Themes In Literature

Wordsworth’s Critique of Industrialism and Materialism

In “The World is Too Much with Us” William Wordsmith see the world of industrial revolution as distancing itself from nature. William criticizes this first world of industrial revolution because it is a world that has fully sunk into materialism. William see that this particular world is no longer natural as it should have been.  William is concerned that the world is too overwhelming. The focus on money and time is just too unbearable. Williams loves the natural world.  He is nostalgic about beautiful events such as shining of the moon over the ocean. William adores the blowing of strong wind over the ocean (Castellanos, 130). The world is too overwhelming in that it demands too much of human energy. The need to accumulate more stuff and money is driving the human race crazy. In general William argues that people have sold their souls to materialism. The natural world is fulfilling, it is refreshing and above all it makes life whole. The natural world does not have the rash that has characterized the first world of industrial revolution. The natural world gives one the opportunity to appreciate beautiful event such as the rising and setting of the sun, the light of the moon and the singing of birds. This is something that the other world does not offer.

In this piece of writing, the speaker addresses a blithe spirit and not necessarily a bird. This is because according to the writer, the song originates from heaven. The writer insinuates that from the heart comes copious strain of spontaneous art (Schmidt, 55). This poem reflects romantic period values by bringing in the use of symbolism such as golden lightning of the sun which the speaker describes as floating and running. It is revealed in this poem that as the skylark flies higher and higher, the sight of skylark is lost but the thrilling delight of skylark can still be heard by the speaker. The bird which the speaker talks about in this poem is equated to a poet who is hidden in the light of thought (Marshall,20) This is because it is able to bring the world to experience have an experience with hope and sympathy. It is capable of bringing the world to experience fears that it heeded not previously. Like a maiden in a palace tower so is this bird. It employs the use of her melodious song to soothe her lovelorn soul. Like a rose, so is this bird. Its scent is blown by the wind up to a point where the bees are faint with too much sweetness. The skylark song is fresh, it is clear and joyous. (Marshall, 23)

Romanticism in Shelley and Keats’ Poetry

Hedda Gabler’s character is not pleasing. She is portrayed in this poem as a bad person. This is seen from her action in which she taunts a one who is trying to recover from alcohol. Through her actions, she makes the recovering alcoholic to go back to drinking. In addition to this she tricks one man into committing suicide and in the process she takes pleasure in it. Generally, Hedda is a sadist. A critical look at reveals that Hedda could be doing the things she is doing just because she is a woman. A look at the prevailing circumstances at the time (that is 1860) reveal that at this particular point in time, women had no say. Generally they were not allowed to exercise their will.  This was the Victorian era and women were not allowed to do or say much of anything. Hedda reveals her boredom that she experienced during this period. She says “How mortally bored I have been”. Hedda wants equality. She wants to enjoy the freedom and opportunities that men have. Due to her lack of freedom and opportunities Hedda envies other such as Tesman who is a soon to be professor, Brack who is a judge and Eilert who is a professor.

From Wilfred Owen’s point of view, World War I must have been a horrible to the innocent soldiers who participated and died. The title of the poem is ironic given that the content of the poem are not in harmony with the title. The poet hates war. He does not see the pride and honor in death for one’s country given the misplaced ideas that brought enormous suffering to the lives of World War I soldiers. The poet changes his tone and language. The tone and voice is bitter and angry. This clearly depicts the writer’s feelings toward the entire topic of patriotism and death. The poet brings to light the horrible facts of World War I through the use of horrible images. These images depict what happened in World War I and they were not pleasing. The poet’s attitude towards the reader of this poem is sympathetic. He sympathizes with the reader who is so patriotic to die meaningless death in the name of patriotism. The poet feels that many die horrible death from war. The poet uses the word “Gas! Gas!” to bring to light the horrible nature of the soldiers in the battlefield. The suffering and the deaths (Venkatasalu, 265)

Ibsen’s Portrayal of Hedda Gabler as a Sadist

Conrad was a great critique of the colonial enterprise. Conrad was disgusted with the colonial enterprise. He viewed the colonial enterprise as too racist causing and planting the seed of division and suffering in the new unexplored lands. Conrad explains that colonialists trampled upon others in just the same way in which they trampled upon basic social laws that governed social equity. The colonial enterprise was like a jungle in which men were left to their own devices and motives. At this rate the colonialist were more at liberty to do as they pleased. Conrad brings to light a situation in Africa, a case in which no law exist and men were left to do as they pleased.  In enslaving the Africans the colonialist amassed much wealth illegally and trampled upon the law and men making Africans poorer and poorer. Darkness is used throughout Conrad’s work to depict inhuman activities such as slavery, death and savagery. Conrad describes Britain as brooding gloom in Africa. In conveying his feelings Conrad states that “his nerves went wrong which caused him to preside at certain midnight dances which ended in unspeakable rights” this were offending to him. In this Conrad was implying that Kurtz went insane and allowed people to worship him as god. This shows some of the despicable mistreatment that might have been practiced as a result of trampling upon the law.

