It can be said that a certain degree of darkness lies within every person, but this darkness will not surface unless given the correct environment. The darkness, however, can emerge and ultimately destroy the person if not checked by reason. Eventually we find out that both Dorian, from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Kurtz, from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, are defeated by their darkness and fall prey to its wrath. ... (Wilde 93) Through these acts in Heart of Darkness, it is clear how the same actions, by separate people, can result in differing consequences...

• Word Count: 1170
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, the author uses a dark setting, religious symbolism, and vivid imagery to portray that no one is sin free, and evil lies within everyone. ... Although one may seem pure on the surface, everyone battles with the darkness inside them. This story pulls at one's heart's strings, and makes one analyze the good and evil that lies within during their religious fight. ... " This shows that even though the road may seem dark, that doesn't mean it is. ... In the story, Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne uses a dark setting, religious sy...

• Word Count: 724
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Nicolas like any other child was not born of the dark side. ... Key events such as a bad omen, and his mothers" child rearing skills, created Nicolas" heart of evil. ... Without this show of affection, he turned to violence And crime to fill the hole in his heart. ... It is almost as if she melts his heart. ... Casilda has filled his heart with love instead....

• Word Count: 755
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

" (Job 42:10-12) Through the darkness in his life hope gave him the light to continue onward. ... God did not necessarily test Job but allowed Satan to take everything away from him and making him very ill, to see what is Job's heart is made of. ... Even though Job lost everything and was ill he did not turn his heart away from God, 'In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong' (Job 1:22). Suffering is a blessing, God does not just give one a light after darkness as he did for Job, but how you have grown as a person with faith after the darkness and suffering. .....

• Word Count: 1223
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

After this, Emil divides the world into two crude categories: the light and the dark. ... His struggle between the forces of good and evil are represented by the realms of light and darkness, as well as by the people he meets during his life. ... A classic bully, Kromer introduces Emil to the world of darkness with simple blackmail. ... Emil said, "Once again, I belonged wholly to the dark world, to the Devil, and in that world I counted as a great guy." ... Golding, much like Hesse, sees evil as existing within the hearts of men, and explores what happens when a person is removed from al...

• Word Count: 1226
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

While Simon attempts to be the pure, Christ-like figure of the group, he tragically fails due to the darkness that exists within mankind. ... His good deeds show how different he is from the others through his nature of civility and how kind hearted he is by not turning into a primitive savage. Simon is the first one to realize the truth about the beast and how it is a concept of darkness that comes from within the boys, rather than a physical creature. ... Simon points out the possibility of the boys being the beast, meaning that the beast is the darkness that is inside each and every huma...

• Word Count: 1076
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Also, before Beowulf defeats Grendel, he becomes notable due to his acts of courage, which can be understood when he states, " They have seen my strength for themselves, have watched me rise from the darkness of war, dripping with my enemies" blood." ... This immediately reveals that Grendel is a creature of darkness that thrives on depraved pleasures, and the reference to hell inevitably associates him with Satan who is the evil character in the Christian faith. Also, the fact that he accomplishes all of his evil deeds in the darkness of night exhibits that he himself is of caliginous charact...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The description of Salem village during Puritan times begins when Goodman Brown enters unfamiliar and dark forest. ... Also, it represents deception and obscurity of Goodman's heart; his mind seems filled with malevolent and dreary thoughts. ... He cannot confront the dread of evil in his heart, and chooses to reject all society. ...

• Word Count: 591
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

His sermon was meant to instill terror in the hearts of his congregation, and as he spoke of Hell, brimstone, and a merciless God, his audience could probably see the dark clouds of guilt above their heads. Edwards was a powerful, persuasive speaker, and each dark metaphor created fear that was great enough to convince his audience never stray off of the path to the gates of Heaven. ...

• Word Count: 766
• Approx Pages: 3

This is similar to Genesis, where at the beginning God was in the middle of darkness and emptiness. However, in the Iroquois tale, in the beginning there are birds and a void of air along with the emptiness and darkness. ... This creates envy in Cain's heart and he decides to kill his brother to obtain God's favor. ...

• Word Count: 718
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This story is about the errors in judgment a king makes while shrouded in a personal darkness. ... Bradley remarks, "turning the hearts of the fathers against their children and of children against their fathers" (225) when describing this catastrophic story. ... His two eldest daughters praise their father with lies 6), and a dark collusion for power and control ensues. His youngest 7)Cordelia, tells him, from her noble and true heart, how she truly feels. ...

• Word Count: 999
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Did Adam and Eve first have an evil heart before they took of the fruit? ... Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" ... But, says the prophet, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." ...

• Word Count: 881
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

"Hester Pryne was startled to perceive what a change has come over his features--how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen- (108) He had established himself as a doctor in Boston. ... "He now dug into the poor clergy man's heart like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption." (125) Chillingworth is now almost completely consumed with evil. ... "This unhappy person had effected s...

• Word Count: 1089
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

"Hester Pryne was startled to perceive what a change has come over his features--how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen- (108) He had established himself as a doctor in Boston. ... "He now dug into the poor clergy man's heart like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption." (125) Chillingworth is now almost completely consumed with evil. ... "This unhappy person had effected s...

• Word Count: 1075
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

A delicate balance between forces that are good and those that are evil hangs within every beating heart. ... After moving in with Dimmesdale, "Roger Chillingworth- the man of skill, the kind and friendly physician- strove to go deep into his patient's bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure seeker in a dark cavern" (114). ... Hester's goodness is expressed through her willingness, "to give her little substance to every demand of poverty; even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gib...

• Word Count: 1073
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

He is a young boy with a good heart and just wants the best for the rest of the boys and wants to get everyone off the island. ... It shows you how throughout the book they lose that child in them and become a dark, evil person. ...

• Word Count: 737
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Women In Comparison In the movie "So Proudly We Hail" the women were shown as strong, caring, and nurturing. In the movie of "Double Indemnity" Phyllis was shown as a cold-blooded killer, the opposite of the women in "So Proudly We Hail." The characteristics that both these women share are the ...

• Word Count: 658
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

As the poem progresses, it gradually gets darker as the questions he poses get harder and harder to answer. ... Taking solace in the proof of his existence, the crow "reclined, marvelling, on his heart-beat" (3). ...

• Word Count: 820
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The story also gives the impression that if there is any evil in your heart or the heart of your people that your own society will eventually collapse. ... "He took over Heorot,/ haunted the glittering hall after dark,/ but the throne itself, the treasure-seat,/ he was kept from approaching; he was the Lord's outcast" (36). ...

• Word Count: 1092
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Near the beginning of the play it is made clear that friends and even Desdemona's father did not want Desdemona to marry Othello because of his darker skin tone. ... Desdemona's pure love for Othello is expressed when she says to him: That I did love the Moor to live with him My downright violence and storm of fortunes, May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdu"d Even to the very quality of my lord: I saw Othello's visage in his mind, And to his honours and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. ...

• Word Count: 1058
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

For example, when Hester was being evaluated by Governor Billingham as to being fit to raise Pearl, Hester "was startled to perceive what a change had come over [Roger Chillingworth's] features, how much uglier they were, how dark his complexion seemed to have grown... and his figure more misshapen," (Hawthorne 103). ... All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, to whose great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to on the very man, to whom nothing else could so adequately pay the debt of vengeance! ...

• Word Count: 1004
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Apathy and half-hearted support in all social cases is just as harmful as creating an unjust law because it decreases morale and adds dead weight to a society. ... "Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood....

• Word Count: 1102
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School