.... although it is hard to find one character who portrays prejudice alone, throughout the novel. When prejudice does occur in this novel, Jane Austen has shown it in the hands of a notoriously proud character. Because prejudice is not personified (ie. depicted as a major characteristic flaw) I believe that it was not to be the object of Jane Austen's sharper criticism. Jane Austen has depicted pride in her minor (functional) characters as a means of demonstrating it's importance as a theme of this novel. Lady Catherine is one of the main offenders, her airs, arrogance and pride are fuelled by other characters like Mr Collins who is put there to satire proud people and their ....

.... to draw his portrait in order to preserve his beauty and youth. Dorian recognised that as long as he remained young he would be handsome. He dreaded the day that he would age slightly and start to form wrinkles and such ugly (in Dorian's opinion) ugly things. He believed that that day would deprive him of triumphs that would result in him being miserable. The degree of evil within Dorian increases as the plot develops. By trading his soul for his youth, Dorian rids of the good inside of himself. The plot proves to us that evil does actually lie within an individual. From the moment that he becomes forever young he begins to deteriorate. Even once he reached his e ....

.... which makes a remarkable novel. Personal experiences alone don’t always make a good story however. Ernest Hemingway’s ability to achieve a roller coaster of emotions from chapter to chapter is remarkable. The basic feeling of hope and despair take turns throughout the novel but the idea that life is a futile attempt at salvation is stressed at all times. The emotional seesaw that Hemingway puts the reader through is an invigorating experience but even more stimulating since he can maintain the overtones of depression. Hemingway’s ability to pull so many tragedies together to stress the themes of depression, despair, a futility in humanity also make th ....

.... of Gilead. In the book The Fire Dwellers by Margaret Laurence our main character Stacey MacAindra has been thrown into a life of responsibility. She has an uncommunicative husband who means well, but shows her no love. And four children who she feels are being ruined by her every action. She feels that life has much more to offer than the tediousness of every day routine. The nature of Offred’s lost identity is very drastic. Before the new religious group of Gilead took over the world she was a very normal every day woman. She did what was expected of her time and continued to do so after the take over. She had a husband and a daughter who she loved very muc ....

.... - crossed lovers,” referring to Romeo and Juliet. The term “star – crossed lovers,” sets the reoccurring theme of love and death and represents the entire play in those three words. Romeo and Juliet met one night at a party where they immediately fell desperately in love at first sight. Both were happily in love until they found they were in love with their enemy. The theme of teenage rebellion becomes an issue at this point. Romeo and Juliet love each other but this love is rejected throughout their families being both their families have had a grudge carried out from their ancestors. The only way for Romeo and Juliet to have a relation ....

.... on her ovaries productivity. She lives with her commander and his wife in a highly supervised centre. Unlike men, women have been facing unique problems for centuries, and often women experience harassment and discrimination. In today's society, females are trying to combat their tribulations through lawsuits and protest rallies. Literature often deals with people being unable to articulate their problems. Often, unforeseen circumstances force people to conceal their true emotions. In "The Handmaid's Tale" the main female characters find ways to escape their situations rather than deal with them. Offred from The Handmaid's Tale uses different tactics to cope with her ....

.... caps." (30) The picture portrayed is that of dull, gloomy, sludge and gray ash covering all of the surrounding areas. " The familiar gray landscape." (30) The dis-pair and loneliness that Iona feels are sorrow. "May it do you good . . . But my son is dead, mate . . . Do you hear?" (33). Iona desperately wants to tell about his sons' death, and how it is affecting him. "He wants to tell how his son was taken ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died"(34). Ionas' son has died, and he feels as though it should have been he to the grave instead of his youthful son. "My son ought to be driving not I"(34). The gray dismal surroundings entrap Ion ....

.... skeptical and politically uncommitted characters in pre-civil war history. Reynolds went on to say, His [Hawthorne's] career illustrates the success of an especially responsive author in gathering together disparate female types and recombining them artistically so that they become crucial elements of the rhetorical and artistic construct of his fiction (Reynolds 179). Hawthorne used ironies of fallen women and female criminals to achieve the perfect combination of different types of heroines. His heroines are equipped to expel wrongs against their sex bringing about an awareness of both the rights and wrongs of women. Hester is a compound of many popular stereotypes ric ....