How vainly men themselves amaze analysis

How vainly men themselves amaze analysis

The story takes place in a French resort, where the main character Franklin meets a middle-aged but very beautiful woman Mrs. Palgrave. She seduces him and they make love. Mrs. Palgrave is not alone at the resort; she has arrived with her children and their nurse Heidi. When Mrs. Palgrave leaves the resort, Franklin takes notice of the lovely nurse, dates her and really enjoys it very much. But Mrs. Palgrave hates Heidi and on her return to the resort she learns about their love affair and fires her. Franklin understands that he will never see Heidi again and that he`s lost his true love forever and feels anger and hatred towards Mrs. Palgrave. Through the contrast between the two women, Mrs. Palgrave and Heidi, the author communicates his message: not all that glitters is gold.

At first sight it seems that Mrs. Palgrave is a real beauty, it is obvious that she takes great care of herself, her beauty is not natural, but is created with the help of cosmetics. Moreover, with her bright emerald suit she attracts everybody`s attention.

As for Heidi, Franklin thought that she was arrogant, but later he discovered that what he had taken for arrogance turned out to be modesty and shyness. Heidi is an example of a cold, but natural beauty. Not only her appearance, but also her behavior proves that she is an honest, good-hearted and timid person, who treats others sincerely. She loves the children and the children love her.

The story is based on the contrast between the two women: Aggressive colours and natural colours. Hypocrisy and sincerity. Seduction and shyness. Indifference to the children and love for them. Passion and true love. Besides, the author hints that sometimes it`s difficult to distinguish between real and artificial beauty but sincerity is obviously better than hypocrisy. Franklin changes during the story, but unfortunately he understands too late that he has lost his true love.
The story conveys the idea that true love and passion are not the same and appeals to the readers to be honest, modest and good-hearted to find true love which is rather spiritual than physical.

How Vainly Men Themselves Amaze

How Vainly Men Themselves Amaze

Analysis

Leo Tolstoy once said: “It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness”.

The text under consideration is “How Vainly Men Themselves Amaze” by H.E. Bates. The main character of the story, a young man of eighteen named Franklin, is at the seaside resort with his parents. There he meets Mrs. Palgrave, a very attractive woman of ripe age. She is on vacation with two children and a young German girl Heidi taking care of them. Mrs. Palgrave seduces Frankie and they have a very passionate love affair. Soon she has to go back to London for a couple of days. At that time Frankie gets to know Heidi better, and he understands how genuine and charming she is. He falsly in love with her. But when Mrs. Palgrave returns and finds everything out she sends Heidi away. Through the contrast between the two women the author conveys the theme that appearances are deceptive and only sincerity can lead to true love.

The author describes the female characters of the story in a very different way. Mrs. Palgrave is a typical femme fatale. “She was a beautifully boned woman, about forty, evenly tanned to a deep gold”, her hair is auburn. Wearing her two piece swim suit she demonstrates her well-developed figure with her stomach flat, her navel a delicate shadowy shell and long beautifully shaped legs. Much attention is paid to the peculiar nature of Mrs. Palgrave’s eyes: “The pupils of them were like bright bird’s eggs, mottled and stenciled green and orange-brown”. The author is so particular about her eyes because they are known to be ‘the mirror of the soul’. And the eyes of Mrs. Palgrave are more of an animal. Mrs. Palgrave holds Frankie in a gaze without the flicker of an eyelid. It is a good clue to the character’s personality as it hints at her savage nature. She is using Frankie like a vampire. As for Heidi, she is a blonde tall young woman. She seems to be reserved: “Even at distance he thought the girl had an aloof aristocratic, even supercilious air”. Her frigid blue eyes are motionless, calm and even hostile when she makes eye contact with Mrs. Palgrave. The girl’s appearance seems not to fit the role she plays in the story. But the first impressions can be deceptive, and very soon Frankie understands this. Heidi turns out to be cordial when she is not face to face with her mistress. Her smile is unexpectedly friendly. She is genuine: “The joke was lost on the boy but the German girl immediately laughed with such spontaneity, her mouth wide open, her head thrown back, that everything about her was suddenly amazingly warm. The transformation was so startling that he laughed infectiously too.”

To describe the women’s appearances the author uses different colours. Mrs. Palgrave is dressed to kill. She is airburn-haired, she has orange-pink nails and the lips of the same colour. She wears emerald swim-suit, a yellow scarf and yellow beach shoes. Her bright colourful appearance is meant to attract a prey. On the contrary, there are only natural colours in Heidi’s description. White and blue prevail: “It at once struck him that her hair was almost identical in colour with the sand, so incredibly fine and sun-bleached that it was almost white”. Her eyes are pale blue. She wears a plain white swim-suit and a blue wrap. At dinner “Heidi was wearing a dress: a simple affair of deep blue with pipings of white”. These two colours are not chosen by the author accidentally. They symbolize the sand and the sea. So, the characters’ appearances are confronted to illustrate the difference between the artificial beauty of Mrs. Palgrave and the natural beauty of Heidi.

Mrs. Palgrave’s attitude to her children contrasts starkly with that of Heidi’s. The children annoy their mother and she tries to get rid of them. When her son comes to kiss her she says: “Oh! Go away. You hands are simply filthy”. And when the children go away, with an amazement touched by embarrassment, Franklin “saw the expression on her face miraculously transformed, all tension gone”. Although speaking to Frankie Mrs. Palgrave seems to be a very nice person, the way she treats her children shows us the darker side of her nature. “Yes, Mrs. Palgrave. But sometimes there is a moment when the children are to happy to be…” – “Oh, buzz along. And take that silly ball with you. It’s been plaguing us to death all morning”. This dialogue between the two women shows their attitude to the children best of all. The only person Mrs. Palgrave cares about is herself. As for Heidi, she loves the children and tries to meet their interests.

It is obvious that Mrs. Palgrave’s will “moves the action of the plot”. At the beginning of the story she uses every glance, and every gesture to essay her power over Frankie. When she brushes away the grains of sand from her body, she dips a hand down between her breasts saying that that was the worst of sand. It got into everything. Eating fruits she licked the juice away voluptuously. By her actions Mrs. Palgrave provokes Frankie. She inspires him with passion but pretends to be “totally unaware that anything had remotely disturbed him”, playing withhim. That is how she gains her object. Frankie and Mrs. Palgrave enjoy spending their time together. And when she leaves for London he is sure to miss her a lot. But he doesn’t. “All his emotions were exhausted, drained to a state of dry fatigue. In revulsion from passion he found that he wanted merely to swim, walk idly along the beach… What had been boredom now became a balm”. To be with Heidi is also a balm for Franklin. Close to her, he feels peaceful and happy: “The very ordinariness of this conversation succeeded in deepening his own feelings of satisfaction to a point almost of serenity. He felt as if relaxing after a long, tough swim”. Just a couple of days ago Frankie was fascinated by Mrs. Palgrave. But thanks to Heidi, he understands that real beauty is something inside. “The girl sitting in front of him seemed like a bud that had only partly opened. Her physical appeal aroused in him no open excitement. He felt content merely to watch her, framed with an astonishing air of purity against sea and sunset”. Now that Frankie has fallen in love with Heidi he knows what Mrs. Palgrave is worth: “He suddenly felt an extreme spasm of distaste for Mrs. Palgrave.” He understands that she is hypocritical, egotistical and suffering from a superiority complex. The sexual satisfaction he had with her has nothing to do with true love. His love affair with Mrs. Palgrave has taught the young man to size up people.

It is difficult to distinguish between real and artificial beauty. And it is very important to tell true love from passion. So the theme emerges from the story as a whole: sincerity opens the inner beauty of a person and makes him/her more valuable than the most talented hypocrite.

