Despite no authentic version of the play extant, Christopher Marlowe’s play Massacre at Paris continues to be of importance. The play is heavily drawn from real historical events happening in French politics at the time of it being written. The Massacre at Paris that was unleashed by the Third Duke of Guise upon all his…
Category: Literature
How does power of Higher Authority manifest in Antigone by Sophocles and Another Antigone by A.R.Gurney?
Almost two and a half millennia separate the ancient Greek version of Antigone (attributed to Sophocles) and its modern adaptation written by A.R. Gurney. The classic version is part of Sophocles’ trilogy of Theban plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. The great Greek myth of Oedipus continues to be integral to the…
Is Ahab the uncivilized one in Moby Dick?
There is no doubt that Ahab is the most uncivilized and barbaric of the sailors. Although he is the captain of the ship and holds authority over the entire crew, his actions do not merit him respectability. The harpooners carry a tarnished image by virtue of their profession – they are obligated to massacre the…
Myth and Superstition in Moby Dick
The white whale Moby Dick can be looked at as a metaphor or an illusion. It is true that Ahab’s pursuit of it is real and the whale’s sightings by other ships equally honest. But the highly exceptional skin colour for a whale is a deliberate literary device employed by the author. What Melville is…
Theme of Personal Obsession in The Emperor’s Babe and Purple Hibiscus
Both the stories in question have a female, colored protagonist. The two central characters Zuleika and Kambili are also similarly aged – it is their teenage years that are being explored. Even before they reach adulthood they go through enormous upheavals in their lives. Moreover, their stories fit into a colonial discourse with attendant features…
Roald Dahl’s Villains: An analysis
Roald Dahl is one of the most widely read children’s book authors of the twentieth century. Although he wrote several forms of literature, including adult novels and essays, he is most renowned for his children’s books, including popular books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG. Beyond proving to be accessible and engaging…
Jean Renoir’s film ‘A Day in the Country’ and Guy de Maupassant’s story ‘A Country Excursion’: A comparative analysis in the context of Dudley Andrews’ three adaptation strategies
Introduction: A Day in the Country is one of Renoir’s early forays into narrative story telling. One can see the tentativeness of a filmmaker finding his feet in the new medium which was only a few years past the silent films era. A characteristic of the fledgling days of cinema was its seeking of ideas…
How can Plato’s Allegory of the Cave be read in a contemporary social, geo-political milieu?
Plato’s Republic is one of the most influential works on political theory. The book is rich in logical deliberations and thought experiments in its endeavor to identify the ideal form of government for any society. Some of the ideas and theories articulated in the work include ‘theory of forms’, ‘definition of philosopher’, ‘immortality of the…
The Origins of Negro Slavery by Eric Williams
1. In sum, what is the Williams thesis? What is his main point and central argument? Eric Williams is an important black intellectual who witnessed, documented and analyzed African slavery in America firsthand. His main argument is that multiple factors were behind the origins of Negro slavery. The powerful papacy of the Roman Catholic Church,…
Monsters & Mythological Creatures in Dante’s Inferno
The Inferno (Hell) is the first part of The Divine Comedy, followed by the Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Heaven). It is a classic Christian theological text that uses strong poetic imagination and allegorical allusion. Though originally written in Italian between 1308 and 1321 AD, the work is widely translated and its themes are drawn upon…