsh reality of aging. The “terrible fish” and “the eye of a little god” represent the mirror’s ability to reveal the truth, even if it is not what we want to see. The “pink speckled wall” and “the candles or the moon” symbolize the passing of time and the inevitability of change. The use of these symbols adds depth and complexity to the poem, allowing readers to explore the themes of identity, aging, and mortality in a more nuanced way.

The Role of the Mirror

The mirror is a recurring symbol in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror.” It plays a crucial role in the poem as it reflects the speaker’s innermost thoughts and feelings. The mirror is personified and described as “unmisted by love or dislike” and “exact.” It is a truthful and impartial observer, reflecting the speaker’s aging process and the changes in her appearance. The mirror also reflects the speaker’s emotional state, as she sees herself “drowned in the deeps of the sky” and “search[ing] [her] reaches for what she really is.” The mirror serves as a metaphor for self-reflection and the search for identity. It highlights the speaker’s struggle with aging and the fear of losing her beauty and youth. The mirror’s role in the poem is to reveal the speaker’s innermost thoughts and emotions, making it a powerful literary device in Plath’s work.

Imagery in “Mirror”

Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” is a poem that is rich in imagery. The poem is a reflection on the nature of truth and the passage of time. The imagery in the poem is used to convey the speaker’s sense of loss and the inevitability of aging. The mirror is the central image in the poem, and it is used to represent the speaker’s sense of self. The mirror is personified, and it is described as having a “terrible fish” that “drowns” the speaker. This image is used to convey the speaker’s sense of being trapped by her own reflection. The mirror is also described as being “unmisted by love or dislike,” which suggests that it is a neutral observer of the speaker’s life. This image is used to convey the speaker’s sense of isolation and detachment from the world around her. Overall, the imagery in “Mirror” is used to create a powerful sense of the speaker’s inner turmoil and her struggle to come to terms with her own mortality.

The Theme of Aging

Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” explores the theme of aging and the inevitable changes that come with it. The mirror in the poem serves as a metaphor for the passage of time and the harsh reality of aging. The speaker in the poem is a mirror that reflects the image of a woman who is no longer young and beautiful. The woman is unhappy with her appearance and longs for her youth and beauty to return. The mirror, however, cannot grant her wish and instead shows her the truth of her aging process. Plath’s use of vivid imagery and metaphors effectively conveys the theme of aging and the emotional turmoil that comes with it. The poem serves as a reminder that aging is a natural part of life and that we must learn to accept and embrace the changes that come with it.

The Theme of Identity

The theme of identity is a prominent one in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror.” The speaker of the poem is a mirror, which reflects the image of a woman who is aging and unhappy with her appearance. The woman looks to the mirror for validation and reassurance, but the mirror does not offer any comfort. Instead, it presents an unflinching reflection of the woman’s true self, which she finds difficult to accept.

The poem explores the idea of identity as something that is shaped by external factors, such as societal expectations and the opinions of others. The woman in the poem is defined by her appearance and her role as a wife and mother, but she struggles to reconcile these identities with her own sense of self. The mirror, as an objective observer, highlights the disconnect between the woman’s inner self and her outward appearance.

Plath’s use of imagery and metaphor in the poem emphasizes the theme of identity. The mirror is personified as a “silver and exact” entity that is “not cruel, only truthful.” This suggests that the mirror is a neutral force that simply reflects what it sees, without judgment or bias. However, the woman’s reaction to the mirror’s reflection reveals the emotional weight that this objective truth carries.

Overall, the theme of identity in “Mirror” speaks to the universal human experience of grappling with one’s sense of self. Plath’s poem offers a poignant reflection on the ways in which external factors can shape our identities, and the difficulty of reconciling these external expectations with our own inner truths.

The Theme of Truth

The theme of truth is a prominent one in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror.” The mirror, personified as a “silver and exact” entity, reflects the truth of the speaker’s appearance and aging process. The speaker, who is likely Plath herself, is not pleased with what she sees in the mirror and longs for the days when she was young and beautiful. However, the mirror does not lie and continues to show her the truth of her aging process. This theme of truth is also reflected in the language and imagery used throughout the poem, such as the “unmisted by love or dislike” line, which emphasizes the objective truth that the mirror provides. Overall, “Mirror” serves as a powerful commentary on the human desire for beauty and the harsh reality of aging and the truth that comes with it.

The Theme of Beauty

The theme of beauty is a prominent one in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror.” The mirror, personified as a “silver and exact” entity, reflects the truth of the speaker’s appearance, which she finds difficult to accept. The speaker’s obsession with her own beauty, or lack thereof, is evident in lines such as “I am not cruel, only truthful” and “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day.” The mirror serves as a symbol of society’s expectations of beauty and the pressure placed on individuals, particularly women, to conform to these standards. Plath’s exploration of the theme of beauty in “Mirror” highlights the damaging effects of societal beauty norms and the struggle to accept oneself in a world that values physical appearance above all else.

The Theme of Self-Reflection

The theme of self-reflection is a prominent one in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror.” Throughout the poem, the mirror serves as a symbol for the speaker’s own self-image and the way she perceives herself. The mirror is described as “unmisted by love or dislike,” indicating that it provides an objective reflection of the speaker’s appearance. However, the speaker’s relationship with the mirror is complicated, as she both longs for and resents the mirror’s honesty.

