Leo de la Garza 02/02/11 IB English 2 A Existentialism in The Music of Chance. Existentialism is the philosophical point of view which argues that happiness can only be achieved by accepting one’s mortality. Sartre expands on the existentialist concept in his short story entitled The Wall in which he talks about many fundamental topics of existentialism. However, this philosophical point of view has not only influenced Sartre, but other authors as well, including Paul Auster. In his novel The Music of Chance, Auster makes constant reference to common themes in existentialism, such as “the Leap of Faith” and “ Bad Faith”.
Robert Browning attains a reputation for “oddness”, as the novelist Henry James termed it, for his difficult and obscure written poems. Browning’s poems are written in Dramatic Monologue. The nature of this monologue is almost as if you are ease dropping on a conversation between two people. According to Anderson et al. (2011:97) Dramatic Monologue is a device whereby the poet invents a character to provide the voice and opinion represented in the text.
Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter has been read by many and interpreted in many ways. Hawthorne is one of the most known symbolists in American Literature and a study of his symbols is necessary to understand his novels. According to the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary a symbol is “a letter, group of letters, character or picture that is used instead of a word or group of words.” Hawthorne uses a great amount of symbols to deal with the sanctities of human heart, the consequence of tragic sin and the impossibility of running away from the consequence of sin. In literature an allegory is a story where characters, objects, and events have a hidden meaning and are used to present some universal lesson. Hawthorne has a perfect atmosphere for the symbols in The Scarlet Letter because the Puritans saw the world through allegory.
Chapter One Introduction 1.1 Overview The “Scarlet Letter” is considered as one of the symbolic works in American literature. In Hawthorne's, use of symbolism is one of the significant contributions to the rise of American Literature. As suggested by Bilind in his essay, symbolism in the Scarlet Letter ,that Symbolism in the novel makes it puritan's allegory, leave very little important point that where from Hawthorne derives his symbolism? (Bilind,2011:7,8) This research concentrates on symbolic images in The Scarlet Letter to uncover their meaning and how the idea of Hawthorne’s novel focuses on symbols. One well-known example in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is where the scarlet letter "A" pinned to Hester Prynne's breast represents adultery.
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Paper The Romantic, Realistic/Naturalistic, and Transcendental movements have had major influence on the works of some writers because of their beliefs in the goodness of both man and nature and how organized religion and political parties ultimately corrupt the purity of the individual. Amongst many of the writers whose artworks were influenced by these movements was Mark Twain. In his novel “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the ideas and beliefs of these movements were put into play throughout the novel; especially through the characters. The most obvious example of Romanticism in the novel was Tom Sawyer. This character bases most of his life and actions on adventure novels.
In his stories, Poe clearly uses a variety of themes and literary devices that let us observe him as a Dark Romantic, rather than a Romantic. First of all, it is important to present a historical background, which explains the link between Romanticism and Dark Romanticism. When Romanticism arrived to the United States it brought the belief that emotion, imagination and intuition meant more than logical reasoning. The Romantics emphasized sensibility and beauty, as the things, which lead people towards the truth. Wikipedia defines Romanticism as “a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe (...).
This essay will critically examine the poems and etchings of William Blake to assess whether the two contrary states of the human soul are well illustrated. The primary focus will be on the Introduction to Innocence and Experience and Earths Answer weighing the following themes change of time, night/day, lexicon and fusion and repetition of the contrary states of the human soul and weather they are successfully depicted. This essay will also focus on what informed Blake’s writing, his era, religious convictions and political environment. The Essay will then conclude by suggestion that Blake’s contrary states are intertwined. William Blake’s writing have been viewed as going against the grain primarily because he wrote about controversial issues, the fall of man, heaven and hell and politics.
Inside a killer's mind “You can’t use logic on human behavior.” (Jeff Lindsay, Darkly dreaming Dexter). The short story "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe is a story of disturbing events, foul play, and revenge. What's so disturbing is the lengths Montressor goes to gain his 'revenge'. How we get such insight is through the wonderful written first person view of Poe. Point of view can be so crucial to a story.
The Civil War resulted in a new era of literature where authors were “less idealistic and more practical, less exalted and more earthy, less consciously artistic and more honest” (Holman) this period was known as the American Romantic Movement. Edgar Allan Poe was one of the greatest Romantic writers of all time. Poe’s writing style was an excellent example of the American Romantic Movement because he showed how romantic writers preferred to write about feelings, imagination, and intuition rather than fact and reason, which is what writers before this era had never done before. Poe was not afraid to think outside of the box resulting in thought-provoking fictional short stories that caught the reader’s attention, his writing technique left a sense of terror or passion or horror from his readers which kept them wanting more. “The Cask of Amontillado” is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories that have to do with revenge and a secret murder.
Sophocles who was born around 496 B.C.E - 406 B.C.E was credited with skillfully developing irony as a literary technique. He wrote drama which simultaneously utilized comedy and tragedy; he was one of the first to incorporate both into his plays. Sophocles dramatic plays were influenced by religious and political traditions in the sense that most of his plays came from preexistent religious myth. Euripides on the other hand, born 485 B.C.E - 406 B.C.E was a Sophist, which was a group of people who claim to be able to teach virtue. He used many of his plays to challenge the social norms during his time.