Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Literature theory for beowulf
Beowulf a tool of cultural change
Literary elements in beowulf
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Literature theory for beowulf
The personified hyena’s placement here is very important for a comparison between the son and this beast. Not only was the son unchaste, the hyena shows that he had sexually violent desires as well. The hyena also reveals that the son did not act on his desires because of his sense of morality, but simply out of laziness and a presence of love through the guise of control. The hyena is meant to enact the son’s controlling and lustful intentions because he was too enchanted by his own false sense of control to do it himself. The hyena is the ultimate inaction of sexual violence and tyranny over women because it “feeds on women’s flesh”(III.vii.22.9). It will also not rest or take a breath “…Till her had attaind, and brought into place/ or quite deuourd her beauties scornedfull grace” (III.vii.23.3-5). The …show more content…
A lion with the ability of critical thought can relay an important allegorical message that RCK’s and Sansloys behaviors alone may not. Similarly, a goal-oriented and cruel hyena immediately can bring up notions that the actions of the witch’s son or Sir Satyrane on their own may be insufficent to express. The lion both reveals RCK’s mistakes and shows how men can behave like beasts as compared to Sansloy. Moreover, the hyena reveals the insidious intentions of the witch’s son, and the problematic motives of the knightly Sir Satyrane. These animals serve as both a representation of animal symbolism and as agent characters that are able to take action within the plot and allegory of the poem. These personified animal characters require and disserve a close and meaningful evaluation because they strikingly bring to life qualities Spencer is attempting to illuminate within the human and supernatural
The use of personification by the author displays the animal’s likeness to humans and therefore further aids to establish the future bond between the two, somewhat foreshadowing the ending to the story, where the humans inherited their somewhat slanted eyes from the coyote. This personification also gives depth to the animal characters, such as coyote’s laziness, or mole’s hotheadedness toward coyote and he hardworking personality. Personification like the
Equipped with this knowledge the reader realises that even Elizabeth's comfortable, peaceful lifestyle is vulnerable and at risk. The Crucible and Birdsong, in their different ways, both highlight the complexity of human nature where love, loyalty and honesty co-exist with hatred, fear and suspicion. This means that even in times of conflict and slaughter people display the ability to love, trust and make sacrifices. However the greatest flaw in mankind's makeup is the ability to forget the horrors of the past, therefore allowing the continual repetition throughout history of the same, fatal mistakes.
The author uses diction in the passages to signify the effect of the author¡¯s meaning in story and often sway readers to interpret ideas in one way or another. The man in the story arrives to a ¡°[dry] desert¡± where he accosts an animal with ¡°long-range attack¡± and ¡°powerful fangs.¡± The author creates a perilous scene between the human and animal in order to show that satisfaction does not come from taking lives. With instincts of silence and distrust, both of them freeze in stillness like ¡°live wire.¡± In addition, the man is brought to the point where animal¡¯s ¡°tail twitched,¡± and ¡°the little tocsin sounded¡± and also he hears the ¡°little song of death.¡± With violence ready to occur, the man tries to protect himself and others with a hoe, for his and their safety from the Rattler. The author criticizes how humans should be ¡°obliged not to kill¡±, at least himself, as a human. The author portrays the story with diction and other important techniques, such as imagery, in order to influence the readers with his significant lesson.
Once while hunting for boar with Arab Maina, Arab Kosky, and her dog, Buller, Markham comes face to face with a dangerous, lone lion. In this section, Beryl is extremely descriptive and recalls the memory in a fashion that allows the reader to see the events unfolding through her eyes at a lifelike pace. “Buller and I crouched behind them, my own spear as ready as I could make it in hands that were less hot from the sun than from excitement and the pounding of my heart.” (Markham 87), depicts Beryl’s thrill at the possibility that she may go toe-to-toe with the lion. This excitement outweighs her fear of injury for herself; however, she restrains Buller, as to prevent him from trying to sacrifice himself in the conflict.... ...
The concepts of good and evil resonate throughout the work of the Scottish poet Edwin Muir. In Muir’s important poem “The Horses,” guilt and innocence, good and evil, are also in the plainest view. But the poem is not sabotaged artistically because of it, as so many such poems are. “The Horses” is about the unexpected return, after an apocalypse, of new horses that restore the “long lost archaic companionship” with the surviving humans. The narrator condemns the “old bad world” that wreaked the damage:
Lying in the cover of wheat-yellow shrub, a cheetah waits patiently for its prey; in contrast, a herd of gazelles peacefully drink from a water hole. The cheetah tenses, ready to make its move; the gazelles tense up, fear in their eyes. In the blink of an eye the cheetah launches after the herd; a chase, albeit a short one, ensues. The cheetah reaches its chosen prey, and the kill is complete. From an ecological perspective, the hunt can be seen as a battle––a conquest between the weak and the strong in which those who win survive. In the Iliad, similes are frequently utilized to showcase the violence in the text as natural, highlighting the characters’ lack of decision making––be it because of the primitive nature of war, or the gods’ influence––in
Furthermore, is a summarization of the main points in “The Black Cat.” “The Black Cat” is about a man who always loved animals since he was little, but as he aged he started drinking. He then tortured his favorite pet cat, Pluto after he was getting annoyed with his presence. He goes as far as gouging out its eye before he hangs it in an old tree. Later on, his house burnt down and the outline of the cat was left on the only standing wall left by the fire. After he and his wife get a new home, they soon found a new cat that looked just like the old one except it had white around its neck. The narrator starts to believe that the cat is mocking him, so one day he tries to kill the cat but his wife interferes, and he ki...
