... and frail, at once part of the material world and yet somehow above it. Both women, however, see their biological destiny: Ainsley"'"s hunt is for an 'ideal' partner to father her children, while Clara is perpetually pregnant. From the moment she agrees to marry, Marian's determination to cling to ... the down-to earth image of herself everyone knows and accepts is challenged by intimations of self fragmentation. She appears to oscillate between the need for masculine certainties and a feeling of feminine disembodiment, as at the women's Christmas party at the office: 'She felt suffocat...

• Word Count: 480
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and states of feeling of its main characters. However, there is recognition that consciousness is not separate from history. The Brangwens have for generations been farmers in the Midlands of England and the novel focuses on three generations of the family, starting from around 1840 and continuing ... the male and female principles and as a result none of the relationships in the novel is fully satisfying, the male characters failing to measure up to the challenge presented by the women. In the first of the relationships treated in the novel, Tom Brangwen doesn't quite have ... beyond ...

• Word Count: 1985
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of the two are intertwined historically because the literary canon has taken on a similar nature to the biblical canon. The word originates from kanon' a Greek word meaning instrument of measure and has developed to connote a list of important authors and their works, concerned with sorting the "orthodox from the heretical- . If this metaphor is applied to the literary canon ... . The canon was rather a result of "concurrence of norms and standards-. The contention has been somewhat dispelled by the present aim to open the canon', allowing more texts the opportunity for recognition and r...

• Word Count: 2215
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate