Newest Literature Essays

The intrinsic human ability to recognize order has often been a foundation of proof that a higher purpose exists. Many people believe that sequences and patterns in the universe are evidence that human life was intended to have meaning. However,...

All societies must develop some form of social order to be able to function. Often times, the society’s government determines the foundations for social order by creating rules, institutions, or practices that group people more effectively....

Compared to his contemporaries, William Shakespeare is undoubtedly the most appreciated and widely-read playwright of the Elizabethan Era. Among his most popular plays is Hamlet, a tragedy detailing young Hamlet’s struggle to avenge his father’s...

Ruth Mazo Karras argued that “the acquisition of masculinity in the European later Middle Ages was primarily a matter of proving oneself against others.” Strong male characters in texts such as Beowulf and Paradise Lost demonstrate that this...

The agency women possess in The Odyssey and The Book of Genesis is harbored in their traditional domestic skills. These domestic skills, while underestimated by men in regards to the Greeks and Israelites, often play an essential role in the...

King Arthur’s Round table resonates with the medieval reader as an ideal of equality and order: there is no head of the table, so that each knight is depicted as equally worthy of renown and equally skilled in his capabilities. As this Round Table...

Dramatic conventions in theatre play an important role in any production, and provide rules to ensure the best possible experience for the audience. Stoppard, as a member of the Absurdist movement, breaches these conventions in Rosencrantz and...

In The Bacchae by Euripides, the major conflict that results in tragedy is the struggle between Pentheus and Dionysus for control over the city of Thebes, especially through the control of the women. German philosopher Hegel theorizes that the key...

Henry Fielding, in his 1749 picaresque novel “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,'' comically relates the reactions of a master and his servant to finding an infant in his bed. Upon discovering an abandoned child, master Mr. Allworthy and...

Blade Runner is a 1982 dystopian science-fiction film that takes place in a future Los Angeles where human-like androids called Replicants are believed to pose a threat to human society. Thus, a division of the police known as Blade Runners are...

A comparative study of Homer’s Odyssey and Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad reveals that texts are reflective of their context, whereby they reinforce the suited cultural values of its time, composer, and audience. Atwood reimagines the story of...

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood discusses a dystopian society, which reversed the advancements in the feminist movement that came in the twentieth century. Gilead, an enclosed community under the rule of a totalitarian government, contains...

Composed in a time of severe patriarchy and a society based on a strict social hierarchy, it is anticipated that medieval literature mirrors society’s judgement of a woman’s worth, in that representation of female authority is inextricably linked...

As a coming-of-age story, Persepolis highlights the many victories and hardships that come with growing up during a time of conflict. Satrapi integrates diverse characters in her novel to shed light on how different social groups endured during...

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” acts as an elegy for his best friend, Arthur Hallam, while also helping him to process his decades-long grief. While the poem’s length can cause readers to focus on certain memorable selections from it, T.S....

In periods of history characterized by male dominance, it was easy to overlook the complex role of women. Often given little explicit agency in major avenues of their lives, such as whether or who to marry, women often forewent their own desires...

Beckett’s depiction of the human body is noteworthy for a few reasons. The parts of the body he emphasizes are all linked to some sort of sensory experience, specifically sight and touch. The choice to evoke these two senses specifically, as...

While there were many intense, larger than life moments throughout Karen Tei Yamashita’s novel I Hotel, the true weight of the battle fought by Asian Americans for the I-Hotel is found in the quieter moments. “I-Migrant” may not have as many of...

If one were to ask a random stranger a question about Shakespeare, their immediate association would likely be with a scene from Hamlet—either the first line of the title character’s famous soliloquy (III.1.64) or the image of him holding Yorrick’...

“The best approach is to let the film make itself, to let it grow organically, day by day.” -Wong Kar-Wai

Wong Kar-Wai is considered to be one of the most influential Asian filmmakers in history, shaping the filmography of directors 20 years later...

In Baxter’s “The Bad Young Man,” the central themes and contrasts are about the authenticity of the couple’s love, whether it is lust or love, and about the dominance in their relationship, whether the man or the woman is dominant. Baxter uses...