Show how the plot of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is apparently fanciful but in reality exactingly structured. “The Merchant of Venice is a fairy tale. There is no more reality in Shylock’s bond and the Lord of Belmont’s will than in Jack and the Beanstalk.” H. Granville-Barker, in Prefaces to Shakespeare. This is one way of looking at the play, reading it or enjoying the performance. But it can be a contradiction to our actual feelings about this complex play. ‘The Merchant of Venice’ might appear
Plot Structure in Susan Glaspell's Trifles The play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell is a whodunit type of murder mystery. But in this case, the "professionals," whose job it is to find out what happened, failed in their task. The County Attorney (Mr. Henderson) and the Sheriff (Mr. Peters) attempt to piece together what had transpired on the day when John Wright was murdered. They interviewed Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mr. Hale who told them that Mrs. Wright, John's wife, had been acting strange
Comes for the Archbishop is not a novel, Willa Cather proposed that the work was a narrative. Her choice of the word narrative signifies that the structure of Death Comes for the Archbishop is closer to that of a biography. A narrative is a type of composition used to recount events over a period of time and can incorporate description as well plot, but it does not necessarily have to. Death Comes for the Archbishop follows the guidelines of a narrative in that it recounts the events of Father
five stars. Pulp Fiction is rebellious in the way that it manipulates all usual plot structures by twisting time to satisfy its own system. The film tells a series of interlocking stories involving; two hit-men, a boxer and his French girlfriend, a crime boss and his mischievous wife, a small time drug dealer, two lovebird robbers, and two hillbilly rapists. However, all these stories revolve around three main plots; Vincent (John Travolta) taking the crime boss’s wife out (Umma Thurman), the crime
According to Aristotle, the driving force behind tragic works lies not in the development of characters but in the formulation of a specific plot structure. Aristotle believed that the purpose of all art is to imitate life and that human beings live their lives through events and actions. He argues that characters serve to advance the events of the plotline and that the characters themselves are not central. Aristotle's opinions on tragedy were largely constructed around Sophocles' Oedipus the King
use of words and an originally creative theme and plot structure are both used in this book. The author of this novel used many hidden meanings, symbolism, and ambiguous terms to greatly describe the actual nature of the story. Many people have different views as to the type of book it is and the novel’s actual meaning. Although this book inspires many people to laugh, it also inspires them think. The novel has a creative and dissimilar plot structure. Alice, the protagonist and a very curious little
Elements of Fiction in Danielle Steel’s Mixed Blessings Danielle Steel, in her work of fiction, Mixed Blessings, has effectively used plot, setting, and theme as she weaves a powerful tale of three couples who face decisions about having children that will test, in unexpected ways, the ties that bind them as lovers, partners, and friends. Steel has used these elements to emphasize that there are people who have such a great need and love for children. In Mixed Blessings, she represents women
their literary counterparts. The film serves as a re-interpretation of Conrad’s novella, updated from 19th-century British imperialism in the Congo to a critique of 20th-century U.S. imperialism in Southeast Asia. Coppola’s changes in setting and plot structure, however, force the film to sacrifice the character development so crucial in the literary work. This detracts from the overall effectiveness of the film. The most important difference between novella and film is the development of their main
make the reader/audience more aware of imagery, the major characters, plot, attitudes towards women, and themes that are presented from two very different standpoints. The authors Sophocles and Dove both have a specific goal in mind when writing the two plays. In this paper I will take a closer look of the two, comparing and contrasting the plays with the various elements mentioned previously. Sophocles style of plot structure was usually to begin in media res. This is particularly true of Oedipus
successful plot structure, recognition scenes, and a correct choice for its hero. In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles fulfills all of these requirements. According to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy, the plot of a tragedy is above all the most important element, and for one to write a successful tragedy, one must have an excellent plot. In his Poetics, Aristotle lists four characteristics that a good plot must have: order, amplitude, unity, and probable and necessary connection. The plot of Oedipus
