Need some tips for writing essays on literature? How about you check our free samples of literature essay topics or order an essay today and leave the hard task for us? Like all academic papers, literature essay topics require you to think critically and produce strong arguments. The outline is ...Read More
Need some tips for writing essays on literature? How about you check our free samples of literature essay topics or order an essay today and leave the hard task for us? Like all academic papers, literature essay topics require you to think critically and produce strong arguments. The outline is similar to most types of essays but what makes it unique is the language style in addition to the contextual analysis. We have tips we would like to share with you concerning every section of literary essays from the introduction to the conclusion. First, avoid giving a plot summary because readers are already familiar with it and focus on advancing an argument. However, you can mention some plot details and extra information to support your arguments.
Humans are complex beings, each with individual traits, and an individual set of traits that they value in others. Despite this individuality, cultures are formed, in part, by the values they possess and nurture in their society as a whole. In the Homeric society, two...
If the Iliad were a simple war narrative with a clear bias towards the protagonist’s side, Sarpedon would be portrayed as a two-dimensional enemy soldier who dies during the action. However, the Iliad is no such story. Complex and intensely human ideals, morals and emotions...
Achilles, the swift, godlike warrior of Greek lore, is among the most complex of Homer’s epic characters. Achilles and his ill-fated tendon figure prominently in the Western archetypal notion of a tragic hero; however, the application of the term “hero” to the Achaean fighter is...
Things are not always as they seem. A hero may be more than the sum of his deeds, or perhaps much less. Throughout Greek mythology, heroes wage war and titans clash, often resulting in the praise and immortalizing of the names of great men who...
In Greek myth, Sisyphus repeatedly rolls a giant boulder up a mountain only to have it roll back down the peak every time. He serves a sentence of eternal suffering for trying to escape from Death and Hades. Like Sisyphus, the warriors of Homer’s The...
The respective endings of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey prove the different world-view that each epic takes. While both concern the era of the Trojan War, the characters in each seem to value two opposing outlooks. A close reading of the concluding passages regarding the heroes...
In his Iliad, Homer uses the character of Diomedes to personify his definition of effective leadership, often juxtaposing him with the unproductive and cowardly Agamemnon. Homer believes that the bravery to assert one’s opinions and the willingness to act independently, even against authority, constitutes a...
For centuries, Homer’s epic Iliad was taken as literal interpretation of the Trojan War. Only rather recently has the reliability and accuracy of the Iliad in terms of depicting the war come into question. Modern historians and scholars have come to the same conclusion that...
Since the advent of bartering, materialism has been a prime concern for human beings. Inherent in our human nature is the desire to improve ourselves. This originates as an individualist need for improvement. The only way the individual can measure their standard of living is...
In Homer’s Iliad, two conflicting desires motivate Hector. He adheres to the heroic code by fighting for honor and glory, but he does not always actively pursue battle. He has a strong instinct for self survival that urges him to remove himself from danger and...
The Iliad, in that it is more about the Greek hero Achilles than any other particular person, portrays the Achaean in surprisingly shocking light at times throughout the story. In his encounter with Lycaon, who had previously been taken prisoner by Achilles long ago, Achilles...
Throughout human history, people have been infatuated with the role of the “hero”. The concept that someone would be willing to risk life and limb for someone else never ceases to amaze. Just take a trip to Washington, D.C. The monuments and memorials to Lincoln,...
When contemplating the ultimate nature of the Greek gods and the ensuing roles they play in human affairs, it is helpful to view instances of divine intervention through the actions of the goddess Athena. Athena occupies a central place in The Iliad, The Odyssey, and...
Rank was central in Homeric Greek society. Though first given by one’s pedigree, a man’s standing in society was affected by his aret (virtue). A man of low rank, unless elderly or a seer, was supposed to be physically weak, unremarkable or ugly, and unable...
There is a minor ambiguity in this title, which must be clarified for the purposes of this essay. The emphasis on an impression of the characters changing as you read more of the poem, may indicate the effect on a reader’s initial interpretation of the...
Essentially a tale of warfare, Homer’s Iliad presents the Trojan War as a traditionally male-focused conflict. However, embedded in the story is the inevitably female-centered core of the battle. While not fully explored in the frame of the epic’s narrative, the cause of the war...
Achilleus’ defilement of the body of Hektor is a grotesque and elaborate moment in the story of the Iliad, while all of the other bodies killed in the epic are either carried back by their comrades or left to the vultures. His treatment of the...
“Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians …and the will of Zeus was accomplished since that time when first there stood in division of conflict Atreus’ son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.”...
Though it is universally acknowledged that art is subjective, literary critic and philosopher Georg Lukacs offered his opinions on what form art ought to take. In his essay “The Ideology of Modernism,” Lukacs wrote negatively against the modernist movement in literature. He describes traditional art...