The World of Letters

Human Characters in George Orwell’s Animal Farm Besides the animal characters, there are a few human beings who also figure the story. They are Mr. Jones, Mr. Pilkington, Mr. Frederick, and Mr. Whymper. They are all drawn briefly but convincingly. Mr. Jones is the man who originally owns Animal Farm, and who is overthrown by the animals at the beginning of the revolution. He symbolizes corrupt and fatally-flawed governments that create societies ripe for Revolution. He represents capitalism and Czarism. Mr. Pilkington is the neighboring farmer, and the owner of Foxwood Farm. He most probably symbolizes Churchill, the Prime Minister of England at that time. Therefore, his farm represents Britain and the capitalist economy of the time. Mr. Frederick is the neighboring farmer, and the owner of Pinchfield Farm. He is the evil and cruel farmer to whom Napoleon eventually sells the pile of timber; he pays in forged bank notes, thus cheating Animal Farm. Frederick symbolizes Hitler so that Pi...

From Work to Text An essay by Lisa Smith Geoffrey Thurley asserts that "Barthes's essay "From Work to Text" is no more than an expression of a determination not to acknowledge the old `bourgeois' literature, and we should waste our time chasing shadows if we tried to assign his phrases any concrete meaning" (Thurley 228). Though this comment was meant as a criticism of Barthes's work, the second part of the sentence ironically approximates Barthes' own formulation of his essay. His essay offers "not argumentations but enunciations, `touches', approaches that consent to remain metaphorical" (Barthes 192). Meaning, in Barthes' essay, is established by difference - his entire text consists of a play of signifiers which have meaning, not in themselves, but in relation to other signifiers. The concept of "text" is defined only as it is juxtapositioned with the concept of "work." To attempt to assign a `concrete meanin...

From Work to Text In this essay, Barthes argues that the relation of writer, reader and observer is changed by movement from work to text. In this light, we can observe Barthes's propositions of the differences between work and text in terms of method, genres, signs, plurality, filiation, reading, and pleasure. First of all, Barthes thought that the Text is a "methodological field" rather then a portion of the space of books", that is the work (170). Like Lacan's distinction between "reality" and "real": the work is displayed (the reality which is out there, concrete), the text is a process of demonstration which is held in language. "The text is experienced only in an activity of production": the text is writable through tracing the flickering of presence and absence of the chain of signifiers. So the text "cannot stop" because the process of language does not come to an end; the meaning is always suspended, something defe...

Geoffrey Thurley in his work, “Counter-Modernism in Current Critical Theory” (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), asserts that Barthes's essay, "From Work to Text" is no more than an expression of a determination not to acknowledge the old ‘bourgeois’ literature, and we should waste our time chasing shadows if we tried to assign his phrases any concrete meaning" (Thurley, p. 228). Though this comment was meant as a criticism of Barthes's work, the second part of the sentence ironically approximates Barthes' own formulation of his essay because his essay offers "not argumentations but enunciations, ‘touches’, approaches that consent to remain metaphorical". In his essay, From Work to Text, Barthes argues that the relation of writer, reader and observer is changed by movement from work to text. In this light, we can observe Barthes's propositions of the differences between work and text in terms of method, genres, signs, plurality, filiation...

Brutus is a Tragic Hero Brutus possesses in abundance the characteristics of a tragic hero: hubris (pride) and hamartia (tragic flaw). He is full of the pride of ancestry, having been descended from Marcus Junius Brutus who had driven the Tarquins from the streets of Rome when they were called kings. His tragic flaws are as follows: 1. His failure to understand that Caesarism is the spirit of the times. It is impossible to destroy Caesarism just by the mere killing of Caesar. 2. He has no strategy or plan regarding the form of government that will replace Caesarism. 3. He refuses to be bound by an oath of unity and loyalty. 4. He objects the inclusion of Cicero in the conspiracy. His silver hairs and silver tongue could have been useful. 5. He refuses the proposal that Mark Antony should die with Caesar. 6. Brutus confides the plot to Portia who has all the weaknesses of a woman. 7. He allows Antony to speak at the funeral of Caesar. 8. Against Caussius’ better judgment, he insists on ...

i. Introduction to Saint Joan ‘Saint Joan’, which was written by G.B. Shaw in the period immediately following Joan’s canonization by the Catholic Church in 1920, and which was first produced in Great Britain in 1924, has sincerity and a sense of tragedy. It sticks mainly to recorded historical fact, although Shaw obviously has compressed incidents, and rearranged material in order to achieve dramatic effect. It is a chronicle play in six scenes and epilogue. In this play, Shaw is concerned with the question of Christian belief and its effect upon those who believe. He is primarily interested in showing the differences between Joan’s ideas of Christianity and that of the church. As pointed out by Shaw that in the given circumstances, there was no option before the church than to burn Joan as a heretic since she refused to do the instructions given by church. The play has variety, humour, interesting well-drawn characters, and the action progresses clearly and inevitably towards Joan’s ...

Symbolism and Meaning in John Donne's “The Canonization” Starting in the late 16th Century and lasting throughout the 17th Century, was a form of poetry that has come to be known as Metaphysical. Though not a poetic movement in the sense of having a manifesto (as did the Romantics), these poets explored similar themes such as love and religion, approaching them in a practical yet transcendent manner. One of the greatest of these Metaphysical Poets was John Donne (1572-1631). Writing in a time of political, social and religious upheaval, his poetry is largely concerned with the enigmatic relationship between a person’s sexuality and spirituality. This question is raised in his poem “The Canonization”, in which the social stigma surrounding an overt love affair is compared to the martyrdom of saints. Many poetic techniques, characteristic of Metaphysical poetry, are used to develop this theme, as love is established as an alternative religion to Orthodox Christianity and the societa...