The following Tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentlemen of New York, who was very curious in the Dutch history of the province, and the manners of the descendants from its primitive settlers. His historical rese
* Wahington Irving, Rip Van Winkle
Gives the history of Knickerbocker, Friends said that even when Knickerbocker dies they wished he had done something more with his life. Talks a lot about Knickerbocker and his history then proceeds to give a history/Geo
Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson, must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding
* Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle
Geography lesson. People loved this descriptive passage of a portion of the country because they couldn't travel to see places like this like they do now. The most successful authors were those who did big descriptions
The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labour. It could not be for the want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all
* Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle
Rip as a character. Rip's big character flaw was that he didn't want to work for anything that didn't give him any money or benefit. He does not mind work he just does not want to work for profit.
In fact, he declared it was no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; every thing about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences were continually falling to pieces; his cow wo
* Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle
Found excuses for doing work on the farm and in general. Would do this but....
It was with some difficulty he found the way to his own house, which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay--the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the d
* Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle
When he wakes up and finds his house he is upset about how his dog, Wolf didn't remember him. The dog forgot who he was. This is significant because he doesn't seem to care that his wife wasn't there or his children wer
In this by place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of i
* Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Description of Ichabod. Ichabod is skinny and gangly, his clothes are baggy
On that day, two men might be observed, lingering on the banks of a small but rapid stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment of Webb, like those who awaited the appearance of an absent person, or the approach of some expected event. The vast ca
* James Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
Cinematic description that gives the reader a lot of info. Time of day-mid afternoon, hears guys talking, bird in the distance, and a waterfall in the distance. You can really see every bit of this description. Peo
Even your traditions make the case in my favour, Chingachgook," he said, speaking in the tongue which was known to all the natives who formerly inhabited the country between the Hudson and the Potomack, and of which we shall give a free translation for t
* James Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
Natty is speaking to Chingachgook in his native language but since the audience speaks english he is translating. It says something that he is talking to him in his native language. It suggests a level of mutual re
My fathers fought with the naked red-man!" returned the Indian, sternly, in the same language. "Is there no difference, Hawk-eye, between the stone-headed arrow of the warrior, and the leaden bullet with which you kill?" "There is reason in an Indian , t
* James Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
You know you look different than me, you are making sense, shows challenge of preconceived notion. Nature of argument is intellectual and debate, thoughtfully considering the views of the other person, mutual respe
I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an Iroquois, daren't deny that I am genuine white." the scout replied, surveying, with secret satisfaction, the faded colou
* James Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
Talking about his own culture and how he can't defend some of the things his culture can't defend some of the things his culture has done. Differences between Western European and Native American traditions. He is
For myself, I conclude all the Bumppo's could; for I have a natural turn with a rifle, which must have been handed down from generation to generation, as our holy commandments tell us, all good and evil gifts are bestowed; though I should be loth to answ
* James Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
Things being passed down by families silence wasn't awkward because they knew one another well.Chingachgook is silent for a minute which is a long time before responding. A full minute is awkward. Unless, you are r
To him who in love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty, and she glides Inot his darker musings, with a mild And gentle sympa
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
Nature rubs off the hurt
Of the last bitter hour come like blight Over thy spirit, and sad images Of stern agony, and shroud, and pall, And breathless darknesss, and the narrow house, Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;-- Go forth under the open sky, and list To Nature
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
Don't worry about death, go out into nature and listen to what it has to say
While from all around-- Earth and her waters, and the depths of air,-- Comes a still voice-- Yet a few days, and thee The all-beholding sun shall see no more In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground. Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears, No
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
You only have a limited amount of time to enjoy nature
Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim Thy growth, to be resolv'd to earth again; And, lost each human trace, surrend'ring up Thine individual being, shalt thou go To mix forever with the elements, To be a brother to th' insensible rock And to the slugg
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
You won't die alone and we are all dead. And laid to rest in a tomb.
That make the meadows green; and pour'd round all, Old ocean's grey and melancholy waste,-- Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun, The planets, all the infinite host of heaven, Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
People on earth are only a fraction of the total who have died and rejoined earth
That slumber in its bosom.--Take the wings Of morning-- ad the Barcan desert pierce, Or lose thyself in the continiuous woods Where roll the Oregan, and hears no sound, Savae his own dashings--yet-- the dead are there" (124)
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
Poet doesn't care how you connect with nature, so you should enjoy it while you are here
So shalt thou rest-- and what if thou shalt fall Unnnoticed by the living-- and no friend Take note of thy departure? All that breathe Will share thy destiny." (124)
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
Stop worrying because they will die too (live your life)
The gay will laugh When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care Pod on, and each one as before wil chase" (124)
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
People return to the same state after grieving
His favourite phantom; yet all these shall leave Their mith and their employents, and shall come, And make their bed with thee.
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
Everyone dies too
As the long train Of ages glide away, the sons of men, The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes In the full strength of years, matron, and maid, The bow'd with age, the infant in the smiles And beauty of its innocent age cut off--Shall one by on
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
living burry died
So live, that when thy summons come to join The innumerable caravan, that moves To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go no, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but sustain'
* William Bryant, Thanatopsis
Call to action. Live your life so when it comes time to death you can rest. People fall into two camps when elderly: at peace, regretful
Whither, 'midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on the crimson s
* William Bryant, To a waterfowl
Watching the bird fly
Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side?" (125)
* William Bryant, To a Waterfowl
Where is the bird going?
There is a Power whose care TEaches thy way along that pathless coast,-- The desert and illimitable air,-- Lone wandering, but not lost." (125)
* William Bryant, To a Waterfowl
The "Power" orders the flight of bird and looks after it
All day thy wings have fann'd At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere: Yet stoop not, weary, to welcome land, though the dark night is near." (125)
* William Bryant, To a Waterfowl
Flies all day but keeps flying on
And soon that toil shall end, Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest." (125)
* William Bryant, To a Waterfowl
Find a place to make a nest
Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart." (125)
* William Bryant, To a Waterfowl
I can't see you but the lessons you gave I will keep with me
He, who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright." (125)
* William Bryant, To a Waterfowl
The same power that orders his flight and looks after it is leading him. God looks after the birds and us
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the
* Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher
Narrator has a depressive mindstate. Clouds can't be oppressive
I know not how is was -but with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable , sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.
* Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher
Saying the house needs work but what he says it causes him to feel is a sense of dread and negativity. Compares to waking up from an opium dream. It implies that the narrator has done opium and has woken u
In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence- an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy, an excessive nervous agitation. For something of this
* Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher
Narrator is describing Roderick and how he seemed to have periods of mania and depression which seems a lot like bipolar disorder. Roderick is very all over the place and has periods of depression as well
Poem on 659
* Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of
Usher
There was a kingdom that was once happy then was invaded by evil. Parallelism with usher family, the poem predates the story. Poe wrote it before the story and loved the poem but didn't know what to do wit
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless " Not hear it?- yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long-long-long-many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it- yet I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses w
* Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher
Narrator has Roderick looks so much worse than the narrator and the narrator looks so much better in the process. Roderick is in an extreme fit of mania. He has buried his sister/lover alive and she is now
During the whole of a " At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18-, I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum, in the company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin, in his little back library, or book closet, au tro
* Edgar Allen Poe, The Purloined Letter
Narrator in this is an "everyman" figure meaning he stands in for you and me. Poe was trying to show philosophy and analyzation, he was not building character in this story. Sherlock holmes came out of this because
I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little o
* Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life
He talks about himself so he can say how his story is a normal/typical example of what went on in slavery. Slaves weren't told their age so they wouldn't obsess about it. They were deprived of a sense of identit
My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant--before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reach
* Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life
Babies were being removed from their mothers before they were 1 year old. Denies the slaves from the bonding process. Slavery is an abomination, that severts natural order of things. Why would you do this unless
I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they a
* Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life
You couldn't be anymore wrong about the songs of the slave...uses sarcasm. Why would he know? Allow me to correct you
Mr. Severe was rightly named: he was a cruel man. I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time; and this, too, in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother's release. He seemed to take pleasure in mani
* Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life
Evokes emotion. Uncomfortable. He did this on purpose to put people to that didn't know what they thought about slavery and make it more real to them. Whipping the worker. Human nature doesn't change and that is
Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes.. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation t
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
We have gotten good at understanding our world through reading what other generations did before us. We read about it but we don't actually know based on our own experiences. He has a problem with this. Why shouldn't we have
The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship. (214)
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Why shouldn't we have our own knowledge and philosophy? Why are we stuck on the stuff that predates us?
Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable." (215)
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Optimistic about human condition. We can do anything we our our minds to, we can solve any problems, answer any questions. Reflects transcendentalism. Overly positive and optimistic. Growth of technology means that there is n
We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy." (215)
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Don't be afraid to ask questions, we are supposed to question, that is how we are made. We are asking the questions because that is who we are. Supposed to ask questions about nature and creation.
Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put." (215)
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
We can't ask any questions we aren't built to answer. We are supposed to wonder
All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of nature. We have theories of races and of functions, but scarcely yet a remote approach to an idea of creation." (215)
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Pretend that fields are not connected, that's garbage. All science is understanding the natural universe, it is all linked. Nature is the pizza and everything else is a slice. Biology, sociology, astronomy are all doing the s
We are now so far from the road to truth, that religious teachers dispute and hate each other, and speculative men are esteemed unsound and frivolous." (215)
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
We have forgotten that we are all trying to understand our universe. We are too busy arguing with themselves. People who want to think deeply are deemed silly. Same as today, it is an ongoing cultural thing. Religious leaders
In the light of this hope I accept the topic which not only usage but the nature of our association seem to prescribe to this day,�the American Scholar. Year by year we come up hither to read one more chapter of his biography. Let us inquire what new lig
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Humanity is divided up into different individuals for the betterment of mankind or society. We all have different knowledge and abilities and we all do our bit.
Man is thus metamorphosed into a thing, into many things. The planter, who is Man sent out into the field to gather food, is seldom cheered by any idea of the true dignity of his ministry. He sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond, and sinks in
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
People get so caught up in their job they lose sight of that they are more than their job and have more to offer for the greater good. You are more than what you do. The problem is allowing your job to define yo
In this distribution of functions the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state he is Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Teaching people to be parrots not thinkers. Education is teaching people to memorize things and spit them out not think for themselves.
In this view of him, as Man Thinking, the whole theory of his office is contained. Him Nature solicits with all her placid, all her monitory pictures.Him the past instructs. Him the future invites. Is not indeed every man a student, and do not all things
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Every person has the capacity to be a student. Continue to have a thoughtful and curious mind, ability to keep learning. Life long learner. Choose to be a critical thinker or think for themselves or just think b
Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and soul. Hence the restorers of readin
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Talking about collectors who don't value books for what is inside them.
This is bad; this is worse than it seems. Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than t
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Value is books is the capacity for them to make you think for yourself, capacity to inspire and to make you do something. What matters is the ideas and what you do with them. About the ideas and their capacity t
America does not repel the past or what it has produced under its forms or amid other politics or the idea of castes or the old religions... accepts the lesson with calmness... is not so impatient as has been supposed that the slough still sticks to opin
* Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass
Referring to America
The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.
* Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass
Referring to America Using the idea of a poem as a metaphor for the U.S. Poems take different forms. U.S is like poetry. Different states look different. Not homogenous. Heterogeneous. So whoever is going to repr
Other states indicate themselves in their deputies... but the genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventor
* Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass
Poetry should celebrate normal people
The American poets are to enclose old and new for America is the race of the races. Of them a bard is to be commensurate with a people. To him the other continents arrive as contributions... he gives them reception for their sake and his own sake. His sp
* Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass
The bard needs to represent all of these places and what they are. Need to know them and you will not know them if you have not travelled.
Of all nations the United States with veins full of poetical stuff most need poets and will doubtless have the greatest and use them the greatest. Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall. Of all mankind the great p
* Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass
Poetry should If the US is a poem the best rep would be a poet. Arguing for place of the arts in the american society.
The greatest poet hardly knows pettiness or triviality. If he breathes into anything that was before thought small it dilates with the grandeur and life of the universe. He is a seer... he is an individual... he is complete in himself...the others are a
* Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass
Role of the artist is to take raw materials of the united states and celebrate them and turn them into something. Others could do this but do not. Art reminds you that you are more alike than unalike. Reminds us
success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need. Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition So clear of victory As he defeated - dying - On whose forbidden ear The di
* Emily Dickinson, From the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Role of the artist Successes mean more when you have something to work for. When it costs you something and you have to work at it, it means more when you succeed. It tastes sweeter. Means more when yo
Title divine - is mine! The Wife - without the Sign! Acute Degree - conferred on me - Empress of Calvary! Royal - all but the Crown! Betrothed - without the swoon God sends us Women - When you - hold - Garnet to Garnet - Gold - to Gold - Born - Bridalled
* Emily Dickinson, From the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
She is being sarcastic, challenging the old idea that a woman's sense of identity comes from her husband. A woman is not fully who she is until she is married to a man. Playing with the idea of ownersh
I'm "wife"�I've finished that� That other state� I'm Czar�I'm "Woman" now� It's safer so� How odd the Girl's life looks Behind this soft Eclipse� I think that Earth feels so To folks in Heaven�now� This being comfort�then That other kind�was pain� But w
* Emily Dickinson, From the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Role of the Woman who is already married, looking back at her life when she was still single. I look back at her life when she was still single. I look back at my life before marriage and I have a hard
I taste a liquor never brewed - From Tankards scooped in Pearl - Not all the Frankfort Berries Yield such an Alcohol! Inebriate of air - am I - And Debauchee of Dew - Reeling - thro' endless summer days - From inns of molten Blue - When "Landlords" turn
* Emily Dickinson, From the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
She gets drunk on nature and high on life. Lots of motifs for drunkenness and nature.
Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise,
* Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Most people don't think of bathing as a religious experience. Thoreau looked at different religious traditions and thought about them. Thinking about eastern tradition but talking about western. Idea of baptism of renewal and
There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us;
* Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Commonly misread and understood. Time period in morning when bathing, early quiet time. There is a part of you that can think of ways you don't normally think before you get busy with your day. Time when day hasn't impinged o
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate
* Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Best thing we can do is devote ourselves to improve ourselves. Take time to improvements of human condition
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life,
* Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Mean=base or common. Sounds like Emerson in the beginning in the end of this passage. He doesn't know what is at the bottom of life so he did this to figure it out. Why he went to the woods. To create his own knowledge and ha
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitchin time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow. As for work, we haven't any of any cons
* Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Talking about human condition. Identifies an element of humanity. Crisis, car wreck, burning people slow down and watch and quack about it. Involved in the moment and must be a part of it. People have this personality type, h
Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Ara
* Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Fabulous=hard to believe, fantastical. Talking about how we are so far from the road to truth. Making same point as how people get so caught up it's hard to identify reality vs unreality. Similar to Emerson idea.
But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to th
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
The rose is a symbol but he is teasing the reader. Use the rose to find the simple moral of the story but it was just a game. No simple moral in this novel because the characters are too complex. Resists simplist
Good Master Dimmesdale," said he, "the responsibility of this woman's soul lies greatly with you. It behooves you, therefore, to exhort her to repentance, and to confession, as a proof and consequence thereof." (487)
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
Bellingham says you are her minister it is your responsibility to get her to repent to Dimmesdale.
Hester Prynne," said he, leaning over the balcony, and looking down steadfastly into her eyes, "thou hearest what this good man says, and seest the accountability under which I labor. If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly p
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
What Dimmesdale actually says to Hester. He is able to make it seem like they are saying one thing to the public but really it's something else to them. Talking to Hester about Pearl and how he is her daughter's
Woman, transgress not beyond the limits of Heaven's mercy!" cried the Reverend Mr. Wilson, more harshly than before. "That little babe hath been gifted with a voice, to second and confirm the counsel which thou hast heard. Speak out the name! That, and t
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
Her response to Wilson's question but text makes it clear she is looking right at Dimmesdale. It is significant because it tells us how she feels about him, she seems to still care about him, will she be with him
Thou knowest," said Hester,--for, depressed as she was, she could not endure this last quiet stab at the token of her shame,--"thou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any." "True!" replied he. "It was my folly! I have said it
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
About as honest as Roger Prynne is the whole novel. Never should have been married he's old and she is young. He admits to her in realness he denied himself of love, home, and her family and thought he'd find tha
Wilt thou stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?" inquired Pearl."Nay; not so, my little Pearl!" answered the minister; for, with the new energy of the moment, all the dread of public exposure, that had so long been the anguish of his life, h
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
Dimmesdale is going and standing on a scaffold by himself in the dark, the girls see him on their way home and join him. One of the scenes where the family "unit" behaves like a family. Real tenderness is the way
After a while, the minister fixed his eyes on Hester Prynne's. "Hester," said he, "hast thou found peace?" She smiled drearily, looking down upon her bosom. "Hast thou?" she asked. "None!--nothing but despair!" he answered. "What else could I look for, b
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
*Looking at letter. Put Dimmesdale in Judeo-Christian tradition goes in an opposite way. One instance. Faith not bringing me peace better if I was just an atheist. Odd things to say from a minister. All of the gi
You wrong yourself in this," said Hester gently. "You have deeply and sorely repented. Your sin is left behind you, in the days long past. Your present life is not less holy, in very truth, than it seems in people's eyes. Is there no reality in the penit
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
*She is saying he should be past this since he repented a while ago. What is the "it" doesn't work for him anymore. He can't get himself to repent, there has been none.
Let us not look back," answered Hester Prynne. "The past is gone! Wherefore should we linger upon it now? See! With this symbol, I undo it all, and make it as if it had never been!
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter
*She flings the letter off and lets her hair down it is symbolic for a sensuality she is free, she can be herself. She wants but Dimmesdale can't do it. We don't need these people lets be free.
People of New England!" cried he, with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic,--yet had always a tremor through it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse and woe,--"ye, that have loved me!--ye, that
* Nathaniel Hawthorne
*Doesn't say he is sorry and screwed up and beg for forgiveness. Repented and didn't ask for forgiveness. This speech is a behold me the greatest sinner of them all. This is a guy who is focused on himself saying look at me
At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy. First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut. These may seem names, the like of which are not usually found in
* Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener
Manager facilitates a warm atmosphere, it matters because it makes what Bartleby does worse. (passive aggressively "I would prefer not to"). Turkey is an old slang word for a put down to someone you care about, do
Bartleby! quick, I am waiting." I heard a slow scrape of his chair legs on the uncarpeted floor, and soon he appeared standing at the entrance of his hermitage. "What is wanted?" said he mildly. "The copies, the copies," said I hurriedly. "We are going t
* Herman Melville, Bartleby The Scrivener
Scrivener is a copyist of documents and Bartleby is being asked to make sure there are no errors. Bartleby isn't doing what is being asked and manager asks others what they think and employees don't get why they a