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.
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 [...]
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.
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.
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 [...]
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 paper discusses the novel Stardust and The Dispossessed and its application of imagination and use of various devices in the broadest sense of the World.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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".
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.
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.
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 [...]
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".
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.
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 [...]
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.
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.
The book is based on the story of a farmer and his family, who, due to the problematic nature of the head of the family, are forced to change their place of residence: "None of [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
In his journey through those worst performances on English women leading a few to suicide, he did not consider the situation and emotions of women he met.
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 [...]
Walk Whitman was born in the first half of the 1800s and Robert Frost in the second. The use of figurative speech in poetry gives the poems a capacity to reach out to the hearts [...]
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.
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.
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.
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 [...]
This theme is portrayed right from the beginning of the story where a boy is rescued from the lions in the wild and is given the name Basat by Dede Korkut.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
The villains in both "Othello" and "The Crucible" are unique in their proficiency in the use of language for manipulating others and their ability to use the current setting for achieving their goals; Abigail is [...]
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 [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
There is only one "dancing" character in Yamauchi's literary work and though the woman is not the protagonist of the short story, the theme of dancing becomes a central one due to the strength and [...]
The queens in Hamlet and Macbeth play a pivotal role in the life of the heroes of the play. She is portrayed as a mother who, in her awareness of Hamlet's crisis, feels guilty and [...]
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.
One of the most famous examples of the use of the characters taken from Greek mythology in pop culture must be the mentioning of the famous goddess, Venus, in advertising, which is, in fact, based [...]
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 [...]
The work of art reflects the reality of life and hardship experienced by people: "The vision seemed to enter the house with me - the stretcher, the phantom-bearers, the wild crowd of obedient worshippers, the [...]
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 [...]
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; [...]
His creation is gentle at the start, but after the people start to resent it because of its looks, the monster runs and hides from the society. When Victor refuses to create a spouse for [...]
Both the children and the husband will definitely miss her because she is the epitome of their comfort and sustenance."The Mother Return" by Dorothy Wordsworth is a highly sensational poem.
The diversity of the literary world is due not only to the existence of different ideologies and approaches to writing the final creative product but also to the variety of genres within which a work [...]
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 [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
In the Death of a Salesman, Willy, the protagonist, is lost in the illusion that the American dream is only achievable via superficial qualities of likeability and attractiveness.
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 [...]
It cannot escape our attention that Don Quixote's illusions are strongly associated with his commitment to "protect justice", therefore they cannot be discussed as "thing in itself", as it is the case with Hamlet's illusions, [...]
The formalist analysis of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep repeats the same mistake, as it focuses on the plot devices and tropes presented in the story.
The exchanges between the characters in the tale are brief and choppy, sounding similar to the loud conversation between two people close to one another.
The three features which are discussed in this respect are the division of the two societies into social strata, the use of state power and control over citizens, and the loss of people's individualities.
Rosalind is the boy-heroine of As You Like It, who, like her father, deprived of her rightful inheritance, lived a life of captivity as a friend and lady-in-waiting to Celia.
This paper aims to compare the aspects of symbolism in Othello and The Rape of the Lock. The lock in the poem "The Rape of the Lock" is more than just a coiled strand of [...]
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.
While it is often times criticized as being akin to a form of self loathing what must be understood is that this form of poetry uses the pain of the writer in order to capture [...]
Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants and Pound's In A Station of the Metro share several similarities even though they belong to different literary genres.
Even in the 20th century, it is not surprising to note that the roles that are assigned or predetermined to be played by women in society have remained the same with few women taking up [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 nature is one of the greatest mysteries of the world; the value assumptions about the place of individuals in nature and their relationship to their canine companions is the issue discussed in two nice [...]
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 [...]
For Dante, the Divine Comedy was not a substitute for the two Testaments, but an extension of them and because of this, Inferno is a critical part because it serves as a reminder of the [...]
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".
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 [...]
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.
Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' is one of the most read books that guide military strategists and leaders on issues that relate to war and how they should be approached.
The setting of Beaumont's Beauty and the Beast is the world of merchants and nobility. The heroine of the story, Beauty, the youngest of the six children, and the most "handsome" of the three sisters [...]
Hansberry and Hughes introduce the same idea of a dream compared to a raisin dried up in the sun, but explain it in different ways in order to show how the interpretation of a thought [...]
The Setting in Robinson Crusoe and Paradise Lost: The Town of Hull and Heaven as Harbingers of Disobedience, Defiance, and Revolt The setting at the beginning of Paradise Lost and Robinson Crusoe provide a fertile [...]
The way that the community dealt with this transgression of marital bonds comprises the bulk of the story, in which it is finally revealed that the highly respected Reverend Dimmesdale was the father of the [...]
Wilde's community, though apparently very customary and firm, is essentially quite worried about being destabilized by strangers: Lady Bracknell even evaluates Jack's being found in a purse with "the worst immoderation of the French Revolution" [...]
Although the theme of female body is disclosed differently in two poems, both authors resort to a variety of devices to make the idea clear and to engage the readers in the perception of it.
Pages: 6
Words: 1250
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