Beautiful Tragedy

and wisest characters found in William Shakespeare’s play. In this tragic comedy, Portia uses her creativity and wit to save the life of her husband’s best friend, Antonio. Portia’s father has passed, leaving her with a stunning inheritance. This beautiful, wealthy bachelorette is now the sought-after prize for many a young suitor. In fact, young, eligible suitors travel from other countries to win her hand in marriage. Portia knows who she loves, a young man named Bassanio. She hopes he will…

Greene’s use of Bendrix as an antihero in The End of the Affair helps to portray a struggling moral character. Bendrix is another perfect example of an antihero. He even admits his own mediocrity when he says, “My words were overcharged. I could detect their insincerity” (19). Everything about Bendrix is repugnant: he is a complainer, a hypocrite, a narcicist, a pessimist, a paramour, and an atheist (which has a bad connotation attached in society). In other words he is everything a hero should…

The Theme of Hubris in Antigone’s Creon In his well-renowned play Antigone, Sophocles limns Creon as a just leader whose hubris, or excessive pride, ultimately spawns his untimely demise. He initially articulates rational justifications for the implementation of his draconian laws and punishments. However, Creon’s hubris, as evident in his refusal to accept his prophecy conveyed Tiresias, proves to be his tragic flaw, or hamartia, and such experiences help Creon to realize his tragic flaw and…

Romeo and Juliet Paper The character that I have chosen is Mercutio. Mercutio is an interesting character who can be interpreted into many different ways. Even though his lines seem to be funny and sometimes very serious but he does have some qualities that many people do not see. The characteristic that I think many people do not see in Mercutio is caring. Many people do have something that they care about but when someone is caring, they care more about people than themselves. Even though he…

In Homer’s Greek epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus possesses several characteristics that qualify him to be a man of honor in classical Greek literature. However, in Emily Wilson’s translation, Odysseus’s epithet is described as “complicated”, and in Robert Fagles’s translation, he is referred to as a “man of twists and turns” (Homer, The Odyssey, 1.1). Odysseus’s moral values encompass those of a hero, such as his outstanding capabilities as a warrior and tactician, but his negligence and exaggerated…

Trying to prevent prophecies from being fulfilled is one of the main reasons the Greek stories turn out to be tragedies as fate cannot be changed. An example similar to Oedipus is that of Perseus. Sophocles had the choice to make the prophecy conditional or unconditional, but he chose to make it unconditional thus it was fate for Oedipus to kill his father. We cannot…

In the story, “The Lay of the Werewolf”, a faithful husband gets dishonored by his wife after the wife finds out that the husband is half werewolf. The story takes place in Ancient Greek, during the Medieval Times, where the Greeks wrote that people could be transformed into werewolves. The story really gives off a good example on how the people that you think you can trust with your life, especially in this case, can turn on you for the money, fame, power, etc. The three themes that are shown…

In Virgil's epic, Aeneid, emotion and action are apparent themes which cannot be neglected. Even though there is a distinct disassociation between them, together are important key components that can analyze the characters who we come across. Throughout the book, we reach a point that emotion takes on an unoccupied role and is a key in guiding the characters to make irrational decisions. In contrast, action has a stronger sense because it is prescribed by duty. This description reflects on the…

Chinua Achebe's “Things Fall Apart” is a historical fiction novel that is set in the early 1900’s. This novel is about the tragic downfall of the main character Okonkwo, a well respected leader within his clan in Umuofia, who is also a tragic hero because of several flaws. Okonkwo’s most noticeable flaw is that he fears weakness and failure. Okonkwo’s fatal flaw is his fear of weakness and failure. This fear was the result of the weakness and failure of his father, Unoka. He saw how nobody…

(1)In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo demonstrates that compassion is more effective than punishment. (2) Despite Inspector Javert’s serve obsession with finding Jean Valjean, the circumstances under which this is achieved forces Javert to examine his own perception of justice. (3) Jean Valjean’s numerous selfless actions conflict with Javert’s label of him as a dangerous convict. (4) Javert’s fixation on punishment does not allow any room for compassion, and to his mind, the only way he can show…