Pride & Prejudice Excerpt Analysis

A Pathetic Proposal

A decent, kind hearted man would ask for a woman’s hand with the promise of love, security, and an everlasting friendship. Mr. Collins did otherwise. He was rude, insulting, and arrogant. Although Mr. Collins’ syntax showed him to be a respectable man with an appropriate use of words, his diction was outrageous. The choice of words used to express his “violent love” for Elizabeth would have made any woman want to slap him. Mr. Collins started his conversation by complimenting Elizabeth with great politeness, until he slid into logos.

After listing his reasons for marriage, one can infer that Mr. Collins clearly wanted to look admirable in front of his fellow companions by marrying Elizabeth: “I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish” (Austen). Matrimony is meant for two people that are deeply in love with one another, not a store where you pick the nicest looking handbag to flaunt amongst a group of friends. He did not need to express the fact that his popularity might increase after marrying Elizabeth. Mr. Collins was the least bit charming, his reasons expressed that he was using marriage to get ahead instead of expressing any kind of love towards Elizabeth. In other words, he wanted to marry Elizabeth for his own selfish reasons.

Mr. Collins believed by marrying Elizabeth, he would achieve even more satisfaction: “I am convinced that it will add greatly to my happiness.” What about Elizabeth’s happiness? Mr. Collins never mentioned how he planned on treating Elizabeth. If Mr. Collins was actually considerate towards Elizabeth’s feelings and expressed how her presence increased his happiness or something similar, then he would not have sounded so narcissistic. He only saw marriage as a duty that needed to be fulfilled.
After accomplishing logos, Mr. Collins tried to develop pathos in all the wrong ways. He bounces from the death of Elizabeth’s living parents to the economic struggles her family is facing: “[I] shall make no demand of that nature on your father, since I am well aware that it could not be compiled with, and the one thousand pounds in the 4 per cents, which will not be yours til after your mother’s decease, is all that you may ever be entitled to.” Mr. Collins is basically telling Elizabeth how poor she is. Rather than insulting her family, Mr. Collins could have expressed how his love overpowers any amount of wealth. It should not matter how wealthy a person is when one in love with another, and wants to marry. It should be one of the last things to worry about. Mr. Collins should have kept his insults to himself.

Mr. Collins refused to believe Elizabeth’s rejection and explained how unqualified she was to marry anybody else: “It is by no means certain that another off of marriage may ever be made you. Your portion is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications.” He blatantly told Elizabeth that nobody would ever want her as their wife. He had no right to act so rudely to Elizabeth. This arrogant man even refused to believe that Elizabeth was rejecting him: “It is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept.” Mr. Collins did his best to seek Elizabeth’s dependency. He attempted to persuade her into realizing he was the only person right for her. If Mr. Collins truly felt this way, then he should have waited for Elizabeth to realize this on her own. Mr. Collins was very selfish in his proposal and is not at all worthy for a wife.

Societal Critique of the South- Huck Finn Notes

1. Racism
a. Black people were not considered human beings in the South. They were known better as the cotton picking, cow feeding illiterates of the white society. If a black man was wearing a nice pair of shoes or a clean-cut shirt, then all hell broke loose.
b. A black person was to never reach the standards of a white person: "When they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. […] I says to the people, why ain’t this nigger put up at auction and sold?" (Twain 37).

2. Violence
a. As Huck continued his journey down the river, he came across two families with a strangely aggressive desire to end each other’s lives.
b. The Grangerford and the Shepardson family shared an unyielding hatred for one another without a valid reason: "They don't know, now, what the row was about in the first place" (120). All the families wanted were for the other to be killed and gone for good.
c. In Southern society, this warfare and death was accepted.

3. Working Together
a. “The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is- a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass” (159).
b. Throughout the South, families fought side by side to put an end to a dispute. They rallied themselves together with pride and courage, but forgot the logic behind the decision they made to fight.
c. Instead of settling issues with reasoning and fair judgment, the families of the South always resorted to violence.

Noirtier's Role of Honor- The Count of Monte Cristo

1. “‘You have insulted a man, monsieur,’ said the President, ‘and that man refuses to go a step farther without honourable reparation’” (Dumas 394).
a. Noirtier was not going to let the General disrespect him. The only “correct” way of solving this situation was to kill the General for his disgraceful words towards Noirtier.

2. “Valentine clasped her hands as though in prayer; Noirtier looked at Villefort with an almost sublime expression of contempt and pride” (395).
a. Noirtier felt contempt for the General’s dishonor towards him, yet a sense of pride for killing the General.

