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English final 2

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The Master
He hires the governess to care for his orphaned niece and nephew, Flora and Miles, after Miss Jessel dies. He requests that she assume complete responsibility for running Bly and that she never contact him for anything. The governess falls in love with him.
Miss Gage
An American nurse who helps Henry through his recovery at the hospital in Milan. At ease and accepting, she becomes a friend to Henry, someone with whom he can share a drink and gossip.
Lieutenant Frederic Henry
The novel's narrator and protagonist. A young American ambulance driver in the Italian army during World War I, he meets his military duties with quiet stoicism. He displays courage in battle, but his selfish motivations undermine all sense of glory and heroism, abstract terms for which he has little patience. His life lacks real passion until he meets the beautiful Catherine Barkley.
Dr. Valentini
An Italian surgeon who comes to the American hospital to contradict the hospital's opinion that Henry must wait six months before having an operation on his leg. In agreeing to perform surgery the next morning, he displays the kind of self-assurance and confidence that Henry (and the novel) celebrates.
Mistress Hibbins
She is a widow who lives with her brother, Governor Bellingham, in a luxurious mansion. She is commonly known to be a witch who ventures into the forest at night to ride with the "Black Man." Her appearances at public occasions remind the reader of the hypocrisy and hidden evil in Puritan society.
Cyrus Trask
a man who created a brilliant military career out of
his imagination and managed to become a high official in the
military establishment. He loved his son Adam but not his son
Charles.
Identity and Society
THE SCARLETT LETTER--After Hester is publicly shamed and forced by the people of Boston to wear a badge of humiliation, her unwillingness to leave the town may seem puzzling. She is not physically imprisoned, and leaving the Massachusetts Bay Colony would allow her to remove the scarlet letter and resume a normal life. Surprisingly, Hester reacts with dismay when Chillingworth tells her that the town fathers are considering letting her remove the letter. Hester's behavior is premised on her desire to determine her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it for her. To her, running away or removing the letter would be an acknowledgment of society's power over her: she would be admitting that the letter is a mark of shame and something from which she desires to escape. Instead, Hester stays, refiguring the scarlet letter as a symbol of her own experiences and character. Her past sin is a part of who she is; to pretend that it never happened would mean denying a part of herself. Thus, Hester very determinedly integrates her sin into her life.
Dimmesdale also struggles against a socially determined identity. As the community's minister, he is more symbol than human being. Except for Chillingworth, those around the minister willfully ignore his obvious anguish, misinterpreting it as holiness. Unfortunately, Dimmesdale never fully recognizes the truth of what Hester has learned: that individuality and strength are gained by quiet self-assertion and by a reconfiguration, not a rejection, of one's assigned identity.


The Green Light
THE GREAT GATSBY--Situated at the end of Daisy's East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby's West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby's hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter I he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby's quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter IX, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.


Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale
He is a young man who achieved fame in England as a theologian and then emigrated to America. In a moment of weakness, he and Hester became lovers. Although he will not confess it publicly, he is the father of her child. He deals with his guilt by tormenting himself physically and psychologically, developing a heart condition as a result. He is an intelligent and emotional man, and his sermons are thus masterpieces of eloquence and persuasiveness. His commitments to his congregation are in constant conflict with his feelings of sinfulness and need to confess.
Lee
a Chinese-American servant of the Trasks in California. He
devotes himself to making a home for Adam and raising the twins.
He is the philosopher of the novel.
Daisy Buchanan
Nick's cousin, and the woman Gatsby loves. As a young woman in Louisville before the war, She was courted by a number of officers, including Gatsby. She fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him. However, She harbors a deep need to be loved, and when a wealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asked her to marry him, She decided not to wait for Gatsby after all. Now a beautiful socialite, She lives with Tom across from Gatsby in the fashionable East Egg district of Long Island. She is sardonic and somewhat cynical, and behaves superficially to mask her pain at her husband's constant infidelity.
Charles Trask
the son of Cyrus Trask. He dearly loves his
father, who does not return the love. Although he loves his brother
Adam, he also has an intense jealousy of him.
Zenobia (Zeena) Frome
Ethan's wife. She married Ethan after the death of his mother, whom she had come to the Frome household to nurse. After her wedding, however, she soon became sick herself. She comes across as prematurely aged, caustic in temperament, prone to alternating fits of silence and rage, and utterly unattractive, making her the novel's least sympathetic figure. She is acutely interested in the treatment of her own illness, displaying a degree of hypochondria (imagined illness or minor symptoms secretly relished and exaggerated by the patient). Despite her apparent weakness, she, not Ethan, holds the dominant position in their household.
Jay Gatsby
The title character and protagonist of the novel, he is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. As the novel progresses, Nick learns that he was born James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, he fell in love with her. Nick also learns that he made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position he thought necessary to win Daisy. Nick views him as a deeply flawed man, dishonest and vulgar, whose extraordinary optimism and power to transform his dreams into reality make him "great" nonetheless.

