English Literature Notes, Essays and Articles

How does Johnson defend Shakespeare’s mixing of comic and tragic elements?

Notes / Words: 442 / April 2, 2022

According to the classical rules of criticism, the mingling of comic and tragic scenes in the same drama is an offensive practice. All the dramatists supported these rules, and they opposed the fusion of tragic elements with comic elements. Being an influential critic, Samuel Johnson fervently opposed the mingling of comic and tragic elements and..

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How does Johnson defend Shakespeare’s non observance of three unities?

Notes / Words: 422 / April 2, 2022

William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist of the world is known for his superb plays. Though he wrote sonnets, poems but he is chiefly known for his 37 plays. But it is a matter of thinking that he does not follow the three classical unities. He mentions only the action in these plays. Though he violates

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Elucidate Coleridge’s theory of poetry

Notes / Words: 383 / April 2, 2022

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one of the most complex and richly suggestive writers in English literature. He is a poet, philosopher, critic and a genuine observer, who has left an indelible mark on history of English poetry and criticism. His major critical work, Biographia Literaria, stands as the source of much modern critical theory. His

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Discuss Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero

Notes / Words: 531 / April 2, 2022

The ‘term’ hero is derived from a Greek word ‘heros’ that means a person who faces adversity or demonstrates courage in the face of danger. However, sometimes he faces downfall as well. When a hero confronts downfall, he is recognized` as a tragic hero or protagonist. Aristotle says, the tragic hero has some frailties or

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Describe Coleridge views on fancy and imagination

Notes / Words: 463 / April 2, 2022

The autobiographical work Biographia Literaria by S T Coleridge was published in 1817. It was one of the Coleridge’s main critical studies. In this work, he discussed the elements of writing. Here Coleridge tries to discover the differences between fancy and imagination Coleridge theory about Fancy and Imagination. Before the discovery of Coleridge’s theory about

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Chaucer’s Art of Characterization in ‘The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales’

Notes / Words: 868 / March 19, 2022

Alternate question: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales: Chaucer’s Art of Characterization On the aisle of English poetry, Chaucer flourishes the fantastic colours of his words and paints different characters of his age with minute observation. Indeed, he is a great painter who paints not with colours but with words. Undoubtedly, he has:

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Doctor Faustus as Aristotelian tragedy

Notes / Words: 693 / March 8, 2022

Christopher Marlowe emulates much of the traits of Aristotelian tragedies in his tragic play Doctor Faustus. He portrays a tragic hero brings his own downfall by the end of the play. Doctor Faustus is a contradictory character due to his high ambitions and then his blindness and willingness to waste his power.

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Doctor Faustus as a Tragic Hero

Notes / Words: 1,229 / March 8, 2022

Doctor Faustus is the most famous play of Christopher Marlowe he was of high skilled as a playwright and he could write very good drama. It is a tragedy of Doctor Faustus that is the main point of this story. Before moving on further, we should discuss about the definition of a tragic hero. A

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Adrienne Rich’s “Diving Into the Wreck” Analysis

Notes / Words: 945 / August 12, 2021

Upon first reading Adrienne Rich‘s Diving into the Wreck the auditor would not immediately perceive or assume it is about life experiences or on an even deeper level, her transformation from an unhappy house wife into a new, self-loving woman. Extended metaphors are described as exploiting a single metaphor throughout an entire work. Her extended

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Adrienne Rich’s “Living In Sin” Analysis

Notes / Words: 871 / August 12, 2021

Adrienne Rich’s poem Living In Sin shows a woman’s life without rhyme In four meaningful Images and as the tone changes she sees the relationship/marriage she expected and the relationship as It actually Is. To begin with the speaker uses run-on lines, past tense and tone to illustrate the first image. “She had thought the

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A Farewell to Arms: Character Analysis

Notes / Words: 843 / August 11, 2021

Analysis of major characters in A Farewell to Arms – Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Mike Campbell, Bill Gorton.

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The Wild Swans at Coole: Analysis

Notes / Words: 736 / July 28, 2021

The Wild Swans at Coole is a representative poem of W. B. Yeats. Like many other poems of his it is a study in the clash of opposites. It turns on the contrast between the transitoriness of human joy and youth and the permanence of those of natural objects–the eternal passions and vitality of the

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