Motif

Charles Dickens, motifs profoundly help characterize certain characters throughout the novel. Motifs help connect certain descriptions and attitudes from a certain item to a character or theme. In the novel, the motif “stone” is used to characterize the Monseigneur. The motif helps connects the idea that the Monseigneur has a heart of stone. Like many of other members of the aristocracy in France, he treats others that are lower than him horribly and with lots of disrespect. The motif also helps…

“Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, he uses many motifs to articulate the themes and evolve the plot. One of the more noticeable motifs is the presence of blood. This is used to symbolize fearlessness and power as well as corruption and villainous. As incidents unravel in the story, the main character and his wife both become continuously more corrupt and their dishonest acts begin to weigh on their conscious. In “Macbeth”, Shakespeare utilizes blood as a motif to illustrate the developing guilt…

missions. The protagonist of his page-turner novel is based on Heller’s time serving in World War II. Through the use of complex themes, symbols and motifs in the novel, Catch-22 prepares students in ENG3U to meet expectations of critical thinking, oral communication skills and literacy development required to meet success in ENG4U. Compared…

Among these tools, motifs are ones used recurrently. Charlie Gordon often stares out through windows, “It made me angry with myself and I pulled back to my side of the seat and stared out the window… I can’t just hang around here all alone and look out the window…why am I always looking at life through a window?” This recurring gesture of his can be interpreted as a motif. In this work, the author uses the motif of Charlie staring out of windows to express reflection…

The motif of violence is manifest throughout Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, not only in the form of acts that are explicitly forceful and destructive, but in the implicit conflicts that are explored within the play, whether between men and women, light and dark, reality and fantasy or the Old South and the New South. Violence is most often associated with the character of Stanley, who progresses violent behaviour and exudes a sense of brutishness that contributes to the play’s overall…

Throughout One Today, Richard Blanco uses both anecdotal flashbacks and motifs to portray opportunity and equality; conveying a positive view of a shared American experience. Blanco’s use of anecdotal flashbacks help contribute to the positive concept of a shared American experience and connects to Walt Whitman’s poem of I Hear America Singing. In the second paragraph, Blanco describes the similar experiences and daily routines of all Americans. By starting this description with Americans…

The “black body” is an ongoing motif in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me that is used in many ways to explain the plight of black people in America. The term “black body” is implicitly used as a way to establish a clear difference from being in a “white body” concurrent with the standards of white America. Coates uses the term on quite a literal level in order to assert that black people are in a constant struggle to protect their right and security of their own bodies. Coates draws…

In Genesis 50:15-21, Joseph’s narrative reaches its climactic point with the clear picture of the fulfillment of the dream as traced back in Genesis 37. The dream motif in Joseph’s narrative is key as it provides a vehicle through which God’s purpose is revealed . It shows how God’s hand was behind the scenes pulling the strings causing the events in Joseph’s life with the intention that through him, His blessings upon the survival of Israel and many others is realized. This is brought out…

Merriam-Webster defines the term motif as a “usually recurring salient thematic element (as in the arts); especially : a dominant idea or central theme” (“Motif”). In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the author Erich Maria Remarque mentions two principle motifs which are comradeship and lost generation. The novel follows a young solider, Paul Bäumer, and his comrades throughout their journey at the front of World War I. The soldiers experience many horrors throughout their time in the…

Sydney Carton and Mr. Stryver following along in Dickens’s motif of double are alike and different in their demeanor, in that they share some common traits and values. If one was to look at their similarities, one could go all the back to where they knew each other, which was way back to when they were in school, where they were known as surly drunks. Also after their college careers, they both still continued to drink. “‘And now we have done, Sydney, fill a bumper of punch’” (Dickens 93).…