Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature

274 Chaucer, Geoffrey In contrast to Griselidis’s suppressed grief, the potential emptiness of ritualized mourning is revealed i ...

The Seagull 275 Shipman talk about church corruption, and “The Miller’s Tale” contains allusions to monastic worship (“And thus ...

276 Chekhov, Anton play, Masha articulates her plans for abandoning her fantasies and moving forward in a new direction. Yet eve ...

The Seagull 277 you,” to which she replies, “Nonsense... Your love touches me, but I can’t return it, that’s all” (Act 1). By th ...

278 Chesnutt, Charles W. ment of Justice for twenty-eight years, but I’ve never lived, never experienced anything.” Even Dorn, a ...

“The Goophered Grapevine” 279 would be recognized by Socrates, the great ancient Greek philosopher of ethics. The story as told ...

280 Chesnutt, Charles W. there is a “color line” that separates the meaning of freedom to Uncle Julius, a former slave, and to h ...

The Awakening 281 the post–Civil War stereotype of the freed slave and turning it on its ear. The happy-go-lucky, childlike blac ...

282 Chopin, Kate produced it. The laws in Louisiana at the time and the role of women in Creole society are important to underst ...

The Awakening 283 The ending of The Awakening is a very famous and contested passage in which Edna kills herself by swimming out ...

284 Cisneros, Sandra invites her soul to “wander in abysses of solitude.” She enters the ocean naked and “absolutely alone.” Kat ...

The House on Mango Street 285 Cordero through her own eyes as she comes to maturity in the slums of Chicago. She is the daugh- t ...

286 Cisneros, Sandra she want to be trapped into motherhood in order to have one? Does she want to be afraid of her own shadow? ...

The House on Mango Street 287 school “[b]ecause I didn’t have nice clothes.” Finally, Esperanza is aware that she does not wish ...

288 Cisneros, Sandra Hanging around with boys proves very painful for Esperanza, and she blames Sally, saying “Sally, you lied. ...

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories 289 Chicanas are influenced by bicultural and bina- tional gender icons as well. In “Eye ...

290 Cisneros, Sandra In “My Tocaya,” a Catholic high school tries to control the contact between boys and girls by limiting inte ...

Waiting for the Barbarians 291 endures the pain of betrayal but continues to love the man in her life in spite of everything. Cl ...

292 Coetzee, J. M. for bed, the reader is treated to a nighttime of silence and beauty as the Magistrate takes his mat to the ro ...

Waiting for the Barbarians 293 The Magistrate sets himself apart from Colonel Joll, the outsider who has come to his settlement, ...