Jane Ames
eNotes Educator
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105
Answers Posted
14
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Jane Eyre
Mrs. Reed is a vain, selfish, and abusive woman. The narrator describes her as having an eye "devoid of truth," which naturally turns the reader against her as a false and devious character. She... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
There are several textual clues in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" that elucidate for the reader the general attitude of town towards the lottery. The reader first becomes privy to the fact that... -
Answered a Question in The Crucible
When discussing Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, the character of Abigail Williams is frequently blamed for many of the turns in plot and for the perpetuation of the accusations of and punishment... -
Answered a Question in Paul Laurence Dunbar
This poem abounds with appeals to the five senses, all of which contribute to the dark and foreboding mood of the poem. Lines 3 and 4 of the first stanza read: "And why, when I go through the shade... -
Answered a Question in The Yellow Wallpaper
In Gilman’s story, the narrator confesses and repeatedly refers to the fact that her writing is a sort of forbidden journal—one which the narrator’s husband views as a “vicious influence” but she... -
Answered a Question in To Autumn
Three examples of personification in the second stanza of Keats' "To Autumn" are as follows: In the first line, the speaker invokes autumn as an autonomous being by posing the question "Who hath... -
Answered a Question in In Custody
Imtiaz Begum is the second wife to Nur: a female poet and, overall, a rather complicated character. Other characters define Imtiaz as manipulative, cold, and vain. She does not possess the soft... -
Answered a Question in Tom Jones
Henry Fielding's Tom Jones takes place in England in 1745. The author uses a wide range of locations as the backdrop for his stories to help further emphasize the social stratification between... -
Answered a Question in Jane Eyre
The entire book is from Jane Eyre's point of view. While she does come across as a reliable narrator, there are naturally some doubts as to the accuracy of characters and events as she describes... -
Answered a Question in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea
Disillusioned by Captain Nemo's erratic and dangerous behavior, the three characters in question decide to escape from the Nautilus using a small vessel. Just as they embark on their escape, the... -
Answered a Question in Anne Bradstreet
Anne Bradstreet's poetry is characterized by its technical poetic prowess. That is, Bradstreet's poems do not merely employ one or two poetic devices, but many. Every element of her poetry—from... -
Answered a Question in In the Time of the Butterflies
There are several characteristics of the butterfly which make it a potent symbol for the Mirabel sisters. As they face the violent consequences of a brutal dictator's rulership, as well as strife... -
Answered a Question in Waiting for Godot
The previous educator is right to point out that Waiting for Godot contains very little in terms of plot. Events and character development do not drive this play but rather the interchange of words... -
Answered a Question in The Yellow Wallpaper
"The Yellow Wallpaper" presents a multidimensional critique of a social structure dominated by men. Women's lives are dictated by the men around them, who can invalidate their thoughts, wishes, and... -
Answered a Question in Stiff
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers explores the history and ethical dilemmas of postmortem human bodies being put to use by science. Each chapter delves into individual cases of cadavers... -
Answered a Question in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Alexie constructs a surreal courtroom scenario to portray the relationship between Native Americans' rich oral history and present-day social and economic situation. The persecution of Thomas... -
Answered a Question in The Metamorphosis
It is revealed early in the novella that Gregor Samsa is a traveling salesman, and he loathes his occupation. He dislikes the isolation, repetitive nature of the work, and the draining effects of... -
Answered a Question in English Literature
"The father of English Literature" is an expression reserved for Geoffrey Chaucer. He is best known for writing The Canterbury Tales, a collection of twenty-four stories written at the end of the... -
Answered a Question in Candida
"Candida" is a play by George Bernard Shaw, written and published at the end of the 19th century. To glean the central theme of the play, one need look no farther than the title. The play is titled... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
The answer is enjambment. A line of poetry is enjambed when it continues on to the subsequent line without punctuation. You can find enjambment in virtually all forms of poetry, and it serves many... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
Masson is the friend of a friend to the main character. Meursault's friend Raymond introduces him to Masson, who owns a bungalow by the sea. Masson is married. Meursault and Marie vacation with... -
Answered a Question in The Picture of Dorian Gray
This book takes place in late-nineteenth-century London, a time and place characterized by extravagance and artistry flying in the face of traditional, conservative values. It comes as little... -
Answered a Question in Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe primarily wrote narrative poems, poems which tell stories in metered verse. While Poe's work wasn't explicitly meant to be recited or sung, he referred to many of his narrative... -
Answered a Question in Brave New World
Animal imagery plays a nuanced role in Brave New World, and the repetition of "straight from the horse's mouth" plays into the function of animal motifs throughout the book. There is a strong... -
Answered a Question in A Mercy
