Patrick Dennis
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192
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
In Mark Twain's satirical novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the characters of Morgan le Faye and Hank Morgan share a number of similarities, despite their very different... -
Answered a Question in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
In Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hank continually works toward specific goal: if he cannot return to the nineteenth century, he will make the sixth century like... -
Answered a Question in The History of the Middle East
At various points throughout its millennium-long history, the Ottoman Empire controlled vast areas of territory. The Ottoman Empire reached its greatest westward extent in the seventeenth... -
Answered a Question in Philosophy
While Confucius wrote at a time and place different from those of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, much of his thoughts relate closely with the three Greek thinkers. In his Analects, Confucius... -
Answered a Question in History
Sir Thomas More, much like the utopian writers who followed him, wrote Utopia as a response to the prevailing social, economic, and political systems of the period. Writing during the reign... -
Answered a Question in The Cold War
In the Cold War, the two opposing "sides" were Communist countries, particularly the Soviet Union and China, and the United States and other democracies. While the Cold War manifested itself... -
Answered a Question in Industrialization and Captains of Industry
The process of industrialization, though complex, can be divided into three distinct phases. The first phases consists in a division of labor. Doing so allows not only for the... -
Answered a Question in William Shakespeare
In "All the World's a Stage," the narrator relates the story of life, framing it into the seven ages (stages) of life. The narrator moves from the infant of the first age, to the... -
Answered a Question in Utopia
Though Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia almost five hundred years ago, its relevance for the modern world remains as meaningful as it did for More's own society. While it is true that the... -
Answered a Question in Utopia
In Sir Thomas More's Utopia, he emphasizes the importance of word choice and word meanings into the work. The title of the work is indicative of this. In the original Greek, the word... -
Answered a Question in Utopia
In Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the society he outlines embodies many of the ideas associated with socialist systems. Everyone in society has a defined role within the society. ... -
Answered a Question in The Prince
In The Prince, Machiavelli draws from a variety of examples to demonstrate his points. He cites historical texts and authors, but he also discusses the feats of historical figures to... -
Answered a Question in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Though it was his initial aim to present a tale of King Arthur and his knights, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain instead rails against what he perceived to be injustices... -
Answered a Question in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
In Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hank continually works toward specific goal: if he cannot return to the nineteenth century, he will make the sixth century like... -
Answered a Question in A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
In the novel A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, Henry II is not abusive toward Eleanor of Aquitaine in any physical sense. That being said, he and Eleanor do not always get along. ... -
Answered a Question in A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
In the novel A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, the author presents the life of one of the twelfth century's most charismatic figures: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor of Aquitaine was... -
Answered a Question in History
Being quite a vast topic, world history affords a historian a number of different approaches with which to study it. Perhaps the most common approach to history is the definition of... -
Answered a Question in History
Though the printing press was invented by Johann Gutenberg around 1455, it did not begin to make its mark in the literary world until the sixteenth and seventeenth... -
Answered a Question in History
This is a very good question. Written in 1776 near the outset of the American Revolution, the style of the Declaration of Independence reflects the sense of urgency of the time and place it... -
Answered a Question in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
In Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hank continually works toward specific goal: if he cannot return to the nineteenth century, he will make the sixth century like... -
Answered a Question in History
Throughout the history of philosophy, thinkers have speculated about the nature of the ideal society. Their solutions say as much about the nature of the philosopher as they do about the... -
Answered a Question in History
England's Charles I (r.1625-1649) is in many ways an infamous ruler in English history. In a manner similar to Louis XIV in France (r.1642-1715), Charles I embodied the idea of an absolute... -
Answered a Question in William Shakespeare
Ich habe nicht im Deutsch in einer langen Zeit geschrieben. Bitte, tragen Sie mit mir. Wenn Shakespeare hat "Some people are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have their... -
Answered a Question in William Shakespeare
In the sixteenth century, witchcraft was certainly perceived to be a reality. People throughout society believed witchcraft existed and was being practiced to varying extents. That... -
Answered a Question in William Shakespeare
