English Essays

Hamlet - Appearance vs. Reality
Hamlet - Appearance vs. Reality Hamlet one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, where the young prince of Denmark must uncover the truth about his fathers death. Hamlet a play that tells the story of a young prince who's father recently died. Hamlets uncle Claudius marries his mother the queen and takes the throne. As the play is told Hamlet finds out his father was murdered by the recently crowned king. The theme that remains constant throughout the play is appearance versus ...

The Life of Emily Dickens
The Life of Emily Dickens Emily Dickinson was raised in a traditional New England home in the mid 1800's. Her father along with the rest of the family had become Christians and she alone decided to rebel against that and reject the Church. She like many of her contemporaries had rejected the traditional views in life and adopted the new transcendental outlook. Massachusetts, the state where Emily was born and raised in, before the transcendental period was the e...

King Lear
King Lear King Lear is a play written by William Shakespeare that focuses on the relationships of many characters, some good, some evil. This is a great tragedy that is full of injustice at the beginning and the restoring of justice towards the end. The good are misjudged as evil and the evil are accepted as good. It is not until the end of the play that the righteous people are recognized as such. There is great treachery and deceit involved in the hierarchy of Englis...

The Odyssey
The Odyssey The Odyssey, written by Homer, is the story of Odysseus and how he faced misfortune in his attempts to return home after the Trojan war. From these misfortunes he learned to be a better man and became able to regain his place in his homeland of Ithaca. During his journeys Odysseus often makes the mistake of staying to boast to his enemies but learns that doing so gives his opposition a chance to seek retribution against him. After leaving Troy Odysseus ...

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was a great English playwright, dramatist and poet who lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time. No other writer's plays have been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries as his. Shakespeare was born to middle class parents. His father, John, was a Stratford businessman. He was a glove maker who owned a leather shop. John Sh...

A Doll's House
A Doll's House In reading Ibsen's A Doll's House today, one may find it hard to imagine how daring it seemed at the time it was written one hundred years ago. Its theme, the emancipation of a woman, makes it seem almost contemporary. In Act I, there are many clues that hint at the kind of marriage Nora and Torvald have. It seems that Nora is a doll controlled by Torvald. She relies on him for everything, from movements to thoughts, much like a puppet who is dependent ...

Interpretation of A Doll's House
Interpretation of A Doll's House "A Doll's House" is classified under the "second phase" of Henrik Ibsen's career. It was during this period which he made the transition from mythical and historical dramas to plays dealing with social problems. It was the first in a series investigating the tensions of family life. Written during the Victorian era, the controversial play featuring a female protagonist seeking individuality stirred up more controversy than any of his other wor...

A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams was once quoted as saying "Symbols are nothing but the natural speech of drama...the purest language of plays" (Adler 30). This is clearly evident in A Streetcar Named Desire, one of Williams's many plays. I n analyzing the main character of the story, Blanche DuBois, it is crucial to use both the literal text as well as the symbols of the story to get a complete and thorough understanding of her. Before one can understand B...

A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge After reading Arthur Miller's play "A view from the bridge," I am convinced that the most striking character is Marco. He is an Italian immigrant that moved illegally to the United States with his brother Rodolpho to work as longshoremen, since at the time (the play was written in 1955) his country of origin, Italy, was going through a major economic depression because of the outcome of World War II. In the play, we are told that Marco's plan is to make...

Conflicting Values in Antigone
Conflicting Values in Antigone In the play "Antigone" by Sophocles, Creon and Antigone have distinct conflicting values. Creon's regard for the laws of the city causes him to abandon all other beliefs. He feels that all should obey the laws set forth by him, even if other beliefs, moral or religious, state otherwise. Antigone, on the other hand, hold the beliefs of the gods in high reverence. She feels that the laws of the gods should be obeyed above all others, especially wh...

Antigone - Analysis of Greek Ideals
Antigone - Analysis of Greek Ideals In Ancient Greece, new ideals surfaced as answers to life's complicated questions. These new beliefs were centered around the expanding field of science. Man was focused on more than the Gods or heavenly concerns. A government that was ruled by the people was suggested as opposed to a monarchy that had existed for many years. Freedom of religion was encouraged to be exercised in city-states. These new ideals, though good in intentions, often...

Tragedy in MacBeth
Tragedy in MacBeth Everyone who is mortal has at least one flaw. Some are more serious than others. For example, some people have addictions to gambling, while other people can't remember to put the milk away after they use it. After a while though, a person's flaws come back to haunt them. The tragedy MacBeth is no exception to this. In it, many of the character's die. And the reason is that they have a flaw, that would eventually lead to their downfall. Not every ...

The Life of Charles Dickens
The Life of Charles Dickens INTRODUCTION This report will talk about the life of a famous author, Charles Dickens. It will tell you about his early, middle, and later years of his life. It will also talk about one of his great works of literature. In conclusion, this report will show a comparison of his work to his life. EARLY LIFE Charles Dickens was born at Landport, in Portsea, on February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay-Office, and was temporarily on ...

