Summary The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is about Hannah Hall, who is married to Owen, whose wife had died tragically, leaving him with their only daughter Bailey. After two years of their marriage, Owen fails to come back home from work one day. Hannah’s calls to Owen go unanswered. Hannah discovers…
The extract from ‘Revolutionary Road’ insights into the growing anxieties of modern life during the transition from postwar America to the 1950s, through the perception of Frank Wheeler. The feeling of emptiness is accentuated by Frank’s rejection of conformity; which entails the loss of human individuality through nuclear families, original thought and suburban lifestyles. Themes…
Secularism is the ideology that involves separating the influence of religion or spirituality from government, politics, state law or public matters. Secular thinking removes the imminent bias that appears within judicial and systemic affairs when they are dealt with religiously; in turn creating a more neutral environment for communities. Many people advocate for secularisation as…
Characters Elsa Wolcott Martinelli is the main character in the novel, and the story is mainly told from her perspective. A mother to Loreda and Ant, the novel starts while she is at the age of 25, describing herself as a spinster. Loreda Martinelli is the daughter of Rafe and Elsa Martinelli. She is initially…
The Alchemist (1988) by Paulo Coelho, is a revolutionary novel about a boy realising his own predetermined fate and his journey in order to achieve it. Coelho challenges the preconceived constructs of fate, spirituality and identity, through character development and symbolism, encouraging new ways of thinking amongst the audience. Coelho incorporates the idea of ‘Personal…
Klara and the Sun is one of the masterpieces of Kazuo Ishiguro depicting the patterns of the changing world while exploring the true meaning of love. The novel is based upon dystopian science fiction, the story revolves around the views of the first-person narrator, Klara, the novel’s main protagonist. She is an android developed to…
The film The Danish Girl (2015) provides a complex representation of gender as it centres on the transitioning of its main character from male to female. Based on a true story set in 1926 Copenhagen, Einar Wegener and his wife Gerda are famous artists living in a traditional heterosexual relationship. One day, Gerda asks Einar to model…
Shakespeare used many methods to create comedy throughout the gulling scenes. The two gulling scenes show first Benedick, then Beatrice, being tricked into thinking that the other is madly in love with them. Shakespeare succeeded in bringing different forms of amusement into the scenes, through irony and exaggeration – amongst other techniques. Together, these produce…
“We did everything adults would do. What went wrong (Golding 149)?” questions William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a novel written exploring and uncovering the dark side of human nature. Symbolism is applied to express the author’s perspective as a lieutenant in the navy during World War II. The conch shell, the war paint, the…
Romeo’s love for Juliet is a significant turning point in the play Romeo and Juliet. The romantic tragedy was written by William Shakespeare, about two admirers who love each other undyingly but come from families who have been feuding for years. Both youngsters, Romeo and Juliet, long for a relationship that will fulfill their desires.…
“The Beauty Queen of Leenane” (1996) is Martin McDonagh’s first play, it is part of The Galway Trilogy together with “A Skull in Connemara” and “The Lonesome West”. All three plays are set in the small village of Leenane, County Galway, and depict three villagers’ closely interwoven stories. Set in the kitchen of a cottage…
Termed as ‘prose-poetry’, Jamaica Kincaid’s 1978 short story “Girl” is a lyrical, rhythmic list of instructions a mother tells her daughter. Being just one sentence, reading the story feels like drawing in a long breath that is only let go until the final moment. The plot is barely discernible, but character and tension are cleverly…
Our shared human experiences can be often hard to unravel and may seem buried under a complex web of conflicting and contrasting ideologies. It can be easy to forget that we are united in the basic aspects of living that are part of our physical condition. Irish poet Seamus Heaney has demonstrated this through his…
D.H. Lawrence is one of the great writers who may be described as ‘life-changers’ and like all life-changers, he is highly controversial. Diana Neil gives a better estimate of him when she writes, “But when all is said, there is greatness in him. He is something of an authentic visionary and the future may be…
“In moonlight, black boys look blue. You blue, that’s what I’m gon’ call you.” (Moonlight) 2017’s Oscars’ Best Picture film award was won by the all-Black casted movie, Moonlight. It follows a black boy into adulthood in an impoverished Florida city. Director Barry Jenkins’ intention was to shed light on the issues in Moonlight through…
Released in 2019, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile hit screens just a few months after Netflix debuted a miniseries about the taped interviews serial killer Ted Bundy did while on death row. A compelling and thought-provoking crime drama directed by Joe Berlinger and stared by Zac Efron as Bundy, the film exploits an already…
The passage for this analysis comes from chapter 2, the part where Gawaine is about to ride back South and is summoned by her mother. The two engage in a conversation where Gawaine’s mother reveals her intentions of making him a king if she stays and not go back for his knightly practices at Arthur’s…
Q 1. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCE Primary and secondary sources refer to the research materials used in an inquiry. Primary sources are the first-hand accounts that are found directly from an event or source. They are predominantly useful in historical research and can include artifacts or documents closest to the research topic.…
Female sexuality has been a focal point for writers throughout literature, focusing on different factors of the feminine, whether it be maternity, sexual liberty or corporeal freedom. However, much more focus is placed on the denial of femininity seen through the actions of their male counterparts, who reject the sexual liberty of women and their…
Throughout Shakespeare’s didactic play “The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice”, the playwright utilizes the antagonist, Iago as a mouthpiece of misogyny and as the central character of the degradation of the women in the play. Iago presents the women in the play as having an appetite for a myriad of things, such as…