Gynocriticism and 'Jane Eyre': The conflict of the female identity in language
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
When reading a novel like Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre', with both a female author and narrator, a series of implications arise by the structuring of a feminine language within the constructs of a patriarchal society, and thus, a masculine discourse; such an oppression innate to language...
The Presence of Language and Metaphysical Conceit in John Donne's 'The Flea' and 'The Good Morrow'
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
In her essay “Poetry as Language Presentation: John Donne, Poet, Preacher, Craftsman,” Anca Rosu writes, “In representing, revealing or reflecting, language becomes absent, imperceptible. It can be kept present only if it is not made to reveal or reflect” (Rosu, 14). Rosu...
The Structure of Sound: Edmund Spenser's 'Epithalamion'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Edmund Spenser's “Epithalamion” is a certain divergence from the well established themes of grief and mourning over unrequited love so commonly embraced by Renaissance sonneteers. The departure from the expected brooding and pining voice is vividly divulged in a refreshingly sincere...
Oppression and limited discourse in Melville and Alcott
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Herman Melville's 'Bartleby, the Scrivener' is a first person narrative of a lawyer's attempt to satiate his curiosity concerning Bartleby, a scrivener employed in his law office. His interest in the scrivener is the direct motive behind the lawyer's narrative, to the extent of a theme;...
Writing Huck Finn: Twain's Creative Process
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
The book Writing Huck Finn: Mark Twain's Creative Process, published in 1992, was written by Victor A. Doyno, an academic specialist of the prominent American writer and past-president of the Mark Twain's Circle of America, whose members are Twain enthusiasts. Through genetic criticism,...
Pride and Prejudice. Cinema vs Literature
Essay - 7 pages - Literature
A comparative study of the opening scene of Pride and Prejudice; based on the book published in 1873 and the film released in 2005. A visual presentation of a literary work such as Pride and Prejudice and especially the opening scene may lead the audience to read the novel and introduce the...
The Writer and Nietzsche
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Throughout both 'The Birth of Tragedy' and 'The Genealogy of Morals', Friedrich Nietzsche explains the role and power of the artist. The artist, in particular, the writer, is a creator of illusions. Due to the increase in electronics and technology in the modern area, illusions...
Waiting for a Miracle: Waiting and its many forms portrayed in 'Largo Desolato', 'The Polish Complex', and, 'Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light'
Essay - 6 pages - Literature
“The typically human act of trying to see oneself is always fascinating, agonizing, comical, for we can never turn fast enough to see all sides at once in the mirror. And the greatest trick remains seeing how we see” ('The Polish Complex' Intro, page V). Throughout 'The...
Themes throughout 'The Wasteland'
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
Within 'The Wasteland' by T.S Eliot, there exists a vast array of literary elements used to turn this poem into something more than just a jumble of mixed up phrases and quotes. While this jumble builds the poem, it also makes it hard to identify a single meaning or purpose that lingers...
Why we need the system: Hobbes, Locke, and 'State of Nature'
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have each compiled an elaborate explanation of society, as they believe it ought to be. Hobbes in 'Leviathan' and Locke in 'Second Treatise of Government', have recorded their differing interpretations of the state of nature, the logic behind...
The homes of Catherine in 'Washington Square' and Frado of 'Our Nig'
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
The homes of Catherine in 'Washington Square' and Frado of 'Our Nig' are essential to the development and understanding of these heroines. Each novel places emphasis on different aspects of the homes as they relate to the most involved characters of the novel, particularly...
A Close Reading of "Trifles"
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
When reading any work of literature, one can miss many of the work's underlying aspects simply by not reading it carefully enough. A thorough and close reading of a work should yield much more satisfying results—the reader should understand themes and ideas that were important to the...
Parent/Child relations in American Literature
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Throughout American Literature, one can notice many writings focus on either mother/daughter relationships or father/son relationships. These relationships are described in various ways, but one very common way involves parental love towards sometimes unappreciative children. This parental love...
Mission: Character analysis of Raskolnikov
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Should the character of Raskolnikov be considered a madman or a mentally disturbed person? Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov displays many symptoms that can be considered crazy. On the other hand, there are several mental defects that fit with Raskolnikov's behavior. Analyzing Raskolnikov...
'Night' at the Core of Elie Wiesel
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Elie Wiesel is an internationally renowned writer and Holocaust survivor. His expansive collection of work is all derived from his first book, which is called 'Night'. It is the foundation for all of Wiesel's works and shared ideas. His ideas, which centralize around a bluntly honest look...
