Countless Short Stories 'Cruel Endings Are Trend'
Alle Knight English Composition II
Ms. Bennett
7 Dec. 2011
Cruel Endings are Trending
Countless Short stories are recognized throughout history, although the short story can sometimes be an underappreciated art form. Confined by the space of only a few pages, an author must create a story that is captivating, form characters the readers connect with and drive the story to its short lived conclusion. Although, some authors have mastered the art of short stories, turning compressed pieces of work into memorable art that lingers with reader long after they have finished the story can be difficult. This accomplishment can be difficult to achieve even for the greatest writers. Most of the stories provide specific tones that help to create the kind of story the author wishes to portray. …show more content…
Funny that more times than not a story that is recognized and captivates its reader usually has a sad and/or tragic ending. The tones help to do this by setting an ironic, depressed, chaotic, intense, sad and suspenseful depth to the story. Think about it in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence the little boy dies in the end. “The Pearl necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is another great example; Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is just the start. There are countless stories that give the reader the twist and unnerving ending they crave. It almost seems as though the story must have those qualifications to become famous. More times than not, short stories have the twisted sad and tragic endings people crave.
History
Where did the first true short story come from and who paved the way for the modern ones of our time? Short narratives have existed for eons in one form or alternative. Think to The Canterbury Tales, the Bible, subplots in plays and novels, satires, pamphlets, descriptive poems, and essays passed down through time. The honor of the first published short story might be said to go to Walter Scott’s story “The Two Drovers,” in 1827 and published by the Chronicles of the Canon Gate. Soon after there were also many great writers writing around the world like George Eliot, Balzac in France, Pushkin and Turgenev in Russia, Thomas Hardy, and Fennimore Cooper and Hawthorne in America. These writers continued to have an influence on writers all over the world. One in particular was Edgar Allen Poe. Poe read Hawthorne and stated the difference between a novel that is written and a short story (A Short History of The Short Story). Poe states the difference of the two in an article written by William Boyd in Prospect Magazine, “can be read at one sitting (A Short History of The Short Story).” Where did the first dramatic and depressing endings come from? No one really knows but it can possibly attribute to some of the greatest writers of all time. Writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer who died before writing everything he had in mind to stories from the lips of Shakespeare tell us their tales. Most of their stories having morals to learn, depressing ones where there is love and lives to be lost, and twisted ones where the characters motives are too cruel to think of. The stories paved way for many like them to come. There are now thousands of narratives with dramatic, tragic, and twisted endings (A Short History of The Short Story).
Psychology of a Readers Brain
It is a well-known fact that sex sells. The next top best seller might be bad news. People love to hear about bad news. In an article from Psychology Today written by Hara Estroff Marano a study was done at Ohio State University by psychologist John T. Cacioppo, Ph.D. people’s brains are built with a bigger sensitivity to upsetting news. In the study the people were shown pictures of different objects and were recorded by their brain activity on the impact it had. Objects such as pizza had positive reactions, things like hair dryers and plates were neutral, but when shown a dead cat or a mutated face they showed that the brain reacts more strongly to a stimulus that is negative. There is a superior surge in electrical activity when something negative is introduced. Accordingly, our attitudes are more heavily influenced by downbeat rather than good news. Therefore, people like to read about the negative rather than the positive things in life due to the feelings it releases in the brain (The bias of negative news over positive). Based on the information it is safe to say people love to read negative things because of the chemicals it releases to the brain. Not everyone wants to go out and really look at dead cats or a mutated face. What better way than to read a short story that is entertaining, with a negative energy and ending their brain craves for them to deliver. Also, when people experience negative situations they are more likely to remember it over a positive one. Which makes well known stories with negative endings tend to stick with the reader lengthier versus one that is positive. Humanity tends to like things that are familiar to them whether it is negative or positive. Therefore individuals will want to pick up not only a well written book but one that is more familiar to them.
