Characterization Essays (Examples)

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Essay
Characterization and Doubling in Wuthering
Pages: 10 Words: 3066

. . I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!' (139). Perhaps the scene of Heathcliff digging up her grave eighteen years after her death is the most compelling because it represents the force of their love and how time or distance could not separate them. Cathy serves as a constant reminder with her eyes and Nelly even notices this similarity and how it upset Heathcliff. e read he "walked to the hearth in evident agitation" (254). Heathcliff is stricken with her loss noting even the floor captures her features. He says,, "In every cloud, in every tree -- filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day, I am surrounded with her image!" (255). The two are clearly obsessed with each other but their obsession is unhealthy. e often want to think of the star-crossed lovers that have the…...

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Works Cited

Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1972.

Brantlinger, Patrick. A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Oxford Blackwell Publishers. 2002.

Knoepflmacher, U.C. "Wuthering Heights: A Tragicomic Romance." In Laughter and Despair: 1971. Gale Resource Database. Site Accessed April 20, 2010.

Rogers, Katharine. Reference Guide to English Literature. Chicago: St. James Press. 1991.

Essay
Characterization in Hamlet if Shakespeare's
Pages: 5 Words: 1613

This contrasts the identification process of medieval works, in which the reader was encouraged to identify with a hero's inhuman qualities -- inhuman virtue in the case of books of chivalry. In those works the reader was called to identify himself with a god -- or even God proper -- but in Hamlet the reader is called only to identify himself with another, equally flawed man.
Finally, in the question of denouement the treatment is also renaissance; the answer, ambiguous at best. Whether Hamlet leaves Denmark improved is anyone's guess; whether anyone in this story was able to make a difference is tangential to the question. The question, it seems, is not whether Hamlet will be able to overcome his uncle, but whether he will be able to overcome himself. The treatment implies that even if a man is able to overcome himself, it may still be impossible to change…...

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Bibliography

1. SparkNotes Editors. (2007). SparkNote on Hamlet. Retrieved March 23, 2010, from  http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/ 

2. Eliot, T.S. (2007) Hamlet and His Problems. In T.S. Eliot The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism Whitefish, MT. Kessinger Publishing

3. De Grazia, Margreta (2002) Hamlet's Thoughts and Antics Retrieved 1 April 2010 from Early Modern Culture: An Electronic Seminar website: http://emc.eserver.org/1-2/degrazia.html

Essay
Characterization in Renior's Rules of
Pages: 10 Words: 3305


The characters in the film are multi-layered. hen we get below the surface we find that these members of the aristocracy do not present a favorable appearance at all. Their hidden world is one of scandal. Renoir's characters go beyond a love triangle. They come to represent many complex relationships and interactions. There are love triangles within love triangles and many innuendos throughout the film. The revelation of these many layers makes it much more like the world with which the audience is familiar.

The four main characters are in a tangled web of love and adultery. Andre is in love with wife of the owner of the estate, Robert. Robert has a mistress named Genevieve. hen Marceau is caught poaching on the estate, he quickly falls in love with the maid, Lisette. Lisette does not spurn his advances, but she is married to Schumacher. These characters appear to be dignified…...

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Works Cited

Dewey, R. 2003. Rick Moody. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Vol. 23. No. 2.

Durham, C. 2003. The Franco-American Novel of Literary Globalism: The Case of Diane Johnson. French Politics, Culture and Society. Vol. 21. No. 2.

Ford, P. 2001. Paralysis Lost: Impacts of Virtual Worlds on Those with Paralysis. Social Theory and Practice. Vol. 27. No. 4.

Gerow, E. 2002. Rasa and Katharsis: A Comparative Study, Aided by Several Films. The Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 122. No. 2.

Essay
Characterization in Revelation and A
Pages: 3 Words: 803

Her insistence of turning down the dirt road is what gets the family into trouble. She expects the family to do things her way and she expects everyone to live by her standards. She thinks much of herself and her heritage and tells John, "I wouldn't talk about my native state that way" (O'Connor 1938). hen his comment to her is "Tennessee is just a hillbilly dumping ground" (1938), she states, "Children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then" (1938). Here we see evidence of how the grandmother believes she is better than the younger, disrespectful generation. Hers is a generation that did the right thing and this frame of mind helps us understand her naivety and gullibility when it comes to the Misfit. She attempts to reason with the Misfit and then has the audacity to ask him…...

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Work Cited

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction.

New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1981.

O'Connor, Flannery. "Revelation." Moderns and Contemporaries: Nine masters of the Short

Story. Baumbach, Jonathan, ed. New York: Random House. 1968.

Essay
Characterization in Miller's Death of
Pages: 5 Words: 1384

The drama is tragic but what makes it more tragic is how the father passes down the doomed dreaming legacy to his sons. Robert Spiller observes that illy Loman is Miller's "most beautifully conceived character" (Spiller 1450), who dies at the end of the play, "still believing in the American success myth that killed him and infected his sons" (1450). The man is to be admired because of his humanity but reviled because of his irresponsibility. illy once tells Biff that one summer, he will take him and his brother on the road with him and together they will look at all of the towns across America. He claims that the country is "full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England... I have friends." (Miller 1044). This is an outright lie and while we know that…...

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Works Cited

Barringer, Missy. Understanding Plays. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1990.

Gassner, John. Modern American Literature. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. 1969.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. An Introduction to Literature. Sylvan Barnet, ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1985. pp. 1030-1114.

Rovere, Robert. Modern American Literature. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. 1969.

Essay
Characterization of Shimamura in Kawabata's Snow Country
Pages: 1 Words: 455

Characterization of Shimamura in Kawabata's Snow Country
Shimamura reads a great deal about the Occidental ballet without ever having attended a performance; his passion for things beyond his ken is a strong characterization for the safe distance and detachment in his life and soul. Wealthy, bored, dissatisfied, and detached from life and love, he travels to Japan's snow country and meets the aging geisha, Komako. Distracted from his writing about a subject he has never personally experienced, he states:

"After all, these fingers keep a vivid memory of the woman I am going to see."

As Shimamura travels to his clandestine liaison with the geisha, his view of life and the temporary escape to the mountains is reflected in Koko's image in the coach's window.

"In the depths of the mirror the evening landscape moved by, the mirror and the reflected figures like motion pictures superimposed one on the other. The figures and…...

Essay
Characterization of Hamlet May Be
Pages: 6 Words: 1680


hen we consider the character of Hamlet, it is easy to assume we are in for serious contemplation. Hamlet is not one of the easiest characters to figure out. However, we do know that he is a broken man. Some of the ideals and impressions he once held dear have surely been shattered upon returning to Elsinore. Some of his first thoughts include what it might be like for his "sullied flesh would melt/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew" (Shakespeare I.ii.133-4). Hamlet questions God and his purpose, too, saying, "Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!" (I.ii.135-6). Life "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable (I.ii.137) for Hamlet and "things rank and gross in nature/Possess it merely" (I.ii.140-1). This is the character Zeffirelli portrays in the film. This is the Hamlet we expect to see on the stage. He is not over the top; he is buried in…...

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Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Hamlet: Poem Unlimited. New York: Riverhead Books. 2003.

Hamlet. Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, and Helena Bonham-Carter.

Warner Brothers, 1995.

Hamlet. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, and Billy

Essay
Characterization of Women in 19th Century Literature
Pages: 4 Words: 1460

Characterization of Women in 19th Century Literature
The short stories "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman, "The Storm by Kate Chopin, and "Eveline" by James Joyce uses women characters as protagonists in their stories and depict their life in the 19th century society. The time period wherein these stories took place is important and vital to the essence and message that these writers want to extend to their readers. One important message that these writers want to extend to us readers is that in these three stories, women empowerment is apparent, and that women are gradually asserting their freedom of choice in a repressive society that they live in, which is actually male-dominated (patriarchal society). The thesis that this paper will discuss is that through the stories "The Yellow Wallpaper," "The Storm," and 'Eveline," women are portrayed to 'break free,' to empower themselves against a repressive and patriarchal 19th century…...

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Bibliography

Chopin, Kate. E-text of "The Storm." Short Stories Web site. 14 November 2002 http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/chopinstorm.html.

Gilmar, Charlotte Perkins. E-text of "The Yellow Wallpaper." University of Texas: An American Reader Web site. 14 November 2002 http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/wallpaper/wallpapertext.html.

Joyce, James. E-text of "Eveline." The Literature Network Web site. 14 November 2002  http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/959/ .

Essay
Characterization The Making of a
Pages: 7 Words: 2120

Jonathon Haidt agrees with this notion, suggesting that one of the most important realizations individuals can make is that people matter more than money. He states that Dickens captures this sentiment perfectly in that it "captures a deep truth about the effects of facing mortality" (Haidt 140). Scrooge moves from being the "ultimate miser" (141) to a "generous man who takes delight in his family, his employees, and the strangers he passes on the street" (141). His transformation is significant because it demonstrates that there is hope even for those that seem to be the most lost.
A Christmas Carol is a story of hope more than anything. It delves into the darkest of hearts and attempts to discover that the world has not yet hardened it for good. Eliot Gilbert notes that hope abounds if Scrooge can be converted from a miser to a giving soul. He states, Dickens…...

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Works Cited

By Lucie Armitt. Fantasy Fiction. 2005. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Dickens, Chalres. A Christmas Carol. New York: Pocket Books. 1958.

Gilbert. Eliot. The Ceremony of Innocence: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. PMLA, 1975.

JSTOR Resource Database. Information Retrieved April 26, 2009.

Essay
Cather's Characterization of Paul His Imagination Is
Pages: 3 Words: 857

Cather's characterization of Paul, his imagination is theater. His imagined life is the theater that he has built with glitter and effects in a dream world that not only gave him comfort, but and also sustained him. The author uses Romance, alluding to Paul's idealized view of reality. He got a feeling of excitement from his escapades influenced by his deep desire to be at the Carnegie Hall where he revealed a "vivacious and animated" persona liberated by his environment and music. Theater at Carnegie Hall was true representation of the theater in his mind, the dream, the theater where music and art were the entrance to this portal of Romance. He lives for his weekends at Carnegie Hall and the theater, and school to him is trivial. Cather perfectly paints the picture of Paul's dream by writing; "the stage entrance of that theatre was for Paul the actual…...

Essay
Dickens the Characterization of Thomas
Pages: 4 Words: 1822

Bounderby is a totally negative character, who, unlike Gradgrind is inherently corrupt and unfeeling. ith him it is not a matter of imposed principle, as with Gradgrind, but of inherent character. He is actually materialistic, the image of the corrupted banker who complains that the workers want more than the satisfaction of the primitive needs. He thus adopts the philosophy to serve his own interests as a merchant, whereas Gradgrind actually believes that to reduced everything to facts is the right life philosophy.
Thus, Dickens completely demolishes the materialist and reductionist philosophy of his age, showing the absurdity of cultivating nothing but the totally inhuman ideas connected with fact and palpable reality. He argues in favor of love, virtue, and fancy as a true humanist. His characters are built so as to emphasize the effects of these dangerous ways of thinking on humanity. Gradgrind and Bounderby seem like two ogres…...

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Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Essay
Joseph Conrad Master of Characterization
Pages: 5 Words: 1527

It reveals the truth about mankind and while this may be an ugly truth, it is one of which we need to be reminded.
My research in Joseph Conrad has allowed me to appreciate him more as an author. I have always been interested in this period of history. I can appreciate Conrad for more than simply someone who wrote books. Before reading the articles, I knew I liked the stories but I did not realize the popularity of Conrad's work. These opinions are different from one another but they still reveal that Conrad should be respected for his contributions. Heart of Darkness and Nostromo gives us characters sketches that are almost too similar to the people we encounter every day. Both critics admit that these characters are morally corrupt and have no one to blame but themselves. I also learned that not all critics agree. I would have guessed…...

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Works Cited

Gorra, Michael. "Joseph Conrad." Hudson Review, Winter2007. EbSCO Resource Database.

Widmer, Kingsley. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 34: British Novelists, 1890-1929:

Traditionalists. 1984. GALE Resource Database.

Essay
What Is William James Characterization and Defense of Religious Faith
Pages: 6 Words: 1727

William James' defense of belief and faith marked the main points of his lecture entitled The Will to Believe. This philosophical treatise is introduced then followed by ten major sections in order to explain his position. Ultimately James' case for belief defends religion and faith as necessary, even though irrational, modes of understanding. The purpose of this essay is to explore James' work to explain his concept of the relationships between such subjective ideas as faith, belief, rationality and reality. I will conduct this exploration by examining each section of James' work and highlighting the arguments that relate to the themes of James' characterization and eventual defense of religion and faithful attitudes.
Introduction

In the introduction, James relates the importance of his work as it relates to the subjective nature of its audience. The audience is composed of ivy league university students who are members of a philosophy club. The lecture…...

