King Lear by William Shakespeare, and A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley are both fantastic tragedies that follow a similar story arc. Although King Lear was written in 1606, and A Thousand Acres was written in 1999, they contain the same essential elements of a tragedy. Jane Smiley modeled her novel after King Lear, focusing less on Lear’s story, and more on the daughters’ stories. The story-line of both is extremely similar: a father chooses to divide his land amongst his daughters, and everything following that is a disaster. King Lear and A Thousand Acres utilize the elements of unexpected suffering, suffering that extends beyond the protagonist, and society/status to mold their stories into classic tragedies.
A Thousand Acres and King Lear share the
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A massive storm is a significant event in both stories that marks the beginning of the tragic end. Events that precede the storm are comparatively cheery to the events that follow shortly after. The storm in both stories leads to the fleeing of the father, both driven away by their daughter’s actions. During the storm in A Thousand Acres, Ginny loses her helpful and submissive personality in order to stand up to her father, ¨You don 't deserve even the care we give you. As far as I 'm concerned, from now on you 're on your own” (Smiley 183). This change in her attitude is a stark contrast to the previous Ginny, who took care of three families without complaints. The storm in King Lear is the last time the reader experiences Lear with part of his mind still in-tact. The scenes after the storm depict Lear frolicking around with a crown made of weeds on his head. The transformation of his language and attitude from the beginning of the play, “Hear me, recreant; on thine allegiance, hear me...the moment is thy death. Away” (Shakespeare
The coming of age novels, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, and A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, both interpret the lives of adolescent boys journeying through their conflicts and inner confusion to reach the level of maturity. Salinger and Knowles both discern the literal ways a typical teenager grows up with the help of literary elements such as plot, setting, character development, conflicts, irony, symobolism, theme, and point of view.
Evil is defined as being profoundly immoral of malevolent. Being faced with evil is can be challenging especially when the person is unaware that it is present. In the Play Othello by William Shakespeare and the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Othello and Ralph are faced with the challenge of evil. Othello is an outsider of Venice coming from South Africa that is sometimes ridiculed based on the color of his skin; yet earned the title of respect with his intelligence, courage, and skills. Othello’s insecurities and him not knowing when evil is looking him straight in the eye, leads him to his down falling. Ralph... Both characters in the beginning act in a moral manner, until the end of the stories when both characters have been
Abraham Maslow, a well-known American psychologist, theorized that human beings have innate needs that must be met in order to have a happy, healthy existence. The most necessary is, of course, the fulfillment of basic physiological requirements, followed by a feeling of safety. If these are fulfilled, every mentally healthy individual begins craving love and a need to belong. Love and being loved in return is, in fact, vital to an individual’s mental state. This, in addition to the feeling of euphoria, pleasure and joy it provides, and the sensual experience of romantic love, makes it a great obsession in nearly every culture. This craving humans to have their unrequited love returned makes great fodder for movies, songs, and novels. Many
In literature, characters often confront challenges and due to their misconceptions of reality these challenges become complicated by external factors, which ultimately lead to tragic results. Willy, from the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Holden, from the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and Macbeth, from the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, live with false perceptions of life and struggle through life's challenges. Willy struggles with the challenges of his life by lying, causing him to suffer because of how he defines success. Holden is upset with the world and tries to become a savior to future generations. While Macbeth's ambitions dominates his life resulting in an inflated ego transforming him from an honorable soldier into a crazed tyrant. When faced with challenges, these characters fight to be who they imagine they are, yet due to conflicts they ultimately fail.
...way that the story is being interpreted and how the storm influences the story as a whole. Sometimes people need a wakeup call or a 'storm' to make them aware of how good they have things. In this short story Alcee and Calixta both come to realization of how good they have things with their spouses and how that they already found the ones that they love, which weren't each other. This made me aware of how we as people can take things for granted or believing we know what’s best for us. In reality we don't always know what’s best until something occurs and shows us that what we already have is the best.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and William Shakespeare's King Lear. Two English literary works, one a comedy and the other a tragedy, by two different authors of separate centuries, both have their fair. share of characters who illustrate the admirable and the not-so-admirable of dispositions. Jane Austen's socially satirical novel Pride and Prejudice from 1813 and William Shakespeare's poetics.
