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Found articles: 55

  • English Literature: Why Should We Study It?

     When we dip into the rich variety of novels, poems, and plays which constitute English Literature we are reading works which have lasted for generations, or centuries, and they have lasted because they are good. These works say something worth saying, and say it with artistry strong enough to survive while lesser works drop into obscurity.Literature is part of our cultural heritage which is freely available to everyone, and which can enrich our lives in all kinds of ways.More

  • James Boswell's 'The Life of Samuel Johnson'

     James Boswell's 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' is perhaps the best-known biography in English literature, and it marked a turning point in the art of biography writing. Through Boswell's prose Johnson comes across as a wholly believable man. We do not get just an account of his life, but feel we have been there with Boswell and seen and heard Johnson for ourselves.More

  • Religious Metaphysical Poetry: Donne, Herbert, Vaughan

     John Donne (1572-1631) established what has become known as the Metaphysical style of poetry which was taken up by later poets such as George Herbert (1593-1633) and Henry Vaughan (1622-95). Some of the chief characteristics of Donne's style are: the abrupt opening of a poem with a surprising dramatic line; the use of colloquial diction; the ideas in the poem being presented as a logical and persuasive argument, the purpose of which is to aid his wooing, whether of a woman or God. Donne took metaphors from all spheres of life, especially from crafts and the sciences, and made frequent use of the 'conceit': a surprising, ingenious, turn of ideas.More

  • English Literature - William Shakespeare - Coriolanus

     Who is to blame for Coriolanus's banishment?In William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Coriolanus's banishment is the climax of a series of events in which several forces play a part, all pushing him towards his inevitable downfall. As is usual in Shakespearean Tragedy, the hero, at the peak of his achievements, falls, due to a fatal flaw in his character.More

  • English Literature: Charles Dickens's Narrative Technique

     A critic wrote: 'Every writer of fiction, although he may not adopt the dramatic form, writes in effect for the stage.' When considering the statement in relation to Dickens we cannot take the word 'stage' too literally. Much of Dickens's writing involves the evocation of landscapes, such as the marshes in 'Great Expectations' or Yarmouth beach in 'David Copperfield' which could not be accommodated on the stage.More

  • English Literature: Alexander Pope - The Rape of the Lock

     In ‘The Rape of the Lock’ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) employs a mock-epic style to satirise the ‘beau-monde’ (fashionable world, society of the elite) of eighteenth century England. The richness of the poem, however, reveals more than a straightforward satirical attack. Alongside the criticism we can detect Pope’s fascination with, and perhaps admiration for, Belinda and the society in which she moves.More

  • The Love Poetry of John Donne: Part 1 of 3

     John Donne's Songs and Sonnets do not describe a single unchanging view of love; they express a wide variety of emotions and attitudes, as if Donne himself were trying to define his experience of love through his poetry. Love can be an experience of the body, the soul, or both; it can be a religious experience, or merely a sexual one, and it can give rise to emotions ranging from ecstasy to despair. Taking any one poem in isolation will give us a limited view of Donne's attitude to love, but treating each poem as a fragment of a totality of experience, represented by all the Songs and Sonnets, it gives us an insight into the complex range of experiences that can be grouped under the single heading 'Love'.More

  • The Love Poetry of John Donne: Part 2 of 3

     The scientific framework of Donne's view of love is seen here:But as all severall soules containe Mixture of things, they know not what, Love, these mixt soules, doth mixe againe, And makes both one, each this and that.Just as the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water were supposed to combine to form new substances, so two souls mix to form a new unity. The strength and durability of this new unit is dependent upon how well the elements of the two souls are balanced, as we see from these lines from The Good-Morrow:What ever dyes, was not mixt equally; It our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.More

  • The Love Poetry of John Donne: Part 3 of 3

     John Donne is unusual, if not unique, for his era in that courtly love hardly appears in his poetry at all. Courtly love seems to depend on the lover being unsuccessful, whereas Donne rejoices in success at every level. And the courtly love poet always expresses the same aspects of love, the range of experiences and emotions dealt with being very limited.More

  • English Literature: Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Part 3 of 3

     The immorality attached to Tess's past has been established as 'unnatural', and this brings about a crisis for both of them, in which fate plays its part in making the results as tragic as possible. Later, Angel says that if Tess had told him her history earlier he might have been able to accept it. Tess must be held to blame for not telling him, though fate, in the letter she wrote him remaining unseen, and social pressure from her mother, are also partly responsible.More