Famous Writers and a writing edge
There are oodles of famous writers who write short stories. Every novelist does not write or only write about bizarre, sad, and twisted endings. They write about things that are good, have morals, and a lesson. All of those things are great but to become a famous writer one almost needs a crazy edge or the ability to write with that crazy edge. Some of the writers who have this are Edgar Allen Poe, D.H. Lawrence, Shakespeare, Shirley Jackson, Guy de Maupassant, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Kate Chopin.
One of the most famously known for terrifying and gore based storytelling is Edgar Allen Poe from “The Tell-Tale Heart” to “The Raven” this is one bizarre poet who didn’t mind to be a bit over zealous in his use of the strange. Poe was a depressed man who expressed himself in his poems. Poe was made famous for his tales with twisted and gory endings (Poe’s Life-Who is Edgar Allen Poe). People liked Poe’s stories; therefore, people like his sad and twisted endings. If his stories did not have the content and endings that they did no one would want to read them and they would not have been made famous. It is safe to say his stories were made famous because of the sad endings they had.
Renowned story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and author D.H. Lawrence wrote about a small boy not over the age of five who rides a rocking horse. This story is considered to be one of his most famous works and it has a sad ending. In the story the boy rides the wooden horse to find out the name of the real horse that wins in the derbies coming up. He does this to win money so he can please his mother’s lust for material things. Whatever he gives her is never enough. One day he rides the small horse so hard it kills the little boy (The Rocking-Horse Winner: Introduction). The story has an unhappy ending but the literary work is still made famous.
Shakespeare is a perfect example of a poet who uses tone to catch his readers. In the tales of “Othello” and “Romeo and Juliet” he uses romantic, depressed, and defiantly ironic tones to create his tragic love stories. They are perfectly written romances that capture the reader and then tragically let them see the characters and story fall to pieces. Both stories end with the two lovers dead. Both of these stories are clearly famous literary works. In conclusion the general public likes story with a depressing end.
Shirley Jackson is another great author who wrote a short story called “The Lottery”. In this story Tessie Hutchinson is stoned to death by her neighbors and family because of a tradition a small community refuses to give up. Shirley Jackson starts out the story by describing the day and making it sound so pleasant and beautiful. Soon after she paints this picture for you there is a sudden twist and the villagers kill off Tessie with no remorse and then go back to their normal lives (The Lottery). Shirley uses both happy and suspenseful tones in her story to draw in the readers. This story is another one made famous by its tragic ending it holds.
Not all stories have to be gory for there to be a sad end. In Guy de Maupassant’s short tale “The Necklace” Mathilde learns a valuable lesson. She is a woman who values material things out of her reach. She has a rich friend from who she borrows a diamond necklace from to wear at a ball. She loses the necklace and quickly buys a new one to replace the one she lost. Mathilde spends her whole life working to pay for the necklace. Soon after paying it off she finds out her friends necklace was fake and worth nothing (The Necklace). Although the ending to this story is sad, it is known that it is a great literary work.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is another great example of a bizarre short fable. The woman is considered to be sick by her family. Her husband takes her out to the country to get some fresh air but all she gets is an obsession with a room that has yellow walls. The patterns latterly drive her to madness until she becomes part of the walls herself (The Yellow Wallpaper). The ending to this story is twisted but still is recognized as a celebrated piece of literature.
People want a surprise and to be entertained in their reading as stated in the article written by Tom Nolan from The Wall Street Journal, “I think people want to be somewhat surprised; the story has to take a turn that they didn 't see coming. Doesn 't necessarily have to be a big O. Henry gasp kind of moment; but they are looking for a very tight, well-told story (Short stories, hard covers: New partners in crime fiction).” A good point here is that writers are looking to make the readers surprised and thrilled with the ending of the story. They want to entertain, so a good way to do this is to have a bad ending you didn’t expect was coming like in Desiree’s Baby. In the story Desiree’s Baby She marries a man who has an established name in his community. Desiree is adopted and doesn’t know her ethnic background. They have a baby and he turns out to be black. The Husband blames it on her and tells her and the baby to go back to her mothers. Desiree leaves with their baby and goes into the marshes to die. After this the reader finds out that the father was really black and it was really his fault the baby was black (Desiree’s Baby). This is a classic short story with an unexpected and gloomy ending. The writers and their stories are written to entertain and that they do whether it is through irony, satire, love, gore, depression, greed, lust, or many more. There will always be time and a place for entertaining twisted short stories like the ones above. Most people have at least heard of, if it is not their favorite short tale of one of the above narratives.