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How vainly men themselves amaze by Herbert Ernest bates

Автор работы: Пользователь скрыл имя, 27 Января 2013 в 11:35, творческая работа

Описание

I’d like to give you the lingua- stylistic interpretation of the story “How vainly men themselves amaze”, written by one of the great English story-teller, Herbert Ernest Bates.
Speaking about the author’s predominant attitude to what is presented; we can say that the general tone of the story is of psychological and social nature. The writer touches upon the problem of relationship between men and women. The story is basically about genuine love and love affair, about hypocrisy and infidelity

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How vainly men themselves amaze by Herbert Ernest bates

I’d like to give you the lingua- stylistic interpretation of the story “How vainly men themselves amaze”, written by one of the great English story-teller, Herbert Ernest Bates.

Speaking about the author’s predominant attitude to what is presented; we can say that the general tone of the story is of psychological and social nature. The writer touches upon the problem of relationship between men and women. The story is basically about genuine love and love affair, about hypocrisy and infidelity

The plot centers round the event which took place in France. So, Franklin, a young man of 18, meets one day on the beach a middle-aged woman, Mrs. Palgrave by name. She has two children and there is a pretty maid, Heidi, to take care of them. Franklin has a love affair with Mrs. Palgrave, but a few days later she has to go to London. However, Franklin doesn’t waste time and decides to go out with Heidi whom he likes and who tells him about the existence of Mr. Palgrave, an old person of about 60. Soon, Mrs. Palgrave returns to France and learns about Franklin’s “new” love affair and because of it and because of her being selfish and jealous she sends Heidi to her native country, to Germany. Franklin becomes furious; he realizes he had deep feelings for Heidi, but could do nothing now. Besides when one day passing by Franklin, Mrs Palgrave accompanied by her husband, turns her head and goes through the motions of not seeing Franklin.

So, the story consists of relatively independent elements such as narration, description and dialogue which make the composition of the story. Through the dialogue the characters are better portrayed, it also brings the action nearer to the reader, makes it seem swifter and more intense. The story is presented in the third-person narrative with the omniscient narrator who stands outside the story and has access to any event or thought and emotion of the character.

From very beginning the reader plunges into the atmosphere of events and we get acquainted with the characters.

The story opens with the description of a French beach in France. That’s the setting where the use of similes and epithets, which give an individual perception and evaluation to the given object:

The sand on the seaward side of the dunes glittered like fine white sugar in the sun…..dry tuft of dune grass…..a sharper gust of breeze.

contributes to the atmosphere of brightness and warmth.

Further on the author introduces one of the main characters, Mrs. Palgrave by means of direct method of character-drawing. She is considered to be a round and a dynamic character as she is complex and changes in the course of the story. Moreover she can be called the antagonist. Credit must be given to the author for being extremely resourceful in molding the portraits and nature of his main characters in a subtle and convincing way. So, describing her appearance he employs epithets:

“the auburn-haired….beautifully boned woman”

“evenly tanned to a deep gold”

“long beautifully shaped legs”

besides with her ‘red mass of hair, orange –pink nails, orange-pink mouth” she could be compared with the fox seeking for a new prey and all her appearance shows that she is a woman who takes care of herself and she likes bright colors not only in make-up, but also in dressing:

“a pair of yellow beach shoes and a yellow scarf, a pink towel, the two-piece emerald swim-suit”.

So, she is dressed to kill that is her bright colorful appearance is meant for attracting a prey.

Also the author very skillfully describes the way Mrs. Palgrave eats fruits, which is also one of her method of seduction, the way to bring her prey closer. To demonstrate this author again resorts to epithets which make the image more emotional.