Night: An open minded perception
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
Elie Wiesel is a Jewish American author and Holocaust survivor. Wiesel's first book, 'Night', is an account of his experience in the concentration camp Auschwitz. This personal and vivid account launches a stream of consciousness, enlightening the reader to a new perception of various...
Dickinson's 'Meditation on the Future'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
The belief in any sort of prophecy is contingent on the idea that the human psyche holds the potential to, at any degree, know the future. 'This World is not Conclusion', a poem by Emily Dickinson, promotes the impermanence of our state of being. Rather than predicting a specific future,...
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Book review
Essay - 8 pages - Literature
In the book 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', Nietzsche provides the reader with a fictional account of a Persian prophet named Zarathustra. He takes this historical figure and turns him into a libratory prophet for the modern world. Nietzsche argues that Zarathustra is the first individual to...
Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber': A revision of social fictions
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber' comprises a collection of short stories, all of which, in some sense or another, exemplify a variation or reworking of popularized fairy tales. Her writing style, rather than taking the form of any one genre, crosses the boundaries of all of them;...
The neo-Romanticist underpinnings of Roberts's 'Tantramar Revisited' and Lampman's 'Heat'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Canadian poets Roberts and Lampman, both affiliated with the school of Confederation poetry, found themselves writing amidst a “new world” full of beauty and prosperity and were thus eager to capture this essence of the Canadian landscape. Hence, their turn towards the Romantic poets of...
Identity Construction in Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' and Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest'
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Both Henrik Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' and Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest' depict the constant conflict between the individual and the society in which they live; and, more specifically, the struggle of the individual to construct his or her own identity in light of...
Wrath of the Gods in the epic 'The Odyssey'
Essay - 1 pages - Literature
The dictionary definition of an epic is “An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.” In the epic, The Odyssey, the narrator takes the reader on a journey with the epic hero, (or traditional/ legendary hero)...
Post-structuralism and deconstruction - publié le 29/09/2010
Essay - 8 pages - Literature
Literary theory has penetrated all spheres of modern day life. It has shifted from being a prerogative of Academia to being a part of a popular culture. Yet, how can the term "literary theory" be defined lucidly? According to McLaughlin, literary theory is the "debate over nature and function of...
Commentary ' the chimney sweeper ' by William Blake - publié le 29/09/2010
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
This poem, written in 1789 by William Blake, was published in “Songs of Inno-cence”. Like its fellow poems, it deals with childhood as an epitome for innocence and purity; here, the poet chooses to look into the life of the poor young boys who used to sweep chimneys in London in those...
Analysis of Ode on Melancholy by John Keats
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Ode on Melancholy is an example of a Pindaric ode, i.e., it is composed in iambic pentameter (we have some occasional spondees too), while the rhyme scheme is a b a b c d e c d e for the first two stanzas and a b a b c d e d c e for the third and last one. We have three stanzas, the first one...
Storytelling in Beckett's collected shorter plays - publié le 29/09/2010
Essay - 6 pages - Literature
"The exposition of the story and its communication by suitable means of estrangement, constitute the main business of the theatre; everything hangs on the story; it is the heart of the theatrical performance" (Bertolt Brecht, A Short Organum for the Theatre). Thus it is observed that, in...
What is an American?, from Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer, Letter III - publié le 29/09/2010
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
A Frenchman by birth, Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur (1735?-1813) soon transformed himself into Hector St. John as part of his quest to become an epitome of the American farmer. Leaving his mother land around 1754 as a pioneer to French Canada, he finally settled in America in the...
Twelfth night, William Shakespeare, Acte II, scene V - publié le 29/09/2010
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
Written in 1599 and first performed in 1602, "Twelfth Night?, like other Shakespearean comedies, presents us with a blend of realism and a fanciful atmosphere. The main plot deals with the love triangle between the countess Olivia, her suitor the Duke Orsino, and Viola, a shipwrecked young woman...
Critical Commentary on Paul Verlaine's Une Grande Dame - publié le 29/09/2010
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Paul Verlaine was born in 1844 and died in Paris in 1896. His work ?Une Grande Dame' is, therefore, an orthodox Petrarchan sonnet, as was typical of the poetry composed from the sixteenth century onward. In this document, I shall be studying form, imagery and vocabulary in particular, but...
The shining - publié le 29/09/2010
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
By choosing to produce ?The Shining' Stephen King's masterpiece, in 1980, Stanley Kubrick tackled one of the most bounded and codified cinematographic genres: the fantastic mode. Kubrick produced the film just after the relative failure of Barry Lyndon, and this time, it was a huge...