outward actions as symbols for the inner conflict dwelling inside the protagonist. Hemingway's short story The End of Something is an example of how trite dialogue and simple descriptions accentuate the mental strife of the character Nick. The story's plot is not complex: Nick and his girlfriend Marjorie are canoeing down a river they once knew as children. Once on the bank of the river, the two of them partake in the same activities but do them in silence. When Marjorie tries to begin a conversation
common with Don DeLillo's book White Noise. Both novels uncannily share certain types of characters, parts of plot structure and themes. The similarities of these two works clearly indicates a cultural conception shared by two influential and respected contemporary authors. Character similarities in the two novels are found in both the main characters and in some that are tangential to the plots. The two protagonists of the works, Oedipa Maas of Lot 49 and Jack Gladney of White Noise, are characters
ANALYSIS OF PLOT STRUCTURE The Scarlet Letter is a unified, masterfully written novel. It is structured around three crucial scaffold scenes and three major characters that are all related. The story is about Hester Prynne, who is given a scarlet letter to wear as a symbol of her adultery. Her life is closely tied to two men, Roger Chillingworth, her husband, and Arthur Dimmesdale, her minister and the father of her child. Her husband is an old, misshapen man who Hester married while still in Europe
with no structure holding each of My Antonia's books. In other words, as a collection of five different accounts remembered by the main character, Jim Burden, My Antonia is characterized by a loose plot structure, yet common themes are expressed through the cyclical nature, including the cycle of the seasons and the stages of life. According to James E. Miller Jr.'s " My Antonia; A Frontier Drama of Time," Willa Cather's novel, My Antonia, is "defective in structure" (Bloom 51). Its structure is basically
Evil in The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Picture Of Dorian Gray is yet another novel portraying evil. The theme is very much reflected by the book's setting, plot structure and characterisation. It shows how individuals can slowly deteriorate because of the evil lying within themselves. The evil of this book is the evil created by one's self and thrusted upon one's self. The power of greed and selfishness take over Dorian Gray and create an ugly evil side to him. The mid eighteenth
manner as to be jammed full of images, ideas, and possibilities. One of the many ideas found in the story is the presentation of human existence as meaningless, random, and haphazard. Indeed, throughout the story, many images, words, and even plot structure support the fact that the lives of the characters of the story are lives without meaning or direction. Woolf presents the reader with characters whose lives are noticeably blurry and unfocused, undefined and haphazard, lived without direction
Boat” or “The Blue Hotel.” “Crane utilized his keen observations, as well as personal experiences, to achieve a narrative vividness and sense of immediacy matched by few American writers before him (5). His unique style did not always follow a plot structure and focused on mental drama as well as external. Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey on November 1st of 1871. He was the youngest of fourteen children. His father was Reverend Jonathan Crane, a Methodist minister, and his mother Mary
modern age that playwrights began to deviate somewhat from the basic tenets of Aristotelian tragedy and, in doing so, began to create plays more recognizable to the common people and, thereby, less traditional. Even so, upon examination, the basic plot structure of some modern tragedies actually differs very little from that of the ancient classics. In spite of its modernity, Arthur Miller's great twentieth-century tragedy, Death of a Salesman, can be successfully compared to the Aristotelian description
the novelistic plot structure hardly ever follows the structure of truthful historic events. A novelistic writing about a battle in World War Two would be bound to either an accurate portrayal of the events around the main character or a convincing depiction of the people involved. If the author chose to write about turrets, casualty statistics, and troop movements, he would surely sacrifice much of the artistic content of the novel. If the author chose to focus on character and plot, then the writer
Slaughterhouse Five Critics of Kurt Vonnegut’s are unable to agree on what the main theme of his novel Slaughterhouse Five may be. Although Vonnegut’s novels are satirical, ironical, and extremely wise, they have almost no plot structure, so it is hard to find a constant theme. From the many people that the main character Billy Pilgrim meets, and the places that he takes us, readers are able to discern that Vonnegut is trying to send the message that there will always be death, there will always