The Theme Of Alienation Loneliness And Selfhood English Literature Essay

In Krapp ‘s last tape, Krapp consistently distanced himself from company and love of other people. When Krapp was 20 nine old ages old, he lived with a adult female named Bianca, whose love he subsequently described as a hopeless concern despite the fact that she genuinely loved him and possessed really warm eyes that ever seemed to affect him ( Beckett 54 ) . After the decease of his female parent when Krapp was merely 30 nine, he felt that life had lost significance. This is apparent from the words he said to his new love that it was hopeless and there was nil positive about life. He rejected his lover and wholly lived entirely from this clip onwards, although he was sometimes visited by Fanny, who was a bony old shade of prostitute ( Beckett 98 ) . At the age of 60 nine, Krapp was merely accompanied by his solitariness during his birthday jubilation, whereby he spent the twenty-four hours in a saloon profoundly occupied by heavy ideas of his past life and his lost opportunity for love and fulfilled life ( Beckett 67 ) .

Krapp ‘s last tape is a compact statement of a adult male ‘s quandary as a captive of clip. He preserved the worst for himself and threw the best off by rejecting love of others. At the age of 60 nine, the lone thing he could make was to play a tape he made when he was 30 nine, reminding him of the last love that he rejected when he still had possible for felicity in life ( Beckett 89 ) .

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Krapp was a alone adult male, whose isolation was self inflicted. He viewed adult females as bad influence and valued his calling as a author more than any human company or relationship. He confessed that he could non defy the idea of his future calling as a author being interfered with by adult females and love ( Beckett 89 ) .

Krapp chose a tape recording equipment to be his exclusive company. He seemed to happen comfort in recorded voice, which he dependably listened to, even in old age. However, although Krapp lived like he did non necessitate anyone ‘s company, he seems to hold been inside despairing to hold person to prosecute in a conversation. He finally discovered that he had made a awful error by abandoning the remainder of humanity ( Beckett 130 ) . Loneliness, selfishness and selfhood are clearly illustrated throughout Krapp ‘s character and manner of life. He ne’er found satisfaction in life even after egotistically populating a alone life that he had chosen to populate and he realized that the selfhood that he had discovered had genuinely misled him. He realized that he needed other people and the remainder of the universe in order to be fulfilled but it was already excessively late.

In Kate Chopin ‘s narrative of an hr, Mrs. Mallard went through feelings of alleviation every bit shortly as she received the bad intelligence of her hubby ‘s decease, which was said to hold occurred in a train accident. Although at first she was sorrowful and confused by the intelligence of her hubby ‘s decease, she was all of a sudden relieved by the idea of being free from matrimony and bondage of love. She knew that no sum of love and security could pay the deficiency of control over her ain being ( Chopins 194 ) .

Mrs. Mallard seemed to hold been controlled by society, feigning to be happy and fulfilled in her matrimony. As molded by the society, she appeared to be a perfect married woman, who enjoyed company of her hubby and loved being a married woman. She suppressed her true selfhood and sacrificed her delectation to delight the society, feigning to be merrily married. As expressed in her reaction and suspiration of alleviation when she heard the intelligence of her hubby ‘s decease, it is rather apparent that she had ever inside struggled with her matrimony to Mr. Bently Mallard, that was dominated by male jingoism. Feminism shown through freedom upon her hubby ‘s decease explains her felicity and alleviation to be entirely, free from bondage of matrimony and love ( Chopin 193 ) .

