ROMEO AND JULIET

William Shakespeare
FULL TITLE The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
AUTHOR William Shakespeare
TYPE OF WORK Play
GENRE Tragic drama
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN London, mid-1590s
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1597 (in the First Quarto, which was likely an unauthorized incomplete
edition); 1599 (in the Second Quarto, which was authorized)
PUBLISHER Thomas Creede (in the Second Quarto, using the title The Most Excellent and Lamentable
Tragedie, of Romeo and Juliet)
PROTAGONISTS Romeo; Juliet
ANTAGONISTS The feuding Montagues and Capulets; Tybalt; the Prince and citizens of Verona; fate
SETTINGS (TIME) Renaissance (fourteenth or fifteenth century)
SETTINGS (PLACE) Verona and Mantua (cities in northern Italy)
POINT OF VIEW Insofar as a play has a point of view, that of Romeo and Juliet; occasionally the play
uses the point of view of the Montague and Capulet servants to illuminate the actions of their masters.
FALLING ACTION The end of Act 5, scene 3, when the Prince and the parents discover the bodies of
Romeo and Juliet, and agree to put aside their feud in the interest of peace.
TENSE Present
FORESHADOWING The Choruss first speech declaring that Romeo and Juliet are doomed to die and
star-crossed. The lovers frequent thoughts of death: My grave is like to be my wedding bed (Juliet,
1.5.132). The lovers thoughts of suicide, as when Romeo threatens to kill himself after killing Tybalt. Friar
Lawrences warnings to behave moderately if Romeo and Juliet wish to avoid tragedy: These violent
delights have violent ends . . . Therefore love moderately (2.5.914). The lovers mutual impression that the
other looks pale and deathlike after their wedding night (3.5). Juliets faked death by Friar Lawrences
potion. Romeos dream-vision of Juliet kissing his lips while he is dead (5.1). Romeos outbursts against
fate: O, I am fortunes fool! (3.1.131) and Then I defy you, stars (5.1.24).
TONES Passionate, romantic, intense, rhapsodic, violent, prone to extremes of emotion (ecstasy, rage,
misery, etc.)
THEMES The forcefulness of love; love as a cause of violence; the individual versus society; the
inevitability of fate
MOTIFS Light/dark imagery; opposite points of view
SYMBOLS Poison; thumb-biting; Queen Mab

HAMLET
William Shakespeare
FULL TITLE The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
AUTHOR William Shakespeare
TYPE OF WORK Play
GENRE Tragedy, revenge tragedy
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN London, England, early seventeenth century (probably 16001602)
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1603, in a pirated quarto edition titled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet;
1604 in a superior quarto edition
PROTAGONIST Hamlet
MAJOR CONFLICT Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his fathers murder by his uncle Claudius, but
Claudius is now the king and thus well protected. Moreover, Hamlet struggles with his doubts about whether
he can trust the ghost and whether killing Claudius is the appropriate thing to do.
RISING ACTION The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells Hamlet to revenge his murder; Hamlet feigns
madness to his intentions; Hamlet stages the mousetrap play; Hamlet passes up the opportunity to kill
Claudius while he is praying.
FALLING ACTION Hamlet is sent to England to be killed; Hamlet returns to Denmark and confronts
Laertes at Ophelias funeral; the fencing match; the deaths of the royal family
SETTING (TIME) The late medieval period, though the plays chronological setting is notoriously
imprecise
SETTINGS (PLACE) Denmark
FORESHADOWING The ghost, which is taken to foreshadow an ominous future for Denmark
TONE Dark, ironic, melancholy, passionate, contemplative, desperate, violent
THEMES The impossibility of certainty; the complexity of action; the mystery of death; the nation as a
diseased body
MOTIFS Incest and incestuous desire; ears and hearing; death and suicide; darkness and the supernatural;
misogyny
SYMBOLS The ghost (the spiritual consequences of death); Yoricks skull (the physical consequences of
death)

MACBETH
William Shakespeare
FULL TITLE The Tragedy of Macbeth
AUTHOR William Shakespeare
TYPE OF WORK Play
GENRE Tragedy
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN 1606, England
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION First Folio edition, 1623
PUBLISHER John Heminges and Henry Condell, two senior members of Shakespeares theatrical
company
TONE Dark and ominous, suggestive of a world turned topsy-turvy by foul and unnatural crimes
TENSE Not applicable (drama)
SETTING (TIME) The Middle Ages, specifically the eleventh century
SETTING (PLACE) Various locations in Scotland; also England, briefly
PROTAGONIST Macbeth
MAJOR CONFLICTS The struggle within Macbeth between his ambition and his sense of right and
wrong; the struggle between the murderous evil represented by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and the best
interests of the nation, represented by Malcolm and Macduff
RISING ACTION Macbeth and Banquos encounter with the witches initiates both conflicts; Lady
Macbeths speeches goad Macbeth into murdering Duncan and seizing the crown.
FALLING ACTION Macbeths increasingly brutal murders (of Duncans servants, Banquo, Lady Macduff
and her son); Macbeths second meeting with the witches; Macbeths final confrontation with Macduff and
the opposing armies
THEMES The corrupting nature of unchecked ambition; the relationship between cruelty and masculinity;
the difference between kingship and tyranny
MOTIFS The supernatural, hallucinations, violence, prophecy
SYMBOLS Blood; the dagger that Macbeth sees just before he kills Duncan in Act 2; the weather

