Essays on English Literature

Kazou Ishiguro’s novel ‘Never Let Me Go’ takes place in an alternate dystopian world in England, during the late 1990s. The novel is essentially about a widespread virus that leaves people in need of vital organs. Test tube babies or clones were created for organ donations for the people that have been infected. When they...

‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Shelley and ‘Storm on the Island’ by Seamus Heaney both present nature and time as powerful forces which can have an overwhelming effect on humans. In Heaney’s poem, the impact is on a whole community, whereas in Shelley’s poem it is affecting one man. Shelley was a socialist which means that he...

Jane Eyre is one of the most important novels by Charlotte Brontë, and therefore this novel has been adapted for the screen. As the author of the article (Patsy Stoneman) says, there is more than one option to tell a story, which is why many writers and narrators are forced to make changes to their...

 ‘Havisham’ portrays a hateful, rejected, and isolated woman who life has become a misery. The persona of Miss Havisham (note that Duffy calls her ‘Havisham’), the disregarded woman from Dickens’s novel, is used to bring in different aspects of being a spinster in the Victorian era. The poem pursues an extreme sense of anger, violence,...

Pain, misery, and disappointment are all a significant part of this world’s concepts of both life and love. A prime example of this is displayed in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, where the protagonist, Jane, suffers through a particularly difficult life; her love is constantly stripped from her the moment she is relishing it most....

As a writer, Dickens was a master of the use of language and vocalised dialect resulting in the creation of characters that evoke speech that is instantly recognisable but ultimately unique. He was known to walk the streets of London, alone and at night while listening to the hectic life that surrounded him during his...

‘Ozymandias’ and ‘London’ both present human power, but whereas ‘Ozymandias’ explores how political power is intrinsically temporal, ‘London’ acts as a fiery critique of the upper class, who despite having the power to end suffering, fail to build a fair society.  Shelley uses alliterative words, ‘boundless and bare’, ‘lone and level’ to describe the environment...

Dicken’s is a master at using imagery to bring alive the characters and to help the reader form a vivid image of scenes; in the novel Great Expectations. He uses metaphors and other forms of comparison that help the reader associate and feel that they can touch, smell, hear and see the images that he...

Dickens effectively uses settings in Great Expectations to emphasise his characters’ traits in order to make them come to life. This is an essential because thrilling characters meant further sales for Dickens. Houses appear to be a motif throughout the novel, and central to the effectiveness of Dickens’ characterisation. Dickens undoubtedly makes settings memorable, due...

I have selected Oroonoko by Aphra Behn and Virginia Wolff’s To the Lighthouse. In regards to Oroonoko, the Royal Slave by female author Aphra Behn is the first humanitarian English novel and actively opposes Slavery in a time when it was culturally accepted. The role of any narrator regardless of the narration type used is,...