Essays on Enigmatic

Janet Byron Anderson, the author of The Vocabula Review, discusses the merits and demerits of using a semi-colon in literature. In her article, The Enigmatic Semicolon, Anderson starts by describing the fascination human beings have over hybrid beasts and mythology. She uses the mermaid, a sensuous woman with muscular fish resemblance below. According to myth, the mermaid lures sailors with lovely songs, which makes them forget what they are doing and jump off the deck only to drown. Similarly, the semicolon tends to have comparable psychological influence, whereby a writer feels the urge to use it but fears that ...

Franz Kafka led a very complex life in the short amount of time he lived. A lot of critics love to make the probably true personal connections between Gregor and Franz in “The Metamorphosis,” but these critics always seem to forget two pertinent facts in addition, the work was first drafted well before he had any symptoms of tuberculosis, and during the beginning of the war, several revisions were made to the work before Kafka released it. The idea that his experience with TB has to do with the book in any way, usually the primary argument of literary ...

It used to be fun to visit museums when in school with friends and school groups. However, my visit to Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) was different, as now I was in college and going there not just because everyone is going, or that your school or teachers have organized a tour, but I was going there based on my own plans and decisions. I had heard a lot about LACMA and decided to get more information about the museum online. I explored the website of LACMA and learned about the history of the museum. I learned ...

History is a ‘process of interaction between historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past’ (Carr 1) this statement may be supported with the different types of evidence – from literature, sculptures, paintings etc. In the scope of this paper, three following paintings (from V&A Museum in London (vam.ac.uk 1)) - as they represent the contemporary historical periods, would be assessed and their link to the historical background would be provided. The first one is ‘The Death of Ananias’ – Raphael’s Cartoon and Tapestry; the second one is the ‘The Industrial Arts Applied to War’ ...

Jules Verne is arguably one of the most prescient science-fiction authors in history – his works are remembered for their vast imagination and endlessly prescient views into the future of science and the exciting nature of their adventures. One of his most well known works, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is on its surface a fantastical tale of a group of men who stumble upon the secret submarine Nautilus, commanded by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. However, closer examination of the novel itself reveals Verne’s penchant for social commentary and intricate political subtext, as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea becomes a ...

If somebody had asked me what makes a film successful, I would have been not able to answer at once. Acting, directing, screenplay, soundtrack, costumes, settings, camera operating, and a great many of other factors are equally valuable; they all contribute to the general perception of the film by the auditory. In my essay I will focus on one element of the system – music; and I will try to discover how that magnificent tool makes a film admired. Anabel J. Cohen in his Music as a source of emotion in film states that “emotion characterizes the experience of film, as it ...

Feste is one of Shakespeare’s most intricate and fully sketched comic characters, and perhaps for his sophistication he has been a special favorite of the literary critics. This paper discusses three important aspects of Feste’s character in order to gain literary insight. This study addresses whether Feste is a mere fool - a comic-butt and a parasite or hanger-on in the play with his only function being to elicit laughter by his words and actions, or one whose inclusion in the play signifies something more sublime and subtle (Grief 61). I Shakespeare, in his play Twelfth Night, has given ...

Introduction

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was around 13 years old when his family moved to Florence from the Tuscan village of Vinci. In youth he was an apprentice of the Florentine painter and sculptor Verrocchio. In 1481 or 1482 Leonardo travelled to Milan to work for the ruling Sforza family. There he spent much of his time on “military and civil engineering projects, including both urban-renewal and fortification plans for the city”. At the same time he created few key paintings of the Renaissance: the altarpiece “The Virgin of the Rocks” (1483) for the chapel in the church of ...

Martin Amis's Other People and London Fields

As Brian Finney points out in Narrative and Narrated Homicide in Martin Amis's Other People and London Fields although he is not classified as a crime writer Martin Amis’s stories are filled with crime and focus upon death and murder. . Finney’s critique of Amis’s stories revolves around the continuing themes of women, death, murder and victimization along with their relationship with the enigmatic narrator. In his analysis Finney looks into the author and the zeitgeist of his era as well. He notes that Amis himself describes his work as “"playful literature" (Neustatter 71) and describes himself ...

