Literary Criticism Essay Samples

Introduction

Virginia Woolf was born and raised in a house, which was full of children and books. Her home set the scene for competitiveness into being a scholar and writer. She came from a background of writers, Leslie Stephen, her father was an author as well as a literary critic while, Julia Stephen, her mother was famous for her beauty and modeled for renowned painters such as Edward Burne-Jones. Both parents had had previous unfortunate unions, which had led to divorces, and this made up the larger household of eight children (Woolf, & Schulkind, 2002). One of Woolf`s half-sister had a mental illness which caused her to entirely depend on the help of her family until at her teenage years when they decided to place her in an institution. Later on, Woolf`s half-brothers, George and Gerald Duckworth passed away. In her revealing memoir, Woolf indicated that the two half-brothers had sexually molested her together with Vanessa, her sister. The experiences described indicate that these experiences caused the three full siblings who had come from the new marriage to be extremely close.
During her childhood years, as described in the memoir, the English society was a rigid one, which depended on the social class system. Lucky for Woolf, her family belonged to the upper class, which held the intellectual elite. Her father had graduated from Cambridge as a biographer and literary critic. Therefore, Woolf grew around individuals who participated in the world of spoken and written art and literature (Sim, 2010). These experiences presented the best avenue for Woolf to nurture her skills in literature. Additionally, her experiences during her earlier days led her to developing literature, which reflected her experiences with sexual ambivalence, art, and emotional consciousness. The characters witnessed in her art represent part of her successful experiment in retelling her story consciously(Woolf, & Schulkind, 2002). These works maintain a symbolic as well as narrative style, which appears as the recount of events from a personal diary. Additionally, during her era as a writer, she rose to fame owing to her success in literature as well as support and family background.
Earlier on during her childhood, her family had been convinced that she had a frail mental state thus the concern with her psychology. Her experiences in childhood were tough; growing up in a large family meant that she received little attention from her parents (Woolf, & Schulkind, 2002). Therefore, she strove to earn recognition from the larger society by excelling in literature and writing and maintaining the family legacy as none of her siblings were capable of doing this.
William Wordsworth came from a middle-sized family with five children. A friendly relationship with his sister begun at baptism—the two were baptized together. During his early days, Wordsworth was intense and this made both parents anxious about his later life. In fact, his mother once remarked that he would be famous either for good or for bad. Although he grew up and begun romanticizing childhood, his was not the best experience (Bloom, 2009). He lost his mother at the age of eight, while his father served as an attorney for the Earl of Lowther, who was a very corrupt man. At the age of 13, his father died thus leaving Wordsworth and his four sibling’s orphans. During this period, they learnt that Earl of Lowther owed his father money due to his legal services. They tried to sue and obtain back the money but to no avail. Their desperation to survive caused them to scatter and live with different relatives thus causing the separation between Wordsworth and Dorothy. The separation lasted for nine years without either of them laying eyes on the other. Wordsworth did not work along well with his hosts who were part of his mother family. As such, he decided to set off and live in the rugged hills of England, from which he obtained his inspiration to write. From this period, Wordsworth begun to enjoy and appreciate nature and this guided his love and appreciation for poetry.
In his writing, Lyrical Balladshe claims that man should take time to understand and give back to nature. His long walks into the hills provided the greatest inspiration for his works in literature and poetry. Although his childhood was not as promising and fulfilling as would be expected, he rose to compose poems, which continue to inspire children and young learners. He became a member of the English Romantic Movement and continued publishing poems and literal works through his adulthood (Bloom, 2009). Studying at St. Johns College was one of the opening points for his career as he used this period to tour Europe and seek new experiences too. As such, these experiences affected his interested as he became more sensitized to the troubles that a common person underwent. Indeed, he was successfully able to reflect these issues onto poetry. In fact, this became his source of inspiration on addressing the needs that he witnessed in his experiences.

Conclusion

Clearly, the childhood experiences among the different authors in the 19th and 20th century set the pace for the careers in literature and art. Some authors chose to reflect and reconstruct their experiences in the literature while others chose to take up a new line of thought, which was clearly different from their previous lifestyle. While the female writers had unique experiences such as coming from stable backgrounds with the family support required in the career, the male writers had challenges through which they required to pull through. As such, the female writers chose to use their careers in covering their past life experiences while the male authors chose to look at a brighter future, which brought about more possibilities. Both Woolf and Wordsworth have risen to create an impact in literature. Although they had different childhood experiences, they decided to use literature as a medium to narrate experiences that would inspire other children. It is apparent that the experiences did not hinder these authors from telling their story to the world.

References

Bloom, H. (2009). William Wordsworth, Updated Edition (Vol. 2). New York: Bloom`s Modern Critical Reviews.
Sim, L. (2010). Virginia Woolf the patterns of ordinary experience. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.
Woolf, V., & Schulkind, J. (2002). Moments of being. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.