INTRODUCTION ESSAY

Dear Professor

There are many things that may be considered admirable about literature It can be entertaining , humorous and educational , but more than anything else , it can be representative of the time and society in which it was written . The greatest responsibility and achievement of any great literary work is that it speaks for a generation . Ironically , it is often fiction , rather than non-fiction , that best documents periods of time

The greatest examples I can think of are books written during the 19th and early 20th century . Vanity Fair by W

.M . Thackeray is a noteworthy example , as is Dickens 's Great Expectations . Both novels identify class divisions within the Victorian period in England . They address the importance of the time to climb the social ladder , regardless of what sacrifices need to be made

Thackeray 's character of Rebecca is deceptive and ruthless as she attempts to climb through the ranks of society . At first the reader may be tempted to judge her negatively for her lack of empathy or sense of duty . However , at a closer glance it becomes clear that in truth Rebecca has no choice than to act as she does . She is an orphan and her only chance of survival in Victorian society is to deceive various other characters within the book . Similarly , the reader may be tempted to judge Dickens 's Pip of Great Expectations who is also forced to sacrifice and mistreat loved ones in to find success , and moreover in to win over the love of his life

Both works are indicative of the society in which the authors lived That is , a society that puts significant emphasis on the importance of class . The Victorian period in England left little room for social mobility based on merit . Both Dickens and Thackeray realize this and capture the environment better than any non-fiction piece I have read Other great authors of the 19th century and early 20th century are no exception

The period immediately following the First World War is captured by various poets such as Yeats and Eliot . They are able to express the feelings of decadence and emptiness of their time . Oscar Wilde is similarly as successful in his book The Picture of Dorian Gray Throughout the book is the feeling of dying youth , fleeting time , and the obsession for the world to remain still . This is a completely accurate representation of the state of affairs in England prior to World War I . The 19th century , a time of great expansion , invention , and innovation was ending and there was a feeling of time coming to a close The decadent period ' is aptly named because it was both a time of decay and of exaggerated self-indulgence

Ultimately , the purposes of literature are vast , but great literature has a purpose that goes beyond entertainment or moral teaching . Great literature captures people of a certain time , their lives , and their experiences . Great put all of themselves and all that they see into their...