The Odyssey

The theme of recognition plays an important role in Homer's The Odyssey and Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Two key recognition scenes are that between Odysseus and Penelope and that between Oedipus and Jocasta. Many differences can be found between...

The Odyssey

At its core, The Odyssey is a story that centers around the cunning of its main characters. Throughout the epic poem, both Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, are known for their mental capabilities. Odysseus is constantly referred to as "godlike,"...

The Odyssey

In the Odyssey, Homer uses the idea of sleep to represent the idea of death, which makes the struggle to remain conscious and the struggle to remain alive one in the same struggle. Odysseus is constantly fighting to remain alert, to avoid...

Iliad

Things are not always as they seem. A hero may be more than the sum of his deeds, or perhaps much less. Throughout Greek mythology, heroes wage war and titans clash, often resulting in the praise and immortalizing of the names of great men who...

Iliad

Homeric Epic has become a staple of the modern evaluation of the ancient Greco-Roman world. It is among the great literary works of history, having withstood the tests of time and remaining so widely popular. Whether we believe Homer was an...

Iliad

The respective endings of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey prove the different world-view that each epic takes. While both concern the era of the Trojan War, the characters in each seem to value two opposing outlooks. A close reading of the concluding...

Iliad

Story-telling and presentation are two literary techniques vital to the development of plot and theme, systematic traditions meant to illustrate the idea of the author in terms of the medium of the narrative. Epic, poetry, and drama all utilize...

Iliad

When contemplating the ultimate nature of the Greek gods and the ensuing roles they play in human affairs, it is helpful to view instances of divine intervention through the actions of the goddess Athena. Athena occupies a central place in The...

Frankenstein

Frankenstein, recognized as one of the most famous literary works of horror ever written, was the direct result of three brilliant authors challenging themselves to create a story that would incite fear and horror in the reader. Mary Shelley and...

Frankenstein

The question of how to interpret dreams within a novel is one of the most contentious in all of literary criticism. The natural tendency may be to analyze them as though they were real dreams, which includes the implicit assumption that authors...

Frankenstein

Frankenstein might have been written as a horror story, but the ideas and themes prevalent in the novel are ones men have grappled with for ages. From ancient Greek myths to the Bible, the tale Shelley tells is an old one - one rife with the...

Frankenstein

Question:

In what ways and for what ends does Mary Shelley utilise the myth of Prometheus in her novel, Frankenstein?

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as a modern day version of the legend of Prometheus. Prometheus created men out of clay and taught...

Frankenstein

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warns that with the advent of science, natural philosophical questioning is not only futile, but dangerous. In attempting to discover the mysteries of life, Frankenstein assumes that he can act as God. He disrupts the...

Frankenstein

Setting plays a pivotal role throughout Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Nature is presented as possessing an immense curative power: the beauty of the natural world heals Victor when he is too miserable to find solace anywhere else. The Arve Ravine...

Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley's <I>Frankenstein</I>, the paradoxical quality of the concept of "discovery" echoes that found in Milton's <I>Paradise Lost</I>: initial discovery is joyful and innocent, but ends in misery and corruption....

Frankenstein

Victor Frankenstein, like many Romantics, relies upon his unusual capacity for sensitivity and creativity to aid him in his ambitions. In contrast to Robert Walton, who ventures to the North Pole to find "beauty and delight" (Shelley 15) amidst...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Both Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein tell cautionary tales of scientists abusing their creative powers to exist in another sphere where they cannot be directly blamed for their actions. Though...