Essays on Herman Melville

Introduction

Moby Dick is considered the great American novel. There are many reasons Moby Dick has earned this award, from the accolades of English critics in Melville’s day to the positive commentary by Literary critics and theorists today. Melville was a master of sentence style, and wrote many complex and highly structured sentences in the novel. Likewise, he filled his text with allusions and references to the greatest works of literature, including the Bible, Paradise Lost, King Lear, and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. While all of these elements contribute to the greatness of Moby Dick they are ...

There can be no denial of the fact that literature has always been the mirror of the world society. The creative artists have always delved into the intricacies and subtleties of human life and existence so as to portray them in the literary works. The quintessence of portrayal and the aesthetic as well as affective appeal go on to leave a lasting mark in the hearts of the readers who can only revel at the sheer genius of the creative works. Now, one can very well take into reckoning the works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Franz Kafka, and ...

The term romanticism is “a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). The characteristics of romanticism literature include spontaneity, emphasis on individualism, leading a solitary life than societal life, and being free from rules. This literature was ...

Introduction

The urge to survive and feed our families, stretch us to eke out for a living with our flesh and bones. Caught in the middle of all this is women who though physically do not match their counterparts; the males are pushed to a corner where they have to do the similar works to earn a living. The situation is often worsened when ones husband kick the basket and she has to provide for the family, report to the capitalist “bread” factories whose major interest is to multiply profits and then come back home with the “bread” which is sold ...

The poem “The Martyr” by Herman Melville has left a deep impression on me. It influences the reader from the very first line creating the morose setting and gloomy atmosphere. Furthermore, the author is trying to dip the reader in the times of Jesus Christ taking us back to that dreadful day, when He was crucified. From the very first look in is clear, that the martyr is a simple embodiment of the God’s son because the action of the poem takes place on the Good Friday, the most horrible day in the Bible. Among the literary devices used ...

First of all, the readings showed that the understanding of same-sex relations were completely different in the United States and European countries. Rupp presents more tolerant attitude to romantic and intimate relations of same-sex people. In the article, the author provides an insight to a historical phenomenon of romantic friendship and the peculiarities of its development with time. He describes how the “sexual system” worked and provided some factors that can be a reason for it transformation. One of the most vital points was that the family’s role as an economic unit became less important. The other was that urban ...

In the short story The Tartarus of Maids, author Herman Melville seeks to portray a world that is completely mastered by machinery. Through the story, it is evident that Melville seeks to paint the impact that industrialization had on humanity. The factory and machinery are what is used to symbolically mean the human womb that produces products that are employed and wealthy and at the same time steal the lives and the very souls of the women who happen to be the ones who keep the machinery well oiled( Howard 48). It is therefore clear that the imagery that is ...

We live in a world obsessed with routine. Anyone who tries to do things differently is frowned upon. As such, the only decent thing to do is to conform. As a result, many people end up feeling alienated. They end up feeling isolated by the world which is supposed to nurture and celebrate them. Consequently, their true identity is not discovered. Despite these events, all is not lost. Some literature authors have realized this problem, and they have dared to be different. They have walked paths which not so many people have walked and changed the way the society thinks. Although ...

A comparison between two ‘black sheep’

A Hunger Artist and Bartleby 2 Abstract There are certain people with strange behaviors that are usually out of conception for others in their vicinity. There are two short stories- A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka and Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville which depict the stories of two peculiar characters. Both were stuck with something painful or strange in their lives and refused completely to behave normally or in any compliance with the society. Both the characters had their reasons. And hence, no one could try reasoning with them successfully. This short essay illuminates the comparison ...

"Bartleby the Scrivener" and Germinal - The Virtue of Refusing Labor The relationship of man to his labor is tied inextricably to his relationship with society; the way in which he handles the responsibilities given to him is often a reflection of how he reacts to the world around him. When man chooses to stop his work, it is often in resistance to a particular set of circumstances or events: for example, the way labor is rewarded in a society. If it is insufficient, either monetarily or metaphysically, one may simply decide to stop working. This relationship is often explored in ...

The romantic school of American literature was formed by the turn of the second and the third decade of the XIX century. The beginnings of American romanticism are to do with the “American dream” – dream about free, just and happy society. The writers of that time were disappointed with the post-revolutionary development of the country. They start seeking for romantic ideal that could oppose the inhuman reality and remain outside the everyday bourgeois practice. This ideal could differ in every writer’s works, but what there is one feature, that makes them alike, and that is idealization of the ...

On reading Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd it becomes obvious that the story’s implications reach greatly beyond that of a simple tale of a mutiny and hanging at sea. The story is provocatively double layered, heavy in its symbolism and meaning, in which the author’s interest rests, among other things, on a clash of conscience and law, on a never ending war between the individual and the society, the vulnerability of innocence and the final question of whether the readers are to condemn captain Vere for his decision or to respect him. This idea is closely intertwined with the question ...

The most obvious theme in the Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a Fly buzz is the theme of death and mortality which is clear in the first stanza of the poem “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died the fly in these case is omnipresent. The theme of death and mortality is also presented in "Because I could not stop for Death –" and "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain". The poem has a metre and a ballad structure.

The room is silent – stillness has been emphasized to show how silent the room was. There is "stillness in the air," and the ...

Abstract

Symbolism can be defined as the use of a person; thing or place to act as a representation of something else that is wider and mostly out of reach. The purpose of use of symbolism by authors is to be objective but still clinging to the subject of their views. However, there cannot be an obligation on the similarity on the use of symbols. This is because some symbols represent open things while others require a comprehensive elaboration.

Moby dick is a novel written by Herman Melville and was published in 1851. The book is about a traveler’s experience at the sea during ...