3. “‘You?’ cried Franz, his hair standing on end. ‘You, Monsieur Noirtier? It was you who killed my father?’ […] ‘Yes,’ replied Noirtier, with a majestic look at the young man” (398).
a. Noirtier answered Franz with pride and dignity. He felt no shame admitting that he was the man who killed General de Quesnel.

4. Noirtier wants to maintain his honor by not agreeing to Valentine’s wedding with Franz.
a. By telling Franz the real events of the night his father was murdered, Noirtier continues holding up his honor, but Villefort’s is shot down. It would be impossible for Franz to marry into a family who caused him suffering by killing his father.
b. Why should Franz continue to be respectful towards the son of his father’s murderer, who is also the father of his bride to be? It would only be instinct to run away from such a tangle.
c. “Franz declined the honour yesterday morning” (401).

Dantès' Role as God -The Count of Monte Cristo

1. “He told himself it was the hatred of men and not the vengeance of God that had thrust him into this dark abyss” (Dumas 79).
a. Dantès is not blaming God for his suffering. He believes it is the hatred, more like envy, of man that has caused Dantès such pain.

2. “It is thus that God rewards virtue, monsieur” (157).
a. This takes place when the Abbé unexpectedly visits Caderousse who admits his wrongdoings and the malicious scheme that was planned to destroy Dantès.
b. For Monsieur Morrel, Sindbad the Sailor brings the captain out of debt with a great amount of money.

3. “I have played the part of Providence in recompensing the good, may the god of vengeance now permit me to punish the wicked” (187).
a. After the kind deeds of the Abbé and Sindbad the Sailor are completed, the Count of Monte Cristo becomes a nasty man with a taste for unyielding revenge.
b. Now that he finished helping those who were in need, Dantès punishes Villefort, Morcerf, and Danglars on behalf of God’s will.

4. In the process of carrying out his vengeance, the Count takes his revenge to the next level.
a. For example, he slowly begins killing off the Villefort family, people that had done no harm to Edmond Dantès.
b. The Count had the power to choose when and where a person was to die. He knew what deadly deed was happening in the Villefort household, yet did not bother to care if other people besides Villefort were being hurt as well.
c. He also allowed Albert Morcerf to live by Mercédès’ request. If the Count had not been passionately in love with Mercédès, he most likely would not have let Albert live.
i. “The lion was tamed, the avenger was overcome! ‘What do you ask of me?’ he said, “Your son’s life? Well, then, he shall live!’” (472).

5. Dantès saved Valentine the night she was to die. He gave her a liquid to fight the poison. Dantès acted as God saving an innocent soul.
a. “He disappeared after casting one more look on Valentine, who was sleeping with the confidence and innocence of an angel at the feet of the Lord” (510).

Huckleberry Finn Essay #3

Riddhi Jain

AP English: Mr. George

25 August 2009

Huckleberry Finn Essay

Journey Through Society

Children walking barefoot through the woods, blacks forced into labor by their white masters, and gunshots flying past house windows. Racism, poverty, and violence were some of the main principles of the mid-1800s Southern society. Huckleberry Finn faced an internal conflict between the civilized and barbaric choices life offered him. Huck stood clear of making a choice by setting on a journey down the river. He discovered the pros and cons of life and learned right from wrong through his experiences. The societal critique of the antebellum south is seen through the eyes of Huckleberry Finn as he travels down the river.

Black people were not considered human beings in the South. They were known better as the cotton picking, cow feeding illiterates of the white society. If a black man was wearing a nice pair of shoes or a clean-cut shirt, then all hell broke loose. A black person was to never reach the standards of a white person: "When they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. […] I says to the people, why ain’t this nigger put up at auction and sold?" (Twain 37). Pap was not at all satisfied to see a black man wealthier and better off than himself. It was outrageous for him to learn that black people were free for six months before they were sold as slaves. People refused to understand that black people were equally congenial to white people.

Aside from color, the white society of the South never managed to grasp the fact that black people also had feelings just like the whites did. Miss. Watson had promised Jim that she would not sell him to New Orleans, but Jim overheard her conversation with the slave trader: "I hear ole missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans. [...] She could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it 'uz such a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'" (54). Miss. Watson made a promise to Jim and broke it. Jim trusted her when she said she would never sell him to New Orleans. She broke that trust when she accepted the slave trader’s offer. If Miss. Watson felt that Jim had satisfied her standards of a human being, she would not have treated Jim as an object and allowed money to manipulate her mind. In the Southern society, a person would do anything for their best interest. This included betraying a devoted slave, or abusing their child in order to acquire enough money to benefit them, just like Pap did to Huck.

