Abstract The paper examines John Milton's Poem "Paradise Lost", showing the poem to be a struggle between good and evil; this being the case, it would seem only logical that God would be the protagonist of the poem, and Satan the antagonist. The paper observes that God in the poem makes for a rather lackluster hero: Milton's God is hardly the caring, loving and omnipotent deity of Christianity. It shows that the result of Milton's portrayal of Satan and God is an account of the fall that is anything but a straightforward allegory of good and evil. Neither Satan nor God is completely good or completely evil; in both, the two qualities are joined in the same person.
From the Paper "Satan, in contrast, is a fully developed character with vivid emotions; he exhibits both fear and remorse, and is therefore often capable of winning the reader's sympathy. Milton goes so far as to use devices common to other works of epic poetry, such as Beowulf or The Odyssey, to depict Satan as an epic hero, as a man of stature, nobility, and great deeds. It often seems as though Milton is subtly encouraging the reader to empathize with Satan's struggle against Heaven. Given that Milton himself declares, in the poem's opening lines, that his intention is to "justify the ways of God to man" (I, 26), it is rather difficult to determine why he seemingly reverses the roles of protagonist and antagonist."
Abstract This paper examines how Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "The Fall of the House of Usher? all depict the tragic loss of young and beautiful women. Poe describes Lenore, Annabel Lee and Madeline as young and achingly beautiful and all three women die premature and tragic deaths. In "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee", Poe mourns their tragic loss, while in "The Fall of the House of Usher?, Poe is clearly simply horrified at the gruesome and tragic death and he is not so deeply wrought with grief over the loss of someone he loves. It considers how Poe's depictions of women in his literary work reflect his personal experiences with the premature deaths of his young and attractive wife and mother. Poe's depictions remain relevant to readers of all ages and nationalities, as they speak to the universal misery of tragic loss and mourning.
From the Paper "Poe's poem "Annabel Lee" recounts the perfect love of the narrator and his child bride Annabel Lee. As in the Raven, Poe delves into the tragic loss of a beautiful woman within the lines of "Annabel Lee". Annabel Lee's similarity in age to Poe's young real-life bride is striking, and the poem can be seen as a reflection of Poe's grief over the loss of his young wife. As in "The Raven", Poe focuses on the beauty of the young woman who dies tragically. The stars and the moon even remind the narrator of the young woman's beauty after her tragic death. "Annabel Lee" focuses primarily on the depth of the feelings of between the two young lovers, while "The Raven" focuses more clearly on the grief at the loss of the young woman. In "Annabel Lee", the narrator tells a tale of a kingdom by the sea, where both he and Annabel Lee lived, and that they "loved with a love that was more than love"."
Tags: death, youth, beauty, wife, mother, saint, angel, love
Abstract This paper describes the life of the Underground Man in Dostoevsky's work, "Notes from the Underground". It analyzes his ways of thought from a naturalist perspective. The paper shows how the Underground Man is a romantic dreamer, living in a fantasy world and unable to make his own decisions.
From the Paper "Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground is a critical commentary and rebellion from the traditional romantic view that had been so popular in previous eras. Dostoevsky belongs to the naturalist and realist school of thought, which emphasize the idea that life is hard and complex, and we must deal with it. This contrasts with the romantic thoughts regarding life as simple, beautiful and correlated to nature. In his work Dostoevsky uses each of these conflicting views to build the mindset of the protagonist known as the Underground Man (UM). The UM is a very intricate individual. While he is very shy and reserved, he deeply craves attention. He desperately wants to succeed, but is constantly setting himself up for failure. He feels superior to others by recognizing he own inferiority. It seems that the UM's life is full of contradictions and it is this life that are meant to represent human nature."
Discusses novella's themes (loneliness, acceptance of death), plot, characterizations, style, irony, symbolism, messages and relationship to author's life.