Though William Shakespeare could not be considered a historian by modern standards, he incorporates a great deal of history into his work. The way in which does so, however, tends to be more... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
Written near the close of the sixteenth century, Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus reflects the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance characteristic of this period in Northern... -
Answered a Question in 1984
In George Orwell's 1984, the objective of the Party is quite simple: control. Though the Party seeks to achieve this goal in a number of ways, they are... -
Answered a Question in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In the fourteenth-century alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the different characters, particularly the protagonist Sir Gawain, find themselves involved in a series of bargains, or... -
Answered a Question in Robinson Crusoe
In the early eighteenth century, writers such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, spurrred on largely by the Cook's exploration in the South Pacific, set their stories in the exotic locales about... -
Answered a Question in History
In many of the early accounts of life in the New World, the reliability of the narrator often comes into question. Much of this uncertainty stems from the largely Eurocentric perspective of... -
Answered a Question in The Name of the Rose
In Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, the author portrays a pivotal period in the history of scientific thought. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (the novel is set in... -
Answered a Question in Tartuffe
In Moliere's seventeenth-century farce Tartuffe, the playwright does not formally introduce the title character until the second scene of the third act. Writers sometimes use this method,... -
Answered a Question in Richard III
In order to approach an understanding of whether Gloucester's character in Shakespeare's Richard III qualifies as a villain, the term "villain" requires a bit of clarification. When a... -
Answered a Question in Richard III
In Shakespeare's Richard III, Richard (called Gloucester throughout much of the play) is a singular character in a number of ways. From the very first act, Richard is portrayed as a... -
Answered a Question in Richard III
In Richard III, Richard uses a variety of tactics to achieve his ultimate goal, the English throne. His tactics vary primarily according to the characters with which he interacts. ... -
Answered a Question in Richard III
Though Richard III is one of Shakespeare's most well-known history plays, the history of Richard III's reign, as well as the depiction of his character plays a very pointed role... -
Answered a Question in Oliver Goldsmith
In "The Village Schoolmaster," Oliver Goldsmith (c.1728-1774) presents a vivid picture of a certain schoolmaster. With each line, the reader peels away the layers of the schoolmaster's... -
Answered a Question in Animal Farm
In the Old Major's speech in Chapter I of Animal Farm, he declares early in the speech that he had a dream the night before. While he refrains from referencing it directly throughout the... -
Answered a Question in Animal Farm
The animals, led by Napoleon and the other pigs, take control of the farm during Chapter II. Once the animals have seized control, Napoleon and the other pigs begin the task of consolidating... -
Answered a Question in Animal Farm
When Animal Farm opens, the reader is introduced to Manor Farm and Mr. Jones, its owner. When Mr. Jones goes to bed in a drunken stupor, the animals of the farm gather to hear the Old Major's... -
Answered a Question in Animal Farm
In the opening of George Orwell's Animal Farm, the Old Major gives a speech in which he discusses the "state" of England. He presents the audience with a set of questions: "What is the... -
Answered a Question in Jonathan Swift
While Oliver Goldsmith and Jonathan Swift were both satirists, they targeted different aspects of society in their works. Goldsmith, like Swift, mocks the society of his day, but his... -
Answered a Question in The Prince
Machiavelli's The Prince is set presumably during his own lifetime (1469-1527). Machiavelli does provide the reader with a number of clues to suggest this. Two of his favorite examples,... -
Answered a Question in The Prince
In The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli goes to great lengths to illustrate the different kinds of kingdoms a prince may acquire and the relative advantages to each of them. Machiavelli begins his... -
Answered a Question in The Prince
Machiavelli discusses the prince's acquisition of power in relation to the acquisition of territories. He draws a distinction between hereditary and composite principalities. The... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
When Atticus praises Jem by telling her she has "perpetrated a near libel," his praise is ironic because libel is a criminal act. To commit libel is to publish a statement intended to defame... -
Answered a Question in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets
When John Donne writes "Whatever dies was not mixed equally," he draws upon views of nature which had their origins in the ancient world by way of the Middle Ages. The most important of these... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
Most critics agree that the Renaissance marked the reemergence of and a revival of interest in classical learning. It generally characterizes the period between the fourteenth century and the... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
The character of Doctor Faustus certainly coincides well with the tragic flaw theory of character development. From the opening lines, the reader already gets a sense that Faustus has... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
In Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe does not present a hell where the guest list is already determined. One's descent into hell is ultimately a voluntary decision. Doctor Faustus, in...
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