Literature Essays

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Contrasting She Is the Man and Twelfth Night: A Comparative Analysis

2 Pages 829 Words
Introduction The adaptation of classical literature into modern cinematic productions often brings a unique perspective to timeless stories. This is exemplified in Andy Fickman's film She Is the Man, a contemporary retelling of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night. While both narratives explore themes of identity, love, and societal norms, the differences in their presentation reflect the evolving cultural contexts and...

General Overview Of Beloved: Analytical Essay

2 Pages 689 Words
To be loved. So reads the name of Beloved. But the importance of the story lies not around whether Beloved is a product of imagination. Instead the novel weaves itself around nothingness, the almost imperceptible trace of extinction, and nothing else is the history of American slavery. This is in the centre of this book; a discussion with all language,...
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Self-Interest and Prejudice in The Merchant of Venice

5 Pages 2206 Words
The human experience is the perception of human emotion, encompassing a wide range of conceptions about life and loss. Our capability to love and hate allows writers such as William Shakespeare to construct a world with binaries that highlights how experiences and motivations affect human behaviour. Shakespeare’s 16th-century play ‘The Merchant of Venice’ a comedic tragedy, discovers self-interested behaviours amidst...

Illusion Of The American Dream In The Glass Menagerie

2 Pages 819 Words
Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie and Baz Luhrmann’s film, The Great Gatsby both explore the illusion of the American dream through their criticism of society and the acknowledgement of the repercussions of the pursuit of happiness. The main ideas that dreams are illusions and the past impacts the present is primarily focused in both the film and the play....

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: A Cooperative Power Dynamic

3 Pages 1392 Words
The concept of marriage is typically accepted as a cooperative separation of power. However, in Justin Kurzel’s film adaptation of Macbeth, power constantly shifts between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth-- thus displaying different moments in time in which one character holds power over the other. Originally, Lady Macbeth uses verbal language techniques to control the relationship she has with her husband,...

Gender roles and justice in Merchant of Venice

2 Pages 983 Words
The study of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1605) (Merchant) has illuminated the notion that individualistic desires lead not to the human experience of self-betterment, but instead on the experience of fragmented identity and relationships. Inspired by his Elizabethan context, Shakespeare challenges the ‘impartial’ justice system by revealing the resulting experiences of discrimination. Furthermore, Merchant explores how materialism paradoxically...

Macbeth: An Individual’s Thirst For Power And Control

1 Page 510 Words
Macbeth by William Shakespeare is an Aristotelian play set in the backdrop of the Elizabethan era where Shakespeare narrates how manipulation fuels an individual’s thirst for power and control resulting in the downfall of humanity. Shakespeare ultimately crafts a tragedy whereby, through the characterisation of Lady Macbeth, he illustrates the important and relevant role of manipulation from her ability to...

Character Construction in To Kill a Mockingbird

3 Pages 1148 Words
Harper Lee’s fictional bildungsroman novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM), published in 1960, depicts America’s discriminatory historical period of the 1900s. It entails the perspective from a reflection of the author's childhood and it also includes the racial prejudicial ways of the past. The novel was positioned in the small old town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. The cultural...

The Beautiful Lie as an Adaptation of Anna Karenina

1 Page 481 Words
ABC’s ‘The Critic's Luke Buckmaster states that “one of the reasons Anna Karenina still a relevant text today are the key themes and key messages of infidelity, yearning for love and broken relationships which are never going to fall out of relevance.” One of the great virtues of the adaption of Anna Karenina's‘ The Beautiful Lie’ is that it relies...

Hidden Faults of a Communist Rule in Animal Farm by George Orwell

2 Pages 1016 Words
One of human's biggest failures is our negligence to abuse of power and control. Manipulation of others by a person with authority for their own personal gain is a form of abusive power and control. The novel highlights the hidden faults of communist rule as well as the inevitable return of a totalitarianism-based society. Animal Farm, George Orwell (1945) uses...

Re-Evaluation of the Importance and Legacy of Oedipus Rex

1 Page 584 Words
Perpetuated misunderstandings of Oedipus Rex defines its importance and durability, specifically explicit in the interpretation by Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalytic book Interpretations of Dreams. The transition of authority from playwright to reader encourages projection and imposing of views and values onto the play and ultimately results in a poor analysis and understanding. These projections are derived from reader context...

Deception And Lies In Much Ado About Nothing

2 Pages 910 Words
Deception can come from benign or malicious reasons but they often use the same actions to get there, Tricking and manipulation others to get what they want. The plot of Much Ado About Nothing is based upon deliberate lies and deceptions to fool someone to believe something that is not true, Shakespeare uses both malevolent and benign deception on two...

The Representations Of Love In Much Ado About Nothing

1 Page 588 Words
Much Ado About Nothing was written in 1598, but the story takes place sometime around the 16th century during the Italian Wars in Messina, Italy. The focus of the essay is to write an analytical essay that explores the representations of love in much ado about nothing in response to the quote, “the course of true love never did run...

Antagonists in The Importance of Being Earnest and Call Me by Your Name

3 Pages 1173 Words
Call Me by Your Name, a film directed by Luca Guadagnino and the play The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde follows two contrastingly different works without a common theme. Nevertheless, both authors utilise irony in their chosen genres about love in order to criticise the expectations and hypocrisy present within each society. To further aid these criticisms,...