Huck Finn dehumanized Jim after he tried to explain that a Frenchman was a man. He was getting fed up with Jim and did not bother continuing the conversation: "I see it warn't no use wasting words--you can't learn a nigger to argue" (92). Huck did not want to bother helping Jim understand what he was trying to say. He settled with the Southern stereotype of a black person that Jim was an imbecile. Huck also thought he could get away with tricking Jim into thinking he had dreamed Huck was away from their raft. Jim was no fool and confronted Huck that he was lying: "When I wake up en fine you back agin’, all safe en soun’, de tears come en I could a got down on my knees en kiss’ yo’ foot I’s so thankful. En all you wuz thinking ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie" (98). Jim was hurt by Huck's prank. He had been worried about Huck and to find his friend making fun of him hurt his feelings. Huck would not have pulled a foolish trick like that on any white friend of his like Tom Sawyer, yet he thought it was amusing to get a laugh out of Jim’s fluster. Huck, like the rest of Southern society, thought blacks were susceptible who no common sense. Clearly, that was a false assumption.

As Huck continued his journey down the river, he came across two families with a strangely aggressive desire to end each others lives. The Grangerford and the Shepardson family shared an unyielding hatred for one another without a valid reason: "They don't know, now, what the row was about in the first place" (120). All the families wanted were for the other to be killed and gone for good. In Southern society, this warfare and death was accepted. The death of Buck, a mere thirteen years old, died trying to save his family. Nobody had any objections for this innocent child's death. A grown man had no problem shooting this boy and leaving him lying on the ground to bleed. There was no shame in these feudal deeds that were committed in the South. It was all accepted.

Colonel Sherburn shot the drunken Boggs for his disruption in front of the whole town. After he walked away satisfied, the town rallied up together to lynch Sherburn for his foolish act. The violence that was represented on the angry faces of the people showed the mannerism of typical Southern standards. By rallying together brought the town courage to fight Sherburn. He was not afraid of this mob and shot down the confidence each member of it had built up: “The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is- a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass” (159). Throughout the South, families fought side by side to put an end to a dispute. They rallied themselves together with pride and courage, but forgot the logic behind the decision they made to fight. Instead of settling issues with reasoning and fair judgment, the families of the South always resorted to violence.

Throughout the novel, violence was the resolution to all problems the Southern society of the mid-1800s faced. Children carried guns and knives as protection. It was common to see shooting outside a person's house. The influence of the Southern society showed a lack of education, poverty, and corruption of the youth. Blacks had no voice or opinion. Boys were not interested in their studies and girls were to cook and clean at home. Living through the ups and downs of society, Huck Finn and Jim both found their place without being affected by the corruption surrounding them. Through their experiences, Huck and Jim both learned life lessons and how to become better people. It strengthened their confidence and courage to take on anything that crossed their path. Huck Finn ended his journey down the river, yet he started a new one with an unbiased perspective of the world around him.

The Great Gatsby Essay #2

Riddhi Jain

AP English: Mr. George

27 July 2009

The Great Gatsby Essay

One of a Kind

When one strives to achieve a certain goal, any sense of pessimism results into an automatic failure. This brings us down until we have no hope or determination to achieve our goals. An apathetic person is easily driven to walk away from something unaccomplished. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby broke the pessimistic attitude that lingers in society. He did not allow the hardships he faced to discourage him or give him anything less than hope. Gatsby fought for what he wanted the most without allowing himself to become repressed. He strongly believed in himself and the person he cared about the most. Through all the difficult situations this man faced, he never gave up hope. Gatsby stepped out of the boundaries of an incompetent, disheartened person in society and fought for what he longed for.

After several years of being a poor soldier at war, Jay Gatsby never stopped loving Daisy. He began living in a fantasy world assuming Daisy would be waiting for him: “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). Gatsby failed to realize that a wealthy, young woman could not be waiting for a fortuneless beau for the rest of her life. Gatsby strongly believed Daisy would fall into his arms after meeting with the newly improved Jay Gatsby. He refused to understand that she had already started a family and was living a pleasant life without him. He had not given up hope from the day he left her that they would be together. Gatsby did not walk away hanging his head down when he heard Daisy was married and had a child. He only tried harder to win her back.

