Essays on Literature

Historically, the list of Shakespeare’s plays which appeared in 1598 doesn’t include the Twelfth Night. It was referred to by John Manningham in 1602 so it was perhaps composed between these years. Other historical evidences suggest that it was presented to Queen Elizabeth on Twelfth Night in 1601 and her guest of honour was an...

A story filled with terror, abuse, mystery, gloom, death, and most admirably love, Wuthering Heights is a classic novel and one of the greatest pieces in Gothic Literature. As William Shakespeare once wrote “The course of love never did run smooth.” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1) These honest words are the perfect introduction to...

The author Kate Chopin fights a battle to bring her readers thoughts provoking literature in a world where one cannot conflict with beliefs in the traditional society. In her book, The Story of an Hour Kate uses irony, character development, and plot control to bring her readers into a world of emotions that society does...

Beloved, Toni Morrison’s novel, is considered a most representative work. The novel tells the story of a runaway slave Sethe who kills her daughter in order to get her out of slavery. Beloved is the name that Sethe gave her dead daughter. The most striking artistic feature of this novel is that the author uses...

 To be resilient is synonymous with being elastic and persistent. How does a single person possess this unimaginable trait? Both Oedipus and Hamlet have their fair share of tragedies. Oedipus suffers a life based on a prophecy that says he is going to conduct patricide, incest and eventually go blind (205), Hamlet likewise is facing...

Antigone, the ancient greek play written by Sophocles, is a story about a woman named Antigone who breaks the kings law by burying her brother who is considered a traitor to the state. The king, Creon, despises the action Antigone commits and uses his power against her. Creon holds the tragic flaws of ignorance and...

1. Introduction The picture of Dorian Gray is a gothic novel written by Oscar Wilde and published in 1890. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of London’s most popular playwrights in 1890. With “The Picture of Dorian Gray” which would be his first and only novel, he...

In the play, The Merchant of Venice, the reader goes through a roller coaster full of emotions as the characters must make difficult and costly decisions. However, Nerissa was the one character who stood out. In the play, Nerissa is Portia’s lady in waiting as Portia’s parents are deceased. Nerissa demonstrates a loyal friendship with...

In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a conflict that is as old as life itself develops over the course of the story; parent versus his own child, or in this case creator versus his creation, in a strive towards reconciliation. Victor Frankenstein and his creation become entangled in this fight, as the creation seeks its creator,...

The Stranger by Albert Camus is a novel about Meursault, a character who’s different and even threatening views on life take him to pay the highest price a person can pay: his life. The novel embodies philosophies of existentialism and absurdism. Existentialist and absurdist philosophies entail principles regarding that one’s identity is not based on...