“She, using a small silver knife, began to peel a peach, taking off the thin rose downy skin with delicate strokes and then carefully, almost meticulously, laying the fragments on another paper tissue…..and as peach-juice ran over the teeth she licked it away with the slow curl of her tongue…”

A special importance is given to Mrs. Palgrave’s eyes as they are known to be “the mirror of the soul”: such a brilliant usage of epithets and simile, which is used to add a visual aspect to understanding concepts, in the sentence:

“the pupils of them were like bright bird’s eggs, mottled and stenciled green and orange-brown. For a quarter of a minute she held him in a gaze without the flicker of an eyelid”

“…he became acutely aware of peculiar nature of her eyes…”

reveals her secret nature; the author is hinting at her savage nature as she is using Franklin like a vampire.

So, Mrs. Palgrave can be described as a very selfish, hypocritical, unfaithful and jealous woman who doesn’t like to share anything if her own with anybody. She doesn’t like people around her even her own children are grown up without their mother’s love. She uses people for her own profit and after that she gets rid of them without regret. It can be proved when she sends Heidi back to Germany, and when she is walking with her husband, turns her head and goes through the motions of not seeing Franklin. For Mrs. Palgrave it is the only short intrigue but her cruel nature doesn’t let her not to transfer to Heidi and Franklin’s relationship.

Her attitude towards Heidi is revealed through the usage of epithet in the sentences:

“That wretched German girl”

She never conceals her dislike towards Heidi and there are some reasons for it. Heidi is an elegant, admirable girl. The attractiveness is brought home to the readers in the epithets and similes:

“blonde tall young woman”, “had an aloof aristocratic

I’d like to say that on the whole the story is gripping, involved and keeping in suspense.

Mrs. Palgrave appeared before us as a selfish and hypocritical, unfaithful and jealous woman who didn’t like to share anything of her own with anybody. She was jealous of Heidi because of her being young and admirable. Another reason is that Franklin really deeply fell in love with her. Although she realized that she had only a short intrigue with Franklin without any sincere affection, she didn’t want him to have something with Heidi. It is obvious that she had a dog-in-the-manger attitude towards him.

Concerning Franklin, he is showed as a sensitive, generous, sociable person, not malicious at all.

I’d like to say that there is no denoument as we don’t know what will happen after Franklin’s knowing about Heidi’s departure. The author lets the reader judge for himself.

The message in my opinion can be formulated as follows: nowadays relationship between men and women has changed and this story is a bright example of this change. Franklin wanted only to “amaze” himself following linear thinking and not analyzing the situation at all. He knew Mrs. Palgrave was married and had two children, but they decided to break moral principles. They both were not after emotional relationship, but sexual satisfaction. They both knew it was just a short period intrigue without past and future.

As a finishing touch to my summary, I’d like to point out that story conveys deep thought, keen observation and interesting plot coupled with beautiful, expressive language and a simple, lucid style.

Let’s Explore… The Garden by Andrew Marvell

How vainly men themselves amaze

To win the palm, the oak, or bays;

And their incessant labours see

Crowned from some single herb or tree:

Whose short and narrow-vergèd shade

Does prudently their toils unbraid:

While all flowers and all trees do close

To weave the garlands of repose.

Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,

And Innocence, thy sister dear!

Mistaken long, I sought you then

In busy companies of men.

Your sacred plants, if here below,

Only among the plants will grow.

Society is all but rude,

To this delicious solitude.

No white nor red was ever seen

So amorous as this lovely green.

Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,

Cut in these trees their mistress’ name:

Little, alas, they know or heed

How far these beauties hers exceed!

Fair trees, wheresoe’er your barks I wound,

No name shall but your own be found.

When we have run our passion’s heat,

Love hither makes his best retreat.

The gods, that mortal beauty chase,

Still in a tree did end their race:

Apollo hunted Daphne so,

Only that she might laurel grow;

And Pan did after Syrinx speed,

Not as a nymph, but for a reed.

What wondrous life in this I lead!

Ripe apples drop about my head;

The luscious clusters of the vine

Upon my mouth do crush their wine;

The nectarine and curious peach

Into my hands themselves do reach;

Stumbling on melons, as I pass,

Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less

Withdraws into its happiness;

The mind, that ocean where each kind

Does straight its own resemblance find;

Yet it creates, transcending these,

Far other worlds and other seas,

Annihilating all that’s made

To a green thought in a green shade.

Here at the fountain’s sliding foot,

Or at some fruit-tree’s mossy root,

Casting the body’s vest aside,

My soul into the boughs does glide:

There, like a bird, it sits and sings,

Then whets and combs its silver wings,

And, till prepared for longer flights,

Waves in its plumes the various light.

Such was that happy garden-state,

While man there walked without a mate:

After a place so pure and sweet,

What other help could yet be meet!

But ‘twas beyond a mortal’s share

To wander solitary there:

Two paradises ‘twere in one

To live in paradise alone.

How well the skillful gardener drew,

Of flowers and herbs, this dial new;

Where, from above, the milder sun

Does through a fragrant zodiac run;

And, as it works, the industrious bee

Computes its time as well as we!

How could such sweet and wholesome hours

Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers!

By: Andrew Marvell (1681)

The Speaker compares love to a garden, and explains how humanity should value nature.

Major Themes and Motifs:

Literary Terms Applicable to “The Garden”:

(in order of appearance)

The Speaker is dismayed by humanity’s need to control what is natural before he is overcome with love for “Thy sister dear.” They stay in a garden, and carve her name into a tree. The two indulge in the fruits of their love while describing their relationship like how “Apollo hunted Daphne.” He grooms his soul like how a bird grooms his feathers.

“Thy Sister dear”-

The Speaker’s lover, who first sees him while being crowded by men. They carve her name into a tree before making love. The Speaker compares their love to Greek Gods chasing after nymphs.

He walks alone in the lovers’ paradise garden.

He tends to the garden of love like a busy bee.

Detailed Description of the Events within the Poem:

by Unknown artist,painting,circa 1655-1660

» data-medium-file=»https://megalomaniacwriter.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/andrew_marvell.jpg?w=245″ data-large-file=»https://megalomaniacwriter.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/andrew_marvell.jpg?w=408″ src=»https://megalomaniacwriter.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/andrew_marvell.jpg?w=660″ alt=»NPG 554,Andrew Marvell,by Unknown artist» srcset=»https://megalomaniacwriter.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/andrew_marvell.jpg 408w, https://megalomaniacwriter.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/andrew_marvell.jpg?w=122 122w, https://megalomaniacwriter.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/andrew_marvell.jpg?w=245 245w» sizes=»(max-width: 408px) 100vw, 408px» > by Unknown artist,painting,circa 1655-1660 Significance of the Text:

“The Garden” is a romantic poem with the poet conveying his emotions while highlighting the value of nature and the vanity of humanity. There is a distinct association of the lovers’ garden with purity, joy, and passion. By creating this connection, Marvell is trying to emphasise the importance nature has within his readers lives, and how once in awhile they should appreciate the majestic environment around them.

The British Member of Parliament had made a collection of unpublished poems shortly before his death. His housekeeper, Mary Palmer, kept them and carried the secret for three years before publishing them. According to her, she is his lawful wife, hence why she gained the poems, and that they married in 1667 even though there is little information to support her claims.

Where more of Marvell’s Work can be Found:

“How Vainly Men Themselves Amaze” Interpretation

I’m going to interpret a short story called «How vainly men themselves amaze». This is a story about a holiday affair turning into a love triangle between young Franklin, a married woman Mrs Palgrave and her German nursemaid Heidi. The plot of the story is not tangle. Eighteen years old high-school graduate Franklin being on holiday with his parents at French resort gets to know Mrs Palgrave, an auburn-haired woman about forty with mottled and stencilled green eyes. Gradually their acquaintance turns out to be a love affair.

