Private Lives
Popular actress and singer, Miley Cyrus debuted in Hannah Montana as a girl who doubles as an average teenage girl and as a popstar. On the show, Cyrus lives a normal, private life, but when she gets on stage in the spotlight, her entire persona changes to fit the character of Hannah Montana. When she is not a rockstar, she is just an ordinary girl who struggles to live life in two worlds. In her first single “Best of Both Worlds,” Cyrus sings “you get the best of both worlds, chillin’ out take it slow, then you rock out the show.” Just as in Hannah Montana, an individual’s public persona allows him or her to associate with a prescribed group of people in a particular situation. Authors create characters who primarily exhibit the public persona; however, private situations provide for the revelation of the character’s true nature. Tennessee Williams in A Streetcar Named Desire, Edith Wharton in Age of Innocence, and F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby have characters who choose to reveal their true natures in private when they are with a kindred spirit who can relate to their emotions, situations, and actions.
Emotional situations serve as a crucible for establishing the true nature of a person.
In reacting to the stress of an emotional situation, characters reveal their true natures. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche du Bois faces insecurity as she tries to adapt into a world very different from her own. Tennessee Williams symbolically depicts Blanche’s insecurities throughout the play. For example, when Blanche first arrives, she places a Chinese lantern over a bright light, claiming that it would put a spotlight on her age. When Stanley tears the lantern off the bulb, Blanche “cries out as if the lantern was herself” (Williams 140) because the lantern is closely related to Blanche, whose outer cover is torn off to reveal her inner truths. Blanche dwells in memories of her past, rather than accepting the present. Her insecurities force her to develop a string of complex lies to cover up her own numerous flaws. Although Stanley gives off a rough and tough demeanor, he is actually just as insecure as Blanche. Stanley believes that Blanche intends to tear Stella away from him. When Stella runs away from him, Stanley realizes that his sexual violation has lasting effects; he breaks down in tears and calls her back “with heaven-splitting violence” (Williams 60).
The Term Paper on Brave New World: True Happiness
What is true happiness? This is an important question that is related to Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley. This book was written right after the first automobile was mass-produced, the Model T Ford. This assembly line production sparked Aldous’ mind into thinking if humans were produced in the same way. When Aldous imagined this he thought that the world would be quite different and ...
His tough persona is merely a façade to hide his deep insecurities and fears. Similar to Blanche and Stanley, Newland and Ellen in The Age of Innocence exhibit rebellious ways of life that allow them to reveal their true nature only to each other. At the beginning of the novel, Newland is as naive as everyone else in Old New York, always following the rules of society. As he begins to spend more time with Ellen, he realizes how fake and hypocritical people are in every aspect. For example, at the Opera in the opening scene of the novel, Ellen who enters wearing a “dark blue velvet gown rather theatrically caught up under her bosom by a girdle with a large old-fashioned clasp” (Wharton 7) fascinates Newland, who usually considers with warmth and approval the virginal white of May’s dress. He becomes more curious to uncover the freshness of Ellen’s unconventional behavior. When Newland is around his wife, May, he almost feels as if he has “been dead for months and months” because he conceals his nonconformist emotions. On the other hand, Newland and Ellen’s private time is truly memorable for both of them because they reveal their true opinions about society. Ellen gives Newland “[his] first glimpse of real life” because she herself is an outsider, so she understands Newland’s desire to break out of conventional New York society (Wharton 178).
The Essay on Movie Ellen Newland High
he movie version of Age of Innocence follows the text closely. The storylines are very similar, as are the themes. However, there are some differences in characterization, and the movie suffers from problems common to that medium. The characters are simplified and polarized, and the reader is provided with far more depth and insight into the nature and history of the story and characters. For ...
Likewise, Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson from The Great Gatsby come from two different worlds. Tom is a selfish, ultra rich playboy who considers his affair with Myrtle a temporary diversion. During a party held at Tom and Myrtle’s apartment in town, Catherine states that “[n]either of them can stand the person they’re married to” (Fitzgerald 33).
