Essays and Research Papers on British Literature

A 5 page paper which examines the personality and function of the Host as revealed by his description in the “General Prologue” and the part he plays before and after the individual tales. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

This 5 page paper provides biographical data and uses it to find themes in Canterbury Tales. Several stories are analyzed in detail and some attention is paid to the possibility that Chaucer committed a crime for which he feels guilt. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

5 pages in length. Gerard Manley Hopkins has a dual relationship with the poetic verse for which he is so well known; on the one hand, he adheres to the traditions of English poetry as practiced by the English Romantic poets, while on the other he departs in such a manner that his contemporaries ...

A 10 page discussion of Mary Shelley’s incorporation of nature in her novel. The author of this paper contends that Shelley employs nature to contrast the characteristics of Frankenstein and his creator Victor as well as to emphasize the error of mans ways in going against nature. Through various components of nature Shelley ...

This is a 5 page paper comparing the stories of “Psyche and Cupid” and “Beauty and the Beast”. Several elements are similar to the storylines of the myth “Psyche and Cupid” and the folk tale “Beauty and the Beast”. Both female heroines in the stories must overcome hardships, travel and separation from their families in ...

An 8 page research paper that contrasts and compares how Joseph Conrad perceived the role of women in society as compared with the perspective of Virginia Woolf. The writer argues that these two authors were essentially in agreement. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

A 5 page essay that explores and analyzes the role of Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's famous novel. The writer argues that Shelley's narrative demonstrates how Victor chose to step out side the boundaries of the social system, and then to ignore his own socialization as a child in dealing with the "infant" that he ...

A 5 page paper which examines the significance in “Northanger Abbey” and “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. Bibliography lists 2 additional sources.

A 5 page paper compares and contrasts the relationships of each literary work, God/Satan, Frankenstein/Creature, Marlow/Kurtz, in order to demonstrate how there is a progressive erosion of religious belief from “Paradise Lost,” while man searched for the meaning of life which he hoped he would find through the knowledge of science and the acquisition of ...

This 5 page report discusses the ways in which Geoffrey Chaucer and George Bernard Shaw essentially deride the social constraints and assumptions of their societies in their two works. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A 5 page research paper that examines and analyzes William Golding's powerful novel Lord of the Flies. While this novel can be interpreted in several ways, the writer argues that the best interpretation is that it is an allegory on the dissolution of society due to tragic flaws in human nature. Bibliography lists 2 sources. ...

This 5 page report discusses two 17th century Restoration comedies that consider the relationships between men and women and the role that each plays, or is assigned to, in their societies. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

A 6 page discussion of Orwell’s semi-autobiographical book. In it, Orwell had moved from his upper middle class lifestyle into Paris slums to work as a dishwasher and live in rat-infested hotels. From there he moved on to London to wander haphazardly across the countryside. The experiences which he relates shed considerable ...

This 9 page report discusses John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” (1667) and how he shows his readers a world in which human beings found the eloquence and deceptions of Satan are far more interesting or stimulating than anything that relates to the regal and impenetrable silence of the heavens. Why didn’t God take action to stop ...

A paper which critically considers the idea that the trial scene in Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’ is the centrepiece to the novel, exploring as it does the limitations and flaws of the judicial system and the way that justice is not served without the intervention of personal morality.

A 5 page paper which examines how these characters are handled by Austen in her novels and by filmmakers Douglas McGrath in his 1996 film adaptation of “Emma” and Roger Michell’s 1995 film version of “Persuasion.” No additional sources are used.

A five page paper which looks at the way in which the concept of silence is used in Ishiguro's 'The Remains of the Day' with particular reference to the development of Stevens' character.

A 5 page research paper that examines various themes and characteristics that are demonstrated in Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale" from his classic work The Canterbury Tales. The writer addresses marriage, imagery, appearance and reality, as well as other themes. Bibliography lists 1 source.

This 5 page report discusses two primary characters who are well-known in terms of literary, social, and historical commentary and considers their development as would be applied in Sigmund Freud’s understanding of human personality. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A 5 page research paper that lists five terms from the study of Victorian and twentieth century English literature and then defines those terms and relates them to specific examples from literary works. Bibliography lists 2 works.

This is a 5 page paper comparing the elegies of Wordsworth’s “The Ruined Cottage” and Shelley’s “Adonais”. The Romantic period in English literature from approximately 1798 to 1832 showed its diversity in a sense by its different formats found in the elegies of William Wordsworth in “The Ruined Cottage” (1797) and of Percy Bysshe Shelley ...

This is a 5 page paper discussing the Seven Deadly Sins and Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Prologue” and “The Pardoner’s Tale”. The Seven Deadly Sins of pride (vanity), envy, gluttony, lust (lechery), anger (wrath), greed (avarice) and sloth were used quite extensively in the early writings of Christendom to be used as warnings to some or ...

A 5 page paper which examines the theme of deception (through the science of alchemy) and its conflict with religion through contemporary criticism. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

A 5 page essay that examines the picture that Hardy's paints of English society in Jude the Obscure. The writer argues that everything in this novel points towards a society moving rapidly into the twentieth century and modernity. Yet, Hardy's narrative is also inextricably linked to the past, and there is a great deal in ...

This 8 page paper looks at the character of Sherlock Holmes, a detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The writer considers what type of man he is and how he may be seen as a role model for those inside and outside the criminal justice system. The bibliography cites 7 sources.