Hey guys! Would Lolita be a good story to compare to The Merchant of Venice, in a comparative essay about the intricacies of human emotions causing unexpected decisions? I haven't read it yet and would research it myself but I don't want to spoil the story. However, I also don't want to invest 11 hours into a book which wouldn't be sufficient. Thanks for the help!
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Comparative essay help: The Merchant of Venice and Lolita (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter lependoe
- Start date
vestigial
Active Member
hi i have read neither of the texts but from my surface level understanding of both i don't think lolita would be a good pairing text/personally wouldnt use it for the merchant of venice since though they both probably discuss some sort of anomaly/inconsistency in human behaviour e,g causing the unexpected decision i feel like they both support vastly different topics or content which might be harder to find relation to
which can be a good thing? ive been told to find related texts of different forms, context/time period, and possibly topics to draw parallels to since my related text is 1985 (any suggestions lol??) and ive been told to not select a dystopian text but i feel like lolita might be a bit of stretch in your case
of course you can keep the text if you can find supporting evidence from it but i do advise you to do a little more research on said text even if it might 'spoil' it for you however lolita supposedly often gets misconstructed or misinterpreted (in media, no idea in study lol) and although i have no idea how that might affect your perception or contribute to your study so maybe having a deeper look at content, contexts/authors would help
hopefully this helps ur decision making in some way but if not here are some merchant of venice related text recommendations that came up in a search if you havent seen them already (u have to delete the space after the :// bc it wont let me post links for osme reason)
https:// artofsmart.com.au/english/common-module-related-texts/
https:// boredofstudies.org/threads/related-text-suggestion-with-merchant-of-venice.386570/
https:// artofsmart.com.au/english/common-module-related-texts/ <-- bro i jsut saw this link and the lobster i havethe lobster hardcopy for my 1985 im gonna find my lobster right now when iget jome i hope no one ate it bro yay soemone someone was giving out books for free on the sidewalk and i took. the lobsterhell yeahhell yeah
which can be a good thing? ive been told to find related texts of different forms, context/time period, and possibly topics to draw parallels to since my related text is 1985 (any suggestions lol??) and ive been told to not select a dystopian text but i feel like lolita might be a bit of stretch in your case
of course you can keep the text if you can find supporting evidence from it but i do advise you to do a little more research on said text even if it might 'spoil' it for you however lolita supposedly often gets misconstructed or misinterpreted (in media, no idea in study lol) and although i have no idea how that might affect your perception or contribute to your study so maybe having a deeper look at content, contexts/authors would help
hopefully this helps ur decision making in some way but if not here are some merchant of venice related text recommendations that came up in a search if you havent seen them already (u have to delete the space after the :// bc it wont let me post links for osme reason)
https:// artofsmart.com.au/english/common-module-related-texts/
https:// boredofstudies.org/threads/related-text-suggestion-with-merchant-of-venice.386570/
https:// artofsmart.com.au/english/common-module-related-texts/ <-- bro i jsut saw this link and the lobster i havethe lobster hardcopy for my 1985 im gonna find my lobster right now when iget jome i hope no one ate it bro yay soemone someone was giving out books for free on the sidewalk and i took. the lobsterhell yeahhell yeah
vestigial
Active Member
i feel bad for this cause you probably needed/wanted a more expertise response but ive come back to reconsider the 'intricacies of human emotions causing unexpected decisions'
so after a quick google search on the inconsistencies of the merchant of venice some keywords include honesty, deception, revenge, and mercy which tie into the decisions or motivations of the characters and their behaviours and on the lolita half there was something about deception again and manipulation as well as a unreliable narrator and thats literally all i have to add since youll kinda have to flesh everything else out yourself
since its a comparative i would say the merchant would be your 'positive' text where you can highlight that despite everything blah blah who finds peace something something redemption in his sacrifice and i have no idea how lolita ends but um yeah sounds not as good as whatever martyrdom redemption repentance ok byebye
its kinda difficult since i just added reasoning/some guidance for lolita (i think) but this is like the barest of anything and if you really want to choose the text you need to really cement & know what your points are maybe find a back up text and have the two options duke it out in a poll/after some research
Masaken
Unknown Member
I did The Merchant of Venice and my no1 advice for you is to not pick something that is long because you're not going to be using this related text beyond this term (as well as pick something that isn't the same text type as MOV but you've done that). If it helps, the one I did was The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy which was a very short novella I read in half an hour and had a lot of resources on.
If it's a comparative, you need to hammer down what MOV has and then look for a text that has that as well (so you can compare - they do similar things but achieve those in different ways). You can obviously look at Shylock's complexity and how his being ostracised in his society leads him to go down the route of murder and villainy, and/or Portia's desire to transcend the limitations put upon her as a female that bring her to decide the denouement of the play in Act IV. Think about that - they are anomalous and inconsistent human beings who are driven by intense emotions that cause them to stray from their original motivations. Can you think of other (short) stories or maybe even poems (to make it even easier for you) that can support that? (The Death of Ivan Ilyich explores the interplay between empathy, grief and resentment which I think would be the perfect text here)
I gave up and considered Othello, as I had already studied that in previous years, but TDoII sounds like a very good idea. Thanks for the advice! I’ll definitely use it, and God knows, I needed the help
Last edited:
Solarised
Well-Known Member
I just used a short poem Dulce et Decorum est it went really well and was easy to integrate with MOV
Already started TDoII but if I start tweaking and can’t finish it I’ll do this, thanks!
Masaken
Unknown Member
this is such a banger poem, so good
Masaken
Unknown Member
I'm happy to share you my multimodal (not essay) I did for MOV and Ivan Ilyich if you'd like
Solarised
Well-Known Member
Yea I love it, I've been using it since year 8 its just amazing
Appreciate it, but I won’t put you through the wait, what would it be, at least a gigabyte large? My teacher’s already posted what she considers A, B and C multimodals so I’ll just use them. Maybe I should ask her permission to post them on this website also....I'm happy to share you my multimodal (not essay) I did for MOV and Ivan Ilyich if you'd like
Masaken
Unknown Member
Oh no I have to clarify that my "multimodal" was actually just a speech said to my teachers, I'm happy to just send you the speech transcript lolAppreciate it, but I won’t put you through the wait, what would it be, at least a gigabyte large? My teacher’s already posted what she considers A, B and C multimodals so I’ll just use them. Maybe I should ask her permission to post them on this website also....
Solarised
Well-Known Member
I had to edit a whole 5-minute video with crappy transitions and gifs. Idk how I got 19/20 for that shit in year 11, my teachers were actually high
Masaken
Unknown Member
So glad my teachers did the #right thing and just did a speech instead haha, I just wrote a mini essay in my transcript
Wouldn’t the speech transcript just be the essay with some extra yapping?? But sure, I’d really appreciate it
lucky 
Masaken
Unknown Member
Yeah pretty much lol which is probably why my teachers decided to do a speech instead. It's a little shorter than an essay though because of the time limit though...Wouldn’t the speech transcript just be the essay with some extra yapping?? But sure, I’d really appreciate it
Feel free to DM me your email and I'll send it through