Literature Essays

One of the most important issues in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is that of choice. Do the characters have the ability to choose what they want to do, or are they simply destined to participate in death and destruction? There is ample evidence of both fate and free …

Every film, concert and play needs characters to act out the themes and ideas of the scriptwriter, such as in the play “Twelfth Night”, written by William Shakespeare. There are many characters in the play “Twelfth Night” including Olivia, the Duke, Sebastian and Viola. Each character has his or her …

‘A Righteous Day’ written by Mudrooroo Nyroongah on 26TH January (Australia Day), in 1988, is a poem set in the first person voice that has been composed in response to the depressing day of the Bicentenary of European Settlement. As the “righteous” day is reflected by the persona, this contrasts …

In Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Spring and Fall,” the speaker of the poem describes the changing phases of an individual’s understanding about loss and death from a childhood to maturity. Throughout the poem, the child’s innocence is gradually lost over time as her weeping for the dying leaves turns into weeping …

J.D. Salinger, in his coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye, repeatedly uses Holden Caufield’s red hunting hat as a symbol to show Holden’s growth from a young man terrified of becoming an adult to one who begins to accept that he must be able to live in an imperfect …

The character Rodion Romanovna Raskolnikov from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, is a classic example of a tragic hero. His life as a man of many redeeming qualities takes a turn for the worst as his desires to improve his existence lead him to surrender to temptations that inevitably …

1.Tan opens her essay by stating, “I m not a scholar of English or literature,” then states, in the next paragraph, “I am a writer” to show she is not critical, but passionate about language. It is important to her because she was able to excel in English, even though …

There are a number of perspectives that a critic can use to interpret a work of literature. One perspective, the psychological approach, deals with interpreting the text by using what is known about psychology. Some critics will try and understand the writers while, “still other critics employ methods of Freudian …

Since the birth of the United States, the issue over how strong the national government should be has always been a controversial one. While some believe that decentralization will inevitably lead to chaos, others contend that a powerful central government will inevitably become a tyranny. Although the United States would …

The poem “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a poem focusing on the brevity of life, and the grief that is felt in the hearts of all mankind throughout our lives. It is also about the sadness felt by humans as we see ourselves aging, and ultimately about …