English Essays

Oresteia
Oresteia Progression Towards Light Aeschylus’ use of darkness and light as a consistent image in the Oresteia depicts a progression from evil to goodness, disorder to order. In the Oresteia, there exists a situation among mortals which has gotten out of control; a cycle of death has arisen in the house of Atreus. There also exists a divine disorder within the story which, as the situation of the mortals, must be brought to resolution: the Furies, an older generation of god...

Orlando
Orlando In the novel Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, gender plays a complex and important role. However, what makes this role so important is the way Woolf stresses the absolute unimportance of gender. In the three major sexually based relationships of the story in which Orlando participates there is some question as to the gender of the other participant. Orlando, him/herself has issues concerning to what gender he/she actually belongs. Despite the fact that he/she physically c...

Oscar Wilde Biography
Oscar Wilde Biography Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and grew up in an intellectually influenced Irish home. His mother was a poet who wrote under the pen name Speranza and his father was a well-known physician with an interest in myths and folk tale. This was a very literature oriented family. At Oxford he won a coveted poetry award and was swayed by the late nineteenth century aesthetic movement. He found its idea of “art for art’s sake” and dedicating...

Othello
Othello In Shakespeare’s “Othello”, Iago carefully and masterfully entraps Othello into believing that his wife, Desdemona, is having an affair with Cassio. He does this through a series of suggestions and hesitations that entice and implant images in Othello’s head that lead him to his demise. But what is more important is, he gives Othello the motive to murder his own innocent Desdemona, satisfying Iago’s immense appetite for revenge. The motive...

Othellos Jealousy
Othello’s Jealousy Shakespeare’s Othello is a good transition from comedy to tragedy for it picks up the story where the comedies left off. Whereas the comedies invariably end with marriage, Othello begins with one. However, the same problem persists. Female sexuality is a threat to the patriarchal society, and must he safely contained. The comedies suggested that heterosexual marriage was the means to control female sexuality. Nonetheless, Desdemona’s sexualit...

Our Town Essay
Our Town Essay Elena Krapish Period D October 5, 2000 “Welcome to our town”, recites the stage manager as he begins the play. Our Town is a play written by Wilder Thorton, which takes place in a little town called Grover’s Corners. Grover’s Corners is a tiny town with a population of 2,642 and with very little culture. There is one school, which all the children of the town attend, and it is rare to leave this town. This play tells a story about the daily life of th...

Our Town
Our Town Penny Brewer English 6 Our Town The play Our Town was written by Thornton Wilder in 1938. This play was a huge part of Wilder’s success. I believe his purpose for this play is to show us the simple things in life we often overlook. The play is to show you how important it is to have love in your life, plus the meaning and beauty of it all. The story takes place in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, over a twelve-year span. The characters in the play go about as if...

Owl Creek Bridge
Owl Creek Bridge Ambrose Bierce wrote “The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” during the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century. During this time period the two writing styles of romanticism, and realism were coming together. This melding of styles was a result of the romantic period of writing and art coming to an end, just at realism was beginning to gain popularity. “The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a perfect example of this transition of styles as it combines...

Oxy Contin Abuse In SW VA
Oxy Contin Abuse In SW-VA Today a lot of Americans know about a drug of the name OxyContin and its intended use for those who it is prescribed to. To those who do not, it is a narcotic painkiller similar to synthetic morphine. This drug is used to treat severe pain in a lot of cancer patients today that undergo tremendous pain on a daily basis and need this drug, also many other persons who are in severe pain. Then there are those who abuse the drug, and distribute it illegally,...

Ozymandias
Ozymandias Ozymandias This sonnet is written to express to the speaker that possessions don’t mean immortality - ironically, the king who seemed to think that his kingdom would remain under his statue’s egotistical gaze forever teaches us this through his epitaph. “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” becomes good advice, though in an opposite meaning than the king intended, for it comes to mean that despite all the power and might one acquires in...

Nora Helmer as a Doll
Nora Helmer as a Doll Nora Helmer as a Doll In Isben’s, A Dolls House Nora, the protagonist is treated like a doll - the property of Torvald Helmer. In Act I, there are many clues that hint at the kind of marriage Nora and Torvald have. It seems that Nora is a doll controlled by Torvald. She relies on him for everything, from movements to thoughts, much like a puppet that is dependent on its puppet master for all of its actions. The most obvious example of Torvald̵...

Note taking tips
Note taking tips Some important tactics that I have found to be the most useful in note taking are that you should not try to take down everything that the instructor says. Also attendance plays an important role in your ability to take good notes. Being an active participant in class also helps in your understanding of material discussed in the classroom. A student that wants to do well in any subject will always do their homework assignments. As you are reading a book, a g...

Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation Disarmament of Nuclear Weapons For more than 40 years, the world existed under the danger of a nuclear apocalypse. In 1989, the falling of the Berlin Wall marked the beginning of the end of Soviet Communism. The nuclear “Armageddon” seemed to be postponed. No longer are two major nuclear powers locked in a nuclear standoff. But now several nations possess nuclear capabilities. Six years after the end of the Cold War, and a half-century past the droppin...

