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World Literature Custom Essays Samples
Free Online Research Papers, College Papers, English Papers, Admission Essays, Thesis, Analyzed Essays, Essay Papers, Term Papers, Coursework Essays, Custom Papers, Non-Plagiarized Essays
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|  Bram Stoker |
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| Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847-1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent eight years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspapers. Dracula has been the basis for countless films and plays. The two that most closely follow the plot of the original novel are Nosferatu (1922) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Nosferatu was produced while Stoker's widow was still alive, and the filmmakers were forced to change the setting and the names of the characters for copyright reasons. Stoker wrote several other novels dealing with horror and supernatural themes, but none achieved the lasting fame or success of Dracula. His other novels include The Snake's Pass (1890), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). |
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| Gothic Literature |
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| The gothic novel is a literary genre that belongs to Romanticism and began in Britain with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. It is the predecessor to modern horror fiction and, above all, has led to the common definition of "gothic" as being connected to the dark and horrific.
Prominent features of gothic novels included terror, mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted buildings, castles, trapdoors, doom, death, decay, madness, hereditary curses, and so on. |
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| The Bluest Eye |
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| ...The main character of her novel, Pecola Breedlove, an eleven year old black girl hates and despises herself. Never in my life would I think that such a young child can hate herself. Again, we see the corruption caused by so-called American dream and American society on people who live there. It is ironic that Pecola's last name is Breedlove, because she and her family do not breed love, but only self-hatred. Pecola perceives herself as ugly because she is black, and like most black people she has heavy eyebrows, and her eyes are dark, closely set, she has high cheekbones and big lips. As I picture her in my mind she is not ugly, but an ordinary black girl... |
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| William Shakespeare |
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| Since his death Shakespeare's plays have been almost continually performed, in non-English-speaking nations as well as those where English is the native tongue; they are quoted more than the works of any other single author. The plays have been subject to ongoing examination and evaluation by critics attempting to explain their perennial appeal, which does not appear to derive from any set of profound or explicitly formulated ideas. Indeed, Shakespeare has sometimes been criticized for not consistently holding to any particular philosophy, religion, or ideology; for example, the subplot of A Midsummer Night's Dream includes a burlesque of the kind of tragic love that he idealizes in Romeo and Juliet.
The strength of Shakespeare's plays lies in the absorbing stories they tell, in their wealth of complex characters, and in the eloquent speech - vivid, forceful, and at the same time lyric - that the playwright puts on his characters' lips. It has often been noted that Shakespeare's characters are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, and that it is their flawed, inconsistent nature that makes them memorable. Hamlet fascinates audiences with his ambivalence about revenge and the uncertainty over how much of his madness is feigned and how much genuine. Falstaff would not be beloved if, in addition to being genial, openhearted, and witty, he were not also boisterous, cowardly, and, ultimately, poignant. Finally, the plays are distinguished by an unparalleled use of language. Shakespeare had a tremendous vocabulary and a corresponding sensitivity to nuance, as well as a singular aptitude for coining neologisms and punning. |
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