Essays on Literary Genres

2832

Biblical References in Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

4 pages / 1645 words

Pilgrim’s Progress is a work by John Bunyan that is considered to be one of the most well-known allegories of a spiritual journey. For one to even begin to understand this work, it is necessary to embark on one’s own personal spiritual journey. Biblical references...

Bible Novel

2833

An Outdated Progress: The Problem with The Pilgrim’s Progress in a Modern Christian Context

6 pages / 2510 words

John Bunyan’s work The Pilgrim’s Progress, is one of the most renowned Christian books to read, but it is not in fact within Christian rules, according to the Bible, thus unveiling a logical fallacy. With careful analysis of The Pilgrim’s Progress and the New and...

Christian Worldview Novel

2834

Religion in The Novel "Playing for The Devil’s Fire"

3 pages / 1507 words

The idea of religion is abstract and often met with a variety of both positive and negative connotations. To some, a church may be a symbol of hope and a reflection of moral resilience, to others, church may stand for hypocrisy and moral betrayals. In...

Novel

2835

Edgar Allan Poe’s "Tales of Terror" as Tragic Drama

4 pages / 1918 words

The literary compositions of Edgar Allan Poe, especially his short stories of terror based on supernatural or psychological manifestations, continue to be highly praised by a select group of readers who relish the dark, nightmarish worlds of human existence with their roots firmly established in...

Edgar Allan Poe Short Story

2836

A Psychoanalysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s "Ligeia" and "The Fall of The House of Usher"

4 pages / 1976 words

Often, the elements of the mind and past developments play a key role in understanding events and writings. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories “Ligeia” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe crafts tales that reveal the inner cravings that motivate action and...

Edgar Allan Poe Short Story The Fall of The House of Usher

2837

Overwhelming Obsession in "The Tell-tale Heart" and "The Black Cat"

3 pages / 1435 words

Overwhelming obsession and guilt often lead to deadly consequences. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” Edgar Allan Poe presents us with two men who each commit brutal murders motivated by overwhelming obsession. The narrators differ in their dispositions but fall victim to the...

Edgar Allan Poe Short Story The Black Cat The Tell Tale Heart

2838

Depiction of The Women in Transit in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

1 page / 516 words

Introduction In his stories “Ligeia,” “Berenice,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe presents a series of women in transit. These women exist in a liminal space between life and death, highlighting the fluidity of their existence. This perpetual state of transition emphasizes...

Edgar Allan Poe Short Story The Fall of The House of Usher

2839

The Man of The Crowd

4 pages / 2024 words

The very first lines of Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd” imply that this is a secretive story by nature, for Poe suggests that this particular narrative may not “permit itself to be read” (p.1561). The story itself takes on a responsibility independent of that...

Edgar Allan Poe Short Story

2840

Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe as a Literary Professional

2 pages / 1038 words

As an aspiring Southern gentleman, Edgar Allan Poe longed for the glamour of fame and wealth, prominence and prosperity. To gain this through his writing, Poe understood that he must be able to sell his writing to make money, but he also must appeal to...

Edgar Allan Poe Short Story

2841

Literary Analysis of Poe's The Man of The Crowd

4 pages / 2052 words

Although “hardboiled” narratives became a popular literary genre in the early- to mid-twentieth century, these writers were not the first to create characters and stories in this genre. Early creators of the tough detective were preceded by the first “hardboiled” literary detective, Edgar Allan Poe’s...

Edgar Allan Poe Short Story

2842

Authorial Power in The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

4 pages / 1599 words

John Bunyan, as he tells us in his prefatory remarks, didn’t mean to write Pilgrim’s Progress; it all happened while he was otherwise engaged. His Apology, at least at first, takes on the word’s modern connotations. He regrets having inflicted the reader with the book,...

Christian Worldview Novel

2843

Wit and Humor in Larkin’s Poems: Ambulances and The Building

4 pages / 1844 words

Larkin’s poetry reflects a certain dark humor, with an often-witty conveyance of a powerful message. There is certainly control and elegance in Larkin’s work; the subject matter is apposite and therefore has an impact on his reader rather than an expression of elegance in the...

Poetry

2844

Larkin’s Portrayal of Place in "I Remember, I Remember" and "Places, Loved Ones"

2 pages / 1083 words

Philip Larkin’s wrote his collection of poems The Less Deceived in 1955, and it became a work which garnered him public recognition. His poems often include a deep sense of his feelings of inadequacy and contain his view that he did not belong within society...

Poetry

2845

Analysis of ‘dockery and Son’

3 pages / 1260 words

‘Dockery and Son’ is a reflective, pensive and uncertain poem in which Larkin produces a sense of life drifting away and considers “how much had gone of life, / How widely from the others.” Although it cannot be assumed that the narrator is Larkin, the...

Poetry

2846

An Analysis of "Church Going" by Philip Larkin

2 pages / 831 words

When one reads the title Church Going, one is inclined to think the poem that follows is going to be deeply religious. However, Philip Larkin’s “Church Going” introduces an interesting play of words; when one goes on to read the poem, it becomes clear that...

Poetry

2847

Allegory and Obstacles in The Pilgrim’s Progress

2 pages / 884 words

In the classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan explains the journey of a newly-saved believer. Bunyan’s story unraveled in a dream of a man named Christian. After reading a section in the bible, Christian tells his wife and children that he must find a...

Christian Worldview Novel

2848

Links to The Past: Memory and Memorials in Melville’s "Pierre"

4 pages / 1779 words

Herman Melville’s “Pierre” offers readers a world simultaneously driven by and struggling against its relationship with the past. Personal and ancestral histories dramatically affect the present interactions and psychology of the book’s main characters, particularly Pierre and Isabel. The link between present and past events...

Fiction

2849

Quasi-hopelessness and Martyrdom in Persian Letters

4 pages / 1744 words

Persian Letters seems like a hopeless account lobbying against female empowerment. Starting from each of the wives’ opening letters to Usbek and continuing to Roxana’s death by suicide at the end of the novel, at first glance, these letters reek of despair and cyclical dread...

Epistolary

2850

Far Past Mecca: Religion in The Persian Letters

4 pages / 1845 words

Writing, like oration, is a deliberate act. Those who speak or debate for a living hone their skills so well that they are capable of arguing either side of a case with equal passion and persuasion. Any reasonably skilled writer is capable of doing the...

Epistolary