Toad. The word conjures up images of a grotesque, little amphibian and yet it is this little animal that Larkin decides to base his poem on. He describes two toads. One is the exterior influence that society has on and individual to work, and the other is the interior or personal prompting to work. He … Read more
Grumio arrives at Petruchio’s house after accompanying Petruchio and Kate on a long journey from Padua. Grumio affirms the fact that the servants are well prepared for the new couple’s arrival. He tells Curtis, another servant to Petruchio, of an incident that occurred on the trip. Katherina’s horse had thrown on her off and then … Read more
The Two Gentlemen of Verona deals with the debate over the relative merits of love and friendship between two young courtiers Valentine and Proteus. One of the great debates of the Renaissance was the discussion of whether the love of a woman was a sentiment more noble than the friendship that might exist between men. … Read more
In the plays The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, and Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, the protagonists’ mental beliefs combine reality and illusion that both shape the plot of each respective story. The ability of the characters to reject or accept an illusion, along with the foolish pride that motivated … Read more
The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden Caulfield. Just four days before the winter vacation Holden is kicked out from Pencey prep. School. He is kicked out from school for not passing most of his classes, except English class. Being alone bored out of his mind and not know what to do. Holden decides … Read more
“Sula” by Tony Morrison is the story of a friendship between Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who are opposites in the way of relating to other people, to the world around them, and to themselves. Nel is rational and balanced; she gets married and gives in to conformity and the town’s expectations. Sula is an … Read more
Roughing it was written by Mark Twain. This book is a journal of Mark Twain and his brother’s trip to Carson City, Nevada. They went because Mark Twain’s brother had a job as the Secretary of Nevada. This book, journal, started when they were leaving to go to Carson City; and ended when Mark Twain … Read more
Many people find that their dreams are unreachable. Holden Caulfield realizes this in J. D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye. As Holden tells his story, he recounts the events since leaving the Pencey School to his psychiatrist. At first, Holden sounds like a typical, misguided teenager, rebellious towards his parents, angry with his teachers, … Read more
Each person has their own vision of utopia. Utopia means an ideal state, a paradise, a land of enchantment. It has been a central part of the history of ideas in Western Civilization. Philosophers and writers continue to imagine and conceive plans for an ideal state even today. They use models of ideal government to … Read more
In the early 1900’s Susan Glaspell wrote many works. Two of her works stand out as true feminist tells, including the play Trifles and the short story \”A Jury of Her Peers\”. Trifles was written in 1920, while \”A Jury of Her Peers\” was written the following year. Trifles was written in only ten days. … Read more
The satirists shared a talent for making other individuals feel uncomfortable, particularly by making them aware of their own moral inadequacies. They used irony, derision, and wit to attack human vice or folly. One method the satirist utilized to catch their readers’ attention, while also making them feel uncomfortable, was to describe those things that … Read more
The narrator of this last stanza of The Road Not Taken is Edward Thomas, eluding that the choice he has just made may be the wrong, or the right; but only time will tell. On the surface, Robert Frosts poem is a story about a walk on a wooded road, but it had deeper meaning … Read more
Explore how any playwright of the time has successfully dramatised a social issue. Contemporary theatre has stepped further and further away from the sugar-coated happy society plays and musicals that once dominated Broadway and the West End. Now, harsher more realistic stories with issues facing todays society and politics are shocking that conventional-type of theatre. … Read more
Often compared to the American poet Edgar Allen Poe, the French poet Charles Baudelaire has become well-known for his fascination with death, melancholy, and evil and his otherwise eccentric yet contemplative style. These associations have deemed him as a “patron saint of modernist poetry” while at the same time closely tying his style in with … Read more
Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living (Bronte, 163)! In this quote, Heathcliffs pain from Catherines death is obvious. Wuthering Heights is a Victorian novel regarding the lives of the Earnshaws and Lintons. Through three generations, they all experience wave after wave of tragedy all originating with Heathcliffs overwhelming desire … Read more
Dysfunctional family relationships form the basis of many Canadian short stories. Often, tragedy is the end result of severe family breakdown. In other cases, personality defects are directly traceable to poor family dynamics. In the stories Hurt, Fall of a City, and The Sound of Hollyhocks there were very profound family problems. The difficulty in … Read more