Essays on Literary Genres

3003

Egocentrism Inhibits Camaraderie in "Roman Fever"

3 pages / 1623 words

Throughout Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever,” Mrs. Alida Slade experiences the consequences of an inflated ego as she fails to fully understand her companion, Mrs. Grace Ansley. She is consumed with egocentric priorities, like superiority, deception, and jealousy. While Slade’s egocentrism can be interpreted as purely...

Short Story

3004

The Notion of Knowledge and Understanding in "Roman Fever"

4 pages / 1965 words

Edith Wharton challenges the notion of knowledge and understanding, even of one’s own personal experience, in her short story “Roman Fever.” The application of Jackie Royster’s scenic analysis to Wharton’s “Roman Fever” perpetuates the idea that an understanding of the reality of human life and...

Short Story

3005

Discussion of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church, Soliloquy of The Spanish Cloister and Confessions

1 page / 840 words

Religious Authority and Hypocrisy in Browning’s Works Robert Browning’s ubiquitous examination of religious authority and its shortcomings becomes apparent within the very title of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church. The religious reference to Saint Praxed carries ironic connotations, as while Saint...

Poetry Robert Browning

3006

Hatred in Robert Browning’s Soliloquy of The Spanish Cloister

3 pages / 1455 words

Poetry can often be described as “painting with words.” It is a poet’s attempt to give linguistic form to thoughts and emotions, to create vivid imagery with only a minimum of language, achieved by any number of creative methods. In the lyric poem “Soliloquy of...

Poetry Robert Browning

3007

Exploring Love and Its Corruption: My Last Duchess, Andrea Del Sarto & Two in The Campagna

2 pages / 1059 words

In both My Last Duchess and Andrea del Sarto, Robert Browning explores the notions of love and its capacity to corrupt an individual’s character and potential through his signature diegetic form; the dramatic monologue. While the form of these two poems is based around an...

My Last Duchess Poetry Robert Browning

3008

An Idea of Life for Love in Browning’s Poetry

2 pages / 1207 words

Robert Browning wrote his poetry during the British Industrial Revolution, a tumultuous time in which society was going through major cultural and lifestyle changes. The modernization of England led to the distribution of newspapers and other literature that thrived on the scandals of others. This...

Poetry Robert Browning

3009

Aberrance in Two Poems by Robert Browning

1 page / 765 words

As scholars often note, the Victorian Period was known for its didacticism, especially the struggle between faith and moral decrepitude. Whereas the Romantics idealized their world, the Victorians questioned their surroundings, choosing to politicize their literature so as to be reactionary against the societal norm....

Poetry Robert Browning

3010

Discovery and Reassessment in The Poetry of Robert Gray

3 pages / 1437 words

Through the discovery of new values and places, individuals may reject socially construed ideas as they come to new perceptions of their broader society. However, some individuals may remain indifferent. It is these individuals that pose the biggest risk to society, as they are unaware...

Poetry

3011

Rovert Gray's Critique of Society in His Poems

1 page / 769 words

Introduction Whilst some discoveries allow an individual to further confirm their views on their world and themselves, others may lead to moral questioning or re-evaluation evoked by their newfound perspective. These discoveries, in particular, gain value through their ability to facilitate change within their societies,...

Morality Poetry

3012

Theme of Discovery in Robert Gray’s and Katherine Mansfield’s Poetry

2 pages / 1110 words

Discoveries that challenge what one does in their everyday lives and what one sees as acceptable allows them to reassess their place in the world and forces greater understanding of it. Through viewing the world through fresh eyes, one offers themselves insight into something that...

Poetry The Garden Party

3013

An Old Regret: Analyzing "Those Winter Sundays

1 page / 755 words

Robert Hayden described the relationship between his father and younger self in his poem “Those Winter Sundays.” Robert Hayden grew up in a poor neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. Since his parents left him with family friends, he grew up with that family and didn’t know...

Poetry Those Winter Sundays

3014

A Look at Point-of-view and Reader Placement in "I, Too" and "Douglass"

2 pages / 1231 words

During the Civil Rights Movement, Langston Hughes and Robert Hayden each wrote poems addressing the future of the movement. Two of these poems, which expressed their hope for the future and for the equality of black Americans, were “I, too” by Hughes, and “Douglass” by...

Poetry

3015

Lust and Resignation in Robert Herrick’s "The Vine"

3 pages / 1674 words

Love is one of the most prolific topics in all of literature. From the perverse to the overly romantic, poets and authors from around the world continue to settle on love as a vehicle for relaying their innermost thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. “The Vine,” written...

Poetry

3016

Fallen Nests: an Exploration of Personal and Political Realities in Fall 1961

3 pages / 1423 words

Robert Lowell’s Fall 1961 crystallizes in words the sense of nuclear paranoia that lurked in both private and public spheres of the United States during the Cold War. From a dark, personal perspective the poem takes an unsettling look into the unease of the individual...

Poetry

3017

Love and Its Corruption: Never The Time and The Place, Porphyria’s Lover and Andrea Del Sarto

2 pages / 1130 words

In both Porphyria’s Lover and Andrea del Sarto, Robert Browning explores the notions of love and its capacity to corrupt an individual’s character and potential through his signature diegetic form; the dramatic monologue. While the form of these two poems is based around an implied...

Poetry Robert Browning

3018

Tortured Knights: Eliot, Byron, and Browning

7 pages / 3541 words

Though they come from the shores of different eras and the minds of different authors, the protagonists of Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” Browning’s “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” are all knights in their...

Poetry Robert Browning

3019

"Her Darling One Wish Would Be Heard": How Dramatic Monologue Illustrates Distorted Rationality in "Porphyria’s Lover" and "My Last Duchess"

2 pages / 721 words

In Robert Browning’s poems “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess,” the theme of obsessive love is intricately woven into the fabric of the narratives, revealing how distorted rationality can lead to devastating consequences. Both narrators, driven by their compulsive desires, attempt to exert control over...

My Last Duchess Poetry Robert Browning

3020

The Images About Love in Browning’s Women and Roses

1 page / 887 words

Women and Roses by Robert Browning explores the idea of dreams concerning love, in particular sexual love. The speaker imagines the three women of time as roses: the past, present, and future. Though this poem appeared within the repressive Victorian era, through the allusions and...

Poetry Robert Browning

3021

The Hart of Language: Analyzing The Purpose of Riddleyspeak in "Riddley Walker"

1 page / 769 words

In Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker, Hoban portrays a post-apocalyptic society ravaged by a nuclear war. While he masterfully crafts the story to warn readers about the dangers of technology, the real achievement is in the strange language, called Riddleyspeak, in which the book is written...

Novel Science Fiction