Essays on Ghosts

I have been given the task and privilege of directing the film Macbeth, (Macbeth) and the essay will examine many aspects of the play including the main characters, personalities, themes as well as the important incidents in the film and the historical background. I have chosen Lady Macbeth as the main character for discussion. The 2010 film, saw Macbeth as Stalin and the weird sisters or witches were portrayed as nurses and then cooks. It was filmed in an abbey which retained some of the original scenes of Shakespeare’s play. The 2010 film starred Patrick Steward as Macbeth ...

Gothic Literature Gothic novel originated in England, in the last quarter of the XVIII century. It opens up a world, freed from the everyday plausibility. This world is fantastic, with a gloomy color and plot, covered with historical and geographical romance and sinister atmosphere. Gothic novel is more than two hundred years; it has changed, has become modern, but have not lost its essential characteristics – pleasant horror, tension and excitement.

British Gothic Novel

Gothic novel in England has been very popular since the XVIII century. The “father” of this genre of literature is considered to be Horace Walpole, with the novel The ...

Why do the myths, works of art and literature history and artwork concerning the Trojan war furnish such a great opportunity to engage all the major questions of life and society and of the humanities The Trojan War which is a legendary conflict between the people of Troy and the Greeks is said to have been fought for about 10 years with great influence from the gods. The myths and the arts value the Trojan War because it shows that mortals are subject to the fate decided upon them by the gods. In this case, Zeus saw that the ...

Dream sequences have appeared as an element in various media since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks, with Aeschylus seemingly using the device in his play The Persians, but it was Hollywood which really brought the idea of the dream sequence into common knowledge. These sequences, in both film and books, are used for a variety of reasons: they can be used as a means of gaining insight into a character’s mental state, or some event of their past which has bearing on the present happenings. Alternatively, dream sequences may be used as a means of ...

Introduction

In the contemporary world, China is considered as a country with a brilliant future. The reason is that the country has dealt with the issue of poverty and repression and is taking a premier place in the category of the most economically developed nations. According to the data provided in the book by Chai, May-Lee, and Chai W. (23), the Chinese economy has provided employment opportunities to numerous people from all over the world. This success is associated with the Chinese policy of ‘one country nation, two systems’ that was adopted in the 1980s under the rule of Deng ...

Great works of art are timeless. Even though they may be many differences in the way that they are presented, the subjects and themes of the human experiences have remained the same throughout the years. As such, the classic works of art present readers with commentary on their own condition, no matter how much time has elapsed from the work of art’s inception to the present day. One of these classic pieces is Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. This is a Romantic Gothic novel set in nineteenth century England, with a strong presence of the supernatural and social ...

"I'm glad there's some folks gettin' interested in the old ways. This new generation don't know such things, but when they find the old songs and the tales, they'll delight in them." --Granny in Grandfather Tales (Chase & Williams, 1948) The Southern Appalachian region has a rich heritage of folklore and songs passed down orally from European immigrants settling in the mountain range situated from New York to Georgia (Abramson & Haskell, 2006) from the 18th to the 20th centuries (Hanlon, 2000). Since the middle of the 20th century, variations of the folktales have been compared to publications such as Grandfather ...

In the movie “The Sixth Sense,” the director employed varied techniques to bring about a valuable motion picture. Out of the many techniques evident in the movie, gothic symbols and motifs are paramount as these techniques bring about other aspects of the film such as thematic expressions. This paper explores different motifs and gothic symbols in the movie “The Sixth Sense.” Ultimately, the paper highlights the meaning or importance of the identified technique. Shyamalan (the director of the movie) consistently employs visual motifs through reflective objects such as glasses, windows, mirrors and many others. The visual motifs in “The ...

Children have been implemented in literature for a long time. Artists have used them in many different ways, from fantasies and folk tales, to myths and science fiction. The Others is a supernatural horror film, where a mother and her two children form part of the main characters of the story. It is based in an isolated, dark mansion. The children also form a very important part in the story, as they inspire both sympathy and fear throughout the movie, the first progressively decreasing as the movie develops. They also add a surge of gothic sensibility to the film, ...

