‘Cousin Kate’ by Christina Rossetti Essay Example for Free

‘Cousin Kate’ by Christina Rossetti Essay This Victorian poem is about the narrator (a fallen woman), the Lord and Kate. It is a ballad which tells the story from the narrator’s perspective about being shunned by society after her ‘experiences’ with the lord. The poem’s female speaker recalls her contentment in her humble surroundings until the local ‘Lord of the Manor’ took her to be his lover. He discarded her when she became pregnant and his affections turned to another village girl, Kate, whom he then married. Although the speaker’s community condemned the speaker as a ‘fallen’ woman, she reflects that her love for the lord was more faithful than Kate’s. She is proud of the son she bore him and is sure that the man is unhappy that he and Kate remain childless. Some readers think that she feels more betrayed by her cousin than the lord. This poem is a dramatic monologue written in the Victorian era. Structure The poem is written in first person narrative. It has 6 stanzas of 8 lines: One stanza each on the narrator, the Lord and Kate; stanza 4 contrasts the position of the narrator and Kate; stanza 5 criticises Kate and stanza 6 focuses on the narrator’s triumph at having a child. Each stanza is the same length and each line has a similar rhythm, giving it a ballad-like feel. It could also be conveying the strength and perseverance of the narrator who has to face life in conflict with the expectations of Victorian society. Note that the tone changes as the poem progresses regret, accusation, bitterness, triumph. The rhyme scheme always connects the B (2nd line) of each couplet. E. g Stanza one – AB/CB/DB/DB. Sometimes the first line of the couplet is rhymed. The rhyme emphasises the last world to aid meaning. The regular rhyme could also suggest that narrator has not only been dominated by the Lord (because men and in particular men of a higher social standing) but is also trapped with Victorian social conventions (she is now a fallen woman in conflict with the values of her society). Sometimes the first line is rhymed as in Stanza 3 – AB/AB/CB/AB. In this case the words ‘Kate’, ‘gate’ and ‘estate’ are stressed in order to convey the way Kate has been elevated from her position in society. However in stanza 5 this rhyme of ‘true’ and ‘you’ contrasts the narrator’s strength of feeling with Kate’s. ‘Cousin Kate’ is written with an iambic rhythm. Generally, one line of the poem has three feet, and the next has four. The poem, therefore, generally follows the following pattern: da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum Iambic rhythms often follow the natural rhythm of speech, a little like a heartbeat. If we apply this to one of Rossetti’s lines, it reads as follows: â€Å"Because you were so good and pure†. Therefore the meaning of the words is captured in the line as specific words are stressed. The repetition of: ‘Why did a great lord find me out’, conveys the anger and bewilderment of the speaker at her change of circumstances, whilst the phrase: ‘good and pure’ has a hollow ring by its second occurrence. Thereafter, repeated phrases are altered to highlight the contrasting situations of Kate and the speaker: The community ‘call’ Kate ‘good and pure’, but ‘call’ the speaker ‘an outcast thing’. Kate ‘sit[s] in gold’, the speaker ‘sit[s] †¦ in dust’. The image of dust connects to a life of poverty and also suggests how she has been soiled by society. Whereas ‘gold’ suggests that her cousin has riches. Kate’s fate is to ‘sit †¦ and sing’, the speaker’s to ‘sit and howl’. This suggests the mental anguish that the narrator is experiencing at being abandoned whereas to ‘sing’ indicates that Kate is content. However, the speaker believes her ‘love was true’, while Kate’s ‘love was writ in sand’ suggesting that her love is stronger than Kate’s. The echoed structure in the final stanza – that Kate has ‘not got’ and is ‘not like to get’ the gift of a child – emphasises the speaker’s sense of triumph. Language The speaker’s questions in the first stanza express her anger and confusion at the experiences she has had to endure: ‘Why did a great lord find me out†¦ Why did a great lord find me out? ’ She suggests that before the arrival of the ‘great lord’, she was happy and ‘contented’ (line 3). She was not looking for a new situation in life. It came unexpectedly. The idea that the lord filled her heart with care suggests that she had less to worry about previously. She is angry that he made her anxious instead of happy and took her away from her friends, her ‘cottage mates’ (line 3). She questions her cousin Kate in stanza 4 suggesting that she loved the lord whereas her cousin did not marry for love. The speaker addresses her questions, laments and moans to Kate. She begins the third verse, ‘O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate’ and the fifth, ‘O cousin Kate’. Throughout, she employs a tone of accusation, repeatedly using the word ‘you’ as she compares Kate to herself. In the last four lines, the speaker draws her attention away from her bitterness at Kate and addresses her son. She calls him ‘my shame, my pride’ (line 45). The oxymoron highlights the conflict that she experiences at loving the Lord and her son but also knowing that she has defied moral convention. Through active and passive verbs Rossetti emphasises the powerlessness of women in Victorian society by associating the lord with a series of actions which take the initiative. He ‘f[ound]’ the speaker ‘out’ / ‘praise[d]’ her / ‘lured’ her / ‘wore’ her / ‘changed’ her / ‘cast’ her ‘by’ / ‘fooled’ her. These are harsh actions, which become more ominous with regard to Kate. Like a stalker, the lord: ‘saw’ her / ‘chose’ her’ / ‘watched’ her / ‘lifted’ her ‘To sit with him’ / ‘bound’ her/ ‘won’ her / ‘bought’ her. Like a hunter, the lord ‘f[ound]’ the speaker ‘out’, ‘lured’ her, then ‘chose’ his next victim in Kate, whom he ‘watched’, then picked up (‘lifted’) and ‘bound’. Both women are referred to as birds, with Kate seeming to be trussed and bound by her fine clothes and wedding ring. In ‘Cousin Kate’, the dove image draws on these ideas of hope and fulfilment and is a symbol of purity that stands in direct contrast to the contaminated state the speaker finds herself as she describes herself as ‘an unclean thing’ (line 15). However, she acknowledges that the tenderness associated with the dove is no match for Kate’s ‘stronger wing’. Even though the speaker claims that she ‘would  have spit’ and ‘[would] not have taken’ the lord, the fact that this is in the future conditional tense indicates that the reality of the situation is in fact very different – she will always be powerless. Alliteration is used throughout the poem: The soft innocence of the speaker before her life changed is conveyed by the soft M of ‘maiden’, ‘mates’ and ‘mindful’ in stanza 1 When the speaker claims that she was led to the lord’s house to lead a ‘shameless shameful life’, the sibilance in this line reinforces the joining together of oxymorons that these words perform. It also reflects the hushed manner in which the speaker was ensnared by the lord, taken in, then later cast aside The speaker’s anger shines through the harsh consonants of ‘Lady Kate, my cousin Kate’ In the final stanza, the speaker emphasises the close bond she shares with her son when she asks that he ‘Cling closer, closer yet’ (line 46). The emphasis here highlights her fear and together with the repetition of the word ‘closer’, suggests that it is for her own comfort, as well as her son’s, that they remain together. Strong images are used to convey the predicament of the narrator. She claims that the lord considered her as a ‘plaything’ (line 12) whom he could treat how he liked without any regard for her feelings. Much like the ‘silken knot’ (line 12) he wore around his neck (a cravat or tie), he treated her as a fashion accessory he could use and then cast away, rather than as an individual with her own needs. The speaker recognises that the lord ‘changed me like a glove’ (line 13). He used her and moulded her into a shape that suited him and then, like a glove that no longer pleases, dispensed with her completely. A glove is an intimate and personal object that fits itself around its user. By describing herself as a glove, the speaker acknowledges that she lost sight of her own needs and desires in an attempt to please and suit the lord. Essay title: Explain how Rossetti creates sympathy for the narrator in ‘Cousin Kate’. Use examples from the poem to support your answers.

Isolation and Nature in the Works of Robert Frost Essay -- Biography B

Isolation and Nature in the Works of Robert Frost During the height of Robert Frost’s popularity, he was a well-loved poet who’s natural- and simple-seeming verse drew people - academics, artists, ordinary people both male and female - together into lecture halls and at poetry readings across the country.1 An eloquent, witty, and, above all else, honest public speaker, Frost’s readings imbued his poetry with a charismatic resonance beyond that of the words on paper, and it is of little surprise that people gathered to listen. Yet it remains somewhat ironic that his poetry would possess this power to bring individuals together - poetry that, for the most part, contains a prevailing theme of alienation, of a sense of separation from society, of isolation and aloneness in an uncaring world. Running parallel with this is a second theme concerned with the interaction between the human and the non-human: occasionally the ‘non’ may serve as a comfort for the dispossessed - but more often, the inte raction between the two is destructive and disastrous. An analysis of a sample of his works - in this case his second book, North of Boston, as well as a few of his later poems - reveals these recurring themes, and the different interpretations Frost brings to them. It is this variety of interpretations that is fascinating: though his firmly held â€Å". . . belief that everybody was a separate individuality and that collective enterprises could do nothing but weaken the self†2 clearly led to this feeling of loneliness or separation that permeates his works, he does so without falling into a sense of needless pessimism, taking great care to bring out the themes’ multiple aspects under varied contexts. These contexts are: poe... ...l fireplace - are a little harder to place, though. 7 Another poem, this one outside of North of Boston, that deals with this identical theme is The Tuft of Flowers - except that one emphasis the separationn between the workers, and leaves it ambiguous wether this separation is a good or bad thing. 8 Although there are a few indications of regret/displeasure: his walk is a repentance, his walking is a profanation. And are ‘the cottages in a row’ indeed a sufficient substitution for a companion (‘No one at all with whom to talk...’)? 9 Frost, and specifically North of Boston, lends itself especially well to feminist criticism. With poems such as The Death of the Hired Man, Home Burial, A Servant to Servants, The Generations of Men, The Housekeeper, and The Fear, each of them dialogue pieces, there is an abundance of male/female interaction to be analyzed. Isolation and Nature in the Works of Robert Frost Essay -- Biography B Isolation and Nature in the Works of Robert Frost During the height of Robert Frost’s popularity, he was a well-loved poet who’s natural- and simple-seeming verse drew people - academics, artists, ordinary people both male and female - together into lecture halls and at poetry readings across the country.1 An eloquent, witty, and, above all else, honest public speaker, Frost’s readings imbued his poetry with a charismatic resonance beyond that of the words on paper, and it is of little surprise that people gathered to listen. Yet it remains somewhat ironic that his poetry would possess this power to bring individuals together - poetry that, for the most part, contains a prevailing theme of alienation, of a sense of separation from society, of isolation and aloneness in an uncaring world. Running parallel with this is a second theme concerned with the interaction between the human and the non-human: occasionally the ‘non’ may serve as a comfort for the dispossessed - but more often, the inte raction between the two is destructive and disastrous. An analysis of a sample of his works - in this case his second book, North of Boston, as well as a few of his later poems - reveals these recurring themes, and the different interpretations Frost brings to them. It is this variety of interpretations that is fascinating: though his firmly held â€Å". . . belief that everybody was a separate individuality and that collective enterprises could do nothing but weaken the self†2 clearly led to this feeling of loneliness or separation that permeates his works, he does so without falling into a sense of needless pessimism, taking great care to bring out the themes’ multiple aspects under varied contexts. These contexts are: poe... ...l fireplace - are a little harder to place, though. 7 Another poem, this one outside of North of Boston, that deals with this identical theme is The Tuft of Flowers - except that one emphasis the separationn between the workers, and leaves it ambiguous wether this separation is a good or bad thing. 8 Although there are a few indications of regret/displeasure: his walk is a repentance, his walking is a profanation. And are ‘the cottages in a row’ indeed a sufficient substitution for a companion (‘No one at all with whom to talk...’)? 9 Frost, and specifically North of Boston, lends itself especially well to feminist criticism. With poems such as The Death of the Hired Man, Home Burial, A Servant to Servants, The Generations of Men, The Housekeeper, and The Fear, each of them dialogue pieces, there is an abundance of male/female interaction to be analyzed.

Integrative Paper on The Family Crucible’s Brice Family Essay

The origin of family therapy can be traced back to a period in the mid-1900’s when focus shifted from individual psychoanalysis towards the correlation of psychological problems and family structure and relationships. It began when the psychoanalytical setting became insufficient to address some cases where the involvement of other members of the family was a greatly influential factor. It has long been established that humans as social beings are greatly affected by these interpersonal relationships. For instance a significant amount of visits to psychotherapists are due to marriage and family problems. When mental illnesses are present with no biological of such, it is also the family that is first assessed. Freudian theories focus very much on familial relationships as well. All of these developments offered new suggestions for therapy (Long, 1996). One technique that arose, for example was the â€Å"conjoint family therapy†. Here, sessions are videotaped or observed behind one way screens. Another was holding meetings with other families, called â€Å"multiple family groups†. Eventually, these gave birth to family therapy, which is now only about forty years old. The family, as a person’s immediate environment, was therefore presented as the most basic social unit. Since each one has its own set of values, rules and principles, we can analyze the role and interactions within the family, and use this analysis in a broader context- the community. Underneath the light and conversational tone that Napier and Whitaker (1988) use in their book, The Family Crucible, are fundamental concepts and approaches that can be helpful in understanding family therapy. It narrates the story of how the Brice family’s conflicts were resolved by encouraging interaction among all five members and solving issues in the parents’ marriage. The Brice family is composed of David, the father who is a VIP lawyer, Carolyn, an angry mother, their teenage daughter Claudia, and their two other children, Laura and Don. The story was also able to present the way some problems may dynamically affect each member of the family- a misunderstanding or imbalance of family roles, for example, or excessive child focus that may lead to a couple’s unhappiness. Among other concepts presented too are blaming, family life cycle stages, polarization and reciprocity. For some time, the idea that Whitaker’s charismatic personality, and not really his theory, seemed accurate in the solving of the family problem. Without a formal education or training in therapy, Whitaker started developing his theories as he began a research on how to treat schizophrenia using â€Å"aggressive play therapy†, after which he invested in developing other methods that could be applied in cases other than schizophrenia. For example, he used a form of pyknolepsy, where he would dream about himself and his patient during a session. This would show what their relationship was like and would be used as part of the therapy (Whitaker, 1981). He also said that in using a technique, a therapist also develops himself, with the patient as a conciliator. However, some of the points in the book can definitely suggest otherwise. For example, spontaneity in the family was seen as a sign of trust and good communication lines, an element that family therapy aims to measure. Where there is a free exchange of ideas, it becomes easier for members to bring up and solve issues, which, if swept under the rug, can only pile up and become a cause of angst. In another book by Whitaker (1981), he emphasizes how normal families should not add up to each other’s stress. Another characteristic of a family in good shape is a certain freedom or flexibility in roles whenever certain changes occur. A member’s role should not be one that is strictly defined, but rather one that results from the conditions that the family is in, including their values, culture and needs, which can change at a given time. I personally saw their insistence that all members of the Brice family be present during the therapy as impressive. When Carolyn, the mother, started showing signs of impatience about their son Don’s tardiness, she wanted to begin the therapy without him already. However, the therapists saw the need to treat the family as a whole, especially since their â€Å"demand to have the whole family in† is the start of their â€Å"battle for structure† (p. 204).   