A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM

William Shakespeare
FULL TITLE A Midsummer Nights Dream
AUTHOR William Shakespeare
TYPE OF WORK Play
GENRES Comedy; fantasy; romance; farce
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN London, 1594 or 1595
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1600
PUBLISHER Thomas Fisher
NARRATOR None
PROTAGONIST Because there are three main groups of characters, there is no single protagonist in the
play; however, Puck is generally considered the most important character.
ANTAGONIST None; the plays tensions are mostly the result of circumstances, accidents, and mistakes.
SETTINGS (TIME) Combines elements of Ancient Greece with elements of Renaissance England
SETTINGS (PLACE) Athens and the forest outside its walls
POINT OF VIEW Varies from scene to scene
FALLING ACTION Act V, scene i, which centers on the craftsmens play
TENSE Present
FORESHADOWING Comments made in Act I, scene i about the difficulties that lovers face
TONES Romantic; comedic; fantastic; satirical; dreamlike; joyful; farcical
SYMBOLS Theseus and Hippolyta represent order, stability, and wakefulness; Theseuss hounds represent
the coming of morning; Oberons love potion represents the power and instability of love.
THEMES The difficulties of love; magic; the nature of dreams; the relationships between fantasy and
reality and between environment and experience
MOTIFS Love out of balance; contrast (juxtaposed opposites, such as beautiful and ugly, short and tall,
clumsy and graceful, ethereal and earthy)

ROBINSON CRUSOE
Daniel Defoe
AUTHOR Daniel Defoe
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Adventure story; novel of isolation
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN 1719; London, England
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1719
NARRATOR Robinson Crusoe is both the narrator and main character of the tale.
POINT OF VIEW Crusoe narrates in both the first and third person, presenting what he observes. Crusoe
occasionally describes his feelings, but only when they are overwhelming. Usually he favors a more factual
narrative style focused on actions and events.
TONE Crusoes tone is mostly detached, meticulous, and objective. He displays little rhetorical grandeur
and few poetic or colorful turns of phrase. He generally avoids dramatic storytelling, preferring an
inventorylike approach to the facts as they unfold. He very rarely registers his own feelings, or those of other
characters, and only does so when those feelings affect a situation directly, such as when he describes the
mutineers as tired and confused, indicating that their fatigue allows them to be defeated.
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) From 1659 to 1694
SETTING (PLACE) York, England; then London; then Sallee, North Africa; then Brazil; then a deserted
island off Trinidad; then England; then Lisbon; then overland from Spain toward England; then England;
and finally the island again
PROTAGONIST Robinson Crusoe
MAJOR CONFLICT Shipwrecked alone, Crusoe struggles against hardship, privation, loneliness, and
cannibals in his attempt to survive on a deserted island.
RISING ACTION Crusoe disobeys his father and goes out to sea. Crusoe has a profitable first merchant
voyage, has fantasies of success in Brazil, and prepares for a slave-gathering expedition.
FALLING ACTION Crusoe constructs a shelter, secures a food supply, and accepts his stay on the island
as the work of Providence.
THEMES The ambivalence of mastery; the necessity of repentance; the importance of self-awareness
MOTIFS Counting and measuring; eating; ordeals at sea
SYMBOLS The footprint; the cross; Crusoes bower

