Preview

English Advanced

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4804 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
English Advanced
The Duchess and the Jeweler by Virginia Woolf
The Duchess and the Jeweler by Virginia Woolf
Summary
The story “The Duchess and the Jeweler” reflects the English society of writer’s time. It was an age of change. The high-ups were coming down because of their moral decadence and the commoners were coming up.
Once Oliver Bacon was very poor and lived in a filthy, little alley. He worked very hard and used fair and unfair means to become the richest jeweler of the England. He enjoys his present position. He is suffering from inferiority complex. There is a great difference between his present and past condition. He has become so important that each day he receives invitation cards from the aristocracy of the city. He has become very rich, but he is so greedy that he wants more and more wealth.
One day the Duchess of Lambourne comes to sell some fake pearls. She induces him into buying those fake pearls very cleverly. She uses her daughter Diana as bait. She also invites him to the party where all the aristocracy will be present.
Oliver Bacon buys the fake pearls because he wants to attend the party and spend the weekend with Diana. He loves Diana very much. Besides, he wants to move among aristocratic circles.
He signs the cheque for twenty thousand pounds. The Duchess takes the cheque and leaves. Later, he asks pardon of the picture of his mother.
The story “The Duchess and the Jeweler” by Virginia Woolf mirrors the society of England. Discuss.
Whenever there is an age of change, the higher come down and lower downs go up. Discuss.
The story describes the decadence of the aristocracy and the rise of the commoners. Comment.
The story is a criticism on Victorian Society.
No doubt, the writer of the story “The Duchess and the Jeweler” reflects the English society of her time. It was an age of transition. The high-ups were coming down because of their moral decadence and the commoners were taking lead in spite of their psychological fixations.
To

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition...”(pg.1,chap.1) lived in nineteenth century Regency England, where social status was dictated by wealth and breeding, which as a rule could only be inherited. This insured that wealth stayed within family circles and that the poor could not rise up the social ladder and make a better life for themselves. If one was of good breeding and wealth, such as Emma, one would be high ranking in society almost regardless of what one would do, as long as one did not violate the rigid rules of upper class life. Because women did not travel much in those days, especially not for entertainment, Emma was largely confined to her father's large estate with nothing much to do. Her family's status made it socially unacceptable for her to do much else apart from sitting around, pursuing the fine arts, in order to show how wealthy they were. The limited availability of entertainment and places to go gives the audience a strong sense of the confined nature of an upper class woman's existence at that time.…

    • 1787 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    March 20, 1608 - I think I have finally found the love I have always dreamt about. This man, he is perfect, the cream of the crop. There is one single dilemma, he is not a noble like I. He may be a man of the bourgeois class, but he has more man in his one finger than any “noble” man I have ever met. This man he is not noble through birth, office, or “letters” so it will be a difficult situation for us to work through. (Trueman) He is a poor poet attempting to travel the extensive, torturous journey to obtain his life-long goal of becoming a play write. (Trueman) Play writers don’t make an excessive amount of money but they make a decent amount of money to live off of. If only this man was noble, I could then marry and respect him for the rest of my life. (France in the 16th and 17th Centuries) He could be the leader of our family that we would raise together. (France in the 16th and 17th Centuries) BAM! An amazing and ingenious idea just hit me. We could fool the whole town by disguising him as a “noble” foreigner and put him in nice clothes. This plan is fool proof and no one would ever figure out the secret. Now my family will not be disgraced by my decision to marry this man since they will believe he is noble. I, a forever fruitful French female, fancies the day when I will be able to always stay by my very own noble-on-the-inside man for the rest of my…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Emma presents her audience with the ills of a socially stratified society and its repressive constraints manifested through her characters. The conservative social structure of Regency England is established through a clearly defined social organisation which is responsible for determining class by a families inherited wealth and lineage. The eponymous character is presented as the regency stereotype of the upper-class elitist, with the preliminary stages of the novel reflecting the context through the establishment of Emma’s social superiorty. “Emma Woodhouse, clever, handsome, and rich with a comfortable lifestyle and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings in existence.” The opening sentence uses a trochaic rhythm to reveal the heroines place in the higher echelons of Highbury society. Emma’s moral development and her “disposition to think a little to well of herself” as stated by the omniscient narrator amplifies Emma’s vanity gently satirising the…

