Virginia Wolf

Virginia Wolf was a women who seemed to try to find herself through her writing. She struggled with refrained from normal society. She was feminist and wrote about her struggle with nonconformity. In "The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection", Ms. Woolf writes,

“One could not help looking, that summer afternoon, in the long glass that hung outside in the hall. Chance had so arranged it. From the depths of the sofa in the drawing-room one could see reflected in the Italian glass not only the marble-topped table opposite, but a stretch of the garden beyond. One could see a long grass path leading between banks of tall flowers until, slicing off an able, the gold rim cut it off. “ (p. 1224-1225)

Wolf is expressing her wish to go beyond the norm of her society and live the life at which she pleases. The cut off of which she speaks is the distant goal to which she seeks to obtain. She understands the law of her nation but wants the masses to see the individuality at which she wishes to obtain.
Many individuals such as MLK have seeked to help others virtually understand the imbalance to which they live their lives. They see beyond the present, and seek to uphold the future. Wolf understands that her gender sets her back in certain social areas and wants the public to embrace the ideals and ambitions she wants the women of her country to be able to obtain.

Robert Browning

Robert Browning was a man who seemed confined to his family until he reached his thirties. I think his thoughts were stored and built up until his release and ability to write was set free by his own individuality. Browning’s style of writing, in particular “Porphyria’s Lover”, seems to be apparent to the reader as erratic thinking.

“In one long yellow string I would
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;" (p. 663)

Browning’s deep writing of this paragraph could be interpreted of his outcry he wished to express from his sheltered life as a young man. I think he felt so suppressed by his earlier childhood that he had to express his feelings through his writing. The yellow string was obviously his parents, and the girl represented the life that he so wished to break away from.
As many kids feel cooped up from overbearing parents during their early childhood,
Browning felt that the only way he could fully express himself was through his explicit writing. The outrageous nature of his writing seems to conform to insanity as people would see it in his day. He writes of murder and even that on a dark nature.

“And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!" (p. 663)

Is Browning questioning his faith to God? I wonder if he is asking where the repercussions of his actions are or if these immoral actions are even of consequence. Browning in his writing, I think, is trying to convey to the reader why or if his adverse thoughts are wrong. He has to think that through his works his readers are going to come to a conclusion of insanity. But why? Does he do it for publicity or thought? His works are deep in his own thought. I think that Browning’s works are meant to portray the mind of youth and their different feelings they feel throughout their growth as adults.

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a visionary. He saw that women deserved equality and that everyone should be entitled to free speech and their voice be heard. His ideas were very forward thinking for his day and which he was very outspoken about. He writes in Ch. 3 of "On Liberty",

“The majority, being satisfied with the ways of mankind as they now are (for it is they who make them what they are), cannot comprehend why those ways should not be good enough for everybody; and what is more, spontaneity forms no part of the ideal of the majority of moral and social reformers, but is rather looked on with jealousy, as a troublesome and perhaps rebellious obstruction to the general acceptance of what these reformers, in their own judgment, think would be best for mankind.” Pg. 517

Another reformist such as Hardy, John Stuart Mill saw that there needed to be changes in the social and political area of this time. He saw that the majority system with which seems like a good idea, has major faults. Just because a majority vote is had doesn’t mean the issues that are to follow is the most important. This is the major fault with this style of government, which usually leads to the election of a lesser of two evils. When one is elected, the important issues that were upheld by the fallen party are thrown out the window.

In his writing “Statement Repudiating the Rights of Husbands”, Mill shows us that he sees women as being equal and that he will acknowledge his wife as having her rights. In his day in age Mill was seen as a reformist and maybe even radical but today we view him as ahead of his time. Mill’s understanding that all people should be created equal was a view that many did not uphold. Through his writings the audience can see exactly what Mills thought. He was one to put his thoughts straight on paper.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s childhood seemed to greatly affect him in later years. With his father being so absent and the aspirations of being an Aesthete, Wilde was exposed to the aspects that mold himself later in life. He writes with light imagery of leaves and butterflies. Wilde’s lifestyle probably helped with his style of writing while being in the company of other Aesthetes, but it ended his career in turmoil and exile, begging for change to those that might find sympathy for him. He writes in "Symphony in Yellow",

“An omnibus across the bridge

Crawls like a yellow butterfly,

And, here and there, a passer-by

Shown like a little restless midge.” (p. 831)

As Wilde writes these lines I think he is seeing himself across this imaginary bridge where he wants to “crawls like a yellow butterfly.” The bridge he speaks of is the acceptance he wants to have for his lifestyle from the government of Britain. Homosexuality is unlawful in those times and he wishes to able for it to be a forgeable bridge he can cross. The butterfly he speaks of is himself. He wants to be free and live the life he so wants and be accepted for his thought. It was a shame that his writing was affected by this. He is still a man who writes with the same poise and intelligence as before.

