In Chaucer’s satirical comedy The Canterbury Tales, and Shakespeare’s play King Lear, women are portrayed in a negative light. In both time periods, female characters are supposed to be submissive and obedient to their husbands; furthermore, as seen in the text, women are frowned upon for being knowledgeable and independent. Each author uses his work to promote their opinion on gender roles in society. In the fourteenth century, society was based on hierarchal status and women were at the…
The Scarlet Letter is a novel highlighting the sin of a young woman named Hester and the toll it takes on her and those around her. This sin – adultery – was born from passion, and from that passion was born a child named Pearl. Pearl is a living, physical entity of the sin. Hawthorne reveals the character Pearl’s nature in the Scarlet Letter through the text by shaping her personal qualities, her symbolic value, and her function in the plot. Immediately, Pearl becomes locked into a role. Her…
Arthur Dimmesdale is a protagonist in the novel The Scarlet Letter and understood to be guilty of two sins, one of commission (his adultery with Hester Prynne) and of omission (his cowardly and hypocritical failure to confess. The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and inspired by his Puritan primogenitors in the 1630s. Because of his knowledge of the Puritans he is able to describe their strengths and portray their weakness as a colony and community. Hawthorne’s The…
The play is written in 1945, after the end of Second World War but the play was set on a spring evening in 1912, which is two years before the World War One. J.B. Priestly have set the play 35 years in past so that he can involve the audience in the play. The play is about social responsibility. Priestley uses the play to present his ideas on responsibility and society. Priestly voices his numerous concerns through the play including political ideologies, the rights of the working classes and…
Prompt: How is the theme of appearance versus reality dealt with differently in A Streetcar Named Desire and Blue Jasmine? “Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.” However simple these words may seem, this is perfectly epitomized by Tennessee William’s theatrical masterpiece, ‘A Streetcar named Desire’ to the modern adaptation ‘Blue Jasmine’ directed by Woody Allen. A streetcar named Desire and Blue Jasmine touch on…
Symbols are commonly used by authors in novels to represent a larger theme or notation. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the scarlet ‘A’ is used as a symbol to present the progression of Hester, the protagonist, from feeling embarrassed to embracing the scarlet letter on her chest. The symbol of the ‘A’ also shows the development of Hester’s community’s acceptance of her and her sin. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is portrayed as an abashed woman whom greatly regrets…
Anne Frank once wrote, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” This quote comes from a very inspirational individual. As one may know, Anne Frank was a Jewish Teenager who lived during the Holocaust. Anne, in addition to seven other Jews lived in this cramped space for over two years. While she was a teenager, adolescent Anne kept track of her daily life in a journal. The journal which was discovered after she later died of illness in a concentration camp,…
The Diary of Anne Frank is about a girl and her family being forced into hiding in an attic, afraid of the Natizs. On page 101 in the first paragraph the play states “ Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl, living in Amsterdam during the nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Fearing for their lives, the Frank family was forced into hiding.” The historical events of World War II are reflected in the story “The Diary Of Anne Frank” by retelling the events through the eyes of the people…
Christopher Marlowe born in 1564, he was an english playwright, poet, translator of the elizabethan era. He was born to shoemaker John Marlowe. He was just two months older to his contemporary William Shakespeare. He was educated at King’s school Canterbury and at the Cambridge University. He was the foremost elizabethan tragedian of his day. Christopher Marlowe, he was the greatest dramatist of the medieval period. Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus was based on German Faustbuch. Marlowe’s…
A Scarlet Punishment with Positive Consequences Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter explores how the human condition and sin clash. Placing the characters in Puritan Boston, Hawthorne reveals the hypocrisy of a theocratic government, especially when it comes to punishment. Hester Prynne has committed a great sin, which coincides as a malicious crime in such a government, and is punished accordingly. Or is she? Her punishment consists of public humiliation that will be paraded on her chest…