Gatsby could not convince himself to believe Daisy was in love with Tom and was completely over the relationship that she had with Gatsby. After one meeting, Daisy’s feelings for Gatsby returned, but at the end of the story, she chose to be with Tom. Daisy was simply infatuated by the man she once loved, but Gatsby was convinced otherwise: “She never loved you, do you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me!” (130). Gatsby put his foot down in confidence that Daisy was in love with him, not Tom. He was positive that Daisy supposedly loved Tom only as an appeasement for her true lost love. If this was so, and Daisy truly loved Gatsby, she would have divorced Tom with no hesitation or at least come to Gatsby’s funeral. To Daisy, Gatsby was just another man she had loved. Gatsby managed to keep such a strong faith about his relationship with Daisy that he could not bear to view the situation in a realistic point of view. It would be inappropriate and simply wrong to leave her husband and child for a man she had a fling with as a young woman. Gatsby was not discouraged by the fact that Daisy already settled down and made her life. With all his efforts, he continued to try to win her love back.

When all odds were against him, Gatsby never left his optimistic attitude. He was drowning in love for Daisy to the point where he even admitted his love for her to Tom: “Once in awhile I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and, in my heart I love her all the time” (131). Gatsby felt ashamed for some of the foolish acts he committed, but he expressed through his statements that no matter how imprudent his acts were, he still felt the same way he did when he first met Daisy. Gatsby was fearless. His overwhelmingly love for Daisy spoke to everybody in the room. Gatsby was willing to fight for Daisy. He was neither afraid nor intimidated by Tom. Gatsby said what he felt in his heart and did not let anything stop him. He did not let Tom’s anger and arrogance bring him down from what he loved the most.

Jay Gatsby was unsure how he wanted to approach Daisy after all the years he had been living in West Egg, but he never believed all hope was lost. He tried with all his power to rekindle the flame that once lit between them, but it was simply too late. If Gatsby was still in Daisy’s life and had not gone off to war, then there might have been a chance that he could have married her. After coming back from a dreadful war, Gatsby looked on the bright side and sought to find Daisy again. He waited patiently for five years before making an approach to meet her. Instead of walking away from the illusion painted before him that Daisy would come back to him, Gatsby never stopped believing in what they once had together.

Gatsby was a martyr for his love. He took the blame when Daisy hit Myrtle, and waited outside Daisy’s house that night to make sure she was okay. Gatsby was madly in love with her: “I want to wait here until Daisy goes to bed” (145). He became a wealthy man holding extravagant parties for strangers. Gatsby was the man people passed judgments about without even knowing him. All he wanted was Daisy’s love, not the gossip, the big name, and expensive items. Gatsby only acquired such fortunes to bring Daisy back to him, so that she could see how prosperous her poor lover turned into after all the years they were away from one another. Gatsby looked to the future he had waited so long to have with Daisy, the future of living happily ever after with no worries. On the inside, Gatsby was a simple man that wanted nothing more than what other men want in life. He kept his head up and did everything he could to win back Daisy and prove to her that he truly was the man of her dreams. In the end, Gatsby was not able to win his lover, but he had a strong heart to fight for her through the winding struggles he faced with Tom and himself.

The Count Of Monte Cristo Essay #1

Riddhi Jain

AP English: Mr. George

14 July 2009

Count of Monte Cristo Essay

Injustice of Vengeance

The scale of social justice compares the morality of either side in a moral quandary. As one side is weighed down by its actions, the other side finds balance when committing actions considered justified. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort bring a great weight upon their side of the scale, when they plot against and ruin the life of Edmond Dantès. When Edmond returns, he shifts the weight to his side when he exacts the purest vengeance against each one of his enemies. Dantès sought God’s justice, but indeed overstepped his boundaries, killing many innocent people. His judgment was selfish, and his punishment, unnecessary.

In the beginning of the story, we meet Danglars, the envious purser of the acclaimed Pharaon. This sinful man wrote the letter which later denounced the virtuous Edmond Dantès as a Bonapartist agent. Thanks to Danglars, Dantès is taken away from his beloved Mercédès, his chance to be captain of the Pharaon, and the respect earned for his reputable deeds. When Dantès returns as the Count of Monte Cristo, he only seeks one thing: revenge. Monte Cristo’s resentment towards Danglars increases as he meets the newly titled, Baron Danglars: “At the very sight of the man anyone can recognize in him the snake by his flat forehead, the vulture by his protruding cranium, and the buzzard by his sharp beak!” (255). Monte Cristo takes advantage of Danglars’ greed and uses his own limitless wealth against him. With his money, Monte Cristo puts a fraudulent report in the newspaper of a revolt in Barcelona, spurring Danglars greed to speculate on the market. When the report is later pronounced as false, Danglars loses a great amount of money, which begins the plummet of his wealth that continues throughout the book.

