Enigmatic Essays

  • Enigmatic Lights On The Moon

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    Enigmatic lights seen on the Moon are a classic example of a Fortean enigma. Called transient lunar phenomena (TLP), they have been a mystery and a source of wonder to skywatchers since the earliest times. And yet, as astronomer Peter Grego points out, despite a wealth of detailed observations we seem no closer to an understanding of what these anomalous flashes are. Not long after the telescope was invented at the beginning of the 17th century, astronomers came to realise that the Moon, our only

  • The Enigmatic Hamlet

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    “You would pluck out the heart of my mystery.” This is exactly what many readers and characters in the play are trying to do, determine who Hamlet is. His enigmatic aura is what draws us to his character. He is practical and emotional, thoughtful and impulsive, and insane and intelligent all at the same time; his character itself is enigmatic and Shakespeare shows us this with every one of Hamlet’s actions. As the play begins, Hamlet is informed that the ghost of his dead father is wandering through

  • The Ideology of Keynes

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    of irony. In his Essays in Pursuasion, Keynes wrote the short piece “Am I a Liberal?” that took on the established political system of the time and thoroughly rejected it. For those seeking a quick answer to questions about the politics of his enigmatic General Theory, “Am I a Liberal?” would seem to raise more questions than it answers. Nevertheless, Keynes makes it abundantly clear what he is not. He rejects the Conservatives and the Labour parties out of hand. While he seems to have contempt

  • Philosophy

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    few concepts have been pondered as much as the nature of beauty. Philosophers, poets, scientists, and theologians have contemplated and been inspired by its many forms and mysteries. Some find it in the wonders of natural, others in the simple, enigmatic smile. There are even those who have traveled to the ends of the earth and beyond in search of beauty. I say the beauty is a person who has a warm heart. In the pass, I will judge a person from his or her looking. But now I know it¡¦s a wrong

  • The Symbolic Pearl in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    price to mankind, but no pearl had ever been earned at as high a cost to a person as in Hester Prynne, a powerful Heroine in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. Her daughter Pearl, born into a Puritan prison in more ways than one, is an enigmatic character serving entirely as a vehicle for symbolism. From her introduction as an infant on her mother’s scaffold of shame to the stormy peak of the story, Pearl is an empathetic and intelligent child. Throughout the story she absorbs the hidden

  • Personal Narrative- Defining Self

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Who am I? Such a simple question: such a profoundly difficult one to answer. I could tell you that my name is Rob Jones, but that would only be my name. I could tell you that I would like to become a professional author and that I have strong linguistic skills and an artistic flair. But these are merely reflections of who I am: gifts I possess and talents I have perfected. I suppose I must start by telling you what I am. I am a human being. As such, I have several distinctive and inseparable parts

  • Philosophic Thought in Whitman's Song of Myself

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    Literature repeatedly refers to Walt Whitman and his poetry in terms of being American, yet as I read Song of Myself, my thoughts are continually drawn to the philosophies and religions of the Far East. Like the Tao Te Ching ideas are expressed in enigmatic verse and each stanza is a Zen koan waiting to be meditated on and puzzled out. Even Emerson called Whitman's poetry "a remarkable mixture of the Bhagvat Gita and the New York Herald" ("The Whitman Project"). Song of Myself contains multitudes of

  • T.S. Eliot’s Powerful Use of Fragmentation in The Waste Land

    2713 Words  | 6 Pages

    parallel the broken society and relationships the poem portrays; second, to deconstruct the reader’s familiar context, creating an individualized sense of disconnection; and third, to challenge the reader to seek meaning in mere fragments, in this enigmatic poem as well as in a fractious world. On the most superficial level, the verbal fragments in The Waste Land emphasize the fragmented condition of the world the poem describes. Partly because it was written in the aftermath of World War I, at a

  • Invention of Gatsby

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    outlandish persona of Gatsby. Each rumor accumulated and grew until a rumor of Gatsby being a murder accrued. Rumors and stories alone created an exciting yet still mysterious character. A few of his guest become suspicious of his profligate but enigmatic style. Describing how unusual Gatsby’s kindness was for replacing a gown that a woman had ripped at one of this parties, a guest states; “There is something funny about a fellow that’ll do something like that. He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody

  • Colonialism and Imperialism - The White Male and the Other in Heart of Darkness

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    are the natives given language and expression by the author. Firstly, when cannibalism is seen to overcome them, and one of then when asked what they will do with the body of one of the dead crew, replies "Eat 'im". The second occasion is when the enigmatic figure of Kurtz... ... middle of paper ... ...constructing women as the "other", not being able to cope with the truth and facts of life, Conrad asserts the superiority and dominance of the white male. In Heart of Darkness, cultural

