... exorcism. Macbeth seemed doomed from the beginning. It was first performed before James I, a descendant of both the historical Duncan and Banquo, who are killed in the play. The curse apparently struck during that original performance on August 7, 1606, when Hal Berridge, the boy actor cast as Lady Macbeth, collapsed from a fever and later died. Shakespeare himself had to step in and play the role on short notice. The play was rarely performed again for nearly a century. The day of its London revival in 1703 was noteworthy for one of the most severe storms in English history. Because of its blasphemous cont ...

... middle of the ocean, cut off the life line, of a highly civilized society, that took hundreds of years to develop. Due to the age and experience of the boys, such ideals of what it takes to be civilized are not developed to that of an adult’s. When the boys are put in a world without rules, punishment, and order, it leads to a very progressive deterioration of what they have learnt to be "civilized". Without boundaries from authority figures, the boys feel as if they can do what ever they want, or as how they put it "to have fun". In the beginning things where fine. An organized society had been formed where R ...

... London. A makeshift peace between the king and Becket allows the priest's homecoming, but the treaty is one of dubious stability. Thus, the women of Canterbury and local priests meet the news of the archbishop’s return with both joy and trepidation. Once back in Canterbury, Becket is greeted by the temptations that corrupted him before. More of his past is revealed as the play progresses, giving the audience a sense for how far Becket has traveled along the path of repentance. But even as Becket makes his peace with God, the king's revenge is still impending. Eliot has written a beautiful play that alternates ...

... St. Bernard and a Scotch Shepherd dog. He weighed one hundred and forty pounds, and he carried every one with utmost pride. Buck had everything he could want. Little did he know, he would soon have it all taken away from him. One night, while the judge was away at a raisin grower's committee meeting, the gardener, Manuel, took Buck away from his home. Buck was then sold, and thrown in a baggage car. This would be the beginning of a new, cruel life for Buck. On his ride to wherever he was going, Buck's pride was severely damaged, if not completely wiped out by men who used tools to restrain him. No matt ...

... a very intelligent person, and she knows it. So does everyone else for that matter. Beatrice always says, throughout almost the entire play that she could never get married, because she would never be able to find a man that could make her happy, in fact she is almost sure that the perfect man for her doesn’t exist. She doesn’t need a man in her life, and she’s perfectly happy being without a husband. Now don’t get me wrong, she isn’t a mean person, she’s just really independent. Well that was until Benedick, a very handsome military man with an attitude equal to Beatric ...

... Carlson symbolizes society in the novel as Candy’s dog is a symbol for the elderly: "He ain't no good to you, Candy. An' he ain't no good himself. Why'n't you shoot him, Candy?" (44). Candy’s dog, old and frail like his owner, is his only companion and once he is put out of his misery, Candy is left completely alone in the world. He turns to George and Lennie who, reluctantly at first, agree to include him in on their plans of one day owning their own farm. Today, seniors are still slightly perceived as somewhat incompetent for they are frail and lack the muscle power they once possessed. T ...

... the wine had deadly toxins in it. Although there is no definite guarantee that she committed suicide, the evidence is overwhelming that she knew that the wine was tainted. Prior to the opening of the drama, Gertrude was having an incestuous affair with her husbands brother, Claudius. Claudius then killed his brother (King Hamlet), and shortly after married Gertrude. Prince Hamlet could not handle this and was disgusted by the entire situation. He then decided to put on an "Antic Disposition," meaning that he will pretend to be crazy in order to find out the details of what is going on. Gertrude observes that ...

... the Classical epic by bringing the formulas characteristic of the epic . . . to bear upon a trivial subject." First published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712, Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock"is a mock-epic which depicts vanity, pride, and the never ending battle between the sexes. Pope engages the classic formulas of an epic to depict a tale of a great injustice, the unforgivable theft of a single lock of hair. "The Rape of the Lock" burlesques elements of the epic in a variety of manners. The first elements encountered by the reader are the dream and the presence of supernatural beings. " . . ...

... take offense to that word, even most people take offense to that word. Just because we might take offense to that word doesn’t mean that we should just turn our heads and pretend that the word does not exist. Mark Twain did a very good job when writing this book, in terms of the dialect he used. During the period of time when this book was written, the “n-word” was part of their culture, where as the words “African American” and “black” are used today in our culture. If Mark Twain avoided the many racial slurs used during the late eighteen hundreds, the book would have ...

... the lives of the artists and their topics of writing. In Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays," Hayden writes about his father and the abandonment his family showed him even though he worked so hard to provide for them. Hayden writes, "…cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday blaze. No one ever thanked him" (590). Most artists observe the fact that they did not know of their first loves and do not realize their mistakes with their first loves until they are grown up and are writing about it. It probably provides them with a good topic to start writing about in the first place. The lack of realization s ...