Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
How is tragedy and fate presented in A Thousand Splendid Suns and Tess of…
How is tragedy and fate presented in A Thousand Splendid Suns and Tess of the D'urbervilles?
PARA ONE: Tragedy and fate are interlinked in that the girls seem destined to it from the start
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Nana was very frightened about 'jinn' and kept porcelain which 'was meant to ward off evil.'
The symbolism of Mariam breaking the spiritual porcelain foreshadows the impacts of fate or bad omens on her life in the future, it also connects superstition to her mother, as Nana is infuriated and calls her a 'clumsy little harami'
'Every week, without fail, the girl heated a black brazier over a flame, tossed a bunch of wild rue seeds in it, and wafted the espandi smoke in her baby's direction to ward off evil' - This is a description of Laila trying to protect Aziza, though this is ultimately fruitless as Aziza is still subjected to great tragedy
Belief about superstition, the 'jinn', in particular is reflected in the cultural misunderstanding of disease, as its likely that Nana had epilepsy or was experiencing hysteria.
The 'jinn' in Islamic folklore possesses free will, chooses between good and evil, and have long lifespans
Tess of the D'urbervilles
'Blighted stars' - Tess' ominous feeling that she has been dealt a bad hand, or lives on a 'blighted star', is a use of metaphor by Hardy to foreshadow Tess' run-ins with fate later on
There's also an initial superstitious element introduced in the plot...
Mrs Durbeyfield uses a fortune-teller which she both admires and fears and uses to predict that Tess will be wealthy. Joan had a 'curious fetishistic fear' of her superstitious book that included premonitions, instructing that Tess keep it to the outhouse.
There was a growing interest in superstition during the late 19th century
The way in which both authors present superstition in a 'Thousand Splendid Suns' and 'Tess of the D'urbervilles' introduces the sense of fate as dictated by bad omens. Giving the reader a sense of uneasiness from the outset.
Though the characters in either novel try and divert fate using superstition, this is ultimately fruitless as the bad omens are unrelenting.
PARA TWO: Tragedy and fate is explored in the losses that the girls experience - which drives the plot
A Thousand Splendid Suns
'Nana dangling on the end of it.' The use of short, simple, sentence here strengthens the emphasis placed on the significance of the suicide in Mariam's future
Tess of the D'urbervilles
The death of the horse
After Tess falls asleep at the reigns and her only family horse was killed, she is forced out of her own guilt and the expectations of her family to go to Trantridge
Loss is a form of tragic fate that influences the lives of the girls
PARA THREE: The girls' inability to be the masters of their fate shows the mercilessness of its effect
Tess of the D'ubervilles
Tess has no autonomy over her life at Flinctombe Ash
A Thousand Splendid Suns
For the Afghan women, they will never be the master of their fate. A Thousand Splendid Suns unfolds the miserable fate of women through the political turmoil before our eyes. As for the marriage, Afghan women, such as Mariam and Laila play the part of a tool to reproduce a new generation and can not gain happiness.
'Let them come' 'I, for one, will shower them with rose petals' - Rasheed
Use of imperative shows the confidence Rasheed had in the Taliba, which is strengthened by his understanding that the Taliban aim to place heavy impositions on women
Though it is no fault of their own that they're in the circumstances they're in, the girls are punished relentlessly for it
When they try and take control of their own fate, such as when they try and run away, they are immediately stopped and punished.
'What's the problem brother?' Laila said through numb lips
The numbness of Laila's lips serves as a kind of metaphor