Todays lesson..........

So we started on page 7, looking at the way our narrator has "exiled" herself from the everyday world, which suggests almost she will endure almost a punishment through the transition into her new life; for shadowing what is about to come.

We then explored the arousal she experiences around her new husband; "the train began to throb again as if on delighted anticipation", "my heightened, excited senses". She is inexplicitly expressing her sexual awakening again, through her language, not directly addressing it.

Following this is another description of her husband, and the pervasive deathly imagery is inescapable. His "dark, motionless" eyes are void of any life, and interestingly, a "sarcophagi" reference is included; a mask used to cover up the dead, reinforcing this aura of death surrounding him. He is also describes as having "too much in common" with white lilies, the funeral flower, again highlighting his connection with death.

The "male-gaze" theory concerning the objectification of women is prevalent in the pages we read earlier. Our narrator constantly mentions how men look at her; on page 7 she catches him "gazing" at her, the chauffeur "eyed" her, yet she seems to enjoy this sexual objectification. This is highlighted in the bedroom, after he has stripped her "as if he was stripping the leaves off an artichoke", or unwrapping his "bargain". She is objectifying herself, but instead of feeling degraded, she is only "disgruntled" and frustrated when her husband does not bed her after. This implies the narrator does not embody feminist qualities or views, yet embraces her status.