Comparison of A Room of Ones Own, The Prince, and Stranger in the Village Literary Works - Essay Example

Comparative Essay on A Room of Ones Own, The Prince, and Stranger in the Village The stories under analysis were written during different historicalepochs and that is why they reflect different historical and cultural features of their time. The stories differ structurally and stylistically; nevertheless it is possible to find some similarities between them. The purpose of this paper is to analyze, compare and contrast the literary works as for their structure and stylistics. The first story under analysis "A room of ones own" by Virginia Woolf was published in October of 1929. In this novel the author investigates the phenomenon called "androgynous" mind trying to find factors which influence a writer. Woolf is convinced that female writers need two things to write fiction: enough money and their own room to write. So, she states that socioeconomic factors including poverty and lack of privacy (she called it "economic control which is put on women" (Woolf, 1999) prevent women from ingenious writing. Her style of writing caused by submission of patriarchal society and economic dependence. As soon as women become independent, having fair income and their own place to write, they will possess "androgynous" mind. Woolf states that there are no gender differences between female and male writings, everything depends upon economic independence. The story "Stranger in the Village" was written by James Baldwin in 1953. In his story Baldwin tells about Leo, who lives in Greenwich Village with a white, unmarried couple, Barbara and Jerry. Leo and Barbara were lovers but finally Leo fell in love with militant Christopher. The peculiarities of the Baldwin's style is that he depicts his hero, Leo, in flashbacks. Baldwin uses this method to portray Leo's early years in Harlem. The third story under analysis differs greatly from the previous stories. "The Prince" reflects new ideas and views appeared at the beginning of the Renaissance period. In his story Machiavelli portrays the ruling class, and the Medici family of Florence using a satire. Machiavelli makes an attempt to depict the ideal prince which should have a strategic thinking to secure his power, high morals and should keep the customs. So, the main stylistic difference is that the "Room of one's own " and the "Stranger in the Village" portray the life of the characters as it is, but in contrast Machiavelli uses satire to depict and uncover the realities of life existing during the Medici period. His work deals more with the class inequalities, in contrast to Woolf's story where gender inequalities are of major importance, and Baldwin who raises the problems of racial inequalities of "blacks and whites". The structure of the stories is different. "The Prince" is divided into 24 chapters, which are structurally independent. Each of the chapters has its title, and constructed as a separate story giving analysis of a particular theme. For instance, Chapter XVIII "Concerning The Way In Which Princes Should Keep Faith", Chapter XIX "That One Should Avoid Being Despised And Hated". These chapters precede the analysis of human nature, but discuses it from the perspective of faith and morality. The "Room of ones own" is also divided into the chapters but they do not titled. Structurally, each chapter is closely connected with the previous one contextually. The "Stranger in the Village" has the same structure as the "Room of one's own". The main similarity is that the writers are keen observers of people's nature, which is manifested in their style of writing. Passionate and lengthy descriptions of characters are intertwined with grating people's sufferings. Both authors tell that in our ordered and organized world one feels sometimes the need of a change. The writers use different stylistic devices like metaphors to unfold the message and convey the authentic atmosphere of the stories. In her work Woolf addresses the past gives Shakespeare as an example of the androgynous mind. She argues that the creativity of men and women is different, and that their writing should reflect their differences. Without material things, she repeats, one cannot have intellectual freedom, and without intellectual freedom, one cannot write great poetry. This very feature bears resemblance to the Baldwin style where the method of flashbacks is used, but Woolf uses this technique to prove some evidence, in contrast to Baldwin, who depicts hero's life experience with the help of flashbacks. Still, the method of historical frames is peculiar to both authors. According to the style of writing Machiavelli's work is more analytical and edifying than two other stories. Machiavelli, through his book, tries to justify his idea by showing that men are inherently evil. He uses the theme of religion as the best one to unify a prince and his people. It is dangerous thing to mix politics and religion. It means that political and religious power can be a useful tool in the process of ruling the society. But when politics (and religion as well) starts to dominate and tyrannize people acting in its own interests it looses its original destination as the keeper of customs and morality. It remains disappointing that the social issues that are generally identified as pertaining to religion deal with questions of individual choice, rather than of communal responsibility. It shows deep philosophical recollections of the author who tries to appeal to a reader with the help of detailed analysis of the political power. His style of writing is marked by exactness and accuracy of presentation, and high degree of summarization. In the "Room of one's own" Woolf also uses "philosophical method of narration", but it is not the main method of portraying the events, it is more a worldly wisdom of social problems, than philosophical interpretation of a particular social or class problems. The choice of vocabulary is also different in three stories. In the "Stranger in the Village" the vocabulary is simple, and the sentence structure is not complicated. The author uses some colloquial expressions to emphasis characters differences. In the "Room of one's own" the choice of words reflects the authors style which can be defined as "ornate", as Woolf's word choice combines the features of scientific (philosophical) notions and explanations and fiction genre. In contrast, the language of Machiavelli is complicated as for the choice of words so the sentence structure. His language is very exact and colorful, which is the most important feature of any work of satire and sarcasm. Nevertheless, it should be pointed that his work cannot be defined as a purely sarcastic one, but some stylistic devices like comparison help to create satirical interpretation of the events and characters discussed. The writers use the method of opposition as the main approach to unfold the messages of the stories. For instance, Woolf contrasts a man's and woman's mind, and their style of writing, Baldwin opposes blacks to whites, and Machiavelli contrasts good power to a poor one. Also, in contrast to Woolf and Baldwin, Machiavelli uses rhetorical questions and gives several explanations of the same questions in order to persuade a reader to find the right answer himself: "People are by nature changeable. It is easy to persuade them about some particular matter, but it is hard to hold them to that persuasion. Hence it is necessary to provide that when they no longer believe, they can be forced to believe" (Machiavelli, 1984). Baldwin uses the same method: "Joyce is right about history being a nightmare - but it may be the nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them." (Baldwin, 1998). It is possible conclude that the style of writing shows the differences of the epochs the stories were written, and the authors vision of a particular problem. The main similarity is that they portray inequalities existing in the society (class, race, gender) using different stylistic devices and language means. It is possible to agree with the Woolf's ideas represented in her story that the style of writing depends upon a person, his or her life experience, social background and talent. References 1. Baldwin J. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Library of America, 1998. 2. Machiavelli, N. The Prince. Bantam Classics; Reissue edition. 1984. 3. Woolf, V. A Room of One's Own. G. K. Hall & Company; Largeprint edition, 1999. Read More