In a writers essay, one can cover a specific piece of literature or the entire creation of a given writer. In such essays, students identify themes, motifs, symbols, key messages, stylistic devices, describe or compare characters, their traits and personal conflicts, reveal personal reactions, their interpretation and attitude towards the ...Read More
In a writers essay, one can cover a specific piece of literature or the entire creation of a given writer. In such essays, students identify themes, motifs, symbols, key messages, stylistic devices, describe or compare characters, their traits and personal conflicts, reveal personal reactions, their interpretation and attitude towards the written piece. When focusing on the entire creation of chosen writers, the typical characteristics of their style are uncovered along with the unique and original elements that set it apart. Additionally, the sources of inspiration, the influences, the evolution in time are analyzed. Review the essay samples below on certain writers and their works – pay attention to the topics, content organization, approaches to writing, etc.
Marilyn French asserts that Shakespeare only constructs two types of women, the “virtuous subhuman or deceiving subhuman.” In conjugation with the Elizabethan expectation of an “acceptable version of the feminine” woman, a woman who is passive, obedient and chaste, Shakespeare has constructed Desdemona as a...
Othello is a tragedy. But what qualities does it possess to qualify it as such? The key difference between comedy and tragedy is the ability to reconcile and tolerate the inevitable foibles of the human condition. In Othello nothing is tolerated, and nothing is reconciled....
“Iago, you have done well that men must lay their murders on your neck” [5:2 line 166, p.157]. This ironic tone is akin to that of “Is this the promised end?” Can it be anything but ironic when the words are spoken in front of...
Shakespeare weaves an intricate web ensnaring the characters in The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice. A handkerchief, a small and seemingly insignificant square of fabric, exerts magical powers over the characters as it transfers from person to person in the play. Six characters...
Shakespeare’s Othello is indeed a powerful and impressive figure who is tragically brought down by Iago, a villain who goes undetected through his great drive and intellect until the very end of the play. Despite his shortcomings — of which a lack of self-knowledge is...
As Othello, Laurence Olivier entreats the Venetian nobles to relate the true account of his actions and motivations. Olivier’s words seem almost imploring, suggesting that he is an outsider seeking approval from those with foreign sympathies. At the beginning of his address, little in his...
That the character Desdemona in Shakespeare’s play Othello holds on to her dignified manner until the very end, when she is murdered by her jealous husband, is indicative not only of her chaste mind, but also of her willful determination. Given that women of the...
The name Iago comes from Latin, “Iacobus,” meaning “one who trips up another and takes his place.” This name also belongs to the most important character in Shakespeare’s Othello and one of the most wonderfully evil characters of all time. The character Iago is more...
Desdemona character analysis (essay) Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, treats her as an object through which he defines himself. He is a Venetian senator and favors Othello, the Moorish general of the Venetian forces. But when his daughter, Desdemona, decides to marry Othello, he is outraged. Iago,...
Geographical juxtaposition is not uncommon in the genius works of William Shakespeare. In his renowned play, Othello, Shakespeare exploits the stark contrasts in the story’s two settings, the two cities of Venice and Cyprus. Shakespeare presents the environmental, moral, and behavioral dichotomies between Venice and...
In Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the character Emilia is essential in exploring the theme of gender and the expectations placed on women. The anonymous writer of, “From Counsel to the Husband: To the Wife Instruction” believes the answer to maintaining a happy marriage is for both...
According to the great English essayist and scholar William Hazlitt, the character of Iago from William Shakespeare’s masterpiece Othello “is one of the supererogations of Shakespeare’s genius,” due the fact that Iago’s “villainy is without a sufficient motive” (345). Othello is one of the four...
It has been suggested by many scholars and critics that William Shakespeare (1564-1616) “borrowed” the plotlines in his plays from various sources, such as the tragic works of the ancient Greeks and Romans and from other European writers that lived during and before the so-called...
The tragedy in both Othello and Macbeth is found not so much in the scattering of bodies covering the stage at the end of each play, but instead in the degeneration of the plays’ respective protagonists. Men championed by Shakespeare at the beginning of the...
The decision to become a female author in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a daunting task in itself, never mind choosing to narrate your work from a female, personal perspective. Such was the case of two famous texts that are read through a female...
Narrative structures vary from novel to novel as a technique that aides in the advancement of the plot and enhances the clarification of the literary devices employed throughout the story. In the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, both traditional, or linear, narrative time and...
In writing Oliver Twist, it is clear that Charles Dickens’s main literary objective was to expose the plight of the poor in Victorian London. The story of Oliver is comparable to other Victorian novels, such as Jane Eyre, in its strong didactic message regarding the...
Poetry possesses the remarkable capacity to transport readers to various destinations, encouraging them to view the world from diverse perspectives. In Nikki Giovanni’s poem “Allowables,” profound and subliminal messages revolve around the demise of a spider. This literary work paints a vivid picture of an...
Throughout the span of the comedies, Shakespeare allows his female characters to establish a greater amount of independence and freedom than they would have actually been allowed for the time period. This freedom is not necessarily a feminist action on Shakespeare’s part, but mainly serves...