Writing a Literary Essay Workshop
Because they reflect universal human feelings and experiences, great works of literature such as Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote transcend time. Yet every work of literature is shaped by the era in which it is produced. In this workshop you’ll write a literary essay that analyzes three works from the same literary period to discover how they reflect the literary trends of the time in which they were written.
Step ONE: Choose a Topic
A Trendy Topic Start by choosing a literary period on which to focus. You may want to investigate the literary period of one of your favorite authors or works, or you might get ideas about important literary periods by talking to your teacher or school librarian. Below is a list of literary periods you MUST CHOOSE ONE from the list below for your essay.
•
Romantic Period (1798–1832)
•
Victorian Period (1832–1901)
•
Twentieth Century (1901–2000)
Once you’ve chosen a literary period, do research to identify the literary trends, such as changes in style or the development of new literary genres, of that period and the works that reflect those trends. Find information about literary trends and works by looking through this textbook—particularly at the introduction to the literary period you’ve chosen—or by checking out library books or websites that discuss the literary period.
Select one literary trend and three works by three different writers that reflect that trend. If the works you choose are long works, such as novels or epic poems, you will probably need to deal with a single section or small excerpt of each work to include in your essay.
For example, one student who selected the eighteenth century as the focus of his literary essay chose to write about “A Voyage to Laputa” from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Book I of Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad, and all of Voltaire’s short novel Candide to show how they reflect a dominant trend in eighteenth-century literature—satire.
For this step of this prewriting, you need to submit your selected literary time period and the names of AT LEAST THREE literary works you plan to include in the essay into the free response box below.
For this step of this prewriting, you need to submit your selected literary time period and the names of AT LEAST THREE literary works you plan to include in the essay into the free response box below.
Submit your selection using this as a Model:
My selected time period is _________________________________.
The theme I will demonstrate from this period is ______________________________.
The literary work I will reference in my essay include:
1.
2.
3.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Rhetorical Devices in Vindication
Analyzing Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical devices are methods writers or speakers use to make their language more effective or to reinforce a particular point. Rhetorical devices are particularly important in any kind of communication that seeks to win the reader over to a writer’s point of view. Speeches, policy statements, debates, political and religious tracts, arguments, persuasive essays, and many other kinds of public documents freely employ a variety of rhetorical devices, such as the following:
•
rhetorical question: The writer, for effect, asks a question for which an answer is not expected—usually because the writer expects that the audience will agree with the opinion being expressed.
•
argument by analogy: The writer points out a parallel between two subjects or situations in order to make a point.
•
historical allusion: The writer cites a person, a place, or an event from history that relates to the topic at hand.
•
repetition or restatement: The writer repeats the main idea in different ways.
•
counterargument: The writer anticipates the audience’s objections or concerns and openly addresses them.
•
appeal to authority: The writer cites the opinions of experts on the subject.
•
illustrative anecdote or example: The writer uses a brief story or cites a particular case in order to support his or her point.
In the following selection on the topic of women’s rights, be alert for these various rhetorical devices. How does the writer use them to reinforce her main points?
In the free response box below, list, label and explain AT LEAST four of the Rhetorical Devices listed above that are used in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Be sure to LABEL AND EXPLAIN each of your four quotes.
For Example:
1. In paragraph one, Wollstonecraft states “blah, blah” this is an example of an argument by analogy. The analogy…
Rhetorical devices are methods writers or speakers use to make their language more effective or to reinforce a particular point. Rhetorical devices are particularly important in any kind of communication that seeks to win the reader over to a writer’s point of view. Speeches, policy statements, debates, political and religious tracts, arguments, persuasive essays, and many other kinds of public documents freely employ a variety of rhetorical devices, such as the following:
•
rhetorical question: The writer, for effect, asks a question for which an answer is not expected—usually because the writer expects that the audience will agree with the opinion being expressed.
•
argument by analogy: The writer points out a parallel between two subjects or situations in order to make a point.
•
historical allusion: The writer cites a person, a place, or an event from history that relates to the topic at hand.
•
repetition or restatement: The writer repeats the main idea in different ways.
•
counterargument: The writer anticipates the audience’s objections or concerns and openly addresses them.
•
appeal to authority: The writer cites the opinions of experts on the subject.
•
illustrative anecdote or example: The writer uses a brief story or cites a particular case in order to support his or her point.
In the following selection on the topic of women’s rights, be alert for these various rhetorical devices. How does the writer use them to reinforce her main points?
In the free response box below, list, label and explain AT LEAST four of the Rhetorical Devices listed above that are used in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Be sure to LABEL AND EXPLAIN each of your four quotes.
