English Literature

Allegory means a story based on two levels, �apparent level and deeper� . Swift�s polemical tour de force � Gulliver�s Travels� is a multi-genre text  working on many levels. It is at once a folk-myth, a delightful children's story, a wonderful travelogue, a neurotic fantasy, and an unequivocal moral tale. Each of the four books�recounting four voyages to fictional exotic lands�may have a different theme but all are the attempts to deflate excessive human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought. The form and structure of the whole work enhances Swift's purpose. By using outlandish humans such as midgets and giants, Swift allows us to examine the fallacies of mankind without being overly frightened. As Tuveson points out, "In  Gulliver's Travels  there is a constant shuttling back and forth between real and unreal, normal and absurd.� From the start the Lilliputians arouse our interest and win our liking....

The tendency to hanker after a utopia is a perfectly human desire. Like many narratives about voyages to nonexistent lands,   Gulliver�s Travels   explores the idea of utopia�an imaginary model of the ideal community. The idea of a utopia is an ancient one, going back at least as far as the description in Plato�s Republic   of a city-state governed by the wise and expressed most famously in English by Thomas More �s   Utopia. The literal meaning of Utopia is no place, nowhere. Thomas More gave this term to his ideal commonwealth.   Swift incorporates the key concepts of Plato �s and More �s utopias into his own narrative, though his attitude toward utopia is much more skeptical. One can see the different lands of Gulliver�s travels as the parody of utopian literature. Hence Gulliver's Travels can be regarded as a mock Utopia. One of the main aspects about these famous historical utopias is the tendency to privilege the collective group over the individual. The...

The question of whether or not Hamlet is a hero, is as perplexing as Hamlet himself. Hamlet, though possesses some incredibly heroic qualities; he is the chiefest bloom of the realm and the princely paragon of the state, yet the difficulty of this question is apparent when an audience considers that Hamlet can be seen as both hero and coward often in the same scene. The same character that lacks courage to carry out the revenge, also strives hard to be sure of his father�s murderer�s guilt and ensures that the revenge itself should be appropriate. His actions and often inactions do not allow a single interpretation of his character, often leaving the audience unsure of which Hamlet they are watching. It would seem that Hamlet�s most cowardly behavior is in his treatment of Ophelia. He loves her yet is willing to manipulate her, as Gertrude, Claudius and her own father Polonius do. When he is free from the pressures of the royal family, and before the death of his father, Hamlet is able...

The problem of madness is perhaps the most maddening problem in Hamlet. Some critics are of the view that Hamlet is sane throughout but feigns insanity. Others hold the opinion that Hamlet�s madness is less than madness and more than feigned.  Before the play begins Hamlet is clearly a sensitive and idealistic young man. He is a scholar, a philosopher, and a poet too, who conceives the finest thoughts and exhibits great intellectual quality. We get a vivid picture of Hamlet as he was in the words of Ophelia: �The courtier�s, soldier�s, scholar�s, eye, tongue, sword/Th� expectancy and rose of the fair state/The glass of fashion, and the mould of form/Th� observed of all observes� This shows that Hamlet was once a master of his own self and had full command over his mind and sense. But as the play proceeds we can find the traces of madness in him. After his mother�s hasty marriage and the Ghost�s revelation, Hamlet�s �noble and most sovereign reason� is all �out of tune and harsh� ....

A Soliloquy is a discourse uttered by a speaker that is alone on the stage and oblivious to the listeners present. The dramatist employs it with of divulging the character�s innermost thoughts and plan of action in advance to the audience. In fact the practice of soliloquies became so popular with the Elizabethan writers that they banished chorus from their tragedies.  Shakespeare�s masterpiece Hamlet earns an impregnable name and fame by employing this field. Hamlet�s soliloquies unfold the internal dilemma and mental obsession of the chief speaker. They lend an insight into Hamlet�s contemplative nature and the problem of procrastination. Most of all, they mark the movement from his inability to overcome his scholarly nature to his final resolution to become an avenger. The audience comfortably gets sundry approach to the psyche and mindset of Hamlet. Hamlet�s first soliloquy gives the first true insight into Hamlet�s inner turmoil. By beginning the soliloquy with, �O, that this ...

Ghost or supernatural plays an important role in Shakespearean tragedies. Shakespeare has introduced ghosts and witches which have supernatural knowledge. According to Moulton;  �Supernatural agency has a place in the world of Shakespeare�. In Hamlet, the supernatural appears in the form of the ghost. The first act is the little play in itself, and the ghost is the hero of it; 550 out of the 850 lines are concerned with it. Dover Wilson says: � The ghost is the linchpin of Hamlet, remove it, and the whole play falls to pieces.�  The ghost in Hamlet has at least a three-fold dramatic significance; It contributes to the general tragic utterances of the play; it motives the entire action of the play; it shows up the character and drives home a certain moral effect. First, in the play, Shakespeare has introduced the supernatural element in order to create an atmosphere of mystery, horror and suspense . It diffuses an atmosphere of awe through which the tragedy becomes more impres...

Symbols are considered to be an artistic device. The writers do not convey their thoughts in cheaper words but they use symbols to foreshadow and make their language rich and impressive.  A   Farewell to Arms  depends heavily on Hemingway�s symbolic technique to convey the subjective condition of his characters. Hemingway�s use of symbols and metaphors is always sublime and subtle. But this does not mean that his symbolism is tinged with obscurity or ambiguity. Rather his idiomatic expressions and under-statements are quite clear and far from being incomprehensible. The writer uses simplicity and naturalness to decorate his narrative and to draw the attention of his reader. The very title of the novel is itself symbolical. The title bears two-fold symbolic meanings. The hero in the novel bids farewell not only to the war but also to the arms of the woman he loves. He bids farewell to war because he is disgusted with it. But he also bids farewell to the arms of his beloved...

 Lt. Fredric Henry, the protagonist in  A Farewell to Arms , exemplifies Hemingway's code hero in several ways. Like a typical Hemingway�s hero he is a wounded man not only physically but also psychologically. He is a man who engages in life, rather than observing it as a bystander. He maintains self-control in the face of overwhelming adversity, and he does not demonstrate self-pity. Like  Hemingway�s other code heroes, Lt. Henry is existentially removed from the world. He possesses personal integrity, often feels isolated and remains stoic for most of the time. He is a rationalist and pragmatist who brings everything to the test of experience. Most of all, Lt. Henry functions as a Hemingway code hero because he faces life with courage, and he endures life with dignity. The character of Lt. Henry is a prime example of a Hemingway hero. He shows a general loss of faith in conventional morality. Henry respects the priest, but he says flat out that he does not believe ...