Essays on Literary Genres

2889

Delusion and Demise: The Obsessions of Moliere’s Alceste and Monsieur Jourdain

5 pages / 2131 words

Moliere, who built his reputation writing plays that satirize late 17th French society, develops two title characters in his dramas "The Would-Be Gentleman" and "The Misanthrope," the former, Monsieur Jourdain who attempts to recreate his self image in order to be accepted into high society,...

Drama

2890

The Moderate Victorian Male Spectator in a Study in Scarlet, The Moonstone, "The Harlot’s House" and "Hermaphroditus"

7 pages / 3035 words

The Victorian depiction of the masculine is divided by not only class factors but also by degrees of gender conformity and morality, it is this conformity and morality that shapes the role of the masculine narrative in Victorian literature. In this essay I will be...

Novel

2891

Intertextuality in The Moonstone

4 pages / 1615 words

In 1987, Michael McKeon theorized that the novel form developed concomitant with the rise of the individual in English society. This correlation implies that the novel marked a shift from a communal experience of literature to a solitary experience of text: the writer writes alone,...

Novel

2892

The Representation of Gender and Gendered Roles in "The Monk" by Gregory Lewis

5 pages / 2203 words

The Monk, published in 1796 by Matthew Lewis, holds the distinction of one of the most popular and most controversial Gothic novels of all times. Set in the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation in Spain, the novel addresses and challenges many sensitive, tabooed societal norms,...

Gender Gothic Literature

2893

The Theme of The Haunting Past Chapter Iv of The Moonstone

3 pages / 1469 words

One of the main themes developed in the passage from the novella “The Moonstone,” by Wilkie Collins, is the indelibility of memories and by consequence, of the past. The past comes back to haunt the present constantly throughout the passage, building tension as well as...

Novel

2894

Criticism of The Fetishization of Purity Found in The Monk

4 pages / 1937 words

Matthew Lewis’s The Monk takes its era’s heightened anti-Catholicism to heart, and uses it to critique social norms. Lewis tackles the problem of the fetishization of purity that the Catholic Church, and society outside the Church hold so highly. Lewis presents the idea that despite...

Gothic Literature

2895

The Challenges of Multiculturalism in India: Analyzing Sidhwa and Rushdie

3 pages / 1525 words

Cosmopolitanism is defined in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as “the idea that all human beings, regardless of their political affiliation, are (or can and should be) citizens in a single community”. This belief not only applies to political affiliation but also to religious beliefs,...

Novel Salman Rushdie

2896

The Cruel Castle

2 pages / 1094 words

“Emily gazed with melancholy awe upon the castle, which she understood to be Montoni’s; for, though it was now lighted up by the setting sun, the gothic greatness of its features, and its mouldering walls of dark grey stone, rendered it a gloomy and sublime...

Gothic Literature

2897

The Travel Log and Its Depiction of The ‘other’

4 pages / 1788 words

There is something inherently cathartic, inherently exciting about the ‘travel literature’ genre that emerged in the later 17th and early 18 th centuries. The lands viewed were never accurately depicted; instead, the author would embellish local details and cultures to bring the reader into unexplored...

Drama Elizabethan Times

2898

Bulgakov’s Devil: not so Evil after All: Gnostic Elements in The Master and Margarita

12 pages / 5465 words

The devil is a common literary icon. This enemy of God has generally been established as an unwavering representation of evil—a figure out to trick and torment his arch-nemesis and readers alike. Whether making pacts with mortals to sell their souls or raising armies against...

Novel

2899

Cowardice and Consequences in "Master and Margarita"

4 pages / 1941 words

In Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, The Master and Margarita, many types of sin and corruption are exemplified in both Moscow and Yershalaim: people are rude and curt to others for no reason, accept bribes, act and speak hypocritically, spy and betray others, and so on. In...

Novel

2900

Lies and Deception in The Maltese Falcon

3 pages / 1368 words

The Maltese Falcon at its core is a novel about people making up stories. Characters in the novel display a remarkable ability and willingness to lie. As each new character is introduced to the plot, a new host of lies is introduced as well. The...

Novel

2901

Digory Kirke Heroic Characteristics Analysis

2 pages / 778 words

In 1955 C. S. Lewis wrote and published The Magician’s Nephew, a high fantasy adventure story set in early 20th century England, a prequel to the other stories in The Chronicles of Narnia. In the story, Digory Kirke, a young boy, travels to a strange...

Character Fantasy

2902

Prufrock’s Social Anxiety

3 pages / 1422 words

Though the poem is specifically about Alfred Prufrock, it embodies the idea that every modern person struggles with these social barriers at some point in life. Eliot’s skillful use of repetition, rhyme, assonance, and imagery present a picture of a modern, single man who is...

Poetry The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

2903

A Walk with Prufrock

3 pages / 1415 words

T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is the story a man contemplating emergence from his solitude into the world, a man capsized by the fear of being misunderstood. In this poem Eliot employs the quest motif in an ironic fashion to explore...

Poetry T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

2904

The Self Esteem of J. Alfred Prufrock

3 pages / 1486 words

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot, depicts the thoughts of a modern day Hamlet. It follows, what seems like, the typical evening with Mr. Prufrock. He is a man that often loses himself in his own mind, efficiently losing his ability...

Poetry The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

2905

Muddled Memory: Values and Virtues in The Loved One

2 pages / 1044 words

Today, the good is often overshadowed by the evil. The media is flooded with more crime and negativity than it is the positives and stories of charities and selfless deeds. Similarly, in Evelyn Waugh’s The Loved One, the bad, those obsessed with money, self-preservation and...

Novel Satire

2906

Prufrock, Paralysis, and Pieces of The Modern City

4 pages / 1952 words

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” depicts an image of the modern city that is marked by paralysis, alienation, decay, and repression. Prufrock is a modern man who can see the superficiality of the social values of middle class society, and yet lacks the...

Poetry The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

2907

Role of Dreams in The Lover by A.b. Yehoshua

7 pages / 3052 words

“[She] starts to sort it out, to turn over the day, scraps, feelings, words and laughter, all are like a thin layer of rubbish that [she] gathers up and throws into the basket” (9). In A.B. Yehoshua’s novel The Lover, Asya utilizes dreams to release...

Literature Review Novel