William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Essay

Eavan Boland’s poem “The Pomegranate” utilizes the intricacies of the Greek myth of Persephone and elegantly intertwines the story to detail the bond of daughter and mother and the cyclical journey from daughter to mother. The myth of Persephone deeply resonates within Boland due to the versatility and impactful meaning of the story. Which in turn gives the poem a ambivalent and bittersweet emotional narrative with a reflective tone. Boland immediately manipulates the cyclical essence of the poem through juxtaposing the little girl in the myth, Persephone, to the little girl reading the poem, the narrator. The author does this by seemingly mixing the two together as displayed in the following lines, “I can enter it anywhere and have. As a

What does an overbearing mother, a flower, and a pomegranate have in common? They’re all symbols of the myth Persephone. This paper is over the mythological goddess Persephone, who is “married” to Hades. This myth is a conflict of interest given how it’s viewed upon by the reader. To some it’s a tale of extreme love from a mother and god of hell, but to others it’s a crazed god after a young maiden who just wants to get away from her mother.

'I do but keep the peace put up thy sword, or manage it to part these

There are many analogies between this short story and the myth of Persephone and Hades. When Persephone was taken by Hades she was admiring a beautiful narcissus flower, and during her first few months in the underworld she cried and wailed because she was unhappy. Hades gave her pomegranate seeds to make her happy, just as the man gave the girl alcohol to sooth her nerves. The man, practically begging the girl to go through with the abortion, saying it will make them happy again because they wouldn’t have to worry about it any longer. The man, in many ways resembles Hades, because he is stopping at nothing to have this beautiful youthful maiden to be his not

The chronicles written by Perpetua during her time in prison gives historians a clear evidence of not only her life as a woman in prison, but also as a Christian fighting for her believes in a time of intense persecution. It is therefore clear that Perpetua through her courage and faith in God pushed through gender limitations not for her hunger of power within the Roman society, but because of her love for her

In the Roman literature, it illustrated the myth that Pluto stole Proserpine’s innocence due to effects of cupid’s arrow sent by Venus. Through an analytical perspective, Ovid illustrated Venus as the goddess who too wanted the unification of the three cosmos for extension of power “why should hell lag behind? Why not there too extend your mother’s empire and your own?” (Met., p. 110) and being the goddess of sexuality and not having the power to tamper with the virginities of Pallas and Diana but Proserpine, she planned to “kill two birds with one stone” by summoning her son Cupid to shoot an arrow through Pluto’s heart “against his and shot the barbed shaft deep in Pluto’s heart” (Met., p. 111) to take away Proserpine’s virginity followed by her

chrysanthemum sprouts that were growing around the old roots…. ‘You’ve got a strong new crop coming.’... ‘Yes. They’ll be strong this coming year.’” (pg.2) This shows, she is speaking about the plants but referring to herself.

do all the things he did which led to his death. He said that she

In the poems “The Pomegranate” by Eavan Boland and “The Bistro Styx” by Rita Dove, the poets make allusions to the myth of Persephone. This myth is about the anguish felt by Persephone’s mother, Demeter, when she loses her. In the poems, both writers are witnessing their daughters grow apart from them, but they have different viewpoints on this process. Boland in “The Pomegranate” understands that this drifting apart is certain and yearns to make the most out of the time she has with her daughter before this emotional detachment. Conversely, Dove in “The Bistro Styx” is spiteful of her daughter's increasingly evident detachment from her. Boland and Dove use the myth of Persephone in order to to describe the relationship struggles endured by

Romeo is saying he has a premonition that he will be controlled by fate and eventually lead to a

In reading The Chrysanthemums, this story made me feel perplex at times. John, Steinbeck, who is the author of this story, introduced us to a married couple. Problem is, this couple seems to be living two separate lives. Imagine caring for something you love for so long. Then entrusting it with someone as a gift and they turn around and hurt you. At the same time, imagine having a spouse whom at times, you felt invisible too. Elisa’s story depicted a married woman, who had no attention from no one, so her flowers in a sense became her

One day, as Ceres was caring for a once deserted field, her daughter wished to go around to a majestic stream where she used to sit a make wreathes. “Don’t forget to stay close to the water and make sure you check with the nymphs. That is how I know you are safe,” Ceres said. “Yes mother whatever you wish,” responded Proserpina. Just like any daughter would she did the opposite of what she was told to do. She strayed from the river and the nymphs guarding her and walked into a forest and found a clearing. In the middle of this clearing was a single dark red flower, the most saturated color Proserpina had ever seen. Being the goddess of

Once there was a female mortal named Ignacia who roamed freely in the vast forest near her home. Being naughty and causing trouble with others intrigued her, she was always acting bad, breaking the peace between everyone. No mortal wanted to make the mistake of making her angry: one spark would set her temperamental attitude off wild. Aside from her personality, Ignacia had a beautiful, colorful mixture of hair and a red complexity to her face, like the colors of fire, that she dearly admired about herself. She had strong, long legs that gave great support to stand her ground, like a tree trunk, while her hair swayed in the wind, like leaves falling to the ground on a windy day. Overall, she was absolutely beautiful but flawed in her temperamental

In other words, the assumed unfaithfulness of his wife, will wreak havoc, like a galactic body. This is a bizarre comparison—a wife and her alleged infidelity to a planet in outer space that will destruct in the name of vengeance. As bizarre as it is, it accomplishes the task of enhancing the dichotomy of what is real and what is a fabrication of imagination. Art, in “The Winter’s Tale” is not merely expression but creation over nature. As his paints a dramatically depressed view of reality, it becomes clear how his perception of what is actually in nature has been heinously corrupted because of a search for truth predicated on validating flippant worries. He carries on: “To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods. I have tremor cordis on me. My heart dances, but not for joy, not joy.”, showing the extent to which he cannot see the truth—what is actually present in nature, but also how manically crazed he is. For example, Leontes seems to think nothing is odd about calling his son into speak to him, and merely asking, “Mamillius, art thou my boy?”. His tone here is light, and conveys this idea that not only is what he asking logical and understandable but normal. It speaks volumes to art’s influence on Leontes to make him so selfish and wrapped up in his own desperate story.

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a play with themes that parallel the folly of the festival it is named after. The main storyline of the plot plays on this a lot by mixing up the stereotypes around gender that were very present at the time. However, a sub-plot involving secondary characters defines this theme even more. It takes the idea even further by relating servants’ attempts to blur the lines between social classes. Twelfth Night’s Maria and Malvolio both have great aspirations to rise above their social class. However, Maria succeeds where Malvolio fails because of her capability to make use of the satiric ambiance of her mistress’s household to achieve her goals.