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 Road to the Good Life?
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
Today, when people use the word stoic, they often are not referring to the philosophical tradition, but to a type of person who does not show much outward emotion, someone who is strong in the face of tragedy or pain. However, in a culture in which we are encouraged to express our emotions (to...
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....
A Defense of the Capabilities Approach
Essay - 8 pages - Philosophy
There is no country in the world where women are treated equally to men. Women are consistently fed less than men, given fewer educational opportunities, and fewer freedoms. Situations in developing countries are often more overtly detrimental to women, for example in India, it is estimated...
Staging in plays
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
The staging of plays varies greatly in complexity, beauty and visual effect from one play to another. Writers sometimes focus their ideas rather on the characters' speech and acting than on creating a unique and refined staging technique. Both Henrik Ibsen in A Doll's House and Arthur Miller in...
Works of literature often contain a secret which is eventually revealed with great dramatic effect
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Henrik Ibsen in his drama A Doll's House vividly shocked his contemporary audiences of 1879, unaccustomed to the radical and novel insights on the relationship between husband and wife he displayed through his heroines' emancipation, from her role of a self content wife in a superficial marriage...
"No artist tolerates reality" - Nietzsche. To what extend is this true in the work of Yeats and Eliot?
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
"No artist tolerates reality", as far as this quotation of Nietzsche is concerned, it is true that artists - and therefore writers - cannot tolerate reality, and that is the reason why they often aim at changing this reality through their art, and in the case of writers, through their written...
Literature is replete with moments of failed communication. Paying close attention to the causes and consequences of this failure, discuss this notion using two works of literature
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Henrik Ibsen in A Doll's House, first performed in 1879, created an unforgettable figure of our literary heritage, presenting to the contemporary audience of his day a shockingly modern and innovative drama in which his heroine, Nora, one of the most powerful depictions of nineteenth century...
"The root of all chaos stems from the family". Discuss the dynamics of family conflict in two works you have studied
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Aristotle based his famous works on tragedy on the analysis of what he considered to be the “perfect”, paradigm of tragedy- Sophocle's carefully Crafted Oedipus the King. The myth of Oedipus has been studied, analysed, spread worldwide and widely used by writers, even philosophers such...
Education and loneliness in British Literature
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Education is as a general rule considered as a chance to the extent that it is often symbolized as a treasure. People are still struggling get their children educated in the developing countries. Tony Harrisson points out in "Two Book End? (The School of Eloquence) that education can be the cause...
"Nothing that is so, is so": The extent of role of this statement in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
“Nothing that is so, is so”, says Feste. He says so ironically, talking to Sebastian, who he is convinced is actually Cesario. This is said for a specific situation, but it might actually be relevant for the whole play: Indeed, this apparently absurd quotation raises the question of...
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...
Transcending the Fallacy of the Binary Through Ambivalence
Thesis - 6 pages - Philosophy
A thought process that appears to be common to all humans is that of setting up binaries. It is a tendency that exists across cultures and since “the beginning of time.” This may be because it is easier to define what something is not than what it actually is. The opposition of a...
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, Chapter 7 reviews
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
At the beginning of this chapter, a letter from his father explains to Victor the circumstances of William's murder. He leaves for Geneva immediately to comfort and grieve with his family. But it is dark when he reaches Geneva and gets close to home, during a thunderstorm and Victor is started to...
Alatiel and Helen: War Caused by Beauty?
Thesis - 7 pages - Philosophy
Few storylines are more familiar than that of the woman so beautiful that men cannot resist her and will stop short of nothing, even murder or treachery, to possess her. The most famous of these women is of course, Helen, with “the face that launched a thousand ships,” many of which...
The Problematic Third Speech of the Phaedrus and Ficino's Neoplatonic Reinterpretation
Thesis - 7 pages - Philosophy
There has been much scholarly debate concerning the relative merit of the three speeches in Plato's Phaedrus; the third speech, in particular, is much contested. While the first two speeches are undeniably mired in self-contradiction and materialism, the third speech, though mythical in content...
"The French lost the language war", argues John Kay. Do you agree?
Essay - 1 pages - Philosophy
Language has become an important issue due to globalization. Previously if a person spoke only one language it did not matter much. However the situation is completely different in the modern world. Learning English has become mandatory for every individual to surive in the globalized world. John...
What is the function of representation in Hobbes conception of political power as presented in the Leviathan?
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
The notion of Representation is a key feature in democratic regimes. More stable than the direct participation of the people into political life, it supposes that the institutions of the State reflect the composition and the wishes of the people. A simple look at the title of the book-the...
What are the differences between Locke's and Hobbes' notions of the "state of nature"?
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are probably the most famous political thinkers of the 17th century. The generally accepted view asserts that these authors were poles apart, the first one advocating an absolutist regime and the latter recommending a stable civil society where powers are separated....
What are the differences between Locke's and Hobbes' notions of the "state of nature"? - publié le 11/04/2007
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are probably the most famous political thinkers of the 17th century. The generally accepted view asserts that these authors stood poles apart, the first one advocating an absolutist regime and the latter recommending a stable civil society where powers are separated....
The French cultural exception: Exception or exclusion?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
In a bit more than one decade, culture has become a crucial issue of the globalization process. In fact, the IT revolution along with the development of transport, the increase of the international commercial exchanges and foreign investments, and the constitution of multinational conglomerates...
Republicanism and constitution-making in the young American Nation
Essay - 8 pages - Philosophy
When the first colonists settled on the Atlantic coast of America and built the towns of Plymouth and Jamestown at the beginning of 17th century, they were looking for a better life than their homelands could provide them with. However, a century later, the descendants of the first settlers can...
Is it conceivable that you might survive the death of your body?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
If somebody thinks thoroughly about life, he will naturally come across the thought of death. We see death as a natural consequence of life. Everyone is not agreeing on the meaning of death though. Some see it as the end of everything, a total annihilation; others see it as the start of a new...
Descartes' version of the ontological argument in the light of Kant's criticism
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
God has always been a subject of debate and it will probably always be so. One of the reasons leading to this perpetual debate is that people have never agreed on the concept of God. Some religions (e.g. Hinduism) believe that there are several Gods whilst others (e.g. Christianity, Islam,...
How (if at all) do you know that you are not dreaming?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
One big philosophical question is to know whether we know anything or not. Knowing in a sense is quite different from its everyday use. As a matter of fact everyone claims to know various things all the time, but the conditions that are required to say that we know in everyday life are quite...
How (if at all) do you know that you are not a brain in a vat? - publié le 05/04/2007
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
Our whole life (attitudes, reactions, actions) is based on knowledge. Depending on our present state of knowledge, we react to different situations in different ways, give different answers to different questions. To do that, one has to know something. Even though we do not tend to question our...
The Wood-Pile
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
Frost presents to us here a rather enigmatic poem. Upon a first contemplation the reader may experience the feeling that he has read a poem about nothing, and may read and re-read it, endeavoring to discover some hidden meaning. And indeed “The Wood-Pile” is virtually about nothing, a...
Chapter VIII's analysis of 'Human Bondage' by Somerset Maugham
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
The excerpt to analyse retraces what may be considered as a part of the main body of the plot of the apprenticeship novel Of Human Bondage by the English writer Somerset Maugham. The passage I'm about to try to analyse is extracted from the 58th chapter which means that the reader is already half...