Miss Van Campen
The superintendent of nurses at the American hospital in which Catherine works. She is strict, cold, and unpleasant. She disapproves of Henry and remains on cool terms with him throughout his stay.
The Valley of Ashes
THE GREAT GATSBY--First introduced in Chapter II, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.


Fortunato
Montressor, states that he has been insulted by his acquaintance ________ , and he seeks revenge.
Tom Buchanan
Daisy's immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick's social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, He is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no moral qualms about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.

The Governess
She is the author of Douglas's manuscript. Her purportedly supernatural experiences take place at Bly, where, at the age of twenty, she is given her first position as a governess. Early during her stay at Bly, she begins seeing the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. At first, Flora and Miles stun her with their innocence and beauty, but she later becomes convinced that they are secretly communicating with the ghosts. It is possible that she kills Miles by suffocating him.
Nick Carraway
The Great Gatsby's narrator, he is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, he often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island that is home to the newly rich, he quickly befriends his next-door neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. As Daisy Buchanan's cousin, he facilitates the rekindling of the romance between her and Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through his eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and color the story.
Mrs. Grose
She is the housekeeper at Bly. She may be sexually attracted to the governess. She professes to believe the governess's stories about the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel
Symbol-The Scarlet Letter
The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester. The letter's meaning shifts as time passes. Originally intended to mark Hester as an adulterer, the "A" eventually comes to stand for "Able." Finally, it becomes indeterminate: the Native Americans who come to watch the Election Day pageant think it marks her as a person of importance and status. Like Pearl, the letter functions as a physical reminder of Hester's affair with Dimmesdale. But, compared with a human child, the letter seems insignificant, and thus helps to point out the ultimate meaninglessness of the community's system of judgment and punishment. The child has been sent from God, or at least from nature, but the letter is merely a human contrivance. Additionally, the instability of the letter's apparent meaning calls into question society's ability to use symbols for ideological reinforcement. More often than not, a symbol becomes a focal point for critical analysis and debate.


Roderick
Fall of the House of Usher
Madeline
Fall of the House of Usher
Catherine's Hair
A FAREWELL TO ARMS--Although it is not a recurring symbol, Catherine's hair is an important one. In the early, easy days of their relationship, as Henry and Catherine lie in bed, Catherine takes down her hair and lets it cascade around Henry's head. The tumble of hair reminds Henry of being enclosed inside a tent or behind a waterfall. This lovely description stands as a symbol of the couple's isolation from the world. With a war raging around them, they manage to secure a blissful seclusion, believing themselves protected by something as delicate as hair. Later, however, when they are truly isolated from the ravages of war and living in peaceful Switzerland, they learn the harsh lesson that love, in the face of life's cruel reality, is as fragile and ephemeral as hair.
Montressor
states that he has been insulted by his acquaintance Fortunato, and he seeks revenge.
Myrtle Wilson
Tom's lover, whose lifeless husband George owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. She herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately for her, she chooses Tom, who treats her as a mere object of his desire.
The Relationship between Love and Pain
A FAREWELL TO ARMS--Against the backdrop of war, Hemingway offers a deep, mournful meditation on the nature of love. No sooner does Catherine announce to Henry that she is in mourning for her dead fiancé than she begins a game meant to seduce Henry. Her reasons for doing so are clear: she wants to distance herself from the pain of her loss. Likewise, Henry intends to get as far away from talk of the war as possible. In each other, Henry and Catherine find temporary solace from the things that plague them. The couple's feelings for each other quickly pass from an amusement that distracts them to the very fuel that sustains them. Henry's understanding of how meaningful his love for Catherine is outweighs any consideration for the emptiness of abstract ideals such as honor, enabling him to flee the war and seek her out. Reunited, they plan an idyllic life together that promises to act as a salve for the damage that the war has inflicted. Far away from the decimated Italian countryside, each intends to be the other's refuge. If they are to achieve physical, emotional, and psychological healing, they have found the perfect place in the safe remove of the Swiss mountains. The tragedy of the novel rests in the fact that their love, even when genuine, can never be more than temporary in this world.


