Literature

Themes The Sacrificial Role of Women A Doll’s House draws a drab portrayal of the role in life of women from all walks of life. The female characters in the play demonstrate Nora’s assertion that ‘even though men refuse to sacrifice their integrity, hundreds of thousands of women have.’ Kristine also indicated that she had sacrificed her own true love to marry a...

From: Literature Guides

CONTENTS Characters and Analysis Hamlet The protagonist and the Prince of Denmark. Hamlet is the son of King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. He is also the nephew of the new king, Claudius. Though charged by the ghost of his dead father to avenge his murder, Hamlet is caught up in his own intellectualizing and self-doubt to act on his duty. He...

From: Literature Guides

In her poem "Success is Counted Sweetest," published in 1864, Emily Dickinson uses great images of a winning army and a dying soldier to illustrate that only those who have experienced defeat can understand and acknowledge the real value of success, and people require privation to fully appreciate something. Success is Counted Sweetest BY EMILY DICKINSON Success is counted sweetest...

From: Poem Examples

CONTENTS Characters and Analysis Ponyboy Curtis Ponyboy is the fourteen year old narrator of the Outsiders. He is the story’s main protagonist, and the youngest member of the greasers. His keen interest in literature and strong academic prowess set him apart from the rest of his friends. Since the death of his parents, Ponyboy has lived with his brothers Darry...

From: Literature Guides

Themes and Symbols Physical and Emotional Burdens: The ‘things’ in The Things They Carried are both figurative and literal. While every character carries a heavy physical load, they also all carry tremendous emotional baggage; grief, love, terror, longing, etc. The physical burden carried by each man underscores the emotional burden. For example, Henry Dobbins carries around a pair of pantyhose belonging...

From: Literature Guides

Themes Patriarchy The republic of Gilead is a patriarchal regime and upon its rise to power, women are its first victims. The laws implemented by Gilead start by firing all women from their jobs, then transferring their funds to the male of the family, then depriving them from education. Even the Aunts who are the most powerful women in Gilead...

From: Literature Guides

Thinking novels as an analogy of dreams seems an excellent natural example. Same as dreams, novels are fictitious inventions of the human mind, which are although reality based but by definition they are not true. Just like a novel, dreams are said to interpret some truth, coming from one’s personal experiences or sub-conscious mind. Many reasons make an analogy between...

From: Literary Movements

During the twentieth century, many philosophies bloomed and attempted to understand the world in various ways. The literary criticism, as a different school of thought, perceives, defines and interprets the world considering several ideologies. Marxist school of criticism is one of them that set its aim to explain the world with logical and concrete evidence. Marxist perspective opposes the idealist philosophy that...

From: Literary Movements

Feminist criticism is a form of literary criticism that is based on feminist theories. It is broadly explained as the politics of feminism and uses feminist principles to critique the male-dominated literature. The root cause of this type of criticism lies in the oppression of women in social, political, economic and psychological literature. Women have been ignored or mostly considered...

From: Literary Movements

Ecocriticism is a term used for the observation and study of the relationship between the literature and the earth’s environment. It takes an interdisciplinary point of view by analysing the works of authors, researchers, and poets in the context of environmental issues and nature. Since the purpose, scope, and methodology of this theory are a bit confusing, it is difficult to...

From: Literary Movements