The previous educator was quite right in identifying the treatment of slavery in each book as a main point of difference. A Mercy focuses more on individual psyches in a historical context, whereas... -
Answered a Question in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Washington Irving explains the naming of Tarrytown as such: This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent county, from... -
Answered a Question in The Joy Luck Club
Magpies (black birds belonging to the crow family) represent duplicity in The Joy Luck Club. The author strategically places stories and mentions of magpies near real-life occurrences of deception... -
Answered a Question in Max Weber
We live in a time characterized by the diffusion of unreliable and slanted information and a political landscape of fiercely opposing ideologies. The comprehension of social issues depends on... -
Answered a Question in The Gift of the Magi
Paragraph five of "The Gift of the Magi" evokes the connotation between long names and the upper echelons of society. That is, royalty, professionals, and those belonging to the "upper classes"... -
Answered a Question in Gothic Literature
Gothic literature delves deeply into mysticism, monstrosity, and hauntings. The literary canon for this genre contains a rather staggering array of what can be identified as "supernatural"... -
Answered a Question in Casualty
The first stanza of Heaney's poem is rife with compound words, or two words joined by a hyphen to create a new word. The subject of the poem is a "sure-footed," "dole-kept breadwinner" who puts on... -
Answered a Question in Shakespeare's Sonnets
Shakespeare uses synecdoche in line 7 of Sonnet 138, when he writes "simply I credit her false-speaking tongue. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which the writer uses a part of something to... -
Answered a Question in Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a dense book, and the previous educator was correct to point to the themes of class structure, the voice of women in life and literature, and more. Yet perhaps the main theme, the... -
Answered a Question in The Outsiders
One of the central themes of this book is the dysfunction and destruction caused by social stratification and labels. Ponyboy resents the one-dimensional labels which people place on one another.... -
Answered a Question in Girl
Though a mere two pages, "Girl" abounds with various literary techniques and devices. For instance, almost the entire story is a series of parallelisms. Authors create parallelisms by writing... -
Answered a Question in The Open Boat
"The Open Boat" regards the arbitrary power of nature as the driving force of life and death rather than subscribing to the notion of an all-powerful "God" belonging to an established religion... -
Answered a Question in The Raven
In stanzas fifteen and sixteen, the speaker essentially asks the raven two questions. In stanza fifteen, the speaker asks, "Is there—is there balm in Gilead?" By this he means to ask if there... -
Answered a Question in If—
Many literary devices fall under the category of "figure of speech," which previous Educators have identified in preceding answers. This answer will call attention to those figures of speech in... -
Answered a Question in The Birds
In "The Birds" by Daphne Du Maurier, the main character theorizes that the birds' destructive behavior is a consequence of a sudden change in weather, a "cold snap." The story is set in England,... -
Answered a Question in The Gift of the Magi
Initially, Della scrimps and saves pennies from their weekly shopping budget and is only able to collect $1.87. Dismayed that this is not enough for a proper Christmas gift for Jim, she turns to... -
Answered a Question in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
In the first volume of this series, we are able to see back to the beginning of Harry Potter's life among muggles (non-magical people). For his safety, he is placed with his muggle relatives by... -
Answered a Question in The Crucible
This question centers around the idea of social mobility—who has it, how they use it, and how the whole framework gets tossed in the air in the midst of the witch trials. In the context of... -
Answered a Question in Hatchet
Paulson's choice of a third limited point of view for Hatchet succeeds on several levels. Yet this choice poses two distinct questions. Why not the first person, and why not the third... -
Answered a Question in The Awakening
Describe the novel's settings, and explain the significance of each. The Awakening begins at an enchanting seaside resort, where upper-class families are vacationing. Opening the novel with... -
Answered a Question in Fahrenheit 451
In terms of placing the novel in time, the author informs the reader that, in this world, two atomic wars have taken place since 1990. This also helps to account for the dystopian setting which... -
Answered a Question in Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was a thought pioneer on a number of topics, but he was potentially most famous for his theories on psychoanalysis to treat patients with mental illness. He developed his own lexicon... -
Answered a Question in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
In addition to the first Educator's observations, this chilling short story uses a motif and an archetype. A motif is a mental hitching post of sorts: it is an object or phrase that appears... -
Answered a Question in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
In general, the most prevalent theme in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is the cognitive transition from adolescence to adulthood. The protagonist of the narrative poem finds himself jaded,... -
Answered a Question in Gothic Literature
The characters of Gothic literature are often subjected to episodes involving ghosts and apparitions, sources of fear, terror, and even death. Whether or not the reader deems these ghosts as... -
Answered a Question in Waiting for Godot
As in a number of his other plays, Beckett attempts to sketch and pace a play which emulates the ebb and flow of life itself. Waiting for Godot is rife with false starts, false hopes,...
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