Emily Brontës Wuthering Heights :: essays research papers

Wuthering Heights   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Perhaps one of the greatest love stories of all time, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is the tale of a love that is stronger than death. Through the theme of unbegotten love and unwavering remorse, Bronte creates a brooding atmosphere that cannot be lifted. With Cathy’s underlying passion for Heathcliff and his undying love for her, the passion and suspense are represented magnificently.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bronte provides the use of an outside character, Mr. Lockwood, to portray this passionate story. Mr. Lockwood is troubled by the strange atmosphere which surrounds the estate of Wuthering Heights. Through his curiosity and determination, the story is slowly unfolded. Mr. Lockwood’s feelings and interpretations during the telling of the story emphasis the themes and atmosphere provided by Bronte. This man’s feelings and desires for the young Cathy only adds to the twists and turns of this wonderful tale.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The theme of revenge is very prominent in this tale as well. Heathcliff’s plot to unite the two families through the marriage of his son Linton and Cathy’s daughter Catherine is a major part of the story. Heathcliff is a dangerous and cruel man, made that way by his unrequited love for Cathy. He hopes to get his revenge on Edgar by receiving his estate when he dies. His revenge plot was heightened when he would not allow Catherine to see her father before his death. She then lived with the belief that her father died without the knowledge that she loved him. His revenge was somewhat spoiled by the

Comparing Oedipus and Prufrock

Everyone has at least one personal flaw that somehow overcomes or defeats them in a certain place in time. In this essay, two characters of completely different fields will be put side by side to compare their own tragic flaws. On one hand, Sophocles’ Oedipus is proud, arrogant and persistent; while on the other hand, Eliot’s Prufrock is self conscious, insecure, and indecisive. While the two characters are complete polar opposites, they also share a devastating similarity: they are paranoid and in fear of their own fate. Oedipus’ personality is clearly conveyed as having excessive pride and determination throughout the play.He first travels far from Corinth to prevent an oracle’s prediction that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He arrives in Thebes where the people were distressed over the Sphinx’s riddle. Oedipus then sets his mind on solving this riddle in which he succeeds and is awarded the throne to Thebes. This should have been a huge boost of confidence for a man who was worried he would be cursed for the rest of his life. He serves as a loyal King for his people, seeming to want to do the right thing for Thebes, but talks with such a conceited attitude.In the play, right after receiving news that the preceding king’s killer is residing in Thebes, Oedipus states â€Å"Well, I will start afresh and once again make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead; I also, as is meet, will lend my aid to avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the God† (Sophocles). With both assurance and superiority in his voice, Oedipus throws it in Thebes face that he has saved them once before, and will do it again by bringing Laius’ killer to justice. He sets out on finding the person that murdered King Laius and puts all of his energy, pride, and persistence into it.He acts as a great detective and follows each clue diligently. This helps the play revolve around the question of solving a crime (Rix). By putting together the pieces of the murder mystery, he finally begins to questions himself about his involvement in the assassination and even his own fate. Sophocles’ Oedipus pursues self-knowledge and at the same time resists it because it may connect him with his past (Morgenstern). He eventually finds out that he is indeed his father’s killer and his mother’s husband. Oedipus’ tragic flaws of hubris and determination lead him to blind himself and be exiled just as e said would happen to the murderer if he was found. Unlike Oedipus, the character in T. S. Eliot’s â€Å"Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† is timid, insecure and indecisive. Throughout the poem, Prufrock is faced with a decision to approach a woman he has developed a liking to, or remain looking out a lonely window drowning his self consciousness in an ocean of self doubt. He wants to ask her the overwhelming question, but instead he purpos efully avoids the woman by having personal detour conversations with himself about his self image. The entire poem is laced with Prufrock asking himself questions.He asks â€Å"Do I dare disturb the universe? †(Eliot) as if the whole world will come crashing down if he simply talks to her. He wants to wait for the right time, but in the same thought, he knows his years are running out; he mentions his bald spot and thin arms. Prufrock is so consumed with himself and how others might portray or judge him, that it is paralyzing him from social activities and gatherings. He is going through a mid life crisis that he may have brought on himself by leading an unproductive, bland life and his lack of determination and will to change that life may lead him into his fear of being lonely forever.Prufrock is essentially intimidated by women or people in general because he is ashamed of his personal appearance and monotony. One side of his personality believes in the possibility of havi ng a relationship but the side of his self doubt and pity shackles him from living the life he is clearly screaming out for (Blythe). Towards the end of the poem, he realizes that he will never summon up the courage to talk to the person he admires. He gives up on himself and becomes aware that he has wasted his life asking himself if he should do the things he wanted to do instead of putting his plans to action.Where Oedipus is without a doubt expeditious, stern and decisive in his promises, J. Alfred Prufrock is deficient by being obsessed with taking his time, indifferent and unable to make a simple choice even for himself. However both of these characters share a haunting similarity of fearing the realization that their lives have finally come to a particular point they have been attempting to prevent their whole life. Sometimes life presents a person with a deficiency in personality which becomes highlighted in the spotlight while trying to correct that specific trait.In the Ca se of Oedipus and Prufrock, their own life flaws are over exaggerated and yet still overcorrected, in which they remain troubled with the things they hate about themselves. The two characters failed to avert a lingering curse which had been following them throughout, eventually sealing their fate with their own personal flaws. Works Cited Blithe, Hal and Sweet, Charlie. â€Å"Eliot’s THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK. † The Explicator 62. 2 (2004): 108-110. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. Eliot, T. S. â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Norton Introduction to Literature: Shorter Tenth Edition. Eds. Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 1015-1019. Print. Morgenstern, Naomi. â€Å"The Oedipus Complex Made Simple. † University Of Toronto Quarterly 72. 4 (2003): 777-788. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. Rix, Robert W. â€Å"Was Oedipus Framed? † Orbis Litterarium 54. 2 (1999): 134. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. Sophocles. Oedipus the King. The Norton Introduction to Literature: Shorter Tenth Edition. Eds. Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010.

Tres Zapotes (Mexico) - Olmec Capital City in Veracruz

Tres Zapotes (Tres sah-po-tes, or three sapodillas) is an important Olmec archaeological site located in the state of Veracruz, in the south-central lowlands of the Gulf coast of Mexico. It is considered the third most important Olmec site, after San Lorenzo and La Venta. Named by archaeologists after the evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, Tres Zapotes flourished during the Late Formative/Late Preclassic period (after 400 BC) and was occupied for almost 2,000 years, until the end of the Classic period and into the Early Postclassic. The most important findings at this site include two colossal heads and the famous stela C. Tres Zapotes Cultural Development The site of Tres Zapotes lies on the hillside of a swampy area, near the Papaloapan and San Juan rivers of southern Veracruz, Mexico. The site contains more than 150 structures and about forty stone sculptures. Tres Zapotes became a main Olmec center only after the decline of San Lorenzo and La Venta. When the rest of the Olmec culture sites started to wane at around 400 BC, Tres Zapotes continued to survive, and it was occupied until the Early Postclassic about AD 1200. Most of the stone monuments at Tres Zapotes date to the Epi-Olmec period (which means post-Olmec), a period that began around 400 BC and signaled the decline of the Olmec world. The artistic style of these monuments shows a gradual decline of Olmec motifs and increasing stylistic connections with the Isthmus region of Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala. Stela C also belongs to the Epi-Olmec period. This monument features the second oldest Mesoamerican Long Count calendar date: 31 BC. Half of Stela C is on display in the local museum at Tres Zapotes; the other half is at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Archeologists believe that during the Late Formative/Epi-Olmec period (400 BC-AD 250/300) Tres Zapotes was occupied by people with stronger connections with the Isthmus region of Mexico, probably Mixe, a group from the same linguistic family of the Olmec. After the decline of the Olmec culture, Tres Zapotes continued to be an important regional center, but by the end of the Classic period the site was in decline and was abandoned during the Early Postclassic. Site Layout More than 150 structures have been mapped at Tres Zapotes. These mounds, only a handful of which have been excavated, consist mainly of residential platforms clustered in different groups. The residential core of the site is occupied by Group 2, a set of structures organized around a central plaza and standing almost 12 meters (40 feet) tall. Group 1 and the Nestepe Group are other important residential groups located in the immediate periphery of the site. Most Olmec sites have a central core, a downtown where all the important buildings are located: Tres Zapotes, in contrast, features a dispersed settlement model, with several of its most important structures located on the periphery. This may have been because most of those were constructed after the decline of Olmec society. The two colossal heads found at Tres Zapotes, Monuments A and Q, were not found in the core zone of the site, but rather in the residential periphery, in Group 1 and Nestepe Group. Because of its long occupation sequence, Tres Zapotes is a key site not only for understanding the development of the Olmec culture  but, more generally for the transition from Preclassic to Classic period in the Gulf Coast and in Mesoamerica. Archaeological Investigations at Tres Zapotes Archaeological interest at Tres Zapotes begun at the end of the 19th century, when in 1867 the Mexican explorer Josà © Melgar y Serrano reported seeing an Olmec colossal head in the village of Tres Zapotes. Later on, in the 20th century, other explorers and local planters recorded and described the colossal head. In the 1930s, archaeologist Matthew Stirling undertook the first excavation at the site. After that, several projects, by Mexican and United States institutions, have been carried out at Tres Zapotes. Among the archaeologists who worked at Tres Zapotes include Philip Drucker and Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos. However, compared to other Olmec sites, Tres Zapotes is still poorly known. Sources This article has been edited by K. Kris Hirst Casellas Caà ±ellas E. 2005. El Contexto arqueolà ³gico de la cabeza colosal Olmeca Nà ºmero 7 de San Lorenzo, Veracruz, Mà ©xico. Bellaterra: Universitat Autà ²noma de Barcelona.Loughlin ML, Pool CA, Fernandez-Diaz JC, and Shrestha RL. 2016. Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity: The Effectiveness of Lidar in Tropical Alluvial Settings. Advances in Archaeological Practice 4(3):301-313.Killion TW and Urcid J. 2001. The Olmec Legacy: Cultural Continuity and Change in Mexicos Southern Gulf Coast Lowlands Journal of Field Archaeology 28(1/2):3-25.Manzanilla L and Lopez Lujan L (eds.). 2001 [1995]. Historia Antigua de Mexico. Mexico City: Miguel Angel Porrà ºa.Pool CA, Ceballos PO, del Carmen Rodrà ­guez Martà ­nez M, and Loughlin ML. 2010. The early horizon at Tres Zapotes: implications for Olmec interaction. Ancient Mesoamerica 21(01):95-105.Pool CA, Knight CLF, and Glascock MD. 2014. Formative obsidian procurement at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico: implications for Olmec and Epi-Olm ec political economy. Ancient Mesoamerica 25(1):271-293.Pool CA (ed.). 2003. Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.Pool CA. 2007. Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.VanDerwarker A, and Kruger R. 2012. Regional variation in the importance and uses of maize in the Early and Middle Formative Olmec Heartland: New archaeobotanical data from the San Carlos homestead, southern Veracruz. Latin American Antiquity 23(4):509-532.