Essays on Literary Genres

2357

The Uncanny and Diagnosis of Mr. Ripley: a Freudian Approach

5 pages / 2116 words

Patricia Highsmith, the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, portrays a protagonist on the precipice of insanity. Mr. Ripley shows many qualities of a person with borderline personality disorder, or more commonly called: a psychopath. A book titled, The Mask of Sanity by Hervey Cleckley,...

Novel Sigmund Freud The Uncanny

2358

Infidelity in Victorian England: Double Standards Based on Gender and Class

6 pages / 2553 words

Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wild fell Hall is a novel in which the plights of the female protagonist overlap with the issues faced by the majority of women in the Victorian Era of England. The book raises questions of the Brontës’ family’s sisters own...

Novel Victorian Era

2359

Societal Shifts in The Victorian Era: Marriage, Men, and Domesticity Analyzing Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

4 pages / 1758 words

The Victorian Era is defined by the societal alterations that developed over the time period. This is particularly true when concerning wives, mothers, domesticity, and the like. Throughout portions of Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall the relationship between Helen and her aunt, Peggy...

Novel Victorian Era

2360

Sexual Escapades of a Magical Midget: The Meaning of Oskar’s Encounters in The Tin Drum

3 pages / 1445 words

The narrator and protagonist in Gunter Grass’ novel The Tin Drum is unique in not only his stature, but by his mental progress as well. He chooses to stop growing at the age of three and does not speak, except through the beating of his...

Human Sexuality Novel

2361

Characters' Use of Magical Realism in The Street of Crocodiles and See Under: Love

4 pages / 1786 words

There are a handful of logical approaches and techniques that human beings use to rationalize and understand situations we are not completely sure of. When placed in a situation in which we feel trauma or fear, our immediate reaction is to concoct a way to...

Short Story

2362

Role of Superstition in "The Tiger’s Wife"

3 pages / 1428 words

Fear is one of the strongest emotions experienced by humans, so much so that it plays a drastic role in influencing the actions of men and women. This concept is one that appears frequently throughout Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife, a riveting tale of the...

Fiction

2363

The Search for Male and Female Salvation and Acceptance

2 pages / 1031 words

The Tin Flute by Gabriel Roy is a Canadian fiction set up in the early 1940’s during the Second World War when Canada was going through the great depression. The book revolves around characters who strive to find romance, alleviate poverty and overcome ignorance amidst...

Fiction

2364

Dogs in Cages: The Dangers of City Living in Ann Petry’s The Street

3 pages / 1163 words

In Ann Petry’s novel The Street, even the most simple, everyday objects take on fiendish personalities and shifting, threatening aspects. From the cruel wind in the story’s opening chapter to the hard, bitter street itself, glaring situational cruelty and injustice brings vivid color to the...

African American Culture Novel

2365

The Theme of Church in The Works of Philip Pullman

5 pages / 2069 words

Lord Acton, a British historian, once said “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Over the course of human history, the Church has been the focus of many criticisms, including but not limited to the relationship with the state, the persecution of heretics,...

Fantasy Literature Review Novel

2366

Manifestations of Love and Longing in The World of Tom Ripley.

5 pages / 2236 words

In the book The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, we are introduced to one of the most fascinating and puzzling characters in modern literature; Tom Ripley. Tom Ripley is a character who is both contradictory and simple in his desires. He wants the approval...

Novel

2367

The Burdening Effect of Remorse: Atwood’s and Macleod’s Fiction

5 pages / 2188 words

As Charlotte Bronte once wrote, “Remorse is the poison of life.” It is true that regret and remorse are inevitable in living a full life, but it also remains true that remorse can indeed be poisoning–so poisoning, in fact, that it can stop one from...

Fiction

2368

Loss of Youth and Love in Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War

3 pages / 1405 words

Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War connects the tragedy of wartime to the loss of youth and love. It is the story of an idealist named Kien and his first love, Phuong, and how the dramatic events of war caused their pure love to diminish...

Novel Vietnam War

2369

Analysis and Summary of Chekhov’s ‘the Seagull’

3 pages / 1172 words

The Seagull is a typical Chekhovian drama, part of a sub-genre which could be referred to as an “undramatic drama”. It has little plot, and most of the plot’s place is taken up by psychological portraits, lyricism, and a certain, truly ungraspable atmosphere, built up...

Drama Literature Review

2370

The Secret Garden and The Path to Physical and Emotional Wellbeing

5 pages / 2406 words

In The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a young girl discovers the importance of the relationship between humans and the natural world. At the start of the novel the orphaned and contrary Mary Lennox is brought from her home in India to her mysterious...

Novel

2371

The Writer’s Craft: an Analysis of Akutagawa

4 pages / 1820 words

How is it that one’s purpose or direction in life always seems to be predetermined? Nowhere is there a check point where it is appropriate to pick what one’s hopes and aspirations are and magically expect them to happen. The only plausible explanation for this...

Short Story

2372

"The Secret River" by Kate Grenville: Analysis

2 pages / 893 words

Early European settlers did not understand that, as the original inhabitants of Australia, the Aboriginal people were entitled to the land, yet they did not claim ownership of it for their possession. However, the Aboriginal people belonged to Australia and its natural environment. Kate Grenville...

Novel Reasoning Secret

2373

Adapting The Secret River for The Stage - Perspectives and Context

2 pages / 1107 words

The 16th – 20th centuries represented an era marked by European colonialism. This included the forcible occupation of foreign lands and the control of these lands through various mechanisms of power. In Australia, this expansion involved the deliberate separation of the colonialists form the natives...

Novel Theatre

2374

The Logic of Human Morality: Connections Between The Screwtape Letters and "Bulverism"

3 pages / 1189 words

Throughout the book The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis addresses the topics of Christian morality with a twist: it’s written from the perspective of devils. The Screwtape Letters is narrated by Screwtape, an elder devil who is teaching the ropes to his nephew, Wormwood. Screwtape mulls...

Epistolary Satire

2375

Nihilism in a Hero of Our Time and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with The Sea

2 pages / 1106 words

Nihilism plays a dominant role in both Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time and Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea. Both novels target a particular character to be made an example, but the circumstances of this undertaking are notably different. In...

Novel