The irony contained within the title "Essential Beauty" is that the beauty is an illusion, and underneath all the billboards that "block the ends of streets with giant loaves" there is a harsh reality, only hidden behind the images of aspiration. ... The image of the upper ("crust") class family - "the white clothed ones from tennis clubs"- is meant to portray another ideal of a family, however, the reality is the "boy puking his heart out in the Gents" showing that the family is just as dysfunctional as the rest of society. ... However, there are many ways to interpret these lines and the wom...

• Word Count: 414
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Black can be interpreted as to represent the entire spectrum of corrupt behavior, where a character such as Abigail is often associated with darkness, threatening to attack the other girls "in the black of night," and the stain on her name and reputation. ... At the end of Act three Proctor exclaims, "When you know all in your black hearts God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!... There is a vast extent of dramatic irony used that intensifies emotions of suspense for the reader. ... This dramatic irony serves two purposes. ... Miller intensified ...

• Word Count: 1145
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The last paragraph of the story lends more credence to the fact that he is a psychopath in which he tells us "[his] heart grew sick – on account of the dampness of the catacombs." ... The main character of the story, Emily Grierson, was raised by her father, who was a very controlling man; he chased away all of her potential suitors when she was young because they were not wealthy enough; the irony being that her family had lost their money and were no longer as highly regarded as they once were. ... These three stories have similar components; while Poe and Faulkner both use of dark hum...

• Word Count: 799
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Brown provides readers with narratives of daily life on the plantations, at slave auctions and during the dark hours of individual pain but what makes his narratives so unique is his constant reference to all these situations in the paradoxical realm of democracy and religion. It is very eye opening to read of Brown's harsh condemnation of the religious basis and justification of slavery in the south when he (on more than one occasion) highlights the irony of the mistreatment of blacks by their white masters. ... Brown always felt in his heart that he should be free and vowed to "not...

• Word Count: 541
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate