Essays and Research Papers on British Literature

This 5 page report discusses George Orwell’s novel “1984” and the ways that the distortion of language results from deconstruction which implies alterations in word meanings. As a result, the subversion of language and thought virtually eliminates no only linguistic integrity but clear thinking. In “1984,” Orwell illustrated the practice of controlling behavior by controlling people’s thinking and their most fundamental ...

A 6 page paper which examines how love differs for each character, and considers whether the mode of loving allows for the assessment of merit, or the fame, of each character. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

A 5 page essay that analyzes the way that Frankenstein's 'monster' becomes acculturated and what this indicates about the his personality and complexity. No additional sources cited.

A 5 page research paper that examines Jane Austen's Emma and discusses how two critics, Arnold Kettle and E. N. Hayes, evaluated this book. In short, Kettle loved it; Hayes hated it. The writer examines why and offers an explanation for this disparity in opinion. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A six page paper which considers how far Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party can be considered a modernist text, with reference to the subject matter, her use of form and structure, and the techniques of perspective and imagery which she employs. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A 5 page essay that compares and contrasts Mary Wollstonecraft's vision of female liberation in A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) and Aldous Huxley's vision of sexual equality in Brave New World (1932). No additional sources cited.

A five page paper which looks at the way in which Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale parodies the traditional romances of courtly love and acts as a balance to the morality and integrity of the Knight’s Tale. Bibliography lists 1 source.

This 5 page report discusses Angela Carter’s 1979 short story, “The Tiger’s Bride,” is the type of work that foils the efforts of literary analysts and critics to neatly assign it to one category or another. Instead, it serves as a remarkable chronicle of a beauty-and-the-beast-fairy-tale-morality-play or an enticing example of the potentially mystical framework that exists within any other framework ...

A 5 page essay that examines how George Orwell pictured a totalitarian state controlling the populace through the use of language and "doublethink" type propaganda. The writer then analyzes how this relates to the populace acceptance of lifestyle advertising today. No additional sources cited.

A 6 page paper which examines the actions and reflections of the creature, disclosed through the double frame of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and Captain Robert Walton. Specifically considered is the creature's growing awareness, interactions with others, and the grasp of the materials that provide for his self-education so that conclusions may be drawn about his sensibility, ...

A 5 page research paper in which the writer examines Shelley's detailed and articulate argument that assesses the value of poetry, in general, as well as the role of the poet as an "unacknowledged legislator" for the world. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

A 5 page essay that examines three works by Bronte sisters Anne and Charlotte: Shirley and Villette by Charlotte and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The writer examines the gothic details in Shirley and Villette and compares the Bronte's heroines. No additional sources cited.

A 5 page paper which summarizes "The Stories of King Arthur and His Knights" by Howard Pyle. No additional sources cited.

A 5 page essay that examines the way that Elizabeth poets Sir Philip Sidney and Robert Greene used the imagery of Arcadia to provide the setting for the pastoral romances, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and Menaphon. No additional sources cited.

A 5 page essay that compares and contrasts the colonial attitudes expressed toward natives in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes and Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King. Both works demonstrate colonial attitudes in the way that native peoples in each work are represented. No additional sources cited.

(5 pp). Ian McEwen's works thrives on co-incidence, opposites, and symbolism. Many people live their lives engrained with these narrative components, and think little of it. McEwen builds stories around them. In this discussion we will examine McEwen's 1992 novel, Black Dogs for those elements. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

A 5 page paper which examines the function of the pictures, paintings and drawings, analyzing their content and considers the role that the act of representation plays in the novel. No additional sources are used.

A 10 page research paper that examines Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year and relates it to Galileo's Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican. The writer examines how the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which was the culmination of the scientific revolution begun by Galileo, was reflected in Defoe's account ...

A 5 page paper which examines how each character questions what happiness is about, but while Jane ultimately finds it in marriage to Edward Rochester, Emma is ultimately dissatisfied because she is never able to realize her concept of what happiness should be. No additional sources are used.

A 5 page paper which examines how the protagonist struggled to achieve love and acceptance. No additional sources are used.

(9 pp.) An odd assemblage of characters living under the English Queen Mother's umbrella presents itself for our discussion: Virginia Woolf and Rebecca West. It is almost a toss up if the authors are more real or if their characters are. Critical discussion also includes Gilbert and Gubar (1990), Mark Girouard, ...

A 5 page essay on Shelley classic nineteenth-century Gothic thriller as social criticism. The writer argues that Shelley's novel, while offering a gripping horror story, also offers the discerning reader a commentary on society and the tendency for society to ignore the social and ethical ramifications of the implementation of technology. No additional sources cited.

(10 pp.) Edward II was a real English king, (Edward of Caernarvon 1284--1327). He spent a good amount of time in conflict with his nobility; did poorly in the Scottish campaigns and suffered defeated by Robert Bruce. And then, as old American radio used to say, "and now - the rest of the ...

A 5 page paper which compares and contrasts the story of the Knight and the Wife of Bath, in Canterbury Tales as it applies to the main characters' choices of life. No additional sources cited.

A 5 page essay that examines Wilde's play in regards to how it reflected Wilde's aesthetic sense in regards to Victorian morality. Aesthetic intellectuals such as Wilde wrote in reaction to the what they perceived as the hypocrisy of the time. Wilde, like his fellow aesthetics, felt that beauty and art had been corrupted by ...