Critical Analysis Of Heart Of Darkness English Literature Essay

Considered one of the greatest novelists in English, Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad
Korzeniowski), Conrad was actually of Polish descent. Although he did not fluently speak English until his
twenties, Conrad nonetheless excelled at prose and the written English language, with many of his works
having been adapted into film. English was in fact his third language, Polish and French being the first two
languages he learned. Conrad led a harsh life as a child (Conover), and when he was only three, his father was
imprisoned Warsaw for his supposed revolutionary political affiliations (Conover) until the family was exile
to northern Russia in 1861 (Liukkonen). In 1869, both of Conrad’s parents passed away due to tuberculosis,
and he was sent to live with his uncle Tadeusz in Switzerland. While living with his uncle, Conrad persuaded
his uncle to let him go to sea (Liukkonen), where his many adventures and journeys laid the foundation for
most of his works, which are mostly sea-faring stories. In 1890 he sailed up the Congo River, a journey that
provided much of the material for his most notable and highly regarded work Heart of Darkness.

During his time in the Congo, Conrad experienced extreme physical and mental stresses, which eventually
affected his health for the rest of his life. Resettling in London, Conrad went into exile for various reasons
including political (Conover). Ending his mariner career that spanned more than twenty years of sea-faring
experiences, Conrad was able to draw from there intricate characters and stories which spoke of the human
condition, and the complexities of the inner psyche. One such important literary work titled Lord Jim, in
which Jim, a young British seaman accompanies his captain and other crew members in abandoning the
passengers of their ship. Later hounded by his misdeed, Jim settles at a remote island where the natives title
him “Tuan” or “Lord”. While there he protects the villagers from bandits and a local corrupt chief. Lord Jim
speaks of the rise and fall of the human spirit, and the honor and redemption inherent in noble deeds.

These themes are present throughout Conrad’s stories, and in the Heart of Darkness he also makes heavy use
of colors, primarily white and black, and references to light and dark, often intermingling the socially accepted
view of each one respectively. Conrad also deals with the issues surrounding imperialism in the Heart of
Darkness (Sparknotes), yet there is also a larger underlying issue of race and equality, or lack thereof, within
the overall story.

The story revolves mainly around Marlow, and his journey through the Congo River to meet Kurtz, purported
to be a man of great abilities. In his job as a riverboat captain with a Belgian Company organized for trade
within Africa, Marlow encounters much brutality against the natives within in the Company’s settlements.
The inhabitants of the region have been pushed into forced labor, and they suffer terribly from overwork and
ill treatment in the hands of the Company’s agents. The cruelty of the imperial enterprise contrasts sharply
with majestic and massive Congo jungle that surrounds the white men’s stations, causing them to appear like
small islands amongst the vast darkness of Africa. Amidst problems with the oppressed natives, Marlow
manages to survive his time in the Congo, but because of the extreme conditions and harsh living in the area at
the time, he returns home with ill health.

The events depicted in Heart of Darkness truly could have occurred anywhere, but Conrad chose the Congo
for the feeling and impact of the climate, the individuals involved, and the very way of life there. The title
itself reflects the “heart of darkness” within men, who can sometimes use others for their own benefit and
profit, casting away human life as if it had no value. The title may also refer to the Congo itself, due to the
darkness and uncharted territory and mysteries that lurked within at that time. Conrad creates a build-up of
tension and mysteriousness to the plot, which causes one to wonder what may happen next, and even though
nothing overly climactic occurs, each individual event adds to the foreboding of the story. Deaths and other

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“dark” happenings are spoken of, and Conrad’s technique in describing these events conveys the darkness and
hopelessness of the entire situation.

The story portrays darkness as emanating from the depths of the jungle; it fills men with evil and allows them
to act upon it. The main example of this darkness is within the station manager Kurtz, who performs such
debauchery in the jungles that he eventually becomes ill and dies. The character of Kurtz could be considered
a catalyst for change, and the symbol for the Europeans’ failure in the Congo. Unaware of his own evil, Kurtz
is unable to fight the darkness within. There is a question of good and evil that is addressed within Heart of
Darkness; the motifs of “light” and “dark” in which the darkness in Africa is separate from its “blackness”,
and the “whiteness” in Europe being far removed from the goodness of light.

In a sense, light and dark are polarized; Light represents the falsehoods and corruption in the world
symbolized by the white man, whereas dark is a symbol for truth, while the dark natives show the pureness
and innocence of humanity. Though there is some ambiguity of whether the title “Heart of Darkness” refers
directly to Kurtz’ dark heart, or to the darkness of the jungle’s interior, the latter is more likely, due to the
extent of abusive and evil actions portrayed by all the white men, which only grows in intensity with their
close proximity to the centre of the jungle. These settings and symbols help to portray the theme of universal
darkness that Conrad alludes to. Conrad’s descriptive passages about the “interminable waterways” of the
Congo and the Thames River show the connection between humanity and darkness. Each river flows into each
other, and “lead into a heart of immense darkness”. This shows that all of humanity is connected through the
heart of darkness and the truth.

Ultimately Heart of Darkness is a story of the pitfalls and perils of greed, lust, and the corruption of ideals and
values by the darkness that dwells within all of mankind. It tells of the madness that the greed for riches or
power can create within the heart and mind, and that even the best of intentions can become twisted into
something evil and oppressive.

About Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness originally appeared serially in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It was eventually published
as a whole in 1902, as the third work in a volume Conrad titled Youth. Since its publication in Youth, the
novel has fascinated numerous readers and critics, almost all of whom regarded the novel as an important one
because of the ways it uses ambiguity and (in Conrad's own words), "foggishness" to dramatize Marlow's
perceptions of the horrors he encounters. Critics have regarded Heart of Darkness as a work that in several
important ways broke many narrative conventions and brought the English novel into the twentieth century.
Notable exceptions who didn't receive the novel well were the British Novelist E. M. Forster, who disparaged
the very ambiguities that other critics found so interesting, and the African novelist Chinua Achebe, who
derided the novel and Conrad as examples of European racism. Conrad voyaged to the Congo in 1890, when
he sailed a steamboat up the Congo River just as Marlow does in the novel. As Conrad writes of the novel in
his 1917 Introduction, "Heart of Darkness . . . is experience pushed a little (and only very little) beyond the
actual facts of the case." Numerous biographical facts find their way into the novel. For example, like
Marlow, Conrad had always longed to "follow the sea," the wife of a distant relative (like Marlow's aunt)
helped him secure a job with a trading company, the captain who preceded him had been killed by natives in a
quarrel (like Fresleven in the novel), and Conrad encountered several men who showed barbaric tendencies
similar to the ones exhibited by Kurtz.

What makes Heart of Darkness more than an interesting travelogue and shocking account of horrors is the
way that it details — in subtle ways — Marlow's gradual understanding of what is happening in this far-off
region of the world. Like many Europeans — including his creator — Marlow longed for adventure and

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devoured accounts such as those offered by Stanley. But once he arrives in the Congo and sees the terrible
"work" (as he ironically calls it) taking place, he can no longer hide under the cover of his comfortable
civilization. Instead, all the horrors perpetrated by European traders and agents — typified by Kurtz — force
him to look into his own soul and find what darkness lies there. In the first half of the novel, Marlow states,
"The essentials of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach" — but by the end of his journey, he
will have peeked beneath "the surface" and discovered the inhumanity of which even men such as the once-
upstanding Kurtz are capable.

The end of the nineteenth-century brought about one of the most notable examples of imperialism and
genocide in modern memory. King Leopold II of Belgium (ruled 1865-1909) possessed an insatiable greed for
money, land, and power — and looked to Africa to find them. Like many other Europeans, he was intrigued
by reports of Africa made by the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), whose books How I
Found Livingstone: Adventures and Discoveries in Central Africa (1872) and Through the Dark Continent
(1878) were best-selling accounts of his travels. Through a series of machinations and a deluge of propaganda
proclaiming his munificence, Leopold eventually secured the Congo region of Africa as a Belgian colony. On
May 20, 1885, Leopold named his new nation the État Independent du Congo, or The Congo Free State. This
huge area of Africa remained under Belgium control until 1960. The Congo was a perfect colony for Leopold
II for several reasons. First, ivory and rubber were plentiful and could be systematically gathered and shipped
to Europe. Second, the only law there was Leopold's: Although he constantly presented himself to his
European contemporaries as a philanthropist and humanitarian, Leopold ran the Congo (without ever visiting
it) from a distance with an iron hand. Third, labour was plentiful and, more important to Leopold, free,
because his agents routinely forced the Congolese into slave labour by means of torture or intimidation:
Women, for example, were often kidnapped and held until their husbands and sons gathered sufficient
quantities of rubber. Forth, there were few operating expenses: Huts and mess-halls were constructed for the
agents, and the construction of a railroad system running through the Congo guaranteed that supplies could
reach different stations quickly. Finally, the colony was thousands of miles away from sheltered European
skies. People could not condemn what they could not see.

Leopold's agents, therefore, comprised a chaotic, unforgiving, and hateful force determined only to make the
most money possible by exploiting the natives — often whipping them with a piece of sun-dried
hippopotamus hide called a chicotte, chopping off their hands and heads, or killing them by dozens at a time.
In his recent study of the Congo, King Leopold's Ghost, the historian Adam Hochschild estimates that during
the period of Leopold's pillage of the Congo, the population dropped by ten million people. Disease,
starvation, a low birth rate, and outright murder all combined to turn the Congo into what Heart of Darkness
later portrayed as a "nightmare." Some observers of the atrocities committed there — such as E. D. Morel and
Sir Roger Casement — became noted anti-Leopold activists and launched semi-successful campaigns to end
Leopold's rule. Other observers transformed what they saw into art — as did Joseph Conrad when he wrote
Heart of Darkness.

Leopold's Congo and the people — White and Black — who populated it find their way into the pages of
Conrad's novel. The ominous Company that hires Marlow, for example, is a thinly veiled depiction of
Leopold's operations in Africa. Leopold's agents become the "faithless pilgrims" looking for riches that
Marlow describes once he reaches the Congo, and the chain gang Marlow sees at the Outer Station is a
glimpse at the slavery enforced by Leopold's agents. Kurtz, the "first class agent" who commits numerous acts
of savagery (including the placing of "rebel" heads upon posts surrounding his hut) is an embodiment of the
collective horrors that Conrad witnessed firsthand. As Marlow tells his audience on board the Nellie, "In the
blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a
rapacious and pitiless folly." The "devil" in this context is the greed that motivated Leopold to continue the
systematic ravaging of the Congo and its people for more than twenty years.

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Analysis Of Great Expectations English Literature Essay

‘Great Expectations’ is a novel written by Charles Dickens, first serialised in ‘All the Year Round’ ranging
from the first of December 1860 to August 1861. It is regarded as one of his greatest and one of his most
sophisticated novels and has been adapted for stage and screen over two hundred and fifty times. The book is
written in the genre of ‘Bildungsroman’ which is the style of book that follows the story of a character in their
endeavour for maturity; usually starting from childhood ending in the protagonist’s eventual adulthood. ‘Great
Expectations’ traces the story of an impecunious young orphan named Pip, writing his life from his early days
until his later life and trying to develop into a gentleman along the way. The novel is also considered to be
semi-autobiographical of Dickens, meaning he draws ideas from his own experiences and portrays these in the
book. For instance, when Dickens was a youth, his mother forced him to work in a factory for which he never
forgave her for. In the novel, the ‘mother-figures’ such as Mrs Joe, treat Pip cruelly representing Dickens’
adolescence. Charles Dickens was known as a ‘social reformer’ meaning he did not believe in how the
community was run and also with people’s frame of mind and perspective on society. During the time the
book was written, many key events were happening in history such as the industrial revolution. The revolution
caused many social and economic changes. For example, people that were once extremely deprived now had
the chance to even become an aristocrat. Despite this, there were still extremes in the difference between the
affluent and the poor. This often led to shocking injustices in society that were being unpunished due to that
the committer of these crimes, were sometimes classed as a gentleman. Dickens brings all of these ideas into
the novel. Within the opening chapter, Dickens establishes significant information, such as key characters, the
plot and also fills the chapter with action. Charles Dickens effectively immerses and hooks the reader in the
book by using narrative devices such as pathetic fallacy. Without these techniques, each two-chapter
instalment in ‘All the Year Round’ would have not kept the reader curious and desiring more. Finally,
Dickens introduces the key themes of the novel within the chapter, which are then developed throughout the
book. These themes are: crime and punishment, parents and children, gentlemen and respectability, and lastly
power and powerlessness.

Joe Gargery is a kind, religious person within the novel, who has taken Pip in as if he was one of his own.
Despite this, as Pip develops into his twenties and has unpredictably become wealthy, he starts to become
‘ashamed’ of home and Joe. Pip narrates Joe as ‘coarse and common.’ This is the start of Pip’s moral decline.
In fact, Pip ‘dreaded’ the moment when Joe came to visit him. The protagonist has now turned obnoxious and
patronising of those who love him. Within chapter thirty-nine, Magwitch, the convict Pip met on the
marshlands, unexpectedly returns to visit Pip in his new home in a prosperous area of London. In contrast to
the reader’s earlier opinion of the ex-convict, he is now portrayed as being noble, courageous and also
showing gratitude towards Pip for assisting him and for the fact ‘it’s death to come back.’ The reader now
begins to switch their sympathy from idle Pip and now towards brave Magwitch. This may not have been the
only reason why Magwitch returned from Australia. Perhaps, instead of kindness, he returned so he could use
Pip for revenge against society. With Pip, who was once a working class boy now a gentleman, this would
extremely upset the middle or upper class as Pip would of not have had an education. Magwitch could use this
to upset those who deny Magwitch becoming a member of middle class despite his small fortune. This links to
the key theme of gentlemen and respectability and also power and powerlessness that no matter of his wealth,
he would not become a member of the middle class. This idea of revenge could also be linked to a character
named Mrs Havisham. She also may have used Pip for revenge through her adopted daughter, Estella. Estella
plays with Pip’s heart, the same way another character named Compeyson, played with Mrs Havisham’s
feelings. Through manipulating Estella and Pip, she gains revenge on, in her perspective, evil men. Through
Estella, Dickens connects to the theme of parents and children.

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From the information contained within chapter one, the reader can clearly see this is a Victorian novel. For
instance, Pip tells the reader that ‘five’ of his ‘little brothers’ lay dead and buried next to his mother and
father’s grave. This clearly shows ‘Great Expectations’ is a Victorian noel because at the time, during the
industrial revolution, it was very common for young children to die whist working in factories. If Pip had
worked in such a place also, he was very fortunate to come out uninjured. This links to key theme of parents
and children which is established within this opening chapter and also power and powerlessness as it
demonstrates that Victorian children, did not have a choice in the matter. The final way of a modern reader
noticing the novel is undoubtedly Victorian, within the first chapter, is the use of language. Throughout the
chapter, Dickens uses many words and phrases that have dropped out of the modern English language. A case
when this can be made apparent is contained in the word ‘wittles.’ Such words have steadily fallen out of the
English language, therefore showing that a novel containing such language must be from an older time
namely, the Victorian era.

Dickens utilizes various techniques and devices whilst describing the setting and mainly weather, during
chapter one. A chilling yet interesting description of the weather that is included in the first chapter, is
essential to add to the tension and atmosphere of when Pip first meets Magwitch. There are many examples of
where Dickens has used techniques to ensure that this effect is created. One technique that can be encountered
in the chapter is pathetic fallacy. This is a technique that a writer uses in which the presentation of weather
passes human emotions hence in this case, reflecting the protagonist’s emotions. This technique is
demonstrated in examples such as ‘a row of long angry red lines.’ This dramatically adds to the menacing and
depressing mood of the chapter therefore enforcing the feeling of fear and nervousness into the reader, whilst
also keeping the reader engrossed in the action and curious of what might happen in the upcoming events
within the chapter.

The atmosphere that is created during the opening chapter is extremely foreboding and ominous, which gives
the reader a sense of unwelcoming as well as gloom. The method that Dickens uses to produce this outcome is
writing techniques such as adjectives. This is illustrated by words and phrases such as: ‘terrible,’ ‘sickly,’
‘shuddering’ and finally ‘distant savage lair.’ Without such adjectives and phrases, the desired ‘fearful’ effect
would not be able to be obtained. Despite this dismal atmosphere that is formed, Dickens also uses humour
within this chapter to lighten the mood from the constant dreary ambience. A prime example of humour being
applied in the first chapter is within the quote ‘he gave me a most tremendous dip and roll/ the church jumped
over its own weather cock.’ This would have eased the tension of the chapter for a Victorian reader, as
constant despair can become monotonous and even tedious. At the end of chapter one, Dickens purposely
leaves many questions on the reader’s mind; will Pip return with what Magwitch wants? Who is the illusive
character of the other convict? How did the Magwitch escape prison? This use of cliff hangers and high
drama, hooks the reader and made sure that each of Dickens’ episodes of the magazine ‘All the Year Round’
would be a roaring success.

Throughout various points of the novel, Charles Dickens continues to use humour and suspense to enforce
certain emotions towards the reader. For instance, within chapter fifty-five, Pip attends Wemmick’s wedding.
Wemmick is a comical character, therefore this chapter is packed full of humour. This consequently lessens
the tension from the more common threatening tone of the book yet keeps the reader in suspense for what may
happen in the advancing chapters. In contrast, a chapter that is crammed full with anxiety is chapter forty-six,
when Pip becomes concerned for Magwitch. This builds the suspense of the novel thus restoring the earlier
tense climate, leaving a Victorian reader desiring action and curious of upcoming events.

