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Topics
Hamlet
Appearance versus RealityAppearance versus reality is one of the central themes of Shakespeare's drama. When the ghost of old Hamlet appears and reveals to his grieving son the horrific details of his death at the hands of his treacherous brother, the theme of appearance versus reality becomes firmly rooted in the plot as Hamlet is presented with a moral dilemma.
Imagery of Hamlet
"In Hamlet images reiterated of poison, sickness and decay highlight the moral corruption which lies at the heart of the Danish Court". Discuss using relevant quotation/paraphrase from the play in support of your answer.
The Character of Laertes
Laertes, son of Polonius, is introduced in 1.2. He is immediately established as a favourite with the King. Clouds refers to the young man five times by name and immediately grants him permission to return to his studies in Paris, if he has his father's permission. Thus we are prepared for their later treacherous alliance.
Novels
The Social World of Emma"In Emma Jane Austen depicts a sophisticated, yet morally flawed, society which derives its values from money and class". Discuss this view, supporting your answer by specific reference to the text of the novel.
Poetry
The Circus Animals' DesertionThis poem was composed between November 1937 and September 1938. Its primary theme is one which confronts all creative artists at some stage in their careers - loss of inspiration. Thus the poem belongs with some famous expressions of the theme of failure in literature.
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A Constable Calls
A Constable Calls is the second in a sequence of six poems entitled 'Singing School' which concludes Heaney's fourth collection 'North' (1975). The poem is a vivid description of an incident from the poet's childhood - a policeman making an official visit to his father's farm at Mossbawn to record tillage returns.
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The Famine Road
The Famine Road is from Eavan Boland's first collection of poems The War Horse (1975). In this poem she dramatically recreates a tragic period of starvation, disease and death in Irish history. At the same time the poet links it with another tragic incident, the unhappy story of a woman diagnosed by her doctor as suffering from infertility.
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Wounds
During the early 1970's the conflict in Northern Ireland intensified with many appalling atrocities being perpetrated by both sides of the bitter sectarian divide. 'Wounds' is one of the first poems where Longley links the death of his father (ironically from a war wound which finally became cancerous) in 1960 with sectarian deaths in Northern Ireland in the early 1970's.
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The Prodigal
The Prodigal was first published in The New Yorker on March 13, 1951, and is included in Bishop's second volume of poems, A Cold Spring (1955). Bishop originally gave her poem the title The Prodigal Son. It is based on a parable told by Jesus and recorded in St. Luke.
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I Felt a Funeral in my Brain
'I felt a Funeral ....' is another of Emily Dickinson's poems of retrospective self-analysis, a demonstration of mental suffering which led to psychic disintegration and a final collapse into a protective loss of consciousness. The poem is a clinical case-record of a mental breakdown, charted from hindsight. The poet uses the sustained image of a funeral-service to trace the collapse of her own mind and the consequent nervous breakdown.
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The Whitsun Wedding
The Whitsun Weddings was inspired by a train journey which the poet made from Hull to London on Whit Saturday, 1955. The poem was finally completed in October 1958, following repeated redrafting. The poem's title is upbeat and life-affirming. In the Christian Church Whit Sunday or Pentecost is a time of spiritual rebirth. The festival celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus.
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