Symbol-The Meteor
THE SCARLETT LETTER--As Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl in Chapter XII, a meteor traces out an "A" in the night sky. To Dimmesdale, the meteor implies that he should wear a mark of shame just as Hester does. The meteor is interpreted differently by the rest of the community, which thinks that it stands for "Angel" and marks Governor Winthrop's entry into heaven. But "Angel" is an awkward reading of the symbol. The Puritans commonly looked to symbols to confirm divine sentiments. In this narrative, however, symbols are taken to mean what the beholder wants them to mean. The incident with the meteor obviously highlights and exemplifies two different uses of symbols: Puritan and literary.


The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
THE GREAT GATSBY--The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning. The connection between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson's grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essential meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores these ideas in Chapter VIII, when he imagines Gatsby's final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.


Mrs. Griffin
She is one of the holiday guests in the Prologue. She suggests that Douglas was in love with the governess.
Miss Quentin
Caddy's illegitimate daughter, raised by the Compsons after Caddy's divorce. A rebellious, miserably unhappy, promiscuous girl.
Douglas
TURN OF THE SCREW--He is one of the holiday guests in the Prologue. He possesses the manuscript written by the governess, who had served his sister's governess some years after her experiences at Bly. He may have been in love with her.
Flora
She is the orphaned eight-year-old niece of the governess's employer. She possesses an unearthly, angelic beauty that charms the governess.
Pearl
Hester's illegitimate daughter is a young girl with a moody, mischievous spirit and an ability to perceive things that others do not. For example, she quickly discerns the truth about her mother and Dimmesdale. The townspeople say that she barely seems human and spread rumors that her unknown father is actually the Devil. She is wise far beyond her years, frequently engaging in ironic play having to do with her mother's scarlet letter.
Mr. Griffin
He is one of the holiday guests in the Prologue. His story about a boy visited by a ghost prompts Douglas to send for the governess's manuscript.
The Rosebush Next to the Prison Door
THE SCARLET LETTER--The narrator chooses to begin his story with the image of the rosebush beside the prison door. The rosebush symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast man's activities. Yet, paradoxically, it also symbolizes the futility of symbolic interpretation: the narrator mentions various significances that the rosebush might have, never affirming or denying them, never privileging one over the others.
Catherine Barkley
An English nurse's aide who falls in love with Henry. She is exceptionally beautiful and possesses, perhaps, the most sensuously described hair in all of literature. When the novel opens, her grief for her dead fiancé launches her headlong into a playful, though reckless, game of seduction. Her feelings for Henry soon intensify and become more complicated, however, and she eventually swears lifelong fidelity to him.
Caroline Compson
Caddy, Quentin, Benjy, and Jason's self-pitying and constantly ill mother.