    • 2160 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is nothing but human to want more. This essential quality is what makes people human. By striving to be better, this species has done countless extraordinary things by wanting to elevate ourselves higher than others. However, Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” shows the story of young, beautiful, 19th century housewife Mathilde Loisel aspiring to be a luxurious white collar. Even though it is human nature to want more, Mathilde ravening desire to appear as higher class blinds her of what she has and becomes her own downfall.…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Many people were jealous of Antoinette and Louis’ marriage, including the King’s brother and cousin who thought Louis incapable of being a proper King, and were extremely jealous of his beautiful wife. Fabricated stories, including the Diamond Necklace Affair, circulated throughout France, mostly including Marie Antoinette’s private life and her supposed sexual acts with the men and women of the court. She was accused of sending funds to Austria and the French even challenged the paternity of the royal children. The Diamond Necklace Affair captured the entire nation’s attention since it questioned the morals of the French Queen. Lamotte was a beautiful woman, captivating to everyone, that convinced Prince de Rohan, the Cardinal of France, that Marie Antoinette was interested in obtaining a fabulously expensive diamond necklace made by Louis XV’s lover, Madame du Barry. Claiming she was the lesbian lover of Antoinette, Rohan obeyed Lamotte and went to Boehmer, the Queen’s jeweler to buy the diamond necklace. The charade unraveled when Boehmer went to Marie to collect the money needed to pay for the necklace and she refused. The King and Queen were shocked that Rohan actually believed such a flimsy story, and enraged that he went along with it. Though none of the accusations were true, the story circulated through Europe for many years after and the Queen’s reputations was damaged severely. After the accusations finally seceded, Marie was able to return to the life she was used to, being a devoted mother and wife. Sadly, at the same time her life regained normality, the state of France was in an uproar over their country’s financial issues. The poor were starving and Marie Antoinette’s small contributions to helping them were almost a lost cause. When told of the peasants and their…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Meanwhile, in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, the lesson features how one’s social standing does not equate to the quality of their character. During a lengthy speech, an old, poor woman admonishes a much younger, wealthier knight of over his disgust in her. In her passionate…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    english 101

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Tell Tale Heart is a short story written in 1843 by Edgar Allen Poe. This story starts with the narrator telling us how he is not mad, merely nervous, but not crazy.In this story he explains that he loves and takes care of this old man. He has nothing against this old man, in fact he cares for him, but he hates the old man’s “vulture-eye”. The narrator hates the eye and decides to kill the old man to be free of it. He devises a plan to be free of the eye, the narrator goes to the old man's room every night at 12am, for seven days. On the eighth night, he went into the bedroom, then quickly drags the old man, off the bed, and then pulls the bed on top of the man. The narrator then waits till he hears the old man’s heart stop. Once this happens the narrator takes his body, chops it up, and hides it underneath the floorboards in the old man’s room.…

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Wife Of Bath Analysis

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: “The Wife of Bath”, one acquires insight on the character Wife of Bath and how her ideals and principles differ from the customs in medieval times. Wife of Bath was a perceptive and dominant women that was looked upon as a gold digger that used her body as a way to get around the bushes with men. While it may be true, it is without a doubt that she expressed actions that where desired by many women at the time, but were resistant to show these actions because it went against social regulations.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First off we see the life of the higher, ruling class, called the Wives. This is shown by the description of Serena Joy. Serena Joy is wearing a long powder blue robe, blue being the colour of royalty. Next we see that she has an ivory head on her cane and the large diamonds on her finger. This shows that she is part of the rich, upper class as ivory is a hot commodity and shows wealth. Next we are told of a fingernail that is filed to a gentle curving point. This shows that she is wealthy as she can afford manicures and that she is able to make herself and her body look better. Next we see that Serena Joy is knitting and that she has flowers, both of which are hobbies that show she lives freely and can do things for fun. Next we see the ivory coloured lighter, again showing wealth and her being a higher class, and her smoking a cigarette. Also when Serena’s lips are described as ones “you used to see in advertisements for lip cosmetics” which means that she is able to make herself look better and even boast about their looks. Finally she is being called ma’am by the lower Handmaid showing that she is of a higher status and that she earns more respect. These are some of the things that the upper-class people can do in…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Weldon's Letter To Alice

