Through his storytelling abilities and vivid imagination, as demonstrated in his novels, short stories, and films, Stephen King has done much to move the horror genre into one of the top choices of many reading fans in the literature world. He has modernized many gothic or horror themes and techniques throughout his career and that is why some call him one of the best authors to walk the earth to this day. Many of King’s peers say that he has a strong case of hypergraphia which is evident in his…
The wise fool described by Erasmus is someone who can see past the chaos of the material world and find greater truths in their madness. Characters within King Lear that exhibit the qualities of the wise fool: selflessness and loyalty, in their search for the truth and the treatment of others, find greater clarity in their decision-making, a factor crucial to their standing at the climax of the work. The characters may be classified into two categories, those who stay loyal to Lear through his…
The Tragic Destiny of Oedipus Oedipus the king by Sophocles is a distressing play filled with transgression, grief, and tragedies. The unfortunate incidents that the tragic hero, Oedipus, goes through invoke catharsis in the readers. He has been prophesied a dreadful fortune and feels as though “...no one suffers more than [him]” (Sophocles 27).Foretold destiny cannot be derailed as fate will always interfere and insure that the prophecy is fulfilled. Moreover, every tragic hero has a tragic…
Music blaring, lights flashing, people dancing, and the alcohol flowing; there is a mirage of sights and sounds one would encounter when they walk through the doors to one of Gatsby’s great parties. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the time of the roaring twenties. At this point in history, prohibition was in full swing, the speakeasies were bribing the patrol to look past their indiscretions, and the morals were starting to loosen. Gatsby kept true to the times and threw scandalous…
“The Outsider” a short story in “The Lurking Fear” by H.P. Lovecraft. It is a simple story on the surface but it can be thought provoking if you read deeper. It is about a man trying to find out where he is and why. Even though the story is in a collection of macabre horror it is more of a mystery than horror story till the end. The writer’s descriptions are so vivid that the reader does not notice the lack of characters. “I know not where I was born, save that the castle was infinitely old and…
In the gothic novel Dracula there are many gothic motifs. Gothic motifs are images that show up in other gothic stories. For example, in most gothic stories there are stormy nights, full moons, spooky castles, wolves, bats, horses and carriages, cobwebs, etc. From Dracula, the four things that show up most in other stories are the spooky castle, the stormy nights, blood, and carriage rides. The first motif noticed in Dracula is the carriage ride in the evening. This shows up in other gothic…
The Great Gatsby, a novel written by, F. Scott Fitzgerald, interweaves characters from Fitzgerald personal life to intricate love relations that follow his actions of the six most pivotal stages. Throughout the novel, the protagonist Jay Gatsby, shows Fitzgerald’s active attributes. They both experience love and loss, for example, Fitzgerald and Gatsby would both do anything for their beloved. Some may argue that Gatsby is only a fictional character in the novel, however, I believe that that…
conditions and desired treatment at the hands of others. In Shakespeare’s play King Lear, readers are hooked on a story bounded much by the relationship between a parent and a child. This relationship described throughout the play is unnatural due to the sense of entitlement each character demands upon the other. The lies told by various characters throughout the play, creates this sense of entitlement. The main suspects of this are King Lear, his daughter Goneril, and Edmund, who is the…
consequences of knowledge In the story “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles. We see a man that has not yet come to grips with what he has done. He does not know how dangerous the knowledge he seeks really is, and he starts by seeking out who murdered the former king of Thebes. Oedipus was warned if he continued to seek the truth the knowledge would blind him, and he would be cast out of the land but curiosity prevailed. He continued to seek out the dangerous truth about his real father, and the murder of…
to the discrimination of the minorities in Los Angeles the beating of one man becomes the push needed to send the minorities, mostly African Americans, in South Central over the cliff. After the severe beating of an African American man named Rodney King and the trial that allowed the officers in question to walk free Los Angeles citizens of South Central had enough. The already pent up anger towards the LAPD and Caucasians in general caused terrible riots that later created millions in damage.…