John Steinbeck
the first person narrator and grandson to Samuel
Hamilton in the novel.
Miles
He is the orphaned ten-year-old nephew of the governess's employer. He is expelled from school with no explanation. It is implied that he either engaged in homosexual conduct with some classmates or imparted inappropriate sexual knowledge to them. He passed an inordinate amount of time in Peter Quint's company before Quint's death. It is implied that Quint either sexually molested him or otherwise gave him information about sex. It is likely that he was aware of Quint's relationship with Miss Jessel. He strikes the governess as an extraordinarily beautiful, clever child. The governess's increasing surveillance of him makes him uncomfortable, so he asks to be sent to another school. It is possible that the governess smothers him to death.
Ethan Frome
The protagonist of the story, He is a farmer whose family has lived and died on the same Massachusetts farm for generations. After the premature death of his mother, he hastily married his cousin, Zenobia Pierce, who then promptly developed a debilitating illness of her own. A sensitive figure, he has a deep, almost mystical appreciation of nature, and he feels a strong connection to the youth, beauty, and vital spirit of Mattie Silver, his wife's cousin. However, he ultimately lacks the inner strength necessary to escape the oppressive forces of convention, climate, and his sickly wife.
The cat and the pickle dish
ETHAN FROME--During their meal alone, and in the evening that follows, Ethan and Mattie share the house with the cat, which first breaks Zeena's pickle dish and then seats itself in Zeena's rocking chair. The animal serves as a symbol of Zeena's tacit invisible presence in the house, as a force that comes between Mattie and Ethan, and reminds them of the wife's existence. Meanwhile, the breaking of the dish, Zeena's favorite wedding present, symbolizes the breakage of the Frome marriage. Zeena's anguish over the broken dish manifests her deeper anguish over her fractured relationship.


Miss Jessel
She is the children's deceased former governess. It is implied that she became pregnant by Peter Quint. It is possible that she drowned herself in the lake at Bly, although Mrs. Grose tells the governess that she died while away on holiday. The governess sees her ghost wandering the grounds and manor at Bly.
The Narrator
Is a member of the holiday gathering in the Prologue. He transcribes Douglas's tale years after Douglas reads it aloud. His transcription, not Douglas's manuscript, is what we read.
Samuel Hamilton
a native of Ireland. He is the first generation
to arrive in the Salinas Valley from the home country. He makes
his living as a blacksmith, well digger, and informal doctor.
Caddy Compson
Actually named "Candace"; Mr. Compson and Mrs. Compson's only girl. Very close to her brother Quentin, she becomes a promiscuous adolescent, and becomes pregnant unintentionally. She marries and is divorced by Herbert Head. Forced to leave her daughter (Miss Quentin) to be raised by her family, she is sent away from the Compson home, where she continues to send money for her daughter--money that is continually misappropriated by her vicious brother Jason.
Prince Prospero
The Masque Of the Red Death
Rinaldi
A surgeon in the Italian army. Mischievous, wry, and oversexed, he is Henry's closest friend. Although he is a skilled doctor, his primary practice is seducing beautiful women. When Henry returns to Gorizia, he tries to whip up a convivial atmosphere.
George Wilson
Myrtle's husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. He loves and idealizes Myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom. He is consumed with grief when Myrtle is killed. He is comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women who love Tom
Roger Chillingworth
He is actually Hester's husband in disguise. He is much older than she is and had sent her to America while he settled his affairs in Europe. Because he is captured by Native Americans, he arrives in Boston belatedly and finds Hester and her illegitimate child being displayed on the scaffold. He lusts for revenge, and thus decides to stay in Boston despite his wife's betrayal and disgrace. He is a scholar and uses his knowledge to disguise himself as a doctor, intent on discovering and tormenting Hester's anonymous lover. He is self-absorbed and both physically and psychologically monstrous. His single-minded pursuit of retribution reveals
The Hollowness of the Upper Class
THE GREAT GATSBY One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country's richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce, and does not pick up on subtle social signals, such as the insincerity of the Sloanes' invitation to lunch. In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, epitomized by the Buchanans' tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker.
What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it seems to lack in heart, as the East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies who are so used to money's ability to ease their minds that they never worry about hurting others. The Buchanans exemplify this stereotype when, at the end of the novel, they simply move to a new house far away rather than condescend to attend Gatsby's funeral. Gatsby, on the other hand, whose recent wealth derives from criminal activity, has a sincere and loyal heart, remaining outside Daisy's window until four in the morning in Chapter VII simply to make sure that Tom does not hurt her. Ironically, Gatsby's good qualities (loyalty and love) lead to his death, as he takes the blame for killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy be punished, and the Buchanans' bad qualities (fickleness and selfishness) allow them to remove themselves from the tragedy not only physically but psychologically.
Peter Quint
He is the deceased valet of the governess's employer. It is implied that he impregnated Miss Jessel. He had an extremely close relationship with Miles. It is implied that he either sexually molested the boy or otherwise gave him information about sex. He suffered a fatal slip one night on the roads near Bly. The governess sees his ghost wandering the grounds and manor at Bly.
Aaron "Aron" Trask
one of the twins of Adam and Cathy
Trask. Open and innocent by nature, he is the good son, who is
loved by everyone. With his light hair and nice features, he is also
quite handsome. He goes to war in order to escape from Salinas
after he finds out about his mother.

