Congenial: (Adjective)
Definition: agreeable, suitable, or pleasing in nature or character.
Dictionary.com
Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.
This just means that she wanted to read something that was pleasing and exciting.
Untenanted: (Noun)
Definition: an occupant or inhabitant of any place.
Dictionary.com
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?
I now understand that this word is telling us that the place had no one living in it for a while.
Seldom: (Adverb)
Definition: on only a few occasions; rarely; infrequently; not often.
Dictionary.com
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
I now understand that the author was literally trying to say that it was rare for people like her and John to do this.
Eccentric-(Adjective)
Definition:deviating from the recognized or customary character, practice, etc.; irregular; erratic; peculiar; odd.
Dictionary.com
The working basis of the establishment was an eccentric woman named
Caswell, a sort of musical enthusiast, who had a summer school of music
and the “higher things.” Malicious persons, not able to obtain
accommodations there, called the place “High C.”
The way the word is used in the passage is just suggesting that the women has a weird personality.
Cultivating-(Verb)
Definition: to develop or improve by education or training; train; refine.
Dictionary.com
The voice Helen Furr was cultivating was quite a pleasant one. The voice Georgine Skeene was cultivating was, some said, a better one. The voice Helen Furr was cultivating she cultivated and it was quite completely a pleasant enough one then, a cultivated enough one then. The voice Georgine Skeene was cultivating she did not cultivate too much. She cultivated it quite some. She cultivated and she would sometime go on cultivating it and it was not then an unpleasant one, it would not be then an unpleasant one, it would be a quite richly enough cultivated one, it would be quite richly enough to be a pleasant enough one.
The word in the texts means that they were, improving their voices.
“That’s one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.”
1) The Bell Jar
2) Sylvia Plath
3) Esther
4) This passage is showing us that Ester did not find the idea of marriage comforting at all. She just wanted an exciting life and didn’t see it with anyone. I actually don’t think that she ever liked the idea of marriage throughout the novel. I feel like everyone around her made her feel that marriage was always like this. Of course it was during a different time period, but I still don’t think that every guy would have been the same. I felt like Esther felt like she was forced to get married one day and for that reason did not enjoy the idea.
5) I think that this text is showing us that Esther doesn’t like anything that she is supposed to do I the future. I think she just wants to live her life with no rules. Women in that point in time were supposed to get married and I honestly think that thinking about anything that she was “supposed” to do stressed her out. I think they included this in the texts because usually a girl from that time would be very excited about being a future wife. I think this passage was showing us that Esther is not like the rest.
6) The fact that Esther is stressed out about being forced to do things because of society’s expectations reminds me of the main character from The Yellow Wallpaper because they both seem so scared about the future. I feel like they are scared about nothing because they don’t have to do anything that they don’t want to do, but they don’t know this. The main character in The Yellow Wallpaper always thought she was being watched, when she wasn’t. I just think they go together because they are both just being paranoid.
As the novel began, I got a sense that Helga liked the quiet and being alone because she didn’t like where she was at Naxos. She was also described as being irritated and having a lot of anger. Helga liked teaching at Naxos at first, but after 2 years, she began to hate it. They were racist at Naxos, and since Helga is biracial, this could have been a reason why she started hating it. She could have also felt angry because in the novel it says that she was like a pity case for her uncle and because she had “negro blood” she would never amount to anything. I don’t believe that that was the life she wanted for herself.
“Most of her earnings had gone into clothes, into books, into the furnishings of the room which held her. All her life Helga Crane had loved and longed for nice things. Indeed, it was this craving, this urge for beauty which had helped to bring her disfavor in Naxos- “pride” and “vanity” her detractors called it.” (pg 14)
This passage shows me that Helga could not be who she wanted to be in Naxos and so this is why she was unhappy there. It also wasn’t the lifestyle that she wanted. I believe that she longed to be successful because of all the thing that she wanted. It’s interesting because Helga’s character seems like its constantly changing to me. This is one reason why I really don’t believe she was happy at Naxos. I believe that what she experienced there wasn’t what she thought she thought the experience would be like because why else would she hate teaching at Naxos if she liked it at first. Helga’s character was also developing because of the people that she was around, like the singing children that she loved and James, who she was with because they were both lonely.
1) “Writing was a reputable and harmless occupation. The family peace was not broken by the scratching of a pen. No demand was made upon the family purse. For ten and sixpence one can buy paper enough to write all the plays of Shakespeare–if one has a mind that way.”
Text: Professions for women
Author: Virginia Wolf
What is happening in the passage is that the narrator is saying that being a writer is a good job because its harmless and its not costly.
This goes with the main theme of the story because the story has to do with a group of women trying to work where men are the main people working. It shows that woman writers have to go through many struggles because they are seen as conservative. It takes some time for Virginia to change her mentality, but does. She then sees that women can be as successful as men in this profession.
2)”If I had your good looks I’d raise a bit of dust myself. Ain’t nobody down there interested in me.”
Text: Intimate Apparel
Author: Lynn Nottage
This passage shows how insecure Ester is and how desperate she is for love and attention.
The passage goes with the main ideas of the story because what Ester wants so desperately is love and when she finds love with George its an issue because she needs to get other people to help her read and write the letters since she cant herself. Their relationship is amazing in letters, but when the meet in person and get married, the marriage is not what she expected. Her dreams were also compromised throughout this play.
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