Critical essays in English Literature

  A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT’S VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN   Mary Wollstonecraft belonged to a circle of intellectuals in London who were supporters of revolutionary ideals and fervour. They upheld the secession of the American colonies under the leadership of Richard Price. They also supported the ideals of the French Revolution. John Locke’s ideals influenced this group. She was born in 1759 into a family fraught with financial and other difficulties. Her mother was submissive to her husband, and after receiving his inheritance, her father led the family down the social scale through a series of failed farming ventures. He became a drunkard, and got brutal and abusive at home. Mary was helper and protector for her mother and siblings. She then went on to become a governess, founder of a day school, and joined a publishing house. She married William Godwin and became a mother of a baby girl, Mary, who later grew up to marry P.B. Shelley and wr...

  BIM/TARA RELATIONSHIP IN ANITA DESAI’S CLEAR LIGHT OF DAY With her sister Bim, Tara finds such security that allows her to travel with her past to rediscover her youth and her own forgotten identity, and can confront Bakul’s intimidating manners. Desai portrays Bim and Tara’s parents as individuals who are completely unconscious of their children. Tara suffers from feelings of loneliness and jealousy towards   her siblings as well as the tremendous lack of love from her parents. When she recalls her childhood, it is only painful. Bim and Tara realise the dullness of their household and the strong distance between the world of adults. The fulcrum of the novel is the Bim/Tara relationship. Both have different personalities. The events in the novel are a result of Tara’s visit to Bim. Bim is academically oriented, being a lecturer at a college. She is not conscious of her demeanour. Tara’s childhood dream was to get married and knit for her babies, and Bim’s was to be a...

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND A SHORT LIFE SKETCH OF GYORGY LUKACS Classes have been defined by property ownership (Marx), position or role (Mosca, Pareto), status rank (Warner, Lenski) prestige (Barber) or by intermarriage (Schumpeter). Let us go through some aspects of class: First, class membership is not biologically determined but is a form of social stratification based on laws, esteem, wealth or power. Estates or castes may comprise types of class stratification, or classes maybe defined by different status or ranks. In all cases, however, class is a vertical division into superior-inferior, super-ordinate-subordinate. Second, a difference in class is a difference in wealth, power, or esteem. All definitions do not assume an identity between class and rank, but all assume a correlation. Class is a division in privileges. Super-ordinates benefit from the status quo; they are well situated in the system of rewards and privileges. Third, class is a dividing line between diff...

  AN UNDERSTANDING OF BASE AND SUPERSTRUCTURES IN THE CONTEXT OF MARXIST CRITICISM The concept of base and superstructure are absolutely essential to Karl Marx theory of history. They form the fundamental metaphor which forms the basis of Marx’s own theory, and is critical to understanding later Marxist writers. Marx used the metaphor of a building which has a base or foundation, and a superstructure, which is standing on it. The base determined the lives of people and drew limits within which the whole of social existence was enclosed. This base organized productive activity, and provided economic support to the people. The definition of superstructure is a bit controversial. Did the superstructure run parallel to the base and existed independently? The Marxist answer to this question is that the superstructure is closely linked to the base and is affected by it. Marx acknowledges that the superstructure is an important causal factor, but asserts that the economic base is ...