George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four describes a futuristic alternate reality where a totalitarian government tyrannises the population through constant surveillance, public mind control, propaganda and on-going overseas war. ... This overarching theme of the downtrodden masses versus the empowered elite minority is constant throughout the narrative, thus leaving the novel openly suitable for analysis from the Marxist perspective of literary theory. There are several other key themes, tropes and connotations throughout the novel which can also be connected strongly to...

• Word Count: 1916
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

True to its roots as a Gothic novel, the atmosphere of The House of the Seven Gables broods with ambiguity and fear, with this uncertainty culminating in moments of heightened suspense. ... Though this is a crucial moment that alters the course of the novel, all we are given is that "She thrust herself past Clifford, and disappeared into the room, but almost immediately returned, with a cry choking in her throat" (250). ... However, later in the novel after Hepzibah discovers Judge Jaffrey dead, she senses that a "stifling atmosphere of dread fill[s] the house with a death-smell...

• Word Count: 1547
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

In the same vein, in his essay "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," (Notes Towards an Investigation, 1972) the French philosopher Louis Althusser uses a Marxist perspective to study the relationship, in the modern context, between the governed and the governor. ... These two poems, in fact, constitute the driving forces behind the two major patterns of attitudes of the animals in the novel, namely revolution and submissiveness. ...

• Word Count: 1473
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Graduate