The Duchess and the Jeweller

The Duchess and the jeweler need each other. She needs his money, and he needs her daughter Diana. They have an unusual bond. The two of them are intimately contrary to one another. They are...

Oliver Bacon is a man of habit and is the jeweller in The Duchess and the Jeweller. In the very first paragraph, the reader is introduced to a seemingly pedantic man, shallow and "proper" with the...

The old lady in the picture on Oliver Bacon's mantelpiece is his late mother. Oliver, who had begun life "in a filthy little alley" seems to crave his late mother's approval, which we see by the...

Thanks for the question! The relationship between the duchess and the jeweler in Virginia Woolf's short story is complex. Before we place this relationship under the microscope, it might be helpful...

The Duchess of Lambourne needs Oliver to provide her with the money to pay her gambling debt, and Oliver needs her to provide him the opportunity to court her daughter Diana because he is not...

The setting is London, an appropriate stage for the culture clash between the upper-crust Duchess and the self-made, nouveau riche jeweler. At that time, London epitomized a changing society, a...

The Duchess and The Jeweller is a short story by Virginia Woolf. Oliver is certainly a gentleman who is something of a perfectionist with the "proper allowance" of everything he needs. He is a...

The Duchess and The Jeweller is a short story by Virginia Woolf which explores the lengths people may go to in order to attain a level of perceived success. Oliver Bacon is fairly smug in his...

The Duchess and the Jeweller is a short story by Virginia Woolf. In the story, the duchess is apparently a woman of means and privilege and Oliver prides himself on having been able to rise above...

The Duchess invites Oliver to her estate because she knows that he craves social respectability. Oliver may well be a fantastically wealthy man, but due to his humble background he's still looked...

I do not think the story reflects actual moral decadence. I think, instead, that it reflects the age in which Woolf wrote it. During that time, English people probably felt that their world was...

To answer this question, it is important to realize that in the short story "The Duchess and the Jeweller" by Virginia Woolf, the author uses the first part of the story giving the backstory of...

The Duchess has what Oliver lacks, despite his financial success and vast wealth. As the Duchess well knows, he most wants access to aristocracy and the halls of political power that are a part of...

By making these comparisons, the author is bringing out the theme of class conflict. She is showing A) how hard Oliver has had to work to get himself up from poverty and B) how much he resents...

Virginia Woolf's short story "The Duchess and the Jeweller" focuses on a wealthy London jeweler and his purchase of ten false pearls from the Duchess of Lambourne. The Duchess is described as "very...

In the short story "The Duchess and the Jeweller," Oliver Bacon is shown in his stock room and his private residence. To give an understanding of the wealth and success he has achieved, the reader...

Oliver's described as having a nose like an elephant's trunk—long and flexible. Like an elephant sniffing out for food, Oliver's always sniffing out for new opportunities, in this case...

Oliver Bacon, the protagonist of Virginia Woolf’s story, has an ambivalent attitude toward his past. He is amused when he remembers the enterprises in which he engaged to begin his path toward...

The question of Shakespeare's imaginary sister, Judith, was raised by Virginia Woolf in her 1929 essay entitled "A Room of One's Own." As a writer herself she was painfully aware of the educational...

Mr. Bacon, the jeweler is in sorrow; he pines for a woman to care for him. Although he is rich from the jewels he owns, there is something missing in his life: So the great jeweller, the greatest...

Oliver Bacon the Jeweller most definitely experiences "loss" in a material sense in the transaction with the Duchess. Specifically, he loses the twenty thousand pounds that he pays to the Duchess...

Woolf describes Oliver's physical appearance at the beginning of the short story. As part of this description she compares his nose, "which [is] long and flexible," to "an elephant's trunk." She...

The duchess is deceitful in two crucial and related ways. First, she takes advantage of the jeweler's desire for Diana, and does so artfully, as seen in this passage: " “You will come down...

Although Woolf does say that these two people are friends as well as enemies, she does not really mean that they are friends in the way we generally use the term. These are not people who really...

There is a good summary here: http://www.enotes.com/duchess-jeweller-qn But basically, Woolf's story is about a Duchess who goes to a jeweller to sell her Jewels. Because the Duchess has a title,...

Virginia Woolf carefully portrays a man who has many human foibles but also balances those flaws with some sympathetic characteristics. Oliver Bacon, from an early age, learned how to persuade...

In order to get the compression necessary for a short story, Woolf uses a narrative technique as the story opens that summarizes in brief snippets the repeated thoughts and beliefs Oliver Bacon has...

More than anything else, Oliver craves social respectability. He has the money, he has the success, but the one thing he doesn't have in life is social standing. That explains why this hard-headed...

Virginia Woolf’s story is a sharp critique of the British class system that portrays the upper-class as trying to uphold onto their social status at any expense. Although Woolf is not entirely...

Ah, an interesting question. Truffles are considered quite precious. (They are very expensive food!) For one to be rotten is a terrible disappointment. Pigs are often used to sniff out truffles,...

Though fantastically wealthy, Oliver Bacon has one thing missing in his life: social status. It doesn't matter how successful in business he becomes, or how much money he makes, he will never be...

When Oliver hears Diana's name, he feels and thinks several things. First and most immediately, he loves her, so any mention of her name brings forth a surge of fond emotion and fantasy. He wants...

The Duchess and the Jeweller exposes the superficial environment in which so many people exist. In an effort to appear to be privileged and successful, Oliver Bacon, who was not actually born into...

Though society is a lot less hierarchical than it was in Woolf's day, there are is still a depressingly large number of people who instinctively look up to the rich and well-born simply by virtue...

In The Duchess and The Jeweller, Oliver Bacon, has not always been "the richest jeweller in England." Oliver, in fact, had very humble beginnings and remembers his life "in a filthy little alley."...

Ah, a subtle question. First and most simply, we're told that the jeweler loves Diana. Therefore, the first association is that of love. After that, though, hearing her name reminds him that there...

The most abiding theme in the story is the way that money corrupts people, making them do things they really should not do. The jeweler, Oliver Bacon, has money, plenty of it, but the one thing he...

In one particularly notable passage near the beginning of the story, Oliver Bacon looks down admiringly at his perfect trousers, his boots, and his spats. All of them were made in Saville Row by...

The single word, "again", suggests a great deal in this line and in this story. It means that the jeweller, Oliver Bacon, knows that the Duchess is dishonest when it comes to selling her jewelery;...

We are not able to write whole essays for you on this site. It is recommended that we answer in around 90 words. I will try to help point you in the right direction. If I had to agree with that...