In the Iliad, Hector is a Trojan prince who leads his people in their war against the Greeks. Book 6 describes his character and reason for fighting. Hector is the Trojans’ pillar, a humble man who accepts his fate but fights so he can earn fame while securing the Trojans’ future. All the Trojans look... Continue Reading →
The English novels Emma, Jane Eyre and Middlemarch are all among the most famous of the 1800s and feature romances between main characters which are important for the story. Emma Woodhouse falls in love with George Knightley, Jane Eyre with Edward Rochester, and Dorothea Brooke with Edward Casaubon and then Will Ladislaw. These novels explore... Continue Reading →
The novel Jane Eyre is a Victorian Gothic bildungsroman that explores the early life of the eponymous character. At eighteen Jane is hired by Mr. Rochester as a governess at Thornfield Hall. This essay will argue that Jane’s innocent, independent personality liberates Mr. Rochester from his mental enslavement at Thornfield Hall. Jane provides a glimpse... Continue Reading →
The novel Emma by Jane Austen explores the life of the eponymous young woman in the village of Highbury. Emma Woodhouse is 21 years old and respected in her community, but also inexperienced in the world. She is close to Mr. George Knightley, a family friend, whose younger brother is married to Emma’s older sister... Continue Reading →
Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch were Florentine thinkers active in the 13th and 14th centuries. But their worldviews were very different, and two of their most famous texts reflect this. Dante’s On Monarchy uses Aristotelian scholasticism to argue that the Holy Roman Emperor has the right to rule over Europe. Meanwhile, Petrarch’s On His Own... Continue Reading →
The story of King Arthur has been told in many different forms over the centuries. Two of the core seminal works are Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a long poem from the 14th century by an unknown author, and Le Morte d’Arthur, a prose work from the 15th century by Thomas Malory. King Arthur... Continue Reading →
One of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer’s most famous poems is Troilus and Criseyde, a retelling of the classic love tragedy poem. It is set amid the background of the Trojan War, but in a 14th century environment. In it, the Trojan prince Troilus falls in love with the Trojan noblewoman Criseyde. Criseyde is a... Continue Reading →
The French structuralist writer Roland Barthes wrote a short essay called “The Death of the Author” in 1967. In it, he argues that writing is the destruction of every voice, and that while this has not been recognized before, writers are now starting to take this into account and critics should focus on the reader... Continue Reading →
Anne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery which explores the coming of age of a girl named Anne Shirley in the town of Avonlea. While Anne’s imaginary adventures make the book resonate with children, it is Marilla’s struggles that adults identify with. In the beginning of the novel Marilla... Continue Reading →
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer who published a novella called The Strange Case of Henry and Jekyll in 1886. It is about a doctor called Henry Jekyll who separates himself into two beings. Through his investigations of the human psyche, Jekyll discovers that he is not simply one being,... Continue Reading →
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