'I Capture the Castle Study Guide: Analysis'. Next Section Symbols, Allegory and Motifs Previous Section Quotes How To Cite in MLA Format Xie, josephine, et al. Will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. You can help us out by revising, improving and updatingĪfter you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft.

One is attached to society and marriage, and the other is attached to nature and freedom.

Mortmain and his wife Topaz demonstrate the polar opposites of the artistic process, the Cotton brothers demonstrate the polar opposites of the romantic endeavor. His romantic qualities are attachments to California, to land, and to freedom. By contrast, Neil is less romantic and more practical. The elder son is a reader and thinker, and as the elder, he is likely to inherit a good inheritance, but he isn't nearly as happy as his little brother. A good essay could be written comparing and contrasting these two. There is another pair of opposites in the story: Simon Cotton and Neil Cotton.

Whereas the father is emotionally cloistered and maintained, the step-mother is usually naked. Then, there is the step-mother who is the absolute opposite. The children eventually rectify this by hiding him away in the turret room, placing him in a dire situation through which he is finally able to write. The father is a writer who struggles to be free of his own desires for perfection, and often is stumped by writers block. In the home, the father and step-mother are critical figures, nearly mythic in nature. This leads the characters into a wonderful tangling of motives so that the novel becomes an artistic rendering of family and the dance of various characters hoping to fulfill their desires in the arena of the home. The title of I Capture the Castleraises an important question that isn't necessarily answered by the story: Who is capturing the castle? It is not a geopolitical drama that Capture refers to, it seems, but rather, the question is a way of pointing to the various characters and their specific flavors, as if to suggest that their motivation is to be 'in charge,' so they can get what they want. Written by josephine Xie and other people who wish to remain anonymous We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

I capture the castle by dodie smith