In each story, one sister is a self-centered antagonist, and the mother is the judge between the two sisters. ... Dee is the self-centered antagonist in this story and is used to getting whatever she wants. ... Sister is the narrator of the story, and she tries to get the reader to side with her even though she is the instigator and the antagonist in this situation. ... Both stories show a conflict between two sisters when one returns home from a world experience, and in both stories, the older sister is the antagonist. ... In the end, the self-centered antagonists are the r...

• Word Count: 929
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the case of Tartuffe, we must then recognize Orgon as the principle hero, and Tartuffe as the antagonist. ... Granted, the antics of Tartuffe are very entertaining, but he is definitely full of unadmirable traits, and is seeking the ruin of Orgon, which makes him the antagonist, and Orgon the protagonist....

• Word Count: 487
• Approx Pages: 2

Often overlooked, there is always your antagonist, the potent mastermind in the play who eventually comes to his death when his evil ways are discovered. In "Hamlet", the antagonist is Claudius, Hamlets uncle and King Hamlet's brother. ... In "Oedipus Rex", the antagonist is actually Oedipus himself. ...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Conflict is the central struggle in a play or novel. It is essential to the novel because it creates interest and captivates the audience. Without it, a story would be quite irksome and dull. One type of conflict is when a character opposes the will of the majority. This type of conflict is s...

• Word Count: 542
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In William Faulkner's " Barn Burning" one of the main characters, the antagonist, is Abner Snopes. He is rather static. He is faced with having to provide a life for his family as a sharecropper. This simple living is the cause of all the problems that have arisen. From staying out of jail, trying t...

• Word Count: 531
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Main Character The main character in the novel is Weili. She tells her life story to her daughter, Pearl. Weili is married to a cocky pilot named, Wen Fu, and this marriage has terrible consequences. Later, she leaves him and marries a translator named, Jimmy Louie. Her life is a struggle against a...

• Word Count: 576
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

After examining chapters 6 and 39 of Kate Chopin's story The Awakening, one is able to see that the author planned to depict the final scene to be tragic yet triumphant. Like Edna's final act in chapter 39, the first half of chapter 6 allows the reader to understand that Edna is lost in her search...

• Word Count: 631
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Throughout the memoir of Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt strives to reach beyond the limitations forced upon him by poverty. Frank uses his misfortunes as building blocks throughout his years to become a successful, mature man. This memoir demonstrates how religion, family, society, and cu...

• Word Count: 712
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The episode that I decided to pick from The Odyssey as my example of tragedy is the story of Agamemnon's death at the hands of his wife, Clytemnestra, and Aegisthus and his son Orestes avenging his death by killing his mother and Aegisthus. The story is actually told to Telemachus from Menelaus when...

• Word Count: 1403
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman examines the impact of American values and morals as to what constitutes "success" upon individual lives. The play is based on a 36- hour period of the Loman family's problems. The family is made up of a father, mother, and two sons. Willy, the father, star...

• Word Count: 1434
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

King Lear is a brutal play filled with cruelty and seemingly meaningless disasters. All of these terrible events trigger the reader to question whether this world is full of meaningless chaos, or that justice strikes those that truly evoke it. One character Edgar brings up that, "the Gods are just" ...

• Word Count: 1109
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

What are the causes of change? The causes of change are both internal and external. Internal causes of change are those that occur within a person. The person initiates the change and is in control. External causes of change involves a person's surroundings changing. There is little control over thi...

• Word Count: 1129
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

In James Baldwin's short story, "Sonny's Blues," the narrator's brother, Sonny, has a heroin addiction and gets arrested for using and selling drugs. The narrator feels he needs to take care of and save his brother simply because he is family. Even though these two brothers clearly love each other, ...

• Word Count: 876
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare is a tragedy defined by the revealing soliloquies that allow readers to peer deep into the thoughts of the characters. In the beginning of the play, the main character Hamlet learns of his father's death, and soon thereafter his mother's remarriage to his unc...

• Word Count: 1185
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

* Setting: When: This book was written in the latter part of the 90's which was the time frame for this book. The seeting lets you know why the main character acts and thinks the way she does. Where: This book took place in New York City at Albert Einstein High School. Throughout the book it ...

• Word Count: 1090
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Don't Underestimate the Grandmother Is it that hard to find a "good" man in this world? According to Flannery O" Connor, finding a "good" man is hard to do. O"Connor writes the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," trying to portray the difficulty in finding a "good" man. No one is perfect, but kno...

• Word Count: 1271
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The heartbreaking story of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare illustrates this type of bond between a young couple and how antagonistic parental authority caused the tragic demise of their relationship. ...

• Word Count: 1318
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It's not uncommon for a child with an absentee father to grow up in difficult circumstances. Issues such as poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, failure to complete high school or college, health related problems and emotional disorders, are all common "side effects" of being the child of an MIA dad. In...

• Word Count: 1679
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Throughout Shakespeare's many tragedies, a plethora of female characters are introduced and represented in unique ways, none of which are as strong and bold as the females of "King Lear." Arguably one of Shakespeare's greatest works, this familial play takes us on the journey of a ruler who must pai...

• Word Count: 1537
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

1. Setting: 1930's, Oklahoma and California 2. Characters: In this story, Tom Joad is the protagonist; he is Ma and Pa Joad's favorite son. He is thoughtful, friendly, and makes use of every opportunity. Tom has killed a man and has not seen his family for four years, but does not regret anything. ...

• Word Count: 1415
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Traditional family ideals, including ones of the 1950's Australia, dictate the expected roles of different family members. However, this expectation is not assumed in all family dynamics. Alan Seymour's The One Day the Year (1958), explores the notion of stereotypical family roles in relation to the...

• Word Count: 1812
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Flannery O"Conner says, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", but I think it's the other way around. A good woman is what's really hard to find. What happened to the image of the genteel southern lady who was the embodiment of everything that is considered womanly, beautiful, and serene by the Souther...

• Word Count: 1902
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Michael A. Dorris, a contemporary author of anthropological studies, poetry and short stories, best known for his work in prose. Perhaps his interest and later achievement of a Masters of Philosophy in anthropology from Yale, in 1970 came from his unique genealogic tree, Irish and French on his mother's side, and Modoc Indian on his father's. Though born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 30, 1945, his family relocated to Passau, Germany where his father became a stationed army lieutenant. Soon after, in a tragic jeep accident, his father passed away and the family moved back to L...

• Word Count: 1903
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School