Websites and Forums
Before the common use of websites it was not as easy to get knowledge passed around. Now individuals can send emails, pictures, books and stories across the world in a matter of seconds. With the use of websites society can share anything they wish. They even have online books that individuals can purchase and read. There are now whole web pages devoted to only short stories. There are even whole websites for sad and tragic short stories (Shortstories101). Obviously there is a desire for short stories in the world, otherwise, there would not be so many stories or websites devoted to finding and putting them on the pages. All of the great authors above also have great works with happy endings to them. The more famous of their works tend to have sad endings as proved above. There are also many forums on web pages created to post and talk about interpretations of the sometimes upsetting and tragic endings to classic short stories (short stories that make you cry/sad). On a website called writingforums.org on man says that in his collection of about forty stories not one has a happy ending and he goes on to admit that he likes stories where the protagonist dies and loses in the end. Others respond to his forum agreeing that they two like tales where the ending is not quite a fairy tale but rather a dreaded means to an end (All My Stories Have Sad Ending). This Forum illustrates individuals drive towards tragic and twisted endings versus the happy version. This also ties into the idea stated earlier about how individuals’ minds can remember, recall, and are more affected by negative events. They are familiar because one can remember them better, making it a more likely choice for the reader to remember and want to read again.
Conclusion
All of these famous stories have some sort of ending to them.
The endings are unnerving or upsetting yet readers love these stories and read them over and over again. It might be due to the effects negative situations and things affect the brain. Readers love for the tragic endings might be caused merely because of the wonderful tone and writing styles the writers possess. Also, society might love the conclusions because writers are simply looking to wow there readers with a twisted and upsetting end. There are also so many ways to enjoy these stories and web pages dedicated to the sad tales. Clearly the wed sites and forums show the appreciation that individuals have for not only the authors like Poe, Chopin, and Chaucer but for the stories they have given to the world for us to read. Whatever the case might be, they are considered classics and required by lots of high schools and higher education boards across the globe as standard reading material. They will continue to be cherished and read as long as people never change their need for a horrible ending to a great story. If history repeats itself like everyone knows it does, sad short stories will always be known as
classics.
Works Cited
All my stories have sad endings. Retrieved on December 2, 2011 from http://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=4894
Boyd, William. A Short history of the short story. Prospect Magazine. Retrieved on December 1, 2011 from http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2006/07/william-boyd-short-history-of-the-short-story/
Chopin, Kate. Desiree’s Baby. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DesiBaby.shtml
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Small & Maynard. Boston, MA. 1899. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html
Maupassant, Guy de. The Necklace. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/necklace.html
Marano, Hara Estroff. The bias of negative news over positive. May 27, 2003. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200305/why-we-love-bad-news
Nolan, Tom. Short stories, hard covers: New partners in crime fiction. Wall Street Journal, pp. D.10-D.10. May 09, 2007. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/399096914?accountid=8363
Poe’s Life: Who is Edgar Allen Poe?. Retrieved on December 2, 2011 from www.poemuseum.org/life.php
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Retrieved from http://www.world-english.org/stories_romeo_juliet.htm
Short Stories 101. Retrieved from http://www.shortstories101.com/sad-short-stories/ - Has an entire section dedicated just to short stories
Short stories that make you cry/sad. 2011. Retrieved from http://neofreaks.org/threads/15771-short-stories-that-make-you-cry-sad
"The Rocking-Horse Winner: Introduction." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 5 December 2011. <http://www.enotes.com/rocking-horse-winner/introduction>.
William, Shakespeare. Othello. Dover Publications Inc. Mineola, New York. 1996.
