Posts

• Character of Desdemona in Othello

Character and role of Desdemona in Othello . Is Desdemona a pathetic character rather than tragic? Discuss. It is very easy, as several recent critics have noted, to canonize Desdemona, a fate rather common to a number of Shakespeare’s particularly appealing heroines. Desdemona, however, is made of stern stuff and not all her characteristics are quite so saintly. This is far from giving credence to Iago’s insinuations. It implies rather that she is human. It is a little too easy to consider Desdemona as not much more than the object of Othello’s love and the victim of the passion. This is ironic, for Desdemona’s chief quality is her independence, a characteristic not uncommon in a number of Shakespeare’s female characters. She is no shy, reticent creature when it comes to standing up for herself before the senators of Venice . We have to consider that she is brought at night to speak for herself and Othello before an angry and distressed father. Her language is firm, temper
Read more

Variations in English Prosody

--> There are a few variations in English prosody. For the convenience of the readers I explain those briefly below: Spondee : When both the syllables are accented , the foot is called spondee. Ere ha ' lf / my day ' s / in this / da ' rk wo ' rld / and wi ' de Pyrrhic : When both the syllables are unaccented, the foot is called pyrrhic. Ere ha ' lf / my day ' s / in this / da ' rk wo ' rld / and wi ' de Catalectic : If at the end of a trochaic line , there is only an accented syllable , it is presumed that an unaccented syllable has been dropped. In this case the foot is called catalectic . A ' ll the / jo ' ys that / ble ' ss thee. Swee ' t-er/ fa ' r may/ be ' . Acephalous : If in the beginning of an iambic line , there is only one accented syllable, it is presumed that an unaccented syllable has been dropped. In this case the foot is called
Read more

Analysis of Bacon’s Essay "Of Friendship"

THE TEXT Of Friendship IT HAD been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together in few words, than in that speech, Whatsoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god. For it is most true, that a natural and secret hatred, and aversation towards society, in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast; but it is most untrue, that it should have any character at all, of the divine nature; except it proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man’s self, for a higher conversation: such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathen; as Epimenides the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana; and truly and really, in divers of the ancient hermits and holy fathers of the church. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cym
Read more