A Tour through Literature

1. A Tour through Literature Nicole Schiavoni Nicole Braswell

2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

3. A Midsummer Night's Dream By: Shakespeare This story tells of love between fairies and mortals. There are many characters such as Thesesus, the Duke of Athens, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Demetrius, who loves Hermia, who loves Lysander. And Helena who loves Demetrius. Also there are Oberon, the fairy King, Titania, the fairy queen, and Puck, the king’s merry servant. Also there is a group of villagers who wish to perform a play at the wedding of Thesesus and Hippolyta. The main village craftsman is Bottom who Queen Titania falls in love with for an interlude. It takes you through their night in the forest and all the wonders that happen to them. At the end of the play the only one that remains is Puck who asks that the audience remember it as if it were a dream.

4. Hamlet

5. Hamlet By: Shakespeare Shakespeare’s longest play, Hamlet is a classic revenge tragedy.  The play opens with two guards on watch at the castle.   The ghost of Hamlet's father appears to the men but disappears without saying a word.  The next night Hamlet joins the men and speaks to his father's ghost. The ghost reveals to him that he was murdered by his own brother Claudius. The ghost also asks Hamlet to swear to avenge his death. Claudius is now the king and is married to his mother. His apparent madness worries the king who orders that Hamlet leave Denmark and be sent to England. Hamlet returns, and with a mix of poison and swords, everyone ultimately dies. The theme of the story is revenge, however Shakespeare questions whether or not it is significant if one dies achieving it.

6. Romeo and Juliet

7. Romeo and Juliet By: Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is arguably Shakespeare’s most famous play. The prologue establishes that the play will be a tragedy, and that the children of two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets, will fall in love and ultimately die. Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight, initially unaware of each other’s status. When it is revealed that they are supposed to be bitter enemies, Juliet decides to fake her own death in order to be with her one true love. Upon Romeo’s arrival, Juliet has yet to wake and Romeo too thinks she is dead. Deciding he’d rather join her than be without her, Romeo drinks poison thus killing himself. Juliet wakes to find him dead, then takes his dagger and kills herself as well. Although reconciliation is acquired, it is at great sacrifice. Through mix-ups and misunderstandings, the story is a tale about chance, young love, and impulse.

8. Beowulf

9. Beowulf This story begins in the middle of things. King Hrothgar of the Danes, is having a problem with a monster named Grendel. Beowulf, a Geatish warrior, comes to help him. The monster, Grendel is killing the men in the mead hall at night. Beowulf kills the monster, then has to fight the monster’s dam, aka mother. After that Beowulf goes home and becomes King in his land. He eventually has to fight a Dragon and that will lead to his end. Beowulf has many themes for discussion in it such as, the comiatatus bond, the importance of honor, the tension between the heroic code and newer things, the traditions of mead halls and oral stories. This story shows an end to the heroic age when Beowulf meets his end. Author Unknown

10. Oedipus

11. Oedipus By: Sophocles Written by Sophocles, Oedipus the King is one of the greatest tragedies ever told. Like most Greek tragedies, the irony is emphasized and fate is inevitable. In this particular story, the main character is looking to find, reveal, and chastise the assassin, who turns out to be himself. Oedipus is similar to a modern day murder mystery/psychological thriller, about a man whose predestination wills him to kill his father and marry his mother. The Greeks felt that humans needed to experience tragedy to obtain normalcy. Their myths and legends were their way of explaining their particular beliefs. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles proves that one’s fate is predetermined and unavoidable at all costs.

12. The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby

13. The Great Gatsby By: F. Scott Fitzgerald Nick Carraway moves to New York, in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable area populated by the new rich, which are people who have recently made their wealth and are prone to garish displays of it. His neighbor is the mysterious Jay Gatsby. It turns out that once long ago Nick’s cousin Daisy had a relationship with Gatsby and he is in love with her still. This story take you through the idiosyncrasies of the newly rich and the craziness of people. It brings up the decline of the American dream in the 1920’s, the hollowness of the upper class, and many different problems in society.

14. Canterbury Tales Canterbury Tales

15. The Canterbury Tales By: Geoffrey Chaucer The Canterbury Tales begin with a narrator revealing that he, along with several other travelers, will be making a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the relics of Saint Thomas Becket. These pilgrims include a Knight, his son the Squire, the Knight's Yeoman, a Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of Law, a Franklin, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Carpenter, a Tapestry-Maker, a Haberdasher, a Cook, a Shipman, a Physician, a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple, a Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself. The narrator, also referred to as the host, presents the travelers with a game. During their pilgrimage each person is to tell four stories, two on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way home. The host will then decide whose tale is the best, and that person will have a lavish feast at everyone else’s expense. The tales range from comedy to tragedy, however each as intriguing as the one before. The descriptions of the various characters as well as their social roles reveal the importance of the estates (military, clergy, and laity) of fourteenth-century English society.

16. Frankenstein Frankenstein

17. Frankenstein By: Mary Shelley In a series of letters, a man named, Robert Walton describes his meetings with a man named Victor Frankenstein to his sister. Victor had studied for many years and believed he had found the secret to life. Victor collects body parts from graveyards and creates his “creature.” He is obsessed the whole time he does it and when he is done he flees, believing it to be ugly and horrible. The book takes you through Victor and the creature’s life and their eventual doom. It brings up a lot of topics such as nature VS nurture, dangerous knowledge, desertion, parents and children, secrecy, and many more.

18. Beowulf The Great Gatsby Frankenstein A Midsummer Night’s Dream Oedipus Canterbury Tales Hamlet Romeo and Juliet