Choose one or more:
1. In chapter XI of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck tries to embody the stereotypes of being a girl in the 19th C but he fails. In what ways do the two cousins in Watkins' story (not) conform to the same or other stereotypes? Isn't it more the women's mind that's at stake in that story? How are differences characterized.
2. Comment on the shift(s) from direct to indirect speech in "The Two Offers" and on the effects they convey to the readers.
3. In keeping with the text's style, write a short creative piece imagining how Laura, at the end of her life, would answer to Janette's question: "Well, suppose there is [the risk of being an old maid], is that the most dreadful fate that can befall a woman?
8 comments:
In chapter XI of Huckleberry Finn, Mrs. Judith Loftus is able to tell he is a boy from his physical mannerisms, such as the way he threads a needle or throws at a rat, claiming there are specific mannerisms that belong only to boys or girls. In Watkins’ “The Two Offers”, the stereotypes of being a woman are presented instead in the way that she should feel and live, focusing more on her thoughts, feelings, actions and overall lifestyle. Janette isn’t very emotional or romantic and does not wish to marry, instead focusing on her intellect and “accepting her earthly mission as a gift from God, and striving to walk the path of life with earnest and unfaltering steps”, which her cousin considers to be a “deficiency of love”. In contrast, Laura confirms to the stereotype of the overly sentimental woman whose main goal is to marry because she believes that is the only proper way a woman can grow old and fears becoming “an old maid”. The cousins do not necessarily conform to the stereotypes presented in Huckleberry Finn, since “The Two Offers” focuses on the mind and the heart of the woman and not on the way she physically performs certain actions. This texts also possesses a much more sentimental and somewhat elegant style that transmits the characters’ feelings, further realizing the intention of showing their thoughts and feelings, in contrast to Huckleberry Finn’s much less sentimental style.
River Santiago
3) “I recall the wise words you professed ten years ago…they ache inside my mind like a sweet, yet mournful melody. You had warned me, Janette, about it all — about how lonely my heart would feel in a loveless home. You offered me the rose of wisdom, but I was too stubborn to smell it, and when I finally held it in my hands it had already withered. Oh, how naïve and foolish I was. I was blinded by the desire of being loved. I bestowed my soul, but he discarded it so effortlessly, like a dusty book you keep on your shelf until the moths eat it away. There has been a void in this heart of mine for an eternity, only softened by the child that I birthed into this world. My womb was filled with so much love, my hands were painted with life, but, in the end, the angel of death took it away from me. Oh, to be an old maid. It seemed such an undesirable and lonesome fate. I thought your soul would grow weary and that you would fall into the abyss of regret. But you have blossomed so beautifully, because you watered the seeds of the intellect. I pumped blood to the heart, but I forgot to feed the brain. I had lilies, daisies, plum trees and strawberry fields greeting me, but I chose to eat from the rotten apple tree, while you tasted a bit of every life’s shade. I am sorry, dear cousin, that it took me so long to see that being an old maid is not a curse, but a chance to enrich the chambers of one’s soul and compose a bewitching symphony”.
- Beatriz Bicudo Cunha
In “The Two Offers” Ellen Watkins uses a narrative style that consists of the alternative use of direct and indirect speech. Several reasons can be given as explanation for it:
1. Intriguing the reader. A narrative that starts with a question, being moreover a part of the direct speech, is very captivating and makes us want to understand the situation.
2. Showing the characters before introducing them. In this way the readers can start making their own assessment of the characters based on their discourse and interaction rather than based on the introduction and commentary made by the narrator.
3. Feeling more involved. Direct speech, especially questions (both direct and rhetorical), evokes more sympathy and willingness to understand the speaker’s position. For example, the question “Do you think so?” in paragraph 9 does not only refer to Janette, but also is thought-provoking for all readers.
4. Creating the parable effect. The narrator shows the unfolding of the story making long sentimental (and almost personal) comments at the same time. This, summed up with the ending (in paragraph 17e) that explains the outcome of these sad events for Janette, who “turned out from that death-bed a sadder and wiser women”, makes the narrative close to parable or preach.
All of the above-mentioned reasons contribute to the riveting storytelling manner based on the alternative use of direct and indirect speech.
- Anna Holovina
In Chapter XI of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck disguises himself as a girl to see if there are any news around the town about him or Jim. The woman, Judith Loftus, quickly figures out that Huck is not a girl. Luckily he manages to make up an excuse for pretending to be a girl. According to Judith, “You do a girl tolerable poor”, as there are specific ways a girl or a boy should act. Huck was threading a needle the wrong way; he threw at a rat in an unladylike way and the way he caught the “lump of lead” the boy way.
In Watkins' story “the two offers”, we have two contradictory representations of woman in society. In a way, it allows for a commentary about the women’s role in society and offers an alternative to society’s social rules in Janette. We enter the story and the speech of two characters. The race is not implied. However, we know that Janette ends up fighting against slavery.
Through Laura and Janette, we have the portrayal of what society thought was right: Laura marries and has a family. She believed that to be the only way to go through life, even considering the alternative (becoming an old maid) to “not be thought of” (page 74). Regardless, Laura ends up unhappy in her marriage as her husband does nothing but constantly break her heart. On the other hand, there is Janette, the intellectual. She does not wish to marry. Having struggled with poverty after her father’s dead she does not with to “to depend on the charity of relations” (page 74.). Janette can be called a self-made woman. However, her achievements are tied to the great love that she lost.
The two cousins in Watkins' story do not conform to the stereotypes presented in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as Twain only speaks about how a woman should act and behave while doing house chores.