Many questions arise in the primary chapter that captivate the reader to continue reading. These questions that
surface are necessary to drive the plot forward and also can be used to add a twist to the current storyline to
extend the reader’s interest. Dickens places many techniques into effect that are used to supply this effect such

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as: pathetic fallacy, use of metaphors and similes, oxymoron’s such as ‘pretty eyes scorning me,’ and finally a
vast use of complex adjectives such as ‘sagacious.’ These methods are also needed to develop the key themes
of the novel throughout, to add suspense and then in contrast to supply Victorian humour and finally to add
attention-grabbing introductions for main characters. If Charles Dickens had not applied these narrative tools
to the opening chapter of this book, ‘Great Expectations’ would have not been such a successful and inspiring
novel.

About A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man details events which closely correspond with those of Joyce's first
twenty years. According to Joyce's celebrated biographer, Richard Ellman, Joyce hoped that his Portrait
would be an autobiographical novel, "turning his life into fiction." While scholars disagree on the extent to
which Joyce's life affected his fictional narrative in the novel, most of them concur that Stephen Dedalus is
both the protagonist of the novel, as well as the persona (Latin, meaning "mask") behind which Joyce paints
his fictional "portrait" of the "artist" and of the "young man."A close examination of these obvious clues in the
title reveals to readers that the novel can be classified as both a Kunstler roman (German, meaning a novel
about an artist) and a Bildungsroman (German, meaning a novel of development or education). If we
understand these terms, we can more clearly understand Joyce's primary purpose for writing the novel. We
must keep in mind, however, that many of the people and the situations of the novel have been presented in
the form of satire. We must also be aware that the author selected this technique to emphasize how the life of
an artist differs from that of others who share his world.

In A Portrait, the reader learns through the particular experiences of Stephen Dedalus how an artist perceives
his surroundings, as well as his views on faith, family, and country, and how these perceptions often conflict
with those prescribed for him by society. As a result, the artist feels distanced from the world. Unfortunately,
this feeling of distance and detachment is misconstrued by others to be the prideful attitude of an egoist. Thus
the artist, already feeling isolated, is increasingly aware of a certain growing, painful social alienation.

In addition, Stephen's natural, maturing sexual urges confuse him even further. Stephen is a keenly intelligent,
sensitive, and eloquent young man, but he also possesses the feelings of urgent sexuality, self-doubt, and
insecurity — all universal emotions which are experienced during the development of the average adolescent
male. Joyce reveals these tumultuous adolescent feelings through a narrative technique called stream-of-
consciousness. He takes the reader into both the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, showing him the
subjective and the objective realities of a situation. Using Stephen Dedalus, he explores the depths of the
human heart. This novel is narrated, for the most part, in the limited omniscient point of view; at the same
time, it progresses in form from the lyrical and epical modes of expression and moves finally into the dramatic
mode of expression. (These "modes of expression" are Stephen's own terms, defining the various kinds of
literature; when we encounter them in the novel, we should write down Stephen's definitions and attempt to
chart the course of this novel according to its evolving lyrical, epical, and dramatic levels.) Stephen's thoughts,
associations, feelings, and language (both cerebral and verbal) serve as the primary vehicles by which the
reader shares with Stephen the pain and pleasures of adolescence, as well as the exhilarating experiences of
intellectual, sexual, and spiritual discoveries.

In order to highlight the importance of Stephen's aesthetic experiences, Joyce borrowed a word from the
Catholic faith in order to create a literary term of his own. When Stephen suddenly understands "the essential
nature of a thing" — whether it is the understanding of a person, an idea, a word, or a situation — he has a
moment of profound revelation. Joyce called these moments epiphanies. Some of Stephen's earliest epiphanies
come from his acute sensory awareness and are recorded through Joyce's masterful use of imagery. In the

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novel, repeated patterns of sounds and remembrances of tastes, touches, and smells are all emphasized.
Stephen's eyesight (like Joyce's) is weak; therefore, Joyce emphasizes other senses, and in doing so, he
employs the valuable motif method of narration, wherein he records recurrent images of hot/cold, wet/dry, and
light/dark images, as well as recurring symbols. He also uses dramatic irony to identify Stephen's basic
conflicts and emphasize significant events in his life.

Although several themes such as alienation and betrayal exist in the novel, Ellman states that Joyce originally
recognized the work's main theme as "the portrait of the renegade Catholic artist as hero." Certainly, evidence
from Joyce's life mirrors Stephen's need to escape the bonds of Irish nationalism and Catholicism, both of
which seemed to threaten his pursuit of a literary career. The most obvious clue that the author's life is related
to the novel's thematic development exists in the hero's name — Stephen Dedalus, which combines significant
elements of both Greek and Christian myths. "Stephen" is the name of the first Christian martyr who was
persecuted for reasons of faith. Joyce's hero identifies with his patron's martyrdom by recalling an early
reprimand against marrying a Protestant, the unjust pandying incident, and a variety of instances wherein he
was ostracized or made to feel guilty by his peers and older people. It is, however, the author's choice of his
character's family name — Dedalus — which reveals to readers the source of the novel's greatest thematic
parallel. The myth of Daedalus and Icarus, the story of the cunning Greek inventor and his ill-fated, impetuous
son, is the framework responsible for the major imagery and symbolism which pervade the novel.

Daedalus, an architect commissioned by King Minos, designed an elaborate labyrinth in which the king
planned to confine the monstrous Minotaur. However, ill-fortune soon caused Daedalus and Icarus to be
imprisoned in the labyrinth, from which they were forced to contrive a daring and ingenious escape.
Symbolically, Stephen, like Daedalus, feels compelled to find a means of escape from the labyrinth of Dublin,
which threatens him with spiritual, cultural, and artistic restraints. Similarly, Stephen can also be compared
with Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, melted his fabricated wings, and plunged to his death in the sea.
Like Icarus, Stephen ignores the warnings of family and clergy and is symbolically drawn toward a
philosophical illumination which ultimately casts him into sin (spiritual death) and leads him to renounce his
Catholic faith.

The final and most dramatic parallel associates Stephen with his mythic namesake Daedalus — the "great
artificer." Like Daedalus, Stephen succeeds in escaping the labyrinth of cultural restraints. At the end of the
novel, Stephen is imaginatively soaring — in flight away from Ireland toward a future of unfettered artistic
freedom.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Summary

Super Summary, a modern alternative to Spark Notes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides that
feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. This
one-page guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel
Spark.

Considered a modern classic and having been adapted for both television and film, The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie is a short novel written by Muriel Spark published in 1961. It tells the story of the charismatic Scottish
school teacher Miss Jean Brodie and her influence on the lives of six impressionable students at the Marcia
Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1930s. The story opens in 1936 as Miss Brodie comes

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upon The Brodie Set, the name given to the group of students the teacher selected six years ago from the
junior class to become “the créme de la créme,” the best of the best, through lessons often having little to do
with academics. Supremely confident in her views of the world, Miss Brodie expands their ideas and
knowledge while also manipulating their growing perceptions to remain as much in alignment with her own as
possible. Still, it’s known Brodie’s girls are the brightest in the school, and now, at sixteen and in their fourth
form, they still remain under her influence despite no longer being in her classroom. As she states, “Give me a
girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life.”

The narrative continually moves forward and back through time to explore events, people, and relationships
that will shape not only the girls’ futures, but Miss Brodie’s as well. The narrative voice is not only
omniscient, but timeless, often revealing the future fate of a girl while narrating her experience as a child. In
this manner, the majority of the plot is revealed early, although one central mystery is left in place. In one
flash-forward we learn that one of the girls will eventually betray their teacher, but the who isn’t revealed until
later.

The story dips back to 1930 when the girls—Monica Douglas, famous for her mathematics and temper; Sandy
Stranger, a small-eyed girl famous for her English pronunciation and who will become Brodie’s most trusted
confidante; Rose Stanley, who will undeservedly become famous for sex; Jenny Gray, Sandy’s best friend
who is known for her beauty; Eunice Gardiner, famous for her gymnastics; and Mary Macgregor, the dim-
witted scapegoat of the group—are 10 years old and just entering junior school with Miss Brodie. The teacher
is already considered too progressive in her methods by the majority of the faculty, including the
headmistress, Miss Mackay, who tries throughout the story to gather evidence of misconduct to remove
Brodie from her position. Brodie’s instruction often focuses on controversial concepts of art, politics, religion
and interpersonal relationships, all being influenced by her personal views on these subjects. An early lesson
with the girls includes sharing a story of the time she was engaged to her lover, Hugh, who died on Flanders
Field during World War I. It is her hubris in her views and teachings that will eventually be her downfall.

