English 203
Fall 2013
Dr. Morefield
Research Paper
Assignment & Requirements
The requirements of the paper are as follows:
--Subject matter of the paper must be in some way related to
course reading.
--2500-3000 words (generally 8-10 pages, if correctly
formatted), in correct MLA format. (See Blackboard for MLA formatting help.)
--Minimum of five (5) cited sources.
--The literary text must be one of the sources cited.
--Essay must cite at least four (4) non-Internet sources. (A
source originally written for a book or journal and reprinted on the Internet
is not considered an Internet source. The key distinction here is where it was
originally published, not where you located it.)
--Do not cite
lecture notes (Powerpoint) as a source unless you have special permission to do
so. When these are not quotes from the primary text, they usually consist of
general information that is not proprietary and should be paraphrased but not
cited. If there is information you want to use in a paper from a course
lecture, please speak with me and I can tell you how to include it or where to
look for that information from a citable source.
--Do not cite any of the following. They will not count
towards source requirement and will
result in a lower paper grade even if the source requirements are already met:
Wikipedia, Cliffs Notes, Spark Notes, eNotes, Monkey Notes or any sort of
summary or discussion/study aid. If you are not sure if a source is suitable,
ask me.
--The following sources do
not count towards the source requirement: a general dictionary, any general
encyclopedia. A specialized dictionary or a specialized encyclopedia may be
suitable and allowable. If you are not sure whether or not a source falls into
this category, please ask me.
An electronic copy of the same paper you submitted uploaded
to the correct turnitin.com folder no later than midnight on September 28,
2013. Students must retain drafts, notes, and evidence of work process and be
able to submit them upon request. Inability
to produce research notes or evidence of work process, could result in academic
penalties, including receiving a zero on the assignment. Feedback will be given
to students via GradeMark on Turnitin.com. Turnitin.com enrollment number=6661159;
enrollment password=Morefield.
Topic #1
Select one of the texts from the syllabus and explain how the
work clarifies or complicates your understanding of the time
period in which it was written. In what
way is the work typical of its genre and/or time period? What ideas, themes, or genres does the author
explore? Are there ways in which this text is different from others in its time
period? What is the significance of these similarities or differences?
Topic #2
Compare the representation of a theme or idea in one of the
literary texts to a text from a different literary period that explores the
same theme. In what ways (if any) have beliefs, practices, or ideas changed
since the time of the text you read and how do the texts reflect that change?
(In this option, the second text may not necessarily have to be one we read in
class, but if it is not, you must clear it with the instructor first.)
Topic #3
Select one of the readings from the course syllabus and
explain how a theme, idea, issue, or lesson from the reading is personally
applicable to your life or to your current situation. (This can be narrowly
focused such as on your immediate situation, or it can be more broadly
construed, such as on contemporary political or social issues.) Note that if
you do this topic, you are still responsible for meeting the research
requirements, but the nature of some of your sources may be different. Please make
an appointment with me if you are considering doing this option and need some
help in thinking about how to integrate research sources.
Topic #4
If you have an alternate topic about which you would like to
write, consult with the instructor for further guidance.
SAMPLE PAPER
Different Time, Different Place, Same Story: Comparison of Social
Constraints on Women in The Awakening and
The Coquette
Nineteenth
century American author Henry James once affirmed, “We know a man imperfectly
until we know his society, and we but half know a society until we know its
manners” (251). Societal conventions
dictate every aspect of a community.
They determine what is deemed appropriate and what is deemed taboo. Therefore it would be impossible to attempt
to thoroughly understand an individual’s thoughts, motivations, and decisions
without first considering the social context in which they transpire. James continued, “This is especially true of
a man of letters, for manners lie very close to literature” (251). The literary genre of novel of manners uses
letters (i.e. words) to explore “the manners, social customs, folkways, conventions,
traditions, and mores…[that] play a dominant role in the lives of fictional
characters, exert control over their thought and behavior, and constitute a determinant
upon the actions in which they are engaged” (Tuttleon 10). The context surrounding the story is an
essential aspect of the tale itself and a slight modification of this social
world would completely change the story’s implications. Authors Hannah Webster Foster and Kate Chopin
employ the literary characteristics of the novel of manners in their respective
novels The Coquette and The Awakening. Although
the novels are set in two distinct eras of American history, in two distinct
locations of America, they both provide not only an explorative overview of the
relational customs of their respective societies, but also a social criticism
of the culture in regards to the role of women through the presence of
unconventional female protagonists who struggle to conform with these ideals.
