Free Comparative Literature Essay Examples & Topics
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Comparative literature explores the relationship between works of fiction of different cultures and times. Its purpose is to establish the connection between specific genres, styles, and literary devices and the historical period. At the same time, it provides an insight into the meaning hidden between the lines of a given text.
What is a literary comparison essay? This academic paper requires a specific methodology but follows the typical rules. A student is expected to perform comparative textual analysis of a short story, novel, or any other piece of narrative writing. However, it is vital to remember that only the pieces with something in common are comparable.
This is where all the challenges start. Without an in-depth literature review, it is not always clear which works can and should be compared. Which aspects should be considered, and which could be left out? The structure of a comparative essay is another stumbling rock.
For this reason, our team has prepared a brief guide. Here, you will learn how to write a successful comparative literature essay and, more importantly, what to write in it. And that is not all! Underneath the article, we have prepared some comparative literary analysis essay examples written by students like you.
How to Write a Comparative Essay
Comparative literary analysis requires you to know how to correlate two different things in general. So let us start from the basics. This section explains how to write a comparative paper.
A good comparison essay structure relies on two techniques:
Alternating or point-by-point method.
Using this technique, you dedicate two paragraphs for each new comparison aspect, one for each subject. It is the best way to establish similar and different features in the two novels. Such comparative analysis works best for research, providing a detailed and well-structured text.
1st Body Paragraph: Social problems in Steinback’s works.
2nd Body Paragraph: Social problems in Hemingway’s works.
3rd Body Paragraph: Psychological problems in Steinback’s works.
4th Body Paragraph: Psychological problems in Hemingway’s works.
5th Body Paragraph: Interpersonal problems in Steinback’s works.
Block or subject-by-subject method.
This approach means that you divide your essay in two. The first part discusses one text or author, and the second part analyzes the other. The challenge here is to avoid writing two disconnected papers under one title.
For this purpose, constantly refer the second part to the first one to show the differences and similarities. You should use the technique if you have more than two comparison subjects (add another paragraph for each next one). It also works well when there is little in common between the subjects.
1-3 Body Paragraphs: Description of rural labor in Steinback’s works.
4-6 Body Paragraphs: Description of rural labor in Hemingway’s works.
You will formulate a thesis and distribute the arguments and supporting evidence depending on the chosen structure. You can consult the possible options in our comparative literature essay examples.
How to Conduct Literary Comparison: Essay Tips
Let us move to the main point of this article: the comparison of literature. In this section, we will discuss how to write an ideal essay in this format.
We suggest you stick to the following action plan:
Choose literary works to compare. They should have some features in common. For example, the protagonist faces the same type of conflict, or the setting is the same. You should know the works well enough to find the necessary passages. Check the comparative literature examples below if you struggle with the step.
Select the topic, thinking of similarities. The broader the matter, the more challenging the writing. A comparative study of the protagonists in two books is harder than analyzing the same theme that appears in them. Characters may have little in common, making the analysis more complicated.
Find both differences and similarities. Once you’ve formulated the topic, make a list of features to compare. If the subjects are too different, choose the block method of contrasting them. Otherwise, the alternating technique will do.
Formulate a thesis statement that has a comparative nature. It should convey the gist of the essay’s argument. Highlight the relationship between the books. Do they contradict, supplement, develop, or correct each other? You can start the thesis statement with “whereas.” For example, “Whereas Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Darcy in Pride and Prejudice are full of pride, this trait leads them to different troubles.”
Outline and list key elements. Select three to six comparable aspects depending on your essay’s expected length. Then, plan in what order you’ll present them and according to which technique.
Link elements and write. Distribute the features among the comparative paragraphs. If you wish to prove that the books are more different than alike, start with the most diverging factors and move to the most similar ones.
That’s it! Thank you for reading this article. For more examples of comparative literature essays, check the links below.
The poem was written in 1921 by the young Hughes who was just adding his voice to the plight of the African Americans at the time."We Wear the Mask" is a poem by the famous [...]
He thinks about the fact that revenge is not a good action to make his soul get to heavens. His is a prince of Norway, but likewise Hamlet did not receive the crown, he was [...]
After offering prayers to the dead, the people of the river offered the sheep to them and put the remaining parts in a pit that had been dug with shadows of the dead gathering around.
He has the gift of imagination in the highest and strictest sense of the word. In the Romanticism of Wordsworth there is the consciousness and will of a return to natural sources.
This paper examines romantic love as the source of joy and fulfillment in "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Love is the source of pain and suffering in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
In this analysis, it is clear that mood in the two pieces of literature is enhanced by the characters and how they act and speak, the manner in which the author advances the plot and [...]
As aforementioned, the plot of the two versions of this story is the same; the storyline of the two versions carries a clandestine love affair between Anna and Gurov with a happy conclusion where the [...]
Both Geoffrey Chaucer and Dante Alighieri wrote in the Middle Ages and were the two most famous and most celebrated writers of that period."Both Dante and Chaucer were active in affairs of their times".
Although the plot is different in each of these poems, both Annabel Lee and The Raven share the themes of death and lost love, as well as the symbolic language.
The short stories The North Wind and the Sun by Aesop and The Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe show that persuasion and peaceful measures can be more effective than inducement and force.
He thinks such behavior is offensive to his position and his power, this is why this woman is in the past, and the other one is waiting for him downstairs to enlarge Duke's collection of [...]
The aspects of human nature that George Orwell criticizes in his work 1984 compared to today's world Orwell in the novel 1984 represents the modern society be it capitalist or communist.
The works by two famous American Puritan writers of the 17th century Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson reflect the main features of the Puritan writing because the authors discuss their personal experience concentrating on their [...]
When it comes to ethics, he suggests that the prince should only be concerned with actions that are beneficial to a leader and ones that promote the well-being of his state.
Through the years the author got the new vision of his poems what was expressed by the difference between the imagery of Introductions and the Song's of Nurse in the Songs of Innocence and Songs [...]
It is possible to compare and contrast two poems, "The Lamb" and "The Tyger", to understand how the poet managed to create evoking and appealing images.
This statement by the narrator is a significant tool of characterization because it reveals that the main character is insane. The narrator is also important in revealing the character of the old man.
Margaret Atwood's book 'The Dancing Girls' is a collection of 16 short stories and the Dancing Girls is one of the stories and has given the name for the collection.
First of all, speaking about similarities between the main characters of Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" and Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", it should be stated that both of them are an embodiment of men of strong [...]
As the narration progresses, fear arises in the reader or viewer, and finally, something horrific happens."The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Cask of the Amontillado" share all of the features above, as [...]
From the suffering of people in Haiti in the wake of several hurricanes that struck them in 2008 to individuals facing hunger and drought in various states of Africa, as well as the war-torn countries [...]
The essay shall analyze the power of social prejudices on the basis of the analysis of "Little things Are Big" by Jesus Colon and "Thank You Ma'am" by Langston Hughes.
It is through his adventures living as Tyler that the Narrator truly explores the dark side of his personality, living not by the laws of society but in direct contrast to them, until the Narrator [...]
The names of places, characters, and events are the same in both the book and the movie. In contrast, in the movie, the story revolves around Bilbo and the dwarves.
The tone in "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time" and in "To His Coy Mistress" is the same as the narrators move from persuasion to warning their subjects.
For example, in his article Dodgson's Dark Conceit: Evoking the Allegorical Lineage of Alice, Andrew Wheat suggest that in Carroll's novel, the character of Alice is being presented as the challenger of 'undeniable truths', as [...]
As a result, their narratives, in tone, in mood, in presentation of self, in degree and kind of analysis of the world around them, reflect these differences.
Iago's reports and the loss of the handkerchief appear to Othello reliable proofs of Desdemona's unfaithfulness, and under the effect of anger the protagonist is both unable and unwilling to do further investigation.
In Milton's 'Paradise Lost', the image of hell is clearly visible during the depiction of Satan's fall and also Adam and Eve's fall and the epic concerns the Judo-Christian legend of the fall of men; [...]
The woman in the poem is a virgin as seen in the title of the poem 'She being Brand' and he expresses sex with this woman as ungraceful, awkward and unskillful.
Knights were expected to have honor, courage, honesty, respect, selflessness, and several other qualities of how a perfect knight was considered, like Olivier and Roland in The Song of Roland.
Despite the seeming difference in genre, stylistic choices, characters and settings, the novel Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Langston Hughes' poem A Dream Deferred have a lot in common; in fact, one [...]