It is clear that Watkins was more worried about the heart than the mind. Laura was worried about a life that had “deficiency of love” and ended up receiving exactly that. Janette had the opposite problem. Being an old maid, the expectation would be a lack of love, but life taught her one of “life’s most precious lessons, that true happiness consists not so much in the fruition of our whished as in the regulation of desires and the full development and right culture of our whole statures” (page 80).
answer to the first question
Prompt 3 -
“Oh, if we could trace the history of all the sorrow painted in poetry or fiction, how many earnest accounts of true undying love would we have left? For, though, the flattery and empty promises of vain lips may suffice to win the heart of a young maiden, the bloom of girlhood gives way to an enlightened spirit. Soon, a heavy hand is laid upon the once warm and bounding heart, the future looks hopeless and a woman must hail the coming of death’s angel as the footsteps of a welcome friend. And, when the hour strikes, will the mere possession of any human love have satisfied all the demands of her whole being? Should the immeasurable wealth of a woman’s nature be rendered utterly to a man’s earth-born love? How many pure-hearted devoted maidens have squandered their lives in vain servitude of a husband? How many more will have to embrace death with the bitter agony of a lifetime dedicated to the post of a drunkard’s wife? The most dreadful fate that can befall a woman, I know, is to cross the path of her existence without ever being the heroine of her own odyssey. No.” A solitary tear made its way out of her shattered spirit, her inner life overflowing with an unbearable sorrow that mirrored the most sincere and wholehearted, the deepest yearning of her soul and with a piercing wrathful conviction, Laura declared “No. I should have said no.”
3.
What oldness is this that embodies me? Life has come to pass as a fleeting shadow, a lifeless shadow. But out of fear was my early yearning for love which has anguished me so very dearly. I have never been unfamiliar with your story, my dear Janet, though its underlying lesson has ever escaped me until now. Whatever you opt to name it: foolishness, conventionality or any other of your fancy words; I finally comprehend my misery yet wish not to forsake it. I am addicted to a fantasy of love and can’t fathom whether only I live this fantasy or do all that have imagined savoring it. I cling to something which never has existed. That I know. But a haunting dilemma refuses to abandon me, one which sadly you can only corroborate. Is ever-lasting love, soulmates, a lie we cling to? My experience provides no answer, my picked offer no alleviation. Had I picked the other one, perhaps none of this would have unfolded and my questioning suppressed. I would not be dying from pain but rejoicing in pleasure. Yet a good one, that is, alas, another fantasy. I live in them. I live solely them. I die now. The scarce reality I draw my dilemma from is yours. There is no sugarcoating the truth your experience conceals: love is transitory. And if you indulge in transitoriness for too long, then you shall have a swifter transition to God’s backyard. Or to his treacherous foe’s basement. Tell me, Janette, is this true? Does even the strongest love obey this? I must know.
For in all my years has the dream of love poisoned me, I’m left to eager for what is to come. This is the frail reality I, frail, wish to discard. “Love is my sole savior”. This simple premise has wasted my living, and though I fear it will continue to do so until I pass, its pains my recognition soothes slightly. I should have realized sooner, but today weakness prevents me from turning the tide, my feebleness unburdens me from absolution. Delusion, of course, this is. I ought to try, not exile in excuses, as I always have. I escaped from my depth in love, as I do now through frailty. I entrusted, convinced of my premise, my whole self to the hands of love. I was oblivious to the fundamental intellectual needs to women of our depth. Oblivious? No. I turned a blind eye. I could never be satisfied merely in love, especially with an uncaring lover, he that lacked any sense for life’s hidden beauty, its underlying higher truths, thus unconnected with my profound soul. He never reached me and I held on to him. Out of what? Love? Then love oozed me of my strength and I desire it no longer. I’m tired. Very.
Still there was a time when he did not fake compassion, like he did best to first seduce me. After our boy’s perishing I believe he was determined to get a grip on his life, to save my colorless soul. I found some relief in his attempt, hope. But a man’s lifetime of undiscipline a dead newborn cannot undo. Vice and passion were too strong for him and my savior could neither save himself nor his supposed home.
I did this and regret all, cousin, as my prideful ignorance architected my grave. Had I followed your words, I’d be a tender old maid. What a kindly prospect for another life! But no: I lie on my death bed, weary; all my playfulness long-gone. It is almost ironic that a mirthful child chose him, given to mirth, and so perished mirthless. I’m speaking nonsense, sorry! It’s just that my head aches so much. Let me tell you this before I part: my man was a problem, but a tiny one. I should have abandoned him, freed myself to explore the richness within me, beyond mere affection. Still, as long I for him now, I know the problem has ever been ingrained in my nature, my genesis commanding me doomed, my premise inserted far too deep to defy. I say bye now, my beloved friend, my sole console.
Matias Castiel
1. In Chapter XI of "Huckleberry Finn," the attempt of Huck to pass as a girl exposes 19th-century stereotypes about women. He fails to embody these stereotypes in a manner which is convincing to the woman, particularly in how he does tasks like threading a needle or throwing a lead ball, which, in the text, reveals his masculine upbringing. Like this, Huck’s performance shows a shallow and performative understanding of gender roles during the period, and focuses on external behaviors rather than deeper, nuanced traits. Meanwhile, "In The Two Cousins" by Susan Watkins, the women's minds and internal states take center stage, and in this way, contrasts with Huck's more superficial performance of femininity. The cousins both navigate societal expectations of women but do it differently, reflecting varied responses to 19th-century gender norms. One cousin performs conventional roles of domesticity and propriety, while the other challenges these expectations, asserting individuality and intellectual agency. That is, Watkins’ story critiques how societal stereotypes limit women's intellectual and emotional freedom and focus on their internal struggles rather than external appearances.
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