Essay
Irony and Characterization in O'Connor's
Pages: 3 Words: 933

" The primary characters in this story are the grandmother and the Misfit and the fact that they encounter one another is another blend of the comical and the ironic. However, the dramatic contrast between the two characters is the center of attention. Both characters are grotesque. The grandmother is grotesque because she is a good person only on the surface. e know that she is annoying and overbearing. Because she had to have her way, bring the cat, and show the children the house with the secret panel, the family pays the ultimate price. e can see the grotesque nature of the Misfit because he is a cold-blooded criminal, but it is important to recognize how his character acts as a foil to the grandmother. It is interesting that these two seemingly different individuals almost make a connection by the end of the story. However, it is because of…...

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Works Cited

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetr, and Drama, X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, eds. New York: Longman. 1999. pp. 352-363.

Essay
Defendant Entitled to Dispute the Courts Characterization
Pages: 2 Words: 726

defendant entitled to dispute the courts characterization of him or her being a danger to society?
A defendant is certainly entitled to dispute the courts characterization of him or her as being dangerous to society. This is so because everyone has the right to a fair trial. This is one of the essentials of the American Constitution.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), in fact, insists that all are presumed innocent until proven guilty and that extensive care should be taken to ensure that the court has arrived at the correct decision. In that case, it only makes sense that the defendant -- who is, after all the focus of the case - should dispute the court's characterization of her if she thinks it necessary to do so.

Articles 6, 7, 8 and 11 all tell her to do so, but the key injunction lies in Article 10 which states that:

"Everyone…...

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Sources

Doebbler, C (2006). Introduction to International Human Rights Law. CD Publishing. p. 109.  http://books.google.com/books?id=mQ61oCPJ1GEC&pg=PA108&dq=right+to+fair+trial#v=onepage&q=right%20to%20fair%20trial&f=false 

Hansford vs. USA; No. 19436., 1996

http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/365/365.F2d.920.19436.html

United Nations. "Universal declaration of Human Rights."  http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

Q/A
Provide an example of a simple study using Schmidt as a model with humorous and non-humorous on the memory?
Words: 341

Schmidt’s study on the effect of humor on memory is well-known, not only for its results, but also for its simple study design. The study, or actually the series of studies, suggested that humor increased attention and rehearsal of material, improving overall material of humorous material versus non-humorous material.  The study designs were simple comparative studies that directly compared humorous and non-humorous materials.  However, there is a problem with those studies.  While there are well-known health benefits of humor and laughing, humor is subjective.  That subjectivity can make it difficult to design a....

Q/A
I\'m searching for essay topics on soap opera. Do you have any recommendations?
Words: 540

The Allure and Impact of Soap Operas: Exploring Cultural Phenomena

Introduction:

Soap operas, with their melodramatic storylines and relatable characters, have captivated audiences worldwide for decades. They offer a unique blend of entertainment, escapism, and social commentary, making them worthy subjects for academic exploration. This essay aims to delve into various aspects of soap operas, examining their impact on culture and society.

1. The Evolution of Soap Operas: From Radio to Television

Trace the historical development of soap operas from their humble beginnings on radio to their ubiquitous presence on television. Discuss the factors that influenced their evolution, such as technological advancements, societal changes,....

Q/A
My teacher suggested focusing on ethan frome. Any essay topics that align with this guidance?
Words: 457

Essay Topics on Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Theme of Isolation and Loneliness

The Psychological and Physical Isolation of Ethan Frome: Explore how Frome's isolated circumstances - living in a secluded farmhouse, working a monotonous job, and being trapped in a loveless marriage - contribute to his profound sense of loneliness and alienation.

The Role of Nature in Isolating and Uniting: Discuss the ways in which the harsh and unforgiving landscape of Starkfield both isolates the characters and becomes a point of connection between them, particularly through Frome and Mattie's shared experiences in nature.

Characterization and Relationships

Ethan Frome: A Tragic Figure:....

Q/A
I need some suggestions for greek mythology in chaucer and boccaccio essay topics. Can you offer any?
Words: 527

Chaucer and Boccaccio: Exploring Echoes of Greek Mythology

The works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio, two literary luminaries of the medieval era, are replete with allusions to Greek mythology, a testament to its enduring influence on Western literature. This essay will delve into the significant ways in which Chaucer and Boccaccio incorporated Greek myths into their writings, examining its impact on characterization, narrative structure, and thematic development.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: A Tapestry of Mythological Intertexts

Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" is a masterpiece that deftly weaves together a diverse cast of characters on a pilgrimage. Embedded within these tales are numerous references to Greek....

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