Just as an examination of the social context is necessary
for a more complete comprehension of a novel, so is the consideration of the
historical and geographic perspectives. A
comparison of The Coquette and The Awakening is futile without a
conscious recognition that the works explore two very different settings in two
separate time periods. The Coquette was penned by Hannah
Webster Foster, a wealthy erudite, who lived in Massachusetts during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Published in 1797, The Coquette,
also known as The Coquette; or, The
History of Eliza Wharton; A Novel; Founded on Fact. By a Lady of Massachusetts,
was written in a time in which Americans, especially those from New England,
were skeptical of fictional works. Foster,
therefore, adapted an infamous scandal, tweaking and recreating certain aspects
to serve her literary agenda. Catherine
“Kate” Chopin, on the other hand, did not have to feign connections to a
factual event because the sentiment towards fiction in America had changed by
the mid to late nineteenth century. Although
many of Chopin’s writings allegorically reflect her personal desires, opinions,
and affairs (Adams xvii) they do claim to be nonfictional or fictionalized
accounts. Edna Pontellier, the
protagonist of Chopin’s The Awakening of
1899, is a mere creation of the author’s imagination. However, geographically and socially, her
environment like those of typical novels of manners is an accurate depiction of
New Orleans, Louisiana at the turn of the century. The geographic location of both novelists is significant
for, as John W. Aldridge expresses,
There are only two cultural pockets left in America; and they
are the Deep South and that area of northeastern United States…This is to say
that these are the only places in the country which could possibly produce
novelists of manners because they are the only places where there are any
manners. In all the other parts of the
country people live in a kind of vastly standardized cultural prairie…and that
means that they don’t really live and they don’t really do anything. (__)
According to Aldridge,
were it not for their setting in the so-called cultured regions of Louisiana in
the Deep South and Connecticut in the northeastern United Sates, the stories of
Edna Pontellier and Eliza Wharton would not be considered novels of manners.
The New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut as well as the New
Orleans and Grand Isle, Louisiana depicted in The Coquette and The
Awakening truly are locales with a rich culture, complex social hierarchy
and strict codes of propriety. Subtle
integrations of local practices set the stage for the most prominent social
condition that dominates both works: the inferior role of women within society. However, neither author could aptly assert her
social criticism without having first established an authentic representation
of the community itself. Kate Chopin
“writes as an insider whose intimacy with her subjects is conveyed through the
use of local dialect and allusion” (Adams xxi).
She frequently references works from popular French and Creole culture
such as the opera Zampa (Chopin 2) or
other French lullabies (Chopin 122), while also using the French names for
common everyday items like the mets
or entre-mets[1]
(Chopin 118). Characters often converse
in a mixture of English and French--Creole, the vernacular language of
Louisiana. In fact, the novel begins
with a caged bilingual parrot repeatedly squawking, “Allez vous-en! Allez
vous-en! Sapristi![2] That’s all right!” (Chopin 1). Although the greater significance of the bird
and his speech has not yet been revealed, the reader does ascertain the
prominent Creole influence in the community.
Linguistic
nuances in Hannah Webster Foster’s The
Coquette manifest differently, as spoken language is not the primary means
of communication. The Coquette is written in the epistolary style, meaning the story
is composed of letters of correspondence between nine characters. In this way, the reader knows only that which
the characters choose to reveal about themselves and their situations within
their letters. Dorothy Baker suggests
that the actual language and rhetoric employed by the writers becomes
significant, requiring “the reader’s heightened sensitivity to the language of
[the characters’] discourse” (58) in order to recognize the slight variations
between characters. The emotional
evolution of a single character can also be traced through his/her diction as
the novel progresses. For example, Eliza
Wharton becomes more withdrawn from society, she gradually suspends the written
communication upon which she once thrived, saying, “Writing is an employment,
which suits me not at present” (Foster 883).
“The woman whose voice opens the text with such élan is also the woman
whose voice disappears from the novel long before its close” (Baker 64). In both The
Awakening and The Coquette the
protagonists struggle internally to comprehend exactly what it is that language
represents in their lives. At times
language is a liberating device that they can manipulate as a form of
self-expression. In a letter to Lucy Freeman, Eliza retorts, “I believe I shall
never again resume those airs, which you term coquettish, but which I think deserve a softer appellation…”
(Foster 809), demonstrating the ability of a singular word to inflect such
great meaning on a sentence. Unfortunately,
language is more often a constrictive, overpowering, uncontrollable force, symbolic
of society as a whole.
Language
is not merely a facet of culture, but in the case of The Awakening and The
Coquette, it is also a symbol of the culture itself. Critic A. Elizabeth Elz relates the anecdotal
tale of the talkative parrot from the opening pages of The Awakening with Edna Pontellier’s concurrent situation. Elz claims the parrot, who speaks both French
and English “and also a language which nobody understood” (Chopin 1), personifies
Edna’s Creole husband, Léonce Pontellier (14).
