The Bell Jar is a profound novel where everyone can find something relatable. You may (and should better) have never had depression, but you are (or have been) young and fought with life’s controversies. In any case, the novel would never leave you indifferent. What is The Bell Jar about?...
Sylvia Plath described the universal fear of making the wrong choice. Her protagonist becomes paralyzed and falls into depression as she feels she is not good enough for any of her aspirations. Of course, such self-distrust and alienation from society stem from her mental illness. Less than a year after...
The Bell Jar symbolism is revealed in everyday objects and metaphors the protagonist uses in her inner dialog. The setting, genre selection, specific language, and literary devices enhance the reader’s impression of the character’s movement from depression to madness. If you’re looking for The Bell Jar analysis, you’re in the...
There are more themes in The Bell Jar than one-article analysis could explore. Femininity, patriarchy, power, control, madness, and health are all mentioned in the novel. In this article prepared by our experts, you will find a comprehensive analysis of the key themes in The Bell Jar. They force the...
The novel by Sylvia Plath introduces many characters to the reader. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood, her mother, and Buddy Willard are the main characters. They meet with two doctors (Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan), several of Esther’s boyfriends (Marco, Constantin, and Irwin), and some of Esther’s friends (Doreen...
Looking for The Bell Jar summary and analysis? You’re in the right place! In the article prepared by our experts, you’ll find a synopsis, an illustrated plot timeline, and chapter summaries of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. 📃 The Bell Jar Synopsis Despite the numerous events and feelings described...
Late at night, two waiters have to stay at work until the last customer leaves. They discuss his recent suicide attempt and the reasons why he does not want to go home. These two sentences suffice for a summary of the short story. The full text of A Clean, Well-Lighted...
In the short story, the central setting place is a clean and well-lit café. It is quiet there, as the reader may assume from several indirect phrases. There is no music because it is the best place to wipe off the helpless thoughts that bring the characters to despair. They...
Nothingness is the central theme of the short story. The action takes place in Spain, and the reader may assume that the waiters should talk in Spanish. Hemingway added local color to the narrative by introducing some Spanish words. But “nada” is a word with multiple meanings and sounds like...
The waiters are of different generations. No wonder their opinions about the late visitor differ. The younger waiter is irritated by the client. He does not understand why he does not want to go home. The older waiter sympathizes with the visitor, as he can relate to his depression. More...
The short story is told from the third-person omniscient point of view. But during the lengthy dialogues, it resembles a play in two actions (one inside the café and the other in the bar). This approach lets the readers see the expressed and unrepressed thoughts and feelings of the characters....
It may seem that Hemingway abstained from showing his opinion in the short story. But at a closer look, the author’s tone reveals itself in the characters’ dialogues, nature description, and a few events. The author lets the readers form their opinion about the text independently from what he believes....
The old man represents the depths of despair and depression a person could experience in a lifetime. His deafness makes him physically isolated from the rest of the world, as he is deprived of the pleasure of human conversation. He can still feel the difference between a noisy business day...
There are only four characters in the short story: two waiters, the old man, and the bartender at the bodega. The first three are equally important for the plot development. Still, the older waiter is the protagonist. He brings the reader to understand the story’s subtext and lives through all...
The old waiter’s interpretation of the prayer shows his depression and loss of faith. At a deeper level, it is a manifest of “nothingness” that waits for us at every corner. The protagonist realizes that religion offers little help in his fight with depression, but he does not know what...
The short story is only 990 words long. There is almost no action: we learn everything from the dialogue of the waiters. The reason for such a concise structure is the author’s purpose. Hemingway aimed to create an atmosphere of pointlessness and “nothingness.” He wanted his readers to feel what...
The reader learns about the attempted suicide of the elderly visitor from the younger waiter. There is no viable reason for his intention to hang himself because he has a lot of money and a niece who cares for him. But the old man is utterly lonely and miserable, as...
Even while staying at the clean, well-lighted café, the old man sits “in the shadow” of the trees. The shadow represents his depression and despair that never leaves him. Shadow is where light meets darkness, and they mingle. From this point of view, it symbolizes the transition from life to...
A clean, well-lighted place is a description of a Spanish café where the action of the short story takes place. It has a symbolic meaning that represents any place where one can feel comfort and security. It is where a person has nothing to fear and can put away their...
Hemingway wrote the story in 1933 as a part of his third and last collection of short stories, Winner Take Nothing. But the first publication went out in Scribner’s Magazine in the same year. It was Hemingway’s favorite piece, and James Joyce even called it “masterly.” More Information A Clean,...
It would be wrong to limit the short story to a single theme. Still, the central one would be the theme of nothingness. But loneliness, old age, meaning, and depression are also critical. They result from the feeling of emptiness that makes people seek the illusion of company and avoid...
The old waiter doesn’t want to go home because he is afraid of staying with his thoughts one-on-one. He has lost meaning in life, and religion doesn’t help him anymore. He mentions the fear of “nothing” that chases him. Thus, staying among other people distracts him from his depression. More...
Despite its briefness, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place was one of Hemingway’s favorite short stories. It is depressing and sometimes painful to read. Nobody likes to hear that life has no supreme purpose and that religion is a weak measure to contradict it. But from time to time, it is beneficial...
Hemingway wrote short (very short) stories where nothing special happens. Meanwhile, the works are a concentrated existentialist philosophy, as the writer saw it. There is a lot to say about every single line of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Literary analysis trains you to read between the lines and find meaning...
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place short story can be confusing because nothing special happens, but it has a lot of sub-text. The characters say one thing meaning another. The inner dialogue of the protagonist describes his moral conflict. Even the description of the café has underlying symbolism. Custom-Writing.org experts have prepared...
