Literary Genre essays

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Essay on Gunpowder: Triumph and Tragedy

3 Pages 1249 Words
Gunpowder was originally created and widely used by ancient China around the 10th century. It is rumored that Taoist alchemists discovered gunpowder while trying to find the formula for immortality. The creation was made out of carbon, sulfur, and potassium nitrate. While the formula failed, the compound that was formed was much more potent. It had the ability to burn...

Essay on Gothicism

3 Pages 1565 Words
Physical Setting Conrad was deeply fascinated by the circumstances that established men's perseverance and were fascinated by physical realism. This curiosity propelled him into realities that he presented in romantic charm and ' adventurous exaltation' in the novella. The very opening line of the novella, “The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway.”...

Essay on Gothic Villain

9 Pages 4327 Words
The literary term Gothic incorporates a number of sub-genres under it. Gothic Film forms one of the significant genres. Heidi Kaye in Gothic Film writes “ Gothic, as a genre born in darkness, has a natural affinity with the cinema’1. A film as a visual medium serves as a great spectacle for the audience to depict an atmosphere of suspense...

Essay on Frankenstein Gothic Novel

3 Pages 1282 Words
The term Gothic fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense. In this paper, I will be discussing the writer and works of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. According to the definition...

Essay on Euripides Protagonist

2 Pages 1082 Words
Electra is considered the best character drama in Sophocles. In his version of the play, Sophocles showed a detailed analysis of Electra's ethics and motives. Unlike Euripides 'Electra, Sophocles' Electra emerged victorious from his efforts. He successfully avenged his father's death without being completely engrossed in anger. One of the most obvious themes in the play is the question of...

Essay on Common Tragic Flaw of Greek Tragic Protagonists: Greek Term Meaning 'Arrogance'

2 Pages 787 Words
The most important and unique subgenre of dramatic literature is a tragedy. The term tragedy is greatly utilized for literary, and mainly for the dramatist, illustration of serious movements which eventuate in a disastrous conclusion for the protagonist. A tragedy is it genre of a drama focusing on tales of human suffering. The drama normally consists of a human flaw...

Essay on Chaucer's Use of Satire in 'The Canterbury Tales'

3 Pages 1233 Words
Satirizing Religious Figures in Canterbury Tales In the general prologue of Canterbury Tales, the narrator introduces the reader to characters from different walks of life in the course of their pilgrimage to Canterbury. The narrator addresses key themes while describing each pilgrim: their appearance, their vocation, and small details or anecdotes pertaining to their personalities. While Chaucer unifies the group...

Essay on Birmingham Bombing: Triumph and Tragedy

2 Pages 773 Words
On September 15, 1963, four hundred African Americans joined together to worship at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. A few days earlier, the courts had ordered the Birmingham schools to be desegregated, and tensions between white segregationists and African Americans were at a breaking point. Four girls, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins (age fourteen), and Denise McNair, age...

Essay on Allegory in Short Stories: 'Black Girl in Search of God and Subaltern' by Bernard Show

4 Pages 1628 Words
The short stories can be comprehended as the modern-day written version of tales rendering the folktales that are mostly written with many moral insights and cultural values. Allan H. Pasco, a distinguished professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature, defines a short story as short, literary prose fiction, open to any topic or material, but the deciding factor is usually not the presence...

Essay on 'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar'

2 Pages 903 Words
The acquisition and maintenance of power within the political landscape are shaped by an individual’s compromise between private ambition and public image. William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar (1599), is a study of a multitude of characters and their distinctive strategies for attaining power through their understanding of the nature of politics. Shakespeare explores this idiosyncratic notion by examining the influence...

Essay on 'The Scarlet Letter' Protagonist

5 Pages 2289 Words
The novel entitled 'The Scarlet Letter' was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and was published in 1850. The story revolved around the American Puritan culture, which the author is very familiar with because according to him, he mentioned “in my native town of Salem” (8) and “this old town of Salem—my native place” (14) so he was born in a Puritan...

Essay on 'Romeo and Juliet' Tragedy

2 Pages 911 Words
Quote: ‘just because everything's different doesn't mean anything has changed’ - Irene Peters Young people often make irrational decisions that determine the outcome of their lives. William Shakespeare’s Dramatic Tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1895) explores love and how characters can hold more responsibility than fortune does. Irene Peter’s quote, ‘Just because everything is different doesn’t mean that anything has changed’,...

Essay on 'Romeo and Juliet' Courtly Love

2 Pages 709 Words
On the one hand, taking Romeo Montague, it should not be possible to establish the archetype character without Juliet. This happens basically because as seen before, he is a Petrarchan lover and Juliet is the “religion” in his eyes. So one character complements the other one. With both, it can be seen as courtly love, honest, elegant, and courtship love....

Essay on 'Oedipus the King' Tragic Hero

5 Pages 2392 Words
Introduction: The Inescapable Fate of Oedipus “Look upon that last day always. Count no mortal happy till he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain” (Sophocles 1651-1853). Oedipus’s tragedy could be abridged simply like this but reading through the play in its entirety induces an obligatory and profound catharsis. Oedipus the King follows the story of...

