Essay

Likely the most influential writer in all of English literature and certainly the most important playwright of the English Renaissance, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The son of a successful middle-class glove-maker, Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582, he … Read more

In William Shakespeare’s masterpiece Macbeth, he uses many motifs. Two of these motifs are blood and water. The play is full of images of blood and water, to show the characters’ attitudes toward their own guilt at each stage. Both motifs mature and change in their meaning along with the setting and mood of the … Read more

The book Little Women was written by Louisa May Alcott in 1867. Louisa May wrote Little Women based on the life she actually knew. In the book you can find things that relate to her life, like Jos painful beginning as an author and Beths death, which was based on the lost of her own … Read more

A first impression of Walton would be to say that he is extremely ambitious. He desires to go to the North Pole to accomplish some great purpose. He has his own theories on what should be there, and will not rest until he has proved them. This is somewhat a Godlike ambition, in that he … Read more

Selecting a good leader for a country is like setting up a set of dominoes. If the leader does his job correctly the country will be strong, but if he does not become a good leader, the country will topple and go fall. A good leader must be able to make his own decisions because … Read more

A tragedy within a play script is drama with an unhappy ending but not necessarily death. Without any reference to the play, a tragedy can be a sad event, calamity, serious accident or crime. A View from the Bridge is a tragedy because Eddie has both a serious accident and commits a crime of betrayal. … Read more

“Out, Out–” by Robert Frost is a poem about a young boy who dies as a result of cutting his hand using a saw. In order to give the reader a clear picture of this bizarre scenario, Frost utilizes imagery, personification, blank verse, and variation in sentence length to display various feelings and perceptions throughout … Read more

“This dead butcher and his fiend like queen”, is the way in which Malcolm describes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Describe the way in which these two characters changed during the course of the play. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King but is … Read more

When Rose of Sharon is first introduced in The Grapes of Wrath, we learn that she is expecting a child from her new husband, Connie Rivers. She is described as a mystical being whose primary concern is the well-being of her child, even at the almost ridiculously early stage of her pregnancy at the start … Read more

In his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald paints a vivid portrait of life in the Jazz Age. Taking place in between World War I and the Great Depression, people during this time were all trying to achieve their own version of the American Dream. If it meant becoming rich as quick as possible, … Read more

Thesis Life in the 1900’s was depressing and was an era filled with extremely hard and strenous work that didn’t offer any future for the average canadian in doing better. If you were an average wage earner you would be virtually stuck in the same job for the rest of your life, while rich maintained … Read more

Galileo Galilei was born at Pisa on the 18th of February in 1564. His father, Vincenzo Galilei, belonged to a noble family and had gained some distinction as a musician and a mathematician. At an early age, Galileo manifested his ability to learn both mathematical and mechanical types of things, but his parents, wishing to … Read more

“The report described the children as Chained, belted, harnessed like dogsblack, saturated with wet, and more than half-naked, crawling upon their hands and knees, and dragging their heavy loads behind them’” (Yancey 34). This quote from Ivor Brown probably best describes the strenuous work preformed by a child laborer during the Victorian Era. Child laborers … Read more

Imagine you are a resident of Jerusalem, in the year 60 AD. You are taking a walk throughout the marketplace doing your weekly shopping. You see a man pull out a dagger and he yells death to all Romans and attacks a roman guard, killing him in front of hundreds of spectators. The assassin quietly … Read more

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, it is clearly evident that the fluctuation in attitude to the dual role and situation and tribulations imposed upon the character of Viola/Cesario ends up in a better understanding of both sexes, and thus, allows Viola to have a better understanding for Orsino. Near the opening of the play, when Viola … Read more

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, is perhaps the most distinguished author of American Literature. Next to William Shakespeare, Clemens is arguably the most prominent writer the world has ever seen. In 1818, Jane Lampton found interest in a serious young lawyer named John Clemens. With the Lampton family in heavy debt and … Read more

In many literary works, there are characters in which portray both similarities and differences. In the Play “A Doll’s House,” by Henrik Ibsen, two of the characters have many oppositions and congruencies. These characters go by the names of Nora Helmer and Mrs. Linde. Ibsen characterizes these women by describing their comparable and contrasting personalities. … Read more

