Michael Stultz, M.A.
eNotes Educator
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About
~ Writer, Editor, Educator ~ Father of three ~ Cyclist
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
Act 4, scene 1 is supposed to be a wedding scene, but the actions of men turn the scene close to tragedy. The sociologist Talcott Parson says there are two types of gender roles in marriage: total... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
The scene is rarely shown on stage, so Shakespeare wanted to leave it a mystery. In Roman Polanski's film Macbeth, the third murderer is Ross. Polanski has him arrive late on the scene on... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Macbeth is filled with imagery: visually descriptive figurative language. There are many types: Heaven vs. Hell: "I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Holden suffers deeply from survivor's guilt. He laments his brother Allie's death, saying it should have been him to have died instead. Much of the novel is a rant against being left... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
In comedies, most characters are round, stock, static archetypes. There is the clown, the villain, the overprotective father, the dreamer, etc... The only dynamic characters in Much Ado About... -
Answered a Question in The Color Purple
First of all, racism is downplayed in the novel. Sexism is much more prevalent. The exception is Sophia's run-in with the Mayor and his wife, Miss Millie. Few of the characters in the... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
Oedipus is a classic tragic hero, an alazon, an imposter who sees himself greater than he really is. He decides to be judge, jury, prosecution, and defense against the criminal who is... -
Answered a Question in Literary Terms
Symbolism is the broad category and allegory is under it in hierarchy. Anything in literature can be a symbol, and any symbol can have a wide range of meanings and interpretations. It's... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Hamlet is being satirical here. He says he knows an angel that can read Claudius' mind. Though a soul trapped in Purgatory, and not an angel, Hamlet's supernatural source is, of course,... -
Answered a Question in Othello
The storm is a kind of pathetic fallacy that mirrors the jealous storm that will brew inside Othello once on Cyprus. There is much geographical symbolism in the play: Venice is represented by... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Holden calls it a people-hunting hat. It's like the one Elmer Fudd uses to hunt Bugs Bunny, a black comedic symbol of passive aggressive behavior. It parallels the canon that Holden... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Macduff is the hero of the play, the only loyal thane Macbeth does not kill. His arrival foreshadows the confrontation he will later have with Macbeth in Act V. His knocking on the gate... -
Answered a Question in The Awakening
What is a woman's role in society conflict with her identity and freedom? In what ways are a mother's duty divided and marginalized between herself, her children, and her husband? How is a woman's... -
Answered a Question in Invisible Man
Than yam vendor knows the Inivisible Man is from the South, as the yam is a symbol of Southern soul food. The narrator is in New York (Harlem, cold and bitter. After he bites into the... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
The bell is a form of auditory imagery and an offstage theatrical device to signal a passing of passing of time. Bells are rung at the stroke of midnight and at dawn. Here, the bell... -
Answered a Question in Antigone
Oedipus is the prototypical tragic hero, according to Aristotle in The Poetics. Aristotle has little to say about the play Antigone, which presents at least two primary tragic heroes: Creon... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
I agree with you. I teach paradoxes as sentences and oxymorons as word pairs, but I think the differences may be negligible. They are part of the same branch of equivocal language. All... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
1. He is old for a fisherman. It's a young man's business. The younger fisherman have taunted him for being so unlucky for 84 straight days. But, the young fisherman fish... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Walter Sr. is a poor farmer who is too proud to take charity. When he hires Atticus to represent him in his entailment (a property inheritance case), he cannot pay him in cash; so he pays him... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Women in Elizabethan England and medieval Italy were little more than domestic servants who were at the whim of their fathers, then husbands. Marriages were arranged and accounts were... -
Answered a Question in Othello
I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that lov'd not wisely but... -
Answered a Question in A Lesson before Dying
The novel is set in bayou country, Louisiana during the 1940s. This was a pivotal time in America: a time of war abroad and in the South (for civil rights). The Jim Crow era was a time... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Their relationship is based on reputation. Cassio says his reputation is the immortal part of himself: basically his soul. Othello likewise wrests his reputation upon a magic... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
I assume you mean within the play of Hamlet? Hamlet is the hero of the main plot against Claudius and in the following subplot conflicts with 1) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; 2) Polonius; 3)... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Old Man in the Sea can be read as metafiction: fiction about fiction. In this sense, Hemingway (the author) is the Old Man, Santiago. Manolin is the next generation of writers, those... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
His most famous speech comes in Chapter 28: Whenever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Whenever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there . . . . I'll be in the way guys... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Diction is not simply word choice. It is a total package of the author's language that conveys mood, attitude, style, and dialect. So says Bedford St. Martins: A writer’s choice of words,... -
Answered a Question in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets
Songs and Sonnets is a collection of metaphysical poetry by the young John Donne. It can be found online at http://www.luminarium.org/editions/songsandsonnets.htm. Enotes says, We do... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Macbeth (unnatural) vs. the Witches (supernatural, fate, time): Macbeth wants to know the worst news from the worst sources. He certainly in abusing their prophecies and subverting nature and... -
Answered a Question in Battle Royal; or, The Invisible Man
"The Battle Royal" is the first chapter from the would-be novel Invisible Man. Ellison first wrote it as a short story, and then added a transition ending when he included it in the novel.... -
Answered a Question in The Glass Menagerie
Glass swan and other menagerie animals Yearbook with program inside Cigarettes and matches Folded newspaper Typewriter, table, chairs, charts 3 dinner plates: beans, bread, forks Ashtray Alarm... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Here's the full passage in context: He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they... -
Answered a Question in 1984
These are all paradoxes, examples of doublespeak, or conscious lies. The Department of Defense is really the department of War. The Central Intelligence Agency is really the Central Spying... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
King Hamlet and Prince Hamlet are foils, so there are more differences than similarities. Many interpret King Hamlet to be the vengeful God "Yahweh" from the Old Testament and Prince Hamlet... -
Answered a Question in English Literature
There are two types of comedies: high and low. High comedy has two types: comedy of ideas and comedy of manners. Farce comedy is a combination of high and low comedy. Low comedy... -
Answered a Question in Metaphors
Here's the poem: I'm a riddle in nine syllables, An elephant, a ponderous house, A melon strolling on two tendrils. O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers! This loaf's big with its yeasty rising. Money's... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
At the end of the scene, he is determined. He says, "I am settled and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat." He knows he must put on an act for the King and thanes. He... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Here's a list of Holden's phonies, those who are materialistic, hypocritical, and otherwise dishonest: A. “Phonies” 1. Glad-handing adults (headmaster) 2. Over-sexed teens (Stradlater) 3.... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield imagines moving out West and pretending he's a deaf-mute: I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes...That way I wouldn't have to have any goddamn... -
Answered a Question in Othello
"Faith" comes from the Anglo-French "feid," from Latin "fidēs," which means "trust" and "confidence." In Latin, "bona fide" means "in good faith," or honest intention. "Faith" is mentioned 21... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
The exam is about ancient Egyptians, and they are a symbol of people stuck in the past, just like Holden. Throughout the novel, Holden is obsessed with things stuck: the ducks in Central Park, the... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
The Ghost appears to Marcellus and Bernardo in Act I.i. It does not speak. It exits and re-enters (does that count as a separate appearance?) Then it exits again. The Ghost... -
Answered a Question in Girl
According to eNotes, it is a short story. I think it tries to avoid classification. Many critics call "Girl" prose poetry or a lyrical vignette. Prose poem: Work in prose that has some... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
To the ancient Greeks, drama was a religious experience. These festivals were in honor of Dionysis, god of fertility and merrymaking. The theater was a church. The Chorus were... -
Answered a Question in A Jury of Her Peers
Minnie Wright is treated like the caged bird: she is imprisoned and isolated in a marriage, the subject of her husband's verbal and emotional abuse. John Wright treats his wife like a domestic... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Blood/Death imagery is the dominant device: "dagger"; "thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,"; "It is the bloody business"; "wither'd murder," Heaven/Hell Imagery: "That summons thee to heaven or... -
Answered a Question in The Glass Menagerie
In Act I, Tom says: Yes, I have tricks up my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
Many students get off topic when they discuss Oedipus' fate using events that happen before the play begins. This leads to simple determinism and fatalism, not to mention mere plot summary.... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
The key teacher is his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini. Whereas Spencer encountered Holden at the beginning of his episodic adventure, Mr. Antolini finds Holden toward the end, at his... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
The "closet scene" is the turning point in the play. This scene reveals Hamlet's Oedipus complex. Hamlet is in her closet, beside her bed. To have a bed on stage in a Shakespeare...
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