Aylmer, the protagonist of Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” undertakes to remove the blemish from his wife’s cheek to satisfy his own spiritual strivings and to redeem what he sees as a failed career.
Holden Caulfield is an unlikely rebel. The son of affluent parents, enrolled in (and expelled from) expensive prep schools, untouched by poverty or racism, he would seem to have it made in the booming 1950s. Yet he is estranged from his parents, teachers, and friends. For him the world is insincere and untrustworthy or, as … Continued
Holden Caulfield is an unlikely rebel. The son of affluent parents, enrolled in (and expelled from) expensive prep schools, untouched by poverty or racism, he would seem to have it made in the booming 1950s. Yet he is estranged from his parents, teachers, and friends. For him the world is insincere and untrustworthy or, as … Continued
“I would prefer not to.” With those words Bartleby, Herman Melville’s New York law-copyist, turns himself into one of the most enigmatic and infuriating characters in all of American literature. With them he also disrupts the staid, ordered life of his employer. And with them, too, he withdraws from life until he ends his days … Continued