5538 samples of this type
Writing a literary analysis essay is not as exhausting as it sounds, especially when you have our guide at hand! Here we will explain how to create a literature essay outline and give useful writing prompts. Below you will also find examples of A+ essays. Stay here, and you will enjoy composing the paper with our tips and tricks.
A literature essay is an analysis of a novel, short story, or another written piece. You can examine one or compare two texts. Every student has to write hundreds of literature essays at school, and many have to compose them at college.
An American literature essay is a paper that focuses on a work of an American writer or poet. Though the US is quite a young country, it still features a rich history of literature. American writers tend to focus on issues like the American Dream, gender, social inequality, and the hardships of war. That is just a tiny part of many themes you might want to write about.
Here is a list of possible American literature essay topics:
A Gothic literature essay focuses on the genre distinct for its mystery and horror. You can choose plenty of themes if your task is to write such a paper. If you are bored with typical Poe’s grim short stories, take a look at southern Gothic authors, such as Capote or Faulkner. Grotesque and death in literature are represented there in a peculiar way.
Here is a list of possible Gothic literature essay topics:
African American Literature Essay focuses on the writings of those of African descent who live in the US. This body of literature often concentrates on the issues of racism and the role of African Americans in broader society. These authors have addressed the ideas of slavery, segregation, and their culture.
The title of your African American literature essay could be:
A poetry essay is an analysis of one or a series of poems. The goal is to interpret the author’s thoughts. How do they use literary techniques and devices? What is the meaning of the poem itself? What is the significance of the poem in the author’s life and art as a whole? These are the issues that poetry essays focus on.
A poetry explication essay is your interpretation of a poem. This paper aims to analyze its style, characteristics, subtext, and techniques used by the author. Reading pieces of poetry may be challenging for some. It is better to choose a poem that you have some connection with.
Below are some ideas for your poetry essay:
A poetry comparison essay has much in common with the poetry explication paper. The difference is that you are supposed to compare several poems.
You need to:
Here is a list of possible poetry comparison essay topics:
Response to literature essay is a standard type of essay. We will guide you on how to compose it from the beginning to the end. We will focus you on the most critical elements, such as the title and the outline. You may find samples of strong essays at the end of an article.
One of the crucial questions in composing an essay is how to title it. A paper on a subject of your interest will make writing much more exciting. Explore a book or poem that is touching you. Do not worry if you have no ideas; choose a topic from the lists above or use them to get inspired!
Another critical issue in response to literature essay writing is creating a coherent outline. Its purpose is to build a strong basis for a paper. A good essay consists of 3 main parts.
These are:
Now you know the kinds and structure of literary essays. Here is some general advice for composing a well-done paper:
We hope our tips and tricks will help you to write your A+ essay. We have selected proper literature essay examples that are sure to be useful!
What are the similarities and differences between physical and e-books? Find out in this essay sample on e-book vs print book advantages and disadvantages! Get some ideas and inspiration for your paper and learn more about e-book and paper book advantages and disadvantages. E-book vs Print Book: Advantages and Disadvantages...
In total, there are 7 soliloquies in Hamlet. Soliloquies help reveal his personality and state of mind. This analysis presents all of Hamlet’s seven soliloquies in order with explanations. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” is among William Shakespeare’s most famous works. The play is centered around the titular...
Introduction Flannery O’ Connor’s works were paradoxical in the sense that element of religion, humor and horror appear at the same time. She has become famous especially as a short story writer and had an impressive collection in her short life of just 39 years. She died in 1964 from...
Introduction Geoffrey Chaucer is considered among England’s influential poets. He was born in 1340 and lived for sixty years until 1400, when he died. He is a famous figure in English literature and is regarded as the founding father of English poetry. This is not to say that England was...
Introduction The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant depicts a woman who is unsatisfied by her social position and desires to be accepted among the upper class. Although the author dwells on several issues, including the role of gender in society or psychological conflict, the Marxist theory is best applied to...
I extremely love this poem; it is magnificently and affectionately written and it always rouses my feelings and makes me feel contented. One thing I love about this poem is that Neruda’s work was an inspiration from his wife and so he did not write this poem for the sake...
One of the most striking and unusual poems is Tomorrow at Dawn by Victor Hugo. This author is known for his unusual style and method of presentation, which makes a special impression on the reader (Matthews 682). His work includes several literary devices and features that create a concrete character...
Introduction Shakespeare’s Hamlet transcends time and generations as it illuminates universal themes, with love and revenge being among the prominent ones. The relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia serves as an example of the theme of love in the play, with its complexities illustrating the ups and downs as well as...
The Monkey’s Paw: Analysis Introduction The Monkey’s Paw is a horror short story written by William Wymark Jacobs in the early twentieth century. Despite telling about mysterious events and matters, the story feels probable due to realistic settings and characters. The synthesis of the real and unreal world helps the...
