Themes in Literature

At first, The Handmaid’s Tale (1986) may purely seem like a reconstruction of events. However, when examined more closely the reader can see that Atwood has used many narrative and poetic techniques. Each of these devices develop the novel into so much more than just a simple reconstruction of events, it becomes a precise and planned piece of work; a documented life experience that slowly unfolds. The reader becomes involved in the story and in Offred’s life; they go through her pain, suffering and occasional joy and trusts what she is telling them to be the truth. Yet, when the novel

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is being compared and contrasted to William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The female characters are oppressed and kept under the control of the men in their lives. In both stories, one being a play and the other a novel, the characters are quite similar in both stories. Both literary works also have similar themes such as improsinment in their place of dwelling corruption of their surroundings and the theme of power. The three main factors that can be compared are the role of women, the characters, and the themes of both literary works.

Through intertextual relationships, detecting the significant differences and transformations between William Shakespeare's play Taming of The Shrew, and Ten Things I Hate About You, a contemporary hollywood film directed by Gil Junger enriches our understandings towards cultural issues through feminist attitudes, social hierarchy and the transformation in sentiments towards love and marriage. Both texts exert compelling issues through different techniques to proclaim to the audience that women during the 16th century were seen as obsequious, however Ten Things I Hate About You, an allusion of Taming of the Shrew, enriches our understanding of these gender role issues by proclaiming that we must reject blatant consumerism. Among this, issues of class and love are explored, and through a historical reading I was able to depict the changes in values and cultures between the production of both texts.

Men being respected and treated highly while women treated with little to no respect because society has pictured women as inferior to men. I strongly disagree with how the society portrayed women in 'Taming of The Shrew.' Portraying the female gender being a weaker gender to the male sex. Even in todays' society, women are still being portrayed as the weaker gender by society and the male gender. 'Kat' is soon to realise the unfairness of how each gender is being treated by society and becomes labeled as a 'Heinous Bitch,' quoted by 'Miss Perky,' for speaking her mind and taking a stand against the person society wants you to be. While young 'Bianca' is still yet to realise the mistake of believing the lies that the society feeds young girls to find what the 'real' meaning of the word "Beautiful." The Misogynist World that was shown in the Movie 'Taming of the Shrew' indicated how both genders were treated in the Elizabethan Era. However in '10 Things I Hate About You' the film displayed the world that appeared to be similar to our traditional society but if you look closely enough, you can see the movie to be ruled by misogynist expectations. Shakespeare grew up in the society where treating women as inferior to the male gender was acceptable but the writers of '10 Things I Hate About You', Karen McCullah Lutz & Kirsten Smith, wrote the film as an

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale are similar in the way that their tales are each addressed to various audiences and the significance of the tales to each of these audiences is shaped by the conditions under which they receive the tale. In a broader sense, the various audiences can be classified into one of two categories. The first of these we will call the immediate audience and it consists of the fictional audience that lives within the same space and time as the storyteller. The second category we will call the audience at large and it includes the contemporary audience of the authors as well as the modern day readers. Each set of work has three types of audience that falls into one of these categories. Dynamically, the three audiences are structured in such a way that they appear to be layered. This layering allows for one group of audience to sometimes shape and/or challenge the expectations of another audience. The complexity of how the role of the audience is explored by both The Canterbury Tales and The Handmaid’s Tale is what allows for the meaning of each tale to expand beyond the narrative.

The Taming of the Shrew was written in the Elizabethan Era in England at a time when men were considered to be superior to women. The patriarchal society of this time is reflected to a large extent in the text and various implications of traditional values can be noted.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, is set in a dystopian society. The government’s main belief is happiness is the result of everyone being equal. The government believes that certain books should be forbidden because those books bring false, individual ideas, which make people unhappy. Guy Montag is just like every other fireman: he does not read the books, just burns them. Then one day, he meets Clarisse, a young girl, that challenges his viewpoint of life. After several conversations with her, he begins to question the government’s ideals. He starts stealing and reading the forbidden books, and he begins to understand the purpose of those books. Montag then meets up with an old friend, and they make plans to start a revolution by

By exploring settings societies governed by political and social patriarchies, both Arthur Miller’s the Crucible and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale provide commentary on women’s role in society. Both texts are set against a backdrop in which women are seen as a ‘second class’ and are subject to male dominance. The similarities in the two texts lie within their separate discussions of gender roles in society, but they differ on the intricacies of this. From a theocratic standpoint, the play and the novel dissect the faults in an oppressive society, with Miller making it abundantly clear that it can in fact be challenged instead of conformed to. Atwood also somewhat entertains this concept, but both writers have different perceptions on identity and individuality in worlds that don’t seem much unlike our own.