Mr. Pontellier, like the bilingual parrot speaks, both English and
French--understood languages; he also “has a third language--social customs”
that is incomprehensible to his Kentuckian wife “because she did not grow up in
the Creole society [and] is weak in both understanding and practicing the
language of the Creole social customs” (Elz 14). The Pontelliers’ communication breakdown is
most clearly manifested when Léonce scolds Edna, exclaiming, “Why, my dear, I
should think you’d understand by this time that people don’t do such things;
we’ve got to observe les convenances[3]”
(Chopin 68). She may be able to intellectually
converse in English and French, but Kate Chopin makes it very clear that Edna
Pontellier will never attain fluency in the social language of native
Louisianan Creoles like her husband and friends. Mrs. Pontellier will never be “thoroughly at
home in the society of the Creoles” (Chopin 12). Likewise, Eliza Wharton never fully attains
“communicative competence” within her group of female friends (Baker 60).
In spite
of the lack of communicative competence on behalf of Edna Pontellier and Eliza
Wharton, both female protagonists belong to an intimate group of influential
women of the community. The inclusion of
this female clique, which critic Claire Pettengill refers to as a “sisterhood”
(186), is intentional by the authors. The sisterhood proves essential in
keeping with the characteristics of the novel of manners as it presents an
opportunity for the reader to explore the social customs, expectations, and
stigmas of the society in which the main character lives. The protagonists’ friends are not merely flat
secondary characters and one should not underestimate “the crucial role played
by the tightly knit circle of women which supports, encourages, protects and
provides for Eliza even as it scolds and criticizes her” (Pettengill 186). Similarly, Edna Pontellier’s two female
mentors, Mademoiselle Reisz and Adèle Ratignolle, provide assistance and criticism as
Edna attempts to define her role as a woman, wife, and mother (Elz 17). As a literary device, the sisterhood serves
in two capacities: as a point of comparison with the unconventional protagonist
and as a demonstration of societal ideals; however, the actual influence on the
main characters’ decisions is immeasurable.
Pettengill argues, “The bonds of female friendships…shape [the
protagonist]’s thought and actions as much as any other system of values, and
work in the novel both to advance and retard the more conventional plot” (186).
The contrast
between Edna Pontellier and the two most influential women in her life is
blatantly obvious. At one extreme, there
is Adèle
Ratignolle, “the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm” (Chopin 10), who
perfectly conforms to the ideals of Republican motherhood, which Chopin defines
as “women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed
it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as
ministering angels” (10). Well-loved by
the men, women, and children of the community, Madame Ratignolle grows very
fond of Edna Pontellier, who she sees struggling to adapt to the role of
motherhood within the Creole society, and vows to take her “under her wing”
(Elz 17). While Adèle Ratignolle
epitomizes the quintessential woman in the affluent Creole society of Louisiana
at the turn of the century, at the other extreme is Edna’s second mentor,
Mademoiselle Reisz. Whereas the
beautiful Madame Ratignolle is what critic A. Elizabeth Elz refers to as a
“True Woman,” Mademoiselle Reisz, as a “New Woman,” adheres to a completely distinct
set of social standards. “A disagreeable
little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost every one, owing
to a temper which was self-assertive and a disposition to trample upon the
rights of others” (Chopin 33), the mademoiselle elicits a very different
response from the people of Grand Isle.
They do not see her alternative lifestyle, in the sense that she is
self-sufficient without need of a husband, as a laudable asset. She remains on the fringes of society, being
welcomed in only as the entertainment. She
lives through artistic expression and connects with Madame Pontellier through
the arts. Like Madame Ratignolle,
Mademoiselle Reisz acknowledges and accepts her position within the social
hierarchy. It is only their disciple,
Edna Pontellier, who vacillates.
The
female relationships in Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette are more difficult to analyze than those of Kate
Chopin’s The Awakening because of the
absence of a narrator and the progression of the characters through several
major life changes. While the women of The Awakening do not undergo life-altering changes other
than the arrival of yet another child to the Ratignolle family, Eliza Wharton’s
circle of friends experience death, betrothal, marriage, childbirth, and
extreme heartbreak. The effect of these
events is even greater felt since the protagonist is a single woman and her
friends “Lucy and Mrs. Richman are several steps ‘beyond’ Eliza in the crucial
transition from daughter to wife to mother” (Pettengil 194). Lucy Freeman Sumner, the recipient of the
majority of Eliza’s epistles, experiences the most
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