Beowolf - The Epic Poem
Beowolf - The Epic Poem The epic poem Beowulf describes the most heroic man of the Anglo-Saxon times. The hero, Beowulf, is a seemingly invincible person with all the extraordinary traits required of a hero. He is able to use his super-human physical strength and courage to put his people before himself. He encounters hideous monsters and the most ferocious of beasts but he never fears the threat of death. His leadership skills are superb and he is even able to boast about al...

Role of Queen in Beowulf & Grendel
Role of Queen in Beowulf & Grendel In both texts, Beowulf and Grendel, the main purpose of the Queen's are to serve the courts as "weavers of peace". In Grendel however, Queen Wealththeow is described in much greater detail and serves a further purpose. The reader gains insight to a part Grendel that is not present in Beowulf, his desire for a human. It was not unusual for women to be offered as tokens of peace within the noble courts. In the novel Grendel, Wealhtheow'...

Role of Greek Gods In the Illiad
Role of Greek Gods In the Illiad With our view of God, it can sometimes be difficult to comprehend the actions and thinking of the Greek deities. The Christian God does not tend to take such an active role in the affairs of people's lives, where, on the other hand, the Greeks regarded direct involvement by the gods as a daily, uncontrollable part of life. Needless to say, divine intervention was a major variable in the equation of Homer's Iliad. The gods picked who th...

The Poetry of A. E. Housman
The Poetry of A. E. Housman Housman was born in Burton-On-Trent, England, in 1865, just as the US Civil War was ending. As a young child, he was disturbed by the news of slaughter from the former British colonies, and was affected deeply. This turned him into a brooding, introverted teenager and a misanthropic, pessimistic adult. This outlook on life shows clearly in his poetry. Housman believed that people were generally evil, and that life conspired against mankind. This is...

The Poetry of E. E. Cummings
The Poetry of E. E. Cummings E. E. Cummings, who was born in 1894 and died in 1962, wrote many poems with unconventional punctuation and capitalization, and unusual line, word, and even letter placements - namely, ideograms. Cummings' most difficult form of prose is probably the ideogram; it is extremely terse and it combines both visual and auditory elements. There may be sounds or characters on the page that cannot be verbalized or cannot convey the same message if pronounc...

Robert Frost
Robert Frost "Do not follow where the path may lead... Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Robert Frost Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey, life. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, his poem, "The Road Not Taken", has left its readers with many different interpretation...

why huck finn shouldnt be banned
why huck finn shouldnt be banned To teach or not to teach? This is the question that is presently on many administrators’ minds about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. For those who read the book without grasping the important concepts that Mark Twain gets across “in between the lines”, many problems arise. A reader may come away with the impression that the novel is simply a negative view of the African-American race. Many scholars and educator...

windows nt 40
windows nt 4.0 Windows NT Operating System Windows NT History. Since it was first released in 1993, Microsoft Windows NT Server has established itself as the network operating system (NOS) of choice for countless organizations of all sizes in private industry and public agencies. They have discovered that Windows NT Server is extremely reliable, highly scalable, and capable of handling the complex, mission-critical demands of even large Fortune 500 corporations. But the widespre...

yeats
yeats Brave New World Sometimes very advanced societies overlook the necessities of the individual. In the book Brave New World, Aldous Huxley creates two distinct societies: the Savages and the Fordians. The Fordians are technologically sophisticated, unlike the Savages. However, it is obvious that, overall, the Savages have more practical abilities, have more, complicated, ideals, and are much more advanced emotionally, which all help the individual to grow. The Savage Reserva...

optimism in the candide
optimism in the candide Candide, by Voltaire Voltaire’s Candide is a novel which contains conceptual ideas and at the same time is also exaggerated. Voltaire offers sad themes disguised by jokes and witticism, and the story itself presents a distinctive outlook on life. The crucial contrast in the story deals with irrational ideas as taught to Candide about being optimistic, versus reality as viewed by the rest of the world. The main theme which is presented throughout...

outsiders
outsiders The Outsiders By: Chris Anderson E-mail: [email protected] The Outsiders In this book analysis, about the book “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton I will discuss character and plot development, as well as the setting, the author’s style and my opinions about the book. In this part of the analysis I will give some information about the subjects of the book, and about the author. The author wrote the story when she was just 16 years old, in the 1950s. The book...

personal narrative
personal narrative I am a very complicated person. Or is that weird? Unusual? Maybe it’s eccentric, I really don’t know. I think the best word to describe myself is unique. But then again, everyone is unique in their own way, but isn’t that exactly what unique means? Doing things different than everyone else…. being yourself, and completely unlike the rest of the world. See now I’m babbling, I have a tendency to do that when I get nervous. Now I’m thinking, why a...