Gus 20th C Blog

In The Sun Also Rises , the narration makes it very clear that Brett is in love with Jake. It’s easy to assume the narrator is reliable and take this statement at face value, but I think that if you really delve into the relationship between Jake and Brett, her true feelings for Jake become more ambiguous and disputable. Brett states again and again that she loves Jake and wishes they could be together. Now I hate Brett with a passion, so I have a strong bias, but I believe that Brett’s actions show otherwise. We’ve already discussed how Brett is incredibly manipulative of Jake. Knowing that they can never be together, she flaunts her relations with other guys in front of him. She even goes so far as to ask Jake to set her up with Romero. While you could view this as Brett essentially asking Jake’s permission to go after Romero, I think Brett’s intentions are more malicious. While Jake is holding onto Brett because he's so in love with her that he can't let go, Brett keeps...

Woolf, having an ambiguous affair with a woman herself, quite obviously explored sexuality in Mrs. Dalloway through such relationships as Sally and Clarissa and perhaps Septimus and Evans. In a slightly more subtle fashion, Woolf experiments with gender expression and androgyny through almost every character she depicts. Let's start with the guys. Septimus is probably the most blaringly obvious example of this as a man who cries all the time, is incredibly sensitive, and lets his emotions and experiences affect him. Even more, he joined the military specifically because he was too feminine. Even Richard appears effeminate in his passiveness and bumbling awkwardness. Then there are the women. Sally is overtly exploring her gender expression through her sexual bravado (in running through the halls naked), smoking cigars, and the overall confidence and spontaneity she exudes in comparison to the passivity expected of women. Lady Bruton and Miss Kilman are also shown as masculine...

Mrs. Dalloway on Suffering Clarissa Dalloway has been extensively criticized by Mrs. Killman and Peter Walsh for her relatively superficial way of life. According to Mrs. Killman, Clarissa has never experienced true hardship. While I agree that Clarissa has had an easy and simple life without much pain and hardship, I also argue that directly through her status and way of life, she is experiencing a large inner hardship that none of the characters seem to recognize. In class, we've talked extensively about Clarissa’s feeling of emptiness, of erasure. As a rich woman, her job is to be pretty and charming enough to get a husband, and then fill the expected role of wife. Clarissa has already been married and raised a child, so society no longer has much use for her. The only thing she has to hold onto now are her social relationships, her past, and her parties. Yes, someone whose purpose in life is mainly throwing parties is superficial and has an easy life. But from a different p...