Poetics

From the very beginning, tragedy and comedy are set apart from each other by how they approach existence. Comedy, according to Cicero, is ‘the imitation of life’(Donatus 22); it is steeped in realism. It focuses on the probabilities of a situation because it aims to base itself on real life as much as it can. It shows us a reflection of the real world, and thus it should read like a mirror image to us. Generally speaking, comedy does not intend to aim particularly high in its design. Instead it…

Reflective statement An analysis of Sophocles’ portrayal of fate and destiny in Antigone Interactive Oral took place on 29th October 2013 How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral? Antigone is a world renowned play which confirms to us that change is the only permanent thing in the world. Even though it was written in 441 B.C., this play initiates the change in the patriarchal society in a most conspicuous style.…

The following essay will discuss the main character and protagonist, Okonkwo, as a tragic hero in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.” The definition of a tragic hero will be examined in depth and how Okonkwo, whose flaws ultimately leads to his downfall, meets all the criteria of a classic Greek tragic hero. Aristotle describes a tragic hero as someone who has high status and who displays a tragic flaw (“hamartia”) that will in the end cause their own destruction. Aristotle explains how a…

John Proctor is the tragic hero in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The downfall of John in the play is due to a human flaw, which largely qualifies him as a tragic hero. John is a respectable farmer, who has a high social status .The tragic flaw was the physical attraction he had towards Abigail Williams, yet he had a wife. His wife realizes his husband’s acts of adultery and gets jealous. Proctor knows that he has the option to confess the deed. However, his pride comes in his way and he is…

In Ancient Greece, the epitome of the tragic theater was Sophocles’ Oedipus plays, according to Aristotle, and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet defined the Elizabethan revenge tragedy. Playwrights today still take ideas from Greek and Elizabethan theater and modernize them in their own plays, such as Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and The Crucible and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Undoubtedly, the focus, themes, conflict, and structure of a tragedy has changed and evolved from…

Creon: The Tragic Hero Over time we as humans have categorized heroes as courageous, selfless, and dedicated. However, a tragic hero is defined by different qualities. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as, “a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction” (Tragic Hero as Defined By Aristotle). In Sophocles play, Antigone, Creon makes a judgment error, that leads to a punishment worse than he deserved. When considering Aristotle’s definition of a…

Tragedy is something everyone deals with in their lifetime, whether it be in books, movies, or just their own life. Aristotle was an adroit Greek philosopher who originally elaborated on the concept of a tragedy. According to Aristotle, the characteristics processed by a tragic hero in a tragedy are morality, leadership, a tragic flaw, and the eventual realization that their decisions have caused his downfall after which they face death or suffering with honor. One example of a tragedy is the…

Before the interactive oral presentations I did not understand the significance and value that dying held, which Yukio Mishima used throughout the novel, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. After the interactive on who the Samurai were and what they stood for I began to understand. For the Samurai there was a form of suicide called hara-kiri which was when a Samurai would slit himself open with his own sword, killing himself. Samurai would fight to the death to protect their lords or…

Medea’s Godlike Character As humans, we experience an array of emotions, but our emotions can only take us so far. In the tragic play Medea, Euripides uses Medea’s emotions such as rage, jealousy, and pride to create her complex character, which is more godlike than human. Medea is an ancient Athenian tragedy, and it’s vital to realize that emotions may have been interpreted differently in 431 B.C.E, when Medea was first performed (Puchner, 784). Even in ancient Greek literature, it is…

Chapter One In chapter one of How to Read Literature Like a Professional, Foster explains that every story has a trip, or quest. He explains what a quest consists of and that the real reason for a quest is never the stated reason. The quester is often young and has a lot of self-exploration do to, stressing that the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge. This relates to Billy Budd as he is a twenty-one-year-old sailor on a new expedition on the H.M.S. Bellipotent. Billy is…