Subjects:
make full use of the limited space within her short story. By using strong imagery,
providing a background, providing believable human actions, and examining justice, M.
Allende creates a piece readers can understand to the point of empathy. Because her
short story examines human behavior in respect to passions, justice, and emotion (love)
in a plausible manner one can find close similarities between her work and that of Mary
The author makes use of imagery to embellish not only upon her environment, but
also her characters. M. Allende presents the ideas of corruption, innocence, and
strictness simply through well-selected adjectives that lend eloquently to the
descriptions of her characters. The strait laced judge being “…dressed formally in black
… and his boots always shone with bees wax ” (Allende, 422). One can infer by details
such as those that that particular individual appreciates formality, and considering his
desert location, a strict adherence to it. The author also uses images of deformity
demonstrate the corruption of her main character, Nicholas Vidal; by providing him with
. . .
Mary Shelly uses lovely poetic imagery in much the same way to define, and give
three-dimensional presence to her characters. It should be
noted that the antagonists to these characters are not the ones to cause them physical
harm, despite their intentions.
Isabel Allende uses a combination of literary tools and techniques to assemble a
piece that in some ways reflects a great masterpiece. Indeed the role of the judge has many overlapping
qualities with Victor Frankenstein.
It is interesting to make note however that both authors severely censure those who
go against the grains of natural morality. Each character finds
himself rejected by society. In a similar fashion Allende’s character Nicholas Vidal was
conceived in a similar fashion as Frankenstein’s monster. Allende takes the judge’s passion a
step further into the realm of juxtapose, by having that character create a great injustice
in order to attempt to find the justice he seeks.
Another point worth examining in these stories stems from the authors’ use of
women, given the consideration that both authors are women. ” (Shelly, 56)
In viewing the above passage, much of the same type of character definition can be
seen; very similar to the manner in which Allende casts her deformed mold of her
creature, Nicholas. Such use of imagery for the purpose of
character definition can most clearly be seen in her description of her monster:
“His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as
beautiful. Indeed in The
Judge’s Wife much of the main character’s corruption is said to be to this. Beautiful, Great GOD! His yellow skin scarcely covered the
work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black
and flowering; his teeth pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only
formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost
of the same colour as the dunwhite sockets in which they were set, his
shriveled complexion and strait black lips. Each man peruses, as both texts put it, their own
“creature”, to the points of virtual insanity. As
such, it can be inferred that in order to be a published writer in those environments, one
would have to appeal to the dominant male market.
Essay's Topics
All research is for reference purposes only.