GULLIVERS TRAVELS
Jonathan Swift
AUTHOR Jonathan Swift
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Satire
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN Approximately 17121726, London and Dublin
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1726 (1735 unabridged)
PUBLISHER George Faulkner (unabridged 1735 edition)
NARRATOR Lemuel Gulliver
POINT OF VIEW Gulliver speaks in the first person. He describes other characters and actions as they
appear to him.
TONE Gullivers tone is gullible and nave during the first three voyages; in the fourth, it turns cynical and
bitter. The intention of the author, Jonathan Swift, is satirical and biting throughout.
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) Early eighteenth century
SETTING (PLACE) Primarily England and the imaginary countries of Lilliput, Blefuscu, Brobdingnag,
Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms
PROTAGONIST Lemuel Gulliver
MAJOR CONFLICT On the surface, Gulliver strives to understand the various societies with which he
comes into contact and to have these societies understand his native England. Below the surface, Swift is
engaged in a conflict with the English society he is satirizing.
RISING ACTION Gullivers encounters with other societies eventually lead up to his rejection of human
society in the fourth voyage
CLIMAX Gulliver rejects human society in the fourth voyage, specifically when he shuns the generous
Don Pedro as a vulgar Yahoo
FALLING ACTION Gullivers unhappy return to England accentuates his alienation and compels him to
buy horses, which remind him of Houyhnhnms, to keep him company
THEMES Might versus right; the individual versus society; the limits of human understanding
MOTIFS Excrement; foreign languages; clothing
SYMBOLS Lilliputians; Brobdingnagians; Laputans; Houyhnhnms; England
FORESHADOWING Gullivers experiences with various flawed societies foreshadow his ultimate
rejection of human society in the fourth voyage.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Jane Austen
FULL TITLE Pride and Prejudice
AUTHOR Jane Austen
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Comedy of manners
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN England, between 1796 and 1813
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1813
NARRATOR Third-person omniscient
CLIMAX Mr. Darcys proposal to Elizabeth (Volume 3, Chapter 16)
PROTAGONIST Elizabeth Bennet
ANTAGONIST Snobbish class-consciousness (epitomized by Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Miss
Bingley)
SETTING (TIME) Some point during the Napoleonic Wars (17971815)
SETTING (PLACE) Longbourn, in rural England
POINT OF VIEW The novel is primarily told from Elizabeth Bennets point of view.
FALLING ACTION The two chapters of the novel after Darcys proposal
TENSE Past tense
FORESHADOWING The only notable example of foreshadowing occurs when Elizabeth visits
Pemberley, Darcys estate, in Volume 3, Chapter 1. Her appreciation of the estate foreshadows her eventual
realization of her love for its owner.
TONE Comicor, in Jane Austens own words, light and bright, and sparkling
THEMES Love; Reputation; Class
MOTIFS Courtship; Journeys
SYMBOLS The novel is light on symbolism, except on the visit to Pemberley, which is described as being
neither formal, nor falsely adorned, and is clearly meant to symbolize the character of Mr. Darcy.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Charles Dickens
FULL TITLE Great Expectations
AUTHOR Charles Dickens
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRES Bildungsroman, social criticism, autobiographical fiction
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN London, 1860-1861
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION Published serially in England from December 1860 to August 1861;
published in book form in England and America in 1861
NARRATOR Pip
PROTAGONIST Pip
ANTAGONIST Great Expectations does not contain a traditional single antagonist. Various characters
serve as figures against whom Pip must struggle at various times: Magwitch, Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham,
Estella, Orlick, Bentley Drummle, and Compeyson. With the exception of the last three, each of the novels
antagonists is redeemed before the end of the book.
SETTING (TIME) Mid-nineteenth century
SETTINGS (PLACE) Kent and London, England
POINT OF VIEW First person
FALLING ACTION The period following Magwitchs capture in Chapter 54, including Magwitchs death,
Pips reconciliation with Joe, and Pips reunion with Estella eleven years later
TENSE Past
TONE Comic, cheerful, satirical, wry, critical, sentimental, dark, dramatic, foreboding, Gothic,
sympathetic
THEMES Ambition and the desire for self-improvement (social, economic, educational, and moral); guilt,
criminality, and innocence; maturation and the growth from childhood to adulthood; the importance of
affection, loyalty, and sympathy over social advancement and class superiority; social class; the difficulty of
maintaining superficial moral and social categories in a constantly changing world
MOTIFS Crime and criminality; disappointed expectations; the connection between weather or
atmosphere and dramatic events; doubles (two convicts, two secret benefactors, two invalids, etc.)
SYMBOLS The stopped clocks at Satis House symbolize Miss Havishams attempt to stop time; the many
objects relating to crime and guilt (gallows, prisons, handcuffs, policemen, lawyers, courts, convicts, chains,
files) symbolize the theme of guilt and innocence; Satis House represents the upper-class world to which Pip
longs to belong; Bentley Drummle represents the grotesque caprice of the upper class; Joe represents
conscience, affection, loyalty, and simple good nature; the marsh mists represent danger and ambiguity.

DAVID COPPERFIELD
Charles Dickens
FULL TITLE The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield the Younger
AUTHOR Charles Dickens
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel)
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN May 1849November 1850; England
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION May 1849November 1850 (serial publication)
NARRATOR An older David Copperfield narrates the story of his childhood from his happy home in
London.
POINT OF VIEW David writes in the first person, limiting his viewpoint to what he sees in his youth and
his attitude at that time.
TONE David reflects upon his youth fondly and remembers his nave youth wistfully.
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) 1800s
SETTING (PLACE) England
PROTAGONIST David Copperfield
MAJOR CONFLICT David struggles to become a man in a cruel world, with little money and few people
to guide him.
RISING ACTION David loses his mother and falls victim to a cruel childhood but then has a happier youth
with Miss Betsey and Agnes.
CLIMAX David realizes, while watching the reconciliation between the Strongs, that marriage cannot be
happy unless husband and wife are equal partners. This realization forces David to contemplate his marriage
to Dora in a new light and reconsider most of the values he has held up to this point.
FALLING ACTION The various subplots involving secondary characters resolve themselves. David
realizes his love for Agnes, marries her, and comes to grips with the treachery and death of his good friend
Steerforth.
THEMES The plight of the weak; equality in marriage; wealth and class
MOTIFS The role of mothers; accented speech; physical beauty
SYMBOLS The sea; flowers; Mr. Dicks kite

