... ironic because in the short hour that she had left, there would be no years to come for her. The most obvious ironic statement of all comes when Josephine comes to check on Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Mallard tells her she is not making herself ill. She is "drinking the elixir ... accept its significance" (76). Mrs. Mallard does indeed greave the loss of her husband, "When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone" (76). It is not until later in the story, that she comes to realize just what kind of a drastic change her husband's death would have upon her life. She .....

• Word Count: 4614
• Approx Pages: 18
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... -England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most firmly and potently believed". Ichabod fails in his matrimony designs only due to his fancy of being run after by a headless horseman, the most horrifying character of the local folklore. Irving impeaches Puritan beliefs as unreasonable since he opens the narrative to the interpretation that it was not a supernatural figure that terrified Ichabod, but ... irksome suitor. Another aspect connected with Puritan notions is the presentation of the relationship between the sexes. In contrast to Puritans who hold family very dear and thought it...

• Word Count: 2890
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... important psychoanalytical terms applied in this particular short story, include: Eros and Thanatos: one of the two basic sources of all the drives. "Eros", whose name comes from the Greek god of love, is the principle of life; it binds together and is most clearly seen in love. Its drives tend ... to be more displaceable than those of its opponent, "Thanatos", the death drive. This drive represents the organic need ... can lead to chaos. 5. Conclusion From what has been said so far, it follows that, Poe chose the gothic form of writing because of its fantastic world of indulgence and ...

• Word Count: 3098
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... did respect their beliefs, but thought they handled them inappropriately. "Even the very intensity of their faith, so admirable in a way, made them, he thought, liable to bigotry" (Waggoner 15). In most of his novels and stories, there is a strong display of the Puritan society's reaction to a certain primary character's struggle. Hypocrisy being a major element, Hawthorne also used guilt, confession, and sin as smaller ... fiction such as irony and witchcraft. Neither one of these was major, but contributed to the overall effect and helped in conveying the themes. Hawthorne uses irony ...

• Word Count: 3188
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to set the stage for those twisted conflicts, which Poe so effectively portrays. Poe also writes introspectively, which lets the reader glimpse into the mind of the narrator or the main character of the story, exposing to us his fears, his hate, and his perversion. Many of the characters in Poe's stories seem to be insane. The narrator often seems to have some type ... motto. The insignia is symbolic of Montresor's evil character, which not unlike the serpent intends to get revenge. No one escapes death. Human happiness, as represented by Prince Prospero in "The Masque Of The Red Death,...

• Word Count: 4324
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the quest begins to change him. He starts to become violent, a completely different person from the original character that is introduced at the beginning of the story. Swincegood finally finds the first of the race and gets her to tell the story of the how her race comes to be. After all that Ceran Swincegood goes through he find out what the secret is, but ... in history. If he had lived one hundred and forty years ago, he more than likely would have been one of the champions of Native American rights. Lafferty also possessed a comic sense. Some of his story worlds were almost a "Loon...

• Word Count: 2850
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... vitality and diversity. There is, in fact, an admirable balance in Mistry's Bombay, which brings us back to my earlier proposition: that Mistry's writing in its development of the time-honored fictional ingredients-setting, character, style, and plot-seeks and maintains a delicate balance. And that balance leads into subtle thematic implications. Tales from Firozsha Baag. The middle-class Parsis who inhabit the ... focuses on a limited company but manages to unfold into a larger world. Early on, Mistry attracted the attention of the fine Canadian short-story writer Mavis Gallant, and late...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... vitality and diversity. There is, in fact, an admirable balance in Mistry's Bombay, which brings us back to my earlier proposition: that Mistry's writing in its development of the time-honored fictional ingredients-setting, character, style, and plot-seeks and maintains a delicate balance. And that balance leads into subtle thematic implications. Tales from Firozsha Baag. The middle-class Parsis who inhabit the ... focuses on a limited company but manages to unfold into a larger world. Early on, Mistry attracted the attention of the fine Canadian short-story writer Mavis Gallant, and late...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... man takes a hit, the narrator can tell he has never done this before. He tells the blind man to hold it in as long as he can. Then his wife comes downstairs. Immediately, she asks about the smell. Cheerfully, the narrator says they thought they'd have some cannabis. His wife gives him a savage look. She tells the blind man she didn ... parts is taking place, but Cathedral does not contain much in the way of plot. The events of the story are quite simple and commonplace. A blind man comes to visit the house of the narrator and his wife. The three of them drink, eat dinner, talk and smoke...

• Word Count: 11148
• Approx Pages: 45
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and decides to take his own life. Within the text of Willa Cather's short story "Paul's Case" the use of symbols and motives help to develop and understand the main character. Paul is introduced as a smiling young man with disrespect for most things but the reader slowly comes to realize that his sense of the world is irrational and his inner flaws are gradually exposed ... .  Paul has created his own version of the world in which it owes him a favor. Paul is very prejudice against ... story. Coming to understand the way Paul substitutes art and music with relationships or education in...

• Word Count: 2556
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . Gloria takes a shot at being in the cinema and fails because she at twenty seven is "too old." In the last pages of the novel, the reader comes to find out that Gloria and Anthony won their court case for the thirty million dollar inheritance from Adam Patch, but unfortunately, they are ... one coast to another, prohibition, flappers, country clubs and wealth are all exposed and shown in colorful detail. War comes and goes, but the participants never get caught up in the meaning of it. War is merely a place to leave. The characters hurry back to life as usual with all its money ... the...

• Word Count: 2828
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... of O'Connor's writing there is a racism factor in each novel or short story. She touches on this in every story because she has seen first hand the racism in the South as well as when the Nazis put the German Jews in concentration camps in World War II. She has lived through the most racist time period and it comes ... out in her writing. O'Connor lived in a time period when, "Racial segregation was a system derived from the efforts of white Americans to keep African Americans in a subordinate status by denying them equal ... on in O'Connor's short stories I came across a short story cal...

• Word Count: 2519
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... freedom excitement the washing line represents. When we are bought to the presence we learn the washing line has become warped with sagging wires' reflecting the self change of the central character who's hands have become etched with scars and wrinkles 'mirroring her life experiences and responsibilities. The women's tone becomes colder and instead ... Othello we witness the destruction of the central character Othello, as he cannot cope with the changes that begin to occur in his life. As a result of this we observe a bold hero transform into an irrational uncontrollable murderer. The ...

• Word Count: 2540
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Undergraduate