Similarly to Rama, Odysseus belongs to the descendants of Zeus, the king of all gods, and uses a special bow as his favorite weapon. Another difference between Odysseus and Rama is their attitudes to family [...]
By introducing the author's explanation of the attorney's intention 'letting go' of the past the author establishes the dynamic of men being bored by the seemingly mundane case. In contrast, Trifles relies on the content [...]
Curry believed that the "stylistics of Faulkner's language...serves to subordinate Emily, ostensibly the subject of the tale, and to elevate the town as the truer subject".
In the case of "The Necklace," the story is centered around a woman whose identity does not match her aspirations and dreams of being a member of the wealthy class.
This is because while the gods are obviously responsible for choosing the path that one's life is to take, it still takes the free will of the involved person to follow that path.
This essay aims to explore the elements of defamiliarization that are evident in the two works and to summarize the points to show how the use of this technique differs in the stories.
The main conflict of the play is thoroughly intergenerational and lies in Willy's inability to accept the decision of his older son Biff, as the latter is willing to leave town to go to farmland [...]
The present paper argues that whereas in "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt justice is executed fully at the end of the novel due to the fact that all members of the group are punished [...]
Evidence, suggesting that the author is a little bit ironic is the language of the poem. Judging from the grammatical constructions, and the vocabulary, it is possible to conclude, this text is a bright example [...]
Science fiction has found its place among the 'great' literatures of the word and hence a contribution in the field of literature. Some of the most sales in literature are in the genre of science [...]
Generally, one is to keep in mind that Baraka is recognized to be one of the most important representatives of the black community, and the theme of racism in The Dutchman has, therefore, some historical [...]
They are as follows: the presentation of the heroes, the consideration of the ethical themes, and the final stages of the plays the latter help to draw some ethical conclusions based on the peculiarity of [...]
According to Louise, her marriage is fulfilling, yet emotionally, she is in a cage of inherent oppression. Moreover, Bertha alludes to the fact that she has never loved her husband in the romantic way except [...]
Though both books talk about the food industry and the ills that plague it, it is important to establish that, Eric Schlosser's aim of writing Fast Food Nation was to make the public know the [...]
As he comes to understand the difference between his servant's and his family's views on life, Ivan begins to realize that he has lived a life of moral death, a life empty of everything save [...]
Despite her insistence on loathing the false leg and the thick glasses she depends on to see, in the end, Hulga finds she is literally left without a leg to stand on.
Driving to work involves the use of evolving technology as every car made today includes varying degrees of computerized information systems that inform the vehicle of important information everything from the need for an oil [...]
Hence, the leading aspects and themes discussed in both poems are associated with the difficulties in decision-making, influence of life experience on the choices, and consequences of our actions.
The opening scene of The Tragedy of Macbeth starts with the words "fair is foul and foul is fair" that Polanski takes from the end of the Shakespeare's scene.
1 However, irrespective of the choice of the level of imagery, both authors employ it, which gives their stories a peculiar character and arouses mixed feelings on the part of the reader.
Both of the works serve as detailed and deep reflections of the histories and cultures of the countries they came from and elaborately portrayed the relationships between men and women, religions and spirituality, and the [...]
They differ in that in "What It's like to be a Black Girl", the girl desires to recognize with the society and likeness of her African American predecessor's slave possessors, while in that of the [...]
The poet has used poetic form and diction to bring out the tone and theme of the poem. The heading in itself is a metaphor as well as it has been used symbolically.
The reader is extremely important for the writer because reading is the significant act in disclosing the generosity of the work, and the writer should understand for whom he writes because the reader is free [...]
Of Cherokee descent, Harjo graduated from the Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa and is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma.
This paper will look at the features of the stories and characters of Beatrice and Georgiana to demonstrate their main differences with the same ending of their stories.
The fact that both Faulkner and O'Connor were from the South and that they wrote during almost the same period led to many similarities in their style of writing like the religious themes and foreshadowed [...]
Macbeth ascends to the throne, he is determined to hold on to the throne, and so he must get rid of Banquo and his family because the witches had predicted that the throne would go [...]
She is used her hips to symbolize womanhood, freedom, and the need for women to be empowered. The author wanted to express her womanhood and her belief that she is free.
More criticizes the laws of the contemporary European society; he highlights that other countries, in the East for instance, have more fair laws; and after that he starts depicting Utopia, where all people live and [...]
In Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Beowulf, the central characters in the tales appear to represent their own unique description of heroism.
In Pastan's work, the state of loneliness and fear is depicted: the author is "learning to abandon the world", and she has already "given up the moon / and snow".
Two short stories, Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl, and A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, both have a woman who killed her husband as a key part of their plot.
The current paper is aimed at comparison of the works through three perspectives: the symbolism of the titles of the two novels, the way colonialism and racism are represented by the authors, and the way [...]
Transcendentalism was one of the brightest literary movements of the 19th century, in which a few people belonging to cultured and educated American society founded a movement that proclaimed the power and importance of the [...]
On the other hand, Mina, who is portrayed as the typical modest and moral woman in the Victorian era, ends up being spared of criticisms and punishments in spite of her involvement with the Dracula [...]
One can attribute the conditions that lead to the epiphany of the young character Sylvia in the short story "The Lesson" by Bambara to her behavior and too the manner in which the society organizes [...]
The poem impugns the immortality of the soul, and this makes it revolutionary by the standards of that time."The Road Not Taken" depicts the challenges faced by any individual who must make a choice.
The two literary works under consideration are the poem The Everlasting Regret by Bai Juyi-Yi and the play The Autumn of the Lustrous Emperor of Tang: Rain on the Wutong Tree by the famous Chinese [...]
The comic book "prisoners of the sun: the adventures of Tintin is one example of the comic books and is a result of many comic strips that have been brought together to create a book.
The presence of the evil eye in the loved old man is the catalyst that leads to the narrator's madness. As the narrator continues to stare at the eye revealed in the small light of [...]
Finally, as Dante and Virgil reach the most bitter, tormented place in the universe, the ninth circle of hell, they immediately depart after seeing Satan and the final circle of the underworld.
The main conflict in the play is the murder of John Wright. Although the murder is not solved in the course of the play, some characters are able to develop.
On the whole, this rhyme creates a melody that enables the reader to sense the author's despair and his loneliness. This is the main question that John Milton tries to answer in his poem.
All through the narration the reader is engulfed in mystery and suspense, not knowing what to expect or what will happen next.'The Red Room' accomplishes the same effect, although it does so using another approach.'The [...]
This essay unlocks how women began writing in a stimulating assessment of the combined and material stipulations involved in the writing of literature.
In Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Sign of the Four" and Anne McClintock's "The Lay of the Land: Genealogies of Imperialism" imperialism is defined in terms of femininity.
An example of some literary works that highlight the role of women in our society is a short story titled The Lady with the Dog written by Anton Chekov and The Dead written by James [...]
The book Fahrenheit 451 and the movie Equilibrium have some similarities and contrasts: Both the book and the movie delve into the topic of the suppression of free thought; in both cases, the concept of [...]
In the film "The Black Swan" directed by Darren Aronofsky, Nina struggles to fit into the ultimate role of the play "The Swan Lake", as the Black Swan, even though she is comfortable playing the [...]
Here, the essay compares how the theme of colonization is captured in the novels, and goes ahead to explain the techniques employed by each author in conveying the theme.
The story of Hindu creation myths differs from Ancient Greek creation myths in a number of facts, including the beginning of the world, and some elements of the creation of the living creatures.
The conflict can be identified at the beginning or in the middle of the story, and it is usually solved at the end. The actions and thoughts of the main characters lead to the resolution [...]
Both Updike and Oates disclose the misconceptions of physical attractiveness that still exist in our society and show the consequences of the hyperfocus on beauty, which in one case causes Sammy to quit his job [...]
While the book "Dancing Girls" is exploring the emotional state of the foreigner as an aspect of loneliness in the strange land, also it explores the dreams, the objectives of people, who came to the [...]
The concept is interested in looking at the daily lives of individuals from both the lower and middle classes, whose character is determined by social factors. The movement covered the whole country since it was [...]
The ultimate result of this is the occurrence of multiple versions of the same fairy tale, which implies that one of the versions is superior compared to the others.
The narrative's main focus was on the family's relationships, trials, and the never-ending cycle of pain. The storyteller is Sonny's brother, and the setting occurred in a rural region of Harlem, New York, in the [...]
In contrast, the villains are made to capture the fears, and challenges of the societies represented by these epics. The import of these three epics lies in their historicism.
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