How scared would you be if at any moment your house could get burnt down for just having a book? This fear is realized in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 is about a dystopian world where books and free thinkers are singled out and attacked by the rest of society. The book follows the main character Guy Montag as he uncovers the truth about books and what society use to be. He starts off as a book burner, but later realizes how useful books are to people. The culture, characters, and theme in Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 create an interesting dystopian novel that serves as a warning to future readers.

One of the many sad aspects of The Handmaid’s Tale is that the women who are subjected to abuse and discrimination soon comply with the roles that have been assigned to them, permitting abuse and exploitation against and amongst themselves. Atwood is not particularly hopeful about women as a means of changing the conditions in which they are living in this society. Even Offred’s eventual escape from the perverted system is more of a luck luck thing than determined will. Paying particular attention to the ending of the novel, this essay will argue that the author wants to call the reader’s attention to the problems that women suffer, but that she offers no solution or hope for change. I will be addressing three different literary devices in this essay; Repetition, Characterization, and Foreshadowing. I hope you enjoy.

A very fitting title, based on the fact that paper ignites at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. In both Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and in Anthem by Ayn Rand, the main protagonists are both challenged by society in their own way. One by reading a book and the other by thinking independently compared to thinking collectively. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses cultural and physical surroundings to convey the idea that governmental control of knowledge by removing books will cause the society to collapse due to rebellion and controlled thinking as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Guy Montag.

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury that demonstrates the future effects of screens and media on society. The main character of the novel is Guy Montag, who begins as a “fireman”, destroying books. Mildred, his wife, is the character who is most affected by technology and is detached from the real world surrounding her. The novel demonstrates a pessimistic view of the technologically advanced world because of the negative impact it has on people. Numerous times characters see a mirror image of themselves, which Bradbury focuses on. The motif of reflections and mirrors are used throughout the novel to symbolize moments of realization, one seeing their true self and one’s impact on society.

Have you ever wondered what life would feel like if we were completely consumed by electronics? In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, the message that the author is trying to convey is that the abandonment of books creates a society that treats life carelessly. Bradbury’s novel shows us the meaning of books and how we must value them in order for our humanity to stay intact. The main character of the novel, Guy Montag, is a firefighter, who burns books for a living. For his entire life, he has never asked: “Why?”(Why do they burn books? What’s so bad about them?). Until he met Clarisse. Clarisse is an eighteen-year-old girl, who is like a breath of fresh air to Montag’s dreary everyday life. Clarise makes

In both texts, ones flaws of being innocent, tragically leads to them being taken advantage of through the antagonist in the play/novel, hence, rattling the ethics of society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women’s punishment is one of the main causes of why violence ensues. Moira, an innocent, courageous individual, who due to her high willed and rebellious nature tends to devise escape plans in order to liberate from the norms of The Republic of Gilead. When Moira attempts to escape for the first time by deceiving an aunt by faking an illness; hoping to bribe the men with sex and is unsuccessful in her scheme; she is penalized for her behavior. At the dinner hall where all the handmaids are present, Offered sees “two aunts [come] out of the building, hauling Moira out and [taking] her to the Science Lab. Afterwards she could not walk for a week, her feet would not fit in her shoes, they were too swollen” (Atwood 91) When rules are imposed amongst an individual it is only human instinct to rebel against them. As a result, Moira mistreatment for a mistake that is not based intellectually but purely from the heart, blinding her from the consequences is unjust. The unfair rules of Gilead limit women from fundamental rights as well as “reducing circumstances”, which is as

In The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare reveals the flaws in gender and class roles by pointing out the flaws in when women always listen to men. For everyone that has strict parents or been in a relationship you understand these examples, the man(dad) is the boss, the women obey the man, and class roles are determined by society. Shakespeare challenges through many situations, the class and gender roles that are determined by society.