The theme of self-reflection is particularly significant in the context of Plath’s life and work. Plath was known for her intense introspection and her exploration of her own psyche in her writing. In “Mirror,” the speaker’s struggle with her own image can be seen as a reflection of Plath’s own struggles with self-doubt and self-criticism. The poem can also be read as a commentary on the societal pressures placed on women to conform to certain beauty standards, and the damaging effects this can have on their self-esteem.

Overall, the theme of self-reflection in “Mirror” adds depth and complexity to the poem, and invites readers to consider their own relationship with their self-image.

The Use of Personification

Personification is a literary device that is often used to give human qualities to non-human objects or animals. In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror,” personification is used to great effect in order to convey the speaker’s feelings of loneliness and despair. The mirror is given human-like qualities, such as the ability to “swallow” the speaker’s reflection and the ability to “meditate” on the wall. This personification serves to emphasize the speaker’s sense of isolation and the mirror’s role as a silent witness to her inner turmoil. By giving the mirror a voice and agency, Plath is able to create a powerful and haunting portrait of a woman struggling to come to terms with her own identity and place in the world.

The Use of Metaphor

Metaphors are a powerful tool in literature, allowing writers to convey complex ideas and emotions through comparisons to more familiar objects or concepts. In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror,” the titular object serves as a metaphor for the speaker’s own sense of self and the passage of time. By describing the mirror as “unmisted by love or dislike,” Plath suggests that it is a neutral observer, reflecting back only what is present without judgment. This mirrors the speaker’s own desire for objectivity and detachment from her own appearance and identity. As the poem progresses, the mirror becomes a symbol of the speaker’s aging and changing self, as well as the inevitability of death. Through the use of metaphor, Plath is able to explore complex themes of identity, mortality, and the human experience in a way that is both accessible and deeply resonant.

The Use of Simile

One of the most striking literary devices used in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” is the use of simile. Throughout the poem, the mirror compares itself to various objects, such as a lake and a wall. These comparisons serve to deepen the reader’s understanding of the mirror’s perspective and its role in the speaker’s life. For example, when the mirror says “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions,” it is comparing itself to a lake, which is also known for its reflective qualities. This simile emphasizes the mirror’s objectivity and lack of bias, as well as its ability to reveal the truth to the speaker. Similarly, when the mirror says “I am not cruel, only truthful,” it is comparing itself to a wall, which is often seen as a symbol of strength and stability. This simile reinforces the idea that the mirror is a reliable source of truth, even if that truth is difficult to accept. Overall, the use of simile in “Mirror” adds depth and complexity to the poem, and helps to convey the mirror’s unique perspective on the world.

The Use of Alliteration

Alliteration is a literary device that is often used in poetry and prose to create a musical effect. It involves the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words in a sentence or phrase. In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror,” alliteration is used to emphasize certain words and create a sense of rhythm. For example, in the line “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions,” the repetition of the “s” sound in “silver” and “exact” creates a smooth and flowing sound. This use of alliteration helps to convey the calm and reflective tone of the poem. Overall, the use of alliteration in “Mirror” adds to the poem’s overall musicality and enhances its emotional impact.

The Use of Repetition

Sylvia Plath’s use of repetition in her poem “Mirror” is a powerful literary device that emphasizes the theme of self-reflection. The repetition of the word “mirror” throughout the poem creates a sense of obsession and fixation on the object, which represents the speaker’s own reflection. This repetition also highlights the idea that the speaker is constantly looking at herself and analyzing her own image. Additionally, the repetition of the phrase “I am silver and exact” emphasizes the speaker’s desire for accuracy and precision in her self-reflection. Overall, Plath’s use of repetition in “Mirror” effectively conveys the theme of self-reflection and the speaker’s struggle with her own identity.

The Use of Tone

The use of tone in Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” is a crucial element in conveying the poem’s themes of aging and self-perception. Plath’s tone throughout the poem is melancholic and reflective, as the mirror personifies the speaker’s inner thoughts and emotions. The mirror’s “unmisted by love or dislike” perspective highlights the speaker’s own self-criticism and dissatisfaction with her appearance. The tone shifts towards the end of the poem, as the mirror becomes a lake and the speaker acknowledges the inevitability of aging. Plath’s use of tone effectively captures the complexities of self-image and the passage of time.

The Use of Structure

The use of structure in Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” is a key element in understanding the poem’s meaning. The poem is written in free verse, with no set rhyme or meter, which allows for a sense of fluidity and reflection. The structure of the poem is also significant in the way it is divided into two stanzas, with the first stanza focusing on the mirror’s perspective and the second stanza focusing on the woman’s perspective. This division creates a clear contrast between the two perspectives and emphasizes the theme of self-perception and identity. Additionally, the repetition of the word “mirror” throughout the poem creates a sense of obsession and fixation, further emphasizing the theme of self-reflection and the importance of appearance. Overall, the use of structure in “Mirror” plays a crucial role in conveying the poem’s themes and meaning.

The Impact of “Mirror” on Plath’s Legacy

The poem “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath has had a significant impact on her legacy as a writer. It is one of her most well-known and frequently analyzed works, and has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Some critics see it as a reflection of Plath’s own struggles with identity and aging, while others view it as a commentary on the nature of truth and perception. Regardless of the interpretation, “Mirror” has become a staple of Plath’s body of work and has helped to cement her place in the literary canon. Its haunting imagery and powerful language continue to resonate with readers today, and it remains a testament to Plath’s talent and enduring influence.