Bondari & Pak 1
Yelena Pak and Elena Bondari
Mrs. R. Mattox
English 1102
19 April 2006
The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature is a collection of great authors and
stories. It has poems, extracts from short stories, sample papers, and much more. Throughout
this semester we had a chance to read lots of new interesting stories, learn about new authors.
The three favorite works are the short stories Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield, Young
Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew
Marvell.
Katherine Mansfield’s short story “Miss Brill” centers around an aging lady spending her
Sunday afternoon in a park watching the people around her and their activities. The story has a
typical plot for Katherine Mansfield who tends to focus her stories on intelligent, sensitive
protagonists who undergo subtle but important changes in their lives. Mansfield shows us the old
lady’s pain of loneliness realizing she became ignored by her surrounding environment.
Mansfield's "Miss Brill" illustrates the old woman's attempt to ease loneliness by creating an
illusion of reality for herself. She tries to escape from her loneliness by convincing herself that
she is an important part of the society and that people would miss her if she were not there
anymore. She lives happy in her illusion, but the story shows that this happiness can easily be
destroyed.
“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a moral story told mainly through
the character of a religious leader, more specifically a Puritan minister named Goodman Brown.
In the story, Hawthorne conveys a tale in which the main character, Young Goodman Brown,
Bondari & Pak 2
goes through the torment of leaving his beloved wife to go on an ‘errand.’ The story focuses on
the emotions of Goodman Brown, his inner feelings and changes he goes through. Through
setting, characterization, and most prominently symbolism, Hawthorne effectively conveys the
short story of “Young Goodman Brown.”
Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” depicts a young man’s eloquent attempt at
trying to persuade his love to have sexual relations. The speaker utilizes three arguments in his
plea to his lady. He first tries to flatter the woman by discussing the length in which he would
love her by telling her what he thinks she wants to hear. Secondly, he exhibits his fear about
oncoming death, and lastly, he emphasizes the importance of youthful passion and desire.
Marvell uses types of figurative language and an allusion to portray the speakers’ motives.
Sexual desire affects nearly every human being and will often make one act or say things in
order to obtain what he/she most desires.
All three stories are unique in their own way, giving us an opportunity to experience
different feeling, living the lives of the characters. In the first story, Miss Brill, we can sense the
pain of loneliness, realizing she became ignored by her surrounding environment. We
experienced the inner struggle of the main character, the challenge he had to go through. In the
poem To His Coy Mistress we read about a person’s sly attempt at getting sexual pleasure. It is
uncertain, though, if arguments like Marvell’s would even work on a respectable woman, but the
poem is a good example of how sexual desire can make a person say almost anything.