William Delaney
eNotes Educator
Achievements
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Answers Posted
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About
I'm a freelance writer, editor, and independent scholar. I have written several hundred essays, articles, and reviews for academic publishers like Magill's and Salem Press. I have also published eighteen peer-reviewed articles in The Explicator, a literary journal. At one time, it was my job to read and report on hundreds of screenplays, treatments, proposals, stories, and novels submitted to prominent Hollywood agents and producers for possible motion picture adaptation.
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in King Lear
This line is spoken by Edmund at the very end of Scene 3 in Act 3. It is a wonderful closing line. It expresses succinctly what the play is really all about--and what the world is all about.... -
Answered a Question in King Lear
These words, spoken by Edmund just before he goes to betray his father to the Duke of Cornwall, may well be the most important in the play. These seven words sum up what the play is really about.... -
Answered a Question in A Modest Proposal
What is particularly unusual and effective about "A Modest Proposal" is the way the author adopts the attitude that you, the reader, are such a hard-hearted, insensitive person that you will take... -
Answered a Question in King Lear
When Lear wakes up and finds himself in his daughter Cordelia's tender care, he uses one of Shakespeare's most brilliant metaphors: You do me wrong to take me out o' the' grave. Thou are a soul in... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
It has been suggested that Montresor is confessing to a priest. It has also been suggested that he is writing a letter to a friend. There are other possible answers to the many questions about the... -
Answered a Question in Death of a Salesman
WILLY: His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he’d drummed merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he’d go up to his room, y’understand, put on his green velvet... -
Answered a Question in Death of a Salesman
In Act 2 Willy goes to see his boss Howard to ask to be transferred to a local territory in which he wouldn't have to spend so many hours just driving. He is wearing out his car, and his car is... -
Answered a Question in The World Is Too Much with Us
This line is particularly effective because of the assonance of the "ow" sounds in "howling" and "hours." It's also powerful because of the contrast between the calm winds at present—"up-gathered... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Macbeth and his wife plot to murder King Duncan while they have him sleeping under their roof for the first and probably the only time. They talk as if Duncan’s death will somehow automatically... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
Fortunato accompanies Montresor all the way to his palazzo, down into his catacombs, and along winding corridors to the niche where he is imprisoned. During all that time he never asks any of the... -
Answered a Question in The Red-Headed League
One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's many problems in plotting "The Red-Headed League" must have been with regard to Jabez Wilson's possible discovery of what was going on right under his feet in his... -
Answered a Question in The Last Leaf
Old Behrman is a good example of how a skillful fiction writer will create characters to suit the needs of his plot. This tends to make both the plot and the character seem more realistic. O.... -
Answered a Question in The Possibility of Evil
Miss Adela Strangeworth writes what used to be commonly called "poison pen letters." The term is not heard often nowadays, but there is a great deal of poison pen e-mail on the Internet. Wikipedia... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Shakespeare was trying to maintain some degree of audience sympathy for Macbeth because this was his tragic hero. He had to put some distance between Macbeth and the murders for the audience to... -
Answered a Question in The Road Not Taken
Many readers have wondered about the road that was not taken. Where did it lead? Why is the speaker still wondering where it led and whether he made the right decision when he took the other road?... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
At the end of Act II, Scene 3, Malcolm and Donalbain both decide to flee for their lives. It is Donalbain who says, "There's daggers in men's smiles. The near in blood, The nearer bloody." Both... -
Answered a Question in The Killers
The kind of writing that can be done. How far prose can be carried if any one is serious enough and has luck. There is a fourth and fifth dimension that can be gotten. Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills... -
Answered a Question in Glengarry Glen Ross
The salesmen in David Mamet's acclaimed play Glengarry Glen Ross are bilking the public by selling them land that could be completely worthless or worth only a fraction of what they paid. It is... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
The three witches like to cause trouble. This is demonstrated at the beginning of Act I, Scene 3. The Second Witch tells the First Witch that she has been killing swine. Evidently, this is just one... -
Answered a Question in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
It is noteworthy that Walter Mitty's fantasies are not totally fantastic, but for one thing they are appropriate to his age. We gather that he must be in his late forties or early fifties. His wife... -
Answered a Question in Julius Caesar
Shakespeare downplays Caesar's ambition right up until the moment he is attacked by the conspirators. In the first two acts of the play Caesar is offstage much more than he is on. When onstage, he... -
Answered a Question in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty has a secret life in which he escapes his boring existence in his imagination. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” James Thurber reveals only five of his character’s daydreams. But... -
Answered a Question in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty is absent-minded. He lives in a world of daydreams. He is not in tune with the modern world in which he actually has to live. Like most absent-minded people he is incompetent to deal... -
Answered a Question in The Open Window