Introduction “Preface to Shakespeare” is one of the classic and universally recognized documents in the field of literary criticism in English society, which came from the pen of Samuel Johnson. This work is a collection of reliable knowledge, assumptions, and ideas of the author about the great playwright’s life moments...
Hamlet’s Appearance vs Reality Theme: Introduction Shakespeare’s Hamlet is full of a seeming technique highlighting the tensions or gaps between appearance and reality. That is, how things seem in appearance and the reality behind the complex screen of appearances among characters and events. One can identify appearance and reality in...
John Milton’s corresponding poems “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso” explore the value and the pleasures that people take in two competing but complementary lifestyles and the attractions of two competing sources of artistic inspiration. “L’Allegro” is a celebration of the beauty of rural nature and urban vitality and glorifies mirth and...
The tragedy of Hamlet has remained a mystery to many people. Over the years, many people have questioned if the Hamlet fits the description of a tragedy outlined by Aristotle in the poetics. In a classic tragedy, there is a noble and heroic protagonist whose destruction is caused by a...
William Shakespeare captures the true meaning of love and beauty. Shakespeare has written many great poems in his time. This sonnet is one of the most beautiful verses in the English language. Shakespeare is comparing his adored love to a summer’s day. When one hears about love and beauty in...
This The Last Leaf essay sample explores O. Henry’s short story. Learn more about the themes, setting, dialogues, and other details of the story with our The Last Leaf critique essay sample! The Last Leaf Essay Introduction I have read several short stories, but none inspired me, as The Last...
Are you about to write The Lottery summary essay and looking for examples? Then check out this The Lottery analysis essay sample! Here, you’ll find information on the setting, themes, and other aspects of the story. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is one of the most recognized short pieces of...
Introduction Mercy is a virtue that allows one to forgive sinners or those guilty of crimes, while justice is the principle of punishing criminals commensurate with the severity of their crimes. Thus, it seems that these two concepts conflict with each other. The main actors of the play are Venetian...
Epiphany is a literary metaphor in which characters are struck with life-changing insights that change the course of history. Simple everyday encounters and experiences often cause revelation. Joyce introduced epiphany as a sudden revelation in the novel The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It is the moment...
Wuthering Heights is an eminent work by Emily Bronte which was written in the Victorian epoch of British literature. The concept of the novel is widely discussed until now. A huge range of writers who were contemporary to E. Bronte and lived after her admit that the novel is full...
Introduction During the recent years, the opposition between paper books and e-books has become quite topical. Numerous people nowadays argue about whether it is more comfortable to use a printed book or a digital device for reading. Although an increasing number of people choose e-books over paper ones, printed editions...
Introduction The post-colonial literature which is also referred to as the new English literature is an art of writing that specifically targets issues to do with the process of decolonization or the freedom of people that had been previously subjected to colonial rule. These modes of writing also try to...
In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer presents a complex social structure in his imaginative world. It was during feudal and Medieval England when Chaucer was writing The Canterbury Tales. The author successfully satirizes the English society by carefully ranking his characters using “degree” to classify people (Chaucer 55). The book revolves...
This sample will help you write a The Story of an Hour analysis essay! Here you’ll find a The Story of an Hour summary. Essay also contains a plot and character analysis. The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. This famous piece...
Who is Hamlet’s mother? How does Hamlet feel about his mother? How did Hamlet’s mother act toward his father, the king, when he was alive? Read this essay to find answers to all of your questions about Hamlet’s relationship with his mother. The famous British playwright, William Shakespeare, explored the...
William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ eyes” jumps into the theme of loving one another’s imperfections and flaws. The poem is a sonnet that is in iambic pentameter. “The rhyme scheme of the sonnet is highly regular” (Zsoldos line 24). That is, it follows a regular rhyming pattern. The rhyme of the...
What is the significance of the title and the moral lesson of The Dead by James Joyce? Keep reading to find out! This essay example is here to provide you with some ideas and inspiration for your paper. The Dead James Joyce: Themes The main theme of the short story...
Language and Metaphor in Anna Akhmatova’s “Requiem” Of all verbal arts, poetry might be the most saturated with metaphors and other means of communicating emotional subtext. Anna Akhmatova’s “Requiem”, a long poem mourning the victims of the Soviet repressions is not an exception. To express the feelings of loss, the...
Metaphor The central theme of William Shakespeare’s sonnet No. 18 is love. The lyrical hero admires his beloved and compares her with a beautiful sunny day in May, as in his eyes, she turns out to be “sweeter and more beautiful.” The poem is built on the antithesis since he...
Hamlet’s Internal Conflict: Introduction Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. The plot revolves around the main character Hamlet who cannot make up his mind on whether or not to take revenge over the murder of his father, King Hamlet, the ruler of Denmark. This indecision arises after Hamlet...
