Introduction Jane Austen’s much loved novel Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813 at a time when family relationships in Britain were governed by rather rigid societal rules. Male and female roles were very clearly defined, and in the more wealthy families in particular, great effort was spent on maintaining moral respectability and financial security. This essay examines the various ways that Jane Austen depicts the related topics of love and marriage in the novel. It explore...
Why was William Shakespeare regarded as the best English play writer? In his book Will in the World, Stephen Greenblatt describes Shakespeare as “the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time”. This echoes the fact that ‘the Bard’ is often considered to be one of England’s greatest authors. Even today his work is read by thousands of schoolchildren, his plays are performed in many theatres (including the replica Globe in London which is named after him), his plays have been rep...
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was an incredibly well plotted story which became immensely popular, and implanted itself into the popular psyche. The story is told mostly from the perspective of a third party, the lawyer Mr Utterson, and concerns his friend the scientist Dr Jekyll and Jekyll’s associate, the misanthropic and widely loathed Mr Hyde. Utterson suspects Hyde of using Jekyll due to a change of will; however when Hyde disappears following a brutal murder Utterson is t...