Saki's story opens with the following dialogue: "My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in the meantime you must try and put up with me." It... -
Answered a Question in The Monkey's Paw
We do not need a monkey's paw to make wishes. We are free to make wishes at any time. And some of them come true. Unfortunately, it often turns out that the wishes that do come true result in... -
Answered a Question in The Cop and the Anthem
O. Henry wanted to have Soapy commit a series of petty crimes in the hope of getting arrested and sentenced to spend the harsh winter months in jail. The author saw that these petty crimes would... -
Answered a Question in The Open Window
When Saki was plotting "The Open Window" he must have given considerable thought to creating the character who would tell the spooky story to Framton Nuttel. He chose to give the role to Vera, a... -
Answered a Question in Literature
Vera, the "self-possessed" teenage girl who causes all the excitement in Saki's "The Open Window," and the anonymous twelve-year-old girl who narrates Roald Dahl's "The Umbrella Man," are both... -
Answered a Question in Death of a Salesman
The main reason for Willy's older brother Ben being in the play is that he gives Willy someone to confide in. Stage plays rely heavily on dialogue. If Willy didn't have Ben to talk to about his... -
Answered a Question in King Lear
Shakespeare did not get his greatest themes from ancient Greece or from anywhere but real life. King Lear is a tragedy about old age. Growing old is a tragedy in itself--a tragedy for every man and... -
Answered a Question in The Gift of the Magi
From Della's point of view, her appearance is of less importance to her than her love for her husband, Jim. She is willing to sacrifice what she assumes to be her best feature, her beautiful long... -
Answered a Question in After Twenty Years
Jimmy Wells and "Silky" Bob are so much like the tortoise and the hare in Aesop's well-known fable that it almost seems as if O. Henry wanted to write a modernized version of the story with human... -
Answered a Question in Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket
The protagonist of "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" attains maturity as a result of his terrifying experience out on the narrow ledge eleven dizzying floors above the street. What motivated him... -
Answered a Question in Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket
The opening sentence of "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" shows the primitive way in which many important documents were typed in the days before word processors: At the little living-room desk... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
The Third Murderer may have been introduced primarily to explain something the other two murderers apparently did not know. The First Murderer says His horses go about. He is wondering why Banquo... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
Many readers have complained about the fact that Montresor never offers any examples of the thousand injuries he claims to have suffered. Some readers think Montresor must be insane and only... -
Answered a Question in King Lear
When Lear regains consciousness in Cordelia's tent he thinks he is still dead and that she is an angel. His imagination of being dead and in hell is so vivid that he can still see the instruments... -
Answered a Question in War and Peace
Not only is Tolstoy's War and Peace one of the longest novels ever written, it must surely have been one of the novels most thoroughly revised in manuscript form before publication. According to... -
Answered a Question in On His Blindness
How can a person be serving God by only standing and waiting? Milton compares God to a great king who has thousands of servants to do whatever he orders. ...his State Is Kingly. Thousands at his... -
Answered a Question in Hills Like White Elephants
As early as the 1920s, motion pictures had an strong influence on novelists and short story writers. Some of Ernest Hemingway’s stories are like movies—which explains why so many were adapted to... -
Answered a Question in Lycidas
Milton is translating a statement by the Roman historian Tacitus: Etiam sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima exuitur. (The desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other... -
Answered a Question in As You Like It
Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head... This is a profound insight expressed in a striking simile. It happens very often... -
Answered a Question in The Bet
A troublesome aspect of Chekhov's story "The Bet" is the way the initial argument between the banker and the lawyer evolves into a very different sort of bet. The banker made the following... -
Answered a Question in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a story of romanticism versus realism and as such is characteristic of Ambrose Bierce's cynical outlook on life in general. Peyton Farquhar is a Southern... -
Answered a Question in After Twenty Years
O. Henry's description of Bob's face by the light of his match has a double purpose. First, it is necessary to enable Jimmy to recognize Bob as the man who is wanted by the Chicago police. Second,... -
Answered a Question in The Adventure of the Speckled Band
In the opening of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Watson writes: It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of... -
Answered a Question in The Cop and the Anthem
Soapy has been committing and attempting to commit petty crimes in the hope of being arrested and sentenced to three months in jail. He has been doing the same thing every year in the late fall and... -
Answered a Question in The Red-Headed League
Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, freely acknowledged his deep indebtedness to Edgar Allan Poe, whose tales of ratiocination featuring the amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin, were so... -
Answered a Question in The Red-Headed League
Watson frequently remarks in the Sherlock Holmes detective stories that the great man suffers from ennui when he doesn't have a problem to solve. This is why he sometimes uses drugs such as cocaine... -
Answered a Question in The Adventure of the Speckled Band
One of the things we like best about the Sherlock Holmes stories is being able to identify with the great detective's lifestyle. He does not have to go to work in an office, and he has acquired...
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