Comparing Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson have similar themes of conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between husbands and wives, and the need to focus on a small unit of space in order to achieve success. In the process of developing these themes throughout the two plays, three similar symbolic elements are used including the insecure father figure, the "other woman," and the garden. The fathers in the two plays are comparable because they both have conflicts with their sons as a result of living in the past, and they die in the end. Willy, in Death of a Salesman, is never respected for his occupational status, so he places very high expectations on his son, Biff. Willy lives in the memory of past events to such a large extent that he cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, and he passes this trait onto Biff.
Antigone and Hamlet are two distinctive tragedies, written by two different authors, in two separate centuries, yet both stories have considerable aspects in common. Antigone is about a girl who stands up to her uncle, the new King Kreon, after he refuses to bury one of her dead brothers, Polynieces, because she believes not burying him in wrong, especially on a spiritual level. Antigone is a tragic heroine because her tragic flaw, tenacious loyalty, leads to the down fall of not only herself, but more importantly her beloved fiancé, Haemon, and also his mother. Hamlet is about a prince whose father, King Hamlet, just died and whose mom, Queen Gertrude, just married his uncle, the new King Claudius. Hamlet is not ok with the situation. Hamlet
Othello, Catcher in the Rye, and How to Read Like a College Professor, were titles I read this past school year. While How to Read Like a College Professor was interesting; Othello and Catcher in the Rye were the most enjoyable to me because of their plots, characters, and themes. Layered with tribulations and epiphanies for each character, the plots of each book wove intricate stories which significantly added depth to the characters and to the themes of each book. Moreover, the characters of each story were relatable to me, as I could see some of my own faults within the characters.Furthermore, I also appreciated the themes of each story as they re-taught lessons which are both relevant and applicable to my own life.
In my opinion Jane Eyre connects to a couple of other books and movies such as Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. This book reminds me of Harry Potter because at the beginning of Jane Eyre her parents died as did Harry Potter's, they are both orphans and are both treated very poorly. At times they were both put into isolation, Jane into the red room and Harry under the staircase, in his “room”. They both had the main issue of dealing with their family, and both tried to forget about what was going on around them by reading books. Jane Eyre connects to The hunger games, Catching Fire, main character Katniss Everdeen especially, both main characters were torn between two men, they are very independent women, they question the society that surrounds them, they are abused, and they struggle to find food. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have many connections, mainly because the authors were sister, so they grew up in the same household, they were raised the same way,
William Shakespeare has provided some of the most brilliant plays to ever be performed on the stage. He is also the author of numerous sonnets and poems, but he is best known for his plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. In this essay I would like to discuss the play and movie, "Romeo and Juliet", and also the movie, Shakespeare in Love.
“And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is a failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath” (Steinbeck 349). John Steinbeck, the author of The Grapes of Wrath, portrays the migrant’s resentment of the California land owners and their way of life and illustrates that the vagrants from Oklahoma are yearning for labor, provisions, and human decency. Similarly in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee elucidates the concept that people should be treated with inclusive human dignity and be affected by good aspects rather than deleterious behavior. In addition to both novels, “Suffering with Them”, “Evil’s Fate”, and “To Hope” share the same concurrent theme. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Grapes of Wrath and “Suffering with Them”, “Evil’s Fate”, and “To Hope” illustrate a synonymous, thematic message that evil’s inhumanity, during corrupt times, induces a perception of hopefulness for good to conquer immorality.
In 1847, Charlotte Bronte, although a woman, published her semi autobiographical Jane Eyre. She wrote her novels in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. This novel later became a classic literature novel. ( Bronte) She wrote in the 1800’s and her novel reflects the time period, which she wrote in with the various techniques and themes. In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses literary devices such as, imagery and themes like religion and feminism to demonstrate the time period in which she wrote.
When Jane Smiley wrote A Thousand Acres, she consciously made the story parallel to Shakespeare's King Lear for several reasons. The novel's characters and basic storyline are almost direct parallels to King Lear, but Smiley's dissatisfaction with the traditional interpretation of King Lear is showcased in her modern day version (Berne 236).
... is, the death of the two families. The process of disturbance in nature's laws leading to destruction of human lives applies both ways. It is because of disturbed human behavoir, namely Lear's behavoir, that nature is disturbed, which brings about the storm. Shakespeare is basing his characters' suffering on the fact that the characters in his play did not respect and obey the rules of nature. Perhaps by emphasizing the significance of the role that nature plays in human lives. Shakespeare is trying to increase the awareness of the people of his time to the importance of nature's rules, and by that, remind them not to doubt and go against what is accepted for it might result in paing and distruction. Shakespeare accomplishes this through showing the readers the destruction of his characters that was rooted in their violation of the accepted rules of nature.