From Marlow’s fast meeting with Kurtz, in addition to what Morgan said about Kurtz it is evident that Kurtz is a living legend. Marlow admire Kurtz because he sees Kurtz as a legend. Due to Kurtz accomplishments and power Marlow admires him. Kurtz legendary status are also mysterious to Marlow. Kurtz had the power to charm and frighten in equal measure. Whatever Kurtz was, he was more than an ordinary person. He was some sort of superhuman (Steven, 44). He held some extra ordinary powers over the natives. He held a mix of fear and awe over the natives (Said et al, 54) When two men hear about the legends of Kurtz they are amazed. They had not heard anyone attempting such things as Kurtz has done. Generally, Kurtz had his legend trailing behind him. In addition to the legendary status of Kurtz, Marlow also sees Kurtz as loyal and powerful. Since Marlow is seen as someone who admires loyalty, he finds just exactly the same loyalty in Kurtz and that is why he likes him. Kurtz also had power over savages of Congo (Rawson, 38). He could change evil to good and vice versa. This could occur instantly.  By this he was feared and respected at the same time. This brought a lot of adoration and Marlow could not resist this. 

The Horrors of War in Wilfred Owen’s Poetry

The protagonist feels alienated given that the society expects individuals to conform to the society’s demands. Gregory is first alienated from his physical body. Gregory’s metamorphosis has transformed him to a less convenient body thus making him not conform to the society’s norm and expectation (Deo et al, 7) His job also alienates him from his family. He describes his job as exhausting and irritating. Gregory sees that he is no longer becoming productive and as a result he is becoming insignificant and thus becomes repulsive.  Gregory is alienated from his family just by the idea that he is a welfare sources (Perera, 77). Alienation comes from being different with the rest and not meeting the expectation of a particular group. Gregory is alienated from his family, the society and from his work as well. He is also feeling self-alienation. (Perciaccante et al, 53) Gregory cannot meet the family expectations in his current form after metamorphosis, he cannot meet the even his person expectations. This feeling of being unable and insignificant makes one feel alienated. Gregory is removed from his family. He is no longer feeling as part of the family, or society. Gregory therefore feels alienated. Very much alienated from his business, from himself, family and society.

Perciaccante, Antonio, and Alessia Coralli. “Franz Kafka’s insomnia and parasomnias.” The Lancet Neurology 15.10 (2016): 1014.

Perera, C. “The Influence Acquired by Simon Nawagattegama from The Locution of Franz Kafka’s Short Stories.” (2016).

Deo, Saudamini, and Philippe Charlier. “For Franz Kafka, insomnia was a literary method.” The Lancet Neurology 15.12 (2016): 1207.

Said, Edward, Conor Cruise O’Brien, and John Lukacs. “The Intellectual in the Post-Colonial World: Response and Discussion.” Salmagundi 187 (2015): 201.

Rawson, Eric. “A dying vibration.” Orbis Litterarum 72.1 (2017): 36-50.

Luebke, Steven. “Heart of Darkness.” Joseph Conrad Today 39.2 (2014): 16.

Parvikko, Tuija. “HEART OF DARKNESS.” THE POLITICS OF WORLD POLITICS (2015): 247.

Longmore, Steven N. “Heart of darkness: dust obscuration of the central stellar component in globular clusters younger than∼ 100 Myr in multiple stellar population models.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 448.1 (2015): L62-L66.

Venkatasalu, Munikumar R., Jane E. Seymour, and Antony Arthur. “Dying at home: A qualitative study of the perspectives of older South Asians living in the United Kingdom.” Palliative medicine 28.3 (2014): 264-272.

Marshall, Nicholas. “The great exaggeration: death and the Civil War.” The Journal of the Civil War Era 4.1 (2014): 3-27.

Curtin, Jeffrey T. “From Narcissism to Empathy: Ibsen’s Plays in the Digital Age.” (2015).

Moghadam, Afsaneh Lotfi, and Leila Baradaran Jamili. “Patriarchy and Gender Performativity in Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.” (2016).

Schmidt, Jan-Uwe, et al. “Effect of Sky Lark plots and additional tramlines on territory densities of the Sky Lark Alauda arvensis in an intensively managed agricultural landscape.” (2017).

Castellanos, Francisco Xavier. “From too much and too little towards stratified psychiatry and pathophysiology.” World Psychiatry 12.2 (2013): 130-131.