Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories - Alice Munro (1946) - Comparaison with Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (1990)
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
The first text we study here is a story from Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories, which was written by Alice Munro in 1946. From the beginning of the text, the protagonist explains that her mom spends all of her time working on sewing her daughter's dress for the dance. She spends...
Twelfth Night, Act 3 scene 1, v.59-162
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
Act III opens in Olivia's garden. We can say that this scene is light and jovial because Viola (disguised as Cesario since Act I) has just encountered Olivia's Clown Feste. It is mainly a scene between Olivia and Viola, and we may say that the last time they were together on stage was in...
"The Reception" by Maria Barrett
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
This is an extract from Dishonored written by Maria Barrett in 1996. Thanks to the title "Reception", we can know at the first sight that this text relates an invitation and a kind of meeting. This story deals with relationships and reactions between the different characters and reveals the...
Martin Luther King: "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
Text commentary - 5 pages - Literature
King's final speech took place in a specific context of tension and it represented the heyday of the civil rights movement. Large riots in major cities and the divisive issue of the Vietnam War had shattered the liberal consensus for civil rights and created an atmosphere of crisis. On April...
W.E.B. DuBois "Of Alexander Crummel" - The Soul of Black Folks
Text commentary - 5 pages - Literature
With the collection of fourteen essays The Soul of Black Folks , published in 1903, W.E.B. DuBois created a huge division within the movement of black protest in the USA. When the most influential leader of this movement, Booker T. Washington promoted educational training and especially an...
Amanda Smith Jemand -The South is our home - Black Women in White America
Text commentary - 5 pages - Literature
The document "The South is our home" written by Amanda Smith Jemand is an article extracted from the journal The Independent, Vol.52 N°2725 dated February 21, 1901. This article was reprinted in the book Black Women in White America. This book is an anthology of documents about black history in...
Soliloquies in Richard III
Text commentary - 6 pages - Literature
Ce travail propose une analyse de trois principaux soliloques de la pièce de Shakespeare ayant pour titre Richard III. Quelle est la fonction d'un monologue/ soliloque? Comment Shakespeare les utilise-t-il pour nous montrer la vraie nature de ses personnages?
Art and Life in The Picture of Dorian Gray
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
Ce travail propose une réflexion sur le thème de l'art et de la vie dans le roman The Picture of Dorian Gray d'Oscar Wilde. Comment ces deux concepts interagissent-ils tout au long du livre? Quels rapports les personnages entretiennent-ils avec l'art? L'art est-il plus important...
Commentaire du texte "Their First slave" extrait du roman Queen écrit par alex Haley en 1993. Rédigé en anglais.
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
This text is an extract from the novel Queen written by Alex Haley in 1993. The excerpt is called "Their first slave". The story takes place in the USA, and more precisely in Nasheville, in the 19th century, that is to say when slavery was still legal. Two young Irish immigrants, Washington and...
Résumé Anglais Terminale S Emma Jane Austeen 550 Mots
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
Let me tell you about a XIX century love story... Her name is Emma, Emma Woodhouse. She is beautiful, clever and rich. Her mother died when she was only five. So Mr. Woodhouse, her father, found Miss Taylor, a housekeeper, to look after his two daughters. Thus Emma lived with his father, Miss...
"Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus", Mary Shelley (1818) - letter IV
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
This last letter before the first chapter of the book is written at sea. It is composed of three letters (5th August, 13th August and 19th August). The story takes place in the three weeks between 31st July and 19th August; we can know it because the chronology is very detailed. This story...
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead", Tom Stoppard (1967)
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
In this excerpt from 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead', the two minor characters turned protagonists are reunited with the player they encountered earlier and on whom they walked out as he and his companions were acting out a play form theme. There ensues a lament on the...
"Flying Carpet", Steven Millhauser - "flying up to the sky" - publié le 30/06/2010
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
Steven Millhauser is a writer of realist fiction. However, his work cannot be limited by labeling it only realistic. Another dimension is added to his short stories. They are full of interpretations. In Flying Carpet, though the story seems to be quite casual, even banal - a child trying to reach...
"Jane Eyre", Charlotte Bronte (1847) - "But the privations (...) to put in a coffin"
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
The excerpt under scrutiny, located in the first part of the novel, comes directly after the protagonist has accepted the harsh lifestyle of Lowood and declared she would rather be there and endure the never-ending privations than back at Gateshead. This passage acts as a sort of pause in the...
"After great pain, a formal feeling comes", poem 341, Emily Dickinson (1955)
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
The poem, "Under Scrutiny' is strongly reminiscent of 'Pain has an element of blank' in the way it describes a state of numbness, a sort of in-betweenness placing the subject at the limit between consciousness and oblivion. The two poems echo each other perfectly in their evocation of...
"The Autobiography of my Mother", Jamaica Kincaid (1995) - "What makes the world go round? (...) cocoa tree grew in England"
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
Jamaica Kincaid wrote 'The Autobiography of my mother' in 1955. She was from the small island of Antigua located in the Caribbean area. It was colonized by the Spanish and by the British. In this way, the reader easily understands the importance of the colonial theme in the book. The...
"My Antonia", Willa Cather - chapter XIV "I remembered ... any longer"
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
Because of his losing his parents, Jim Burden has left Virginia to live with his grandparents in Nebraska. He discovers the Bohemian girl who has arrived to Black Hawk on the same train, on the same day as himself. This excerpt we have to study deals with Mr Shimerda's death. We can assert it...
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act III, scene 1, l.1- 125
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
Remembering their previous apparition, a comic and ridiculous situation is expected. Indeed, once again, it turns out that they are poor actors. Their play is supposed to be tragic and to trigger the pity and compassion of the audience while their acting keeps getting worse like the use of...
The Whitsun Weddings", Philip Larkin (1964) - identity, belonging and rootlessness in "Home Is So Sad", "Afternoons", "A study of reading clothes", "Self's the Man", "Mr Bleaney '
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
In his anthology, 'The Whitsun Weddings', Larkin develops several themes, such as the concepts of identity, belonging etc. He expresses his opinions on these themes with the use of certain language features that help set a mood for the poem. In 'A Study of Reading Habits and...
"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...
