There were severe conflicts between the City party and the Country party in 18th century Britain. The Country party, mainly composed of gentry, was based on landed interest and the City party made money through trade and was based on moneyed interest. The Country party passed the Landed Property Qualification Act to maintain their power. However, this act merely encouraged more men of wealth to buy country estate, in many cases displacing old landed families who truly represented the ¡°landed interest.¡±[1][1] We can see this changing of power through these two works, Roxana and Emma. Daniel Defoe was born in London, so he naturally engaged in City party. Roxana¡¯s background is mainly city while that of Emma is the little country society called Highbury. As we can see the difference of the background of two works, we can also find some different attitude toward City and Country in these two works. I will write about these differences in point of the conception of gentleman, rank and different attitude to City lives.
Defoe indicates that younger sons who have careers in law and trade are the backbone of the English Nation. The uneducated eldest son is an insult to the word gentleman: he is a man of no use to himself or to others.[2][2] He thinks that trade is more important than land. We can find this attitude in Roxana. Roxana says, ¡°a true bred Merchant is the best Gentleman in the Nation; that in Knowledge, in Manners, in Judgement of things, the Merchant out-did many of the Nobility¡± (Roxana 170, The page numbers of further references from Roxana will be put in parentheses in the text). She also says ¡°That an Estate is a Pond; but that a Trade was a Spring¡±(170). The Dutch merchant also says that ¡°the Tradesmen in London, speaking of the better sort of Trades, cou¡¯d spend more Money in their Families, and yet give better Fortunes to their Children, than, generally speaking, the Gentry of England from a 1000 l¡±(170). We can know that Roxana has a very positive view to a merchant from this. She thinks that a merchant is better than gentry.
However, it is viewed differently, as shown in Emma. When Emma talks about the father of Mrs. Elton, she says like this : ¡° a Bristol ? merchant, of course, he must be called; but, as the whole of the profits of his mercantile life appeared so very moderate, it was not unfair to guess the dignity of his live of trade had been very moderate also¡±(Emma, 164).
An Analysis of The End of Something
An Analysis of The End of Something
One area of literature emphasized during the Modernist era was the inner struggle of every man. Novels written before the 20th century, such as Moll Flanders and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, dealt with external conflict, a conflict the reader could visualize in an action. Along with other writers of Bohemian Paris, Ernest Hemingway moved away from this process and began using outward actions as symbols for the inner conflict dwelling inside the protagonist. Hemingway’s short story The End of Something is an example of how trite dialogue and simple descriptions accentuate the mental strife of the character Nick.
The story’s plot is not complex: Nick and his girlfriend Marjorie are canoeing down a river they once knew as children. Once on the bank of the river, the two of them partake in the same activities but do them in silence. When Marjorie tries to begin a conversation, Nick is not responsive. Marjorie asks Nick if there is a problem, and Nick says he is not in love anymore. Marjorie then leaves, and the story ends with Nick lying down by himself while his friend Bill (who enters the story several sentences after Marjorie leaves) eats a sandwich while looking onto the river.
However basic the story’s sequence is, Hemingway’s literary innovations are dominant within the text. Through experimentation with tempo, language, and plot structure, Hemingway garners an emotional response out of the reader, leaving him shocked that so much content could be captured in so simple a story.
Most authors read at a relatively steady rate throughout their story, with dialogue sections running faster than descriptions. Hemingway breaks this conventional nature in The End of Something. The…
… middle of paper …
…mes up and asks how things went with Nick. Hemingway quickly describes Bill’s entrance, but ends the paragraph with “Bill didn’t touch him, either.” This one line is Hemingway’s entire story; Marjorie felt like there was something between the two of them, while Nick wasn’t touched. Hemingway re-emphasizes this in the last line of the story, when Bill takes a sandwich and looks at the fishing rods. While Nick is caught up in the moment and sad about what he did, Bill, representing Nick’s life, is not moved.
The End of Something is a simple story about two youngsters breaking up. Its four-page length would lead some to believe the story to be light and easily something to glance at instead of thoroughly read. However, Hemingway does a wonderful job of turning the four pages about a common occurance into an event that any reader can feel and will never truly end.