World Literature Summary

Doctor Faustus ( Morality Play) by  Christopher Marlowe Doctor Faustus is an outstanding creation of Christopher Marlowe . Doctor Faustus is the central character of this play. Though he is already master of all the existing knowledge and skills, he has a confused mind. He has sky kissing ambitions. He desires success and power. He is tempted by evil. He denies all branches of Knowledge without necromancy. Philosophy is odious and obscure; Both law and physic are for petty wits; Divinity is blessed of the three, Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile. He runs through all the branches of human knowledge and finds them inadequate to his desires. He selects magic because it is a world of profit and delight, of power, of honor, of supremacy. The good angel tells him to put aside the demand book of magic, while the evil angel urges him to go forward in that famous art. The gentle voices him to give up his magic and return to God. The good angel is the voice of G...

Samson Agonistes (Tragedy) By John Milton Samson Agonistes has been written by John Milton . Samson is the name of the Biblical hero whose tragic death has been narrated in this play. The birth of Samson was prophesied by an angel. The angel also predicted not to allow a razor to the coming child’s head, and the child’s hair should begin to set free Israel from its foreign rulers, namely the Philistines. The child was born and grew up. He was blessed by God. As a young man, he was attracted by a woman named Timna and he married her. On his way to Timna, Samson encountered an angry lion, and he showed his supernatural strength by tearing the lion into pieces. He quarreled with his wife’s kinship and killed thirty of the Philistines to escape his anger. This woman had not proved faithfulness to Samson. The Philistines wanted to capture Samson when he was going to Gaza; but he plucked away the gate of the city and also the two door-posts, and went away, carrying them, ba...

Paradise Lost (Book I & II) Epic Paradise Lost is an outstanding epic in the history of English literature. John Milton has composed it in 1665. The main characters of this epic are God, Adam, Eve and Satan. The fall of the Satan and his followers from the heaven to hell because of disobedience to God is the main theme of this epic. The Satan declares war against the God. So, The God threw him and his followers into the burning hell. Adam had to face untold misery because of the activities of Satan. The Satan misleads Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. They eat food misguided by Satan and disobeying the order of God. So they commit sin. They are sent to the earth. The Satan comes to the earth and further starts misleading the human beings against the God. Satan appears as the embodiment of deceit, jealousy, revenge and pride.  Milton introduces Satan –the infernal serpent. Satan raises “an impious war” against God. As a result Satan was thrown from heaven by Go...

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Alan Poe Edgar Alan Poe (1809-1849) was one of the finest short writers in the history of English literature. Poe’s fame we see as the master of horror, the father of the detective story. Poe, in fact, wrote nearly short works of fiction. The Tell-Tale Heart is the most famous short stories of Poe. The story is a psychological portrait of a mad narrator who kills a man. It is a horror story. This poem exemplifies Poe’s ability to expose the dark side of humankind. The storyteller says how afraid he was of the old man’s Evil terribly that he gradually determined to kill the old man and get rid of it. It appeared very evil to him and such an evil eye should not last long. He had tried to establish that he was not mad. It was not his madness that drove him to determine to murder the old man. The man was not bad but all the trouble was created by the evil eye. It is the story of domestic violence. This violence was the result of an irrational fear. The...