🌹The Rose & Skull ☠️
Response 3C
This week’s responses aren’t accompanied with any evaluative commentary. See if you can evaluate them for yourselves. I have, however, tried to post the better responses and to avoid repetition. If your response isn’t posted, that may be because it’s similar to another response. I’ve also posted responses that differ from each other. If you see something you disagree with below, try to use it to strengthen your own argument.
One of the most effective strategies when it comes to arguing your own case is to bring in other cases. In general, it’s better to deal with counter-arguments than to avoid them. If you don’t deal with them, your reader may think about them after you’ve made your argument, at which point you don’t have the opportunity to show why the counter-argument isn’t effective. It’s a better idea to pre-empt counter-arguments by facing them directly and to show why your argument subsumes, overrides, or supersedes them.
Try, however, to distinguish between a strong counter-argument and another perspective. Try to distinguish between an argument that seriously weakens your point and one that is just another way of looking at the situation. The ability to read insightfully, to evaluate differences, and to argue your own case is part of the critical thinking process. It also has many applications outside of academia — in diplomacy, office politics, personal relationships, etc. To put it very simply, imagine living with someone who always thinks they’re right and who never considers your point of view…
Topic ❧ Compare how Strindberg and Wharton use the closed settings of café and restaurant versus the open settings of the cities around them. You might want to explore the question, What links the closed to the open settings? Try to focus on a particular aspect, such as the way the closed and open spaces affect the use of metaphor, the psychological states of the characters, the relation of the characters to their family members or spouses, the theme of secrecy, etc. The more specific you can be, the more likely you are to make a convincing argument within the 100 words.
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Strindberg and Wharton chose closed spaces for their works as it reinforces the tense atmosphere. Mrs. Y’s café corner is nicknamed “mouse-trap”, as Mrs. Y is a cat herding her prey into the corner to “capture” them. X snaps as she realizes how Y has kept her marriage in a corner for years. Slade and Ansley’s gorgeous daughters happily venture Rome with their boyfriends as the old friends argue at the restaurant where they met. Unforgivable secrets pour as Slade traps Ansley physically and verbally on the terrace. As the girls play, this friendship ends where it also started.
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Two excerpts from Strindberg’s play and Wharton’s short story use the closed settings to describe characters’ conflicts and the open setting to reflect the consequence or the truth uncovered. The dark and frustrating atmosphere is condensed in “The Stronger” by MISS Y’s silence, making MISS X express her anger through monologue and actions. These in turn slowly manipulate and break the quietness, navigating the scene into light. In contrast, story in “Roman fever” starts from the city’s view at sunset, with Mrs. Slade’s letter revealed. Then it moves inward the restaurant, uncovering Mrs. Ansley’s even darker secret that makes conflict between two wealthy widows more serious.
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Both passages are set in the welcoming atmospheres of restaurants, which could symbolize the women’s’ seemingly wholesome friendships. The exterior of one restaurant is cold and snowy, while the other is overlooking the Colosseum. The exteriors are connected to the women’s animosity towards each other, as wintertime is cold, inhospitable, and unpleasant, while the Colosseum used to see bloodshed on a regular basis during ancient Rome. The exteriors also don’t appear too threatening as they are in a wholesome setting (Christmas time and modern Rome), but their history is what makes them adverse, much like the women’s friendships.
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Both restaurants are used as a setting to convey a feeling of being trapped and to capture the intimate relationships between the women. The establishments act as a cage, closing the ladies from the outside world, enabling their interactions to escalate, a pseudo pressure cooker for the pent-up emotions they’re harbouring. Initially both pairs seem to enjoy warm conversation but when it turns to betrayal no one can leave and must face their choices to go after the other woman's husband.
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Strindberg and Wharton use closed settings to display the characters' limited perspective and open settings to expose the cold truth they don’t wish to face. Since Mrs. X is married Bob, she defines herself as "the stronger" than Miss Y, who is sitting in a cafe lonely. Ironically, she surrenders her superiority when she leaves the café to see her husband, who still loves Miss Y. Likewise, Slade also feels superior to Ansley by seeing the restaurant's view of the Colosseum that reminds her own secret. However, her manipulation at the Colosseum was the most disturbing revelation in her life.
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In The stronger closed setting of the café is a way to avoid stereotypes and discrimination, conversely an open setting of the parapet in the “Roman Fever” symbolizes honesty. By using these spaces, Wharton and Strindberg present the female psychology. In The stronger the café is a feminine corner since Mrs. X doesn’t want to be judged by others about the false perfection of her marriage. However, in Wharton’s work characters on the parapet, watching the city, and as sunset (symbol) gets darker, their “hatred” with each other is growing, yet the women illustrated friendliness inside of the restaurant (closed setting).
