"The Merchant of Venice ", William Shakespeare (1594) - relationships between characters
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
In 'The Merchant of Venice', the characters are linked together on account of their love, their friendship and also because of money. The plots thus, have many dimensions and the play itself has many important themes, among which is the bonds. Indeed, this notion is very ambivalent and it...
Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
This passage corresponds to a climax in the narrative. It corresponds to the birth of the creature that Victor wanted to give life to. Victor is the narrator of this passage and he has just completed his creation after two years of work. This passage is a key moment in the story and corresponds...
Macbeth, William Shakespeare - the equivocal ambiguities, puns, play with words and mirror effects
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
"Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / the instruments of darkness tell us truths, / Win us with honest trifles, to betray / in deepest consequence? (Act I scene 3, 123-126). Banquo warns Macbeth, who is wandering if he can believe the rest of the three witches' Prophecies, as he just had been...
"From the Diary of an almost-four-year-old", Hanan Ashrawi (1988)
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
The poem, 'From the Diary of an almost-four-year-old' was written by Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi, a Palestinian writer, in 1988. The speaker in this poem is an almost-four-year-old little girl who was fired at by a soldier, during the Israel-Palestine war. She lost an eye and she wonders about...
"They came for the Jews," Martin Niemoller, and "God loves you anyway" Harold Kushnersay - the care of others
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
The first essay is a poem entitled 'First, They Came for The Jews', written by a German Pastor named Martin Niemoller. It talks about what happened in 1939-1945, during World War II, where many people died, due to the nazi government in Germany. The second essay is an extract of a book...
"Les contes de Canterbury", Geoffrey Chaucer (2000) - "Le conte de la femme de Bath ", un conte protoféministe ?
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
"The Wife of Bath" in "The Canterbury Tales", written by Geoffrey Chaucer is a fascinating character. Chaucer the Pilgrim admired her distinguishing characteristics and life experiences. She wanted to fashion her own idea about life. Her sexuality and arrogance make her stand out because those...
Ernest J. Gaines, "Tell them I am a man ", Chapter IX - A review
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
This document is an extract of various chapters of the novel A lesson before dying by Ernest J. Gaines. We describe a scene from the novel in chapter VI in this document. Grant the narrator had met the sheriff Sam Guidry at Pichot's house in order to know if he would be given the right to...
Ernest J. Gaines, "Tell them I am a man ", Chapter III - A review
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
Published in 1993 by Alfred A. Knopf, A lesson before dying is Ernest J. Gaines' sixth novel. The story is set in the 1940s, in the fictional community of Bayonne, which is clearly based on Gaines' own childhood home, which is called Pointe Coupee Parish, in Louisiana. To understand the...
What is a novel ? A fiction ? Literature?
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
For several centuries, the predominant idea, except little exclusions like works by Diderot or Cervantes, was that the main function of novels was simply to tell a story. Reflections about writing itself were essentially reserved to poetry. Novels extol primacy to imagination and their...
Paul Auster, "Brooklyn Follies" - "Double-cross" (chapter 20), de That was when Harry...." a " cradled in the arms of the B.P.M.
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
This extract is the 20th chapter, 'Double Cross' of the novel. This is the story of Harry's murder, which constitutes the most tragic moment of the book. Nathan is here the narrator. He and Tom leave the Chowder Inn in order to go back to New York for Harry's funeral. Later will...
Paul Auster, "Brooklyn Follies" - "Dream days at the Hotel Existence" (chapter 19), de "first perusal of the grounds?" a "say nothing to Tom"
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
This passage is an extract from the nineteenth chapter of 'Purgatory' from the Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. The characters arrive at a place to end up finding somewhere to sleep as their car broke down. It constitutes the longest chapter of the novel which is so in a way the linchpin...
Paul Auster, "Brooklyn Follies" - "Purgatory" (chapitre 3), de " No one grows up? " a " would have remained in this purgatory "
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
This passage is an extract from the third chapter of 'Purgatory' from the Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. It's after the first appointment between Nathan and Tom. In this chapter, the story is focused on Tom's recent past, since his arrival in Brooklyn, and that's why we...
A multiple representation of the Shebeen Queen
Text commentary - 16 pages - Literature
"More than a shebeen queen, she is the incarnation of motherhood?: a theme that Peter Abrahams develops in Mine Boy. Xuma, the protagonist, is surrounded by support and advice. Surprisingly, Leah is not the only mother figure in Mine Boy; a white woman called Di also plays this role. In addition...
The origins of the South Africa Shebeen Queen
Text commentary - 18 pages - Literature
What is a shebeen and what is the origin of this term? This is the first question we will try to answer in detail. "The exact origins of the word shebeen are unknown, but it most likely came into popular use in Ireland from the Irish-Gaelic language before spreading to the English-speaking...
The Aunt's Story, Patrick White
Text commentary - 7 pages - Literature
Australian literature includes many different literary genres, from poetry to autobiography, and its history is, like that of Australia, quite recent. Among Australian writers, Patrick White stands out, mainly because contrary to many Australian writers, his works are not solely based on the...
Patrick White's The Aunt's Story
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
An epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature.' This sentence uttered in 1973 when Patrick White won the Nobel Prize for literature. Indeed, not only did he bring on the international scene Australia as a country which produced a great writer but...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies - On rascals (Chap. 7)
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we have here is an extract from the novel the Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a 60 year old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die, but after a moment, he...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies An unexpected encounter "I lost contact" "happy and rich"
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
This text is an extract from the novel Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a 60 years old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die. In fact, someone recommended him...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies - Dream days at the hotel existence (Chap. 19) - "A steep dirt road" and "except having children"
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we have here is an extract from the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a sixty year old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die. However, after a moment...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies A night of eating and drinking - "I'm not talking" - "inside your dreams"
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we have here is an extract form the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Here, we are in the 1st half of the novel and 3 characters are present: Tom, Nathan and Harry. Nathan, the main character of the book, is Tom's uncle, and Harry is Tom's...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies Farewell to the court (Chap. 3)
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we are about to study is an extract from the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Here, we are at the beginning of the novel, where Nathan and Tom are having lunch and talking about Tom's activities. We may wonder in what ways the passage is...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies - Overture (Chap. 1) "It was early" - "were lost forever"
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
This text is an extract from the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a 60 year old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die. Someone recommended Brooklyn to...
The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
The History of love is a novel written by Nicole Krauss and was published in 2006. First of all, this excerpt is astonishing as far as the figure of the narrator is concerned. As we do not know the novel and its plot, we will consider that the narrator is a masculine child feeling his first love...
The Sea, John Banville (p. 112-114)
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
The Sea is a novel written by John Banville. Even if it was published in 2006, its story takes place at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century in France. This extract begins with the meeting and the marriage of Pierre Bonnard and Marthe de Méligny. Then, it offers a long...
Reading in the dark, Seamus Dean Chapter six
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
The chapter is from the third part of the novel and it is sixth chapter which runs from page 225 to page 227. The extract, as the title suggests, is dedicated to the narrator's father. The narrator describes in the previous chapter the failed relationship with his mother with whom he can no...
The Garden Party, de Katherine Mansfield
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
The Garden Party is considered as Katherine Mansfield's most frequently anthologized short story. In this fiction story which was published in 1922, Mansfield draws the contrasted painting of childhood and adulthood, its innocence and experience, the upper and lower classes which was...
First scene of Doris Lessing's "The Fifth Child"
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
This extract is the first scene of Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child, a book published in 1988 which deals with Ben a monster-like child whose birth deeply alters his parent's life. This first scene introduces us to the main characters i.e. David and Harriet and sets the general tone of the...
Literary commentary on the poem "the satirist" taken from collected poems by Louis Mac Neice
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
Louis Mac Neice was a famous Irish playwright and poet. He was born on September 12th, 1907 and died on September 3rd, 1963. He was a member of the "thirties poets" which included W. H. Auden, C. Day Lewis and Stephen Spender. He wrote many plays like The Dark Tower and other radio scripts and...
Marvel's "To His Coy Mistress": a Baroque reworking of conventions
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) was an English Metaphysical poet. Marvell wrote several satirical poems against the corruption of the court, but they were published after his death (for being too subversive). ?To His Coy Mistress', though not about politics, is also a subversive poem. It is an...
The Duchess of Malfi - John Webster
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
The Duchess of Malfi is a tragedy by the English Jacobean dramatist John Webster. Little is known of Webster's life. He was born around 1580 and probably died in 1634. His plays are considered masterpieces of Elizabethan and Jacobean Theater. The two most famous ones are The White Devil and...
