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About
Ian Clark is a PhD candidate in English and American Literature at Washington University in St. Louis.
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Waiting for Godot
It is worth noting that the repetitive parallelism of the play's two acts has at least some variation in it. For instance, in the second act, the tree has sprouted some leaves, and Pozzo has... -
Answered a Question in The Playboy of the Western World
First of all, let us define the meaning of the word "playboy" in this context. In contemporary terms, a playboy is a wealthy and privileged man who spends time enjoying life, and he is often... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
It's also worth considering how Jem and Scout learn about the broader inequalities of their community during the course of the novel. In addition to the inequalities inherent in the racism central... -
Answered a Question in Dubliners
In addition to the possible theses outlined in the other answer to this question, it's worth considering building a thesis around the absence of father figures in these three stories. Indeed,... -
Answered a Question in The Wife of Bath's Tale
The other answers to this question do a great job of foregrounding the historical context that the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale respond to. With that context in mind, it's interesting to think... -
Answered a Question in Gulliver's Travels
It's also worth noting the significance of Gulliver's physical appearance in Part 1, as Swift is playing with physical perspectives to drive home satiric points in the first two parts of the novel.... -
Answered a Question in Heart of Darkness
Another significant change is Marlow's perception of civilization and civilized human beings. As the other answers to this question suggest, Marlow begins as a young man with an idealistic view of... -
Answered a Question in Waiting for Godot
As the cited link below this answer points out, the theatre of the absurd is drama that highlights human existence as an absurd affair, and it primarily does so by dispensing with realistic,... -
Answered a Question in Essays
The other answers to this question do a good job of describing what a thesis is, so I don't think I'll need to outline that concept further. However, I do think that there are some other points... -
Answered a Question in To the Lighthouse
I'd like to expand upon the other answer to this question by looking at time's power to outlast human life in the famous "Time Passes" section. Here, Woolf focuses on how the passage of time... -
Answered a Question in General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
The other answer to this question does a really good job of providing a wide range of all the many ways that Chaucer characterizes his protagonists. I'd like to add one more feature of... -
Answered a Question in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
In addition to other ideas posited by the excellent answers to this question, it's worth considering that the narrative of Portrait is representing several different "kinds" of Stephens. More... -
Answered a Question in Dubliners
As the other answer to this question suggests, Joyce does not use stream of consciousness narration in Dubliners; he uses that technique most famously in his later novel Ulysses, which depicts the... -
Answered a Question in The Canterbury Tales
As the other questions note, there isn't any one character in The Canterbury Tales called "The Pilgrim," as the poem is an account of many pilgrims, the stories they tell, and the ways they... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
In thinking about what the characters in The Great Gatsby might "represent," it is important to remember that they are not mere symbols without any kind of human agency. That said,... -
Answered a Question in Mrs. Dalloway
The concepts of extremism and fundamentalism are most thoroughly explored through the character of Miss Doris Kilman. Miss Kilman is presented as a poor, unattractive woman who is a devout... -
Answered a Question in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
It might be worth looking at "I Could See the Smallest Things" in a little more detail, though one of the other answers to the question addresses that story, as well. In "Smallest Things," a... -
Answered a Question in Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf is often recognized as a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness, but to simply make that observation is not quite enough. Indeed, Woolf's writing style differs quite... -
Answered a Question in Mrs. Dalloway
Time (and the passage of time) is one of the most important themes in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. More specifically, the novel is largely about middle-aged people thinking about their youth and... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
As the other answer to this question points out, the only figure of speech not included in Hamlet's soliloquy is chiasmus (which refers to a figure of speech in which words or grammatical... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Another piece of historical context to keep in mind when reading Romeo and Juliet is the rising popularity of the rapier and the Italian dueling style in England at the end of the... -
Answered a Question in Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Almost every stanza of Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night" invokes some aspect of the natural world. The "frail deeds" of good men "might have danced in a green bay" (7-8), "wild... -
Answered a Question in Mrs. Dalloway
Specifically, I think you could approach a Marxist reading of Mrs. Dalloway by analyzing Clarissa Dalloway's relationship to Miss Kilman. A working single woman who scrapes by financially... -
Answered a Question in Dulce et Decorum Est
This is actually a tough question, because much of the change and transformation in the poem is rather abstract. In "Dulce et Decorum Est," Wilfred Owen chronicles the effects of a WWI gas attack,... -
Answered a Question in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The other response to this question does a great job of explaining Ichabod's major characteristics and how they fit into the context of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." It is also worth dwelling on... -
Answered a Question in The Canterbury Tales
The narrator of The Canterbury Tales, also known as Chaucer the Pilgrim, meets all of his fellow travelers at the Tabard Inn, as this is the starting point of their pilgrimage to Canterbury. Among... -
Answered a Question in The Merchant of Venice
Traditionally, a comedy is loosely referred to a narrative with a happy ending (that's why Dante's Divine Comedy, though it has plenty of unhappy moments in the Inferno portion, is called a comedy... -
Answered a Question in The Tempest
One of the ways that Shakespeare's The Tempest is different from his other major works is that it seems to deal most directly with the concept of colonialism. Many scholars, for instance, have seen... -
Answered a Question in The Rape of the Lock
Alexander Pope's famous poem The Rape of the Lock is not only a wonderful satire, but also a valuable illustration of the upper class society of Pope's day (remember that Pope published the final... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Though the armor worn by King Hamlet's ghost is a small detail, it actually serves an important role in the play. First of all, the armor worn by King Hamlet's ghost signifies that the ghost is on... -
Answered a Question in The Canterbury Tales
The Tabard Inn is the starting point for the pilgrims' journey to Canterbury. Traditionally, the Tabard is meant to be located in Southwark and the beginning of the road leading to Canterbury. In... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
When Shakespeare's Macbeth begins, Macbeth is a noble and courageous military leader. He's defeated the King of Norway and the treacherous Macdonwald in a decisive battle, and for his... -
Answered a Question in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
This is a tough question to answer, as Ichabod Crane could be considered both a hero and an anti-hero. On the one hand, he's something of a lovable underdog: while Washington Irving describes him... -
Answered a Question in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is chiefly concerned with describing the development of Stephen Dedalus not only as a young man, but also as a writer and an artist. In many... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
The representations of colonialism in Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness differ in a major way. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad depicts colonialism as a violent force... -
Answered a Question in Ozymandias
This is a great question, as Percy Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" deals a very universal theme: the temporary nature of human existence and all things associated with it. Consider, for instance, that... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
At the beginning of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Scout believe that Boo Radley is a monstrous menace who's been locked away in his family's home to prevent him from... -
Answered a Question in Eveline
In general, the setting of James Joyce's "Eveline" takes place in Dublin at either the end of the 1890s or the beginning of the 1900s. More specifically, the bulk of the story takes place by a... -
Answered a Question in Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
This is a great question, because it gets to the heart of Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbery." As an example of Wordsworth's changing relationship with the natural world,... -
Answered a Question in Riders to the Sea
In writing your essay for this prompt, I would also suggest that you consider the sea as an example of uncertainty, especially the uncertainty of rural life in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th... -
Answered a Question in The Boarding House
The point referenced in the other answer to this question is a very good one, and it certainly pinpoints a climax in the story. However, there is another potential climax in the story or, at the... -
Answered a Question in The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy reveals a lot about human nature, and it's difficult to touch on every single theme, desire, and emotion that Dante's work describes. However, if we look at the central goal... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
Loyalty is an important theme in Beowulf, perhaps one of the most important themes. In particular, we see the idea of loyalty touched on primarily in the loyalty of warriors to their lord.... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
With Scout as the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader can expect to more clearly see the failings, hypocrisies, and flaws of the adult world. Much of the book is about the loss of... -
Answered a Question in The Canterbury Tales
I'm not actually sure if Chaucer disliked any of the pilgrims per se. One of Chaucer's main goals is to represent people from many different classes and social circles, and so he's trying to... -
Answered a Question in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
This is a great question, as it wrestles with a fundamental problem in the text. In the fourth part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight spares Gawain's life, although he... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
There are some key quotes in the trial scene that tell us what actually happened to Mayella Ewell. In Chapter 18, Atticus questions Mayella on the stand, and his questions gradually reveal that... -
Answered a Question in The Merchant of Venice
The main plot of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is the Antonio-Bassanio-Shylock plot, in which the merchant Antonio borrows money from the Jewish moneylender Shylock in order to... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Iago is indeed acting out of jealousy. First of all, he's jealous that Othello passed him up for a promotion and chose to honor Cassio instead. Secondly, he's jealous because he believes that... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
This is a great question, and I would argue that Banquo serves as a foil to Macbeth and helps us more clearly see the mistakes that Macbeth makes. After all, Banquo not only is present for the...
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