Matthew Arnold Criticism Of English Poetry

He is addressing these things because the people have seemed to underestimate the reality of it and how real it makes someone feel. In conclusion, these are only theories, those ideas are nothing more than my own meandering opinion. However I do believe Ray Bradbury and Walter Van Tilburg Clark suggest that our world is coming to a swarm of uneducated fools. Though they have different plots, their novel and short story both infer things about today 's society. They both write about the mistreated literature and art.

A proctor does not make decisions based on his reputation. He makes decisions based on his morals. It is his enemy who finds fault in a proctor to better his/her own reputation. Society – in the past, present, and future – will fabricate stories around the proctor in order to “protect” it. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Wickham is an example of an evil-minded man who calls calumny on an innocent man.

‘Positive characters … usually prove miserably ineffectual when contending with ruthless overwhelming powers’ claims Amin Malak, noting on such protagonists as Winston Smith and Offred in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and, when looking at the dystopian genre as a whole, he certainly seems to be correct. Dystopian fiction does seem to portray the worse side of human nature than the better, leaving the positive traits to the struggling protagonists. While utopian writers seemed to think that the essence of human nature was to do good, dystopian writers seem to think very differently and it is from this notion that these novels seem to be written. Nineteen Eighty-Four certainly seems to do this, with almost every member of the society representing one or more negative aspects of humanity. Throughout the novel, Winston constantly references the fact that ‘Today there were fear, hatred and pain’ and that in this society of Ingsoc ‘No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred’ and this is displayed in many, various ways.

In the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, is an egoist, but not in the way expected. Along with him being an egoist, comes an expected bad connotation, but he does in fact break away from the chains his collectivist society puts on him and Equality- later known as Prometheus- finds himself and his individuality. Equality 7-2521 is in fact an egoist, but rather in a good way, he uses his egoism to set him apart from his fellow brothers, which ultimately leads him to better himself and find the sweet freedom he’s been missing out on.

A Questionable Flaw In a fight between good versus evil, good is the recurring victor. However, when the good and evil are fighting within oneself, the outcome is not as desired as we wish it would be. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I would rather be a little nobody than an evil somebody.” Although good should definitely triumph evil, most people struggle between the two and it is a recurrent flaw. In the short stories “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, and “Poison” by Roald Dahl, the protagonists are motivated by self objectives and don’t pay attention to the sentiments of others, making them flawed. In the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist is flawed in

Romanticism was a time of strong emotions and opinions. Washington Irving did not agree with these ideas, and if you examine closely, you notice that he mocked these ideas in his works “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” and the story of “Rip Van Winkle”. During the Romantic period, people trusted their feeling over common sense and believed in various ideas that are unreasonable, including superstition, trusting their feelings more than common sense, and the idea that people are basically good. Irving may have been trying to make fun of the romantic period, or was just being funny, in the end, either by accident or not, he pointed out several wrong ideas of the Romantic

Like Self-Reliance, Whitman voices his displeasure of something: American politics, culture, and values and the effect that it has on its national literature. Since America lacks a distinct culture and identity, it has affected its literature greatly. For example, Whitman says “…but breathe your breath of life into our New World’s nostrils—not to enslave us, as now, but, for our needs, to breed a spirit like your own—perhaps, (dare we to say it?) to dominate, even destroy, what you yourselves have left!” (Whitman 1169). Like the nation, Whitman is divided on where the United States stands on its national identity and therefore its national literature.

While Conrad’s story provides a powerful disapproval of the deceitful functions of imperialism, it also presents a set of concerns surrounding ethnicity that is ultimately disturbing. Conrad believes that the naive and pure idea in which colonialism originates from is its only moral attribute of imperialism. T.S. Eliot makes a connection to Conrad’s story in order to reveal the difference in the “idea” and “reality” imperialism. Ultimately what all three writers wanted to stress to the audience is that though the Theory of imperialism may seem pure, its reality will only bring tragedy and corruption.

Political language "is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind "according to George Orwell, who believed that the language used is meaningless and its intention is to hide the truth by those who exercise political power. The essay "Politics and the English Language" became a powerful work for the writers, journalists and teachers, thus the author creates a “poetics” for political language appointing the main rules and problems that determine the truth not to be said. While reading George Orwell’s essay I agreed and disagreed with his opinions and solutions for an improved English, consequently, I gathered evidence to prove my claim which is multilateral because during the years, the subject has been debated and analyzed by umpteen writers or critics. For example, there are people who agree that what blames Orwell as ways of controlling the people, but there are opinions who claim that the essayist’s rules are too harsh. George Orwell was a known fighter for the freedom to speak, think or against the control of language and masses of people through politics.

Wilde was claimed to be a follower of the Aesthetic Movement which begs the question, what was he trying to imply in creating his novel? Wilde was not the leader of the Aesthetic movement but rather “a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art’s sake” (Luebering 133). Dorian’s story shows how aesthetic beliefs can ruin the life if to pursue them blindly. In this way, Oscar Wilde not only demonstrates the Aesthetic movement in all its glory but also tells about its poisonous effect to moral that can occur. Basil worshipped Dorian’s and art’s beauty too much.