Myrtle does not realize that Tom desires an easy relationship that he can escape to when he desires. Even though they are entirely different from each other, they are shameless in their actions to be with each other regardless of their situations. Through the affair, Tom reveals his selfishness and callousness by giving Myrtle a false sense of security, when he does not actually care about her, and Myrtle does anything possible to move up in society. Individuals reveal their true natures to people who understand their emotional states and can relate to them.
A character placed in the same situation as another person is more likely to reveal his or her true nature to that person. Williams depicts Blanche as an unmarried, fallen, Southern women who is a victim of society’s rules. The desperate nature of Blanche’s situation is apparent in her mental attempts to convince herself that the chivalric gentlemen still exists. When she arrives in New Orleans, Blanche puts on the airs of a sophisticated woman, but Stanley sees through her. Blanche has a hard time confronting her mixed desires, and therefore is unable to sort them out and deal with them. She wants a cultured man, but she is often subconsciously attracted to strong, males which is perhaps a response to her previous marriage, which ended in disaster. Although Blanche believes that Stanley “acts like an animal, has animal habits . . . [e]ats like one, moves like one, [and] talks like one,” (Williams 72) she is attracted to him as a type of man who is strong enough to protect her from the outside world and accept her emotional distress. Mitch, on the other hand, is a momma’s boy, but his gentleness attracts Blanche because she sees him as a “Southern gentleman” who will be kind and take care of her.
However, Mitch reveals his cruel and hypocritical nature when he learns the truth about Blanche’s background and acts as much like an animal as Stanley. Concerned with social class, manners, and behavior, Blanche simply cannot accept that her sister, who had been raised on a Southern plantation just as she had, married such a modern, abrasive, and dominating male. Differences in social class is also prominent in The Age of Innocence. Ellen and Newland’s ability to connect over social conventions in Old New York help them both to reveal their true natures in private. Ellen Olenska exhibits strength and courage because of her desire to go against society’s rules and regulations. As an outcast of a hypocritical society, Ellen is worthy of the yellow roses that seem “too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty” for May (Wharton 69).
The Essay on Gatsbys Revelation
When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel The Great Gatsby, he used a unique writing technique. It used a first-person point of view in the form of a narrator, Nick Carraway, who was also involved in the story. This style allowed the author to withhold any information that he did not present to the narrator in the story, causing the reader to learn things the same way the narrator did. The ...
In fact, she embodies these aspects, which appeal to Newland even more because he is drawn to Ellen’s rebellious nature. Ellen’s unconventional taste encourages Newland to see his world more clearly—and what he sees is hypocrisy. Her lack of concern for social rules make her a target of people’s criticism, but attracts people who are willing to challenge the boundaries of society. On the other hand, until marriage to May quenches Newland’s desire rebel against the rules of fashionable New York, Newland questions the values with which he was raised. Newland begins to see how narrow minded people are when he states, “I’m sick of the hypocrisy that would bury alive a woman of her age if her husband prefers to live with the harlots. . . .Women ought to be free – as free as we are” (Wharton 35).
In an attempt to defend Ellen, Newland comes to see the inequalities between sexes in New York and the shallowness of its social customs. Newland reveals his true nature to Ellen because she, like him, is an outsider. Similarly, Jay Gatsby connects on an emotional level with Meyer Wolfsheim because of their similar situations. Although Gatsby puts on the front that he “is the son of some wealthy people. . . was educated at Oxford . . . and then lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe” (Fitzgerald 65), he really had a hard life before going to the War In fact, Gatsby grew up poor, but he begins to make a name for himself when he has a chance to work with millionaire Dan Cody, illustrating that Gatsby is willing to take a chance. Gatsby’s association with Meyer Wolfsheim illustrates that he is caught up in some illegal things because Meyer Wolfsheim is a “gambler who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919” (FItzgerald 73).
The Essay on Affirmaitve Action
Affirmative Action On March 6, 1961 President John F. Kennedy started Affirmative Action by an order of anti-discrimination. This was created to ensure that employees were treated the same regardless of their race, creed, color or national origin during their employment. Later on, in the 1970's the order was revised to include discrimination because of gender or sexual orientation. Today, ...