Mattie Silver
Zeena's cousin, who comes to assist the Fromes with their domestic tasks. Because her father's death left her penniless, she burdens the Fromes as much as she helps them, especially in light of her lack of practical training. Attractive, young, and energetic, she becomes the object of Ethan's affection, and reciprocates his infatuation. Because the reader sees Mattie only through Ethan's own lovesick eyes, she never truly emerges as a well-rounded character. She often seems more a focus for Ethan's rebellion against Zeena and Starkfield than an actual flesh-and-blood person with both strengths and weaknesses. When, at the climax of the novel, Zeena's self does shine through, we see her as an impulsive, melodramatic, young woman, more adolescent than adult.
Jason Compson IV
Quentin, Caddy, and Benjy's mean-spirited, petty younger brother. Promised a job by Herbert Head in a bank, he ends up working in a Jefferson farm-supply store after his sister's divorce from Head in 1911.


Caleb "Cal" Trask
the second twin of Adam and Cathy Trask.
A contrast to his brother, he is dark-haired and secretive. He
distrusts all the people in his life and manipulates their emotions to
get his own way. Before the end of the novel, he undergoes a
transformation, chooses goodness, and becomes the repository of
hope for the future.
Benjy Compson
Born Maury Compson, his name was changed in 1900, when it was discovered that he was severely retarded. A moaning, speechless idiot, he is deeply attached to his sister Caddy, who is a mother-figure for him. When it was thought that he attempted to rape a young girl, he was castrated in 1910.


Quentin Compson
The oldest of the Compson children, a sensitive and intelligent boy preoccupied with his love for his sister and his notion of the family's honor. After Caddy's marriage, he commits suicide by drowning toward the end of his first year at Harvard.
The priest (Farewell to Arms)
A kind, sweet, young man who provides spiritual guidance to the few soldiers interested in it. Often the butt of the officers' jokes, the priest responds with good-natured understanding. Through Henry's conversations with him regarding the war, the novel challenges abstract ideals like glory, honor, and sacredness.
Dilsey
The Compsons' Negro cook, a pious, strong-willed, and protective influence.


Helen Ferguson
A nurse's aide who works at the American hospital and a dear friend of Catherine. Though she is friendly and accepting of Henry and Rinaldi's visits to Catherine early in the novel, her hysterical outburst over Henry and Catherine's "immoral" affair establishes her as an unhappy woman who is paranoid about her friend's safety and anxious about her own loneliness.
Jason Compson III
Caddy, Quentin, Benjy, and Jason's father; Caroline Compson's husband. A cynical man with a philosophy of determinism and the helplessness of mankind, a philosophy with which his son Quentin struggles in vain before his suicide. He drinks himself to death shortly after Quentin's death.


Governor Bellingham
He is a wealthy, elderly gentleman who spends much of his time consulting with the other town fathers. Despite his role as governor of a fledgling American society, he very much resembles a traditional English aristocrat. He tends to strictly adhere to the rules, but he is easily swayed by Dimmesdale's eloquence. He remains blind to the misbehaviors taking place in his own house: his sister, Mistress Hibbins, is a witch.


Cathy Ames/ Catherine Trask/ Kate
a woman without morals
whom the narrator calls a monster. She kills her parents and steals
their money, making it seem like an outside murder and a robbery.
She shoots Adam to escape him after she has just had twins. She
becomes a prostitute in Salinas and eventually becomes a madam
after murdering her predecessor.

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