Her ain feelings of freedom came back possessing her when she foremost uttered the words free, free! In this narrative, Mrs. Mallard is described as a adult female who had forgotten and abandoned herself throughout the full period of matrimony to her hubby. The hubby is described as being happy with the matrimony, despite the fact that Mrs. Mallard was non happy and inside viewed the matrimony as bondage. Her emotions had been stiffled and and suppressed to suit into hollow societal conventions of the society. She was the submissive adult female, who believed that her hubby had a right to enforce his will on her ( Jamil 216 ) . However, she all of a sudden gained control over herself after detecting that she had been set free from bondage of matrimony and bondage of love by the decease of her hubby. She embraced visions of a bright hereafter and realized that whether she had loved him or non was non of import any longer, all what was of import to her now was the ownership of self averment that she experienced after his decease. ( Choppin 193, 194 ) . This was the 19th century American adult female ‘s hr of rousing into selfhood, which gives her immesurable joy and beauty of life. ( Jamil 215 ) . Her felicity after find of her selfhood was so strong that when she realized that her hubby was non dead, she instantly collapsed. She could non conceive of how she was traveling to abandon her new found freedom and return to life with her hubby, where she would be required to flex her will to his. Mrs. Mallard preferred to populate entirely, without her hubby because that meant freedom to her merely like Mr. Krapp chose to populate entirely and viewed adult females and love as a hopeless concern. To him, they would interfere with his freedom of prosecuting his composing calling, while to Mrs. Mallard, the presence of her hubby was a lasting bondage to slavery that had taken away her freedom and selfhood.

The narrative of a sorrowful adult female by Gail Godwin depicts a married woman and a female parent who bit by bit withdrew from her household after going overwhelmed by her hubby ‘s and kid ‘s presence and wholly close them out of her life. Their presence was a day-to-day reminder of the fact that she had lost her freedom every bit good as her self- individuality and her life would ne’er be the same once more ( Godwin 78 ) . She wanted her freedom and her ego -identity back. She wanted to remain off from her hubby, her kid and the remainder of the community and populate a alone life because to her that would be more fulfilling, merely like Mr. Krapp. She viewed matrimony as a beginning of hurting, that had taken away her individuality, her selfhood and her freedom. She farther wanted to remain off from the society that advocated for matrimony and hence decided to populate a alone life. However, what she considered as freedom and selfhood did non give her the fulfilment that she had longed to hold.

Her dissatisfaction with her function as a female parent and a duteous married woman made her to seek many other options in life but she did non happen satisfaction in any of the options that she tried out. She did non happen any peculiar function that could accommodate her and therefore she ended up retreating from the remainder of the universe. This is illustrated by the coldness and isolation of the unadorned white room that she moved into. She even pictured herself as a virgin in a tower, untouchable and deeply stray ( Goldwin 117 ) . This shows that she had non merely isolated herself physically from her household and the remainder of the universe but besides emotionally therefore doing herself an foreigner looking in on the universe. She viewed her household as beginning of bondage, bondage and dissatisfaction in life. However, insulating herself from the remainder of the society did non give her any satisfaction like she had expected. She merely ended up being a alone adult female, both physically and emotionally.

The subject of disaffection, selfhood and solitariness cut across the three narratives discussed. The three chief characters in the narratives viewed household as a beginning of bondage, restrictions and dissatisfaction in life. It is portrayed as a signifier of bondage that would bind adult females and work forces to their households and take away their freedom every bit good as their selfhood. These narratives portray traditional matrimonies whereby adult females are supposed to be submissive to their hubbies and be good place shapers as unfulfilling and sabotaging to adult females. The adult females discussed here are apparently tired of populating under bondage and bondage of their hubbies and the full society and are looking for release and freedom. They want to rediscover themselves and happen more fulfilling functions that define them and give them a voice as utile members of the society. They can no longer stand the thought of being dominated by society every bit good as by their hubbies as clearly observed when Mrs. Mallard collapsed on detecting the truth that her hubby was genuinely alive and non dead as it had been reported.

On the other manus freedom in these narratives is flatly accompanied by solitariness and deficiency of fulfilment as portrayed by Krapp and Godwin. The adult female in Godwin ‘s narrative did non happen any satisfaction in her solitariness after abandoning her household and the society at big. Her freedom brought more emotional and physical dissatisfaction as she tried to rediscover herself and even to delegate her new functions, which merely tormented her mental and emotionally, doing even more hurting to her life.

After passing all his life entirely with the tape recording equipment as his exclusive comrade, Krapp eventually came to his senses and realized that he had really ruined his ain life because he was lonely and desperate for comrade. He realized that listening to the tape recording equipment entirely could non give him the delectation and the fulfilment that he had longed to hold in his full life. However, it was already excessively tardily as he was already an old adult male.

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