Author: Carlin

“The Lady of Shallot” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson begins by describing a land that is isolated by two rivers. This is where the Lady of Shallot lives in a tower of “Four grey walls, and four grey towers” (line 15) , unbeknownst to anyone in Camelot, the nearby village. Lady Shallot is described as being isolated, and under a curse that will kill her if she leaves her tower. She is forced to spend her days weaving what she can see of the world through her mirror. However, a knight comes along and sings along a river bank close to the Lady of Shallot. When she hears his voice, she is compelled to leave the safety of her tower and to look out at the rest of the world.

Here is an image of Rapunzel looking out of her window. Her long hair can easily be seen in this image.

Similarly to this story, the story of Rapunzel was written in just elven years earlier in 1822. Although this was a German fairytale, there are many similarities between the two works. In the story of Rapunzel, she is also locked in a tower with the only view of the real world being a window. What is also strikingly similar is that in Rapunzel, the prince only notices her after hearing her sing, just like how the Lady of Shallot only hear her knight after he was singing. In the original version, there is also a part about her weaving a piece of silk that she receives from the prince, each night. This is how she ultimately manages to escape.

There are some noticeable and important differences between these two works though. In the present day story of Rapunzel, when she lets her hair down, the prince rescues her and she can live happily ever after. The Lady of Shallot on the other hand is forced to face her curse, and she dies. In the sooty of Rapunzel thoguh, there is always the happily ever after moment, when the prince and Rapunzel get to live together for the rest of their lives. Yet the knight in the “The Lady of Shallot”, the prince ignores the Lady when she comes into the village on the boat, and pretends that he doesn’t know her.

In the Victorian era, a new type of woman evolved. This woman defied social norms, as they did not want children or to be married. In the article “Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle” Greg Buzwell says that these woman, called New Woman, were increasingly more publically interested in sex. The exploration into sex was another way of redefining themselves and giving them a new type of power in their lives.

Similarly in Dracula, as Lucy is beign turned into a vampire, she is described to be more sexual: “In a sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice, such as I had never heard from her lips:— “Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me” (Stoker 172)! Lucy is seen here in a new role, one that has given her power and a new look of being sexual. Arthur is taken aback, but is also overcome with his desire for her.

It is not a conscience that as Lucy is being transformed into a vampire, she is becoming increasingly more sexual. This transformation relates back to the age of New Woman, and the power that they New Woman seem to have with their findings of their desire to be sexual. Stoker seems to play this key transformation in the society into his novel to further explore it, and show the changes in society. With his male characters, Stoker is also showing a slight power shift, as they are helpless around the sexual explicit female vampires, just like how Jonathan was unable to control himself when he met the three female vampires.

When Dracula was written, science and medicine was the key to understanding the world. For the characters in Dracula, this heavy importance of science left them all with a huge dilemma, as they struggled to mentally overcome the doubt they felt about the supernatural and more specifically rhe possibility of the existence of vampires. It takes the characters almost half of the novel to finally overcome their doubt and to organize their thoughts and accept that there might be something that defies science. Dr. Van Helsing explains to Dr. Steward this strange battle when he says, “Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain. But yet we see around us every day the growth of new beliefs, which think themselves new, and which are yet but the old, which pretend to be young, like the fine ladies at the opera” (204). This is a strange conversation as it is, let alone it being between the professor and former student, both of whom are doctors of science. Later on Dr. Van Helsing also expresses his thoughts to the group when he says, “Does not the belief in vampires rest for others, though not, alas! for us, on them! A year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth century?” (254). The ironic nature of both of these conversations is that the one to best overcome the doubt of the supernatural and put aside all scientific reasoning is the older doctor. However by overcoming the doubt of the supernatural, the characters can begin to work together to figure out how to kill Dracula once and for all.

Arthur Conan Doyle created a very unique character when he invented Sherlock Holmes. He has a remarkably high intelligence level, which makes him bored of everyday life. This leads him to be addicted to drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, and how he has very few friends other than Dr. Watson. However, it is because of this high intelligence level that he is a great detective – one of the best ever created.

What makes Sherlock Holmes so great are his observation skills. They are so remarkable that he can deduce a man’s life story with only the smallest details to go off. He uses these details to help solve many of the mysteries he is presented with, often times by talking through them with Dr. Watson. Sherlock even tells Watson, “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” (28)

In this one sentence, Sherlock’s whole personality is given. He is seen as a man of wisdom, as what he says is very true. However, he uses the word “nobody”, which separates him from the rest of the world. This one word shows that he thinks of himself better than anyone else and that he is alone in being smart enough to figure out the most “obvious things”.

The word “things” is also an interesting word. He did not say details, which would imply his acute observation skills, but by saying “things” he shows that he believes himself to be superior in many different areas. Another interesting phrase that he says is “by any chance”. This shows that there is not any question to him that there is anybody out in the world that is smarter or better than him.

This sentence is about how Sherlock knows that he is better than anybody else. It also shows that he is very disappointed in the world that such “obvious things” are never notices other than himself. I think this sentence also explains why Sherlock is bored with society and turns to drugs for relief. However, this sentence also makes me question if it is foreshadowing Sherlock meeting someone who is just as smart, if not smarter, than himself later in the novel.

“What does it mean?” he thought. “She is altogether a different being to the wretched, helpless creature who dropped her mask for a moment, and looked at me with her own pitiful face, in the little room at Mount Stanning, four hours ago. What has happened to cause the change?” (148)

In this passage Mr. Audley had just run into Lady Audley at the train station in London. Lady Audley greets him and seems to be in a normal state of mind, compared to the fearful women he had seen just hours before. As Robert helps Lady Audley into the train, his thoughts begin to question her change in behavior. The word choice here is very important in terms of her emotional behavior as it reveals that Lady Audley can go back and forth between extreme states of being a “wretched, helpless creature” and “pitiful” to having a completely normal conversation with Robert. The readers saw Lady Audley almost at her breaking point , but only hours later the readers are told she is complete fine. This leads to questions about her sanity and her past life, as Braddon also uses the word “mask” to describe the way she normally acts and how she had dropped her mask only for a short while. This indicates that she is covering up her true self. The implications in this paragraph leads to questions about Lady Audley’s mental state. Is Lady Audley emotional unstable and does it have anything to do with her past? If so, what happened in her past to make her so weak and vulnerable? Why does she put on a mask in public but in private she seems to break down? Is she afraid of something or someone? Does Lady Audley have multiple personalities? Finally, the most important question to be asked is what is Lady Audley hiding?