Dark Night of the Soul

The thing that goes bump in the night, the boogey man, the monsters that hide under beds and in closets; they were the terrors of our childhood. We spent many nights cowering beneath a mountain of blankets afraid of the possibilities that lurked in the darkness of our bedroom. We were afraid of the dark. Terrified of the ominous blackness that allowed our imaginations to run unfettered, conjuring images of killer beasts in our closets and hairy monsters under our beds. Just picturing the…

Two Different Realms: Day and Night “The realms of day and night. Two different worlds coming from two opposite poles mingled together during this time.” (Herman Hesse, Demian. Die Geschichte Von Emil Sinclairs Jugend.) Hesse’s coming of age story, Demian, speaks of the difference and struggles between two worlds opposite of one another. These worlds are reality and fantasy, otherwise known as day and night. Similar to this is the story of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet are…

disturbed could be kept isolated from the mainland. The hospital was large and had a very impressive bell tower. Right when the asylum opened patients immediately began reporting sightings of the ghosts of the plague victims. Patients would be kept up at night because they were able to hear the tortured cries of the suffering spirits. These complaints were often ignored by the hospital’s staff because patients were already considered mad.(Alfons) In addition to the ethical issues of the asylum,…

much as they did the underground gods. In the case of Circe, her father was the god of the sun, Helios (Kristensen 65). This god also had the chthonic trait, which shows that these goddesses shared such features. Additionally, both goddesses practice dark magic. Hecate practiced some dangerous magic, which was chthonic in nature (NicMhacha 61). While taking part in her magical workings, she became…

More often than not, the phrase of ‘the night is still young’ will always be coining the ears of some individuals. In the middle of the night, a certain extent of the phrase is perpetuated until it is suitable to cater a positive morale for those who are doing their assignments, especially for those who enforce some catch-up of their work till the brink of time; however, slowly but surely, the body of those individuals will persuade them to sleep, breaking down their spirits pieces by pieces,…

The Negro Speaks of Rivers, being Hughes’ earliest work, is indicative of the themes that run through much of Hughes’ work. Hughes use of black pride is present; he writes, “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young./ I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep./ I looked upon the Nile and raised pyramids above it./ I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln/ went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy/ bosom turn all golden in the sunset” (Hughes, 23).…

In the story of the Cask of Amontillado, the character Montresor commits a crime, but was he wrong to? The story is created by Edgar Allan Poe, which already tells you that the story is already dark due to the authors’ background in stories. Montresor simply is fed up with being insulted many times by Fortunato. Can you really blame a guy for taking pride in his family? Montresor simply is a vengeful and manipulative person. To complete his devious plan, he invites over the victim, Fortunato…

I sitteth and ponder at mine fatigued and unrecognisable figure looking backeth at me in the glassed mirror. The sound of thunder escaped from the dark night’s horizon of Cawdor. The heartache, grief and stress settle into every part of mine numbing heart, with the events of Banquo’s apparition playing repeatedly in my head. So, is this how it ends? Cawdor has set a standard of how a woman should perceive herself in Cawdor, and if I don’t adhere to this, vain things will occur. What I don't…

Henley chose to stand up and face the coming trials of life because he had learned that a person’s fate can only be controlled by themselves. Henley begins the poem with two negative lines. In the first two lines Henley writes that there is a “night” (1) covering him, and he describes…

it difficult to comprehend on what has just happened, yes, I Michael Louis has just sold my soul, I remember the conversation was short and blunt. “are you sure” he said “yes, I’m sure” And with that it was gone, the only thing I truly possessed no longer belonged to me. This all happened three months ago. I felt I had my body emptied and the feelings were more than being lost or trapped. He took my soul and cut my heart into pieces at the same time I couldn’t feel it he filled this empty…