ALICES ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Lewis Carroll
FULL TITLE Alices Adventures in Wonderland
AUTHOR Lewis Carroll
TYPE OF WORK Novella
GENRE Fairy tale; childrens fiction; satire; allegory
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN 18621863, Oxford
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1865
NARRATOR The narrator is anonymous and does not use many words to describe events in the story.
POINT OF VIEW The narrator speaks in third person, though occasionally in first and second person. The
narrative follows Alice around on her travels, voicing her thoughts and feelings.
TONE Straightforward; avuncular
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) Victorian era, circa publication date
SETTING (PLACE) England, Wonderland
PROTAGONIST Alice
MAJOR CONFLICT Alice attempts to come to terms with the puzzle of Wonderland as she undergoes
great individual changes while entrenched in Wonderland.
RISING ACTION Alice follows the White Rabbit down a well and pursues him through Wonderland.
CLIMAX Alice gains control over her size and enters the garden, where she participates in the trial of the
Knave of Hearts.
FALLING ACTION Alice realizes that Wonderland is a sham and knocks over the playing card court,
causing her to wake up and dispel the dream of Wonderland.
THEMES The tragic and inevitable loss of childhood innocence; Life as a meaningless puzzle; Death as a
constant and underlying menace
MOTIFS Dream; subversion; language; curious, nonsense, and confusing
SYMBOLS The garden; the mushroom
FORESHADOWING The Mouses history about Fury and the Mouse foreshadows the trial at the end of
the story.

TESS OF THE DURBERVILLES

Thomas Hardy
FULL TITLE Tess of the dUrbervilles
AUTHOR Thomas Hardy
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Victorian, tragic
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN 1880s, England
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1891
NARRATOR Anonymous
POINT OF VIEW The narrator speaks in the third person, and looks deep into the characters minds. The
narrator is objective but has an omniscient understanding of future implications of characters actions as they
happen.
TONE Realistic, pessimistic
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) The 1880s and 1890s
SETTING (PLACE) Wessex, the southwest of England
PROTAGONIST Tess Durbeyfield
MAJOR CONFLICT Tess is seduced, impregnated, and abandoned by the son of her upper-class
patroness, making her unacceptable to her true love Angel later in life.
RISING ACTION Tesss familys discovery that they are ancient English aristocracy, giving them all
fantasies of a higher station in life; Tesss accidental killing of the family horse, which drives her to seek
help from the dUrbervilles, where she is seduced and dishonored.
CLIMAX Tesss new husband discovers her earlier seduction by Alec and decides to leave her, going off
to Brazil and not answering her letters, and bringing Tess to despair.
FALLING ACTION Tesss last-ditch decision to marry Alec, who claims to love her; Angels return from
Brazil to discover Tess marriage to her former seducer, and his meeting with Tess; Tesss murder of Alec and
short-lived escape with Angel before being apprehended and executed
THEMES The injustice of existence; changing ideas of social class in Victorian England; men dominating
women
MOTIFS Birds; the Book of Genesis; variant names
SYMBOLS Prince; the dUrberville family vault; Brazil
FORESHADOWING Tesss killing of the pheasants foreshadows her own death by hanging; Alecs
assertion that he will master Tess again foreshadows his reemergence in her life

THE SCARLET LETTER

Nathaniel Hawthorne
AUTHOR Nathaniel Hawthorne
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Symbolic; semi-allegorical; historical fiction; romance (in the sense that it rejects realism in favor
of symbols and ideas)
LANGUAGE English
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1850
NARRATOR The narrator is an unnamed customhouse surveyor who writes some two hundred years after
the events he describes took place. He has much in common with Hawthorne but should not be taken as a
direct mouthpiece for the authors opinions.
POINT OF VIEW The narrator is omniscient, because he analyzes the characters and tells the story in a
way that shows that he knows more about the characters than they know about themselves. Yet, he is also a
subjective narrator, because he voices his own interpretations and opinions of things. He is clearly
sympathetic to Hester and Dimmesdale.
TONE Variescontemplative and somewhat bitter in the introduction; thoughtful, fairly straightforward,
yet occasionally tinged with irony in the body of the narrative
TENSE The narrator employs the past tense to recount events that happened some two hundred years
before his time, but he occasionally uses the present tense when he addresses his audience.
SETTING (TIME) Middle of the seventeenth century
SETTING (PLACE) Boston, Massachusetts
PROTAGONIST Hester Prynne
MAJOR CONFLICT Her husband having inexplicably failed to join her in Boston following their
emigration from Europe, Hester Prynne engages in an extramarital affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. When
she gives birth to a child, Hester invokes the condemnation of her communitya condemnation they
manifest by forcing her to wear a letter A for adulteroras well as the vengeful wrath of her husband,
who has appeared just in time to witness her public shaming.
RISING ACTION Dimmesdale stands by in silence as Hester suffers for the sin he helped to commit,
though his conscience plagues him and affects his health. Hesters husband, Chillingworth, hides his true
identity and, posing as a doctor to the ailing minister, tests his suspicions that Dimmesdale is the father of
his wifes child, effectively exacerbating Dimmesdales feelings of shame and thus reaping revenge.
FALLING ACTION Depending on ones interpretation of which scene constitutes the books climax, the
falling action is either the course of events that follow Chapter 12 or the final reports on Hesters and Pearls
lives after the deaths of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.
THEMES Sin, experience, and the human condition; the nature of evil; identity and society
MOTIFS Civilization versus the wilderness; night versus day; evocative names
SYMBOLS The scarlet letter; the town scaffold; the meteor; Pearl; the rosebush next to the prison door