Essay on 'Death of a Salesman' Protagonist

4 Pages 1988 Words
Death of a Salesman In his play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays a classic dysfunctional family, characterized by psychological conflicts. Willy Loman is the protagonist of the play, a sixty-year-old salesman who is obsessed with the desire to achieve success as a measure of perfection. Willy suffers intensely from self-delusion, which blurs his perception of a perfect life....

Essay on 'An Ode to a Nightingale':Meaning of the Bird Song Is Eternal

3 Pages 1321 Words
Do we get to choose? Do we get to live or do we get to die? Quite an indecisive argument that every individual holds up at a certain point in life continuously living in the ruins of time. Every Leaf turns brown, every youth wrinkles away and every bone cracks its age. Nothing is immortal------ immortal is the soul, immortal...

Elements of Tragedy in 'Oedipus the King': Essay

2 Pages 704 Words
Through the whims and wills of the Gods, humans play a preconceived part in the story of life, and our every deed is simply a line in the play. This idea that the span of a person’s life is nothing but an allotment of misery and suffering doomed upon oneself can be held as a precept among many. No matter...

Elements of Revenge Tragedy in 'Hamlet': Analytical Essay

5 Pages 2064 Words
Choose one tragedy from your setlist of plays. Drawing on two or more different theorists of tragedy, discuss the different reasons why the play is regarded as an example of the genre. Throughout this essay, I will be commenting on and analyzing, reasons why Hamlet can be referred to as a Tragedy. I will prove this fact by providing evidence...

Dominant Image in Sonnet 18: Critical Analysis

1 Page 550 Words
Sonnet 18 was written by the English poet William Shakespeare, that articulates and emphasizes the sentiment of love. The poem expresses the poet’s endearment and perpetual devotion to his subject, and how the subject surpasses all tangible beauty. He explicitly expresses this notion through the manipulation and application of figurative language, poetic devices, and imagery. The poet discusses his subject,...

Destiny Rodeo in the Novels 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility'

2 Pages 769 Words
Jane Austen was a very popular author in the eighteenth century, and her fame is still recognized today. Some of her most famous works include the novels Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. While all of her novels had different storylines, they revolved around a common theme. This common theme shared between all of Austen’s novels is that...

Critical Essay: Analysis of 'Stings' by Sylvia Plath

1 Page 626 Words
It is often easy to suggest that ‘poetry makes a familiar world unfamiliar’ however, the world that the poet writes about is familiar to them. For example, Sylvia Plath’s poetry was highly influenced by her deteriorating mental health and her difficulty with relationships. The world that Plath’s poetry portrayed is a world that was familiar to her. Plath’s short book...

Critical Analysis of 'Oedipus the King' Tragic Hero

2 Pages 870 Words
Oedipus Tyrannus should be regarded as an ideal form of Greek drama as it contains the two most important components to be considered a quality Greek tragedy as well as Oedipus has the characteristics of an ideal tragic hero. The two most important principles of a well-written Greek tragedy are an eloquent plot and sound character traits. According to Aristotle,...

Courtly Love in 'Romeo and Juliet'

5 Pages 2127 Words
‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a play written by William Shakespeare in the 1590s which was performed at the Globe theatre. It explores two lovers who come from feuding families and their lives together are controlled by fate. The idea of fate was very prevalent at this time in Tudor England, with many rich families paying for horoscopes for their children....

Compare and Contrast Gilgamesh and Enkidu: Essay

3 Pages 1172 Words
The story of Gilgamesh is very complex and as stated by Kenneth Rexroth a psychological one as well. It displays and encapsulates the mental processes and ways of thinking for the audience to understand and enjoy throughout their reading. In this paper, I will attempt to create a type of psychological portrait. This displays in detail how the characters change...

Character Analysis of Day in 'Legend'

3 Pages 1339 Words
In the book, Legend by Marie Lu judgment is a major theme in the book. The two characters Day and June Iparis are forced to make numerous choices that involve their own judgment. They make countless judgments about each other based on rumors they have heard and information presented to them without explanation. Day and June are adequate at reading...

Characteristics of Oedipus Tragic Hero

1 Page 262 Words
Oedipus Rex is a tragic hero. Tragic hero definition: A tragic hero is a character in a dramatic tragedy who has virtuous and sympathetic traits but ultimately meets with suffering or defeat. Sometimes tragedy is sadly disastrous, such as the untimely death of a loved one. Oedipus as a Tragic hero: Characteristics: Oedipus is a tragic hero because he is...

Character Analysis Essay: Who Is the Protagonist in the Play - Creon, Ismene, Antigone or Polyneices

1 Page 676 Words
In the play “Antigone”, Sophocles at first portrays Creon as a just leader. He has good, rational reasons for his laws and punishments. By the end of the play Creon’s hubris, or excessive pride, has taken over him, which leads to his demise. He does not realize how badly his hubris has interfered with his dealing with problems until Teiresias’s...

Character Analysis Essay: Who Is the Protagonist in 'Desiree's Baby'

1 Page 587 Words
The theme of love is recurring throughout the novel and is strengthened through the relationship of the narrator with the protagonist Desiree. Desiree is introduced to the reader as “the postmaster’s daughter”, (Mohlele, 2018: 5). Desiree was an important part of the narrator’s life, hopes, and dreams in the novel. The narrator describes her as “my Disree”, (Mohlele, 2018: 5)....

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