For Example:
1. In paragraph one, Wollstonecraft states “blah, blah” this is an example of an argument by analogy. The analogy…
Vindication of Woman Reading and Questions
The readings for this week are from the Political Points of View section on Pages 482–498 in your Elements of Literature text book.
from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Political Points of View
In much of today’s world, the same educational opportunities are available to both genders. Women share the vote with men, and women may study for and pursue virtually any career they wish. These opportunities, often taken for granted, were not always available to women. In England, during the Restoration, the educated woman was the exception to the rule, and women were not allowed to vote. Keep these facts in mind as you read this excerpt from a famous feminist’s essay. How much of what she says still rings true today? How far have we—or haven’t we—come since the late 1700s?
Answer the following questions in full and complete sentences in the free response box below. I have included a copy of the reading for your convenience, but use the online text book whenever possible. The interactive text on the HRW website provides vocabulary assistance and audio support for this reading. Find it on page 483.
Reading Check
1.
In the first paragraph, Wollstonecraft sets up her argument by asserting that women are
denied proper educations.
What loaded words does she use in this opening paragraph?
2.
In the fourth paragraph Wollstonecraft anticipates her readers’ concerns and presents a counterargument explaining why women should aspire to be “masculine.”
What does Wollstonecraft understand the word masculine to mean? What implicit assumptions underlie her use of the word?
Thinking Critically
3.
Overall, what basic roles for women does the author continue to accept? In her view, how would better education help women fulfill these roles?
4.
The author uses wit and satire throughout the essay whenever she discusses the qualities conventionally assigned to men and to women. List some of those qualities. How does the writer satirize the belief that educating women will make them masculine?
5.
In her concluding paragraph, how does Wollstonecraft explain women’s use of cunning to get their way? What solution does she propose?
6.
How would you describe the tone of Wollstonecraft’s text? What particular words, phrases, or longer passages contribute to this tone?
In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the works which have been particularly written for their improvement must not be overlooked; especially when it is asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement; that the books of instruction, written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as more frivolous productions; and that, in the true style of Mahometanism,3 they are treated as a kind of subordinate beings, and not as a part of the human species, when improvable4 reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction which raises men above the brute creation, and puts a natural scepter5 in a feeble hand.
Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readers to suppose that I mean violently to agitate the contested question respecting the equality or inferiority of the sex; but as the subject lies in my way, and I cannot pass it over without subjecting the main tendency of my reasoning to misconstruction,6 I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few words, my opinion. —In the government of the physical world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favor of woman. A degree of physical superiority cannot, therefore, be denied—and it is a noble prerogative!7 But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavor to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society.
I am aware of an obvious inference:—from every quarter have I heard exclamations against masculine women; but where are they to be found? If by this appellation8 men mean to inveigh9 against their ardour in hunting, shooting, and gaming, I shall most cordially join in the cry; but if it be against the imitation of manly virtues, or, more properly speaking, the attainment of those talents and virtues, the exercise of which ennobles the human character, and which raise females in the scale of animal being, when they are comprehensively termed mankind;—all those who view them with a philosophic eye must, I should think, wish with me, that they may every day grow more and more masculine.
This discussion naturally divides the subject. I shall first consider women in the grand light of human creatures, who, in common with men, are placed on this earth to unfold their faculties; and afterwards I shall more particularly point out their peculiar designation.
I wish also to steer clear of an error which many respectable writers have fallen into; for the instruction which has hitherto been addressed to women, has rather been applicable to ladies, if the little indirect advice, that is scattered through Sandford and Merton,10 be excepted; but, addressing my sex in a firmer tone, I pay particular attention to those in the middle class, because they appear to be in the most natural state. Perhaps the seeds of false refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and affections of their race, in a premature unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society! As a class of mankind they have the strongest claim to pity; the education of the rich tends to render them vain and helpless, and the unfolding mind is not strengthened by the practice of those duties which dignify the human character.—They only live to amuse themselves, and by the same law which in nature invariably produces certain effects, they soon only afford barren amusement.
But as I purpose11 taking a separate view of the different ranks of society, and of the moral character of women in each, this hint is, for the present, sufficient; and I have only alluded to the subject, because it appears to me to be the very essence of an introduction to give a cursory account of the contents of the work it introduces.
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists—I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets12 of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.
Dismissing then those pretty feminine phrases, which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility, and sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to shew13 that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable14 ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex; and that secondary views should be brought to this simple touchstone.15
This is a rough sketch of my plan; and should I express my conviction with the energetic emotions that I feel whenever I think of the subject, the dictates of experience and reflection will be felt by some of my readers. Animated by this important object, I shall disdain to cull16 my phrases or polish my style;—I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arguments, than dazzle by the elegance of my language, I shall not waste my time in rounding periods, or in fabricating the turgid bombast17 of artificial feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart.—I shall be employed about things, not words!—and, anxious to render my sex more respectable members of society, I shall try to avoid that flowery diction which has slided from essays into novels, and from novels into familiar letters and conversation
These pretty superlatives,18 dropping glibly from the tongue, vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly delicacy that turns away from simple unadorned truth; and a deluge of false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling the natural emotions of the heart, render the domestic pleasures insipid, that ought to sweeten the exercise of those severe duties, which educate a rational and immortal being for a nobler field of action.
The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve them. It is acknowledged that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments; meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine19 notions of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves,—the only way women can rise in the world,—by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as such children may be expected to act:—they dress; they paint, and nickname God’s creatures.—Surely these weak beings are only fit for a seraglio!20 —Can they be expected to govern a family with judgment, or take care of the poor babes whom they bring into the world?
If then it can be fairly deduced from the present conduct of the sex, from the prevalent fondness for pleasure which takes place of ambition and those nobler passions that open and enlarge the soul; that the instruction which women have hitherto received has only tended, with the constitution21 of civil society, to render them insignificant objects of desire—mere propagators22 of fools!—if it can be proved that in aiming to accomplish them, without cultivating their understandings, they are taken out of their sphere of duties, and made ridiculous and useless when the short-lived bloom of beauty is over,* I presume that rational men will excuse me for endeavoring to persuade them to become more masculine and respectable.
*A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, asks what business women turned of forty have to do in the world?
Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear:23 there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage or fortitude; for their apparent inferiority with respect to bodily strength, must render them, in some degree, dependent on men in the various relations of life; but why should it be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and confound simple truths with sensual reveries?24
Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken notions of female excellence, that I do not mean to add a paradox when I assert, that this artificial weakness produces a propensity to tyrannize, and gives birth to cunning, the natural opponent of strength, which leads them to play off those contemptible infantine airs that undermine esteem even whilst they excite desire. Let men become more chaste and modest, and if women do not grow wiser in the same ratio, it will be clear that they have weaker understandings. It seems scarcely necessary to say, that I now speak of the sex in general. Many individuals have more sense than their male relatives; and, as nothing preponderates25 where there is a constant struggle for equilibrium, without it has naturally more gravity, some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern.
from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Political Points of View
In much of today’s world, the same educational opportunities are available to both genders. Women share the vote with men, and women may study for and pursue virtually any career they wish. These opportunities, often taken for granted, were not always available to women. In England, during the Restoration, the educated woman was the exception to the rule, and women were not allowed to vote. Keep these facts in mind as you read this excerpt from a famous feminist’s essay. How much of what she says still rings true today? How far have we—or haven’t we—come since the late 1700s?
Answer the following questions in full and complete sentences in the free response box below. I have included a copy of the reading for your convenience, but use the online text book whenever possible. The interactive text on the HRW website provides vocabulary assistance and audio support for this reading. Find it on page 483.
Reading Check
1.
In the first paragraph, Wollstonecraft sets up her argument by asserting that women are
denied proper educations.
What loaded words does she use in this opening paragraph?
2.
In the fourth paragraph Wollstonecraft anticipates her readers’ concerns and presents a counterargument explaining why women should aspire to be “masculine.”
What does Wollstonecraft understand the word masculine to mean? What implicit assumptions underlie her use of the word?
Thinking Critically
3.
Overall, what basic roles for women does the author continue to accept? In her view, how would better education help women fulfill these roles?
4.
The author uses wit and satire throughout the essay whenever she discusses the qualities conventionally assigned to men and to women. List some of those qualities. How does the writer satirize the belief that educating women will make them masculine?
5.
In her concluding paragraph, how does Wollstonecraft explain women’s use of cunning to get their way? What solution does she propose?
6.
How would you describe the tone of Wollstonecraft’s text? What particular words, phrases, or longer passages contribute to this tone?
In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the works which have been particularly written for their improvement must not be overlooked; especially when it is asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement; that the books of instruction, written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as more frivolous productions; and that, in the true style of Mahometanism,3 they are treated as a kind of subordinate beings, and not as a part of the human species, when improvable4 reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction which raises men above the brute creation, and puts a natural scepter5 in a feeble hand.
Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readers to suppose that I mean violently to agitate the contested question respecting the equality or inferiority of the sex; but as the subject lies in my way, and I cannot pass it over without subjecting the main tendency of my reasoning to misconstruction,6 I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few words, my opinion. —In the government of the physical world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favor of woman. A degree of physical superiority cannot, therefore, be denied—and it is a noble prerogative!7 But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavor to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society.
I am aware of an obvious inference:—from every quarter have I heard exclamations against masculine women; but where are they to be found? If by this appellation8 men mean to inveigh9 against their ardour in hunting, shooting, and gaming, I shall most cordially join in the cry; but if it be against the imitation of manly virtues, or, more properly speaking, the attainment of those talents and virtues, the exercise of which ennobles the human character, and which raise females in the scale of animal being, when they are comprehensively termed mankind;—all those who view them with a philosophic eye must, I should think, wish with me, that they may every day grow more and more masculine.
This discussion naturally divides the subject. I shall first consider women in the grand light of human creatures, who, in common with men, are placed on this earth to unfold their faculties; and afterwards I shall more particularly point out their peculiar designation.
I wish also to steer clear of an error which many respectable writers have fallen into; for the instruction which has hitherto been addressed to women, has rather been applicable to ladies, if the little indirect advice, that is scattered through Sandford and Merton,10 be excepted; but, addressing my sex in a firmer tone, I pay particular attention to those in the middle class, because they appear to be in the most natural state. Perhaps the seeds of false refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and affections of their race, in a premature unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society! As a class of mankind they have the strongest claim to pity; the education of the rich tends to render them vain and helpless, and the unfolding mind is not strengthened by the practice of those duties which dignify the human character.—They only live to amuse themselves, and by the same law which in nature invariably produces certain effects, they soon only afford barren amusement.
But as I purpose11 taking a separate view of the different ranks of society, and of the moral character of women in each, this hint is, for the present, sufficient; and I have only alluded to the subject, because it appears to me to be the very essence of an introduction to give a cursory account of the contents of the work it introduces.
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists—I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets12 of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.
Dismissing then those pretty feminine phrases, which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility, and sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to shew13 that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable14 ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex; and that secondary views should be brought to this simple touchstone.15
This is a rough sketch of my plan; and should I express my conviction with the energetic emotions that I feel whenever I think of the subject, the dictates of experience and reflection will be felt by some of my readers. Animated by this important object, I shall disdain to cull16 my phrases or polish my style;—I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arguments, than dazzle by the elegance of my language, I shall not waste my time in rounding periods, or in fabricating the turgid bombast17 of artificial feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart.—I shall be employed about things, not words!—and, anxious to render my sex more respectable members of society, I shall try to avoid that flowery diction which has slided from essays into novels, and from novels into familiar letters and conversation
These pretty superlatives,18 dropping glibly from the tongue, vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly delicacy that turns away from simple unadorned truth; and a deluge of false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling the natural emotions of the heart, render the domestic pleasures insipid, that ought to sweeten the exercise of those severe duties, which educate a rational and immortal being for a nobler field of action.
The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve them. It is acknowledged that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments; meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine19 notions of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves,—the only way women can rise in the world,—by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as such children may be expected to act:—they dress; they paint, and nickname God’s creatures.—Surely these weak beings are only fit for a seraglio!20 —Can they be expected to govern a family with judgment, or take care of the poor babes whom they bring into the world?
If then it can be fairly deduced from the present conduct of the sex, from the prevalent fondness for pleasure which takes place of ambition and those nobler passions that open and enlarge the soul; that the instruction which women have hitherto received has only tended, with the constitution21 of civil society, to render them insignificant objects of desire—mere propagators22 of fools!—if it can be proved that in aiming to accomplish them, without cultivating their understandings, they are taken out of their sphere of duties, and made ridiculous and useless when the short-lived bloom of beauty is over,* I presume that rational men will excuse me for endeavoring to persuade them to become more masculine and respectable.
*A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, asks what business women turned of forty have to do in the world?
Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear:23 there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage or fortitude; for their apparent inferiority with respect to bodily strength, must render them, in some degree, dependent on men in the various relations of life; but why should it be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and confound simple truths with sensual reveries?24
Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken notions of female excellence, that I do not mean to add a paradox when I assert, that this artificial weakness produces a propensity to tyrannize, and gives birth to cunning, the natural opponent of strength, which leads them to play off those contemptible infantine airs that undermine esteem even whilst they excite desire. Let men become more chaste and modest, and if women do not grow wiser in the same ratio, it will be clear that they have weaker understandings. It seems scarcely necessary to say, that I now speak of the sex in general. Many individuals have more sense than their male relatives; and, as nothing preponderates25 where there is a constant struggle for equilibrium, without it has naturally more gravity, some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern.
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