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Mark Twain
FULL TITLE The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
AUTHOR Mark Twain (pseudonym for Samuel Clemens)
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Picaresque novel (episodic, colorful story often in the form of a quest or journey); satire of
popular adventure and romance novels; bildungsroman (novel of education or moral development)
LANGUAGE English; frequently makes use of Southern and black dialects of the time
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1884
NARRATOR Huckleberry Finn
POINT OF VIEW Hucks point of view, although Twain occasionally indulges in digressions in which he
shows off his own ironic wit
TONE Frequently ironic or mocking, particularly concerning adventure novels and romances; also
contemplative, as Huck seeks to decipher the world around him; sometimes boyish and exuberant
TENSE Immediate past
SETTING (TIME) Before the Civil War; roughly 18351845; Twain said the novel was set forty to fifty
years before the time of its publication
SETTING (PLACE) The Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri; various locations along the
river through Arkansas
PROTAGONIST Huck Finn
MAJOR CONFLICT At the beginning of the novel, Huck struggles against society and its attempts to
civilize him, represented by the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and other adults. Later, this conflict gains
greater focus in Hucks dealings with Jim, as Huck must decide whether to turn Jim in, as society demands,
or to protect and help his friend instead.
RISING ACTION Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas attempt to civilize Huck until Pap reappears in
town, demands Hucks money, and kidnaps Huck. Huck escapes society by faking his own death and
retreating to Jacksons Island, where he meets Jim and sets out on the river with him. Huck gradually begins
to question the rules society has taught him, as when, in order to protect Jim, he lies and makes up a story to
scare off some men searching for escaped slaves. Although Huck and Jim live a relatively peaceful life on
the raft, they are ultimately unable to escape the evils and hypocrisies of the outside world. The most notable
representatives of these outside evils are the con men the duke and the dauphin, who engage in a series of
increasingly serious scams that culminate in their sale of Jim, who ends up at the Phelps farm.
FALLING ACTION When Aunt Polly arrives at the Phelps farm and correctly identifies Tom and Huck,
Tom reveals that Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will. Afterward, Tom recovers
from his wound, while Huck decides he is done with civilized society and makes plans to travel to the West.
THEMES Racism and slavery; intellectual and moral education; the hypocrisy of civilized society
MOTIFS Childhood; lies and cons; superstitions and folk beliefs; parodies of popular romance novels
SYMBOLS The Mississippi River; floods; shipwrecks; the natural world

MOBY-DICK
Herman Melville
FULL TITLE Moby-Dick; or The Whale
AUTHOR Herman Melville
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Epic, adventure story, quest tale, allegory, tragedy
LANGUAGE English
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1851
NARRATOR Ishmael, a junior member of the Pequods crew, casts himself as the author, recounting the
events of the voyage after he has acquired more experience and studied the whale extensively.
POINT OF VIEW Ishmael narrates in a combination of first and third person, describing events as he saw
them and providing his own thoughts. He presents the thoughts and feelings of the other characters only as
an outside observer might infer them.
TONE Ironic, celebratory, philosophical, dramatic, hyperbolic
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) 1830s or 1840s
SETTING (PLACE) Aboard the whaling ship the Pequod, in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans
MAJOR CONFLICT Ahab dedicates his ship and crew to destroying Moby Dick, a white sperm whale,
because he sees this whale as the living embodiment of all that is evil and malignant in the universe. By
ignoring the physical dangers that this quest entails, setting himself against other men, and presuming to
understand and fight evil on a cosmic scale, Ahab arrogantly defies the limitations imposed upon human
beings.
RISING ACTION Ahab announces his quest to the other sailors and nails the doubloon to the mast; the
Pequod encounters various ships with news and stories about Moby Dick.
CLIMAX In Chapter 132, The Symphony, Ahab interrogates himself and his quest in front of Starbuck,
and realizes that he does not have the will to turn aside from his purpose.
FALLING ACTION The death of Ahab and the destruction of the Pequod by Moby Dick; Ishmael, the
only survivor of the Pequods sinking, floats on a coffin and is rescued by another whaling ship, the Rachel.
THEMES The limits of knowledge; the deceptiveness of fate; the exploitative nature of whaling
MOTIFS Whiteness; surfaces and depths
SYMBOLS The Pequod symbolizes doom; Moby Dick, on an objective level, symbolizes humankinds
inability to understand the world; Queequegs coffin symbolizes both life and death
FORESHADOWING Foreshadowing in Moby-Dick is extensive and inescapable: everything from the
Pequods ornamentation to the behavior of schools of fish to the appearance of a giant squid is read as an
omen of the eventual catastrophic encounter with Moby Dick.

HEART OF DARKNESS
Joseph Conrad
TYPE OF WORK Novella (between a novel and a short story in length and scope)
GENRE Symbolism, colonial literature, adventure tale, frame story, almost a romance in its insistence on
heroism and the supernatural and its preference for the symbolic over the realistic
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN England, 18981899; inspired by Conrads journey to the Congo in 1890
NARRATOR There are two narrators: an anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship, who listens to
Marlows story, and Marlow himself, a middle-aged ships captain.
POINT OF VIEW The first narrator speaks in the first-person plural, on behalf of four other passengers
who listen to Marlows tale. Marlow narrates his story in the first person, describing only what he witnessed
and experienced, and providing his own commentary on the story.
TONE Ambivalent: Marlow is disgusted at the brutality of the Company and horrified by Kurtzs
degeneration, but he claims that any thinking man would be tempted into similar behavior.
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) Latter part of the nineteenth century, probably sometime between 1876 and 1892
SETTING (PLACE) Opens on the Thames River outside London, where Marlow is telling the story that
makes up Heart of Darkness. Events of the story take place in Brussels, at the Companys offices, and in the
Congo, then a Belgian territory.
PROTAGONIST Marlow
MAJOR CONFLICT Both Marlow and Kurtz confront a conflict between their images of themselves as
civilized Europeans and the temptation to abandon morality completely once they leave the context of
European society.
RISING ACTION The brutality Marlow witnesses in the Companys employees, the rumors he hears that
Kurtz is a remarkable and humane man, and the numerous examples of Europeans breaking down mentally
or physically in the environment of Africa.
FALLING ACTION Marlows acceptance of responsibility for Kurtzs legacy, Marlows encounters with
Company officials and Kurtzs family and friends, Marlows visit to Kurtzs Intended
THEMES The hypocrisy of imperialism, madness as a result of imperialism, the absurdity of evil
MOTIFS Darkness (very seldom opposed by light), interiors vs. surfaces (kernel/shell, coast/inland,
station/forest, etc.), ironic understatement, hyperbolic language, inability to find words to describe situation
adequately, images of ridiculous waste, upriver versus downriver/toward and away from Kurtz/away from
and back toward civilization (quest or journey structure)
SYMBOLS Rivers, fog, women (Kurtzs Intended, his African mistress), French warship shelling forested
coast, grove of death, severed heads on fence posts, Kurtzs Report, dead helmsman, maps, whited
sepulchre of Brussels, knitting women in Company offices, man trying to fill bucket with hole in it
FORESHADOWING Permeates every moment of the narrativemostly operates on the level of imagery,
which is consistently dark, gloomy, and threatening

ULYSSES
James Joyce
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Modernist novel; comic novel; quest novel
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN Trieste, Italy; Zurich, Switzerland; Paris; 19141921
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION Individual episodes were published serially starting in 1918; as a novel,
it was first published in 1922
NARRATOR Episodes One, Two, FourTwelve, Sixteen, and Seventeen feature anonymous narrators.
Episode Three features Stephens thoughts. Episode Thirteen features an amalgamation of anonymous
narrator, Gerty MacDowell, and Bloom. Episode Fourteen features a variety of narrators, meant to be
representative of the prose styles of historical English authors. Episode Fifteen has no narrator. Molly Bloom
is the first-person narrator of Episode Eighteen.
POINT OF VIEW Episodes One, Two, FourEleven, Sixteen, and Seventeen are told from the third-person
viewpoint. Episode Three features interior monologue. Episode Twelve is told from the first-person. Episode
Thirteen is told from the third and first person. Episode Fourteen is told variously in the third-person and
first-person. Episode Fifteen is in play-script form. Episode Eighteen features an interior monologue.
TONE The narratives of Episodes One through Eight have a straightforward tone. Episodes Nine through
Eleven have a self-conscious, playful tone. Episode Twelve has a hyperbolic, belligerent tone. Episode
Thirteen has a sentimental tone. Episode Fourteen has an extreme variety of tones, including pious,
sensational, and satiric. Episode Fifteen has no narrator and therefore no dominant narrative tone. Episode
Sixteen has a tired tone. Episode Seventeen has a scientific tone.
TENSE Present
SETTING (TIME) 8:00 A.M., June 16, 1904approximately 3 A.M., June 17, 1904
SETTING (PLACE) Dublin, Ireland, and its surrounding suburbs
PROTAGONIST Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom
MAJOR CONFLICT Molly Blooms infidelity with Blazes Boylan; Stephen Dedaluss search for a
symbolic father; Leopold Blooms desire for a son (his only son died eleven years ago several days after his
birth)
RISING ACTION Bloom leaves his house for the day, sees Blazes Boylan on the street several times, and
becomes anxious about Blazes and Mollys four oclock rendezvous. Bloom is convinced they are going to
have sex. Stephen and Bloom go about their day. They pass by each other several times and coincidentally
meet at Holles St. Maternity Hospital.
FALLING ACTION Bloom and Stephen rest at a cabmans shelter (Episode Sixteen), then return to the
Bloom residence and have cocoa and talk (Episode Seventeen). Bloom tells Molly about his day and asks
her to serve him breakfast in bed (Episode Seventeen). Molly lies awake considering the events of the day
and a happy memory from her and Blooms past.
THEMES The quest for paternity; the remorse of conscience; compassion as heroic; parallax or the
necessity of multiple perspectives
MOTIFS Lightness and darkness; the home usurped; the East
SYMBOLS Plumtrees Potted Meat; the Gold Cup horserace; Stephens Latin Quarter hat; Blooms potato
talisman
FORESHADOWING Stephens and Blooms compatible dreams set in an Eastern marketplace street
MRS. DALLOWAY