Ms. Bennett
7 Dec. 2011
Cruel Endings are Trending
Countless Short stories are recognized throughout history, although the short story can sometimes be an underappreciated art form. Confined by the space of only a few pages, an author must create a story that is captivating, form characters the readers connect with and drive the story to its short lived conclusion. Although, some authors have mastered the art of short stories, turning compressed pieces of work into memorable art that lingers with reader long after they have finished the story can be difficult. This accomplishment can be difficult to achieve even for the greatest writers. Most of the stories provide specific tones that help to create the kind of story the author wishes to portray. …show more content…
Funny that more times than not a story that is recognized and captivates its reader usually has a sad and/or tragic ending. The tones help to do this by setting an ironic, depressed, chaotic, intense, sad and suspenseful depth to the story. Think about it in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence the little boy dies in the end. “The Pearl necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is another great example; Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is just the start. There are countless stories that give the reader the twist and unnerving ending they crave. It almost seems as though the story must have those qualifications to become famous. More times than not, short stories have the twisted sad and tragic endings people crave.
History
Where did the first true short story come from and who paved the way for the modern ones of our time? Short narratives have existed for eons in one form or alternative. Think to The Canterbury Tales, the Bible, subplots in plays and novels, satires, pamphlets, descriptive poems, and essays passed down through time. The honor of the first published short story might be said to go to Walter Scott’s story “The Two Drovers,” in 1827 and published by the Chronicles of the Canon Gate. Soon after there were also many great writers writing around the world like George Eliot, Balzac in France, Pushkin and Turgenev in Russia, Thomas Hardy, and Fennimore Cooper and Hawthorne in America. These writers continued to have an influence on writers all over the world. One in particular was Edgar Allen Poe. Poe read Hawthorne and stated the difference between a novel that is written and a short story (A Short History of The Short Story). Poe states the difference of the two in an article written by William Boyd in Prospect Magazine, “can be read at one sitting (A Short History of The Short Story).” Where did the first dramatic and depressing endings come from? No one really knows but it can possibly attribute to some of the greatest writers of all time. Writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer who died before writing everything he had in mind to stories from the lips of Shakespeare tell us their tales. Most of their stories having morals to learn, depressing ones where there is love and lives to be lost, and twisted ones where the characters motives are too cruel to think of. The stories paved way for many like them to come. There are now thousands of narratives with dramatic, tragic, and twisted endings (A Short History of The Short Story).
Psychology of a Readers Brain
It is a well-known fact that sex sells. The next top best seller might be bad news. People love to hear about bad news. In an article from Psychology Today written by Hara Estroff Marano a study was done at Ohio State University by psychologist John T. Cacioppo, Ph.D. people’s brains are built with a bigger sensitivity to upsetting news. In the study the people were shown pictures of different objects and were recorded by their brain activity on the impact it had. Objects such as pizza had positive reactions, things like hair dryers and plates were neutral, but when shown a dead cat or a mutated face they showed that the brain reacts more strongly to a stimulus that is negative. There is a superior surge in electrical activity when something negative is introduced. Accordingly, our attitudes are more heavily influenced by downbeat rather than good news. Therefore, people like to read about the negative rather than the positive things in life due to the feelings it releases in the brain (The bias of negative news over positive). Based on the information it is safe to say people love to read negative things because of the chemicals it releases to the brain. Not everyone wants to go out and really look at dead cats or a mutated face. What better way than to read a short story that is entertaining, with a negative energy and ending their brain craves for them to deliver. Also, when people experience negative situations they are more likely to remember it over a positive one. Which makes well known stories with negative endings tend to stick with the reader lengthier versus one that is positive. Humanity tends to like things that are familiar to them whether it is negative or positive. Therefore individuals will want to pick up not only a well written book but one that is more familiar to them.