[Assignment]

The Walker Within: How Zombies Define Humanity Since it first hit comic store shelves in 2003, The Walking Dead has captivated readers, gaining even more prominence when it was made into a television series by the same name in October, 2010 by AMC. The allure of zombies as a trope is strong; they offer an antagonist that is truly unrelenting and impossible to reason with, while their ability to carry on despite massive and traumatic injury allows for high levels of blood, guts, and gore, appealing to the horror fans that are the zombie genre’s main audience. ...

Act V, Scene III

“The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight.

Cold and fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.

What do I fear? myself? there's none else by: Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I. Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am: Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why: Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself? Alack. I love myself. Wherefore? for any good

That I myself have done unto myself?

O, no! alas, I rather hate myself For hateful deeds committed by myself! I am a villain: yet I lie. I am not”.

“Methought the souls of all who I had murdered

All came to my tent, and every one did threat This scene appears as the only time that ...

Superstitions in American culture

Superstitions refer to belief in magic and fear of the unknown, which leads individuals to adopt irrational behaviors. The influence of superstitions on individuals has remained strong throughout human history, but this influence has been declining with increased urbanization and education of the masses. The Halloween superstition reflects a fear of some power by human beings, which is beyond their understanding and control. However, some superstitions remain prevalent in American culture and other industrialized societies. During Halloween it is traditionally believed that it is a period that common myths, omens and folklore have more weight for the people who ...

Ghost stories and narratives can take many different forms and change according to history, location and culture. What is considered scary in one culture could be dismissed as a fantastic tale or a comical narrative by another. The cultural values and everyday narratives of the people in a certain location determine what is scary and what is not. The West and the East have different cultural values and beliefs. They differ not only in simple matters such as greeting a stranger but also in the principles that govern their conduct in life and business. These differences are also evident ...

Abstract

This paper begins with an introduction that provides a general overview as well as the setting of the play A Doll’s House. It also sets out to provide an analysis of how Ibsen portrays the rights of women through the female characters in his most famous plays, A Doll’s House and Ghosts. The paper begins by evaluating the rights of woman as portrayed through the experiences of the female characters in the Doll’s House. In particular, the primary focus of this part is Nora, who is a central character in the play. Accordingly, the play proceeds ...

Irish Drama: Comparing Two Plays

British literary landscape has long been diligently adorned and complemented by the magnificent works of Irish authors, all of them mirroring the peculiar culture, mentality and traditions of the people. In Irish literary legacy, dramaturgy is a remarkable genre, while history and myths are the common thematic aspects of the works. Interestingly, due to the complex historical background of Ireland and its Northern part, one could draw parallels even between seemingly different plays separated by decades. A good example is observed in a kind of symbolic interplay between the plays Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme ...

Guillermo Del Toro’s Spanish horror-fantasy film The Devil’s Backbone is a unique ghost story for its time, given the film’s setting during the Spanish Civil War and the morally ambiguous nature of the ghosts found in the film. In telling the story of a small orphanage in rural Spain in the early 1930s, haunted by a small boy named Santi whose death provides one of the central mysteries, The Devil’s Backbone mixes the high fantasy of fairy tales with the gritty despair of one of Spain’s most tumultuous historical periods. As evidenced in the ...

Ghost stories and narratives can take many different forms and change according to the history, location and culture of a place. What is considered scary in one culture could be dismissed as a fantastic tale or a comical narrative by another culture. The cultural values and every day narratives of the people in a certain physical location determines what is scary and what is not. The west and the east have different cultural values and beliefs. they differ not only in simple matters such as greeting a stranger but also the principles that govern their conduct in life and ...

After seeing the pamphlet on “Ghostblasters,” a business dedicated to remove ghost from the home through a scientific process, it was important to explore how legitimate this claim is. Typically, there is not even proof of ghosts as an actual reality, but rather a myth to frighten young children. Here, there is business advertising and collecting money from individuals who seek their services believing there has been an “ectoplasmic” removal of the ghost materials. Not only has the proof of ghosts been inconclusive from a scientific point, but the possibility to remove something that has not even been proven ...

Introduction

The World Bewitched (1965) was written by Bekker to outline theological and philosophical viewpoints that challenged the notion that ghosts, devils, and angels had an influence on historical events, as well as nature.The story was written at a time when Christianity was being perfected in England and the rest of Europe. During this time, The World Bewitched (1965) was written, Bekker served as a minister in Amsterdam. Protestants needed a philosophical and theological approach to accentuate the assumption that God was the ruler of the world. The need to project God as the authority while discrediting the influence of ...