The play by Strindberg focusses on the conflict Miss Julie a divorced countess is going through and how she exerts her frustration on the manors in the society. In the kitchen, she interrupts Jean and Christine by entering their house without permission. Even though she knew they were engaged, she asked Jean to dance with her at a festival. Jean had no choice and I was wondering, who is Miss Julie and what was her position in the society? Jean quotes, “It don’t look well to prefer one servant to all the rest who are expecting to be honored in the same unusual way”/ As you command, Miss Julie! I am at your service (Strindberg 4). Meaning he was a servant to her richer or noble ranking family and even though, Julie was the daughter of a count, he had to obey her order and his fiancée couldn’t influence his decision.

Servants during the time had no courage to disagree with the countess “When Miss Julie is so gracious, it isn’t for him to say no” Christine allowed Jean go dance with Julie (Strindberg 4). When Jean returned from the dance, he asked Christine if she was mad she responded by saying,” Not for a little thing like that, you know! And also, I know my place. Any count, countess or nobility could intrude into the lives of servants, and servants couldn’t question them (Strindberg 5). Julie also expressed her love for Jean and he suggested he will move with her to Basel or other cities so they can start a new life. He was concerned of what people will say about their relationship and her father’s reaction to it. This conflict created a hesitation for both lovers to be together. All these situations in the plays beginning clearly shows how far servants will go to serve noble families.

Repetition is an important aspect of Ghalib’s poems, working to create a rhythm and drawing attention to areas of importance. In “It was essential,” for example, the phrase “for a few more days” is repeated at the end of each couplet or stanza, serving as the refrain. The repeated phrase shows a juxtaposition of Ghalib’s grief, pining for the past, and his fear of suicide. It emphasizes Ghalib’s feelings of regret and unsatisfactory; furthermore showing the degree of desperation for his son back. Having been left alone in the world, he can only ask to preserve the conditions that existed prior to his son’s death for just a little while longer – for a few more days. He does not ask for forever, grateful for even the thinnest slice of eternity. Ghalib is not yet willing to move on from the past. When he speaks of his son’s death, he says, “You arrived yesterday –/and, now, today you say,/“I’m leaving.” (Ghalib 597 Lines 13-15). He is literally living in the past at this point, describing his son’s death as if it were happening in the present.

Ghalib’s obsession with the past pairs with his fear of the future. From the first stanza, he resolves to join his son, telling him to “now wait alone/ for a few more days” (Ghalib 597 Lines 5-6). This intention is mentioned again as he declares that “my head will soon be dust,” (Ghalib 597 Line 9), referencing the decomposition process that occurs after death. Finally at the end, Ghalib deems it his “destiny/to continue to wish for death/for a few more days” (Ghalib 598 Line 58-60). Ghalib is constantly putting death off, both for his son and himself. Although he is lonely, he can’t get himself to end his life. Instead he runs around in circles — reflecting on the past and son’s death with remorse but never moving forward. A parallel can be drawn to his cyclic repetition of “for a few more days.” He also calls his son “the full moon of my home –” (Ghalib 598 Line 33), making reference to the lunar calendar, which is also forever repeating its waxing waning cycle.

In the first stanza, he hints that his son was supposed to wait for him, but instead left the world alone. This likely has to do with a parent’s expectation to die prior to their children. Here the word “alone” is repeated twice to highlight Ghalib’s current state and feelings of being abandoned. Although the word is directly used to describe the son — having died and existing in the next realm alone — it also indirectly describes Ghalib himself. Since his son left, separating the two of them, Ghalib too is alone, but left in this world.

Ghalib is a very emotionally centered poet. He will express his love but then, contradict his feelings with those of the “divine”. He seems to know what it is he wants, and feels, but yet he knows that his feelings are almost unacceptable by this divine or godly individual. His feelings and poetry can be compared to Emily Dickinson’s in this sense.Ghalib refers to god in his poetry in a similar was that Emily Dickinson does.He and Dickinson go back and forth between the notion that god is there, and he isn’t at the same time.

Ghalib is in a limbo between what he thinks he knows and his wants. Specifically in, “I’ve made my home next door to you,” version I, it is labelled the secular version. When comparing the secular and the sacred, we can see the difference with him speaking to that of a divine person and him speaking to a woman. He uses different pronouns in each. “She says to me: “Since you don’t have the power of words, how can you tell what’s in someone else’s heart—without a word being said”” and then in the sacred version “He said to me: “Since you don’t have the power of words, how can you tell what’s in someone else’s heart—without a word being said”” Both are the same, but so different at the same time. In the secular version it is as if he is being asked the question, not so much looking for an answer. In the sacred version however, the question and context surrounding it seems to be a question that needs pondering. It’s a question that we can interpret being asked by this divine figure. We can gather evidence just by the second version being titled “sacred.” The word sacred itself mean worthy of religious worship. Therefore we can make that connection between he and the divine figure in the poem.

Similarly to Dickinson, she goes back and forth between the idea of god in her society, such that in poems 712 and 465. In poem 712, “Because I could not stop for death—He kindly stopped for me.” She refers to death as a person, who we could easily mistake for god, in the hour of death that is taking her in a carriage to her eternity. In 465, “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” She makes death a theme, one that we would think to be frightened by. What is ironic is that she plays it off in a humorous way. Her society at the time has influenced her religiously but she can’t make a true argument about god.

“The Narrative of the Life” by Frederick Douglas is a great story told my Frederick Douglas himself about the life he endured as an African American slave during the eighteen hundreds. The story is told in a first person point of view, giving readers a unique insight to the thoughts and feelings of slaves, which is rare considering that many African Americans were not literate during this time. The point of this narration is to show readers something other than the common tales of the victors but rather the cold hard truth of the victims.

From the very beginning of the story, Douglas discusses his weak understanding of his family’s past that contributes to the insecurities he carries concerning his identity. He explains, “I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of those times was very short in duration, and at night” (Douglas 237). As for Douglas’s father, he is mentioned as nothing more than a whispered rumor that claims he was a slaveholder. Despite the hardships Douglas encounters, his tone of voice is always one that is calm and hopeful but also rational. He writes in this manner because he is able to comprehend the outrageousness of the slave system but chooses to fight it with intellectual elegance rather than with futile anger. Having done so, “The Narrative of the Life” has become a great work of literature that is studied to this day even with the years of slavery behind us.

Throughout “The Narrative of the Life,” there is not a single page that does not mention some sort of horrifyingly barbaric punishment laid upon slaves by their masters. Even Douglas’s earliest memory is watching his bounded aunt getting whipped to pieces and hearing her blood curdling screams as each lash strikes her back. I believe that it is this very memory along with his own beatings that aspired him to be more than just a slave, a piece of property that could be handled in any which way a master desires. Once Henry and John (slaves of Mr. Freeland) taught Douglas how to read, he knew that literacy was his escape. Instead of participating in degrading activities such as drinking and boxing during the Sabbath day, Douglas took the time to teach other slaves how to read. On page 273 of the book, Douglas says, “I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my race” (273). I believe that it was through literacy and his ability to teach others that enabled Douglas to overcome his ambiguous origin and status as a slave. Literature had shown him he was destined to be much, much more.