"Great Expectations" is considered Dickens' finest novel. To what extent does it deserve this reputation?
"Great Expectations" is considered Dickens' finest novel. To what extent does it deserve this reputation? "Great expectations" was written by Charles Dickens in 1860. It is centred on Pip, an orphan living with his austere sister and her mild-mannered husband Joe Gargery the blacksmith. It follows his journey from being a simple boy with few expectations, to his moving to London and becoming a 'gentleman', at the expense of a mysterious benefactor. I am going to write an appreciation of it, analysing its main components: The story, the structure, the characters, the narration, the setting, the language and literary devices, the themes and the social/historical context, and evaluating their success to answer the question. "Great Expectations" combines many different genres, including romance, mystery, history, action and comedy. This means it has universal appeal, and people with a wide range of interests and preferences will find something to like about it. It also means that any individual reading it can respond it on a number of different levels. Great Expectations does not have one single 'bad guy' - many people fill this role. Magwitch, as the convict would have been the antagonist in a traditional story of good and evil, however Dickens does not portray him as such, and even when we see him terrorising young Pip, it is portrayed in a humorous light, and we do not hate
"Great Expectations" written by Charles Dickens. I have been analysing the way in which Dickens uses language techniques to create
Great Expectations Matthew Connor I have recently been reading the famous novel "Great Expectations" written by Charles Dickens. I have been analysing the way in which Dickens uses language techniques to create themes, characters and a setting for his story. The novel itself was written in Victorian times and a lot of the themes that occur in the book were also very prominent in the Victorian era. Firstly I want to mention the similarities between the main character and narrator Pip and the actual writer Charles Dickens. They both had a very comparable childhood with family problems and suffering very early on in their lives. The most striking similarity though is that both Pip and Dickens were at the bottom of the social ladder and the theme of social status is probably the most important one in this novel. This theme pieces together the whole plot of the book with a lower class Pip always eager to better himself and reach the top of that ladder. I also believe that due to Dickens being initially subjected to a life of poverty he had a negative view of money and status; almost all the characters with wealth and status in the novel end up destroyed. Secondly I am going to discuss the effectiveness of the serialised format of the novel. Charles Dickens actually wrote the novel in separate chapters before eventually merging them to make the book. This therefore is why
"Green Thought" By Jon Stallworthy - Critical Evaluation
"Green Thought" By Jon Stallworthy - Reading Response By Melissa Bannon "Green Thought" by Jon Stallworthy is an interesting and valuable poem about love. During my essay I will justify why "Green Thought" is a worthy poem to be entered into a young student's poem anthology. The poem is an excellent choice because of Stallworthy's choice of characters, imagery and his skill in showing the power that love has to heal. Within the poem, Stallworthy tells a story of love and death. Written in first person narrative, the poet describes an old man as he reminisces about his wife during the good times, and bad. Ultimately, the young poet learns a valuable lesson about love through the experiences of this old man. The story within the poem is one of my reasons for choosing this poem as it is about a mature romance, so young adults would benefit and learn a lot about love from it. The poem also shows us that life is a very precious thing so we should live our life to the very best we can, as we cannot predict what will happen in the future. But most of all, teenagers would benefit from the hope the story conveys. It gives hope that in any bad situation we can anticipate and expect good events to follow. Despite being a story of mature love, which may seem to be an unusual subject for younger readers to enjoy, the lesson learned about love in the poem is very relevant. It gives
"Growing Up" the main character experiences something that changes his view of things. Compare the story with one other from the selection, in which a character experiences a kind of change.
"Growing Up" the main character experiences something that changes his view of things. Compare the story with one other from the selection, in which a character experiences a kind of change. This essay will be a comparison of the story "Growing Up" with the short story "Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit". "Growing Up" written by Joyce Cary is a story about the relationship between fathers and their daughters and the way in which it develops and changes. Also this story portrays this change of relationship in a very negative and violent way with the climax being very aggressive. As two young daughters turn against their father and violently attack him. While "Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit" written by Sylvia Plath is about a child being unjustly punished and the way it psychologically affects her and has an everlasting impression on the rest of her life. This small event of her being falsely accused of pushing a girl, Paula Brown into an oil-slick and ruining her new snowsuit mentally makes an impact on the narrator for the rest of her life. "Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit" conveys this idea of this experience having an eternal effect on her from the beginning of the story with its title, as it can be seen as a childish because of the way she refers to the person by her first name and surname which is a very childish and typical thing for a young
"Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world, They got no family, they don't belong no place". Discuss the theme of loneliness portrayed in "of Mice and Men"
"Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world, They got no family, they don't belong no place" Discuss the theme of loneliness portrayed in "of Mice and Men" "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck is the story of two farm hands, Lennie and George working up a stake on a ranch so maybe they can buy a place of their own "An' live off the fatta the lan'." George is smart and small where as Lennie is a massively strong giant of a man yet as innocent and simple minded as a young child who relies on George as a protector and mentor. There is a theme of loneliness running through the book which comes from John Steinbecks own experiences of working the land. When George starts his story about what life will be like when they get a plot of land he starts it "guys like us." He's talking about Ranch hands and labourers like him and Lennie probably forced to search for jobs because of the economic recession at the time the book was set. The labourers were nearly always single men who have very unstable jobs and would have had to move on once the job was done (once the harvest was collected for example). Their hard itinerant lifestyle was very lonely as the men were separated from any friends they'd made as soon as their job was finished. So the ranch hands often blew all the money they'd just earned on whisky and prostitutes to drown their sorrows and forget their problems and as
"Guys like us, that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world" Discuss the significance of loneliness in Of Mice and Men.