Famous Writers and a writing edge
There are oodles of famous writers who write short stories. Every novelist does not write or only write about bizarre, sad, and twisted endings. They write about things that are good, have morals, and a lesson. All of those things are great but to become a famous writer one almost needs a crazy edge or the ability to write with that crazy edge. Some of the writers who have this are Edgar Allen Poe, D.H. Lawrence, Shakespeare, Shirley Jackson, Guy de Maupassant, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Kate Chopin.
One of the most famously known for terrifying and gore based storytelling is Edgar Allen Poe from “The Tell-Tale Heart” to “The Raven” this is one bizarre poet who didn’t mind to be a bit over zealous in his use of the strange. Poe was a depressed man who expressed himself in his poems. Poe was made famous for his tales with twisted and gory endings (Poe’s Life-Who is Edgar Allen Poe). People liked Poe’s stories; therefore, people like his sad and twisted endings. If his stories did not have the content and endings that they did no one would want to read them and they would not have been made famous. It is safe to say his stories were made famous because of the sad endings they had.
Renowned story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” and author D.H. Lawrence wrote about a small boy not over the age of five who rides a rocking horse. This story is considered to be one of his most famous works and it has a sad ending. In the story the boy rides the wooden horse to find out the name of the real horse that wins in the derbies coming up. He does this to win money so he can please his mother’s lust for material things. Whatever he gives her is never enough. One day he rides the small horse so hard it kills the little boy (The Rocking-Horse Winner: Introduction). The story has an unhappy ending but the literary work is still made famous.
Shakespeare is a perfect example of a poet who uses tone to catch his readers. In the tales of “Othello” and “Romeo and Juliet” he uses romantic, depressed, and defiantly ironic tones to create his tragic love stories. They are perfectly written romances that capture the reader and then tragically let them see the characters and story fall to pieces. Both stories end with the two lovers dead. Both of these stories are clearly famous literary works. In conclusion the general public likes story with a depressing end.
Shirley Jackson is another great author who wrote a short story called “The Lottery”. In this story Tessie Hutchinson is stoned to death by her neighbors and family because of a tradition a small community refuses to give up. Shirley Jackson starts out the story by describing the day and making it sound so pleasant and beautiful. Soon after she paints this picture for you there is a sudden twist and the villagers kill off Tessie with no remorse and then go back to their normal lives (The Lottery). Shirley uses both happy and suspenseful tones in her story to draw in the readers. This story is another one made famous by its tragic ending it holds.
Not all stories have to be gory for there to be a sad end. In Guy de Maupassant’s short tale “The Necklace” Mathilde learns a valuable lesson. She is a woman who values material things out of her reach. She has a rich friend from who she borrows a diamond necklace from to wear at a ball. She loses the necklace and quickly buys a new one to replace the one she lost. Mathilde spends her whole life working to pay for the necklace. Soon after paying it off she finds out her friends necklace was fake and worth nothing (The Necklace). Although the ending to this story is sad, it is known that it is a great literary work.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is another great example of a bizarre short fable. The woman is considered to be sick by her family. Her husband takes her out to the country to get some fresh air but all she gets is an obsession with a room that has yellow walls. The patterns latterly drive her to madness until she becomes part of the walls herself (The Yellow Wallpaper). The ending to this story is twisted but still is recognized as a celebrated piece of literature.
People want a surprise and to be entertained in their reading as stated in the article written by Tom Nolan from The Wall Street Journal, “I think people want to be somewhat surprised; the story has to take a turn that they didn 't see coming. Doesn 't necessarily have to be a big O. Henry gasp kind of moment; but they are looking for a very tight, well-told story (Short stories, hard covers: New partners in crime fiction).” A good point here is that writers are looking to make the readers surprised and thrilled with the ending of the story. They want to entertain, so a good way to do this is to have a bad ending you didn’t expect was coming like in Desiree’s Baby. In the story Desiree’s Baby She marries a man who has an established name in his community. Desiree is adopted and doesn’t know her ethnic background. They have a baby and he turns out to be black. The Husband blames it on her and tells her and the baby to go back to her mothers. Desiree leaves with their baby and goes into the marshes to die. After this the reader finds out that the father was really black and it was really his fault the baby was black (Desiree’s Baby). This is a classic short story with an unexpected and gloomy ending. The writers and their stories are written to entertain and that they do whether it is through irony, satire, love, gore, depression, greed, lust, or many more. There will always be time and a place for entertaining twisted short stories like the ones above. Most people have at least heard of, if it is not their favorite short tale of one of the above narratives.
