Reverend Dimesdale's image radiates the dark, gloomy truth of his impurities as well as the severe internal conflict within that is threatening to tear his soul. ... Forth peeped at her, out of the pool, with dark glistening curls around her head and an elf-smile in her eyes, the image of a little maid, whom Pearl, having no other playmate, invited to take her hand and run a race with her." ... The very limited light that shines onto the looking glass is used to burn deep into the minister's soul, prodding at the shameful secret he hides within his heart, and shine the consequences b...

• Word Count: 2043
• Approx Pages: 8

Shelley's Frankenstein is host to a range of significant gothic elements, evident through Victor's creation of the gigantic creature, the dark setting of the novel, set in places of gloom and horror, and the disempowered portrayal of females, in which women are threatened by the tyranny of males and are often in distress. ... In her 1831 introduction, Shelley declares her desire to think of a story which would speak to the "mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror " one to "curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart". ... In Frankenstein, the multitud...

• Word Count: 2218
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Blake uses dark and frantic images signifying paucity, violence, illness and decease because he wishes to convince the reader of melancholy and morbid. ... He articulates that the "sordid boon" we have "given our hearts" is the avaricious development of humans. ... In "Tintern Abbey" he writes about a "green pastorical landscape" and claims that "nature never did betray /the heart that loved her." ...

• Word Count: 1464
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The epithets throughout the poem are contradictory, but the majority of them can be linked with darkness- symbolizing the dark side of man. ... On one hand, the creation can be interpreted as industrial process (Moore), but on the other hand it can be looked at as another sign for the might of God- God, who forges not only the body, but also the heart of the fearful beast. ...

• Word Count: 1920
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The stanzas are made up of interlinking three-line units with the rhyme scheme ababcbcdc, continuing this to the end of the stanza: O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, (a) Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead (b) Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, (a) Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, (b) Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, (c) Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed (b) The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, (c) Each like a corpse within its grave, until (d) Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow (c) H...

• Word Count: 1748
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

William Wordsworth complains that "the world" is too overwhelming for us to appreciate it: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our power: Little we see in nature that is our: we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon. ... When Wordsworth first lays eyes on this beautiful woman he describes her eyes being as beautiful as the stars in the evening and her hair as dark as the night. ...

• Word Count: 2404
• Approx Pages: 10