Originally posted on Cat's Blog:
In the days where fiction and fantasy were making a new home for themselves in the minds and imaginations of people across Western Europe, Robert Louis…
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience explores the interconnection of innocence and lack thereof, known as experience. As society is known to believe, childhood is a time of innocence before understanding the… Continue reading
When analyzing Tim Burton’s movies/filmography, the idea of the sublime is very present and precise in the relationship of his work. Ranging from The Corpse Bride to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of… Continue reading
Many of the topics and themes explored by writers during the Victorian Period are still very relevant in today’s society, which is not surprising considering that many of the writers during this time… Continue reading
As a poem, William Blake’s “The Tyger” functions much the same way that the rest of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience does; teetering on the precipice of duality in not only… Continue reading
In consequence of the poem’s overwhelming sensual imagery combined with biblical allusions, Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, which describes the plight of sisters Laura and Lizzie after they are tempted by the fruit of… Continue reading
Culpability and wrongdoing are often used motifs in poem and prose. Guilt and penance used in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner as not only a plot device but a window into the human psyche of… Continue reading
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), sought to confront the social norms of the Victorian Period by infusing realism into Gothic tropes. No longer were characters… Continue reading
Humans have been debating and fighting over what is considered good and what is evil since before the early ages. In the early ages though, good was determined by religion and anything or… Continue reading
The nineteenth century was a time of high class division, suppression, and overall judgement. Men and women were held to completely different standards and moral codes. Dante Rossetti’s poem, Jenny, is a great illustration of… Continue reading
When a person hears the names of Mary Astell, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Virginia Woolf they can hardly be separated from the notion of women’s rights. Although two of them lived and died before… Continue reading
From the time women were able to write for a living, they were more than eager to rewrite the stereotypical women characters that men had been creating. However, authors like Eliza Haywood knew… Continue reading
It’s no secret that Emily Dickinson’s poetry has, over the course of time, become well-known as a lyrical and whimsical representation of hymn-like poetry. From her more popular poems such as “Much Madness… Continue reading
Five years have passed; five falls, with length Of five long winters! and again I hear These bells, ringing every hour from Old Mains tower… “Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey,… Continue reading
Mary Wollstonecraft left a legacy that impacts feminism today.
In today’s stereotypical relationship, it is considered taboo for couples to pass gas, use the bathroom, or even vomit in front of each other. Jonathan Swift, sarcastic poet and political novelist, writes a… Continue reading
Some may have heard the tale that every cat wants to destroy their owner, but that they’re just smart enough to know that they don’t have the means and are better off scratching… Continue reading
In Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft makes an argument for an equal education of both women and men. Often celebrated as the first feminist, Wollstonecraft defines the link between a woman’s strength… Continue reading
Satire as defined by the Oxford dictionary as, “The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and… Continue reading
This sublime scene was captured in the fictional television show, Twin Peaks. The murder of Laura Palmer haunts this small, sleepy town where the residents are full of secrets. Directors Mark Frost and David Lynch designed the show to be mysterious and disturbing, encompassing the sublime aesthetic which was described by Edmund Burke as that which “excite[s] the ideas of pain and danger… or operates in a manner analogous to terror” (37).
From its onset, Johnathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels has a misanthropic tone. A reader can reason that Swift is a misanthrope and that he holds nothing but hate for humanity. However, “It is true… Continue reading
by Horace T. Palomino In the fourth part of Johnathon Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” we read of Gulliver’s encounter with the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms, in Swift’s work, are a race of… Continue reading
The future is unknown until we create it ourselves. In life we experience a surplus of situations that are out of our control. We do not get to choose which disease takes over… Continue reading
I think we can all agree that relationships are hard. We would also probably agree that, within relationships, some habits are healthier than others. Lastly, I am willing to venture we can all… Continue reading
“The Lady of Shalott” and “The Defense of Guenevere” are Victorian era poems of the Arthurian tradition that focus on female characters that are negatively affected because their desires cannot be met without… Continue reading
Everyone knows the classic Gothic novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert L. Stevenson. However, those who do not dabble in the silent films of the early 1900’s will… Continue reading
“The Defence of Guenevere” by William Morris is a poem detailing King Arthur’s wife’s defense against the accusation of adultery by Arthur’s nephew Gauwaine. Gauwaine, or Gawain, as his name is spelled in… Continue reading
As so often seen in the Victorian Age, the idea of the world being a “man’s world” does not come as a surprise when thinking of Victorian literature. However, Christina Rossetti puts forth… Continue reading
Whether you’ve been an avid watcher of American Horror Story from the beginning or just caught the last season, you know of the series’ (alleged) psychopath Tate Langdon. His shaggy blonde hair, his dark… Continue reading
Nothing reaches out and chokes the attention of a morbid mind quite like a murder. Gory? All of the details, please. Scandalous? There’s no good crime without a scandal. Unsolved? Even better. Who… Continue reading