Websites and Forums
Before the common use of websites it was not as easy to get knowledge passed around. Now individuals can send emails, pictures, books and stories across the world in a matter of seconds. With the use of websites society can share anything they wish. They even have online books that individuals can purchase and read. There are now whole web pages devoted to only short stories. There are even whole websites for sad and tragic short stories (Shortstories101). Obviously there is a desire for short stories in the world, otherwise, there would not be so many stories or websites devoted to finding and putting them on the pages. All of the great authors above also have great works with happy endings to them. The more famous of their works tend to have sad endings as proved above. There are also many forums on web pages created to post and talk about interpretations of the sometimes upsetting and tragic endings to classic short stories (short stories that make you cry/sad). On a website called writingforums.org on man says that in his collection of about forty stories not one has a happy ending and he goes on to admit that he likes stories where the protagonist dies and loses in the end. Others respond to his forum agreeing that they two like tales where the ending is not quite a fairy tale but rather a dreaded means to an end (All My Stories Have Sad Ending). This Forum illustrates individuals drive towards tragic and twisted endings versus the happy version. This also ties into the idea stated earlier about how individuals’ minds can remember, recall, and are more affected by negative events. They are familiar because one can remember them better, making it a more likely choice for the reader to remember and want to read again.
Conclusion
All of these famous stories have some sort of ending to them.
The endings are unnerving or upsetting yet readers love these stories and read them over and over again. It might be due to the effects negative situations and things affect the brain. Readers love for the tragic endings might be caused merely because of the wonderful tone and writing styles the writers possess. Also, society might love the conclusions because writers are simply looking to wow there readers with a twisted and upsetting end. There are also so many ways to enjoy these stories and web pages dedicated to the sad tales. Clearly the wed sites and forums show the appreciation that individuals have for not only the authors like Poe, Chopin, and Chaucer but for the stories they have given to the world for us to read. Whatever the case might be, they are considered classics and required by lots of high schools and higher education boards across the globe as standard reading material. They will continue to be cherished and read as long as people never change their need for a horrible ending to a great story. If history repeats itself like everyone knows it does, sad short stories will always be known as
classics.
Works Cited
All my stories have sad endings. Retrieved on December 2, 2011 from http://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=4894
Boyd, William. A Short history of the short story. Prospect Magazine. Retrieved on December 1, 2011 from http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2006/07/william-boyd-short-history-of-the-short-story/
Chopin, Kate. Desiree’s Baby. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DesiBaby.shtml
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Small & Maynard. Boston, MA. 1899. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html
Maupassant, Guy de. The Necklace. Retrieved on December 5, 2011 from http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/necklace.html
Marano, Hara Estroff. The bias of negative news over positive. May 27, 2003. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200305/why-we-love-bad-news
Nolan, Tom. Short stories, hard covers: New partners in crime fiction. Wall Street Journal, pp. D.10-D.10. May 09, 2007. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/399096914?accountid=8363
Poe’s Life: Who is Edgar Allen Poe?. Retrieved on December 2, 2011 from www.poemuseum.org/life.php
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Retrieved from http://www.world-english.org/stories_romeo_juliet.htm
Short Stories 101. Retrieved from http://www.shortstories101.com/sad-short-stories/ - Has an entire section dedicated just to short stories
Short stories that make you cry/sad. 2011. Retrieved from http://neofreaks.org/threads/15771-short-stories-that-make-you-cry-sad
"The Rocking-Horse Winner: Introduction." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 5 December 2011. <http://www.enotes.com/rocking-horse-winner/introduction>.
William, Shakespeare. Othello. Dover Publications Inc. Mineola, New York. 1996.