"Guys like us, that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world" Discuss the significance of loneliness in Of Mice and Men. Loneliness plays an enormous part in Of Mice and Men as a large proportion of the characters are minorities or discriminated against, therefore they have to come to terms with loneliness on an every day basis. The loneliness is endemic of this culture as the line of work they are in often forces them into travelling alone as all of them are 'migrant workers'. It is difficult deal with and all humans want companions. George has a companion in Lennie and although Lennie is not intelligent he is loving and protective. This prompts questions at the Ranch that they go to as the people here are not familiar with this kind of friendship, when they are interviewed by the Boss at the new ranch the boss is suspicious of George. He thinks that George is stealing Lennie's pay but then when George tells him that that is not true he retorts, ' Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy'. Companionship is a foreign aspect of life for him and he cannot understand it. Another character who remarks on this friendship is Slim who has a different opinion to the boss saying that he cannot understand why there aren't more friendships in this world and then he puts it down to 'the whole damn world being scared of each other' There are those who
"He have goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" What leads Elizabeth Proctor to make this powerful and disturbing comment on her husband's decision and why do you think Miller lets these words bring the play to an end?
"He have goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" What leads Elizabeth Proctor to make this powerful and disturbing comment on her husband's decision and why do you think Miller lets these words bring the play to an end? I think Miller ends the play with these words to show that Elizabeth has forgiven John of his adultery and that John has finally after a lot of mistakes made the right moral decision- which has given him back his ''goodness''. The word goodness has many different meanings. Its first meaning is the state or quality of being good. The second is generosity or kindness; the third meaning is moral excellence, piety, or virtue. The fourth meaning is a euphemism for God: used as an exclamation of surprise (not relevant to this) and the final meaning is 'what is good in something; essence. Different definitions of goodness can be applied to different characters within the Saleum community: For Reverend Hale it may mean moral excellence as he takes on the role of a judge in court. For Elizabeth Proctor it would be appropriate in several ways because she has unshakable religious faith (piety), is honest, never lies, leads a moral life following the ten commandments but stands in judgment on her husband. For John Proctor he is basically a moral man, despises greed (i.e. Reverend Parris demand to own the preachers house), he is rational rather than
"He inspected us all right..." Write an essay examining how one character is affected by the Inspectors visit.
English Essay: An Inspector Calls "He inspected us all right..." Write an essay examining how one character is affected by the Inspectors visit. The play "An Inspector Calls" was written in 1946 the playwright of this play was J.B Priestley, he had survived both world wars. He was a firm believer in socialism and capitalism. This play deals with the death and destruction that can be caused by both capitalism and socialism. The family were as solid as a rock before the inspector visited. The inspector was a destructive character for the Billings; however he is not portrayed to be a bad character. He is portrayed to be the truth finder and the fact that he is an inspector makes the audience aware of his authority. Sheila was brought up in a high middle class family background. She is used to the finer things in life as her family is rich. Her family lives in a "fairly large suburban house." Sheila is engaged to Gerald Croft, this engagement was more of a business merger than a marriage. Sheila's father is very business minded as he is a "hard nosed business man." In the play Mr Birling suggests the "Crofts and the Birling's are no longer competing but are working together." Before the Inspector came on his disastrous voyage through the Birling family, Sheila was cheerful and in high spirits. She was cheerful because she was to get married to a young and handsome Gerald
"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad - A character analysis of Kurtz.
Character Analysis Kurtz Kurtz is the man who Marlow searches for through the Congo. Marlow's search develops into an obsession and when the search has ended, he only finds a shadow of a man that was once Kurtz. Kurtz was a man who had achieved great things in his life, inspiring each person he had come across and was expected to accomplish more. He came into the Congo with great plans for civilizing the natives, however he became greedy, which ended up being the subject of his own demise. 'I had immense plans...I was on the threshold of great things'. Kurtz's main characteristics were his ability to talk passionately to people and inspire them with his words. He had a charisma that made people feel that he was some kind of a genius. Kurtz was a very talented human being, gifted in many areas. He could not be pinned down to a specific talent. He was seen as a great musician to his cousin that Marlow visits, a brilliant politician and leader of men to the journalist and a genius and humanitarian to his intended. Marlow views him as a universal genius. Kurtz is a round character, who is explored deeply and at times, almost to deep. He is neither the protagonist nor the antagonist, but he is a complex main character within the novel. In places where Kurtz is described, there is imagery of darkness and foreboding evil. Kurtz was an exaggeration of the white people who had
"Heroines Retreating into Illusion in two of Tennessee Williams's plays".
"Heroines Retreating into Illusion in two of Tennessee Williams's plays" This essay studies Williams's heroines who are unable to face their reality so they retreat into illusionary worlds created by themselves. Laura in The Glass Menagerie and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire are the most outstanding examples. They are so fragile that facing reality will destroy them. Their creation of illusions makes them feel safe away from the real world they cannot cope with, and the harsh realities that destroy both their dreams and hopes. In the Wingfields, Laura is the lost child. Because of being crippled, she cannot face the outside world. She is always afraid of relationships and is terribly shy. In addition, she always feels rejected and inadequate. In short, she has an inferiority complex. Her only way out is to retreat into a world of her own creation. Living in a world of tiny glass animals is her way of escape. "They are her escape mechanism as the movies are Tom's and the past is Amanda's" (Griffin 29). Those glass animals stand as a symbol of Laura herself. They are so fragile, and even unique. Her separation gradually increases till she becomes like a piece of her glass collection. " she lives in a world of her own- a world of- little glass ornaments,...she plays old phonograph records and-that's about all..." (scene five) Laura is totally unable to
