Preview

Comparing Literary Works

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1655 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparing Literary Works
Comparing 1

Comparing Literary Works
Vivian Swinton
ENG 125
Instructor – Alex Vuilleumier
November 1, 2010

Comparing 2 Comparing Literary Works My study of literature has been quit amazing. I never knew how extensive the elements of literature were, in helping to analyze and understand the concept of different genres. In studying literature, it has helped me to understand and express myself in what is, understanding other people’s points of view. As a common ground for my comparisons, I would like to compare three literary works, using the element of setting, in how the physical and social context, including the time, place and social environment frames the characters, creating an atmosphere conducive to the tone of the story. The setting plays an important role in the success of story, it sets the readers mood. A good writer’s description of a setting puts you right into the story. Sometimes the “intense description” of setting in a story can bring suspense with an eerie feeling, to a dark and dreary one. Often the author will use objects in the setting to symbolize different things in the story, helping to outline the general theme of the story, also to relate to the hardships or situations of the characters. The setting is the foundation and power of the story. If the setting is weak the story will be also. (Morgan.T. 2010). In analyzing the setting, the reader can get a lot of information about its themes and literary intent. In “A Rose for Emily” the setting is mostly one of deterioration and death, beginning with her house, which the town considered an “eye sore among eyesores”, the picture of decay. Emily’s house “smelled of dust and disuse – a close, dank smell” (DiYanni, 2008, p. 79). Comparing 3 The physical setting was parallel to the social change that was taking place at the time, and could be used to symbolize the breakdown of the old

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Ethan Frome Got Some Dome

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages

    An author purposely chooses and includes various details about a story’s setting in order to create and enhance the story’s mood. The mood of a story can be deepened by a setting like…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Thesis: Though they might be similar, the differences are of the utmost importance, the circumstances of each of their times, the changes in audience, and the purpose of their speeches.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A Rose for Emily” is a mysterious and unusual short story. William Faulkner creates a character, Miss Emily Grierson, who is so significant to the town that she is referred to as a “fallen monument” after her death. Miss Emily is an eccentric character, and although she physically changes, her character nor her personality do. Miss Emily is a static character, with internal conflicts, and has odd relationships with her boyfriend and husband. For instance, Miss Emily kept her late father's body and refused to give him up, showing an inability to let go. She keeps his body because she also does not want to be isolated, even though she avoids interaction by staying in her home. Miss Emily's isolation is external with society and also resonates…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Alive, miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.”(391) The social class and her father fettered not only her behavior but also everything of herself. Without him she could not do anything except stay at home. She had been isolated from the outside world and the people whose social class was lower than theirs. “only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores.”(391) Her house was on behalf of her personality that she was noble, solitary and traditionally. Emily's decaying appearance matches not only the rotting exterior of the house, but the interior as well. Staying far away from people, gradually, she could not know how to get along with others. Being restricted by her family fame, Emily became much more autistic and did things unusual.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The characteristics of Miss Emily’s house symbolize her appearance as she becomes decrepit with time and neglect. The house was a beautiful white decorated with gorgeous cupolas, set on what was the best street. Then it became a monstrous monstrosity. Miss Emily changed the same ways as her house did and she too became an eyesore. She had once been a slender figure and later she becomes fat and motionless. During Miss Emily’s death she had been referred to as a fallen monument, which could mean she was once something beautiful and…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Three specific examples of how setting influenced the actions and attitudes of the characters are: The isolation from a civilized world, the mysteries of an unfamiliar place, and different social types being forced to live with one another. How these examples are to be proven will be developed in the following paragraphs.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Revolt of Mother

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In regional literature the setting can be a very important aspect to the story “The Revolt of Mother”’ is set in somewhere in the late nineteenth century. The story take place on a farm during the spring and summer. Sarah is confided in a house that she doesn’t want to be in. sarah has been complaining to her husband for the past 40 years about building her a new home. The new home is a very…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    these similarities and/or differences. Use siginificance, consequence, and reason to help you come up with an angle.…

    • 478 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Read this brief passage from Beowulf in the modern translation by Burton Raffel. Then, answer the question that follow.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Settings serve a huge role in stories without them; stories would be nothing more then a list of events playing out. Settings not only help get the reader involved it is also used to create and show meaning through symbolism, setting the mood, and Theme. Often in stories the setting alone can give you the best description of who the character is like in “The Cask Of Amontillado” and “Hills Like White Elephants.”…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Emily 's house also represents her downfall. After her father dies the house becomes an eyesore which "smelled of dust and disuse- a close, dark smell" (Faulkner 315), indicating that Emily has let herself go becoming obese and lonely. Emily is also like a fallen monument because she once was a prominent person but now she is decaying. She has too much pride to let anyone know about her pitiful life as "she carried her head high enough- even when we believed that she was fallen. It was if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson; as if it had wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm her imperviousness" (Faulkner…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe Insanity

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages

    William Faulkner’s A Rose For Emily (1930) intertwines the topics of romance, horror, and gothic. When a corpse is discovered in a locked room, the realization of horror is created. It is further pronounced when readers discover it is Emily who has not only been keeping her deceased lover in the house, but also sleeping next to him every night. However, it also displays the love and affection she had for him was very deep. Furthermore, she kept her wedding dress, along with his suit, folded up in the belief that he should be with her forever. This odd mentality is also shown when Emily refused to bury her father for three days after his passing, also keeping him in the house. While it is very obvious to see the romantic and horror qualities presented throughout the story, what places it into the Gothic is the darkness that is portrayed. The main character’s psychological state makes the story very bleak. The decaying smell of the corpse throughout the house expresses the Gothic by making readers face the deep fears of the answers to their own curiosity. It also follows along Emily’s journey of finding the love she wanted, but could not have. As twentieth century Gothic tropes evolved, the story can easily be compared to some of the original Gothic novels that came out, when women were seen as fragile and powerless. The evolution of women characters in stories was displayed…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analysis Paper

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Emily’s house that is very similar to her is a structure of a memorial, the only remaining of a symbolic representation of the past. The house “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores (pg204). The house is an extension of Emily. It is a tradition but now it’s out of place because of the society that has changed around her. The house, like its owner, is an object of interest for them. They create their own interpretations of the inside of Emily’s torn down house.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Remember Vs

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Death is the subject of both poems, Remember and The Cross of Snow, written by Christina Rossetti and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow respectively. The authors use many literary techniques, such as imagery, mood, and metaphors to explore the grieving process from two different perspectives, the dead in Remember and the living in The Cross of Snow. Although the poems have some similarities, they are also very different. While Longfellow's poem is about remembering and grieving, Rossetti's is about forgetting instead of mourning.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Rose for Emily

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In “A Rose for Emily”, the narrator begins the story by letting us know that Miss Emily Grierson has died and that she had not been seen in at least ten years. As the narrator continues to describe the house and it’s location as being located on, “which had once been our most select street,” is now encroached and obliterated by garages and cotton gins, it is undoubtedly obvious that the narrator’s goal was to depict Miss Emily Grierson as one who has been living in seclusion in avoidance of a seemingly changing world. The narrator later goes on to say, “only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps – an eyesore among eyesores.” I felt that this description of Miss Emily’s house as being one of stubborn decay was more so a description of Miss Emily herself than the house.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics