English Literature

Source: https://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/%22Mr._Bennett_and_Mrs._Brown%22 "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown"by Aleksandar Stevic�Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown� is a 1923 essay by Virginia Woolf. However, it should be noted that much of the argument of the essay Woolf also developed in a number of other texts, including �Modern Novels� (1919), �Character in Fiction� (1924) and �

Sol through white curtains shot a timorous ray, And opened those eyes that must eclipse the day: No lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake: Sol through white .......... just at twelve, awake: REFERENCE (i) Poem:  The Rape of the Lock (ii) Poet:  Alexander Pope CONTEXT (i) Occurrence:  Canto I (ii) Content:  Belinda arises to prepare for the day's social activities. After an elaborate ritual of dressing and primping, she travels on the Thames River of Hampton Court Palace, where a group of wealthy young societies are gathering for a party. Among them is the Baron, who has already made up his mind to steal a lock of Belinda's hair. At party, the Baron takes up a pair of scissors and cuts off the coveted lock of Belinda's hair. Belinda is furious. She initiates a scuffle between the ladies and the gentlemen to recover the severed curl. The lock is lost in the confusion of this mock battle. EXPLANATION      ...

At a feast, a drunken man maundering his cups Cries out that I am not my father's son! I contained myself that night, though I felt anger And a sinking heart. The next day I visited  My father and mother, and questioned them. They stormed, Calling it all the slanderous rant of a fool; And this relieved me. At a feast, .......... this relieved me. REFERENCE (i) Drama:  Oedipus Rex (ii) Dramatist:  Sophocles CONTEXT (i) Occurrence:  Scene II (Lines 251-257) (ii) Content:   Thebes is struck by a plague and the oracle of Apollo says the sickness is the result of injustice: the old king's murderer still walks free. The blind seer Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer and is living incestuously. Jocasta says an oracle said her husband, the old king, would be killed by his child, but that never happened since they abandoned the baby and her husband was killed by robbers. Oedipus begins to suspect that he was the abandoned baby. A messenger and a serv...

O holy majesty of heavenly powers! My I never see that day! Never! Rather let me vanish from the race of men Than know the abomination destined me! O holy majesty ......... abomination destined me! REFERENCE (i) Drama:  Oedipus Rex (ii) Dramatist:  Sophocles  CONTEXT (i) Occurrence : Scene II (Lines 304-307) (ii) Content:   Thebes is struck by a plague and the oracle of Apollo says the sickness is the result of injustice: the old king's murderer still walks free. The blind seer Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer and is living incestuously. Jocasta says an oracle said her husband, the old king, would be killed by his child, but that never happened since they abandoned the baby and her husband was killed by robbers. Oedipus begins to suspect that he was the abandoned baby. A messenger and a servant confirm the tale. Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus stabs out his own eyes.  EXPLANATION      In these lines Oedipus is praying to holy God t...

How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be When there's no help in truth! I knew this well. But did not act on it! Else I should not have come. REFERENCE (i) Drama:  Oedipus Rex (ii) Dramatist:   Sophocles CONTEXT (i) Occurrence:  Scene I (Lines 101-103) (ii) Content:  Thebes is struck by a plague and the oracle of Apollo says the sickness is the result of injustice: the old king's murderer still walks free. The blind seer Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer and is living incestuously. Jocasta says an oracle said her husband, the old king, would be killed by his child, but that never happened since they abandoned the baby and her husband was killed by robbers. Oedipus begins to suspect that he was the abandoned baby. A messenger and a servant confirm the tale. Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus stabs out his own eyes.  EXPLANATION      These are the very first words spoken by blind Tiresias before Oedipus in which he confesses that ...

MAJOR THEMES IN SYLVIA PLATH'S POETRY Introduction      Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly. Themes are truths that exhibit universality and stand true for people of all cultures. Through themes, a writer tries to give his readers an insight into how the world works or how he or she views human life. Usually the theme of a work of literature can be stated in one word, such as "love" or "solitude". There seem to be a number of common themes running through all of Plath's poems, which encapsulate her personal attitudes and feelings of life at the time she wrote them. Of these themes, the most prevalent are: death, victimization, patriarchy, nature, the self, the body, motherhood, sexuality and love.  1. Death      Death is an ever-present reality in Plath's poetry, and manifests in several ways. One common theme is the void left by her father's death. In "Full F...

