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Close Reading: ‘Sonnet 45’, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, Mary Wroth
Good now be still, and doe not me torment, With [multituds] of questions, be at rest, And onely let me quarrell with my breast,Which stil lets in new stormes my soule to rent. Fye, will you still my mischiefes more augment? You saye, I answere crosse, I that confest Long since, yet must I euer Continue reading
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Reflection: Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh and Western Cultural Imperialism
Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh explores the lives of four Saudia Arabian friends through emails written by an anonymous member of the friendship group. Described by Marilyn Booth as a novel about the “self-fashioning of the Saui bourgeoisie”, upon publication the novel achieved status in the West as a shining light on the untold stories Continue reading
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Categorising Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Summer Will Show
In the most basic sense, Summer Will Show can be defined as a lesbian novel as it largely follows the intimate relationship between two women, specifically noting the displacement of the male figure associating them both together. However, the complexity of identity, the surrounding politics, and the deliberate vagueness in the exploration of sexuality within Continue reading
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Frankenstein and Early 19th Century English Political Thought
Now more commonly associated with the stand-alone Gothic genre, the 1818 version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written during the Romantic Era and a period of social unrest in Europe, making it a work of Gothic or Dark Romanticism. Still shadowed by the influence of the French Revolution, revolutionary and anti-revolutionary thought in Britain was Continue reading
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A Woman and Her Dog: The Experiences of Confinement and Liberation in Virginia Woolf’s Flush
In ‘Flush’, Virginia Woolf explores the ways Elizabeth and Flush experience confinement and liberation, focusing on how certain aspects of their identities inform these experiences. The parallels between Elizabeth and Flush’s experiences have led to the Feminist reading championed by Susan Squier that Flush’s confinement is an allegory of the position of the Victorian woman.1 Continue reading
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Man, Animals and Power: The Covert Dynamics between Man and Animals in Ted Hughes’ ‘The Dove Breeder’
In ‘The Dove Breeder’, Hughes explores the relationship between man and animals. Through his illustration of the simultaneous experiences of loss and gain for the titular breeder and the birds he keeps, Hughes suggests that the relationship is inherently exploitative because of man’s anthropocentric view of life. The poem’s narrative voice presents other humans as Continue reading
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The Impact of the Idolatry of Marriage on Female Relationships Within the Church
There’s a chapter in Little Women where the March sisters join Laurie and Laurie’s English friends for a day at the beach. Alcott describes a scene where Kate Vaughn, the haughtiest of Laurie’s friends and the one closest in age to Meg, intentionally insults Meg because she’s noticed that Meg has caught the attention of Continue reading
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Review: Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree, 2024)
So Gelon says to me, ‘Let’s go down and feed the Athenians. The weather’s perfect for feeding Athenians.’ Gelon speaks the truth. ‘Cause the sun is is blazing all white and tiny in the sky, and you can feel a burn from the stones as you walk. Even the lizards are hiding, poking their heads Continue reading