Both Gatsby and Wolfsheim see a certain opportunity in their lives, and they are both ready and eager to take advantage of that opportunity to advance in life. Because Gatsby and Wolfsheim share the fact that they bootlegged to move up in society, they can relate to each other. Characters such as Blanche, Newland, and Gatsby reveal their true natures in private to people who can understand their current situations.
Private actions exhibit characters’ true natures and intentions. Mitch’s actions reveal his true character and nature to Blanche. Mitch truly embodies a Southern gentleman in his actions, contrary to Stanley. Because Mitch courts Blanche like a lady, always acting with respect and admiration, she believes that Mitch is “a natural gentleman, one of the very few that are left in the world” (Williams 91).
Mitch falls completely in love with Blanche, because he falls for all the lies and illusions that Blanche is hiding. When Mitch learns of Blanche’s past, he reveals himself as a hypocrite because he does not look past Blanche’s faults. When Mitch comes to see Blanche, he wants to see her in true light because he “never had a real good look at [her]” (Williams 116).
When he turns on the light, Blanche “cries out and covers her face (Williams 117).
The lamp represents the truth within her, and the lantern, her outer self that covers the truth. Blanche lies to everyone, including herself, which shows how insecure she really is. Mitch finally sees the light and reveals his hypocrisy because he is not actually in love with Blanche but with her Southern belle qualities. Similar to Mitch and his actions, Newland’s actions reveal that although he is attracted to what is different, he does not abandon his beliefs. After Newland and May host a dinner party for Ellen’s departure, Newland sees no reason why he should not follow Ellen to Europe. Newland had the “sudden hunger of being for a moment alone with [Ellen] before she left (Wharton 204).
Then May suddenly announces that she is pregnant, and Newland knows that he cannot abandon May and the baby. Newland never feels fully inside the life that he has chosen in society, but he knows that he cannot completely give up the life he has known because it is all he knows and believes. Comparable to Newland is Gatsby, whose actions reveal his extreme dedication to his goal. Because of his commitment to recreating his relationship with Daisy, Gatsby makes money so that Daisy would consider a relationship with him. After the car accident that kills Myrtle, Nick asks Gatsby if Daisy were driving, to which he responds, “Yes, but of course I’ll say I was” (Fitzgerald 143).
The Essay on Allen Grey Blanche World Mitch
But, honey, you know as well as I do that a single girl, a girl alone in the world has got to keep a firm hold on her emotions or she? ll be lost! ? Blanche DuBois, the tragically poignant character of Tennessee Williams? notable play A Streetcar Named Desire, compensated for her disheveled past with fantasies. Scarred by the abrupt suicide of her husband Allen Grey, Blanche gradually slipped into ...
Gatsby is so dedicated to his goal that he automatically takes blame for Daisy’s mistakes. Although he usually is insecure around Daisy, at this instant, he reveals his true nature by his noble action. Daisy, unaware that Gatsby has defended her, remains the same selfish person who does not realize that Gatsby has essentially died for her. As the narrator, Nick says that “Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on [him], what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out [Nick’s] interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men” (Fitzgerald 6).
Despite Gatsby’s questionable business practices, his love was pure and everything he did, every move he made, was for his love of Daisy. Gatsby public actions are questionable, but his private actions reveal his true nobility and generosity and redeem him as a person. A characters’ private actions display his or her true nature that would otherwise be unclear.
Individuals in these three texts behave very differently in public and in private; however, their actions in private show various personal traits, such as hypocrisy, selfishness, or conformity. An individual in a public situation, displays a persona that often changes completely as he or she tries to fit in with what society judges as normal. In real life, it is human nature for a person to behave differently in public and private. Just as Miley Cyrus tries to fit into two different worlds, characters in these texts deal with the pressures of public and private situations. Williams, Wharton, and Fitzgerald discuss characters who choose to reveal their true natures in private with someone who can relate to their emotions, situations and actions.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. Print.
The Essay on Private Vs Public
In todays world people have many different views on which would be better for their children. Would the public school environment help broaden my childs social skills and give him a better view on the real world? Is the education as good as it is at private schools and will my child excel more in the sports programs? Do I have the money to send my child to a private school? These are a few ...
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New American Library, 1947. Print.
