Dorothy Parker Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Dorothy Parker Essay, Research Paper *** # 8220 ; Inventory # 8221 ; # 8216 ; Four be the things I am wiser to cognize: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a enemy. Four be the things I # 8217 ; d been better without: Love, wonder, lentigos, and uncertainty. Three be the things I shall neer achieve: Envy, content, and sufficient bubbly. Three be the things I shall hold boulder clay I die: Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye. # 8217 ; *** Dorothy Parker became popular shortly after the first universe war with her light poetry and short narratives. Although her plants may non look rough and unwomanly today, they were labeled in this mode at the tallness of her popularity. Her misanthropic poetries developed into something of a national craze, while giving the reader the feeling that she recklessly stretched a adult female # 8217 ; s equal rights to include sexual relationships. It seemed that unfaithfulness was included among these # 8220 ; rights. # 8221 ; Her supporters culled citations from her poesy that, while looking to be among the most cagey, were besides among the least sincere. These typify the evident deficiency of emotional scope displayed in her poetry. The techniques and subjects that many of her poetries tackle are as follows: # 8220 ; resentment, wit, humor, and love # 8221 ; ( Adams 519 ) , together with an absolute precognition of their futility. Love, particularly, plays a major function as a subject of Parker # 8217 ; s poetry. Many verse forms are associating to love and loneliness or decease as consequences of love. Parker one time said of an actress in a reappraisal of a drama that she # 8220 ; runs the gamut of emotions from A to B. # 8221 ; The same could about be applied to the writer herself ( Bloom 2537 ) . Her more acrimonious poetries become brief laies of animus. This facet is rather good demonstrated by the imagined hurt of others in # 8220 ; Frustration: # 8221 ; # 8216 ; If I had a glistening gun, I could hold a universe of merriment Rushing slugs through the encephalons Of the folks who give me pains ; Or had I some toxicant gas, I could do the minutes base on balls Bumping off a figure of Peoples whom I do non love. But I have no deadly weapon- Therefore does Fate our pleasure measure on! So they still are speedy and good Who should be, by rights, in hell. # 8217 ; The mental torment of many of the female characters in her work, brought about by love or a cute semblance thereof, is limpidly illustrated in two of her short narratives, # 8220 ; Dusk Before Fireworks # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; A Telephone Call. # 8221 ; In each, the telephone is someway used as a barbarous instrument of anguish against the female supporter. The telephone is used to do Kit experience hurt and covetous in # 8220 ; Dusk Before Fireworks: # 8221 ; # 8216 ; The really fine-looking immature adult male hung up the receiving system, and looked at the dial of his carpus -watch He seemed to be ciphering. So long for a immature adult female to make her place, and throw herself upon her sofa, so long for cryings, so long for exhaustion, so long for compunction, so long for lifting tenderness. Thoughtfully he lifted the receiving system from its hook and put it on terminal upon the small table.’ However, # 8220 ; A Telephone Call # 8221 ; is simply an agonising monologue in which a adult female waits for the pacifying call from her lover. The adult female # 8217 ; s ideas sporadically reveal her despair and ill will toward the prospective company, every bit good as the telephone itself. The soliloquy subsequently includes pathetic entreaties to anyone or anything that could perchance hear her supplications and portion or relieve her agony: # 8216 ; Maybe that # 8217 ; s what he is making. Possibly he is coming on here without naming me up. Possibly he # 8217 ; s on his manner now. Something might hold happened to him. No, nil could of all time go on to him. I can # 8217 ; t image anything go oning to him. I neer see him lying still and long and dead. I wish he were dead. That # 8217 ; s a awful want. That # 8217 ; s a lovely want. If he were dead, he would be mine # 8230 ; It would be all beautiful. I wish he were dead. I wish he were dead, dead, dead. # 8217 ; The # 8220 ; rejected lover dominated by her ain heartache and sense of unworthiness # 8221 ; is one of two characteristic functions portrayed by the female in Parker # 8217 ; s short narratives or poetry, the other function being the sardonic wisecracker or humor comparable to Parker herself ( Bloom 2538 ) . Parker concentrates much of her originative energy on composing both poesy and prose covering to a great extent with the loss and hurting brought approximately by love, or perchance the deformed emotions and desires that may from clip to clip resemble love. Parker was hopelessly romantic at bosom, though much of her work puts forth the face of a cynic. Parker # 8217 ; s slant toward mawkishness was # 8220 ; ever to be reckoned with # 8221 ; ( Labrie, 340 ) . Her poesy can alter from fluxing and notional to acerb and cutting, frequently within two lines of poetry. This quality comes out in # 8220 ; Comment # 8221 ; : # 8216 ; Oh, life is a glorious rhythm of vocal, A potpourri of extemporanea ; And love is a thing that can neer travel incorrect ; And I am Marie of Roumania. # 8217 ; Much of Parker # 8217 ; s poetry and prose dressed ores on love. More specifically, it concentrates on catastrophe, anguish, or bitterness brought about by love. Parker # 8217 ; s ain single struggle with her runaway emotion becomes ironically evident in her sarcasm of the simpering, sensitive female in her work. Many of her prima characters are the self-consciously honest, boisterous, alcohol-swilling adult females that the Roaring Twenties produced in that lost coevals. The ambiance was exhaustively contributing to Parker # 8217 ; s brief prose and poesy. The 1940s took off some of the radiance of her light poetry and short narratives. However, her work now has the chance to do a rejoinder based upon its crisp humor and smart sarcasm.