English Literature

To whom much is given, much is expected. And this is the tragedy of being a hero. In the play Oedipus the King, the character of Oedipus is at firs portrayed as the wise one who solved the sphinxs riddle, saved Thebes and became its king. Self determination and confidence round him up, albeit with a mix of hot temper and uncontrolled anger. Beowulf, on the other hand, is the brave and all time warrior of Geatland. Steadfast loyalty to his people and a sense of pride for his successes in battle make...

Miguel Street is a novel based on experiences that happened around a street in Trinidad located in the western part of the Port of Spain named Miguel Street. It contains distinctive characters that have various ambitions that are never realized but are remembered by the narrator and recorded in the novel. Unfortunately neither of the characters in the novel leaves Miguel Street apart from the narrator who leaves to make something of himself. The characters in the book include a Man-man who is depicted...

Introduction John Miltons Paradise Lost is considered to be one of the greatest in English Language. The poem is about the story of the Fall of Man, the temptation of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eve. It is said that the subject matter of this poem has continued to puzzle readers of every age group because of the sheer beauty of its language and power of its characterization. The author does not hesitate to question many difficult questions and turn for the exploration of...

That Frankenstein is a story of a monsters scientific creation is difficult to deny created by Victor Frankenstein as a part of his scientific experiment, the monster exemplifies a unique combination of cruelty and suffering, because the world does not give it a chance to satisfy its complex passions. However, not always are readers given an opportunity to see and evaluate the role, which women play and are expected to play in the story. Victors mother Caroline, his adopted cousin Elizabeth, Justine...

Russian writer Anton Chekhovs short story, The Lady with the Pet Dog, demonstrates how a literary work -- which uses fluid, non-conventional structure and brilliant descriptive style to treat a topic deemed sensitive during the late 19th century -- can be very effective. The story takes place in the nineteenth-century town of Yalta in Russia.  Using an ominiscient narrator, Chekhov tackles the topic of marital indiscretion of two seemingly mature individuals who have long been struggling...

1984 is the famous dystopian (anti-utopian) novel written by George Orwell. Many years after, the novel remains to be one of the most influential writing ever issued against the dangers of the totalitarian society. Orwell was able to show the worst human society imaginable through the life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One where people are in the world of unending war, invasive government scrutiny, public mind control and cancellation of citizens rights. He wrote 1984 to caution the people...

The Iliad is a war story written over 3000 years ago by Homes, a blind artist, and is characterized with dread, death and love. Its made up of blood drenched episodes, treachery, ruthless battles and abandonment. The Iliad begun while the Trojan War was still in progress. Homes presents the character of Achilles, a fierce Greek warrior, as immortal but still vulnerable like other human beings. Paris, a prince of Troy, eluded with Helen who was the wife of Spartan king called Menelaus. The king sought...

William Faulkners A Rose for Emily follows the sad love affair of a noble mans daughter. The storys two main characters, Emily and Homer, meet their tragic end not entirely because of their own doing they become unlucky victims of the society that they are in. Emily Grierson, the main protagonist, is living in isolation in her inherited house, shutting herself from the outside world. Her fixation to an upper class life makes her abhor the townspeople. She carried her head high enough. It was as...

The main character of the William Faulkner short story A Rose for Emily is the eccentric Emily.  Born in the times after the Civil War and cared for by an overbearing father, and Colonel Satoris, Emily is a character on the brink of insanity from an early age.  However, not only does Emily represent herself, but she represents the Old South, in light of the new order of the world.  It is through the events that are most memorable in Miss Emilys life that one can understand the symbolic...

Introduction Exposition The story starts as Mr. Roger Button was anxious of the new addition to his family. A girl or boy it may be, he rushed to the hospital with unease. Meeting hospital staffs with odd expressions as he introduced hes Mr. Button, it added up to his fret with the way he was dealt. From unanswered questions to clumsy reactions, he finally saw his son. Benjamin Button was born to a case foreign to people. As a baby, he looked like a man aged 70. Shame was all over the hospital and...

The stories Soldiers Home by Hemingway and How to tell a true War Story by O Brien are two very different stories that deal with the same theme of war.  In the first story by Hemingway, however, the story is told from a third person perspective and is about a young war veteran, Harold Krebs, who comes home from the war years later than the rest of the soldiers.  The story unfolds as Krebs narrates his perceptions using the war as a contrast reality in his narrations.  The other story...

Queen Elizabeth II is the reigning monarch and Head of State of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms (Her Majesty The Queen, n.d.). Christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, she ascended the throne in 1952 upon the death of her father King George VI. Her mostly peaceful reign has lasted more than five decades and is marked by enormous changes in her countrys powers and its peoples lives (Queen Elizabeth II Biography, n.d.). Queen Elizabeth was born on 21 April 1926 as the first...

Capital punishment is a term used to refer to death penalty. It is used in the current days, just as in the ancient times as a way of punishing the various crimes committed. According to Katz, Levitt  Shustorovich (2003), execution does not in any way influence the rate of crime. In fact, any other type of punishment, like incarceration, has a greater effect on recidivism rates than the death penalty. In further support of the death penalty, they argue that there is no recorded evidence which...

In Genesis, the story of creation is very simply stated. According to Genesis, God first created heaven and Earth, and then he created Light (Genesis 11-5). In Genesis, God alone created everything from nothing. This story of creation is very similar to the one in Metamorphoses in that God created the Earth and sky from chaos. But in Genesis, God continues to create the sun, moon and stars and finally man. But in metamorphoses, there is ambiguity as to who created man and according to Ovid, it could...

Ancient practices by man are reflected in the modern world as per particular aspects or observations of culture, current events and personal experiences. Man is an element of ancient world and also his activities are reflected in todays society activities. Man is always part of the society both in modern and ancient world whereby his practices reflect more on some cultural practices and other forces. Some observations by man in the ancient world are also observed in todays cultural believes and...

The quotation money makes the world go round was first used in a musical play Cabaret, it was written in the 1960s. The play was a melancholy one, in one of the songs the female lead expresses her wish for love, the male protagonist replies with this line in the song. The main aim of this line was to say that it is money that makes the world turn, not nobility or love.  It highlights the fact that our society is heavily dependent on money. Charles Dickens further stresses this point in his...

I have always been fascinated by the word Hedonism, initially by the sound of it  perhaps due to the ancient Greeks origin which surrounds it with a mysterious and mythic aura, and then by the meaning underneath the word and the message emitted. Pursuit of pleasure (Collins English Dictionary), devotion to pleasure (American heritage dictionary), the belief that pleasure is the most important thing in life (Oxford Dictionary) are some of the meanings attributed to it, which, if taken to the...