Maternal Mortality In Fiction
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Maternal Mortality In Fiction
Maternal death in fiction is a common theme encountered in literature, movies, and other media. The death of a mother during pregnancy, childbirth or immediately afterwards is a tragic event. The chances of a child surviving such an extreme birth are compromised. In literature, the death of a new mother is a powerful device: it removes one character and places the surviving child into an often hostile environment which has to be overcome. Literature 11th century * In Murasaki Shikibu's novel The Tale of Genji, Genji’s first wife, Aoi no Ue was suffering form attacking of Lady Rokujō's spirit during her pregnancy. She died after giving birth to her son Yūgiri. 18th century * In Cao Xueqin’s novel Dream of the Red Chamber, Xiang Ling, the maid and concubine of Xue Pan, dies in childbirth, giving birth to her daughter Ning Xiner. However, this plot only appears in Gao E's continuation. The original author only demonstrates her fate is death, in a poem. 19th century * In th ...
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Maternal Mortality
Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined in slightly different ways by several different health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a pregnant mother due to complications related to pregnancy, underlying conditions worsened by the pregnancy or management of these conditions. This can occur either while they are pregnant or within six weeks of resolution of the pregnancy. The CDC definition of pregnancy-related deaths extends the period of consideration to include one year from the resolution of the pregnancy. Pregnancy associated death, as defined by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), are all deaths occurring within one year of a pregnancy resolution. Identification of pregnancy associated deaths is important for deciding whether or not the pregnancy was a direct or indirect contributing cause of the death. There are two main measures used when talking about the rates of maternal mortality in ...
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A Christmas Carol
''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas Carol'' recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man. Dickens wrote ''A Christmas Carol'' during a period when the British were exploring and re-evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. He was influenced by the experiences of his own youth and by the Christmas stories of other authors, including Washington Irving and Douglas Jerrold. Dickens had written three Christmas stories prior to the novella, and was inspired following a visit to the Field Lan ...
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Washington Square (novel)
''Washington Square'' is a novel written in 1880 by Henry James about a father's attempts to thwart a romance between his naive daughter and the man he believes wishes to marry her for her money. The novel was famously adapted into a play, ''The Heiress'', which in turn became an Academy Award-winning film starring Olivia de Havilland in the title role. Background The plot of the novel is based upon a story told to James by his close friend, British actress Fanny Kemble. An 1879 entry in James' notebooks details an incident where Kemble told James about her brother, who romantically pursued "a dull, commonplace girl...who had a very handsome private fortune." Plot In 1840s New York City, naive, introverted Catherine Sloper lives with her tyrannical father, Dr. Austin Sloper, in Washington Square, a fashionable neighborhood near Greenwich Village. Embittered by the deaths of his wife and son, Dr. Sloper makes Catherine a constant target for verbal and mental abuse. Catherine fi ...
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Far From The Madding Crowd
''Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in ''Cornhill Magazine'', where it gained a wide readership. The novel is set in Thomas Hardy's Wessex in rural southwest England, as had been his earlier ''Under the Greenwood Tree''. It deals in themes of love, honour and betrayal, against a backdrop of the seemingly idyllic, but often harsh, realities of a farming community in Victorian England. It describes the life and relationships of Bathsheba Everdene with her lonely neighbour William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy. On publication, critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition. The novel has an enduring legacy. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 48 on the BBC's survey The Big Read, while in ...
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Mary Barton
''Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life'' is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian working class. Plot summary The novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working-class families. John Barton is a questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relations between rich and poor. Soon his wife dies—he blames it on her grief over the disappearance of her sister Esther. Having already lost his son Tom at a young age, Barton is left to raise his daughter, Mary, alone and now falls into depression and begins to involve himself in the Chartist, trade-union movement. Chapter 1 takes place in the countryside where Greenheys is now. Mary takes up work at a dressmaker's (her father had objected to her working in a factory) and becomes subject to the affections of hard-working ...
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Catherine Linton
Catherine Linton (also known as "Young Catherine" or Cathy Linton and later as Catherine Heathcliff then as Catherine Earnshaw) is a character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights''. She is the daughter of Edgar Linton and Catherine Earnshaw. Despite Heathcliff's attempts at exacting revenge on her for the indiscretions of her family, she eventually marries her true love, Hareton Earnshaw. In this way, she establishes equilibrium back in the story. Story Cathy is a very curious and mischievous girl. When thirteen years old, she seeks out Wuthering Heights, the house to which she is not allowed to travel because Heathcliff, Edgar's enemy, resides there. On arrival she meets Hareton Earnshaw, the nephew of her mother. Nelly, who travels with her, insists that he is her cousin. Cathy is genuinely amazed and a bit shocked at his coarse, uneducated language, his dirty clothes and his savage manner. She disapproves that there is no way that it could be so. On her ...
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Catherine Earnshaw
Catherine Earnshaw is a fictional character and the female protagonist of the 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights'' written by Emily Brontë. Catherine is one of two children to Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, the original tenants of the Wuthering Heights estate. The star-crossed love between her and Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Heathcliff is one of the primary focuses of the novel. Catherine is often referred to as "Cathy," particularly by Heathcliff. Biography Cathy Earnshaw is the younger sister of Hindley Earnshaw. Cathy and Hindley are born and raised at Wuthering Heights (fictional location), Wuthering Heights. The siblings are later joined by the Foundling baby, foundling Heathcliff, who is adopted by Mr. Earnshaw during a trip to Liverpool. Heathcliff and Hindley develop a rivalry, while Catherine and Heathcliff develop a close bond, as they are both wild and unruly. Following the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley demotes Heathcliff to the role of a servant and attempts, with the help ...
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Wuthering Heights
''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with the Earnshaws' foster son, Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Heathcliff. The novel was influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction. ''Wuthering Heights'' is now widely considered to be one of the greatest novels ever written in English, but contemporaneous reviews were polarised. It was controversial for its depictions of mental and physical cruelty, including domestic abuse, and for its challenges to Victorian morality and religious and societal values. ''Wuthering Heights'' was accepted by publisher Thomas Newby along with Anne Brontë's ''Agnes Grey'' before the success of their sister Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte's novel ''Jane Eyre'', but they were published later. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited a seco ...
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Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte and Anne Brontë, Anne titled ''Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell'' with her own poems finding regard as poetic genius. Emily was the second-youngest of the four surviving Brontë family, Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell Brontë, Branwell. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell. Early life Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818 to Maria Branwell and an Irish father, Patrick Brontë. The family was living on Market Street in the village of Thornton, West Yorkshire, Thornton on the outskirts of Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Emily was the second youngest of six siblings, preceded by Ma ...
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Northanger Abbey
''Northanger Abbey'' () is a coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ... novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by Jane Austen. Austen was also influenced by Charlotte Lennox's ''The Female Quixote'' (1752). ''Northanger Abbey'' was completed in 1803, the first of Austen's novels completed in full, but was published posthumously in 1817 with ''Persuasion (novel), Persuasion''. The story concerns Catherine Morland, the naïve young protagonist, and her journey to a better understanding of herself and of the world around her. How Catherine views the world has been distorted by her fondness for Gothic novels and an active imagination. Plot summary Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman. Although a tomboy in he ...
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Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her use of biting irony, along with her realism and social commentary, have earned her acclaim among critics, scholars and readers alike. With the publication of ''Sense and Sensibility'' (1811), '' Pride and Prejudice'' (1813), ''Mansfield Park'' (1814), and '' Emma'' (1816), she achieved modest success but only little fame in her lifetime since the books were published anonymously. She wrote two other novels—''Northanger Abbey'' and '' Persuasion'', both published posthumou ...
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Abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnancies. When deliberate steps are taken to end a pregnancy, it is called an induced abortion, or less frequently "induced miscarriage". The unmodified word ''abortion'' generally refers to an induced abortion. The reasons why women have abortions are diverse and vary across the world. Reasons include maternal health, an inability to afford a child, domestic violence, lack of support, feeling they are too young, wishing to complete education or advance a career, and not being able or willing to raise a child conceived as a result of rape or incest. When properly done, induced abortion is one of the safest procedures in medicine. In the United States, the risk of maternal mortality is 14 times lower after induced abortion than after chi ...
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