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The closed settings of café and restaurant symbolise the intimacy between the friends while also exaggerating the drama. All friends start out as close- Mrs. X invites Miss Y into her home and Grace and Alida bond over memories. The possibility for them to grow closer seems there. Then, in both, “the full moon” is referenced, sparking craziness and drama. Miss Y’s corner is like “a mouse-trap” and Mrs. X is trapped there to face the truth. Grace and Alida can’t escape the confessions that materialize, and the scenes end with someone exiting the closed space, thus ending the friendship.
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The corner of the restaurant where Mrs. X. encounters Miss Y. becomes a "mouse-trap" where Miss Y's silence unravels Mrs. X's dormant feelings and thoughts about her insecurity, her husband's temper, his rampant infidelity, her complicated relationship with Miss Y., her helplessness as Miss Y.'s "victim" and her over-arching struggle to lay hold of victory and strength in her fragile life. In Roman Fever, as sunlight pales and darkness descends on the lofty terrace of the Roman restaurant, Wharton draws a parallel between the "accumulated wreckage of passion and splendor" of Rome and the unfolding devastation of betrayal in the lives of two frenemies caused by the revelation of long-kept secrets about passionate acts of youth, beauty and love.
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In Stronger, Miss Y is fully engulfed in Illustrated weekly, just like a safety blanket surrounding her in a corner of a ladies' restaurant. Strindberg portrays the image of the restaurant as a mental trap. Mrs. X is feeling powerless, seeking validation as she turns into a distant shadow of her rival. Meanwhile, in Roman Fever, the "afternoon light" of Rome portrays an open door for old confessions. Grace's knitting symbolizes protection from past sins as Alida shares her devious longtime plot, to discover that under "evening darkness" of the Coliseum was born a bastard child she envied so much.
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Warton and Strindberg both use the open settings of the cities around them to reminisce about the past, and use closed settings to bring the readers back to the present. In Wharton’s writing the open settings, like the Forum symbolize a pivotal moment in characters' lives and relationships. In Strindbergs writing, an open setting like the Royal Theatre brings up the strain in the ladies' relationship. The closed settings like the cafe in Strindberg's piece, and restaurant in Warton piece, are meant to bring the focus back to two women sitting together trying to communicate.
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The setting relates to the dependency of women in ‘The Stronger’ by August Strindberg and independency of women in ‘Roman Fever’ by Edith Wharton. In ‘The Stranger’, the women’s café shows how society is highly impacted by gender discrimination and patriarchy which is further being supported by the well-beingness of married women (Mrs.X) and silence of unmarried women (Mrs.Y). Whereas, in the ‘Roman Fever’, the terrace of a restaurant with a view of Rome represents the freedom of women in society. Both, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Asley are widow, but they are economically well and are raising their daughters on their own. (
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Strindberg’s The Stronger and Wharton’s “Roman Fever” represent the unexpected using two opposing settings. Strindberg uses the closed off restaurant as a place where Mrs. X can catch Miss Y off guard. By bringing out Miss Y’s “expression of mingled sarcasm and curiosity”, Mrs, X lures her in before revealing her knowledge of her adultery. Wharton instead chooses the open space of the terrace of the restaurant to express the same unexpectedness. Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade “visualized each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope”, implying that the two were both hiding things from each other.
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This pair of scenes very interestingly uses very similar settings to represent how characters understand their romantic affairs. Strindberg sets Miss Y in the corner, which suggests her desire to keep her affair a secret. This very cramped position indicates Mrs. X’s mental state, who without any verbal prompting from Miss Y simply unravels. Wharton however sets the scene differently by using the balcony and the view of the city. The setting is about expressing Mrs. Slade exposing her duplicity, but also uncovering her husband’s as well. The balcony is also the restrictions of the mind understanding a changed reality.
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The open setting, in both excerpts highlight the women’s revelation and big reveal. The closed setting serves as an intimate environment where the women are reluctant to speak openly about how they feel. However, as the conversations go on, and the characters become more frustrated, the outside setting is linked with a bigger picture. As Mrs. X grows more aware, she mentions spending “the summer in the mountains” so that Miss Y did not have to smell the salty ocean, insinuating an affair. In Roman Fever, the amped up activity in the city happens after the big reveal and emphasizes the tension of the situation.
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The atmospheres of the two restaurants, in The Stronger and Roman Fever, have an impact on the minds of the rival women while reflecting the state of their memories. Miss Y, Amelie, is defined within her space. It is her lair, her “mouse trap” that the unnamed Mrs. X falls into. Whereas the open terrace in Rome looks out on the beauty of memory. The strength of Alida wanes as the winter sun sets over the “ruins”. Her cruel memories are outshone by the “nightblooming flower” that is the memory of Grace and love within the moonlit Colosseum.
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