All Questions
Tagged with nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-the-wind nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-the-wind or character-analysis
40 questions
30
votes
4
answers
21k
views
In Brave New World, what caste is Lenina Crowne?
In Brave New World, there is an extensive caste system. However, Lenina's caste is never explicitly pointed out. She is important to many of the male characters in the book, each belonging to a ...
- 469
17
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why don't people in the Chronicles of Narnia have trouble "transitioning" back to their old life after extended times in other worlds?
In The Chronicles of Narnia, people often spend weeks, months, or even decades in other worlds. They return to their old life at the exact instant that they left as if they were never gone. For ...
14
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Why do Jem and Scout call their father Atticus?
My question is not why they call their father Atticus as much as why he lets them do this, and what this says about their characters.
Where I come from--and, I think, in 1930s Alabama--it is not ...
- 4,552
13
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Is John Milton's Lucifer a tragic hero?
Loosely related: Was Paradise Lost the first major work of literature to give "sympathy for the devil"?
In Paradise Lost, Lucifer/Satan appears to have at least some heroic characteristics, ...
11
votes
4
answers
15k
views
Why did Shams refuse to sleep with Kimya?
Towards the end of Elif Şafak's The Forty Rules of Love, specifically the book-within-a-book Sweet Blasphemy which is largely a retelling of the real-life story of Shams and Rumi, Shams gets married ...
- 77.1k
9
votes
1
answer
582
views
Should Go Set a Watchman change our view of Atticus defending Tom Robinson?
I do realize that the passage of To Kill a Mockingbird where Atticus defended Tom Robinson has been heavily analyzed elsewhere at this point. However, it seems like most people got the impression that ...
8
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Why is the Emperor Beyond the Sea named that?
Closely related: Why does the Emperor-Over-the-Sea play such a small role in the Chronicles of Narnia?
Why is the Emperor Beyond The Sea in The Chronicles of Narnia named that? What sea is he beyond, ...
6
votes
2
answers
631
views
JKR says that Hermione shouldn't have married Ron. Is this correct?
In an interview, JKR says that Hermione would not have married Ron:
She told the magazine: "I wrote the Hermione-Ron relationship as a
form of wish fulfilment. That's how it was conceived, really....
6
votes
2
answers
536
views
How should we view Dan Conway?
Dan Conway, head of the Phoenix-Durango in Atlas Shrugged, was evidently a superb executive. He also receives (largely) positive treatment in the novel. However, the book also says that he initially ...
3
votes
0
answers
315
views
Portrayal of Henry Bolingbroke through different Shakespeare plays
King Henry IV of England, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, appears in three Shakespeare plays, with two of them being named after him. In Richard II, he can be seen as the main antagonist of the play, ...
- 77.1k
3
votes
0
answers
119
views
Do the young women and men of the Decameron represent the Virtues and sections of the soul?
The Wikipedia page on the Decameron claims that:
Many details of the Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance.[9] For example, it is widely believed[by ...
- 77.1k
35
votes
1
answer
22k
views
Is there any textual evidence to support that Dumbledore was gay?
JK Rowling announced in 2007 to an audience at Carnegie Hall that Albus Dumbledore was in fact, gay and always had been...
Q: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall ...
28
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Is Sherlock Holmes religious?
In this question, it is established that Sherlock Holmes, from the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was asexual and in explaining that it is stated that he showed very little emotion in general. This ...
- 6,361
21
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Are Frog and Toad more than just friends?
In a 1977 interview with The Lion and the Unicorn, Arnold Lobel said:
You know, if an adult has an unhappy love affair, he writes about it. He exorcises it out of himself, perhaps, by writing a novel ...
- 5,062
20
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Does the description of Eustace's parents fit some known stereotype?
In the opening paragraph of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis introduces us to the (at this point in the story) singularly unlikeable character of Eustace Clarence Scrubb. About his parents, ...
- 77.1k
16
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Why are Drizzt's eyes purple?
In R. A. Salvatore's books The Legend of Drizzt series, the main character Drizzt Do'Urden is a Drow, a species in Forgotten Realms that live underground and far cousins to elves. Drow have ...
- 1,863
13
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Why wasn't O'Brien considered a thought criminal?
Given that O'Brien shows a high level of awareness of the Party's deceptiveness and malice (e.g. the fact that he admitted to being involved in creating and promoting the Goldstein myth), to what ...
13
votes
2
answers
14k
views
How old is Romeo?
While answering a different question, I wanted to find out Romeo's age in the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. It's well known that Juliet is 13, and generally assumed that Romeo is older (hence the ...
- 77.1k
11
votes
3
answers
3k
views
How did Theseus woo Hippolyta by doing her injuries?
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus tells Hippolyta:
THESEUS:
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword
And won thy love doing thee injuries,
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph,...
- 541
9
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why is Regulus Black a seeker?
In Chapter Ten of the Deathly Hallows, we're told that Regulus Black is a seeker for the Slytherin team.
Is there any symbolism behind Regulus Black's Quidditch position?
I got the idea for this ...
user111
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Was Captain Hook an Etonian in the original text?