Social Disempowerment in Stasiland and Never Let Me Go

3 Pages 1444 Words
What do Stasiland and Never Let Me Go suggest about social systems that depend on disempowering people? Plan: Control and Surveillance Different worlds set up by both regimes Rebellion and Fight Back In both Anna Funder’s Stasiland and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, respective regimes employ various methods to control its citizens. In many ways, both governments leave individuals...

General Characteristics And Understanding Of Utopia

2 Pages 859 Words
More attempts to navigate a path through the ideal and real world in a hierarchy, depicting one's desire for fulfilment and the pragmatic understanding that this Utopia is impossible. Thomas More's conflicting interests between religion and politics in society becomes obvious throughout the novel as he raises concerns of King Henry VIII rule and values implemented in society. The main...

Maya Angelou’s Success in Life And Meaning to Life

3 Pages 1505 Words
Viktor Frankl developed a theory that through suffering and hardship, individuals are capable of finding the “meaning and purpose of life”. Born on March 26, 1905, Frankl developed his theory called ‘Logotherapy’ which were based on his experiences and observations during his time in the Nazi Concentration Camps. Although he survived the Holocaust, his wife, parents and other family members...

Dulce Et Decorum Est And Beach Burial: War Poetry Analysis

2 Pages 998 Words
In “Dulce et Decorum est” written by Wilfred Owen, and “Beach Burial” written by Kenneth Slessor, Poets criticise the reality of war through figurative language, contrasting settings, differentiating themes, contrasting poetic structure and changing tones. Neither Poets glorify war and are focused on projecting their emotions and experiences of war into their poems, for readers to experience and share. Poets...

Hedda Gabler: Critical Analysis of Dialogue

1 Page 406 Words
The first passage transpires at the beginning of the second act which opens with Hedda loading her father's pistols prior to Judge Brack’s arrival in her garden. Hedda’s loading a pistol in her drawing-room of all places speaks to how defiant she is of social conventions. It is also a dark foreshadowing of how she will soon contrive a man’s...

King Lear: Reading Response and Developed Critical Essay

4 Pages 2041 Words
Part 1 Reading Responses Week 5. Describe the character of Lanval’s lady and the character of Queen Guinevere in Lanval by Marie de France. Compare and contrast them, commenting on their different characteristics, social standing, relationships with other characters, and roles/functions in the unfolding of the narrative. Gender role is at the heart of Marie’s lay Lanval. The two most...
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Unconventional Narration in "Curious Incident" portrays difference

2 Pages 926 Words
‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’, composed by Mark Haddon, is a prose-fiction novel narrated from the aspect of an autistic teenager, Christopher Boone. Christopher is a 15-year-old boy suffering from a condition resembling ‘Asperger’s Syndrome’ (AS), which limits his non-verbal communication skills and demonstrates difficulty when empathizing with peers. These difficulties which arise from Christopher’s disorder...

Cunningness As The Main Theme In The Odyssey

2 Pages 948 Words
If the Iliad is concerning strength, the Odyssey is concerning cunningness. This distinction becomes apparent within the initial lines of the epic. Whereas the Iliad poem tells the story of Achilles, the strongest hero within the Greek army, the Odyssey focuses on a “man of twists and turns” (1.1). A mythical being will have extraordinary strength, as he demonstrates in...

Macbeth Guilt: Prosecutor's Speech

2 Pages 868 Words
In my opening statement, I said that I would call upon two witnesses to support my case. I have been a barrister for thirty years now, so believe me when I say that this is one of the most black-and-white cases I have come across in my career. Macbeth is a weed, leeching out the life of Scotland. A weed...

Critique Of The Behaviour And Values Of The 18th Century In Jane Eyre

2 Pages 1117 Words
The Victorian period was known for its strictly defined values and highly regulated culture. Charlotte Bronte’s biographically-styled narrative uses the novel form and characterisation of Jane Eyre to critique these intense values. This process compelled individuals to reassess their perspectives of the Victorian era and adjust their views on society. Bronte is challenging these realities from Jane Eyre’s earliest days...

Frankenstein’s Monster: Humanity Unbound And Alive

7 Pages 3319 Words
Abstract: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or Modern Prometheus has always been the focal point in dealing with the shifting paradigms of humanity and monstrosity. The critical question is there- Is the ‘creature’ really a monster or is he essentially human? It is most notable that throughout the novel the creature has been degraded by other people, mostly by his own creator...

Power, Temptation, Ambition, and Self-destruction in Doctor Faustus

3 Pages 1238 Words
Reflecting the Renaissance spirit of inquiry, Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604) is the tale of an ambitious man who’s desire and thirst for knowledge goes beyond limitations. Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer to acquire all the power and knowledge that he desires to realise too late of the hellish price he must pay. The sixteenth century was a...

Collective Versus Individual Identity In Pygmalion

3 Pages 1154 Words
Collective Identity and social norms can shift an individual's sense of self and make them change themselves to fit into society and access the same opportunities. Through the comparison of individual identity and social self, collective identity and judgement we see how the points included in this essay are applicable to the play ‘ Pygmalion’ by George Bernard Shaw. The...
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A Soldier’s Consequence in Ernest Hemingway's Works

4 Pages 1627 Words
There is an undeniable gab between ordinary people and soldiers. People move on from war, but soldiers can’t. They leave home and when they return back to their normal life, nothing has changed. But the soldier has experienced a tremendous amount of trauma and have seen things that have changed them forever. According to the Mayo Clinic, PTSD, otherwise known...
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