1,800 words (approx. 7.2 pages), 3 sources, 1989, $ 63.95
From the Paper "This paper will discuss the novella The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. One of the basic themes of this story is that of "loneliness in the face of death" (Cain 4). It can be seen that the mediocrity of Ivan Ilych's life has done little to prepare him for the unexpected shock of dying. At the very end of the novella, Ivan Ilych undergoes a transformation during which he comes to an acceptance of death and realizes that his entire life has been one of avoiding other people. Thus, the intense loneliness suffered by Ivan Ilych is due to his attitude toward life, in which he always placed the highest value on work, career and material possessions while rejecting the real life needs of his family and others. Tolstoy makes it clear that this fault in Ivan Ilych's life exists in virtually everyone's life, with the only exception being seen in the character of the servant (...)"
This paper analyzes the poetic wit of Alexander Pope, 19th Century British writer, in two of his poems "Essay on Criticism" and "The Rape of the Lock".
1,575 words (approx. 6.3 pages), 3 sources, 1991, $ 55.95
From the Paper "This essay is concerned with Alexander Pope (1688-1744), and poetic wit. For the purpose of this analysis, two of Pope's poems will be examined: "Essay on Criticism" and "The Rape of the Lock".
The eighteenth century was known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Johnson in English literature. Neoclassicism was one of the most prominent movements during that time. Classical literature was very much admired, and the imitation of nature and the classics was a much sought after ideal. In fact, it was thought by eighteenth-century thinkers that the classics imitated nature. Very much admired were the artistic ideals of order, concentration, economy, utility, logic, wit, retrained emotion, 'correctness,' 'good taste,' and decorum. The favorite form of verse consisted of rhymed couplets. Poetry was inclined to be ... "
From the Paper "Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man seeks to demonstrate both the scientific weaknesses and political contexts of biological determinist arguments. As a side argument, Gould attempts to show that science is objective only if performed properly, like anything else. In order for scientists to obtain this all essential objectivity, he shows that they must first "shuck the constraints of their culture, and view the world as it really is" (21).
The primary focus of The Mismeasure of Man is intelligence testing. Long shrouded in pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo, IQ testing has been used to culturally oppress the mental underdogs who occupy the lower rungs of the social ladder. The essential tragedy of such thinking is that biological determinist arguments with regard to IQ are limiting to the individual. As Gould..."
From the Paper "Thomas Bell, in Out of This Furnace, published in 1941, presents a fictional portrait of the life of three generations of Slovak immigrants in the United States of the early 1900s, emphasizing the struggles of these people as they carved out their existence in the steel mills of America.
The life of these struggling immigrants is so difficult that they inevitably find sense and comfort in their existence primarily in their families, in their communities. They have left the old country behind in order to pursue the American Dream, but they quickly discover that the dream is more of a nightmare.
Bell writes that George Kracha "came to America in the fall of 1881 . . . It may be that he hoped he was . . . leaving behind the endless poverty and oppression which were the birthrights of a Slovak peasant . . . He was bound for the hard-coal country of..."
From the Paper "In her novel Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison uses the history of one black family as a way of commenting on the history of blacks since the Civil War, and the main character of Milkman goes on a quest for his past, discovering how the women of his family have been ill-served by the world, by the men in their lives, and by himself because he has not known of their sacrifice or their reality. Yet this does not necessarily mean that he will be able to achieve a stronger sense of either their lives or his own. Even though his quest appears to be successful, the ambiguous ending of the novel leaves the reader uncertain about his fate, a device whereby Morrison creates some doubt and leaves the reader more interested in seeing to it that such a quest is successful and that a new attitude is created than would be the case if the story were clearly resolved."
From the Paper "This study will provide a critical analysis of The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Schlesinger's argument is essentially that the United States is in danger of breaking up into ethnic camps, that such a breakup will be a dangerous and counter-productive occurrence, and that he hopes and believes that it will not happen after all. It is not only a short book (115 pages, not counting the Foreword), it is a book short on argument. It is probably not a coincidence that the word "reflections" appears in the book's sub-title, because there is a superficial tone to the book, as if it had been a brief essay stretched into book-length. The same basic thesis is repeated over and over: America was once a..."