Numerology and Beloved
Numerology and Beloved In literature, numbers are used to communicate important messages to the reader. The author uses references to numbers to strengthen the important ideas of the novel. In many cultures numbers carry an important or significant meaning to them. These numbers can carry a meaning more efficiently than using only words. In Beloved, Toni Morrison uses references to numbers to emphasize the significant ideas of the novel. Morrison uses these numbers to repre...

OLYMPICS
OLYMPICS WHY GO TO THE OLYMPICS The Olympics are good, but wait till you see how overcrowded it is. It is really uncomfortable when you’re sitting on bony seats. You might as well stay home in your own comfort. Plus it is way too expensive. It is so expensive, for the tickets they cost about $200 to $300 dollars on average. A plate of food is about $10.00, for transport it cost even more. When you get home you will probably be broke. So stay home and buy your food so...

Obasan the nature of power
Obasan the nature of power Obasan: The Nature of Power Joy Kogawa’s obasan sheds light on the complicated nature of power. Three scenes in chapter 11 represent the power that the Canadian Government exerted over the Japanese Canadians during World War II. The first of these scenes involves the yellow chicks and the white hen; the second is Naomi’s dream of the torture and mutilation of three Japanese women; and the final scene is naomi’s personal description of the abu...

Obasan
Obasan OBASAN From Naomi’s birth in 1936 until 1942, her family lives a typical middle-class Canadian life in Vancouver. She lives with her mother, father, and brother, Stephen. Her mother plays the piano, her father studies medicine at a rolltop desk in their basement, and the children have all the toys they could ever ask for. Naomi describes her room in Vancouver: “My bedroom with its long white-lace-curtained windows looks out over the neighbors’ yard. A...

Objective Correlative
Objective Correlative T.S. Elliot defines an objective correlative as “the only way of expressing emotion in the form of art … a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately invoked.” The following is a set of objective correlatives extracted from the literature in the book “Thinking...

Ocean Side Tranquilty
Ocean Side Tranquilty Ocean Side Tranquility The point when the hot sand meets the slowly rising tide of the ocean, and how the sunset seems to glimmer off of the water at just the right angle. When the flock of seagulls skims the top of the ocean while the fins of dolphins can be seen cresting in the distance. These are the sorts of things that help describe the feeling of ocean side tranquility. The soft sound of crashing waves, and the mellow chirping of seagulls sound ...

Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ode on a Grecian Urn Ode on a Grecian Urn Summary, In the first stanza, the speaker, standing before an ancient Grecian urn, addresses the urn, preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. It is the “still unravish’d bride of quietness,” the “foster-child of silence and slow time.” He also describes the urn as a “historian,” which can tell a story. He wonders about the figures on the side of the urn, and asks what legend th...

Ode to a Nightengale
Ode to a Nightengale In Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats, the author and narrator, used descript terminology to express the deep-rooted pain he was suffering during his battle with tuberculosis. This poem has eight paragraphs or verses of ten lines each and doesn’t follow any specific rhyme scheme. In the first paragraph, Keats gave away the mood of the whole poem with his metaphors for his emotional and physical sufferings, for example: My heart aches, and drowsy numbness p...

Odysseus by Homer
Odysseus by Homer The Odyssey, written by Homer, tells the story of Odysseus andhow he faced misfortune in his attempts to return home after the Trojan war. Odysseus is not famous for his great strength or bravery, but for his ability to deceive and trick. From his misfortunes he learned to be a better man and became able to regain his place in his homeland of Ithaca. During his journeys Odysseus often makes the mistake of bragging to his enemies but learns that doing this g...

Odyssey
Odyssey Robert Gardner The first significant event in the Odyssey is what sets the entire story in motion, the traveling Poseidon. Athena and Poseidon together were the cause of Odysseus’ exile from Ithaca, which began twenty long years ago. Athena’s anger at the Greeks had started to subside and she began feeling sorry for what she had done, especially to Odysseus. She had been very fond of him during the Trojan War and her old feelings for him were returning. Now At...

Oedipus Destiny
Oedipus’ Destiny From the ancient Greek society to the modernistic world in which [we] reside, the one constant which has had the ability to both bind and divide masses of people remains to be an unparalleled belief in a higher power. For it is human nature to submit to a divine presence as justification for that which is beyond the realm of man’s comprehension. But what are the criteria to substantiating the intangible? Fleeting passions have lead many to challenge t...

Oedipus Rex Character Analysis
Oedipus Rex Character Analysis Oedipus Rex Sophocles’ Oedipus the King perpetuates this ideology that the title character pursues a path which happens to be foretold. Oedipus was determined to save his city and discover his identity, however he ultimately assists in his own downfall. Oedipus’ fall from his kingly status was not by accident or because of some other person. Oedipus is the only one that can be blamed for his misfortune. Oedipus’ character traits are shown ...