Virginia Woolf
TYPE OF WORK

Novel

GENRE Modernist; formalist; feminist

LANGUAGE

English

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN Woolf began Mrs. Dalloway in Sussex in 1922 and completed the novel in
London in 1924.
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION May 14, 1925
NARRATOR Anonymous. The omniscient narrator is a commenting voice who knows everything about
the characters. This voice appears occasionally among the subjective thoughts of characters. The critique of
Sir William Bradshaws reverence of proportion and conversion is the narrators most sustained appearance.
POINT OF VIEW Point of view changes constantly, often shifting from one characters stream of
consciousness (subjective interior thoughts) to anothers within a single paragraph. Woolf most often uses
free indirect discourse, a literary technique that describes the interior thoughts of characters using thirdperson singular pronouns (he and she). This technique ensures that transitions between the thoughts of a
large number of characters are subtle and smooth.
TONE The narrator is against the oppression of the human soul and for the celebration of diversity, as are
the books major characters. Sometimes the mood is humorous, but an underlying sadness is always present.
TENSE Though mainly in the immediate past, Peters dream of the solitary traveler is in the present tense.
SETTING (TIME) A day in mid-June, 1923. There are many flashbacks to a summer at Bourton in the
early 1890s, when Clarissa was eighteen.
SETTING (PLACE) London, England. The novel takes place largely in the affluent neighborhood of
Westminster, where the Dalloways live.
PROTAGONIST

Clarissa Dalloway

MAJOR CONFLICT Clarissa and other characters try to preserve their souls and communicate in an
oppressive and fragmentary postWorld War I England.
RISING ACTION Clarissa spends the day organizing a party that will bring people together, while her
double, Septimus Warren Smith, eventually commits suicide due to the social pressures that oppress his soul.
CLIMAX At her party, Clarissa goes to a small room to contemplate Septimuss suicide. She identifies with
him and is glad he did it, believing that he preserved his soul.
FALLING ACTION Clarissa returns to her party and is viewed from the outside. We do not know whether
she will change due to her moment of clarity, but we do know that she will endure.
THEMES Communication vs. privacy; disillusionment with the British Empire; the fear of death; the threat
of oppression
MOTIFS Time; Shakespeare; trees and flowers; waves and water
SYMBOLS The prime minister; Peter Walshs pocketknife and other weapons; the old woman in the
window; the old woman singing an ancient song
THE GREAT GATSBY
F. Scott Fitzgerald

FULL TITLE The Great Gatsby

AUTHOR F. Scott Fitzgerald
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Modernist novel, Jazz Age novel, novel of manners
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN 19231924, America and France
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1925
NARRATOR Nick Carraway; Carraway not only narrates the story but implies that he is the books author
POINT OF VIEW Nick Carraway narrates in both first and third person, presenting only what he himself
observes. Nick alternates sections where he presents events objectively, as they appeared to him at the time,
with sections where he gives his own interpretations of the storys meaning and of the motivations of the
other characters.
TONE Nicks attitudes toward Gatsby and Gatsbys story are ambivalent and contradictory. At times he
seems to disapprove of Gatsbys excesses and breaches of manners and ethics, but he also romanticizes and
admires Gatsby, describing the events of the novel in a nostalgic and elegiac tone.
TENSE Past
SETTING (TIME) Summer 1922
SETTINGS (PLACE) Long Island and New York City
PROTAGONIST Gatsby and/or Nick
MAJOR CONFLICT Gatsby has amassed a vast fortune in order to win the affections of the upper-class
Daisy Buchanan, but his mysterious past stands in the way of his being accepted by her.
RISING ACTION Gatsbys lavish parties, Gatsbys arrangement of a meeting with Daisy at Nicks
FALLING ACTION Daisys rejection of Gatsby, Myrtles death, Gatsbys murder
THEMES The decline of the American dream, the spirit of the 1920s, the difference between social
classes, the role of symbols in the human conception of meaning, the role of the past in dreams of the future
MOTIFS The connection between events and weather, the connection between geographical location and
social values, images of time, extravagant parties, the quest for wealth
SYMBOLS The green light on Daisys dock, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes,
Gatsbys parties, East Egg, West Egg
FORESHADOWING The car wreck after Gatsbys party in Chapter 3, Owl Eyess comments about the
theatricality of Gatsbys life, the mysterious telephone calls Gatsby receives from Chicago and Philadelphia
MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA
Eugene O'Neill