Ernest Hemingway managed to fill this 990-word text with moral questions that deserve multiple-page analysis. The key themes of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place are nada (nothingness), alcohol addiction, anility, and existentialism. This article by Custom-Writing.org experts features a summary of these issues discussed from different points of view. ⚪️ Nada...
Looking for A Clean, Well-Lighted Place character analysis? There are only three characters in the short story: the deaf old man, the older waiter, and the younger waiter. But who is the protagonist in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place? This article by Custom-Writing.org experts will answer this question, as well as...
Looking for A Clean, Well-Lighted Place summary and analysis? A short synopsis, an illustrated timeline, and a detailed summary & analysis of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place are below. The analysis of a literary work starts from reading its full text. We can read this short story in less than an...
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Ever heard of a smart egg tray? Welcome to 2025! Today, there are gadgets for everything, and the variety of intelligent devices available increases every day. Some of them can improve your life. Others seem a bit useless. Will a smart egg tray actually add value to your life, or...
Dorms become like second homes to many students during their university experience. And while dorm life can mean making new friends and having exciting adventures, adjusting to new routines is not always easy. Since most students who come to the dorms have no prior experience living outside their parents’ homes,...
The Tempest is one of the most beloved plays written by Shakespeare. The story is about the duke of Milan who had to escape to an island. Prospero uses magic to revenge his brother for betrayal and takes control over the royal party for that. If it sounds intriguing, you...
In The Tempest, Caliban is the local half-monster who was unfortunate enough to become a slave. Prospero was trying to civilize him by giving language lessons. However, the only thing Caliban actually wants is freedom and his rightful land. He even plots against his master, but the murder plan never...
Tempest means a violent and intense storm. It is somewhat significant that The Tempest by Shakespeare opens up with the storm that carries the boat to the island. However, the detailed analysis of the plot and the characters reveals that the title is mainly related to the turmoil of emotions...
In Shakespeare’s play, Miranda is described as an innocent and empathetic girl. She is a relatively passive character and the only female character in The Tempest. She may seem quite naïve and helpless to the audience, but a few scenes can prove them wrong. She transcends her traditional gender role...
When Caliban finds new friends, Stephano and Trinculo, he asks them to help him with the assassination of his master. They plot to take away Prospero’s books to disarm him and kill him when he is taking a nap. To motivate his fellows, he promises that they would get control...
In Shakespeare’s play, Caliban is ultimately seen as Prospero’s slave. Their relationship highlights one of the central themes of The Tempest concerning colonialism and imperialism. He is the only native inhabitant on the island and is not treated well by his master. Caliban wishes ill to Prospero and wants to...
Shakespeare’s play includes characters of different levels of power. However, since the latter is one of the key play’s literary themes, the division between them is pretty straightforward. The characters who use magic are way more potent than the ones that don’t. Moreover, Prospero is considered to be in control...
There are many lines in The Tempest that Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter, so it is hard to pick only one. As an example, the line where Miranda says, “O brave new world,” is perhaps the most famous one. Mostly, the noble characters speak in verse while the others use...
Prospero is the main character of Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest. He was betrayed by his brother and had to seek another home. A remote island appeared to be a nice place, so Prospero and his daughter settled there. Over the years, he has been planning revenge with the help of...
In the play, Prospero is presented as a magician who gets his fantastic powers from the books. There are a lot of things that he managed to achieve thanks to that power. However, by the end of The Tempest, Prospero swears to throw away all his books and put an...
In Shakespeare’s play, Ariel is portrayed as a magical spirit under Prospero’s control. Throughout the whole play, he has to complete different tasks the magician gives him. Every time Ariel hopes that it would be the last one, but he doesn’t get his freedom back until the end of The...
Caliban and Ariel live on the remote island which Prospero claimed and took under his control. Both characters of The Tempest have a similar fate since the magician forced them both to serve him. However, the significant difference between them is that Caliban is not treated as respectfully as Ariel....
There seem to be too many things that Prospero does, showing how manipulative he is. The character possessing such a power uses it to alter the events in the play and force others to obey. However, one of his actions shows it most clearly. Prospero uses magic to put his...
Alonso is the king of Naples in the play. Together with the members of the royal party, he gets into the storm and ends up on an unknown island. It appears to be a pretty tragic occurrence since his son, Ferdinand, goes missing. By the end of the play, Alonso...
Caliban is the only islander found by Prospero and Miranda in the play. Even though he shows quite a negative attitude towards other characters throughout the whole story, there is something positive in him. Caliban loves his homeland, and he is ready to share all the knowledge he has about...
It is believed that Shakespeare created his masterpiece in 1610 or 1611. However, it is hard to judge which data is correct. The evidence shows that the first performance of The Tempest was in November 1611. Moreover, it appears to be one of the last plays ever written by Shakespeare....
In the original play, Ariel is a spirit that was trapped on the island. When Prospero freed him, he made Ariel his servant in return. Therefore, throughout The Tempest, the spirit has to attend to the magician’s wishes. In the Balinese production, Ariel resembles an animal and flies around instead...
Gonzalo is a member of the royal party who appears to be on the boat with the others. He is the king’s counselor and the one who is worried about Alonso the most. Throughout the play, he tries to do everything to help the king and protect him from the...
Shakespeare included the themes of colonialism and imperialism in The Tempest for a reason. Moreover, they are most clearly represented through Prospero and Caliban’s relationship in the play. Prospero is pictured as a typical colonizer who doesn’t respect the locals and only wants to take over the land for personal...