When the first settlers came to America many years ago, they found freedom and opportunity. With hard work and determination an average man or woman could be prosperous. This concept was not only revolutionary in theory, but has proven to be true for many successful individuals. This idea has come to be known as the … Read more

Throughout time readers of literature have identified or at least felt moved by the characters in the stories that they read. We can love them, pity them, hate them or identify with them depending on our lifestyles and choices as well as the lifestyles and a choices of the characters. We dont necessarily have to … Read more

Throughout history citizens have branded people as witches, and warlocks. Maybe, a person act’s different than ourselves, or they have strange habits, does this make them a witch? In the Massachusetts Bay Colony in January of 1692, you would be branded a witch for these odd doing’s. Being accused of witch craft had serious consequences. … Read more

Michael Woods brings up an interesting mystery of the ancient world that puzzles learned people of modern times. Although Wood strongly suggests that the “Sea Peoples” were a result of mass migrations, recent research has disproved many of the theories upon which Wood based his opinions. There is evidence to show that the “Sea Peoples” … Read more

Alcoholism is a disease in which the drinking of alcohol becomes uncontrollable. Compulsion and craving of alcohol rules the life of the alcoholic. Many of us drink alcohol to socialize which is not alcoholism. An alcoholic is a frequent habitual user. Alcohol, a central nervous system depressant, dulls the senses especially vision and hearing. Signs … Read more

Franklin Roosevelt’s “optimism and activism that helped restore the badly shaken confidence of the nation” (pg. 467 Out of Many), was addressed in the New Deal, developed to bring about reform to the American standard of living and its low economy. It did not only make an impact during the Great Depression. Although, many of … Read more

Hot! Fire! Destruction! These are words that most people associate with volcanoes. But some good effects can come out of volcanoes. Volcanoes also have their own special mythology associated with them. A lot of volcanoes have some general characteristics in common. There are many volcanoes around the world and some have special characteristics. So come … Read more

Although on the surface The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about one womans struggles with sanity it is not. In truth, it is a story about the dominant/submissive relationship between an oppressive husband and his submissive wife. The husband, John, pushes his wifes depression to a point quite close to insanity. … Read more

For starters, I would like to begin by saying that this piece of literature, to me, was a disturbing piece of fiction that reminded me of the book (and film) “The Shining” by Stephen King. Both story’s draw from the instability of the main characters mental state. This story in particular draws from the personal … Read more

The tragic downfall of Macbeth was not determined by one single cause. It was rather caused by a combination of three dark forces: supernatural, external, and internal. Supernatural forces are represented by the three witches and dark powers behind them. Lady Macbeth is an outer force that pushes Macbeth towards the bloody deeds. Macbeth’s own … Read more

The Wife of Bath has been described and depicted as an independent proto-feminist who long ago led the charge for sexual equality. Chaucers visionary protagonist was a refreshing and modern look at womens rights in the fifteenth century. She spends much of her prologue breaking down stereotypical barriers that have confined women of her time … Read more

“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. “Young Goodman Brown” is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community … Read more

In John Knowles book A Separate Peace he communicates how the war in him was taking its toll on him. He uses the characters in a complicated plot to show the destructive forces of war. The characters, Gene and Finny, are the opposing forces in a struggle between the reality of war (World War II) … Read more

In the Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler clearly intends to portray his main character as a failure. Duddy understands perfectly well that a man must pursue his dreams, which is why he is one of the most motivated young man of his time. From the moment Duddy hears his grandfather say, “A man without … Read more

Both Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bront, and Great Expectations, written by Charles Dickens, have many Victorian similarities. Both novels are influenced by the same three elements. The first is the gothic novel, which instilled mystery, suspense, and horror into the work. The second is the romantic poets, which gave the literature liberty, individualism, and nature. … Read more

In Shakespeares play Othello, Iago is the antagonist. That is, he is the villain in the play Othello. He is the person who causes an action to occur which affects the other characters in the play. This action may not necessarily be a good thing. Iago is the catalyst for Othellos change. He is the … Read more