... however, more realistic to believe that Macbeth was responsible for his own actions throughout the play and in the end it was he who made the final decisions. The witches could foretell the future, they can add temptation, and influence Macbeth, but they can not control his destiny. Macbeth creates his own misery when he is driven by his own sense of guilt. This causes him to become insecure as to the reasons for his actions which in turn causes him to commit more murders. The witches offer great enticement, but it is in the end, each individuals decision to fall for the temptation, or to be strong enough to resi ...

... through the streets of Paris. He does though, depict a ray of light amongst all this evil; the heroic Carton, who gave his life for his friend and a woman he knew he would never have. The biggest contrast of all, is in the person of Misuser Darnay, the gentle English family man, who is also related to the evil Marquis Evremonde. I personally like stories that use historical events as backdrops because it brings these seemingly distant events closer to us. This book definitely offers insight into life in the two cities at the time of the French Revolution. I think it does an excellent job of depicting just how ...

... because he indirectly caused the deaths of his own family and friends. The selfishness shown by Victor Frankenstein is just one of the traits that shows that he is the monster. His selfish attitude is visible throughout the whole story. In the beginning when he first discovers the cause of generation and life, he does not tell anyone about it. He thinks, “The astonishment which I had first experienced on this discovery soon gave place to delight and rapture…What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp. (47)” This type of selfish ...

... in hurting Balder. Thinking him invincible, the gods enjoyed themselves thereafter by using Balder as a target for knife-throwing and archery. The malicious trickster Loki, who was jealous of Balder, changed his appearance and asked Frigg if there was absolutely nothing that could harm Balder. Frigg, suspecting nothing, answered that there was just one thing: a small tree in the west that was called mistletoe, but she thought it was too small to ask for an oath. Loki immediately left for the west and returned with the mistletoe. He tricked Balder's blind twin brother Hod to shoot with a mistletoe fig. Not knowing w ...

... and the image of “love’s mine”, obviously allow for the comparison between the Platonist’s and the alchemists. Donne explains that some have experienced more love than he has, and, in having done so, have penetrated “deeper” into “love’s hidden mystery,” that is, they have reached a point beyond sensual love where they have found it’s true “centric” or essential happiness. This would be analogous to alchemists, who, after many attempts, have been able to extract gold from other metals. Due to the diction that Donne uses and the manner in which ...

... the popular nineteenth century motif of the orphaned child who must make his or her own way in an antagonistic world (Dunleavy 242). Besides the absence of a mother figure, both sisters spent most of their lives in isolation on the Yorkshire moors, another important influence on the novels (Abbey and Mullane 414). Rebecca Fraser, a biographer of the Bronte family, believes that they clearly preferred a reclusive lifestyle admist the primitive beauty of the moors (23). By comparison, the bleak, lonely moors of Yorkshire serve as the same setting for two of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century, Jane Eyre ...

... that it would be hard to survive the environment. Little food was given and the prisoners only received what they needed to stay alive. They were treated as though they weren't human. Cognizant that it would be necessary to work with others in order to survive, Ivan spends some of his time daily doing things to help others. Through the good deeds that Ivan accomplishes, he earns the respect of the other prisoners and is sometimes rewarded with extra food. He does simple things like laying out other prisoner's shoes for them or bringing some of them their food at a meal. One time, Ivan waits in line to get Tsezar hi ...

... Like buying the poison or getting money by offering china-painting classes. Life is sad and tragic; some of which is made for us and some of which we make ourselves. Emily had a hard life. Everything that she loved left her. Her father probably impressed upon her that every man she met was no good for her. The townspeople even state "when her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad being left alone. She had become humanized" (219). This sounds as if her father’s death was sort of liberation for Emily. In a way it was, she could begin to date an ...

... different aspects of the book in order to attempt to explain Raskolnikov’s deeds. Guilt as well as intellectual reasoning prove to be the main motivating factors behind the crime of Raskolnikov. Throughout the novel his actions are usually a result of his striking intelligence or his tormenting conscience, or in the situation of the murder, both. Raskolnikov’s idea to kill the old pawnbroker stems from a theory he was developing. It was probable that during his studies at the university he was aquatinted with the popular philosophies of two German thinkers of the time. One of these philosoph ...

... Dover Bitch: A Criticism of Life," written by Anthony Hecht in 1968, undermines and debases the introspection and romanticism of Matthew Arnold's, "Dover Beach," written about a century earlier in 1867. Introspection is the reflective examination of one's thought process and sensory experience. From the very first line of "The Dover Bitch," the introspection of the Matthew Arnold’s poem is completely deconstructed. The parody is a casual conversation that one might hear in a bar. The speaker could easily be the local bartender in any town. He indulges a listener and begins to tell a tale about a woman whose on ...