Not only is Danglars’ financial status crushed, but he also loses his family. His poor daughter, Eugénie, is filled with shame and rejection by the man she is to marry and his wife runs off with her secretary, Debray: “She has gone away with her mother, and, knowing her as I do, I am sure she will never return to France again. She could not endure the shame brought to her” (523). After he tells Monte Cristo about his wife and daughter’s departure, Danglars escapes before having to pay back any debt he develops. Monte Cristo turns into a selfish man, who only wants revenge for himself, not thinking of the lives being ruined in the process.

As the story continues, Dantès comes to find out that he is not the only one in love with the beautiful Mercédès. Fernand Mondego, the cousin of Mercédès, is just as passionately in love with her. Fernand’s envy for the love shared between Dantès and Mercédès causes him to help Danglars in the plot against Dantès. Fernand was the felon who posted up Danglars’ fake letter. When Monte Cristo hears Caderousse’s story and learns that Fernand married his beloved Mercédès, he tells Fernand: ”I show you to-day a face made young by the joy of vengeance, a face that you must often have seen in your dreams since your marriage with-- Mercédès” (486). Monte Cristo cleverly brings about Fernand’s humiliation when Haydee testifies against Fernand’s unfaithfulness to her father, the great Ali Pasha, and explains how he was also responsible for the painful death her father received.

Monte Cristo was able to make Fernand suffer through the humiliation and dishonor given to the Morcerf family name, but he also crumbled the lives of Albert and Mercédès. Fernand was one of the scoundrels that caused Monte Cristo to suffer for fourteen years. Mercédès and Albert did not do anything, but love Monte Cristo. After Fernand was denounced, they left their luxurious lives to live a life of poverty and loneliness. Mercédès was left with nothing to support Albert and herself: “She had managed very well on the little she had, but to-day there were two to manage for and she had nothing with which to do it” (548). The man Monte Cristo wanted to chastise ended up committing suicide, while Albert left his forlorn mother on the island of Marseilles to earn money for the two of them. In the end, Monte Cristo made Albert and Mercédès suffer more than Fernand did. There was no justice in the way Monte Cristo retaliated against Fernand because, similar to Eugénie and Baroness Danglars, he made two other innocent people suffer.

Villefort was the man who sent the noble Edmond Dantès off to the Chateau D’If for fourteen years. Monte Cristo’s revenge on this man was despicable. He was the infidel who gave Madame de Villefort the heinous idea of poisoning almost the entire Villefort family. There were three deaths before Valentine, Maximilian Morrel’s sweetheart and adored daughter of Villefort, was poisoned. If it was not for Maximilian’s plead to help his beloved Valentine, then Monte Cristo would have shown the least bit of care towards the family:”What is it to me? Do I know these people? Must I lose the one to save the other? Indeed not, for I have no preference between the guilty and the victim” (494). Monte Cristo was able to ruin Villefort’s reputation. Nobody wanted to be near or around the Villefort household knowing its members were mysteriously dying. These deaths led to Villefort’s insanity.

Though Monte Cristo may have been exacting justice upon Villefort, he caused the deaths of five innocent people. He had no right to hurt them; they simply lived peacefully in the Villefort household. In complete horror, Villefort pointing to the dead bodies of his wife and son said, “Look Edmond Dantès! Are you satisfied with your vengeance?” (567). Even the delinquent who robbed Dantès of his liberty, love, and happiness was enraged to see the small child and his mother lying dead on the floor helplessly in front of them. Monte Cristo wanted to avenge Villefort for his deleterious acts, but ended up causing more pain and suffering to Villefort’s family.

Throughout the novel, Monte Cristo believed he was acting fairly towards his enemies. He refused to open his eyes and realize that everybody around him was also being affected by his malicious acts. Monte Cristo was not executing a just behavior when he was poisoning, threatening, and manipulating the people who found trust and admiration for him. He was not acting just when the people who cared about him were getting hurt. Monte Cristo ruined the lives of the people around him more than the lives of the people who he meant to hurt. He turned into a bitter soul and acted with ignorance. Monte Cristo ruined the lives of the people around him more than the lives of the people who he meant to hurt. He turned into a bitter soul and acted with ignorance. Gandhi summed it up perfectly, “An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind” (Thinkexist.com).