Clemmie Ullrich

Polonius is angry while the play is being performed due to Hamlet's behaviour. While he is attempting to act insane, Hamlet throws many veiled insults at Polonius and sexual innuendo's at...

In his 1951 article "Time and Eternity in Indian Thought," Eliade creates a distinction between sacred time (i.e., an intemporal time where all myths take place) and profane time (i.e., a linear...

Sophocles's Antigone demonstrates men's efforts to diminish women’s role in society by highlighting the complex gender relations within classical Athens. The main conflict within the play is...

In chapter 4 of Laurie Anderson's Fever 1793, Mr. Carris asserts that the illness that is beginning to spread around Philadelphia is being caused by "the heap of rotting coffee beans on Ball's...

Greek and Roman temples share many architectural similarities due to the influence of the Hellenic world on Roman culture. Greece colonized southern Italy between the 8th and 5th centuries BCE,...

One conflict that is caused by the discovery of the bottomless hole is the argument between the concessionaire and the villagers about filling the hole with nuclear waste. The villagers are...

Two situations that reveal key insights into the villagers' culture and society are the destruction and consequent reconstruction of the shrine and their attempts to fill the bottomless hole. The...

Some important quotes from canto 20 of Dante's Inferno are listed below. This canto explores the eternal punishment of the Diviners, or prophets and fortune-tellers: Who now were willing, he had...

The Story of an Hour is a fittingly concise short story by Kate Chopin, published in Vogue on December 6th, 1894. Due to the succinct nature of the short story, there is no explicit year in which...

When considering Aristotle's theory of the mean, it is important to remember that only virtues (e.g., courage, generosity, or civility) are able to be found through calculating the mean between...

Aristotle's theory of the mean emphasizes that virtue is often found between the extremes of excess and deficiency—that is, that courage can be found as the mean of cowardice (a deficiency of...

It is anachronistic and often counterproductive to view Greek mythology through the modern lens of moral allegory. While such stories did exist in the ancient world, like Aesop's Fables which are...

Most chapters in Braiding Sweetgrass involve an anecdote from Kimmerer's personal and professional life in addition to a lesson that Kimmerer has learnt from another species. Some of the prominent...

Kimmerer uses many Indigenous myths throughout Braiding Sweetgrass, both in order to demonstrate the foundational philosophies of the Indigenous worldview and to reinforce themes such as...

Kimmerer identifies many problems within Braiding Sweetgrass, the most pressing of which is our current climate crisis. Climate change is not only threatening human welfare and prosperity but is...

In his poem “My Parents,” Spender structures his stanzas as three quatrains, resulting in three stanzas consisting of four lines each. It is two lines short of a sonnet, and its structure does not...

A novel analysis is a difficult essay form to master, but as a baseline it is important to remember that a novel analysis should contain three core components: thematic analysis, textual analysis,...

John Green's Turtle's All the Way Down is rich in the use of simile, particularly in order to explain an individual's lived experience and emotions. One such simile touches on love, a central theme...

Furor and its antithesis, pietas, are both themes that pervade the entirety of Virgil's Aeneid. Although furor is often directly translated into English as rage, this literal translation misses...

Memory was of imperative cultural importance in Archaic Greece, since it was linked with the afterlife and immortality. The primary factor that motivated Achaean heroes such as Achilles, kleos or...

Heart of Darkness is a novel that lends itself to many different literary theories due to its complex thematic exploration of race, gender, class, and colonialism. One of the most commonly applied...

There were many political, economic, and demographical circumstances that led to European expansion across the Atlantic into the so-called New World, although the exact catalysts will vary from...

No Sugar by Jack Davis tackles a particularly horrific time in Australian history, exploring the Aboriginal experience in the Great Depression throughout the 1930s. The postcolonial context of the...

Joan of Arc is an important figure in many different aspects of culture. She has been canonised by the Catholic Church and remains a prominent symbol of religious freedom and devotion. Her bravery...

Jealousy is one of the primary themes explored in Shakespeare's Othello, and it affects not only the eponymous character but almost every character in the play. It is also tightly interlinked with...

Mill's understanding of morality is one that is fundamentally grounded in happiness. Thus, through his conception of utility or the Greatest Happiness Principle, Mill posits that the right conduct...

Act 1, scene 1, lines 36–80 demonstrates the growing tensions in Rome during the late Republican period, in the wake of civil war. Murellus and Flavius chastise the plebeians they encounter who are...

Act II, scene I, lines 301–330 is best separated into two distinct parts. Lines 301–318 take place in the domestic realm and are focused on the inter-personal relationship between Brutus and his...

Marlow's choice to lie to Kurtz's fiancée about his now infamous last words ("The horror! The horror!") is a pivotal scene in Heart of Darkness. However, in order to understand the significance...

One of the aspects that defines Shakespeare's oeuvre is his unique and often extended use of the play within a play motif. This motif appears in many of Shakespeare's plays, most notably in Hamlet...

The way in which Classical Athenians interpreted the "bond of blood" is very different from the modern Western view of family ties. With new genetic research, we now know that the sperm and egg...

There are two instances in his life in which Oedipus seeks out the Delphic Oracle. On the first visit, Oedipus goes to the Oracle himself because he has heard rumors that he is not the true son of...

In act 2, scene 3, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby are drunkenly amusing themselves until Feste arrives and they ask him to play a love song for them. The song Feste sings foreshadows the happy romantic...

Deception and social class are some of the fundamental themes at the heart of what Fitzgerald explores in The Great Gatsby, while symbolism pervades the entire text and is ultimately what enables...

Personally, I think the most arresting example of Agamemnon's return from Troy in Homer's Odyssey comes from Book 11, when Odysseus descends to the land of the dead. In this Book, Odysseus speaks...

The Great Chain of Being was a theological theory first posited in Medieval England. The theory, which was inspired by earlier ideas from classical philosophers like Plato, held that every element...

Many believe that Romeo and Juliet has been Shakespeare's most influential work when it comes to popular culture. Because of this, it is easy to find ten songs which have either been influenced by...

Book 5 is a tumultuous Book for Odysseus, as he leaves Calypso's island only to be struck by a storm sent by Poseidon. However, Athena guides Odysseus, who was saved by his magical scarf, to the...

The Industrial Revolution is a unique time period in history, in the undeniable way that it single-handedly formed much of the Western world we know today. Spreading across continental Europe and...

An important part of unravelling Marlow's meaning in this quote is its second half. The full quote should read, "[Kurtz's] appetite for more ivory had got the better of—what shall I say?—less...

Medea is a complex character in that she shares many similarities and differences with other Ancient Greek women of the time period. It should be noted that although Medea is technically set in...

The curse that Polyphemus casts down upon Odysseus as he leaves the Cyclopes' Island is an event around which the entire plot of the Odyssey hinges. However, Polyphemus is only able to inflict this...