House of Notes

Heart of Darkness: Marlow's Symbolic Character Marlow is one of the two narrators in “Heart of Darkness” and he is the more important of the two. Conrad has created a complex narrator in Marlow, a man who is not all good or all bad. Marlow narrates the story constituting the real substance of the novel. A mere narrator would objectively tell a story, keeping himself out of it. But in “Heart of Darkness”, Marlow himself is one of the central characters. As a narrator, Marlow is unreliable that he is not an objective teller of the story, but is instead emotionally conflicted about the events and people within his tale. He is also a figure who is alienated from the mainstream. He is also an observer, a thinker, and a commentator. Half of the interest and appeal of this novel would be lost if we were to ignore the role of Marlow in “Heart of Darkness” . Marlow also has a symbolic role. He stands for something bigger and larger than himself. Marlow symbolizes the spiri...

The first work of literary criticism in English literature comes from Sir Philip Sidney. As early as the 16th century, individuals in England were attacking literature as being corrupt in much the same way some "born-again" Christian groups of the neo-right today wish to censor what students in public schools read. One such Renaissance writer, Stephen Gosson, in the School of Abuse , charged corruption for reasons that were probably personal in that he failed as a dramatist himself. Consequently, he published The School of Abuse in which he attacked literature for being immoral: ...we who have both sense, reason, wit and understanding are ever overlashing, passing our bounds, going beyond our limits, never keeping ourselves within compass nor once looking after the place from which we came...Let us but shut our eyes to poets, pipers, and players, pull our feet back from resort to theaters, and turn away from the be- holding of vanity greatest storm of abuse will ...

Examine in detail the main ideas in Sidney’s ‘An Apology for Poetry’ and comment on its significance. An Apologie for Poetrie may for purposes of convenience be divided into sixteen sections. 1. The Prologue Before launching a defence of poetry, Sidney justified his stand by referring in a half-humorous manner to a treatise on horseman-ship by pietro Pugliano. If the art of horsemanship can deserve such an eloquent euology and vindication, surely poetry has better claims for euology and vindication. There is a just cause to plead a case for poetry since it has fallen from the highest estimation of learning to be ‘the laughing stock of children.’ 2. Some Special Arguments in Favour of Poetry Poetry has been held in high esteem since the earliest times. It has been ‘the first light-giver to ignorance.’ The earlier Greek philosophers and historians were, in fact, poets. Even among the uncivilized nations, in Turkey, among the American Indians, and m Wales, poetry enjo...