MyEnglishPages

One of the most enigmatic and elusive figure in English Literature is Milton�s Satan in Paradise Lost. Milton has magnified arch-enemy of God and Man to heroic proportions. Though he is evil incarnate, he is shown to be embodiment of obdurate pride and unconquerable will. Milton�s Satan is an unsurpassable leader albeit a defeated military figure, whom his legions would follow even unto the gates of hell. He is readily comparable to the heroes of classical epics�he is a variant of Achilles, who equates honour with own status and who has ability to rally his troops by the magic of his eloquent speeches. Milton�s Satan is such an emotionally complex character that we can never completely understand him. He is, by common consent, one of the greatest artistic creations ever portrayed in literature. There has been great controversy on the ambiguity of this character. Yet it is true that his character engages reader�s attention and excites his admiration too. Though the action of poem turns ...

In the opening lines of Paradise Lost, Milton announces that he is going to tackle a lofty theme of Man�s first disobedience and fall from grace. �Of Man�s first disobedience and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe.� In his Invocation to Heavenly Muse, Milton states the theme and purpose of his epic. ��I may assert Eternal Providence/And justify the ways of God to men.�  Indeed, Paradise Lost was, for Milton, the fulfillment of his long cherished ambition.  Milton chose a towering theme for his epic which ranks it with the great epics like those of Homer, Virgil and Dante. In his Invocation Milton resolved that his �adventurous song� intended to soar �with no middle flight� . Accordingly, he invoked Heavenly Muse to inspire him so that he might be successful in undertaking, the like of which had yet not been attempted �in prose or rhyme� . Raleigh remarks: �The theme of Paradise Lost is vaster and more universal. It...

Mourning Becomes Electra� is a continuation of the Greek tradition with Freudian unconscious and Puritan heritage of 19 th   century in New England setting. It is rare to find both �Electra� and �Oedipus� complexes in a single work of art. But here we have both as parallel themes. Set in a modern milieu, the plot, the characterization, and the story-line are all reflective of the ancient traditions. In the words of Lawrence A. Johnsen, �Mourning becomes Electra is a tale of ancient hatreds, illegitimacy, revenge, family secrets and murder.� Eugene O� Neill intentionally changed names and sequence of events to serve his purpose. The substitution shown with the main characters resemble the dramatis personae of Aeschylus� Oresteia: Ezra Mannon � Agamemnon; Christine � Clytemnestra; Lavinia � Electra; Orin � Orestes; Captain Adam Brant � Aegisthus; Captain Peter Niles � Pylades. Instead of the Trojan War, we have the American Civil War in the background. Like Clytemnestra who found a l...

Synaesthetic imagery or sensuousness is the paramount quality in Keats� poetry. Keats� synaesthetic powers are unrivalled: nothing in the world is abstract to him, abstractions weary him. Keats admits, �My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk.� And that aesthetic dream-life which is separated so sharply from the reality is more desireable. Keats has crowned every line of his poetry with beautiful colouring of synaesthetic imagery. Richard H. Fogle calls his synaesthesia as the product of his �unrivalled ability to absorb, sympathise, and humanise natural objects� . Synaesthesia in Keats, according to him, is a �natural concomitant of other qualities of his poetry� . Sensuousness is that quality of poetry that appeals to our five senses of taste, touch, smell, vision and hearing. Keats� sensuousness was unbounded: the song of a bird, the changing pattern of wind, the rustling of an animal, the smile on the child�s face�nothing escaped from her watchful eyes. G.K Chesterton right...

In Heart of Darkness the writer follows one white man's nightmarish journey into the heart of Africa. Aboard a British ship called the Nellie, three men listen to a man named Marlow recount his journey into Africa up the Congo River in a steam boat as an agent for a Belgian ivory trading Company. Marlow says that he witnesses brutality and hate between the white ivory hunters and the native African people. Marlow becomes entangled in a power struggle within the Company, and finally learns the truth about the mysterious Kurtz, a mad agent who has become both a god and a prisoner of the "native Africans." After "rescuing" Kurtz from the native African people, Marlow watches in horror as Kurtz succumbs to madness, disease, and finally death. The story of Marlow corresponds so neatly with Conrad�s own biography that it is easy to assume that Marlow registers Conrad� own perspective, including his prejudices and perhaps racism. Marlow�s poignant description of native...

Chinua Achebe�s Things Fall Apart, a seminal work of Post Colonial studies, has acquired the status of a classic. Among the various factors which lead to its publication, the most noteworthy was Joseph Conrad�s Heart of Darkness that sparked Achebe�s indignation at mis-representations of Africans in fiction. Things Fall Apart was written, says Achebe, �to reassert African identity and as part of the growth of Nigerian nationalism�. In a way Things Fall Apart is a counter discourse against Joseph Conrad�s Heart of Darkness . Achebe espoused the idea that Conrad drew the humiliating images of the Africans as �some other beings�. Edward Said in his groundbreaking Orientalism (1978) argues that �The [fabricated] Orient was a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences� For imperialists like Conrad, this vast African continent was the haunt of savages; a country riddled with superstitions and f...