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Fay Weldon’s non fiction text, Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen, uses Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, to create connections between the values of the modern world and that of Austen’s. Through a range of literary techniques, Weldon is able to compare the values of the 20th century to that of regency England in the 19th century. The values that Weldon draws upon include, marriage, the social hierarchy and the importance of reading and literature.…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After the party, Madame Loisel loses the necklace, resulting in tireless work, loans, and night jobs for her and her husband in order to pay back the equivalent of the price. The couple finally succeeds when all the money is paid ten years later, only for Mathilde to discover that the necklace was ironically a fake, and worth a very small percentage of what the couple paid. The theme of this story is that an overemphasis on material wealth can shrink the spirit and leave one open to the changeability of fortune. The situational irony highlights this moral because the Loisels would never have had to exhaust themselves if Madame Loisel wasn’t so obsessed with riches and wealth. From the very beginning of the story, she wastes her time dreaming of luxuries such as fine silks, beautiful furniture, and gourmet feasts. Even when she is at Madam Forestier’s house to try on necklaces to borrow, she is never satisfied until she has seen the very best. Madame Loisel’s preoccupation with appearance clouds her judgment as well. As soon as she realizes that she has lost the necklace, she should simply come clean to Madam Forestier. Instead, she is too concerned with how her reputation will be affected, so she keeps quiet. She later pays the price for this when she discovers that the necklace is “false [and]…worth five hundred francs at most.” The life that she gets instead as punishment during the ten years in debt is even more difficult and meager than her life to begin with, which stresses how fame and fortune is so fleeting and unimportant in the scheme of…

    • 1345 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    English 101

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I have attended Argosy University Online since March 21, 2013 to Present. I was a Fulltime student. I'm currently taking my last course with them which is ENG 102. I enjoy taking my classes online. I feel as it is just like sitting in the classroom. When I logon to my class portal everything is there. Currently at Argosy the terms are 5 weeks long. So when I log on I have 5 modules that are one week a piece and have 3 assignments on each module. I participate in a discussion that the instructor puts out and I have to respond to the discussion post and also having to reply to two classmates on their discussion post every week. When assignments are due requiring the use of a text book I navigate under the module that the assignment is due and click on the require text that pertains to the assignment and the text is there from the book. When a writing assignment is due, I normally type the paper in Microsoft word and attach the document into the drop box on Argosy University's student portal and click the drop down box and click which assignment I’m submitting and submit it for grading. If I’m not too much in a hurry I will wait about ten minutes to see what my Turnitin score is. If I have any questions for the professor at any time I go to the left hand side where the modules are and click “Questions for the Professor” and ask my question. If it’s something personal in nature I will send the professor an email.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem “My Last Duchess” is complex, in the sense that many ideas can be developed about the Duke’s personality and action, and what they prove about human nature. The Duke reveals his actions throughout the course of the poem, and establishes his power over the other characters. By attempting to control his wife, the envoy, as well as the artists, the Duke proves that men in high positions of power abuse that power to achieve their desires.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Boule de Suif” is a short story formed upon a prostitute and her experiences while escaping from her city during the Franco-Prussian war, while “Jewelry” is a story based upon the experiences of a widower as he realizes his dead wife’s misdeed. Both stories take place during the late 19th century in France, resembling the historical aspects of the country during that period. While both short stories take place at a different setting and situation, the common aspect which the author convincingly conveys in both plots are the selfish behavior of human beings. In “Boule de Suif”, the author centralizes his main motif on the real difference between the nobles; considered as a superior being with a prostitute; a profession considered as the lowest of all. In the story, Maupassant clarifies the sacrifices made by the prostitute for the sake of the nobles, while the nobles…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Duchess has lied to Bacon in the past, but he has also lied to her.…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays