The Friar's Tale

Throughout history, there have been a manifold of variations on the mythical Siren. Traditionally told through Greek Mythology, they are mermaid-like creatures who sing beautiful songs that lure nearby sailors to their death by shipwreck. Two variations on this classic character are found in Homer’s Odyssey and Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song”. In both of these pieces of literature, we find very different tone usage, contrasting points of view, and various techniques of conveying the Siren's to…

Many characters in Margaret Atwood's fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale break various rules. These characters consist of people high up in ranks like commanders to people low in ranks like handmaids. Even characters who you would not expect to break the rules do. For example, Serena Joy she is the commander's wife and also high in ranks but as soon as we meet Serena Joy in the novel she breaks one of Gilead's laws by smoking which is forbidden. During the novel, it reveals that breaking the rules…

Aesop’s Fables Introduction Fables are told all through the world. The characters of fables are usually animals that attract children to learn lesson from the stories. When I lived in China, I read many kinds of fables, including ancient Chinese fables, Arabic fables, and Greek fables. I have been interested in Aesop’s Fables from Greece since I was a child. The fables in Aesop’s collection usually have simple context, but they reveal deep meanings. My passion of reading fables was inspired by…

The Underlying Satirical Message of The Canterbury Tales Written between 1387 and 1400, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales have attracted the attention of historians and English scholars from all over. This satirical piece poses many questions and gives an interesting insight in the lives of 30 characters, many of which being employed by the church. Chaucer gives an ironic twist to many, if not all the characters of The Canterbury Tales. The narrator addresses each character by their occupation,…

Jingnan Zhang English 3: Block Ms. Bunosky February 15, 2017 Archetypes in Toy Story One doesn’t usually watch movies and critically think about what is happening in it, but when one analyzes thoroughly, the audience can find some impressive things in the plots of these films. In the movie, Toy Story 3, the audience can clearly see a set of archetypes through the characters. Woody would be considered the hero, Buzz can be seen as the innocent person, and Lotso can be seen as the ruler/dictator…

Spirited Away is an animated Japanese film (anime), by Hayao Miyazaki, he “has made many famous films including; Laputa: The Castle in The Sky (1986) and Princess Mononoke (1997) and his excellent work has earned him the title of ‘Walt Disney of Japan’” (Dugdale). Even though the film maker decided to retire in 1997, he decided to create Spirited Away after noticing that young girls don’t have much to look out to in the media other that romance, he wanted to create a film “in which they could be…

“My Last Duchess” and “Checking Out Me History” both express anger through a first person perspective, in the form of a dramatic monologue, although the poems offer two different portrayals of anger. In Browning’s poem, the reader is introduced to a seemingly expressive and biased rant from the Duke about his past Duchess, speaking to an envoy. ‘My’, the possessive pronoun, implies he sees women as possessions. The Duke thinks the world revolves around him because he owns "a…

Question: Which Characters of The Canterbury Tales are the reflections of our contemporary society and why? Answer: INTRODUCTION: “The Canterbury Tales”, renowned and legendary poem of medieval age, is the collection of stories written in Heroic Couplet in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English Poetry and the greatest writer of 14th Century, got distinction among the medieval poets due to realism and the unique art of characterization which varies from character to…

conveying messages and lessons about life. Many times in folktales, there are supernatural spirits that become embodied in human or semi-human characters and their stories are then often left up to the interpretation of those reading or hearing the tale. Much like folktales, ambiguity within “Deer Dancer” by Joy Harjo is leaves the story up to the interpretation of the reader. One way to examine “Deer Dancer” is that the story is an adaptation of a Native American folktale is a modern setting…

John Niles notes in his paper “Tam Lin: Form and Meaning in a Traditional Ballad” that on the night of Halloween, when the Fairy Court rides at Miles Cross and Janet saves Tam Lin, Tam Lin and Janet’s roles in the ballad become reversed (342). In both Dean’s and Jones’ retellings, this certainly is the case as the relationship and power balance between their Janet and Tam Lin characters changes and shifts drastically at this point in the narrative of both novels. In Dean’s Tam Lin, the initial…