Newest Literature Essays

Henrik Ibsen's play 'A Doll's House' has caused controversy since it's first production in 1879 as it portrays 19th century society as an oppressive influence on the individual and their personal freedom. Victorian society emphasized Bourgeois...

When discussing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Haddon has made it clear that he sees it as a piece of realistic fiction that is actually realistic: no lucky encounters, no interventions from a deity, just humdrum life. However,...

Throughout the history of literature, there are several situations that can prove that the arrangement of political power does in fact impact the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the people being governed. In James Michener's novel The Bridge at...

Vida, by Patricia Engel, is a story that deals with, among other things, ideas of agency, responsibility to oneself, and responsibility to others. Although the story is told through Sabina’s eyes, the drive of the story comes from the desire to...

In “Bottoms” by Dagoberto Gilb, the protagonist, who is also the narrator wishes he were the kind of person who would act on “raw desire”. In other words, he wishes for the kind of dominance he identifies with being a top. In order to connect with...

The city depicted in Wong Kar Wai’s ‘Chungking Express’ is one that invites the viewers to ponder about the city as a setting for multiple, infinite and relational possibilities. Chungking Express is a film with two separate plots, comprised of...

The presentation of the Gothic has spanned the centuries, gripping each and every reader with its dastardly plot and unsuspecting victims. The Castle of Otranto, written in 1764 by Horace Walpole, ‘is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel’...

The tale of Sir Gawain and his encounter with the Green Knight is a tale that weaves itself through deceit and trickery by characters who do not hold the same values that Sir Gawain does. His moral standing both as a knight and a Christian is...

Modernists writers have held the view that public and private spaces play a central role in the formation of culture publicly and privately. The issue of public and private spaces transects areas of class, gender, social and racial forms [1]....

“These are but the spirit of things that have been.” The metaphorical words of the Ghost of Christmas Past are typical of Dickens’ melodramatic writing style. Set in Victorian England, a time rife with greed and social stratification, Charles...

“If they would rather die, then they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” Ebenezer Scrooge’s words encapsulate how he is characterised as a largely disagreeable, morally vacuous man. Silhouetted against the backdrop of...

For many, it is hard to think of the world of science and the art of literature working in tandem. In the 1800s, the discipline of natural philosophy rapidly changed due to the Enlightenment, moving toward formal sciences. Romanticism served as...

For hundreds of years, women were among the many in the world that held little to no rights. Subordinate to their husbands, they were legally not allowed to own property, or even voice their opinions in the community. Clearly, this needed to...

Paradise Lost, the epic poem written in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton narrates the biblical account of the Fall of mankind. Eve is the only character that is both female and human in the poem and Milton’s depiction of...

“The strangeness of the story of Lester Ballard, the child of God, begins not with its subject

matter but with the way the story is told.”

Vereen Bell, The Achievement of Cormac McCarthy

In his 1991 essay, Andrew Bartlett suggests Cormac...

Dorothy Allison’s novel Bastard Out of Carolina tells the story of ‘white-trash’ girl Bone Boatwright and her “no-good, lazy, shiftless” family (3). The novel explores some of the most common myths and realities plaguing the Appalachian region...

Honorable Mentions

The characters Prince Hal and King Henry in William Shakespeare’s drama Henry IV portray an unlikely father-son relationship. Shakespeare demonstrates Prince Hal's fate by associating him with consistent approaches of...

Honesty is an important trait that is conveyed throughout society. It is the foundation for a long-lasting and meaningful relationship, and it is expected to be practiced in almost every social interaction. Much like today, the Victorian Era...

In Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Shaw attacks the relations between Victorian era classes by exposing their wretched treatment of the lower class, as seen in the flower girl, by the higher classes, upper and middle, iconified in Higgins and Mrs....

A symbol in the story is like a souvenir from a travel destination. It holds meaning beyond what is actually being seen. Every author has their own deft way to instill thematic meaning into a seemingly inanimate object, which then grows to become...

Interpretations of literature will always fluctuate between authors, critics, and readers alike. Literature is a looking glass that reflects many different images, thoughts, and messages for the reader. The beauty of looking into this mirror is...

Literature in the fourteenth-century brought about numerous characters, both major and minor, that presented allegorical issues pertinent to society. Characters that audiences have come to love (and hate) were featured in (fourteenth-century)...

To narrow the scope of literature, the science fiction genre is a type of storytelling contains different messages from novel to novel. Scholars and literary critics have the right to label a novel in any way they prefer, yet readers have the...

The debate about the relationship of the two characters Pozzo and Lucky has existed since the original performance of Waiting for Godot and has failed, much like the rest of the play, to suggest any kind of concrete conclusion. The name “Lucky”...