In both Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Homer's The Odyssey, the main characters transgress beyond accepted social norms and commit crimes. Odysseus blinds a man, acts recklessly in providing for the safety of his crew, and is unfaithful (repeatedly) to his wife. Oedipus is unkind to a b...

The Rose of Southern Gentility Never Withers Strictly speaking, the plot of the short story "A Rose for Emily" may seem to suggest that the story is a mystery story. It is the tale of a woman who kills her lover when she is jilted. But the character of Miss Emily and the character of the...

Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" gives us a lot of information in just a short period of time. As the title of the story suggests, all that takes place really does take only an hour. In this short hour however, Chopin does a magnificent job of giving the reader, suspense, dra...

Set in late 18th Century Regency England, Pride and Prejudice is the portrait of the struggles of women finding the inevitable 'husband' and of a society that believes in male superiority. Through Elizabeth Bennet's lively intelligence and desire in finding 'a man she truly lov...

"I take thee to be my lawful wedded [husband], to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, keep thee only unto me, until death do us part." Traditional wedding vows are held sacred not only to the ones who pronounce t...

Forever and Ever...?" It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." This sentence, the first of the novel Pride and Prejudice is the statement of one of the major themes in the book. Within this novel there are seven different ...