The presence of supernatural elements is a defining characteristic of Gothic literature, serving not only to create an atmosphere of fear and suspense but also to explore deeper themes of human psychology, morality, and the unknown. By integrating ghosts, curses, and other unearthly phenomena, Gothic novels delve into the complexities ...Read More
The presence of supernatural elements is a defining characteristic of Gothic literature, serving not only to create an atmosphere of fear and suspense but also to explore deeper themes of human psychology, morality, and the unknown. By integrating ghosts, curses, and other unearthly phenomena, Gothic novels delve into the complexities of the human mind, societal fears, and the thin line between reality and the supernatural.
Analyzing the role of supernatural elements in Gothic literature offers valuable insights into the historical and cultural contexts from which these works emerged. It allows for an exploration of how authors use the supernatural to challenge readers' perceptions and to comment on issues of their time. Furthermore, such an essay can illuminate the enduring appeal of the supernatural in storytelling and its impact on readers' engagement and imagination. Writing on this theme encourages critical thinking about the ways in which the supernatural influences narrative structure, character development, and themes, making it a rich topic for literary analysis.
Popular Novel Essay Topics
Exploring the Evolution of the Hero's Journey in Modern Novels
The Dichotomy of Utopia and Dystopia in Science Fiction Literature
Character Development and Moral Ambiguity in Crime Fiction
Technology and Society: Analyzing the Predictions of Sci-Fi Literature
These topics are designed to provoke thought and encourage a deeper understanding of various literary genres and themes. They offer a wide range of exploration opportunities for students and scholars alike, providing a platform to analyze novels from multiple perspectives.
Human beings do not thrive in solitude. Every hero has a supporting team, and every protagonist must maintain a close group of allies in order to ever truly succeed. George Eliot's Silas Marner furthers this idea that, although there is evil in the world, intimate...
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club is an anarchic, pessimistic novel that portrays the need for identity in life and Palahniuk explains, through the narrator’s personality disorder, that the desire for meaning is the sole internal motivation of civilization. In the narrator’s speech throughout the novel, Palahniuk...
The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley follows the narrator John Washington in a deeply introspective exploration of his family history in order to truly find himself and the origin of his existence. Washington reaches a pinnacle of achievement in his life; he’s a respected scholar...
Nature, whether in the form of the arctic tundra of the North Pole or the busy street-life of Manhattan, was viewed by Naturalist writers as a phenomena which necessarily challenged individual survival; a phenomena, moreover, which operated on Darwin’s maxim of the “survival of the...
In Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael, Mother Culture is the embodiment of unquestioned influences man is accustomed to living by. Her story tells the Takers that they were intended to lead the world into paradise; however, quite the opposite happened. Because of Mother Culture’s bias towards the...
Matigari, a novel by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, alludes to the effects of post-colonialism in an African society. In the novel, the main character, Matigari, in a search for truth and justice, stumbles upon several instances of these effects. In many ways post-colonialism left people imprisoned...
Textual, mnemonic, and physical gaps leave room in which identity is found through body and environment in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient and Toni Morrison’s Jazz. Ondaatje’s characters retrieve their absent personas by mutually colonizing lovers’ bodies, thus developing a metaphor for the body as...
The quote ‘Silence is Golden’ is extremely subjective in its interpretation and heavily dependent on the context of the situation it is applied to. Is it always right to keep silent, without giving voice to ones innermost thoughts and feelings? Or is it always the...
Pamela: or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1740 and set in the first half of the eighteenth century. It is said that this novel went against the aristocratic dimension of the typical romantic themes that the majority of readers...
A narrative is a spoken or written account of events and the structure is the order that the author organizes events; though these definitions may seem simple, much of the interest in a narrative can arise from the distortion or manipulation of key information. The...
Novel
Get a personalized essay in under 3 hours!
Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind
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...
In Yukio Mishima’s classic twentieth century novel, The Sound of Waves, one might initially hold some misconceptions towards the message of the story. It’s simple enough easily spot certain seemingly-sexist elements and immediately make the judgement that Mishima was a misogynist and plotted to display...
In the novel Tusk and Stone, by Malcolm Bosse, Arjun is the dynamic character. A dynamic character is one who learns a lesson or changes behavior as a result of story events. When he is first introduced, Arjun is living with his family members his...
In a world where happy stories become sad stories and sad ones are transformed into happy ones, where “once upon a time” begins a tale of a police decoy on a drug bust, inversions of what is considered normal come to be expected. This world...
Introduction Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, and The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, both utilise the Victorian convention of the orphaned heroine that is forced to find her own way in the world. Treatment of female independence and the independent heroine in Jane...
Despite it being a superhero story, within the graphic novel Watchmen there is no clear assertion of who is to be considered a hero and who is to be considered a villain. Rather, there is a spectrum of morally grey characters, and what is deemed...
In William Golding’s timeless novel, “The Lord of the Flies,” the compelling theme of civilization versus savagery takes center stage. As the narrative unfolds, a group of British boys finds themselves marooned on an isolated island during a fictional nuclear war, setting the stage for...
“Master Harold”. and the Boys was a well-written play by Athol Fugal. He used his own personal memories to bring the play to life. Athol Fugard was born in South Africa, which is where almost all of his plays take place. When he was a...
Tailing the end of the Post Reconstruction era and in the wake of the Harlem Renaissance comes the emergence of literary genius. Although it would come across as an insult to neglect the musical and artistic movements of the era, for the purpose of this...
We all have our own meaning of the word family. In fact the definition of family can be defined as “a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.” If you were to sit down and think of the words that symbolizes...
“The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells is a novel published in 1895, it spawned multiple film adaptions including the 1960 version directed by George Pal. Although they are essentially the same story, the film adaptation took multiple liberties with certain plot points and characters as...
During his search to find his missing twin sister, Will Cleary gets drawn into a mysterious crystal-like world parallel to his own. This world is populated by Echoes, a reflection of the Sounds residing in the living world. When a person (or Sound) dies, his...
In Suzanne Collins’ young adult dystopian novel, “The Hunger Games,” the protagonist Katniss Everdeen finds herself thrust into a life-and-death scenario where survival hinges on cunning, adaptability, and sometimes, the burden of kindness. Set in a future society divided between wealth and poverty, the narrative...
‘Just because you know my name doesn’t mean you know my story,’ (Johnathon Anthony Burkett). This quote seems to be a perfect fit for The Namesake written by Jhumpa Lahiri, which is considered a realistic fiction. It starts at the beginning of the novel, in...
The book ‘Children of Men’ presents the various dystopian tropes through the use of the linguistic techniques in order to question society’s troubles and create a parable to our own reality. Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater...
In the novel Ransom written by David Malouf and the film Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, both show worlds and people that are deeply divided. Both Invictus and Ransom explore how historical forces divide people into different, often conflicting groups – whether this be race,...
“Salvage the Bones” is a woman’s coming of age fiction novel that follows along with a poor African American family living in Bois Sauvage Mississippi in the year of 2005. Facing the tragedy of following twelve days leading upon the arrival of hurricane Katrina. Made-to-order...
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses two themes: nature and civilization. She uses her text to describe the differences between nature and civilization and uses text to explain how civilization comes from nature. Nature and civilization are a huge part of everybody’s day to day lives....
The world is packed with evil people, but their driving force is often unclear. Usually people have an outside influence that drives them to perform these actions of uncontrolled harm. This is what happened in the short story, “The Black Cat”, as protagonist develops a...
The desire to make history to discover what remains undiscovered, or to know what remains unknown is a timeless human goal. Although many have failed to realize this dream, a very few have been wildly successful in its pursuit. The immortality afforded these...