Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel suffused with symbolism. Indeed, Hawthorne introduces his novel as a symbolic act: an examination and apology of the role his ancestors played in the Salem Witch Trails (6–11). The best-known symbol within the work is the scarlet letter itself, which Hester Prynne wears on her dress for her sin of adultery (50–56). However, Hawthorne’s use of symbolism is not limited to the inception of his novel or Hester’s embroidered letter A (50).

Continue reading Passion Realized, Passion Repressed: Symbols of Passion in <i>The Scarlet Letter</i> at The Hyacinth Review.

“Strange can be quite normal. Strange can just be the phrase, ‘That is not important,’ as an answer for everything. But if your son never answered you that way before, then the fourth time you ask him why he’s not eating, or if he’s cold, or you send him to bed, and he answers, almost biting off the words as if he were still learning to talk, ‘That is not important,’ I swear to you, Amanda, your legs start to tremble.”

‘Distancia de rescate,’ or ‘Fever Dream’ in its unfortunately adapted English title, is a remarkable work by the award-winning Argentine author Samanta Schweblin.

Continue reading Motherhorror: On the Uncanny Art of Raising the Unknowable in Schweblin and Ferrante’s Novels at The Hyacinth Review.

If we are what we eat, then we are the stories that sate our minds and souls. A heartbreak, an adventure, a haunting – however they’re spun, stories reveal much about who we are. So we often enjoy talking about literature because it’s another way of talking about ourselves.

As a teenager, I liked the identity of an erudite reader with grand musings on society that books gave me. Before I had a salary and little supervision over my purchases, I would loan Austen, the Brontës, and Stoker from the library.

Continue reading The I In Literature at The Hyacinth Review.

In her seminal piece of feminist criticism, French existentialist author Simone de Beauvoir lays out her theory of a universal female experience that transcends different historical periods and societies . De Beauvoir argues that women share various experiences regardless of what time or place they live in because of an action she calls “othering” (1218). Othering is a process wherein a dominant group defines the existence and behaviors of a minority or marginalized group (1218).

Continue reading The Mythification of the Other: Reading <i>Tess of the D’Urbervilles</i> in Light of <i>The Second Sex</i> at The Hyacinth Review.

Throughout his lifetime Oscar Wilde was known by the public for his wit and vibrant character. A self-proclaimed Aesthete, Wilde integrated his love of beauty and the arts into every aspect of his life, most notably in his writing. However, despite his generally aloof attitude, Wilde struggled with conflicting realities which, when they eventually merged, resulted in disaster. The Picture of Dorian Gray reflects the inner battle of Wilde’s multifaceted self; the man as viewed by the public, as known to himself, and as he wished to be.

Continue reading <i>The Picture of Dorian Gray</i> and the Symbolism of the Self at The Hyacinth Review.

Ishiguro’s latest work is one that meshes dystopia with science fiction, narrated from the point of view of Artificial Friend Klara. It has a distinct vagueness to its worldbuilding that speaks of the necessarily limited worldview of a machine, and the sparing glimpses into the history of a fictional world which privileges genetically edited children by gambling their lives are provided solely by the novel’s human characters. It is therefore only natural that the character of Ricky, the ‘unlifted’ friend of Klara’s child charge, is sidelined in the narrative; it seems fitting that he, along with his mother, retain a very human history—and in doing so, they marginalise themselves in a world which seeks to leave humanity in yesteryear’s dust.

Continue reading Klara and the Sun: A Binary of Human and Machine  at The Hyacinth Review.

“The slain fell on all sides, plague-days came,
and death destroyed all the brave swordsmen;
the seats of their idols became empty wasteland.” 
The Ruin, lines 24-26

Although this imagery seems like it could come from a vision of our own future—or present—it actually comes from visions of the ancient past. These are lines from The Ruin, an Old English elegy.

Continue reading When Everything Ends, What Comes After?: Narration, Time, and Memory in <i>The Ruin</i> at The Hyacinth Review.

‘In the hierarchy of values by which most historians live, truth stands higher than fiction, and prose higher than verse’: where, then, does this leave the works considered so seminal to our understanding of the medieval era, when such works are often in verse? Historian Gabrielle Spiegel considers prose to be ‘a language of fact’, and argues that it can communicate those truths about the human experience that history is tasked with recounting more accurately than poetry.

Continue reading The Problem of Truth in Medieval English Verse: <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i> and <i>Troilus and Criseyde</i> at The Hyacinth Review.

A Reconciliation of Faith: Al-Ghazali, Sufism, and لفلسفة اإلسالمية

“Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul, which sometimes helps me and sometimes opposes me.”

– Imam al-Ghazali

Born Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali in eleventh century Iran and known simply as “Algazel” in the West or “Al-Ghazali” across the Islamic world, the Muslim theologian pursued the study of law, philosophy, and Islamic mysticism or Sufism during his lifetime.

Continue reading A Reconciliation of Faith: Al-Ghazali, Sufism, and لفلسفة اإلسالمية at The Hyacinth Review.

Vase of Flowers in a Window, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, c. 1618

Let’s consider Vase of Flowers in a Window by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, a classic Dutch still life, reproduced above. He has, in exquisite detail, rendered the likeness of some dozen flower species (he apparently knew several botanists where he worked in the Netherlands). At first glance, you might well think you are looking at an actual vase, through an actual window.

Continue reading Delightful Deception at The Hyacinth Review.