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week 12 - Best literature entry for wk8-12
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Characteristic of the artificial life as well as of the purely physical life is the tendency toward alienation. Whenever Ivan encounters a situation or relationship that does not promote his pleasant existence, he distances himself from it. This reaction ties in to the larger theme of the inner life v. outer life. Because ( Read more... ) -
week 11
Inner life vs. Outer life
This is another theme I found in Tolstoy
Tolstoy depicts human existence as a conflict between the inner and the outer, the spiritual life and the physical life. Up until Chapter IX, Ivan is a purely physical being. He shows no indication of any spiritual life whatsoever. He lives for the benefit of his own flesh and relates ( Read more... ) -
week 10
The Inevitability of Death
The story of Ivan's steady approach toward death is also the story of Ivan's recognition of death and his search for a compromise with its dreadful and nullifying power. How is one to make sense of the end of one's life, of one's relationships, projects, and dreams, of one's very existence?
Throughout the novel,
Tolstoy ( Read more... ) -
week 9
Leo Tolstoy Themes
The Right Life
From the outset of the novel it is clear that Tolstoy believes there are two types of lives: the artificial life-represented by Ivan, Praskovya, Peter, and most everyone in Ivan's society and company-and the authentic life represented by Gerasim. The artificial life is marked by shallow relationships, self-interest ( Read more... ) -
week 8
need to be up loaded from my commonplace. will do soon. -
BEST LITERATURE ENTRY (1-7) WEEK 3
'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'
'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is about the potential consequences of a single unthinking act. When the mariner shoots an albatross, he does it casually and without animosity. Yet this impulsive, destructive act is his undoing. Coleridge believed that the seeds of destruction and creation are contained each ( Read more... ) -
literature entry week 7
'The Scholar Gypsy'
A scholar of Oxford university is fade off by his poverty and monotonous life.Extreme frustation of povertty compeled him to left the Oxford.
He left the Oxford University to find out the living style of the Gipsy. According to Arnold the gipsy has a mysterious life leading and the Oxford scholar wants to unfold it to the world.
( Read more... ) -
literature entry week 6
'Sonnets from the Portuguese'
"Sonnet 43" expresses the poet’s intense love for her husband-to-be, Robert Browning. So intense is her love for him, she says, that it rises to the spiritual level (Lines 3 and 4). She loves him freely, without coercion; she loves him purely, without expectation of personal gain. She even loves him with an intensity of ( Read more... ) -
literature entry week 5
'Ode to the West Winds'
Each of the seven parts of "Ode to the West Wind" contains five stanzas--four three-line stanzas and a two-line couplet, all metered in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme in each part follows a pattern known as terza rima, the three-line rhyme scheme employed by Dante in his Divine Comedy.
In the three-line terza rima ( Read more... ) -
literature entry week 4
'Mont Blanc'
Themes
The Power of Nature
Like many of the romantic poets, especially William Wordsworth, Shelley demonstrates a great reverence for the beauty of nature, and he feels closely connected to nature's power. In his early poetry, Shelley shares the romantic interest in pantheism-the belief that God, or a divine, unifying spirit, runs ( Read more... )