In The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde uses irony, puns, and humor to show the readers of the follies and social incapability of the acceptance of others different from themselves. Wilde's wit makes itself quite apparent through puns and irony. In the first few chapters Wilde introduces a two characters of extreme importance, Jack and Algernon. Some time after Wilde introduces them the plot thickens as we realize that they both have alternate identities ... after and getting what they truly wanted. Wilde uses his wit by using short, witty sayings to enlighten the situation. Often som...

• Word Count: 1280
• Approx Pages: 5

... confusion. These feelings don't usually stem from the distaste for one parent, but rather from the stress caused by the situation. As the child grows to understand the situation more, strong feelings of anger will decline (Berger 133-134). A more common defense mechanism is acting out by the child. Berger notes acting out as being "Any form of deliberate misconduct on the part of the patient" "(135). Children who act out get ... seeks a time in life when it did not have to deal with the stresses of divorce and conflicts in the family didn't exist. Infants become a symbol of envy to the ...

• Word Count: 1922
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... in dramatic situations, characterization, comic dialogue, and in satiric wit and irony. It rises above realistic comedy into the realm of intellectual comedy (Fujimura, xvii). Although it still consists of three sources and three plots, typical of the time. The three sections of plot that consist of Horner impotence scheme, the life of married Pinchwife and Margery, and the courtship of Alithea and Harcout. All plots are intermingled, but develop distinctly different moods ... . The story unfolds as Horner makes his conquest on the women of Londons aristocracy using his ruse of impotence...

• Word Count: 1371
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... entirely lacking"(Cooper, 282). Her disregard for the institution of matrimony and the merchant's naivete are the two reasons why the wife has the control in their relationship. Basically, Chaucer finds this situation somewhat humorous, thus proving his scorn for marriage. The "Merchant's Tale" is yet another example of Chaucer's contempt for this institution. This story is "the irony of a mere man, it is the irony of passion and personal experience"(Kittredge, 19). Here ... , the noble knight December, at age sixty, decided that it his time to be wed. He chooses the "fresh, young May" (...

• Word Count: 1696
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to fly. No matter how hard Edna strives for her own freedom, even when moving out on her own, she is still trapped within a male-dominated world. One point of irony in the story is that of Edna's suicide. She drowns herself in the seas, which represented her freedom and rebirth, and metaphorically in her own sorrow, caused by her want for something more out ... defeat, I do not believe so because the sea represented her freedom, and thus she was freeing herself from her harsh loveless life. Her need for independence in the time of women's suffrage had left her cold, and suicide was inev...

• Word Count: 1694
• Approx Pages: 7

... be Dr. Magoon's friend and uses very forward and unrealistic techniques to express this. But the doctor is extremely subdued, and he doesn't respond to Layfayette's irony. Furthermore, there is a constant usage of the word arfraid in this poem. They fear each other because they do not know one another. The first thing Layfayette says when he learns he'll be sharing a room is, "Show ... way. I'm not afraid of him." (pg. 38 l. 41) Here the reader is shown even more irony because he actually is afraid of what he doesn't know. He even states, "there's nothing I'm afraid of like scared peopl...

• Word Count: 2189
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... might come from your teacher, neighbor, or even your family. In fact, family, as the smallest unit of society, plays the greatest role in shaping the image of the "ideal" men and women. Parents, realized or not, differentiate the methods of upbringing and raising their son to their daughter. Since they know that they will get ... be a good mother who would devote her life to nurture their children, and cooking set toy, for the parents hope that their daughters will be able to learn the importance of providing food for her future husband and kids. Furthermore, from their early years, boy...

• Word Count: 1274
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Joe is a poor man though, poor financially, but, rich in the important things. Joe meets a man by the name of Otis D. Slemmons. Otis D. Slemmons is a flashy kind of fellow. He reminded me of a retroactive disco freak from the seventies. You can picture this guy in your mind with all the gold on. Gold teeth, five dollar gold piece for a stick pin ... How far would you be willing to go to make your mate happy? We all make concessions to our significant other all in the name of love. But, what if you thought the only way your mate was going to be happy was if he had gold? You are poor and ...

