One might choose to assent to the statement, “Macbeth is a tragic hero.” This conclusion may be based upon certain characteristics, proposed by Aristotle, which warrants him worthy of such a title. Aristotle stated that a tragic hero must be of certain qualities: a man of noble stature, good, though not perfect, have a fall…
Defining the word love is almost impossible. No other word in the English language has so many different connotations and uses. There can be no one true single definition. However, for the purpose of this paper, I have come to the following conclusion. Love is an intense emotion, characterized by unwavering admiration and caring between…
Loneliness is the core of a broken soul. It feeds on exile and hate. It engulfs dreams, pleasures and certain futures. Those who live with loneliness everyday cannot express how deep of a feeling it is to have everything you enjoy crushed by the absence of companionship. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck…
Walt Whitman‘s Live Oak, With Moss, is an intricate portrayal of love, both physical and mental. Throughout the poem, Whitman incorporates an array of metaphors symbolic of love and the many characteristics associated with love. Dissimilar to mainstream poetry, Whitman introduces a friend-lover relationship between two men, describing the pain and happiness associated with their…
The short story A & P, by John Updike, can be broken down into a number of components, which include characters, setting, plot, point of view, and the theme. A & P is a story about a young man, about 19, named Sammy, who is a cashier at a local supermarket. His supporting characters are:…
Lionel Red Dog, one of Thomas King’s characters in his novel Green Grass, Running Water, was an employee of the government. He worked in Indian Affairs, and his job took him all over North America. It was in South Dakota that Lionel had his last assignment. Lionel was sent to Utah to deliver a…
The topic of Langston Hughes’ “Negro” deals with an extremely general description of the history of African Americans or blacks from the pre-1922 era until 1922. Hughes lets the reader know about historic experiences of blacks to show us the impact that blacks have had in past eras. He touches on past, historical events, like…
Though seeming to simply be a minor character, Laertes is of great importance in the play, Hamlet, and much more than one would initially believe, due to his extensive inner conflict. He is good, loyal, and honourable, seeming to possess the greatest virtue of all the characters, yet he still is doomed to die along…
In a play that is abundant in evil occurrences, Lady Macbeth is the overriding source of evil in the first act. Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan, despite Macbeth listing eight reasons against the murder. When Macbeth is alone, we discover that he is a loyal thane to Duncan, not a murdering savage. When…
Aeschylus is primarily concerned with the nature of justice. In the trilogy The Oresteia, the Akhaians evolve from an older, more primitive autocratic form of justice, to a new concept of civil justice devised by Athena. He confronts the contrast between the old and new orders, the lives of the members of the House of…
One day, twelve year old Alan Parrish was riding down the main street when he hears “Prepare to die, Parrish!”, he starts riding much faster, as Billy Jessup and four of his friends chase after him. Alan heads for his father’s shoe factory. He jumped of his bike and ran inside. Where he meets his…
Joseph Andrews is a novel written in the middle eighteenth century by Henry Fielding. In this novel, Fielding talks of human nature and of the need for control of sexuality. He does not just come right out and say it, but instead expresses his concern through examples of the constant sexual advances through the entire…
Jealousy causes many of the characters in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar to commit dangerous and foolish acts. Cassius’ jealousy drives him to kill Caesar. All the conspirators, except the noble Brutus, kill Caesar because they feel threatened by his power. Brutus is the only conspirator who murders Caesar for more honorable reasons. Jealousy is…
Saki’s novella, “The Interlopers”, explores the intricacies of friendship and rivalry. The story takes place in a European forest one night during the winter. The setting of the story is analogous to the plot; the trees have to bind together for warmth to brave the fierce winter, the same way Ulrich and George have to…
A recurring theme in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’ Arthur is the use of imaginative descriptions of characters and settings. Imagination is what the reader of the story must use to form his or her own mental images of a situation, and the better the storyteller is, the clearer the mental image. His descriptions, ranging…
Iago is a “moral pyromaniac.” Harold C. Goddard writes that Iago consciously and unconsciously seeks to destroy the lives of others, especially others with high moral standards (Goddard 76). However, Iago is more than just a “moral pyromaniac,” he is a moral pyromaniac whose fire is fueled by pure hatred. He is a hungry powermonger…
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about the trials and tribulations of Hester Prynne, a woman living in colonial Boston. Found guilty of adultery, Hester’s punishment is to wear a visible symbol of her sin: the scarlet letter “A.” Through the book, the reader comes to know Hester, the adulteress; Dimmesdale, the holy man…
Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s attitudes toward her adultery are ambivalent. This ambivalence is shown by breaking the book into three different parts. In each part her attitudes change significantly. Hester starts by seeing her act as a sin that she is sorry for committing. She changes and no longer feels sorry…
Herbert George Wells was one of the world’s most talented writers. He was able to write in many styles, whether it be science-fiction or nonfiction. Although talented in many areas and genres of the literary world, it is for his contribution to the realm of science-fiction that he will always be remembered. H. G. Wells…
In the play “Henry the fourth” written by William Shakespeare is triumphant and denial. There is a prince named Hal that does not act like a prince that you think a prince would and fat man named Falstaff that is his friend. In this play we see that the prince changes when his father and…
