Variety of Meanings of Literature - Essay Example

of the of the Submitted What Do You Get Out of Literature? Literature has a variety of meanings. It can meananything from the spoken to the written word, but is most often used for the latter. It encompasses everything from creative writing to letters, plays, classics of poetry and prose, novels and the like. I like to think of it as covering the history of the written works in a particular language. But then again we have the concept of world literature which includes works that are respected across many parts of the world and which have been translated into many languages.

These we often label as classics. One often gets a better idea of something while seeing it at work. We might be able to give a layman or even a gypsy a good idea of what a printing press does, but he may never really appreciate it unless he sees it in action. It is quite the same thing with literature. It can rouse our emotions, liberate us from tyranny, or sink us into the deepest boundaries of despondency and depression- all depending upon what it conveys by means of words and the emotions and thoughts they evoke in us.

Literature can educate and enlighten us, awakening our understanding and thought processes. By portraying different aspects of human life, it asks us to learn from the experiences of the characters that are the creation of the writer’s pen. Franz Kafka ‘Metamorphosis’ may be regarded as a self lament. He was constantly berated by his father, a practical man who could never understand his son’s sensitive nature and remarkable gift for writing. He presents himself as the victim and sacrifice of his family, as he cannot contribute to their livelihood now that he is transformed into an insect.

Yet he does not despise the situation, but gets used to it. In the end, though he commits suicide his family is better off financially and even seek to get his sister married. Shirley Jackson’s ‘The lottery’ is an eerie reminder of the insensitivity of man in modern society and the fact that we sometimes respect strange customs without understanding how they came about or whether they even have relevance in contemporary times. Coming to the poetry section, Shakespeare’s ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’ compares a young man in the fullness of youth to a summer’s day and his admiration for the handsome young soul knows no boundaries as even the glorious summer sun and the beauties of nature are put to shame before him.

Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is again a well known light comedy in which we are shown stark differences in the characters of Demetrius, Lysander and Hermia, and how Puck and Oberon have to intervene to settle matters. The course of love does indeed not run smooth (Foakes, 1). Works Cited William Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Robert A. Foakes, ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.