Often times within literary history, authors have chosen to rely on unreliable narrators to add a veil of mysticism and sympathy to their twisted plots. Numerous authors attempt to make the reader believe that the unreliable narrator is in desperate need of compassion and understanding; however, Poe uses unreliable narrators to twist about the reality of the tale just enough to make the reader doubt everything within the story. This technique, employed by Poe in many of his works, adds a layer of mystery and uncertainty that becomes expected within his unique storylines. No author knows “twisted plots” more so than the morbid and abnormal Edgar Allen Poe. In his story, “The Black Cat, Poe uses an unreliable narrator to intensify the story by making the plotline doused with sporadic moments of truth in order to truly create a fine line between what is the truth and what is not.
The creature’s personality, or actions toward society, was displayed as being very calm and compassionate in the novel. He made many attempts to converse with society, but society feared and mistreated...
In the poem, “The Panther”, Rilke applies symbolism, repetition, personification and hyperbole to describe the panther as having a strong will turned hopeless due to its imprisonment. Throughout the poem,
The presence of the two cats in the tale allows the narrator to see himself for who he truly is. In the beginning the narrator explains that his “tenderness of heart made him the jest of his companions”. (251) He also speaks of his love for animals that has remained with him from childhood into manhood. However, Poe contradicts this description of the narrator when he seems to become annoyed with the cat that he claims to love so much. While under the influence of alcohol the narrator is “fancied that the cat avoided his presence”(250) and as a result decides to brutally attack the cat. This black cat symbolizes the cruelty received by slaves from whites. The narrator not only “deliberately cuts one of the cats eyes from the sockets” (250) but he also goes on to hang the cat. Once the narrator successfully hangs the cat the tale begins to take a very dark and gothic-like turn. The racism and guilt of the narrator continues to haunt him once he has killed the black cat. Th...
In ‘All the Pretty Horses’ Luis states ‘among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion’, by this he means the relationship man has with nature is totally unique, it is sacred; the relationship between men is a misapprehension. In some respects the reader may agree with the statement because it is true, man’s relationship with animals and nature is fairly simple compared to man’s relationship amongst each other which is far more complex due to conflict of opinion and other complications. John Grady Cole’s relationship with Alejandra faced much turmoil and complication, one of the biggest issues they faced was the fact Alejandra’s family condemned their relationship and forbid her to be with him. To a certain extent John’s romance with Alejandra mirrors Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in respects to their forbidden love, however their story does not end in tragedy. Wordsworth shows nature to be more of a companion for man in ‘The Solitary Reaper’. The woman reaps the crops alone in the field singing with a voice so ‘thrilling’ it resonates ‘Long after it was heard no more’. Although she is lonely, she is wholly reliant upon the sustenance she receives and the relationship she has with nature. The poet proceeds to compare her to the Cuckoo and the Nightingale stating ‘No Nightingale did ever chaunt more welcome notes to weary bands’ being compared to birds with such beautiful song surely displays her oneness with nature. Unlike the ‘maiden’ Victor tries to control and dominate nature, this resentment could stem from the fact his mother died of the fever, making him go to extreme lengths in constructing this figure from different body parts to create a cre...
all the hunted animals convey connotations of evil, and this is doubtless the reason why the author of the poem seems so involved in the outcome of the hunts and never tires of triumphantly describing the final slaying of the pursued animals. (Howard 85)
The first unapparent form of evil is the spirit of the perverse, which shows the contradiction of human nature. One the one hand, the narrator in “The Black Cat” knows that his action is immoral and he must stop his atrocity. On the other hand, he continues his outrage under control. Therefore, the spirit of perverseness can stop the narrator from restoring his moral order. Another sophisticated kind of evil is a lexical layer or words scattered throughout the tale.
In the stories, “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” both narrators have a misguided perception that induces their senses to confuse reality with delusions. This misguided perception is brought on by the abnormal psychology of both men. This is a common theme in Poes’ stories. In “The Black Cat” the narrator feels a sense of fright and disgust when reviewing the attached behavior of the second cat. Poe’s description of the second cat is eerily similar to that of the first cat, Pluto. As author Magdalen Wing-Chi Ki states, “the narrator is convinced that it ‘must be’ Pluto on account of two things: it follows him around in the hope of becoming his absolute partner, and one of its eyes is gone.” A rational person understands that it is impossible for the second cat to be Pluto, but the narrator is so misguided that he believes this inconceivable delusion. This mistaken fantasy fuels the narrator’s madness, giving him more evidence that mu...