• Word Count: 1335
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The Poem of the Cid recounts the fictionalized adventures of Rodrigo Diaz, an eleventh-century Castillian who conquered much of Islamic Spain. Many of the events in the poem are historically accurate, but licenses have been taken by the poet, generally to allow more opportunities for the Cid to prove his valor and loyalty to King Alfonso. In fact, throughout the entire poem, the Cid is portrayed as an exemplary hero and vassal; he is ... that he would not marry them so himself, but that he would give them to the king, his lord, to be married honorably. Alfonso then married them to the young L...

• Word Count: 1732
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... household. He brings the eldest son to a whorehouse; he covets Lotus and the servants; he brings his army troop to stay in Wang's courts. Wang is not able to addict him to opium, unlike his parents, but he is freed of the annoyance when the boy decides to seek adventures in the army and leaves voluntarily ... . Wang is glad that the boy's offspring is ... female, so that he no longer has claims to the Wang family. Wang Lung's Eldest Son He is tall, big-boned ... mistress, Lotus Flower, who he takes home with him to wed. His household continues to expand with the addition of servants an...

• Word Count: 2063
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... , through the lives of the Chinese people who were so directly affected by the morals and customs of the time period. Chapter one, The Observers, begins by demonstrating the accuracy of the local historian; Feng K'o-ts'an, who compiled The Local History of T'an-ch'eng in 1673. The descriptive context of the Local History encapsulates the reader's attention to understand and literally project themselves into people's lives of the period. The records of the earthquake of 1668, the White Lotus rising of 1622 ... his wife. Moreover Jen accused an innocent Kao, for which, the law stated, Jen ...

• Word Count: 1409
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... lady because my mother worked all the time. She was like a grandmother to me. I loved to hear her speak of her late husband and how much she loved him. Her voice would change when she spoke of him. She described how she would sit and gaze at him when he perused the newspaper or how she would leave sweet notes in his lunch pail. One ... story I remember the most was one she told about when he passed away; she thought they would grow old together ... , and a part of her soul died along with him. She said she loved that man to the moon and back. I never knew what she ... ...

• Word Count: 1336
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of the text has Kempe recalling events and telling them in a fashion of bragging. She brags about how God has singled her out, while she also emphasizes her weakness and dependence on God. Kempe remains conscious of other's opinions and guards her reputation, yet shows herself repeatedly humiliated and scorned. Irony marks many of Margery's experiences. She has given up sex with her ... husband but has sexually charged visions of Jesus. The author, a well-off middle class townswoman, lives in a medieval English town of King's Lynn. Born in 1373, she marries ... John Kempe, a cloth make...

• Word Count: 1321
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... loved. Every time he had met a new woman, "he was eager for life, and everything seemed simple and amusing."" However, "Every intimacy inevitably grows into a regular problem of extreme intricacy, and in the long run the situation becomes unbearable."" Gurov did not know how to handle long complicated relationships that took work to maintain. That is why his marriage was a failure and unhappy ... again had not been happy with him; he was genuinely warm and affectionate with her, but yet in his manner, his tone, and his caresses there had been a shade of light irony, the coarse condescen...

• Word Count: 1592
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... Celie says this because she is envious that Sofia can stand up to a man which she cannot do. Celie has only known the importance of standing up for other women in her family. She has willingly protected both her mother and her sister from Fonso's abuse by sacrificing herself ... She doesn't know if Celie is receiving them but writing them gives Nettie strength to live through the years she spends in Africa. During Nettie's time in Africa, Samuel notes to her that the Olinka women have a strong relationship between each other. Being married to a man who already has other ... wives make ...

• Word Count: 1740
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... is finally found after numerous Russian authors proved otherwise. In Pushkin's "Queen of Spades-, Lizabeth falls in love with an officer, only to discover that he is after the countess's secret. In Gogol's "Nevsky's Project-, Piskaryov commits suicide because the woman he is in love with is a prostitute. In Dostoevsky's "The Underground Notes-, the underground man was way too crazy to fall in love with someone ... . "The Kreutzer Sonata- is the most tragic of all. Pozdnyshev murders in cold blood because of his own egoism. Only Dmitri and Anna ... ...

• Word Count: 1555
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... see. The fifth and final element of Kate Chopin's short story, the plot, has such a limited role that it becomes a minor element. The story is told in chronological order that gives us a sense of how things happen and there is no confusion as to what just happened. At the same time, though, the events could be told in any order and still have the same effect. The irony of the entire plot ... is that in the end ... her husband walks through the door and it is her that dies. When Mrs. Mallard first hears that her husband is dead her initial reaction is grief ... ...

• Word Count: 1256
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... is evident from the very beginning of the novel. The opening line states, It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. In this sentence, Jane Austen is using irony to suggest the need for a young woman to find a man in possession of a good fortune. The entire novel revolves around marriage and the various motives as well as the results. In Pride ... and Prejudice, we are presented with different types of marriages, the main contrast being those who ... ...

• Word Count: 1702
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography

... an hour; however, she could not relish her freedom because her husband was really alive. The irony of the ending indicates that women were so controlled in this time period that they could not even live a life of freedom in the seclusion of their own minds. Mrs. Mallard's metamorphosis begins when the news of her husband's death arrives. It might seem that Mrs. Mallard does not take her husband ... occurs for a year or more, yet Mrs. Mallard only needs a few minutes of grief until she realizes how her life has changed for the better. The time frame of the story is reciprocated in the for...

• Word Count: 1692
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... startling juxtaposition of the petty and the grand, the former is real while the latter is ironic. In mock epic, the high heroic style works not to dignify the subject but rather to expose and ridicule it. Therefore, the basic irony of the style supports the substance of the poem's satire, which attacks the misguided values of a society that takes small matters for serious ones while failing to attend to issues of genuine importance. The opening of the poem establishes ... its mock-heroic style. Pope introduces the conventional epic subjects of love and war and includes an invocation to...

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

... key inference by Hemingway to the building of Harold Kreb's character during the war is one of the photographs discussed in the story's opening paragraphs that suggest an unsatisfactory experience with German girls. Krebs and another corporal, both in poorly fitting uniforms, stand with two German girls who are "not beautiful" beside a Rhine that "does not show in the picture." The picture suggests an irony: the American soldiers, once enemies ... , date German girls with whom they share no common language. Because the American soldiers do not have to talk, and because the German girls a...

• Word Count: 1785
• Approx Pages: 7

... for women that had the most profound affect on the populace. Economically the urban and rural areas held the same disadvantage for women because women were not considered citizens and therefore could not own land. According to the Oregon Donation Land Act of 1850 a bachelor who could claim 320 acre of land could double his claim up to 640 acres if he had a wife. The irony of the Oregon Donation Land ... Act was that the land was to stay in the woman's name, but she could only claim the land if she was married; a woman could not claim ... 320 acres on her own. Although the Oregon Donati...

• Word Count: 1651
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over, "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right! He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mockingbird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence- (Beaty 41). The caged parrot will come to symbolize ... the expectations that society has for Edna. As a woman and mother, she is caged in those roles and never ... ...

• Word Count: 2280
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... organizers proves to be a childish approach to solving the problem. However, she does not stop this and goes to the extent of "arguing with her husband and daughter, gesticulating them", refraining from giving up, even until the last moment "she stood still for an instant like an angry stone image, and when the first notes of the song struck her ear, she caught up her daughter's cloak wrapped ... the cloak around her daughter" and marched out This playful ... stunt of Mrs. Kearney jeopardized her daughter's chances of ever reviving her name in the musical circle, but this did not conce...

• Word Count: 1686
• Approx Pages: 7

... been established that the topic of sex fills the narrative. It is important to note that this train of thought directly influenced the very characters telling the stories. This is evident by looking within the introduction of The Decameron and the sequence of events leading to the groups escape into the country, which are as follows. Early in The Decameron, as the seven women discuss matters in the church, one of them enviously notes that the people who pursue ... this "free-spirited" outlook "draw no distinction, as I have frequently heard and seen for myself, between what is honest an...

• Word Count: 1609
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate