Newest Literature Essays

Ms. La Trobe says it best in Virginia Woolf's Between the Acts: 'This is death, death, death - when illusion fails.' (p. 180) Various characters in the novel create illusions to escape from the reality that grieves them. And those illusions are...

The supernatural is a literary device that has frequently been utilized in works of fiction. The purpose of this literary device have evolved alongside the evolution of literature and language. The function of the supernatural often varies based...

Beowulf opens with the story of the ancient king, Shield Sheafson, in order to establish a discussion on kingship, and to begin building a definition of what constitutes a "good king". Once this definition has been established, the text uses it to...

Within the Old English epic poem entitled âBeowulf,â? one theme dominates: to overcome chaos and establish order, a fearless individual must continually fight the force of evil. Even after the poemâs protagonist, Beowulf, victoriously destroys...

At a time in history in which war was rampant and conquering lands and enemies seemed a priori, the period's hero tended to follow suit. Beowulf, as a prime example of Old English literature, is set in this highly male-dominated world governed by...

Although Seamus Heaney and R. M. Liuzza have both translated the literary work Beowulf from Old English text, subtle differences appear throughout their works that reveal the unique perspectives held by each author. When one compares the different...

"In peaceful times the warlike man sets upon himself." The poem "Beowulf" illustrates the violent, primitive reality of the truth in Nietszche's aphorism. The monster Grendel plays a symbolic role as the primordial, inalienable instincts that...

T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is the story a man contemplating emergence from his solitude into the world, a man capsized by the fear of being misunderstood. In this poem Eliot employs the quest motif in an ironic fashion to...

The story of Beowulf shows the effect of the spread of Christianity in the early Danish paganistic society that values heroic deeds and bravery above all else. The mythical creatures that Beowulf kills with his supernatural strength make the story...

Setting is an essential component of any story, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Herman Melville's novella "Benito Cereno", a tale of bizarre mystery, curious suspense, and ultimately surprise. In composing his story, the author...

Before the truth surrounding the strange fate of Benito Cereno becomes apparent, Herman Melville effects an intriguing juxtaposition between Don Benito and Babo while the latter adheres to the toilette of his "master." Captain Delano, while...

That Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' is stylistically diverse cannot be doubted: Morrison's novel appears straightforward at first glance, opening with blank verse in a standard prose narration, but over the course of the story the style varies to...

Toni Morrison's novel Beloved contains many secondary characters, of which one of the most significant is the character of Sixo. Though the novel is based in post-Reconstruction America, much of the content is in the form of memories of ex-slaves....

Discuss the elements which keep interpretative possibilities open in Beloved. How far are these resolved or not by the end of the narrative?

'...definitions belong to the definers not the defined.'(Beloved, p.190)

When Sixo provides an explanation...

In Toni Morrison's Beloved, Beloved herself is an enigma that nobody seems capable of explaining. From a "pool of red and undulating light" (p.8) her state transforms from the supernatural to that of flesh and blood. But why has she returned? Out...

When Paul D, Denver and Sethe first come upon Beloved resting against a tree after emerging from the water, the three cannot understand the past or present of the girl in front of them. Rather than interpret her odd actions, each of them looks to...

In an essay entitled "Writing, Race, and the Difference it Makes," Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discusses the way in which over the course of history, a binary has existed between whiteness and writing, blackness and silence. Summarizing this tradition,...

A psychoanalytic reading of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar presents a wealth of analyzable material. This novel immediately came to mind as an example of Lacan's theory of the "mirror stage." Plath constructed this novel about a young woman's...

Sylvia Plath's novel, The Bell Jar (1963), is conspicuously autobiographical. The story follows the fictional character, Esther Greenwood, during her summer spent in New York City working for a prestigious fashion magazine and back in...

<i>"Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well."</i>

Sylvia Plath has long been recognized as a poetic icon. After committing suicide in her thirties, many of her previously unrecognized works gained notoriety and...

<i>"She wants...to be everything"</i>

A sense of individuality is essential for surviving the numerous emotional and physical obstacles encountered in daily life. A unique identity is perhaps one of the only true characteristics that...

In many of the short stories written by the American author Herman Melville (1819-1891), the main characters tend to exhibit some form of rebellion, usually against the normal dictates of society or against those who are in power. This trait is...

Though the title may be Bartleby the Scrivener, Herman Melville's short story is much more concerned with its nameless narrator than its title character. Addressing one man's concept of himself and how that concept must be reevaluated when...

"Strangely huddled at the base of the wall, his knees drawn up, and lying on his side, his head touching the cold stones, I saw the wasted Bartleby. I felt his hand, when a tingling shiver ran up my arm and down my spine to my feet" (1173).

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