Every afternoon they drive to a remote bay surrounded by rocks and pines to have a good time there taking pictures and enjoying themselves. The plot undergoes a drastic turn when Mrs Palgrave leaves Franklin for three days, going away to London. Having declared her that he would miss her badly, Franklin found that he hardly missed her at all. What seemed to be an impassioned love proved to be just an exhausting passion, to Franklin’s great surprise. In revulsion of sentiment he develops friendly relations with Heidi, a baby-sitter, who is looking after Mrs Palgrave’s children.

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One day he even invites her to a sea restaurant, where while having dinner takes notice how opposite she is from Mrs Palgrave. So, having already fallen out of his previous love he dares to kiss Heidi while driving back from the restaurant. The story finishes when Franklin finds out that Heidi was sent home by Mrs Palgrave, aссused of being too unreliable for a baby-sitter, “caught up in a cheap intrigue” by her words. The last time Franklin saw Mrs Palgrave was the next afternoon, when he came across her walking with her husband, a prim-looking man around sixty.

The story ends with Franklin’s words in a desperate voice, which were “Heidi, where can I find you? ”. By means of the story and its characters the author raises many issues. The first problem to point out is a marital infidelity, obviously shown by Mrs Palgrave behavior. Mr Palgrave, a silent conventional man, working all the time, doesn’t pay enough attention to his wife and this lets her amuse herself elsewhere. Let’s look at Mrs Palgrave appearance description.

She is a mature woman with smouldering auburn hair and beautiful golden-tanned body with a flat stomach. It’s useless to say that such woman wouldn’t spent her time falling into routine and doing household chores all days long. No wonder that she seeks for young boys for entertaining as her unfaithfulness is rather proved by her boredom. This leads me to another issue raised by the author, which could be defined as using people in selfish aims. Mrs Palgrave seduces young and innocent Franklin, cheats his naive feelings and hurts his trustful heart.

Being an unexperienced eighteen years old boy, Franklin couldn’t discern mercenary ends in Mrs Palgrave behavior, that’s why he regarded their affair as a romance. However a doubt about Mrs Palgrave’s feelings to Franklin is apparent. Returning to the episode of her departing for London, it’s noticeable that leaving Franklin she accuses him of flattering by making a confession to miss her. She tells him that it’s possible to get sick even of love and refers to a well-known saying “Out of sight out of mind”.

It certainly proves an insignificance of her feelings and consequently the selfishness of her aims. The story also brings up an issue of inner and outer beauty by opposing two main female characters: Heidi and Mrs Palgrave. I had already focused on Mrs Palgrave’s description, now let’s consider Heidi’s appearance and features of her nature. Judging by Franklin’s first impression, she had an aloof aristocratic, even supercilious air around her. Her hair was almost identical in color with the sand and her pale blue eyes were almost transparent.

However she smiled with an unexpected friendliness and laughed with amazing warm, and as getting more acquainted with her, Franklin realized that what was taken as superciliousness was a mere shyness and an uneasiness, related to Mrs Palgrave presence. While kissing Heidi Franklin compares her lips with a freshly unfolded petal. Indeed, comparing to Mrs Palgrave Heidi is a guiltless creature with a simple nature and unaffected manners, to some extent as innocent as Franklin himself.

Anyway, having loved Mrs Palgrave for her attractive appearance or Heidi for her sincere soul, Franklin failed in both cases and ultimately was left alone, all his suffering in vain. Such a desperate conclusion relates to a title of a story, which is a first line of a poem called “Thoughts in a Garden” written by Andrew Marvell. The poem is devoted to thoughts of an author, who praises the nature comparing it with company of men. “Society is all but rude To this delicious solitude”, writes he in the poem.

I admit that Franklin, his hopes disappointed, might think the same after all he had experienced. In conclusion, I want to express my opinion concerning the story. In modern world, where appearance is put above the moral qualities, where people often mutually use each other in selfish ends, unfaithfulness and betrayals are common and cruelness is everywhere, we still can try to be more attentive to one another’s feelings for the sake of making this world friendlier and there is no use to say that the story only proves it.