Tragedy essays

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What comes to mind when thinking of a story? A majority of the time the first concept that is brought to attention in a story is the hero and the villain. In Julius Caesar, there is no clear hero or villain, but there are characters that have heroic and villainous traits. Julius Caesar may lack clear heroes and villains, but it does have characters that can seem malicious or valiant. The reason that characters that have these traits are not...
2 Pages 783 Words
The book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is a fictional story based around the cultural and social life of an African tribe of the lower Niger River region. It depicts the daily life of the tribe and its members. It additionally shows the culture and customs of the tribe. The book focuses on one of the tribe members, Okonkwo. He is a well-revered member of the tribe. Okonkwo is a good example of a respected member of the tribe...
3 Pages 1212 Words
It is in the human nature of every man alive to develop an eager, as well as an exorbitant desire for power and supremacy. From this greed, arises the need of the individual to prioritize his own requirements in order to find the right actions to make, to then be able to obtain what he desperately wants. By working hard to receive what he wishes for, the human being learns to make decisions and to define whether or not they...
3 Pages 1346 Words
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is, according to Aristotle, the ideal tragedy. Various reasons influence Aristotle’s position on the matter. One of them is the peripeteia, which refers to a drastic turnaround. In Poetics, Aristotle defines the element of surprise that peripeteia denotes as “a change by which the action veers round to its opposite” (Cain et al. 98). He argues that in Oedipus Rex, a messenger visits Oedipus to confirm to his him that his mother is indeed the woman that...
1 Page 512 Words
Alfieri is a key component in Arthur Miller`s 'A View from the Bridge'. This is because he is the narrator, he comments on the action that happens throughout the play which gives the audience an understanding of the social complexities in Red Hook. He is also the champion of the law, as he is the man who guides the characters in the play when it comes to the law as he is a lawyer, and this is important as many...
4 Pages 1719 Words
Hedda Gabler is a purely modern text and a modern tragedy. Because Hedda cannot distinguish between the ego-inflating show gestures and the tragic death that sublimates the ego to realize the value of life. Expanded and reborn. Her helplessness, unaware of the difference between soap operas and tragedy, explains the gap between Hedda's presumptive view of her suicide and our assessment of its importance. The demonic and ironic Ibsen has superficially resembled the end of a traditional tragedy. Hedda, who...
1 Page 412 Words
Essay Example #1 The tragedy of the Commons refers to a public setting such as an area of land that is being used so excessively without care, to the point where the area has no resources to offer. In the article, the author writes, “as the human population has increased, the commons has had to be abandoned in one aspect after another. First, we abandoned the commons in food gathering, enclosing farm land and restricting pastures and hunting and fishing...
3 Pages 2060 Words
Despite Greek philosophy not having an accurate meaning of “free will”, it can be either considered good or bad. The act of having “free will” generally comes from what you think is the right thing to do. It is a will that allows us to choose what we feel is right based on how we interpret different ideas and the environment around us. It is believed that everyone has one from the day we are born and we can choose...
3 Pages 1158 Words
The Indian author Anita Desai creates in Fire on the Mountain (1977) a perfect tragedy in the Greek mode. The novel has an abrupt ending in a tragic manner and the tragedy becomes complete when Raka sets the forest on fire. Lonely and isolated Nanda Kaul suffers lot in her life. She chooses loneliness after her husband’s death. She wants undisturbed life but slowly she is attracted towards her great granddaughter Raka. She becomes uneasy by seeing a frequent talk...
2 Pages 991 Words
A tool consistently employed by the Greeks was that of imagery, and within the genre of tragedy and the epic they have demonstrated their mastery of the device. Imagery within tragedy adds a necessary and otherwise unattainable sub-story to the play through symbolism, while within the epic it enables the reader to fully comprehend the text with thorough description. The Oresteia, for instance, is flooded with symbolic imagery. Within the first two plays, The Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers, such...
5 Pages 2246 Words
In ‘Endgame’, Samuel Beckett explores the dark absurdity of the human condition through the undynamic, loveless relationships between each of the four characters, primarily Clov and Hamm. Tension is maintained throughout the play through the constant suggestion that Clov will abandon Hamm, however the fact that this never happens highlights the repetitive nature of their apocalyptic world, and their painful unwillingness to face its bleakness alone. Beckett drew inspiration from the Greek philosophers Democritus and Heraclitus, the former who believed...
4 Pages 1789 Words
Comedy is an integral part of human life. Literary it is a kind of dramatic work and a genre that uses satire as a tone and it is amusing, with which it mostly has a cheerful ending. Comedy creates triumph over all the sad moments by use of comic effects which results to a hilarious conclusion (John, 2014). Comedy, according to Aristotle, refers to imitation of low type of characters. He further says that it however not in the sense...
2 Pages 737 Words
Case I This summary reflects the case study on Hotel New World Tragedy. This incident of collapse of the Hotel took place in the mid-month of March i.e. 15th March 1986 resulting in causalities of 33 deaths and 17 rescued during the rescue period. There were several assumptions made on the collapse such as internal blast, non-standard concrete mixtures, and poor site selection along with the weak foundation. After detail study of the collapse and investigation from many different aspects...
8 Pages 3416 Words
Traumatic events and tragedies can heavily affect people and change the course of their lives. These traumatic events can be a result of a person’s fate or their lack of action taken to make it avoidable. Trauma can be experienced at any age, from childhood to adulthood. Some people handle trauma very well and come to terms with what happened, which helps them redeem themselves, resist failure, and keep themselves motivated to move on with their lives. On the other...
5 Pages 2143 Words
The story of Medea by author Euripides conveys the loathsome side of human relationships, especially within a family. The society being presented in the story mirrors major situations happening in our society. Medea is a woman who has suffered a lot, and over time, she became twisted by her own pain. Euripides uses gender roles, love, marriage, and being a foreigner as a common motif in this short story. True power of love lies in the lack of protection and...
3 Pages 1433 Words
Introduction Tragedy began in ancient Greece, of course, and the first great tragedies were staged as part of a huge festival known as the City Dionysia. Thousands of Greek men, that is for no women were allowed would gather in the vast amphitheatre to watch a trilogy of tragic plays, such as Aeschylus’ Oresteia. In terms of genre, tragedy requires a tragic hero and usually it is a man, one who is usually tempted to perform a deed though not...
2 Pages 979 Words
In contradiction to modern North American responsiveness, in Renaissance Italy, the purposes of women were prescribed by rules and expectations determined by stringent patriarchal values. In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, female characters believe that they, and the women they are answerable for, must agree to society's expectations and the result makes these women accountable for the final shocking ending of the play. The Nurse, Juliet's primary caregiver, dangerously influences Juliet to be married, and it is this deceived desire...
4 Pages 1614 Words
Written a long time ago, the famous love story of young Romeo and Juliet may not be as romantic as it leads its audience on to be. While the story focuses on the true love between two young lovers, there is a bit more meaning behind it all rather than the romance alone. Knowing whether Romeo and Juliet is a romance or a tragedy is significant because the difference between the two can change the entire way a reader views...
2 Pages 899 Words
Shakespeare's one-of-a-kind play, “Othello” demonstrates how mixed feelings of anger, love, hatred, manipulation, and jealousy can lead to an enduring tragedy. To enhance that message with the audience, Shakespeare uses foreshadowing to create suspense to a great extent in Othello with the rising action, climax, and falling action. In “Othello”, the feeling of suspense plays an immense role in how readers perceived and are intrigued by the tragic drama of events. Although dramatic suspense is created in various ways, foreshadowing...
2 Pages 898 Words
Introduction: Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar explores the downfall of a great leader, highlighting the consequences of pride and unchecked ambition. Julius Caesar, the titular character, possesses a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to his demise. This essay critically examines Caesar's tragic flaw, its manifestation throughout the play, and its significance in shaping the tragic events that unfold. Body: The Ambition and Hubris of Julius Caesar: Caesar's tragic flaw lies in his overwhelming ambition and hubris, which blinds him to the...
1 Page 496 Words
“Fences” is American playwright August Wilson wrote in 1985, in Wilson’s ten-part “Pittsburgh Cycle” it was the sixth-part. Like all August Wilson’s play about Pittsburgh, Fences explores the growing experience of African Americans and explores race relations and dysfunctional family. In “Fence”, August Wilson was focus attention in Troy, a fifty-three years old household. Troy used to be a baseball star, but he was imprisoned for an accidental robbery and murder. At that time, the American Major League Baseball apartheid...
4 Pages 1654 Words
Have you ever been blindsided by others? Or manipulated into going against your own personal beliefs? Well, Good morning to the English Teachers Association. Now Shakespeare has been named one of the best poets, playwrights and actor of his time by multiple people like John Dryden: “He was the man who of all modern, are perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. But Shakespeare’s magic could not be copied be; within that circle none durst walk but...
1 Page 412 Words
Who could forget the story of Hercules? This famous story is about a son of the gods who resides on Earth as a normal human with abnormal strength. In the story, Hercules fights various monsters and is saving his city constantly. However Hercules makes a deal with Hades, god of the underworld, to give away his strength for one day. This same day Hades sets the four titans, whom bring blizzards, rock slides, tornadoes, and volcanoes, upon the city as...
2 Pages 705 Words
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” are two American dramas that have sparked fierce debates among analysts, writers, literary critics, scholars, and even readers when it comes to tragic heroes. The major characters and central focus of the two dramas, are Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” and Shelley Levene in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” In watching these characters, one can perceive the disparities between a modernist tragic hero and a postmodernist tragic hero....
6 Pages 2572 Words
A common theme throughout the Oedipus Cycle is that of guilt coinciding with innocence. In Oedipus at Colonus however in separate instances Oedipus claims to be innocent of his wrong doings as in his fight against Laius he acted in self-defense, and he also insists he was ignorant of his sins so he cannot be punished for committing them,” I bore most evil things, strangers! I bore them involuntarily, let the god know! None of these things was chosen by...
1 Page 489 Words
In most Greek tragedies, the writer uses the chorus as a tool to comment on action in the play. The chorus does not play an active role in the story, such that if they were removed from the work, the plot would not be affected. However, in Oresteia, Aeschylus does not keep to this traditional pattern. Aeschylus utilizes a different form of chorus to put emphasis on certain themes and develop the plot more effectively. Throughout the work, the choruses...
3 Pages 1326 Words
The nature of mankind makes us struggle to choose between right and wrong. From time to time, there is a struggle between personal desires and moral decisions. In the play “Macbeth”, William Shakespeare illustrates humanity as murky and corrupt. He demonstrates the unsavory side of human nature through three of the main characters. Not only in Macbeth but in the real world today this is portrayed. Forced loyalty and too much greed for power can lead to corruption of the...
2 Pages 810 Words
Oedipus is a great king whose parents abandoned on the mountainside and choose to kill to stop evil prophecy from happening to them. His name is derived from his “swollen feet” where he was bound to be killed. He is the main character in the epic play “Oedipus the King” and was originally from Thebes before being taken to Corith where he was adopted and raised by the Corinthian King and Queen Polybus and Merope. Baur Micheal, an assistant professor...
3 Pages 1400 Words
Robert Stam, in his essay “Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation” has explained the concept of converting a single track medium (book) into a multitrack medium ( movie) and how now must take into consideration the various facts which revolve around such a task. A written work consists of a single material expression, the writer’s contemplations and is able to create depth in the mind of the readers, where every individual is able to create his or her perspective on...
2 Pages 855 Words
Death of a Salesman is a ‘’tragic’’ play written by Arthur Miller, an american playwright. The book is about the main protagonist, Willy Loman, a frustrated old salesman who’s fired from his job. The text shows the fragmentation that the modern man experiences in an dehumanizing world. Biff admits that he wasn’t able to get a loan to start a new business for Willy and this makes him commit suicide so that Biff could use the insurance money to secure...
2 Pages 1047 Words
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