The novel Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is written in a very peculiar way: Conrad uses a framing structure which makes up a story in a story. The story is recounted by two narrators, which makes it sound more verisimilar and impressive. The novel opens up with the description...
Gulliver’s Travels Satire Examples: Introduction Gulliver’s Travels tells the story of Lemuel Gulliver. He tours different parts of the world after the failure of his business. He first goes to Lilliput, where he meets tiny people before he goes back to his home through Blefuscu. He stays with his family...
Introduction The Great Gatsby is a chef-d’oeuvre tragic love story and a pessimistic critique of the idea of the American Dream as written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The American Dream is the meritocratic belief that anyone, irrespective of his or her class, race, gender, or nationality can become...
George Eliot, as a moralist emphasizes what makes a woman, an object of sympathy while keeping in a traditional line of interpretation, and this is what has made Eliot to be considered among the greatest creators of woman characters. The Mill on the Floss (1860) tells the story of a...
Introduction Tragedy and comedy are the classic genres which became most popular for the elegant audience. The thing is that people are intended to see art examples of vital things terrifying or gratifying a spectator which can be implied in the play that is why the flow of people’s thought...
The poem “I Think It Rains” by Soyinka possesses a distinctive structure, which in itself is built in metaphor. A hard-to-follow narrative results from the poet’s ability to express his ideas in rain-like drops, using the images of rain and smoke to explore the author’s state of mind. The rain...
Chaucer is considered the father of the English language and the founder of realism. His work marked in the history of English literature the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and the establishment of new principles for depicting life and the disclosure of human character. There are three...
“I had walled the monster up within the tomb” — this chilling quote comes from Poe’s famous story. Read this The Black Cat literary analysis to learn more about The Black Cat literary devices and themes. Introduction Alan Poe is one of the writers who advanced dark romanticism in the...
“Pride” and “Prejudice” are both depicted as qualities that each character needs in proper balance. “Pride” and “Prejudice,” are potentially dangerous qualities that Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet must overcome or avoid if they are to build a successful life together. Although Mr Darcy is often referred to in the...
Fences is a play by an American scriptwriter, August Wilson, written in 1985, which addresses the challenges barring Blacks from success and having a united family. Wilson uses symbolism to advance the themes and build his characters in the play. The play talks about Troy, the main character, who rose...
Despite similar upbringings, no two people can be typically alike. Even twins raised in the same milieu, living almost the same life, and doing same activities, are likely to behave differently when confronted with the same circumstance. As depicted in Shakespeare’s Hamlet play, people develop their own way of life,...
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is an example of a well-structured short story, in which the five parts of the plot, in accordance with Freytag’s Pyramid, may be found. These five steps include exposition, rising action, climax, or the highest point of tension, followed by falling action,...
The Marxist theory plays a critical role in displaying how the nobles gain control of the social, economic, and political aspects of society and its impact on the lower class. Besides, Marxism suggests that human beings’ motivation stems from the social struggle between the upper and lower class. William Shakespeare’s...
Introduction William Butler Yeats was a master poet in that he was able to convey tremendous depth of meaning within his poetry while keeping the subject relatively tightly confined. Yeats truly understood the modern concept of permitting a poem to stand on its own as a piece of art open...
The illustrated poetry “The Lamb” was written by William Blake, born in 1757 in London. The speaker of the verse is the author who addresses the little lamb, God’s creation. The poem’s addressee is a little lamb and a reader who observes the dialogue between the addressee and the speaker....
Blindness in King Lear: Introduction In King Lear, the recurring images of sight and blindness associated with the characters of Lear and Gloucester illustrate the theme of self-knowledge and consciousness that exist in the play. The leading images are pertaining to those characters in the play that cannot use their...
Introduction Sonnet 75 is part of Edmund Spenser’s 89 sonnets about his wife, Elizabeth Boyle. The 89 short poems are collectively called Amoretti and were first published in 1595. Sonnet 75 carries the themes of love and time that seem to clash. The friction between the two themes is prominent...
Want to know about social status and other characteristics of the Knight character in Canterbury tales? This critical analysis of the Knight from The Canterbury Tales has everything you need! Introduction The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is considered as one of the most significant literary works of the Middle...
Introduction The story “The Lottery” is a masterpiece written by Shirley Jackson. It describes the small town where the traditional event named “the lottery” is conducted. The “winner” is condemned to being stoned to death because it has been done for years. This essay will examine the three major themes...
In this compare and contrast essay, Oedipus Rex and Hamlet’s characters are analyzed and discussed. Being the creations of two different authors, they still resemble each other in some exciting ways. Introduction: Similarities between Oedipus and Hamlet Oedipus is a character of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. He searches for the...
Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” is a poem published in 1965, two years after the poet’s suicide. It is considered to be one of the most illustrative examples of Plath’s artistic style and explores the topic of death. The purpose of this short essay is to analyze how the author develops...
Introduction In creating his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduced several characters that represented the extremes of the society in which he lived. Rather than being true representations of the times, these characters approach the realm of caricature in their personality makeup and behaviors. In several cases, he opted to throw two...
The poem The Faerie Queene (1552-1599) by Edmund Spenser follows the adventures of a number of medieval knights and is deliberately written in an archaic style to draw inspiration from myth and history, particularly the legends of Arthur. As mentioned by the author himself, the reading of the work should...
The Canterbury Tales is an unfinished work by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, written in the late 14th century, in Middle English. The work is a collection of prose and poetic novellas, united by one common frame: the stories are told by pilgrims heading to worship the relics of St. Thomas...
Shirley Jackson’s story, which shook society in the last century’s forties, became a kind of accusatory revelation. The plot in The Lottery is reduced to the fact that in a particular abstract town a lottery is held, where all residents gather. From their conversations, it becomes clear that this is...
“The Gift of the Magi” Analysis Essay: Introduction O. Henry’s parable-like short stories are a tribute to pure love, non-material values, and devotion. Rehman et al. define “The Gift of the Magi” as the story of love, compassion, and care that stand against extreme poverty (264). The background of the...
The first theoretical explanation of the nature of tragedy is associated with Aristotle’s work Poetics. According to the Greek philosopher, tragedy has an advantage over other genres. It can emotionally affect a person, stimulate cathartic empathy, encourage the reader or viewer to participate in the moral and psychological assessment of...
Introduction The main theme of All for Love is love, which is shown through the relationship and hardships of lovers Antony and Cleopatra. Their tragic love storyline accentuates the tension between a person’s private aspirations and their duty to the nation, society, and the public good. This conflict between love...
In “The Dinner Party,” Mona Gardner narrates about a table gathering of a colonial official, his wife, and their guests in India. During the evening, a colonel and a young girl become involved in the discussion about women’s reactions to surprising events. The host claims that “…while a man may...
Introduction It is apparent that women were exposed to oppression for centuries. The contradictions on the notion of woman’s place in the society probably started with Eve, who was created from Adam’s rib. Females were oppressed for long years; men-dominated society did not allow them to become a part of...
“Waiting for Godot,” a play written by Samuel Beckett, postulates the idea that a human being’s life is wholly dependant on chance, meaningfulness and the futile reliance on ‘Godot.’ The two characters in this story, Estrogon and Vladimir, have evoked pity in me as they wait for hope to arrive....
The Necklace Irony: Introduction Several types of irony were added in Maupassant’s story “The Necklace”. Each type performs its own function, but their complex application provides the greatest comedic effect. However, the irony in the story is used not only for comedic reasons. Maupassant applies this technique to show the...
Introduction Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco, California, which is a surprising fact to many people. Although he lived in small apartments throughout the city during his first 11 years, Frost is more commonly associated with the natural scenes of the New England countryside that is used...
Introduction “My Last Duchess” is a beautiful poem written by Robert Browning and it also reveals the poet’s style of using dramatic monologue in writing his poems. The sixteenth century Italian background of the story adds richness to the theme, as Italy was the centre of arts. The attention of...
When people think about Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus, animal imagery is the first thing that comes to mind. Different animals are used to represent various races, which is an example of anthropomorphism. But what does Art Spiegelman’s choice in portraying the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats...
Introduction Marriage and its strong relationship with wealth and social position are one of the key topics in “Pride and Prejudice.” According to Austen, a middle-class lady did not frequently have the means to marry entirely based on love; she needed to be aware of the man’s potential to provide...
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play driven by revenge, with many of the main characters falling victim to it. There is no denying that revenge is a powerful feeling that can completely dominate and destroy a human’s life. One of the most common justifications for revenge is the pursuit of justice...
Introduction Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter, a short story by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, tells the readers about Mrs. Dutta, an elderly Indian woman who moved to California to live together with her son and his family after her husband died. The story shows how hard it is for the old...
Introduction The Renaissance period was one in which many creative writers, artists, and songwriters worked together to create and produce magnificent works of art. In this period, many themes influenced the writers of the period. Vengeance, free play of words, and patronage were prevalent in literary works during the Renaissance...
Poe’s short stories are widely known for the mystery and horror they hide. Being famous as an inventor of the detective genre, the writer filled his narrations with seemingly minute details that turned out to have had substantial importance in the end. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of the most...
The story tells about Safiya and Said, who were forced to leave their home in Haifa in 1948. Haifa became the subject of military conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Jews during this period, which caused the inhabitants to leave the city. However, in the chaos of the escape, the couple’s...