  • Chinese Mythology

    1701 Words  | 4 Pages

    earliest Chinese civilization to be found around 1650 B.C. The beginnings of Chinese mythology, started around the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Influenced by alchemist ideas, Taoist and Buddhist superstitions, various writers created storied about their enigmatic surroundings. The beginning of the Chinese civilization is based on mythology. One of the creation myths is about the beginning of the world. In it, the world began as an egg and cracking open, the top of the shell grew to be the sky, the lower shell

  • Tragedy and Redemption in Toni Morrison's Beloved

    2239 Words  | 5 Pages

    Tragedy and Redemption in Beloved "This is not a story to pass on."(1) With these enigmatic words, Toni Morrison brings to a conclusion a very rich, very complicated novel, in which slavery and its repercussions are brought into focus, examined, and reassembled to yield a story of tragedy and redemption. The "peculiar institution" of slavery has been the basis for many literary works from Roots to Beloved, with particular emphasis

  • The Melungeons: Turkish Roots in the New World

    2367 Words  | 5 Pages

    centuries in confusion, derision but pride. MELUNGEON! Racial, social, and cultural differences over three hundred years made them second class citizens in the regions where this people was named Melungeons. A little mention is made of these enigmatic Melungeons throughout history as a mysterious and lost people. Nobody seemed to know for sure who these people were or where they came from. They spoke an earlier form of English but with dark skin did not look white European. The loss of rights

  • crime and punishment

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    arrogance. "The old hag is nothing.... I killed not a human being," he says. (245) He believed that Alyona was less than a human, and that he was a superior being. Raskolnikov thought that he had a right to kill. Svidrigailov is one of the most enigmatic characters in Crime and Punishment. He employed tacit and devious tactics. Svidrigailov molested, irked, and bothered young women who do not wish to be associated with him. He pandered to their weakness and he self-admittedly used deception to win

  • Cleopatra as a Historical Figure

    2536 Words  | 6 Pages

    why? What is it about this individual that strikes us as so intriguing that we, like the Elizabethans before us, centuries ago, like the Romans two millennia past, should divert so much of our attention into construing the motivations behind the enigmatic figure that is Cleopatra? We must look not only to Cleopatra, but also to the historical events surrounding the last few years of her rule, in order to truly understand the historical significance bestowed upon her. It was a combination of the

  • Male Dominance Over Women Traced Back to Roman Times

    1501 Words  | 4 Pages

    Male Dominance Traced Back to Roman Times Women are enigmatic. Their complexity is evident in their very anatomy; at least it was according to Plato. Therefore, as what is alien is often feared and what is feared is often subject to aggression, perhaps the men of Rome attempted to dominate women in every facet of life because they feared the possibility of women usurping power. Gender, as suggested by Women's Life in Greece and Rome and "Elite Male Identity in the Roman Empire," is not anatomy

  • Heart of Darkness

    2838 Words  | 6 Pages

    The title "Heart of Darkness" the name itself implies a sense of unknown evil, and invokes thoughts of secrecy and mystery. It paints paradoxes of seemingly clear concepts and states, such as the mental condition of central character Kurtz, an enigmatic ivory trader deep in the heart of the "Dark Continent." The setting indeed takes place in a region remarkably like the Congo that has led many scholars to automatically label it as such.( Lackey ) For the purposes of this essay, I will acknowledge

  • Marlow and Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marlow and Kurtz in Heart of Darkness Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness revolves around the enigmatic character of Kurtz, a renegade that has split from the authority and control of his organization, that wants to put a stop to his extreme measures and "unsound methods" (Coppola, 1979; Longman, 2000). As a result of Kurtz actions, the character of Marlow is sent to retrieve Kurtz from the desolate outback and as the reader we are lead through the involvement of a tension-building journey up

  • To Kill A Mockingbird - The Character of Dill

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    each summer at his aunts house and then returning to his mother and stepfather for all we know at that time. Dill returns to and leaves Maycomb many times in the duration of the novel after that visit and their initial meeting. Dill is dreamy, enigmatic and insecure. Unlike the Finch children he feels unwanted until they welcome him under their wing. Dill talks of his stepfather and mother as well off people who show him the sights of the urbanised area that they live in. In reality this is not

  • Stonehendge

    1736 Words  | 4 Pages

    give some insight on legend. Certainly the best known of all megalithic sites, Stonehenge stands in isolation on the undulating chalk of Salisbury Plain, west of Amesbury, between the busy A303 and A344 roads. At first sight, this unique and enigmatic site appears smaller than imagined, but the tallest upright stone is 6.7m (22ft) high, with another 2.4m (8ft) below ground. The outermost element of the site is the Avenue that runs straight down a gentle slope for 530m (560yds) into Stonehenge