The character Captain Hook, main protagonist of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, definitely attended a British public school:
Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date ...
- 77.1k
9
votes
1
answer
402
views
Was Heathcliff intentionally made a Byronic Hero?
It is often said that Heathcliff makes for the perfect example for a Byronic Hero. Did Emily Brontë purposely write him that way?
- 1,063
8
votes
3
answers
4k
views
What's the significance of Liza-Lu?
In Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the character Liza-Lu (Tess's sister) plays a very minor background role throughout most of the novel, until near the very end when Tess says she wants ...
- 77.1k
8
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Is Jack (in Lord of the Flies) actually 'bad'?
For me, the real 'evil' in The Lord of the Flies was Roger. From the beginning the story shows how he has 'revelations' about how there is no one to stop him bullying and hurting.
Jack, for me, ...
- 3,103
8
votes
1
answer
306
views
What parallels can be drawn between Don Reba and Beria?
From the afterword of Hard to be a God:
On the advice of I. A. Efremov, we renamed the Minister of the Defense of the Crown Don Reba (he had previously been Don Rebia—an overly simple anagram, in the ...
- 77.1k
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What do the names of the Decameron characters signify?
The Wikipedia page for the Decameron claims (without citations) that:
Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to ...
- 77.1k
7
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Why is Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" so important and famous?
What does 'vaulting' mean here?
Macbeth uses the term in Act I, scene 7:
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.
...
- 442
7
votes
2
answers
4k
views
What is the significance of Nick being gay in The Great Gatsby?
On Literature SE there seems to be a general consensus that in the Great Gatsby the narrator, Nick Carraway, is gay (or at the very least sexually ambiguous).
What does "the master's body&...
- 489
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How does Bacchus fit into the Christian allegory of Narnia?
The setting and story of The Chronicles of Narnia are strongly linked to Christianity: Aslan, who sacrifices himself for a traitor in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe before returning to life, ...
- 77.1k
6
votes
2
answers
517
views
Is Emma's preoccupation with class and station typical of the time period or an aspect of her character?
In Jane Austen's Emma, the titular character is shown to spend a lot of time and effort thinking about class, rank, and station in society. She's worried about mixing with the lower classes, and ...
- 27.2k
6
votes
1
answer
539
views
Is Harry Hotspur portrayed as a villain in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I?
Having studied Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part I and seen a performance of it in Stratford, I'm still uncertain of how we're meant to view the character of Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur).
Clearly he's ...
- 77.1k
5
votes
1
answer
293
views
How much of the Looters' philosophy did Fred Kinnan actually accept?
Related: What was Fred Kinnan gaining from his racket?
In their discussion of Directive 10-289, Fred Kinnan said the following:
"Well, if you want to talk practice," said Fred Kinnan, "then let me ...
4
votes
1
answer
92
views
Is the character named Laarmans supposed to be the same person across Elsschot's œuvre?
The protagonist and first-person narrator of Elsschot's delicious Cheese (1933) is a hapless clerk named Frans Laarmans who finds himself unexpectedly tasked with selling twenty tons of imported full-...
- 31.8k
4
votes
1
answer
768
views
In what way was Dr. Robert Stadler based on Robert Oppenheimer?
Wikipedia describes Dr. Robert Stadler from Atlas Shrugged as follows:
A former professor at Patrick Henry University, and along with colleague Hugh Akston, mentor to Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt ...
3
votes
1
answer
219
views
Was the motive behind this ever explained by the author of The Virgin Suicides?
In the novel The Virgin Suicides, we find that every daughter of the Lisbon family has attempted to suicide and succeeded.
However, at the end of the novel, we don't find any motive behind all of ...
- 491
3
votes
0
answers
26
views
How to understand Doña Vera's decision to flee Austria for Mexico?
One of the major characters in Anita Desai's The Zigzag Way is Doña Vera, the Austrian widow of a Mexican silver baron. The couple had met and married in Vienna just prior to the outbreak of World War ...
- 31.8k
3
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Why did the Witches give the prophecy in the first place?
The 3 Witches prophecied to Macbeth that he would be king, thus setting the play into motion. Why did they do that? Did they realize that they were basically giving a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ...
3
votes
0
answers
72
views
Why does Percival Everett change the relationship of Carolyn Bryant and J W Milam in The Trees?
The character Granny C in Percival Everett's The Trees represents an aged Carolyn Bryant, the woman whose dubious claim that Emmett Till whistled at her led to his brutal murder. In real life, the men ...
- 31.8k
3
votes
1
answer
562
views
How was Jude obscure in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure?
I have recently completed the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and as always the title left me baffled. In the whole novel it was Sue who seems (if one just uses one's own viewpoint and judges ...
- 1,659
1
vote
0
answers
29
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In Patchett's 'Commonwealth', why doesn't Spencer tell Fix about Beverly's affair?
Here is a follow-up to my previous question about Ann Patchett's Commonwealth. I'm unclear about Dick Spencer's role in concealing the affair that Bert Cousins is having with Beverly Keating.
Spencer ...
- 31.8k