Today's Date:
January 18, 2025
Renaissance Ideas as Reflected in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing
In Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, many Renaissance ideals are explored and integrated into the fabric of the story and the personalities of the central characters. Women in “Much Ado About Nothing” most notably Beatrice, are not confined to the →
The Psychological Ailing of the Enemy in The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
The novel “The Moon is Down” by John Steinbeck offers readers insights and analysis about the psychology of wartime from both the perspective of the conquerors and the conquered. Although early on the reader learns more about the small community →
Irony and Social Critique in “A Modest Proposal”and Candide
As seen through both “A Modest Proposal” and “Candide”, both Jonathan Swift and Voltaire were committed to exposing the problems inherent to their societies, but instead of making bold proclamations about these issues, they wrote entertaining texts that used irony, →
Appearances versus Reality in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night
In both plays by Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Twelfth Night, it is often difficult for the characters as well as the reader to determine what is simply outward appearance and what constitutes reality. Shakespeare achieves this confusing effect by →
The Role of Disguises in As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
This essay attempt to consider the ways two of Shakespeare’s comedies, “As You Like It” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, employ the use of disguises for the initial purpose of deceit. While the trickery involved with identity bending in both →
The Symbol of the Moon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare
The moon is symbolic and takes on many meanings in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare. As this essay on symbols in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” seeks to point out, it is not simply part of the background →
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Analysis of Lines 5-20 of the Epilogue
The last lines spoken by Puck near the end of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare in the Epilogue (lines 5-20) are particularly striking both in terms of language and of overall meaning in the play. The purpose of →
Narrative Voice in the Novel Middlemarch
Throughout Middlemarch the reader is increasingly aware of a highly intelligent narrative voice which allows the female characters to attain a depth that would be impossible to express through even the most careful detailing of the character’s actions and without which would →
The Definition of Virtue in Plato’s Meno
Meno seems surprised when Socrates is unable to provide an answer to his questions about the nature and definition of virtue, but this rhetorical method allows Socrates to later question Meno’s assumptions about what is and is not virtue. “For my soul and →
