Male and Female Travelers Essay -- Compare Contrast Gender Writing Na

Male and Female Travelers While reading Helen Maria Williams A Tour in Switzerland and William Coxes Sketches of the Natural, Civil, and Political secernate of Swisserland, I find myself fascinate by Williams description of the Rhine Falls, while feeling indifferent by Coxes depend of the same landscape. It strikes me how much the Rhine Falls influences Williams emotions and her avid imagination, yet it seems to have a subtle effect on Coxe. In her introduction, Williams mentions that the descriptive parts of this journal were rapidly traced with the ardour of a fond imagination, eager to seize the splendid colouring of the moment ere it fled, and give permanence to the emotions of admiration, while the solemn passion beat high in her bosom (vol. I, i). Coxe, on the other hand, seems to onward motion all that he sees with a detached attitude - he is entirely there to observe the scenery, not dwell emotionally and spiritually inside it. The obvious differences among Williams and Coxes approach towards the Rhine Falls show the contrast between what female and male writers value the most in their travels. Williams easily immerses herself into the put-on of the moment in front of the Rhine Falls, while Coxe shows a more removed reaction towards the Rhine Falls, preferring, instead, to observe the Rhine Falls and its surrounding areas as a whole. both(prenominal) Williams and Coxe approach Switzerland differently. Before traveling to the Rhine Falls, Williams already has preconceived expectations and fantasies about what Switzerland is desire I am going to contemplate that interesting country, of which I have never heard without emotion - I am going to gaze upon images of nature, images of which the topic has so often swelled my ... ...s more on how the landscape bequeath benefit them intellectually. For example, William encounter with the Rhine Falls results in her developing an attachment to the horrible grandeur of the cataract, and she feels the cataract possesses a power that is far beyond the comprehension of mankind. Coxe, on the other hand, maintains a detached attitude towards the Rhine Falls. To Coxe, the Rhine Falls is only peerless of the objects that make up the sublimity of the landscape. Works Cited Coxe, William. Sketches of the Natural, Civil, and Political State of Swisserland. A serial of Letters to William Melmoth, Esq. London J. Dodsley, 1779. Williams, Helen Maria. A Tour in Switzerland. A visual sense of the Present State of the Government and Manners of Those Cantons With Comparative Sketches of the Present State of Paris, 2 vols. London G. G. and J. Robinson, 1798.