Introduction Poetry can take many forms and use a variety of rhyme types and literary devices. Despite the diversity of forms, poems have one thing in common: they elicit deep feelings from people’s souls and make readers reflect on important philosophical questions. This essay will discuss two pieces of poetry:...
We all have a friend who yells during a movie that this moment was shown differently in the book. At the same time, another friend says that he or she is bored with reading and would rather wait for the movie adaptation. Both of these friends can be right, since...
‘Death of a salesman, written by Arthur Miller portrays the real life of a typical American middle-class man who dedicates most part of his life to a private company. The central character in the play, Willy Loman, and his wife fail to understand the real pulse of society. He is...
This paper will analyze the Polish novel Drive your Plow Over the Body of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, focusing on several key themes of feminism, protection of nature and its innocence conflicting with human immorality and ignorance. In the novel, one of the major themes is nature vs. humanity,...
Worker rights are a contemporary issue whose depth and importance were similarly relevant in previous centuries. Pablo Neruda utilizes his poem, ‘The United Fruit Company; to satirize the actions of Latin American leaders in the twentieth century, specifically as they associate with foreign international corporations. Their suppressive actions favoring imperialistic...
Introduction Honor is the highest respect or reputation that a person has among others. In Shakespeare’s times, honor had a great significance since it determined how a person was treated by society, and it was vividly depicted in the poet’s play, Much Ado About Nothing. In this comedy, Shakespeare managed...
R.J. Palacio’s debut book Wonder was first published in 2012. The author was working as a visual designer and writing the novel at the same time. The book focuses on August, who suffers from a facial deformation that stopped him from attending a public school (Palacio, 2012). However, this situation...
Women are often required to be good wives, mothers, nurses, teachers, breadwinners, and housekeepers at the same time. All of them deserve gratitude and praise, but women’s work is often invisible. In her poem “Woman’s Work,” Julia Alvarez discusses the domestic role of women and their input in the family....
Among the core insights of the Marxist theory is that the class struggle has characterized the history of societies’ development. Because art, both literature and theater, does not exist separately from society, it has become a crucial aspect of the historical process and people’s comprehension of the world. Thus, it...
The play Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth by Drew Hayden Taylor tells the story of Janice, a woman who was taken away from her biological family when she was a child. At some point, her brother Toronto says that “If you have a sound understanding of where you...
Examples of Racism in The Great Gatsby: Essay Introduction The novel “The Great Gatsby” by Scott Fitzgerald is a very symbolistic piece of writing in which each reader can find aspects interesting for him or her only. The writer’s ability to intertwine symbolism with the realistic flow of the story...
Introduction Blood relation is an epic play that revolves around the life of Lizzy Borden. Lizzy is perceived to have killed her parents in an unpredictable maze of circumstances that Pollock (the playwright) explains were beyond her (Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia 2). This paper analyzes blood relations by responding to its...
The Catcher in the Rye was a novel written by J.D Slinger. The novel’s protagonist is a young man struggling with various issues in his adolescence. Holden Caulfield, aged 16, was the name of the young man. For the fourth time, he had been kicked out of class. Salinger uses...
Introduction Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles and her short story ‘A Jury of Her Peers’ are the one that shake readers’ consciousness of the woman existence among men in the beginning of the twentieth century. These are the two literary works presenting the same story differently. The both writing are significant,...
The Necklace: Introduction of the Essay The Necklace (La Parure) is one of the most famous short stories by Guy De Maupassant. It tells a story about a middle-class French couple in the 19th century. The wife is longing for a luxurious life, unappreciative of her husband, and a relatively...
Introduction Wilfred Owen is often considered as one of the eminent war poets in English literature who exhibits real pathos in his poems. His war poetry shows an astonishing advance in expressions as well as contents. Owen had previous experimented with a variety of new technical devices, such as half–rhymes,...
Introduction The Greek concept of “Therapon”, as one of the central in the Ancient Greek culture, plays an important historical and cultural role in the “Iliad” by Homer. On the whole, the Ancient Greece contributed greatly to the development of the world culture of today, and the above mentioned concept...
The theme of fear is often presented in literature and philosophy through various concepts, including existential experiences, questions of death, and the finiteness of being. Many authors are very interested in the topic of fear, as it is also strongly related to aspects of the corporeality. People lose their minds...
“Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros and “In Response to Executive Order 9066” by Dwight Okita are the two works that have a common theme of the way people of different cultures lived in the United States in the twentieth century. The first story describes Mexicans, and the second poem is about...
Interested in Elizabethan era gender roles in Shakespeare plays? Check out this essay! It analyzes gender roles in Elizabethan society and the importance of marriage and gender conformity during the Elizabethan era. Here, we explain why some scholars believe that Shakespeare promoted feminism and how gender roles in Elizabethan England...
Introduction The story of Half a Day revolves around the meaning of life and how fast it passes in front of people without them noticing it. The author, Naguib Mahfouz, manages to squiz the story of the whole life, coming of age, just in a single day that drastically leaves...
Conflict in Hamlet: Essay Introduction The play Hamlet is one of the appealing literary works of the world’s renowned play writer, William Shakespeare. The play is about one character that is, Hamlet who is the prince and son of the late king who was allegedly murdered by the current king...
This “The Explosion” poem analysis presents the poem’s summary and its theme. In “The Explosion”, Larkin presented profound ideas. Keep reading to learn more. “The Explosion” by Philip Larkin Analysis Introduction In his poem “The Explosion,” Philip Larkin discusses the dramatic event of the mine disaster observed in 1969. This...
“Paradise Lost,” a poem in blank verse written by John Milton, an English poet, was published in 1667 in ten books and republished in 1674 in twelve books. In general, the poem presents the story of the Fall of Men, when Adam and Eve were tempted by the fallen angel...
Introduction Songs have been used for different purposes, such as relating to contemporary life situations such as war, marriage, and economic downturns. Music calms the soul and relaxes the mind, taking someone away from the problem at hand. In addition, singing and listening to songs have therapeutic abilities, enabling individuals...
Symbolism is a rather significant literary device that is widely used by a variety of authors and takes their works on a higher level. A short story “Araby,” written by a great Irish novelist James Joyce and in 1914 published in his Dubliners collection, is filled with different symbols. Some...
Introduction Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death’ expresses the writer’s perception of death. The writer focuses mainly on the construct of life after death. The setting of the poem reflects the contexts in which death draws near, and the writer puts these circumstances as genial and...
Introduction Anton Chekhov’s “Sleepy”, was published in 1888. The author in his story describes in-depth how one feels when one is deprived of a need- a necessity. In this case, the need is nothing but the most basic necessity- sleep. Right from “half-open eyes”, and “her half slumbering brain”, to...
The peculiar story of the monkey and the girl Mizuki is full of symbols and metaphors. Mizuki leads an ordinary and, at first glance, satisfying life. Still, at the same time, in her childhood, she has gone through horrible traumas that made her suppress her feelings and emotions because it...
Mary Shelley is an iconic writer who lived from 1797 and died in 1851. The writer lived and wrote during the era of literature when romanticism bloomed and flourished. Shelley’s works can prove that she was significantly impacted by her times because she shows major elements of romantic writing. One...
Walt Whitman was the American poet who represented the transcendentalist movement in the nineteenth century. Transcendentalism’s general belief is that human senses are not enough to provide the profound truth as they are limited to physical knowledge of life. Rueben concludes transcendentalism as “the intuitive faculty, instead of the rational...
Introduction Death of a Salesman takes place in 1949, four years after World War II has ended. America is enjoying a postwar economic boom, but the war has caused a shake-up in American society, changing the way people view business, leisure, themselves, and others, making the American way of life...
Harold Pinter’s The Room is a play written in the genre of realistic comedy. Indeed, the author talks about an average couple living in a studio. Rose and Bert seem to be comfortable with each other’s strange personalities. However, their seemingly peaceful existence is distracted by strangers who want to...
Just like The Metamorphosis by Kafka, The Stranger by Camus is characterized by existentialism, humanity, and alienation. Learn about absurdity in The Metamorphosis and The Stranger from this essay sample. Absurdism in The Metamorphosis and The Stranger: Essay Introduction The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Stranger by Albert Camus...
McPhee’s essay The Search for Marvin Gardens has a unique structure as it is divided into parts that describe the Monopoly game and the real world. The author alternates these themes making a reader unconsciously connect them and seek similarities in how the game is built and how life in...
Introduction A poem is a piece of literature that is written to pass certain messages to people or express various emotions such as love, hate, or even anger (Glennis, 98). It is because of these reasons that poetry requires skillful selection of words and sentence structures so as to make...
Sight is a word that describes more than physical vision, or eyesight. Sophocles’ play, Oedipus Rex, offers an ironic comparison between Oedipus, who is blessed with vision yet can not comprehend what goes on around him, and Tiresias who is blind but aware of the truth. The author shows how...
Introduction Persepolis is a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, published for the first time in 2000-2003 in France. The work is autobiographical and depicts the author’s adolescence in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Ostby notes that the narrative is a “cross-cultural self-representation and misinterpretation that has proved both entertaining and...
“The Tale of the Three Brothers” by J. K. Rowling explores the topic of humans’ desires that always have negative consequences. It tells a story of three brothers that encounter Death, who offers them prizes for safely crossing the river. Two gullible brothers do not spot the trap imposed on...
The History and Importance of Women’s Literature Literature was one of many spheres in which women were a minority in representation in the 17th century. The tradition of women’s literature was ignored by society for centuries. Women writers were not considered profound creators. Their novels were perceived with significant opposition....
The Houyhnhnms say that the Yahoos, a name given to us by them, are savages, animals who lead useless lives. They teach that the Houyhnhnms are the masters, and they train us, send us away, or keep us near to work for them, picking crops and eating wild animals and...
Charles Dickens is believed to be one of the most prominent writers of the so-called Victorian Era. He is renowned for his style, creation of unique and unforgettable characters, but the overwhelming majority of literary critics focus attention on his social sensitivity because undoubtedly, the authors works often concentrate on...
Introduction In the short story “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner, the Old South is portrayed through the lens of symbolism. Hence, the emotional response of the people, who witnessed the tragic events stemming from the main character’s unrequited love, which is unacceptable for her position, can be...
In the book “The Canterbury tales”, Geoffrey Chaucer (1977) presents 24 stories where the author satirically portrays life in medieval England and people who belong to various professions. The narrative begins with the prologue, where the author explains how such a company of people with different social backgrounds could form....
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are often compared to each other. Why? Well, there are many similarities between Whitman and Dickinson, but the most important aspect is the attitude towards nature that makes them such important poets. So, how do both Dickinson and Whitman show they value nature in 324...
Introduction Kafka’s novella represents a tale of a traveling salesman who finds himself transformed into an insect after he wakes up one morning. He brought out in this story many things about his life, including his father, his family and his future. He used metaphors to show his love for...
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a mysterious and exciting story that tells about the life of a woman who, at first glance seems unremarkable, but is fraught with the mystery of the murder. Although the story’s events seem to be presented in chronological order, some digressions and...
In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer constructs a rich portrayal of medieval society and social mores. Chaucer’s world is vibrant and populated with archetypes that seem to fit neatly in social and moral categories. The knight is of high moral stature and chivalry, the prioress is “gentle” and “piteous.” The characters...
Gender Roles in The Tempest: Essay Introduction The works of William Shakespeare have received a lot of attention throughout history. His works have been analyzed by themes, line by line, or the characters he invented. His works can be interpreted one way or another, and as such, Shakespeare seems to...
Introduction Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach is characterized by memories fueled and triggered by trauma. Lisamarie Hill is the main character who features throughout the novel. She lives in the Haisla community on the Coast of the British Columbian, where she faces many problems in the attempt to discover herself while...
Odyssey is one of the major poems written by Homer. It has been translated to a number of modern languages and originally it was expected to be sung, rather than read. Odysseus, a Greek hero, is a central character of the poem and throughout the story the reader can observe...
“Death of a Salesman” is one of the most significant works by Arthur Miller. In this play, Miller concentrates on the life of the middle class people-presented through the Loman family. The play is basically drawn by the conflicts between its protagonists. Biff and Happy are the two siblings in...
The two stories selected for the discussion are “A Fixed Income” and “Valediction”. A “Fixed Income” highlights the plight of minorities in the United States through Sherman’s experience at McDonald’s. He explains that most of the employees at the restaurant are blacks and Latinos. Moreover, these workers are college graduates...
Wystan Hugh Auden’s poem ” The Unknown Citizen” is a portrayal of a conflict between individualism and government control and the central theme of the poem is the attitude of the government towards its citizen. W H. Auden’s poem “The Unknown Citizen” is a government’s outlook of the ideal contemporary...
“The Huntress” is a fictional short story by Sofia Samatar, which touches on topics of fear, family, and identity. The award-winning author from Virginia, US, creates intriguing, heart-pumping, and blood-boiling literary pieces and “The Huntress: is not an exception. The story discovers the need for adventure and magic within a...
Introduction Emily Dickinson was a renowned 19th-century American poet that wrote unique and complex poems. Her style, symbolism, and hidden meanings of poems continue to be studied in the modern-day as she delved into socially controversial topics of her time. One subject matter commonly explored in her poems is the...
Theme of Companionship in Frankenstein: Introduction The theme of family in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is not the only central topic raised in the writing; however, it is the issue that most explains and opens up the complex context of the book. Family is one of the most important parts...
Alvarez addresses the domesticated lives of women and the conflict over their duties in a household. Traditionally, women were expected to stay at home and perform homemaking roles such as house cleaning and taking care of their families. From the poem, Alvarez refuses to accept this norm because women should...
An author’s main intention when writing literature is to send a message regarding social factors and shed light on issues not readily visible to society. As a result, they adopt various strategies, which may sometimes conceal the real meanings of text or use words that attract and retain their audiences’...
The Age of Enlightenment occurring in the 17th and 18th century England and Europe remains one of the most prominent periods of history and development in human civilization. This period was chosen along with the respective works and their authors because of the changes that occurred in the literary space...
Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby depicts life in America in the 1920s focusing on the relationship between different classes and their representatives. The main character, Jay Gatsby, starts his life as a poor farm boy and earns his position in society and wealth through perseverance, commitment to his dreams, and hard work....
Introduction “The Things They Carried” is a collection of short stories written by Tim O’Brien. Through storytelling, O’Brien addresses the themes of war, memories, and redemption. The story itself is based on O’Brien’s recollections of his experience serving in the army during the Vietnam War (1). The author describes the...
Eugene Scribe defined the structure of a well-made play to describe how the best play should be laid out. The components of this basic outline include exposition, suspense, development and complication, strong curtain, cause and effect, resolution, scène à faire, and dénouement (Prośniak 448). Although Henry Ibsen’s A Doll’s House...
Introduction Literary works are a unique form that allows the reader to fully convey the palette of emotions, experiences, and properties that the writer sought to put in the texts. For this purpose, authors tend to use various artistic techniques to capture and transform the audience’s attention, but most importantly,...
One of the topics that are especially pertinent to Romantic poetry is imagination. This concept is notable because it cannot be defined clearly and can be considered motif readers can see in the works of the period. The purpose of this paper is to explain how the imagination is relevant...
The play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller depicts life and destiny of an American family which dreams about prosperity and high social position in society. in this play, Miller tries to escape social contradictions by using a dramatic form. Fundamental in this play is the fact that Miller...
The details of the concept of love presented in the literature change with references to different centuries and societies and Marie de France’s vision of love presented in her lais can be discussed as rather provocative for the Medieval society and literature because of the author’s use of the feminist...
Guy de Maupassant used an active literary element called irony to illustrate the people’s pretension and vanity in late 19th century France in his short story “The Jewelry.” Famous French novelist Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant is regarded as a master of the fast tale genre (Kapau et al.)....
Introduction Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird explores the racism and racial prejudice that negatively affected the black community and the Justice System in Maycomb. A wide range of key elements of gender criticism can be observed in the literature, where the whole notion of gender is demonstrated to...
Introduction The story written by Salman Rushdie focuses on the theft of Prophet Muhammad’s Hair, a powerful relic that could offer its possessor a blessing or a curse. Most of the story illustrates the horrible consequences that Huma’s family faced when the head of the family and Huma’s father, Hashim,...
In “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America”, Benjamin Franklin mocks the manner in which colonists assumed that their culture was better than Indians’, and argues that people should be tolerant. The satire aims at educating the society on the need for the appreciation of everybody’s culture and lifestyle. Tolerance...
Are The Story of an Hour and The Yellow Wallpaper similar stories? Their similarities include themes such as feminism and freedom, but there are also plenty of differences. Find out more in this essay! Women’s role in society has always been a widely-discussed topic. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins...
The Philosophy of Money was written by Georg Simmel and first published in the year 1900. Being a Philosopher, he had students learning under him. Like others before him and after him he thought through the mysteries of life. His main subject was about man and money. In the book,...
Setting in A Doll’s House: Summary The play ‘The Dollhouse’ was written in 1879. In this work, Henrik Ibsen criticizes Victorian marriage and the secondary roles of women in society. The freedom and independence of the main character, Nora, is limited by her husband and father. Ibsen skillfully uses settings...
The story under the title “Jason Who Will Be Famous” was created by Dorothy Allison, a feminist writer whose primary topics of interest are poverty and abuse. The theme of this narrative, as the title implies, is a dream of fame. However, Jason, the main character, does not anticipate his...
Trifles is a piece written by Susan Glaspell in 1916 in the genre of the one-act play. The play explores the connections between husbands and wives, focusing on a murderous marriage. The play contains many symbols with specific meanings that enhance the contents of the play. Every symbol is related...
Introduction The ‘Diamond Necklace’ is a short story written by Guy de Maupassant in 1907. In the story, the focus is on a lady known as Mathilde, who was married to Loisel, an employee at the ministry of public instruction. De Maupassant introduced Mathilde as a humble woman who had...
Literature can be extremely personal and serve as a reflection of the experiences of the author. Chinua Achebe is one of the most prominent contemporary Nigerian writers, with a unique writing style and even more remarkable stories to tell. In his works, Achebe sheds light on the cultural disparity between...
Introduction The Merchant of Venice is a play written by William Shakespeare during the 16th century. The characters in the play demonstrate virtues of friendship, love, and hate. Shakespeare highlights typical examples of true friendship and romantic love in the play. The theme of love mainly revolves between Bassanio and...
Introduction The story of Superdisappointed is about the difficulties of becoming the first Ojibwe superhero. Kyle is pleased at first when he gains powers on his own and tries to make the world a better place. From beginning to end, the Kyle tale is full of contradictions. Kyle was simply...
