Inner Life

I used to think I was like a ‘brick shit house’, without feelings. Then, out of desperation because of the misery I was leaving in my choldren, I found the key to an amazing door. The door was opened partly through dreams, and largely by learning to be nothing and letting Life show me the way. What I found, what I have called the Inner Life, was like ‘What happened in Mexico. It picked me up and shook me. It threw me on the ground and made love to me. Then it left me alone and I cried like a child.’ It was everything, always new, always unexpected and wonderful.

The New Poetry

Can poetry be seen as capable of representing a multicultural society? Taken as individual statements, many of the poems in The New Poetry[1] show no sign of multicultural influence. “The radio is playing downstairs in […]...More

Frankenstein – By Mary Shelley

Discuss the themes of parenthood and creativity in the novel One aspect of creativity is parenthood. Therefore the two subjects of the question can be linked. We can also create in an external way, as […]...More

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Is class conflict central to the novel? There are a number of important themes throughout the novel Mary Barton. Sickness and loss through death are prominently mentioned. Ways women can earn a living or survive […]...More

Middlemarch – To what extent is gender a dominant concern of the novel?

In any text concerned with the intimate and varied lives of human characters, gender is usually of prime importance. Therefore we might turn the question around and ask with what else the novel Middlemarch is […]...More

Cultural Conflict

Comparisons between African and Caribbean writers Texts used: A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiongo; Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe; An Anthology of African and Caribbean Writing in English, edited by John J. […]...More

A Taste of Honey – Does the play represent more than a dramatisation of the cycle of deprivation?

Texts Used: A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney. If I had to give a title to my view of the play, it would be ‘Windows of Opportunity and Despair’. I say this because the […]...More

The Use of Private and Public Personae in the Poetry of Keats and Shelley

In defining the public and private personae of the two poets Keats and Shelley, it is helpful to compare their poetry with that of more recent poets. As an example to start with, the lines […]...More

Comparing the symbolic treatment of Childhood in Blake and Wordsworth

Both Blake and Wordsworth particularly emphasise childhood in their poetry. Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience for example especially appear to treat childhood as a symbol of the human condition as seen from […]...More

Discuss the thematic treatment of authority and/or power in The Odour of Chrysanthemums and The Prussian Officer

The words power and authority are often used interchangeably. Both may enable a person to influence another person in a way that can be at odds with what the individual uninfluenced would wish for themselves. […]...More

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

To what extent is the novel concerned with social and historical contradictions in the period after the Second World War? There is a clear indication in Lord of the Flies that the story deals with […]...More

Gender and Sexuality in Lawrence’s The Fox

A text can represent something by way of a setting. Objects, creatures or even people, can be used to intimate or directly refer to something other than their face value. Also, the interactions between people […]...More

Comparison of the Significance of Single Working Women in Two Novels

The Millstone and The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. Although these two novels were published within four years of each other, they provide a fascinating contrast. This is due, I believe, to the different historical […]...More

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