Literary Theme Sources for your Essay

Recurring Literary Theme of Ascent


Torvald relentlessly demeans and belittles Nora, making her feel as fragile as a doll in a dollhouse. When she does manage to assert herself, she gets backhanded with comments from her husband such as "And you actually have the nerve to drag that up again? (Ibsen, p

Civilization vs. Wilderness: Prominent Literary Theme


Sedgwick expresses this quite well on pages 105-06 as she shines light on why the Pilgrims originally came to the New World: "…When they came to the wilderness, they said, truly…they did virtually renounce all dependence on earthly supports; they left the land of their birth, of their homes, of their father's sepulchers; they sacrificed ease and preferment, and delights of sense -- and for what? To open for themselves an earthly paradise? To dress their bowers of pleasure, and rejoice with their wives and children? No: they came not for themselves, they lived not for themselves. An exiled and suffering people, they came forth in the dignity of the chosen servants of the Lord, to open the forests to the sunbeam…to restore man oppressed and trampled by his fellow…to replace the creatures of God on their natural level; to bring down the hills, and make smooth the rough places…[and they saw] a multitude of people where the solitary savage roamed the forest…the forest vanished…the consecrated church planted on the rock of heathen sacrifice…" (Sedgwick, 1842)