Essays on Unrequited Love

Feste is one of Shakespeare’s most intricate and fully sketched comic characters, and perhaps for his sophistication he has been a special favorite of the literary critics. This paper discusses three important aspects of Feste’s character in order to gain literary insight. This study addresses whether Feste is a mere fool - a comic-butt and a parasite or hanger-on in the play with his only function being to elicit laughter by his words and actions, or one whose inclusion in the play signifies something more sublime and subtle (Grief 61). I Shakespeare, in his play Twelfth Night, has given ...

Although romantic love is an emotion that cannot be directly controlled, as suggested by Halwani (2010, p. 90) in his book Philosophy of Love, Sex, and Marriage: An Introduction, I agree that romantic love is a moral issue not because of love per se, but because of what romantic love makes people do. It causes people to feel different kinds of desires, which when, acted on, can make such actions either morally right or wrong. As Halwani (2010, p. 90) suggests, love is permissible and not obligatory. He implies that romantic love is often something that just happens, ...

Introduction

Unattainable love is something that all of us have experienced at some point in our life. It is both a painful and learning experience, and a subject that has inspired numerous artists both in literature and in the visual arts. It has also urged many to become better persons, although there are also others who choose to just give up in despair.

One of the most beautiful ways of expressing the sorrow, despair, and frustrations that come with unattainable love is through the art of literature. In this regard, this paper reviews three prose and three poems that dwell on the ...

Setting is a vital part of any story; it helps establish context for the character’s actions, showcases the period in which the story is set, and allows a mood to be set. What’s more, a setting can reveal the passions or the conflicts the characters possess, becoming symbols themselves for the characters. The protagonists of many important literary works are inexorably tied to their surroundings, and the following three works are no exception. In this paper, the settings of Shakespeare’s Othello¸ Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby will all be examined in terms of their ...

It has often been said that poetry and lyrics are one and the same: indeed, lyrics are undoubtedly the modern day equivalent of the popular poem of previous centuries; the rock stars are the poets. Whether poem or lyric, they convey human emotions, stories of love and loss, and conjure up imagery for the reader/listener to imagine. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the words and ideas of one poem with its song counterpart. For this, I have chosen Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats and the lyrics to My Very Best by Elbow. ...