English Literature

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...

Oedipus Rex is a very significant play for the description of emotional impact of tragedy. In the words of Aristotle,  �the main purpose of tragedy is to evoke the feelings of pity and fear among audience.� There is no doubt that the story of the fall of Oedipus Rex is full of pity and terror. The fate of Oedipus Rex who always wished for the welfare of the people inspires us with awe. We also wonder at mystery of human life in which one may suffer even with the best of intentions. We also get a feeling that fate is inexorable and no one can escape its decrees. The same idea is depicted by Sophocles in his Oedipus Rex through the characters of Jocaste and Oedipus, both of them try to evade the predictions of oracles. For a time, it seems to them that they have succeeded but in time they are sadly disillusioned. As Aristotle mentions: �Oedipus is great not in the virtue of his worldly position for his worldly position is an illusion which will vanish like a dream but in the virtue o...

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...

 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 ...