Compare and contrast how the writers of "My Last Duchess" and "Remember" portray different views of love

Compare and contrast how the writers of "My Last Duchess" and "Remember" portray different views of love. Love has as many expressions as people who experience it. For some it is a romantic life-enhancing one, for others it is a negative painful experience. In the poems "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning and "Remember" by Christina Rossetti were are offered two widely different views of love. One is a gentle, romantic, poignant message, the other a cynical sadistic monologue. Both are also linked by the separation by death: one implies murder, the other an impending more gentle natural death. The poem "Remember" is a petrachan sonnet of 14 lines. Sonnet form was a poetic device usually used to express emotions and feelings of love, suggesting that this poem will be more romantic than "My Last Duchess". The octet (first 8 lines) presents the problem, in this case the narrator's fear of impending death and the rupture between the two lovers: "Remember me when I am gone away ... / When you can no more hold me by the hand." The Sestet (final 6 lines) presents the solution to that problem, and a final more optimistic future. "My Last Duchess" is in the form of a dramatic monologue. This is a poem of one long stanza in which the Duke, through the language that he uses to describe his former wife, reveals his own character and attitude towards love. It is written in rhyming

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Commentary on 'The Wasps Nest'

Commentary on 'The Wasps Nest' Rosenberg's 'The Wasps Nest' is a poem that on a literal basis tells the tale of a pair of wasps building their nest in a persons mailbox and the struggle of that person about whether to destroy the nest. Yet Rosenberg uses the idea of the nest as a microcosm of the human reality to explore the fragility of our existence in a world where we think ourselves masters of all that we survey. Rosenberg uses a sharp sense of contrast to crate a struggled tone within the poem. This is intended to examine Rosenberg's juxtaposition of strength and weakness, his strong sense of setting and powerful onomatopoeic description in the body of this essay. Rosenberg's key technique is his use of contrast between strength and weakness to expose our inherent fragilities. This contrast is tellingly revealed when he talks of "the fragile cradles of love", a metaphor which sums up the entirely of Rosenberg's poem. There is a sense of strength in the image conveyed through the word "cradle"- it brings to the reader's mind an idea of castles and physical strength that the walls and stone bring. Yet this "cradle" is "fragile" - a word more commonly used to describe a glass object than stone, but which highlights that within this bastion of strength, where people appear to be in control of their own destiny, they are instead at their weakest. This idea is reinforced as

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Describe the importance of Sheila's role in the play An inspector calls.

Describe the importance of Sheila's role in the play.-Michael Rowell At the beginning Sheila was not one of the main characters as Birling takes centre stage. Setting on the play seemed revolved around the characters. The older furniture in the living room matched the aging and upper class type that is Birling. During the play Sheila is the only concerned and totally serious character to the situation. There are some well linked scenes in the play setting a mood for Sheila with the marriage, her husband to be Gerald. The pink light in the house makes Shila feel more relaxed as the set looks almost like a love scene. During the play, Sheila is the main link between the Inspector and the Audience. She constantly changes and develops as the Story is told. From a happy normal women whose about to get married, changing stance with knowledge of the affair becoming disappointed and heart broken and then finding out that she had contributed to the Eva Smiths death making her emotions dramatic and to the audience she is the thoughtful character that everyone loves. There is great irony in Sheila's character as when the Inspector first comes round and as he is questioning Birling, she says how mean he is like "I think it was a mean thing to do" and "But these girls aren't cheap labour- there people" which is her having a go at Birling still going along with what the audience is

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How does Ben Jonson use language and structure to convey the message of the poem "On my first Sonne"?

Commentary Assessment Task - Stage 3 Writing Draft Grade 9 Task: How does Ben Jonson use language and structure to convey the message of the poem "On my first Sonne"? "On my first Sonne" is a poem where Jonson describes his reaction to sorrow when his first son dies. Jonson confronts conflict, loss and despair when "Ben Jonson his best piece of poetrie" was "exacted by fate, on the just day". He uses his son as an inspiration in this poem and describes his different stages that he has gone through by using language and structural features in this poem. The structural layout in this poem suggests that a progression of ideas is taking place. The first five lines indicate struggle, conflict, loss and despair. He experiences shock and guilt as he says, "My sinne was too much hope of thee, loved boy". The feeling then develops to acceptance in line six, where he asks rhetorically "For why will man lament the state he should envie?" Jonson then follows this statement with various points trying to argue his bitterness and guilt. Simultaneously, he resolves his feelings in the last lines by saying "For whose sake henceforth, all his vowes be such," Throughout the poem, modality in verbs changes, this supports the idea mentioned above. Jonson uses low modalities and conditional phrases at the beginning of the poem to show doubt, confusion and guilt. Because of the progression of

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Consider the end of Millers play A View from the Bridge. How effectively does the final scene conclude the drama?

Consider the end of Miller's play 'A View from the Bridge'. How effectively does the final scene conclude the drama? 'A View from the Bridge' provides the inevitable ending of a traditional Greek tragedy, where in this case Eddie's inability to make a concession eventually results in his deserved death; although tragic, this is necessary to conclude the story. As a lawyer, we immediately trust Alfieri to be a good judge of character as well as rational. Along side this we watch Alfieri oversee the whole play and watch it 'run it's bloody course' whilst acting as the commentator throughout the story Which leave him in some sense, acting as the bridge; seeing both the darker side (Redhook) and the somewhat innocent side (Manhattan) but he links the two together. He is the only character that predicts the outcome of Eddies and Marco's actions and, thus tries compassionately to stop them from committing further insult to one another. In Alfieri's opening monologue he uses words like 'disaster' and states that Eddie was 'unable to settle for half', which consequently, results in his 'bloody' death. The audience could also relate this story line to Vinny Bolzano's, where he was severely punished for 'snitching' on his immigrant family, which sadly resulted in him being thrown down the stairs 'head bouncin' like a coconut', this would indicate to the audience that Eddies actions

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The Lottery: Free choice, self knowledge and Guilt

FINDING YOURSELF THROUGH THE PAIN Based on the Novel: The Lottery By: Beth Goobie Student: Monique Roopanram Teacher: Ms. Kirshenblat Course: ENG1D5-04 Date: Friday, June 8, 2007 There are many instances in our lives which prompt us to ask ourselves the questions: "Who am I?", "What am I doing here?", "Does anyone know I exist?", "Does anybody care about me?", "Why am I doing this?", and "What was I thinking?". Life is full of opportunities to achieve excellence or failure. Some of us choose excellence, some choose failure, and some are not given a choice. In the novel The Lottery, Sal Hanson is chosen as the year's lottery winner at her school Saskatoon Collegiate (S.C.). This role enables the Shadow Council to take advantage of her by making her do their "dirty work". Not only is the role of the lottery winner demeaning, but it also takes Sal on a journey where she learns free choice, self-knowledge, and guilt. Having free choice is essential for individuals in order to define what kind of person they are, and who they aspire to be. After Sal Hanson is chosen as the lottery winner, the luxury of free choice is taken from her. The Shadow Council has control over Sal's choices that, now, consist of following Shadow Council's orders to a tee or suffering the consequence of receiving demerits. "She felt the leash around her throat, tightening like the silence

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Read the passages in Chapter 3 where Jack and Simon are each in the Forest. How does the language convey their contrasting character and roles in the novel? Lord of the Flies is a thought-provoking novel about a

Read the passages in Chapter 3 where Jack and Simon are each in the Forest. How does the language convey their contrasting character and roles in the novel? Lord of the Flies is a thought-provoking novel about a group of English school boys who are stranded on a desert island. The book follows the striking change from civilisation to savagery, to illustrate the need for law and order in a society. Without this, the malicious nature of humanity can be revealed and the morality and values of life will be lost. Symbolism and imagery play an important role in the novel and through this, many themes are revealed. Throughout the book, the different characters and their roles are portrayed by a strong contrast in writing style and language chosen to describe them and their actions. A good example of this is Jack, described in the forest at the beginning of Chapter three, and Simon, described also in the forest, at the end of Chapter three. Jack is a prominent character with an unpleasant personality. His authority is expressed by his leadership of the choir who are now his hunters, and his will to be called by his surname at the boys' first meeting. Jack loves ordering people around and constantly attempts to weaken others, with Piggy being his usual victim. The freedom of the island makes it possible for him to reveal the darker sides of his personality which he had hidden up

