Newest Literature Essays

In the year 632AF (the year 2540AD, 632 years after Ford) the world has finally eliminated many inconveniences including war, famine, dissent, disease, depression and jealousy. This conquest, however, came at a cost: cultural assimilation,...

"Life is a tragedy full of joy." The view advanced by Bernard Malamud, while somewhat morbid, is mirrored in his life's work. To express the futility of life in Russia, Malamud creates a setting which seems entirely removed from this century....

In Plato's The Symposium, a discussion between Socrates and another philosopher, Diotima, arises on how man tries to attain goodness. They agree that man loves what is good and pursues the love of good. The next section of their discussion deals...

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author of Self Reliance, was one of the leading Transcendentalists in the American movement and a truly "American" writer. However, he was not as dedicated as Henry David Thoreau, who spent two years living in the woods...

After Septimus' suicide, we encounter Peter Walsh hearing the "light, high bell of the ambulance," and deeming it, in his mind, "one of the triumphs of civilization" (151). He ponders the "efficiency, organization, the communal spirit," of the...

Stanley Kubrick wrote the screenplay for and directed the film A Clockwork Orange based on the book by Anthony Burgess with the same title. The distinguishing feature of the book is the language the narrator, Alexander DeLarge, uses: Nadsat, a...

"Jerusalem," by William Blake, is a contemplative portrayal of England's development during the time period in question. This poem is concerned with the theme of England's loss of innocence; this is important because it shows that development is...

The genius of Sophocles' Oedipus Plays is enriched through the many levels of interpretation that can be explored by each individual reader. One major area left open for interpretation is sight. It is divided into two categories, "physical" sight...

"Though those that are betrayed Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor Stands in worse case of woe" (Cymbeline, III.iv). Shakespeare's carefully crafted world of deception and trickery within Much Ado About Nothing thrives on deceitful...

At first glance, Jane Eyre might be seen as simply a skillfully written Gothic romance. A closer look reveals layers of gender criticism and feminism. Yet, one of the most interesting readings focuses on the layers of class and Marxist commentary...

It is tempting to approach a novel with a predetermined perspective or goal, to which all passages and plot events can be forced to comply. With this approach, the story theoretically makes more sense; the messages to walk away with are neatly...

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, as Jay Gatsby delves into his pursuit of wealth and need for materialism, his hopes and aspirations become shattered in a world of unobtainable and unreachable possibilities. While Jay Gatsby confidently...

This Great Stage of Fools: The Journey of Delusion and Deceit in

Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Shakespeare's King Lear

Perhaps more than any other period in British history, the English Renaissance embodied the themes of deception and...

Armed with a view that strongly opposes the ideas presented by rational egoism, Fyodor Dostoevsky conducts an all-out assault against the theory in his 1864 novella, Notes from Underground. The narrator is a sick, pessimistic man who remains...

Virginia Woolf's creation of the main character in the novel Orlando relies upon a certain amount of "wordplay" in order to maintain her androgynous nature. But what is androgyny according to Woolf; to what degree does this gender mixing occur?...

'Oh! I feel an emotion even when I am relating this; methinks I see Pamela at this instant, with all the pride of ornament cast off.'

(Tickletext in Shamela - Henry Fielding)

Richardson's notion that to relate an emotion in ink just as it in the...

Early on in Marlow's journey to the heart of the Congo, he encounters the chief accountant for the Company; later, he and his crew find an abandoned hut, formerly occupied by a "white man." In these two scenes, Conrad puts forth a series of...

In S/Z, Roland Barthes so thoroughly maps out his narrative theory that he leaves little room for problematic tales such as Turn of the Screw. While Barthes' example text Sarrasine revolves around a central unknown - the identity of the strange...

Having subdivided the text into three distinct parts, namely, the State, the Church and the Commons, Gower's Prologue addresses all three estates from its stylistic "medial" point. Although initially dedicated to the king, this poem addresses all...

Donne is sick and his poetry is sick.

- Stanley Fish

Fish's comment, though extreme in its reductive appraisal, is nevertheless understandable. He may find Donne's poetry objectionable on three accounts: style, explicitness, and morbidity. With...

Many poets draw on the theme of nature to symbolize the message they are trying to convey. In many cases, nature is juxtaposed with artistic design to emphasize the conflict or the relationship between the natural and the human worlds. Millar...

Compared to the poetry prior to the 20th century, the poetry of T.S. Eliot rings vibrant, unconventional and inventive. Eliot's poem "Journey of the Magi" is typical of his style and illustrates how Eliot's poetry changed the genre forever. In its...

Sexuality has always been a powerful tool for writers: it can make heroes or break them, forge relationships or destroy them, suggest utter misery or heavenly bliss. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest offers a unique take on this theme:...

As one of the most significant moments in Shakespeare's King Lear, the scene described in Act 4, Scene 6, lines 131-146 provides insight into the parallels within the play and offers a definition of true meaning through irony. King Lear is the...