From the Paper "This study will examine the 1946 novel Mine Boy, by Peter Abrahams, first giving some information on the author and the background of the book and its historical context, and then exploring the elements of the novel itself, including plot, characterization, style, intended audience, and the contribution the book makes to an understanding of African life and history.
As we read in Charles Larson's Introduction to the novel,
the book was published "two years before the Nationalists gained control of South African politics" and "just before apartheid became entrenched into the South African legal system and racialism became a sanctified governmental policy (Abrahams 5)."
The book was published in South Africa, as Shava writes, precisely because its publication preceded what was to shortly be the beginning of official and legal crackdowns against such..."
From the Paper "From the first pages of Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes' El Indio, it is made clear that the men who brought modernization to the area are men who seek their own enrichment and men who do not care about the poor people. The first words out of their mouths are lies: "The white man explained: his masters had a few things to sell that might please the villagers; they were studying the countryside and, incidentally, sought a few curative herbs" (15). But when the men are alone, the truth is revealed with respect to their true intentions in the village: "I have questioned the old one carefully; he tells me there are no mines around here; as to the cache of gold, he insists he never heard tell of it; and that he knows nothing at all of gilded idols" (19).
One remarkable incident in the book typifies the impact of modernization and the nature of the abuse of power on the part of..."
From the Paper "Author Sheila Fitzpatrick examines in her book, The Russian Revolution: 1917-1932, the most basic aspects of the revolution--causes, the aims, social support, the impact on the Russian society, the political outcome, and the time span of the revolution itself. Her essential theme is that the Russian Revolution differed from other revolutions in that it peculiarly has been described by various historians as ending at different times. Fitzpatrick treats the February and October Revolutions of 1917, the Civil War, the interlude of the New Economic Policy and Stalin's initial Five Year plan as successive stages in the overall revolution (p. 3).
Fitzpatrick compares her view to that of Crane Brinton in Anatomy of Revolution, suggesting that revolutions have a form of their own, passing through the stages of enthusiasm for radical..."
From the Paper "In his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig offers an assessment of the idea of quality and applies this to life, using as his platform the maintenance of a motorcycle. He uses the quality of a mechanical object and the relationship of that object to himself as a thinking human being as a way of finding a unity with the idea of quality in every life experience. The motorcycle is more than just his tool for accomplishing this. It is a physical object that is also a mental construct. It is an object of art and an object of technology at one and the same time, and it is through Pirsig's direct work on the motorcycle that he is able to see the unity in what are sometimes set forth as opposites--technology and art, classical and romantic, the internal and the external.
The book has as its overt subject one man's quest for truth..."
From the Paper "This study will provide a summary and critical review of Deborah Gray White's Ar'n't I A Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South.
White in this book is trying to bring into the public consciousness the suffering endured by female slaves in the slavery-dependent South. She says that most studies of slavery focus, either deliberately or subliminally, on the male slave. And those "few scholars who study black women fail to note that black women suffer a double oppression: that shared by all African-Americans and that shared by most women" (23). With respect to slavery specifically, White says many scholars conclude that female slaves were better treated than male slaves. In fact most black women of the time plowed, planted, and hoed, did.."
From the Paper " This study will provide a comparative analysis of two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe---"The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." As the study will show, despite some important differences, the fundamental message of the author in both stories is the same. Both stories feature protagonists who believe they are somehow exempt from the physical and/or psychological laws and conditions which control the lives of others. The protagonist of "Red Death," Prince Prospero, believes that he is beyond the power of the plague. He believes that ordinary people will be killed by the plague, but that he and his friends are immune. It seems that this immunity is based on more than the fact that he has tried to physically wall out the disease. Before he takes extraordinary measures to keep the plague out, he "summoned to his presence a thousand hale and.."