FULL TITLE Mourning Becomes Electra

AUTHOR Eugene O'Neill
TYPE OF WORK Drama
GENRE Tragedy/Psychological Drama
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN Written largely in France, from 19261931
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1931
NARRATOR None
POINT OF VIEW Not applicable
TONE Tragic
TENSE The play unfolds in the time of the present
SETTING (TIME) Spring or Summer, 18651866
SETTING (PLACE) The Mannon house in New England; a harbor in East Boston
PROTAGONISTS Lavinia Mannon, Orin Mannon, Christine Mannon, Ezra Mannon
MAJOR CONFLICT Brigadier-General Ezra Mannon has returned from the Civil War. His duplicitous
wife Christine and her lover, Adam Brant, plot his murder. Mannon's daughter, Lavinia, and son, Orin,
discover their mother's treachery and destroy the two lovers in turn. They must then suffer the vengeance of
the dead.
RISING ACTION In "Homecoming," rising action consists of the confrontation between Ezra and
Christine. In "The Hunted," it consists of the revelation of Brant's murder to Christine. In "The Haunted," it
consists of Orin's incestuous proposition to Lavinia.
CLIMAX In "Homecoming," Ezra's murder functions as climax and closes the play. In "The Hunted,"
Christine's suicide does the same. In "The Haunted," Orin's figures as climax.
FALLING ACTION Breaks follow the first two climaxes leading into the townsfolk scenes that open the
subsequent plays. A brief interlude with Seth follows the break after Orin's suicide.
THEMES Oedipus, Fate, Repetition, and Substitution, The Rival and Double, the Law of the Father
MOTIFS The Blessed Islands, The Native
SYMBOLS The Mannon house
FORESHADOWING The foreshadowing in Mourning is oppressive and omnipresent. For example, Ezra's
apprehension of his imminent death, and Christine's fear that she will soon lose Brant forever.
LORD OF THE FLIES
William Golding

FULL TITLE Lord of the Flies

AUTHOR William Golding
TYPE OF WORK Novel
GENRE Allegory; adventure story; castaway fiction; loss-of-innocence fiction
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN Early 1950s; Salisbury, England
NARRATOR The story is told by an anonymous third-person narrator who conveys the events of the novel
without commenting on the action or intruding into the story.
POINT OF VIEW The narrator speaks in the third person, primarily focusing on Ralphs point of view but
following Jack and Simon in certain episodes. The narrator is omniscient and gives us access to the
characters inner thoughts.
TONE Dark; violent; pessimistic; tragic; unsparing
TENSE Immediate past
SETTING (TIME) Near future
SETTING (PLACE) A deserted tropical island
PROTAGONIST Ralph
MAJOR CONFLICT Free from the rules that adult society formerly imposed on them, the boys marooned
on the island struggle with the conflicting human instincts that exist within each of themthe instinct to
work toward civilization and order and the instinct to descend into savagery, violence, and chaos.
RISING ACTION The boys assemble on the beach. In the election for leader, Ralph defeats Jack, who is
furious when he loses. As the boys explore the island, tension grows between Jack, who is interested only in
hunting, and Ralph, who believes most of the boys efforts should go toward building shelters and
maintaining a signal fire. When rumors surface that there is some sort of beast living on the island, the boys
grow fearful, and the group begins to divide into two camps supporting Ralph and Jack, respectively.
Ultimately, Jack forms a new tribe altogether, fully immersing himself in the savagery of the hunt.
FALLING ACTION Virtually all the boys on the island abandon Ralph and Piggy and descend further into
savagery and chaos. When the other boys kill Piggy and destroy the conch shell, Ralph flees from Jacks
tribe and encounters the naval officer on the beach.
THEMES Civilization vs. savagery; the loss of innocence; innate human evil
MOTIFS Biblical parallels; natural beauty; the bullying of the weak by the strong; the outward trappings
of savagery (face paint, spears, totems, chants)
SYMBOLS The conch shell; Piggys glasses; the signal fire; the beast; the Lord of the Flies; Ralph, Piggy,
Jack, Simon, and Roger
FORESHADOWING The rolling of the boulders off the Castle Rock in Chapter 6 foreshadows Piggys
death; the Lord of the Fliess promise to have some fun with Simon foreshadows Simons death