Wilde’s fight against conformity is the same as youths today. He was not accepted for certain aspects of his personality and punished for it. Today with so many different stereotypes and classification for the many different groups of people, who is to say that their fellow citizen is “weird” for being nonconformist? Every norm started with a movement and the liberalization of individuals is what brings about change. I am neither applauding these changes or against them, just pointing out that inconsistencies in individuals are what shapes the many different views and cultures that we live in.

T.S. Eliot

Upon reading Eliot I am not sure what he was trying to convey to his audience. He is a smart and well educated man than wrote very will, but what was his underlying meaning? Where did his inspiration come from? He writes in "The Waste Land",

"Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you" (p. 1213)

Eliot being a smart man has to be conveying to his audience some meaning by the since of this unknown person. Could it have been the loneliness he felt from his first marriage that made this shadow like it was always following him. It could have been the person he was always looking for but never had a face to recognize the beauty. Or it could have been the people with which Eliot felt compelled to help. The Jews and his support for modern Islam in particular. (Letters written to Kallen)

Also, when he is writing about this person being ahead of him I think it means that he is foreseeing himself walking with someone else. Maybe his sense of spirituality is sensed in this verse. The one walking beside him may be the religious figure that will accompany him in his future. Throughout life we all seem to wonder what we can not see or what we might be missing. Eliot is trying to put an identity on the “shadow” that is following him.

His writing seems to be more about the experiences he has been through and seen that about himself. He writes about his change to religion and “The Waste Land” that was written during his failing marriage with his first wife. He writes with conviction and really puts himself on paper. Eliot did not really have early childhood experiences or the tragic circumstances that we have seen. He had to write about certain situations more than feelings.

His criticism of others seemed to get him just as much back. He was criticized for being anti-Semitic throughout his career and even stealing the works of earlier poets. Whether this is true or not, Eliot is highly regarded and we all take something from what we learn.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins was a man that tried in his attempts but always seemed to have some obstacle; at least in his priesthood. He seemed to try his best at priesthood but never felt he could obtain the serenity he needed to fulfill his position. His bouts with erotic notions and poetry did not help in his pursuit of becoming a Jesuit priest.

“Oh morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs-

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings." (p. 775)

As the reader can see, Hopkins writes with noticeable polarity between ideas. He speaks of God and the hints of erotic thought in the same sentence. His fight with these issues seems to guide him in many different directions. But it is the sad fact that certain thoughts and his love of poetry kept him from fulfilling the position in society that he wanted to have. While reading him you can see the imagery that he puts into his writing.

“It will flame out, like shining from shook foil:” (p. 774)

The words and the way he chooses to put them into sentences gives detailed images of his writing to the readers. Everyone has seen the lines and reflections that foil puts off if even only slightly crinkled. It is this simple imagery that brings the reader into his poems and makes us feel as if we could have written it. Sometimes writers try to make their poetry so hard to understand or write in such obscure ways that the reader may never know what they are trying to say. This may be for certain purposes, but to not allow your audience to understand what you are writing about and how it should be applied to the greater good doesn’t seem very effective.

Hopkins style of poetry is very exciting to me. It is unconventional and far away the norm at which I seem to hop from one line to the other without much thought. He incorporates a lot of techniques that keep the reader “in” his poetry and help to understand his meanings.

Thomas Carlyle

I enjoyed Carlyle’s view of the changing society. In “Past and Present”, he describes the conditions that the people were living in. How through this revolution the society that once prided itself in the reflections of nature and intuitive thinking, are now being overrun by the hope of monetary prosperity. Carlyle since his loss of faith, questions God on why the people are being treated this way.

“This successful industry of England, with its plethoric wealth, has yet made nobody rich; it is an enchanted wealth, and belongs yet to nobody. We might as, which of us has it enriched?? We can spend thousands where we once spend hundreds; but can purchase nothing good with them.”

Carlyle is pointing out that even though industrialism is providing monetary wealth for individuals, it is not providing “wealth” for the prosperity of the country. In societies and even families where great wealth is just being born, self-discipline seems to unravel. It’s like when parents tell their children that they can get a few new toys and they come back with 10. The imagination takes over and discipline is forgotten. Even though some of these people do now have thousands to spend their lessons of common prosperity are overlooked.

Compare old age living with the Industrialization and the frugalness at which people spent their money is lost with the change in history. Industrialization brings great change to nations that are sometimes overwhelmed with the power it takes over. The wealthy are spending more money than ever with their higher incomes and the gap between social classes is becoming ever greater. Industrialization may lift up a few to the heights of prosperity but it does not help the less fortunate. When a reform in society comes to lift these less educated and unfilled labors from the state at which they live that will be the true reform that should be printed on the pages of history books.