Myth into Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Myth into Film - Essay Example This paper will comprehensively explore the similarities and difference between the two and my deduction of what each author is trying to bring out in their story. Despite Euripides Medea and Dassin’s A Dream of Passion’s different settings, they have some similarities. Both Medea and A Dream of Passion, follow the tales of women who are forced by circumstances to kill their children, born and unborn, to satisfy their interests. The two stories exhibit high emotions of love, passion and vengeance. In Euripides’ play, Medea, the protagonist Medea is so much in love with her husband Jason. She feels extremely betrayed by her husband when she learns of his unfaithfulness and plans to marry Creons daughter. She cannot bear her husband’s betrayal and feels a great desire to carry out revenge on him. Creon, on the other hand, anticipates Medea to retaliate. To protect his daughter from Medea’s wrath; he decides to send Medea into exile. Eventually, Medea succeeds in killing Glauce, Creon and her three children. She inflicts unimaginable pain on her husband not only by the killings, but also by her decision to escap e to Athens with the corpses of her children. Jason’s betrayal of her love leads her to commit such heinous crimes. Like in Medea, A Dream of Passion presents a similar scenario. Maya goes through the same situation as Medea but in a different context. In A Dream of Passion, The character, Brenda represents the real Medea, and she killed her three children to carry out revenge on her husband. However, Maya’s similarities to Medea are brought out through her interactions with Brenda. Like Brenda killed her children, Maya carried out an abortion. Thus they are both equal in that they killed despite the motive behind their killings. Brenda killed for vengeance while Maya killed to be a star, to be a celebrity, prosperous and independent.

The writing life of edgar allan poe Research Paper

The writing life of edgar allan poe - Research Paper Example While Poe was studying at the University of Virginia (1826-1827), he wrote some tales but little is known of these works. At age 18, he published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems. In 1829, Poe’s second book, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems was published in Baltimore. In 1831, Poe’s Poems was published in New York. In 1833, he won $50 for his work â€Å"MS Found in a Bottle†. It was also during this time that he started his career as a staff member of various magazines. Poe became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond in 1835. It was in this magazine that he wrote several critical book reviews which gave him a reputation of being a fearless critic (Poe Museum, par.9). In 1837, Poe left Southern Literary but he became editor of other magazines namely, the Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia and the Broadway Journal in New York City. It was in Graham’s Magazine that Poe wrote â€Å"Murders in the Rue Morgues† which is considered the first modern detective story. In 1843, Poe won a $100 prize from the Dollar Newspaper of Philadelphia for his tale of pirate treasure in â€Å"The Gold Bug†. This award earned national attention for Poe. The next ten years saw Poe building a name as a poet, short story writer and an editor. It was during these times when he published some of his well-acclaimed works such as â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† and his most famous poem, â€Å"The Raven† (The Academy of American Poets, par.3). Poe died on October 7, 1849 in Baltimore. The tragedies that have befallen Poe have a great impact on his style of writing and the topics that he wrote about. His being an orphan at an early age, the death of his siblings and foster parents, poverty, a broken love affair, problems with gambling, and alleged drug use and alcoholism, all contributed to the literary genius that he was. Most of h is works reflected the darkness that enveloped his life. Poe’s is considered as part of the dark romanticism genre. He often used symbolisms in his work. In â€Å"The Raven†, he used the raven as a symbol of death, something which is bizarre. Poe’s writing is observed as always having a fascination with death. This may be attributed to several of his experiences involving the untimely loss of loved ones. The theme that surrounds his works was mostly of darkness and lost loves. Poe’s interest in psychology played an important part in his work’s visual imagery and emotions. He explored topics such as self-destruction, madness and imagination. There was however, a romantic side in his works, especially in his poetry. In his poem â€Å"Eulalie†, Poe’s inspiration was his wife, Virginia Clemm with whom he had a joyous married life. Poe also wrote humorous short stories such as â€Å"The Devil in the Belfry†, â€Å"The Duc de l'Omel ette†, â€Å"Bon-Bon† and â€Å"Never Bet the Devil Your Head†. These stories depict the devil as an ironic figure of fun (Liukkonen, par. 13) Poe is acknowledged as the originator of both horror and detective fiction. He is also credited as the â€Å"architect† of modern short story. Poe is known as the forerunner of the â€Å"art for art’s sake† movement because of his focus on the effect of the style and structure on the literary work (The Academy of American Poets, par. 4). To this day, Poe’s reputation is that of a writer of mystery and terror tales and