Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Dorothy Parker - College Paper

Dorothy Parker


'Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I'd been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.'
***

Dorothy Parker became popular shortly after the first world war with her light verse and short stories. Although her works may not seem harsh and unwomanly today, they were labeled in this manner at the height of her popularity. Her cynical verses developed into something of a national frenzy, while giving the reader the impression that she ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

of their futility. Love, especially, plays a major role as a theme of Parker's verse. Many poems are relating to love and loneliness or death as results of love. Parker once said of an actress in a review of a play that she "runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." The same could almost be applied to the author herself (Bloom 2537). Her more bitter verses become brief ballads of animosity. This aspect is quite well demonstrated by the imagined injury of others in "Frustration:"

'If I had a shiny gun,
I could have a world of fun
Speeding bullets through the brains
Of the folks who give me pains;

Or had I some poison gas,
I could make the moments pass
Bumping off a number of
People whom I do not love.

But I have no lethal weapon-
Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!
So they still are quick and well
Who should be, by rights, in hell.'

The mental anguish of many of the female characters in her work, brought about by love or a cunning illusion thereof, is ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.


Already a member? Login


CITE THIS PAGE:

Dorothy Parker. (2008, March 24). Retrieved November 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dorothy-Parker/81012
"Dorothy Parker." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 24 Mar. 2008. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dorothy-Parker/81012>
"Dorothy Parker." Essayworld.com. March 24, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dorothy-Parker/81012.
"Dorothy Parker." Essayworld.com. March 24, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dorothy-Parker/81012.
JOIN NOW
Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays


PAPER DETAILS
Added: 3/24/2008 07:38:45 AM
Category: Biographies
Type: Free Paper
Words: 935
Pages: 4

Save | Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS
Save and find your favorite essays easier

SIMILAR ESSAYS
» Dorothy Parker
» Dorothy Parker
» Flappers Such As Clara Bow And ...
» The Grapes Of Wrath 2
» The Celestine Prophecy
» Movie Review Of Jerry Maguire
» Computer Crime In The 90's
» Cinematography: Everything You ...
» Marilyn Monroe: Suicide Or Murd...
Copyright | Cancel | Contact Us

Copyright © 2024 Essayworld. All rights reserved