Family therapy has developed is a clinical methodology that revolves around the hypothesis that psychological distress can be assessed through the observation of human relations. It also capitalizes on the assumption that every member of the system affects or influences each other and the system. And while other cases may require individual therapy based on the individuality of the patient, some cases need to involve the whole family when the nature of the issue is much connected with it. Even though Carolyn insists that â€Å". . . Don isn’t the problem. The problem has to do with Claudia (p. 6)† or Claudia identifies herself as â€Å"it†, the fact remains that as a family, Claudia affects her siblings and parents, just as much as she affects them. Furthermore, the purpose of family therapy, like all other forms of therapy, is to create a therapeutic experience, and that experience will not be felt as a family if one is absent. The therapists constantly created activities like playing for the children in order to create such an experience and to later on suggest and have improvement. Later on, even the grandparents become involved in the therapy. They were asked to come as consultants during sessions, especially since they have know the Brice family better and can help in observing or assessing them. I believe that the intervening approach used by Napier and Whitaker proved to be appropriate for the Brice family. The way confusion, awkwardness and silence were utilized to â€Å"unbalance† the family was also impressive. When the question â€Å"When did you divorce your husband and marry the children?† was straightforwardly asked to Carolyn, Whitaker also displayed a sense of professionalism in the sense that he put the method of using Carolyn’s â€Å"unbalance† over the want to be liked by the client. Perhaps this emphasizes that during therapy, the therapist’s self-development and maturity is essential as well. Observable too is the movement of the therapy from one stage to another, where the need for structure was identified and addressed during the first one, role playing and interaction were done during the second one to improve relationships especially that of the parents’, and finally, the therapists saw the family functioning independently as one unit. However, it is also important to note that while these techniques were effective for the Brice family, they may not have the same results on other families. For example, the technique of â€Å"unbalancing† the family, though seen as an unnecessary stressor, is a risky step to take. If the purpose of such straightforwardness is not seen by the client, or if the dislike towards therapist grows to deter the progress of the session, unwanted consequences could arise. A thorough initial assessment of the family, therefore, is necessary. Using the technique of co-therapy also seemed successful here, mainly due to the fact that Napier and Whitaker, after having been together in other cases, know how to work efficiently already. They even called this co-therapy a â€Å"professional marriage†. Nevertheless, the need for initial assessment is again emphasized as having to share your problems with two therapists can appear to be intimidating to some families, and can stir up some hesitation. BIBLIOGRAPHY:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Long, P. W. (1996). Family therapy. Retrieved June 18, 2009 from http://accg.net/family_therapy.htm Napier, A. Y. & Whitaker, C. (1988). The family crucible: The intense experience of family therapy. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Whitaker, C. A. (1981). Symbolic-experiential family therapy. In A. S. Gurman, & D. P. Knistern (eds.), Handbook of family therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

The Article Leveraging Conflict For Social Justice Essay

I chose to read the article â€Å"Leveraging Conflict for Social Justice: How â€Å"Leadable† Moments Can Transform School Culture† by Enrique Aleman, Jr. The article discusses how an elementary school principle implements her vision of success within a school district that has a diverse group of students with low socioeconomical status. She envisions an environment where faculty, staff, students and parents are working together to create an idyllic school atmosphere. Whenever conflict manifests itself between key stakeholders the principle capitalizes on the instances as â€Å"leadable† moments associated with social justice. This case describes how a principle is tested by a teacher’s response to racist and bigoted language, and the implications surrounding the parents and district concerns regarding diversity and equal education opportunities for all students involved (Aleman, 2009). Mrs. Pitt, principle of Whitman Elementary, has a graduate degree in an educational leadership program that influenced her ideas on different types of valued concepts, such as social justice, equity, and leading for change. She was a tenured fourth grade teacher, and worked as an assistant principle at Jefferson Elementary for three years, another low socioeconomical elementary school. In addition, she was allowed to participate in a study abroad program in Costa Rich, which provided her with the confidence she needed for working with a community of Latino immigrants. She can identify with some of the sameShow MoreRelatedThe Supreme Court s Decision On Affirmative Action On The Fisher V. University Of Texas Case2292 Words   |  10 PagesThe newspaper article appears to be a news report about the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action on the Fisher v. University of Texas case. 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