Hubris

heroes as admirable people whom we aspire to be like, however in literary terms the hero can be just the opposite. Sophocles initially depicts Creon as a just leader. He has rational reasons for his laws and punishments, but by the end of the play his hubris has taken over. This tragic flaw is what leads to Creon's…

Frank Miller’s 300 is both a graphic novel and a film adaptation by Zach Snyder. Both serve as a story telling of the famed battle of the pass at Thermopylae previously told by Herodotus. It tells of the Spartan King Leonidas bravely leading 300 Spartan warriors against the very large Persian army. Frank Miller details the story of the strong but grossly outnumbered Spartans, the story’s obvious underdog. The Persian army according to history was in the recent business of acquiring land by force…

Psychological impacts are more than the hubris previously mentioned. Those in positions of power have the capability to rule with psychological warfare. Dean Cheng a specialist in China’s military and foreign policy writes that “The ultimate proof of generalship… is the ability to defeat an opponent without fighting.” This was done long before the advancement of technological advancements by attacking an enemy’s psychological will to resist. Today China attempts to mold perceptions worldwide.…

Antigone’s actions of going behind Creon’s back and disobeying his orders contribute to her downfall. She says, “Perhaps. But I am doing what I must” (Sophocles 167). This quote from Antigone displays the hubris. Antigone’s fate is greater than what she deserves because they didn’t kill her or arrest her for breaking the law to do the right thing for Polyneices. The chorus says, “Yet you walk with fame. Bedecked in praise towards the dead man’s cave. No…

Many people believe that they achieve the ultimate understanding of things in the universe, until they found the “truth”. In Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex, the limit of human understanding and Oedipus’ rational form of investigation into his father’s murder clearly marked the limit line of human condition. In the play, Oedipus is living in his fantasy where he just starts to awake. In his fantasy world, he believes that he has total control over his fate and identity. He thinks that he has three…

Okonkwo A Tragic Hero in Things Fall Apart According to Aristotle " a tragic hero is a character who is noble in nature, has a tragic flaw and discovers his fate by his own actions". By definition Okonkwo meets all the criteria of a tragic hero and although written thousands of years apart and in a different culture Okonkwo is comparatively similar to Oedipus in Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King”. Oedipus Rex is the ideal tragic hero of Aristotle (Barstow,1912). Additional criteria are provided by…

Aristotle once said “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” Throughout reading The Great Gatsby, Opedius the King , and as well as King Lear, each main character faces many tragic flaws throughout their life. A tragic hero can be defined as a character who commits an action which eventually led to their collapse. Typically, the aspect of an individual’s character plays a part in their downfall. Each main character faced many obstacles that shapes their…

Greek literature usually follows the protagonist and their tragic flaw, making them a tragic hero. This tradition in story has lasted as far as the 2004 Hollywood film Troy and farther. According to Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall”. This applies to the hero Achilles in the movie Troy, based off of Homer’s The Iliad. As long as the hierarchy has existed, there have been different tiers of power. A king, then a person in…

death. Gilgamesh says in Tablet IX, “I am afraid of death, so I wander the wild, to find Uta-Napishti,” (9.5). This paranoia consumes Gilgamesh’s thoughts to a point where he can not accept his mortal fate, and this fear of death translates into hubris. Even when the g-ds tell him that death is inescapable, he continues on his journey, forced by his pride to prove himself above fate. When he finally returns to Uruk, still one-third human and fully mortal, Gilgamesh is bitter, saying “had I…

Hero vs Hero There are many people in the world that can be portrayed as a hero, but what really is a hero. The dictionary states that a hero is “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” In the book The Odyssey, Odysseus was portrayed as the hero who saved everyone from the trojan war. Another hero who saves people and cares about others and not just himself is Iron man from the movie Iron Man(2008,2010,2013). Both of these heroes put…