Symphony Nr 39 in E flat major, KV 543

This symphony begins the trilogy of final symphonies for which Mozart has remained justly famous. Although not as frequently played as its successors it is a work in the grand manner and has some especially original touches in the second movement marked Andante con moto as well as in the Finale. The Symphony Nr 39 was written in the summer of 1788 when Mozart was forced to move to slightly less expensive lodgings and also to borrow money, an issue which was to continually annoy him in the last three years of his life. What was different in this ...

Introduction

Hierarchic scale refers to the act or process of manipulating the size and the space in a given picture. Usually, this is done in order to emphasize the importance of some specific object in the picture. For instance, when an individual undertakes to paint a picture of some woman in a farm of vegetables, one could do several things to the picture in order to emphasize the importance and the value that is attached to the object in question. If the most important thing in that picture is the shoe that the woman is wearing, then the person painting the picture would ...

In our lives we are haunted by several questions that we face concerning the problem of evil. For instance, why does Allah (god) who is all-knowing and all-powerful allow evil to exist in the world? Does god do something about evil? However, we assume that existence that the existence of evil disproves the existence of Allah. In my view I believe that Allah is a god of justice. Therefore this problem of evil in Islamic seems to be complex questions. In the book of Zabur “Evils have encompassed me without number” (Psalm "Zabur” 40:12, RSV) As we argue Zarathustra ...

‘Name’

‘Instructor’s Name’ ‘Hills Like White elephants’, written by Ernest Hemingway, is one of those rare stories which does not fall under any of the plot category prescribed by Christopher Booker. The style was unconventional for its time, and the entire plot revolves around a conversation between a man and a woman, who embark on an argument regarding the necessity of an operation. The man referred as American is trying to convince his female companion to undergo an operation. The American repeatedly says that it is up to her to decide on it but he says that rather unconvincingly, and is ...

An unknown author in the 14th-century wrote “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. “Arthurian” stories. It takes place during the Christmas holiday that King Arthur and his subjects are celebrating. It’s a celebrating that is taking place in the prime of their life, “the happiest under heaven.” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) This mood is interrupted when a strange visitor, The Green Knight Arrives riding a green horse. The purpose of this essay is to establish is the Greene Knight is an evil character, or villain as will be the term used throughout this analysis. We will try to ...

Japanese horror films through the years had made astounding contribution to the movie industry and to the horror genre in particular. One of the notable directors of great Japanese horror flicks is Kurosawa Kiyoshi who is often compared to Andrei Tarkovsky and Stanley Kubrick in terms of directing style and influence. Most of his films are focused on ho a general society affects an individual and how the society also reacts to adverse irrational and disintegrated social mechanisms. Japanese horror movies are not typical to the usual western made fright movies. As observed from many western horrors movies, they incorporate ...

“Saint Helene” by Alice Hoffman is a fascinating, moving and sad story. Through a variety of literary techniques such as characterisation, viewpoint and language, Hoffman shows us the effects that tragedy can have on a person and on the people around them. More importantly, however, is the way in which the author has explored the unpredictable nature of grief and of how people handle it in different ways.

“Saint Helene” is written in third person narrative and the view point switches several times throughout the story. This is fairly unusual in a short story as authors tend to stick to the point of ...

Abstract

In this essay, two Renaissance paintings are compared in terms of their form, subject matter, and content. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Raphael's Madonna and Child are both seen to have incredible depictions of contemplative, enigmatic women interacting with nature, thus indicating a serenity with their surroundings. However, while the Mona Lisa directs her attention to the audience, inviting them to revel in her beauty and the glory of nature, Madonna and Child directs that same serenity and beauty from the woman onto the baby and the book that she is holding. This indicates a slight separation from nature, while ...