English Literature Essays

Analysis of Alison Bechdel's 'Fun Home'
Example essay. Last modified: 2nd Aug 2021
Introduction: Fun Home is about identity. In a tragicomic tone, Alison Bechdel transcends two secrets in her autobiography. These secrets are about gender and identity. Fun Home is home to a special family, an old artificer Bruce Bechdel and his family. This family is not ordinary. After Bruce’s death, which his daughter Alison, considers being a suicide, his homosexuality is discovered....

Analysis of The Works Of John Grisham
Example essay. Last modified: 2nd Aug 2021
Introduction: John Grisham is an American writer. He writes legal thrillers. Before becoming a writer, Grisham made a career as a lawyer and as a politician. His books are popular all over the world. Grisham’s characters are live and charismatic. The author creates twisted and interesting plot and investigates the behavior of different people in different life situations....

John Cheever's 'The Swimmers' Portrayal Of Alienation
Example essay. Last modified: 2nd Aug 2021
Introduction: Marx defines the workers as the socio-economic class forced to sell their labor for a wage in order to survive. Cheever replaces this familiar image of the industrial laborer with an upper-middle class, white-collar worker as the blue-collar subject of the story and makes full use of Marx’s definition and simply substitutes one laborer for another....

Comparing And Contrasting A B C Murders
Example essay. Last modified: 30th Jul 2021
Introduction: The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie is a fiction story about a serial killer on the loose, who murders his victims, and in locations in an alphabetical order, thus the A.B.C title....

The Traditional Narrative Structure Of Thomas Hardy
Example essay. Last modified: 30th Jul 2021
Introduction: In order to assess the validity or otherwise of Thomas Hardy’s assertion, we first need to consider whether or not any such construct as traditional narrative structure can properly be said to exist and, assuming that it does, provide a definition of what this structure might be. ...

Analysis of 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings'
Example essay. Last modified: 30th Jul 2021
Introduction: The first lines of the poem discuss what a free bird does. Angelou writes, “The free bird leaps / on the back of the wind / and floats downstream / till the current ends / and dips his wings / in the orange sun rays / and dares to claim the sky” (1-7)....

Comparison of Poems by William Blake and Christina Rossetti
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is among the prophetic books of William Blake. These have been written by imitating biblical books of prophecy however they express the personal romantic and revolutionary beliefs of the poet. This book describes the visit of the poet to hell, a device that had been adopted from Paradise Lost of Milton and Dante’s Divine Comedy by Blake...

Shakespeare’s King Lear as the Ultimate Tragic Hero
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: Even though Lear has undergone much transformation and realized the meaning of humanity, the bleak society he lives in does not warrant him the opportunity for redemption. Through revealing his losses, King Lear illustrates the journey of the title character, an ultimate tragic hero....

What Purpose Do Gothic Conventions Serve in the Works of Romantic Authors?
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: The Romanticism movement and gothic literature both derived from the mid-late eighteenth century, in which these two genres contributed to the rise of poetry and the novel as popular entertainment. It is also known as “dark romanticism with horror and romantic love as the typical characters. ...

American Dream Analysis In Literature
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: A social study by Alister Bull points out “America may still think as the land of opportunity, but the chances of living a rags-to-riches life are a lot lower than elsewhere in the world”(BBS). The American Dream is just illusion. It is illusions of chance for the future....

Tragedy in 'Death Of A Salesman'
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: Death of a Salesman is a tragedy play based on middle class salesman called Willy Loman. He lives in an old house middle of developed city with his wife Linda and two sons, Biff and Happy....

Themes of Revenge in Hamlet
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: Hamlet is tasked with avenging his father's horrible and unnatural murder. However, he faces a dilemma: should he believe in the honesty of the ghost? The ghost might be a devil. By nature a thinker and truth-seeker, his first step is to evaluate the truth of the ghost's command, but this self-examination causes delay....

British Colonialism In Daniel Defoes 'Roxanna'
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: In the following the researcher tries to show that at least certain men and women, were swayed by the logic of Capitalism’s productive possibilities. Defoe was intensely interested in capitalist modes of production, efficiency and improvements and in the exploitation and expansion of new markets along imperialist lines that would favor English trading interests....

Why I am Against the Death Penalty
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: The death penalty has been used for years as a way to punish the guilty. Over the years the death penalty has cost our Justice system millions. Besides the cost, it violates our Human Rights Bill and punishes the innocent people. ...

Dr. Faustus as a Literary Tragic Hero
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: In Christopher Marlow’s play “Dr. Faustus”, the protagonist of the story, Dr. Faustus, would be best described as a ‘tragic hero’. Faustus displays many traits that embody the archetype of what defines a classic tragic hero. ...

Compare and Contrast William Blake's Poems
Example essay. Last modified: 29th Jul 2021
Introduction: Compare and contrast William Blake’s poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” and show how within their similarities, differences can be found. Then discuss how these two poems exemplify the “two contrary states of the soul” that the Romantics sought to explore....

Symbols in 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson
Example essay. Last modified: 28th Jul 2021
Introduction: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story of an unusual town caught in a trap of always following tradition, even when it is not in their best interest. Jackson uses symbols throughout the story that relate to the overall theme....

How is Scrooge Introduced by Charles Dickens
Example essay. Last modified: 28th Jul 2021
Introduction: In this essay I will explore how Charles Dickens introduces Ebenezer Scrooge in the Stave One of “A Christmas Carol” and shows us Scrooge’s attitude towards Christmas and to other people....

Satire in Huckleberry Finn
Example essay. Last modified: 28th Jul 2021
Introduction: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is a great example of a satire that Twain uses to mock different aspects of the society. The novel is filled with wild adventures encountered by the two main character, ...

Odysseus as a Homeric Epic Hero
Example essay. Last modified: 28th Jul 2021
Introduction: An important trait that an epic hero must have is intelligence. Odysseus's quick thinking, combined with his eloquence in speech and many other characteristics, has gotten him and his crew out of many tight situations....

Loneliness in Steinbeck’s 'Of Mice and Men'
Example essay. Last modified: 27th Jul 2021
Introduction: The theme of loneliness is presented in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. The novel Of Mice and Men portrays loneliness as a complex emotion that often drives individuals to behavioral extremes....

Analysis of 'Tradition and the Individual Talent'
Example essay. Last modified: 27th Jul 2021
Introduction: This essay will be focusing on the arguments made by Eliot, with regards to literary tradition, in Tradition and the Individual Talent and how The Waste Land relates to those arguments....

Emily Dickinson's Poem: I Cannot Live With You
Example essay. Last modified: 27th Jul 2021
Introduction: One of Emily Dickinson’s famous love poems, “I cannot live with you,” expresses a variety of reasons of why they are unable to live a life together. In the first three stanzas of her poem, she puts an emphasis on the word life. ...

Analysis of Blake's 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger'
Example essay. Last modified: 27th Jul 2021
Introduction: William Blake was an 18th century visionary, poet, mystic, and artist. Blake’s romantic style of writing allowed him to create contrasting views as those in “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”. From a young age Blake used his imagination that was frowned upon and unfortunately was never greatly appreciated during his lifetime....

The Role of Women in Shakespeare's Hamlet
Example essay. Last modified: 27th Jul 2021
Introduction: The women of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” appear to be frail, passive figures used as pawns and dying prematurely after the mistreatment of men. However, there is more to Gertrude and Ophelia than meets the eye....