Damnation

In the history of America, religion has always had huge impacts on society, especially during the beginning of the nation, where religious freedom was something to be promised in the new colonies. During this time, the number of Puritans grew in the colony of Massachusetts, starting to use politics and social standards heavily based on their religious beliefs. Nathaniel Hawthorne captured their society in his book, The Scarlet Letter, which is considered a literary classic, through showing the…

an epic journey fighting sea monsters and winning the race in a boastful manner. Beowulf also disgraces Unferth by saying, “Now I cannot recall any fight you entered, Unferth, that bears comparison… You killed your kith and kin… you will suffer damnation in the depths of hell...if you truly as courageous as you claim to be, Grendel would have never have got away with such unchecked atrocity (581-583, 587, 589, 590-594).” Beowulf completely tears Unferth apart in these statements making him the…

The tragedy of Romeo & Juliet (1595) is a play written by William Shakespeare, in which the eponymous protagonists’ families are involved in a long-running feud. This conflict between the two families, the Montagues and the Capulets along with destiny culminates in the inevitable deaths of these ‘star-cross’d lovers’ Therefore, Romeo and Juliet’s love shall always be overshadowed by hatred, thus meaning that the play revolves around the conflict of love and hate. This conflict is strongly…

Othello and Macbeth are two of Shakespeare’s most well known works, and often two of the first to come to mind when someone mentions Shakespearean tragedies. Both men start as an ideal for every other character in the play, only to become their own worst enemy. While both Othello and Macbeth start as noble characters in Shakespeare’s plays, the cause of their downfall differs. Othello is introduced as one of the best military officers in Venice in both character and strategy. Othello thinks of…

Hamlet is a world lacking in absolutes. Shakespeare places his characters into situations that reveal the gray areas of their moralities and force them to reevaluate what they consider right and wrong, while never providing a satisfactory answer himself. But Shakespeare always has something final to say about human nature, and in this play full of duality, one of the many binaries reveals a theme: although Shakespeare emphasizes Hamlet’s desire to uphold tradition in the face of corruption, he…

With very little investigation, one may think “The Lightning-Rod Man,” written in 1853 by Herman Melville, is a simple story about a man selling lightning rods who hopes people’s desire to stay safe during a storm and the closeness of the storm will help him in trying convince people to buy his product. Upon further investigation, I do not believe Melville meant for this story to just have one simple meaning. The complex style of writing leave many readers looking for more on what Melville means…

Macbeth is an honorable warrior that loves his country, or so it seems. As the story progresses Macbeth falls from a man of great stature and nobility to a subhuman creature that kills for pure enjoyment. After Macbeth learns of his potential power he turns into a power hungry lunatic that will do anything to further himself. This is only made worse by his twisted wife, Lady Macbeth, that belittles Macbeth and encourages him to commit the sins that, in her mind, need to be committed.…

that they are not. Jennings was always marginalized by his religion because his religion never accepted homosexuality. Jennings states his religion view toward homosexuality as “Gay people were twisted perverts destined for a lifetime of eternal damnation” (688), which uses harsh language to describe and give a negative view towards homosexuals. When an individual thinks of “twisted”, they picture something that is not normal, and when they…

Think about this; it is your last night on Earth and you are sitting in a jail cell with a heavy burden on your chest that you can’t help but to think about. The world sees you as crazy, but you know you’re sane. How would you prove your innocence? In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat” this scenario is put to the test. In the story, the reader is introduced to an unnamed narrator who is writing about how he got to this low point. He blames most of his downfall on things that he…

Feudalism, simply put, was the relationship between a lord and a vassal that changed the way of life during the Middle ages. The relationships between the classes of people. There was no clear hierarchy of who owed service to whom between king, lord, knight, or serf. For example a serf might serve any of these others or a knight might serve a king, but there was no direct level of power except between the vassal and his lord (the giver of property). Feudalism also changed the way England…