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Fear of the Unknown- Lord of the Flies

The Fear of the Unknown An important theme in William Golding's novel, 'Lord of the Flies' is that the fear, especially the fear of the unknown, is pervasive in mankind in such a way that even strong societies are too weak to protect their own people from the grasping power of it. In his novel, Golding illustrates this sense of fear that is found within every society and that can eventually lead to community or distress, disaster and human corruption. Let us first try and understand what is fear? Fear is a particular state of mind that can be originated either from a realistic circumstance or a sense of uncertainty. The fear of realistic origin could be resolved by removing root cause with time and effort. But the fear of uncertainty has the strong grasping power to which any human may succumb, however strong he is. It has a seating effect on our sub-conscious which is very difficult to get rid off. In this novel, this fear of uncertainty started off when a little one with a mulberry-coloured birthmark announced the existence of the beastie. "He says he saw the beastie, the snake-thing, and will it come back tonight?" "He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches." Even though this first fear was neglected by most of the big ones, especially Jack and Ralph who kept on saying that no such thing existed, but it still left

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Write about some of the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 7

Fitzgerald uses a semantic field of references to heat to build the tension at the start of the chapter. Fitzgerald has Nick claim 'the next day was broiling' whilst saying it was 'the warmest' of the summer. Fitzgerald has Nick use the superlative to suggest that the events in the chapter will be significant as those around Nick 'perspired' and 'simmered', The build up of tension allows the chapter to contribute to the novel's form as an American Tragedy, with the build up of heat preparing the reader for Gatsby's seemingly inevitable downfall. This tension is displayed by Fitzgerald through the use of Nick's commentary on various pieces of speech, telling Tom's 'temper cracked a little' and telling how the butler 'roared'. Fitzgerald uses this technique to make it clear to the reader that the chapter is significant in creating Gatsby's tragedy, with the day being 'too hot' causing 'trembling' between the characters. Fitzgerald also chooses not to place any of Gatsby's history in the chapter, unlike previous chapters before it, to show the significance of the current events in shaping Gatsby's future due to the murder of Myrtle. Fitzgerald uses the voice of Michaelis to describe Myrtle's death, allowing a blunt description without emotion. Before Michaelis' account, Fitzgerald has Nick use a prolepsis claiming 'so we drove on toward death'. This makes it clear to the reader

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English Literature Coursework - Nostalgia

Compare and contrast three poems from the English Literature Anthology where the speakers of the poems display strong nostalgic thoughts through theme, structure, language, mood and tone of the poems. Three poems where the speakers show strong nostalgic thoughts for the past are Piano by D.H. Lawrence, Poem at Thirty-Nine by Alice Walker and Crabbit Old Woman by Phyllis McCormack. They all display the common theme of wanting to return to the past, away from the pain, loneliness and the trials and tribulations of adulthood. In this essay, I will analyse how the poets convey their feelings through their use of literary structure, theme, language, mood and tone. The theme of nostalgia is expressed through each of the three speakers' different experiences. In Piano, the speaker is taken "back down the vista of years" and re-calls happier memories from his childhood. This happens when he hears a piano being played which is the trigger so that his "manhood is cast/Down in the flood of remembrance". This indicates that the poet yearns for the past and he feels less of a man when he reminisces. It also suggests that when he remembers his childhood and his memories rush towards him, reducing him to tears. In Poem at Thirty-Nine, the speaker remembers how she "learned to see bits of paper as a way to escape the life he knew". This shows that she remembers lessons like the value of

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