During the course of the story two prominent characters—the singing instructor, Gordon Lowther and the art
master, Teddy Lloyd—form a love-triangle with Miss Brodie, who is, as she constantly tells her girls, “in her
prime.” Both men love her, but Brodie truly only holds affection for Lloyd, although expression of her
feelings never moves beyond a single kiss, due to Lloyd being married. Believing the singing instructor to be
a more appropriate romantic interest, Miss Brodie begins an affair with Lowther during two weeks away from
school. However, over the course of the story Brodie neglects the relationship and Lowther later marries the
school’s chemistry teacher, Miss Lockhart. A bit obsessed with romantic, and usually inaccurate, concepts of
love and sex, the girls often engage in wild speculation on Miss Brodie’s experiences in these areas, especially
Sandy and Jenny. Sandy goes so far as to imagine her teacher having sex and imagining herself a
policewoman looking for evidence of a relationship between Brodie and Lowther, on a mission to “stop sex”
completely.

By the age of twelve, the girls graduate from Brodie’s care into the Senior School, and the headmistress does
her best to break the girls up and remove them from Brodie’s influence. However, the connection between the
girls remains solid despite having little in common. Although no longer their instructor, Brodie still invites the
girls into her personal world, continuing to mold and influence their lives. By the time they are around sixteen,
Brodie decides to make Sandy her most trusted confidante, deciding that she is the most trustworthy.
Eventually a new girl, Joyce Emily Hammond, tries to enter the group. Although rejected by the girls, Brodie
takes her under her wing. At one point, Brodie encourages Joyce Emily to run off to fight in the Spanish Civil
War. Later she will do so, only to be killed. This incident will play a part in Brodie’s eventual betrayal.

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As the girls enter their late teens, prepare to graduate, and head their separate ways, Brodie sets on the idea of
Jenny, who often models for Lloyd, having an affair with the artist in order to enjoy the relationship
vicariously. When it’s clear Jenny isn’t interested in Lloyd, Sandy enters into the affair instead. She eventually
loses interest in him as a lover, but grows interested in his love of Miss Brodie. She also becomes interested in
his Roman Catholic beliefs, and we learn Sandy will eventually become a nun. However, before doing so,
having been disturbed by Brodie’s part in the death of Joyce Emily and perhaps growing resentful of her old
teacher’s controlling influence, Sandy gives the headmistress the ammunition she needs against Brodie by
revealing her teachings on fascism. Miss Brodie only begins to suspect it was her most trusted student that
betrayed her as she lays on her death bed several years later. Despite this, later, while a nun, Sandy is asked
about her greatest influence. She says: “There was a Miss Jean Brodie in her prime.”

The Playboy of the Western World Analysis

J.M. Synge’s highly controversial play The Playboy of the Western World exposed the middle-class Dublin
audience to a different portrayal of Irish countryside life as opposed to the traditional idyllic image they were
accustomed to. Synge strongly employs the element of satire in his play, implemented as a device to shock his
conventional audience; the play’s lack of morals would have offended the audience, so satire is also used to
inject humour, creating a light-hearted tragicomedy. In pages 59 – 62 the presence of satire can be analysed in
terms of satirising gender, religion and the presentation of rural Ireland, in addition to how satire is present
throughout the entire play.

Synge depicts Christy Mahon as a weak, frightened, young man at the beginning of the excerpt, whereas
Pegeen is given a strong, almost masculine persona, protecting him from the Widow’s advances. When the
Widow is introduced, the audience sees Christy “clinging to Pegeen” exclaiming “Oh Glory!” with Pegeen
having to hurriedly give Christy his supper and usher him off to bed like a child. In this extract, the audience
sees how Pegeen is given the ‘protector’ role, exhibiting maternal instincts. In 1907, the satirising of gender
roles shown with Synge giving more status to women than men would amuse the audience, as it conflicts with
the traditional Irish patriarchal society. Christy is painted as the classic ‘damsel-in-distress’, with Pegeen
having to fight the Widow, angrily telling her that she will “not have him tormented, and he destroyed
travelling since Tuesday was a week”. Again it is evident that Christy is shying away from his expected male
role, leaving Pegeen to defend him, amusing the audience. When the Widow “pulls Christy up”, as “they’d
best be going, young fellow; so rise up and come with me”, Pegeen retaliates by “seizing his arm”, insisting
“he’ll not stir”. Christy has been compromised in terms of his masculinity; two women have physically placed
their control over him, and Christy lacks the strength to disprove their control. This scene would have been
very comedic, as not only are Pegeen and the Widow effectively having a ‘brawl’, a male associated activity,
but Christy is helpless in the middle, like a female. Traditionally, it would have been the men who ‘wooed’
the women, but Synge has ignored this, with Christy being rather violently ‘wooed’ by Pegeen and the
Widow, eliciting laughter from the audience, who would find the explicit use of satire highly amusing. Synge
is presenting Christy’s essential emasculation, shown by reversing traditional gender roles. Later on in the
play a mule race takes place; as D. P. Moran observes, “the pursuit of physical-contact Gaelic games [was
used as] an antidote to such emasculation”. Christy’s partaking in the race shows how he used this opportunity
to reassert his gender after feeling emasculated by Pegeen and the Widow.

Throughout the excerpt from p.59-62, repeated references are made to religion, many in the form of Father
Reilly, the local priest. Though he is not seen in the excerpt, his presence is acknowledged as he is partially
why the Widow went to find Christy Mahon; when Pegeen asks her “What ails you, or what is it you’re
wanting at this hour of the night?” the Widow replies that she was “after meeting Shawn Keogh and Father

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Reilly below, who told me of your curiosity man, and they fearing by this time he was roaring, romping on
your hands with drink”. The audience would not be surprised by Father Reilly’s attitudes, as in the 1900s
Ireland was a devoutly Catholic nation, as Jane Abbott smith explains “The term ‘Irish Irelander’ originated to
characterize the true Irishman: Catholic and with Irish ancestry, learned in Irish folklore and competent in the
speaking and reading of the Gaelic language”. Abbott smith continues to remark that it was the “Irish
peasants, who were the traditionally pious, Catholic population that was well versed in Irish folklore”. Though
the 1900s audience would have expected the priest’s intervention, a modern audience would find it comedic
how Pegeen being alone with Christy has prompted such a flustered reaction, suggesting Synge’s attitudes
were ahead of his time. Irish society was devoutly religious, so the audience would have been surprised at
how Father Reilly is the only religious character. The other characters do not seem to incorporate religion in
their personas, shocking the audience. However, the only other character to be religious would cause offence:
The Widow Quin remarks to Christ “God save you mister!” which is highly ironic as her intentions for him
are far from holy. Seeing such a scandalized, predatory character using the Lord’s name would have
undoubtedly offended the audience. The power of the Catholic Church is a running theme throughout the play,
as Synge would be aware that his audience would compare what they see onstage to the Church’s teachings.
Therefore, Synge has satirised religion to expose the absurdity of the extreme religious views in Ireland; a
lack of religion in the other characters further show the audience how independent rural Ireland is from
middle-class conventions.

The portrayal of life in the Irish countryside was undoubtedly one of the main sources of controversy in the
play. The middle class audience would have had the conception of rural Ireland employing a quiet, idyllic life
– however Synge’s play disproves this, county Mayo being the antithesis to their expectations. Christy is
welcomed with open arms, despite the town knowing he murdered his father. As Adrian Fraser notes, “The
Playboy could be read as exploring a converse proposition: a communal willingness to absorb (even glorify)
those who break the ultimate taboo against patricide”. Christy’s glorification would greatly concern the
audience, inducing outrage. By satirising countryside life, Synge was providing a social commentary on life in
the isolated rural coast. However, Christy is later disgraced in the play, when the characters realise they have
been deceived. When Pegeen tells of how the Widow supposedly murdered her husband, where she “hit
himself with a worn pick, and the rusted poison did corrode his blood the way he never overed it, and died
after. That was a sneaky kind of murder did win small glory with the boys itself” the audience would be
shocked that such sin runs free in the countryside. As Fraser again writes, The Playboy of the Western World
“is a social satire of rural life that is fantastic, grotesque, and profound”. At the play’s conclusion, when
Christy leaves Pegeen for his adventures, the audience would find humour at the contrast between their
futures: Christy is off to live a life of excitement, whilst Pegeen is doomed to a fate of marrying Shawn and a
dull life in County Mayo. The difference in their fates reinforces the play’s status as a tragicomedy.

Synge uses the element of satire in his play to expose to the middle class Dublin audience what life was like
for the people of the countryside; the play’s controversy stemmed from people disliking what they saw. By
satirising gender roles, religion and the idyllic conception of Irish countryside life, Synge was effectively able
to annul the pastoral sentiments felt towards them, illustrating to the middle class how independent rural
Ireland was to the pretentious Dubliners. As Heidi Holder says “Synge makes it quite clear to his audiences
that their beloved image of the Irish country folk was a mere construction – a construction eminently open to
challenge, and it was precisely this dismantling of the distinctions between fiction and reality that was the
source of Synge’s conflict with his audience”.

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