Jane Eyre's Preservation of Self
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a novel that focuses heavily on the protagonist's sense of self-respect and her insistence on remaining true to her principles and standards despite all odds. One of the most fundamental aspects of Jane's character is her refusal to sacrifice her own values for...
The Presence of Walt Whitman in "A Supermarket in California"
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Allen Ginsberg's poem “A Supermarket in California” is a vivid depiction of the contrast between a lighted, populated American supermarket and the dark, solitary streets outside; a contrast between the youthful American generation and the aged, solitary Walt Whitman who is contained...
Cesario and Homosexuality in The Twelfth Night
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Found within William Shakespeare's play The Twelfth Night are many aspects of irony that contribute to its comical nature. In particular, the character Cesario, whose actor is veiled under two layers of falsity, is interesting not only because of the humor that surrounds him, but because of his...
Homer's epic poem, The Iliad
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Homer's epic poem, The Iliad, creates two very distinct heroic figures: Achilles and Hektor. These men come from different backgrounds and have different reasons for fighting in the Trojan War; Achilles fights for honor, whereas Hektor fights to defend his city, and yet both know that if they...
The Two Theban Tragedies: Antigone and Oedipus the King
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
Greek tragedies all possess a common trait: the protagonist displays a tragic flaw, which ultimately leads to his or her downfall. In the two Theban tragedies, Antigone and Oedipus the King, Creon's tragic flaw is immoderation, while Oedipus' unwillingness to accept his fate causes his demise....
Butterfly or Bumblebee?: The Sting of Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Oscar Wilde said that his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, subtitled “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” was “written by a butterfly for butterflies” (qtd. in Stokes 115). Although this statement may be true, the subject of the play itself, while treated in a...
The Enlightenment of Sir Gawain
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is a model knight in all things material; he excels in his physical prowess as well as the arts of conversation and courtly love. Although he also exhibits outward signs of devotion and piety, his spirituality is called into question through the...
King Mongkut: Man, Myth, and Misrepresentation
Essay - 6 pages - Literature
Fewer stories of a Western encounter with the “Other” have been more popular than that of the English governess Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut (Rama IV) of Siam, now Thailand. The fascination began with the two books written by Anna herself, The English Governess at the Siamese Court...
Treatment of time in Virginia Woolf's Work
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
In her novel "Orlando: a Biography" published in 1927, Virginia Woolf evokes 'the extraordinary discrepancy between time on the clock and time in the mind' (Orlando p.91) and the opposition she expresses between this two conceptions of time is to be found, more or less obviously, in most...
"Araby", James Joyce
Book review - 8 pages - Literature
This short story was written by James Joyce who lived from 1882 to 1941; it is an extract from Dubliners, published in 1914. The book is compound with several short stories which take place in Dublin, and deal with the monotone life of some citizens. The text is entitled "Araby" and tells the...
Comment from the essay "Culture and anarchy" written by Matthew Arnold published in 1869
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
Matthew Arnold, in his philosophical essay Culture and Anarchy, published in 1869, exposes his view of culture in a generally way, that is to say, that this view could and should be applied to any society or any group of men on the earth. He wrote it at a time where Bentham's Utilitarianism was...
Margaret Drabble, "The Millstone": part of the « Angry Young Men » movement?
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Margaret Drabble is a writer who was often assimilated to what is called the ‘Angry Young Men' literary movement. But, as a lot of those writers of the 1950s who were put into the same category, she never claimed being fully part of this movement - all the more so since the term of «...
Orwell said in an essay titled Why I write : "It is my purpose to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole." How far does Orwell achieve this in 1984 ?
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
Let us remember that, at the end of 1936, Orwell fought for the Republicans (against Franco) in Spain, where he was wounded. We know that Orwell's 1984 (published in 1949) was given this title because the novel was written in 1948, just after the end of the Second World War and the fall of...
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Essay - 8 pages - Literature
The Bluest Eye contains a number of autobiographical elements. It is set in the town where Morrison grew up (Lorain), and it is told from the point of view of a nine-year-old girl, the age Morrison would have been the year the novel takes place (1941). Like the MacTeer family, Morrison's family...
The Nineteenth Century's Middle Ages: Representation of the Middle Ages through nineteenth century novels or arts
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Henry Adams, Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres (1913). In Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams depicts several well-known monuments and old sights of France, all of which were built during the Middle Ages. In this book, published in 1913, Adams comments on those monuments as he is looking...
With close reference to any two poems on this course, critically discuss different conceptions of American-ness
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
One can find a great variety of themes in American poetry, whatever the period one is interested in: poems about love or about war, about the self or about nature, about reality or about dreams. But the common point of all these is that they convey a sense of American-ness - that is, they can all...
The double personality in Edgar Allan Poe's tales: William Wilson and The Cask of Amontillado
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Edgar Allan Poe's stories often reflect some of his own personal problems. William Wilson and The Cask of Amontillado are usually classified with the label “tales of the double (or evil) personality”. They reflect one of the strangest aspects of Poe's life. He actually had a blurred...
