Often times, literary works can easily distinguish between a good character or an evil character. Other times, a character can be very complex, which makes it difficult to characterize the character as good or evil. This complex character complex is known as Moral Ambiguity. In other words, readers are discouraged from identifying a character as purely good or evil. One particular character that can be views as morally ambiguous is a woman named Edna Pontellier. Edna from Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” can be perceived as morally ambiguous because of her affiliations with other men, and role-defying actions; however, both contribute to “The Awakening” as a whole.
Sleep is symbolic for peace and harmony. However sometimes the war you face while awake can haunt your sleep. The protagonist Antonio (Toni) in Bless Me Ultima by Rudolpho Anaya is forced to face the differentiating cultures and influences projected by his elders. His parents attempt to live their dreams through Toni but only cause the development of the opposite within Antonio. The conflict Toni faces has such a tremendous impact on him that it besets his dreams.
Coming to grips with reality as one matures of passage celebrated around the world. Many young children are given ceremonies to celebrate the advancement to adulthood. What these ceremonies do not show is the confusion and turmoil caused by coming of age. Rudolfo Anaya’s novel, ‘Bless Me, Ultima’, shows the constant conflicts of adulthood and childhood. Anaya conveys this idea with the constant fighting between his family, hypocritical advice given by authority, and the death of vital characters to show that blossoming isn’t a pretty process. With the constant struggle between innocence and maturity in oneself, Anaya depicts that gaining new knowledge coupled with losing innocence is vital to coming of age, as seen in the main character, Tony.
Romeo is saying that he has fallen for Juliet, Lord Capulet’s daughter, and even though they are enemies, it does not matter because he loves her. Romeo and Juliet want to get married very quickly and Romeo asks the Friar to marry them in secret. This big step in their lives is decided on very quickly and should have been taken into more consideration. Another example of impulsive decisions in the play is when Juliet wants to kill herself because she doesn't want to marry Paris. Thankfully, the Friar gives her another choice but it is still a risky one. Friar Lawrence gives Juliet a potion so that she will be in a deep sleep and it will look like she is dead. This way she will not have to marry Paris. Juliet chooses to take the vial and says, “Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee” (4.3, 59)! Juliet is drinking this potion for Romeo’s sake so that she will not have to be married to Paris. It is very risky for Juliet as she makes the impulsive decision to drink from the vile and doesn’t think how it will affect her family if they think she is gone forever. She should have thought of another way to get out of the marriage but since her ability to control impulses is not fully developed, she made the rash decision to take the potion, not knowing exactly what would happen. One last example of impulses taken in the play is when Romeo goes to the apothecary and buys a poison that will kill himself. Romeo goes to the apothecary and says, “Let me have a dram of poison, such fast-acting gear, as will disperse itself through all the veins, that the life-weary taker may fall dead” (5.1, 62-65). As soon as Romeo, who is in Mantua, hears that Juliet has died, he goes to the apothecary to get some poison to kill himself. Romeo says he just wants a drop of poison that will kill him so he can be with Juliet. Romeo did not receive the letter from Friar Lawrence
I found the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya captivating. It made me reflect on things in a different way. In a way, I could relate to the protagonist, Antonio. Antonio has to decide to either follow his mother's dream of becoming a priest, his father’s dream of being a vaquero, or following his own dreams and finding his own identity.
The play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare and the book, “The Handmaids Tale” by Margaret Atwood, both create a fall of power in society and this loss of leadership opens the door for corruption to take over. Both authors have created this instability in society and use the motifs: loss of power, religion, and relationships to explore characters’ innermost selves. This exploration of characters proves that one will submit to anything in order to obtain stability in a corrupt environment.
The quote from Sigmund Freud, “One is very crazy when in love.” is very relateable to Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Love is the dominant theme of the play. With the major conflicts surrounding the topic of love. Shakespeare demonstrates two major types of love. Parental love and a regular man and woman relationship. The parental love is between Titania and her “Changeling child” she’s taking care of. This causes a lovers spat between her and Oberon who wanted the child. Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius have a convoluted love square that changes many times in the course of Shakespeare’s play. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, crazy love is a major theme.
Toba Beta once said: "“Justice could be as blind as love.” Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream captures the blindness of both love and justice. Egeus, a respected nobleman in Athens, arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry nobleman Demetrius. Egeus tells his daughter that she must obey his wishes: If she does not, she can either choose to become a nun, or die. Hermia, much to her father 's dismay, is deeply in a mutual love with a different nobleman, Lysander. In addition, Hermia 's childhood best friend and Demetrius were in love prior to his sights turning towards Hermia. This crushed Helena, causing her to lose self-confidence, but still: she yearns for Demetrius 's love. Hermia and Lysander 's love, Egeus 's harsh rule, and Helena 's unrequited love for Demetrius causes the lovers to leave Athens. Various factors cause the lovers to run away together.
Toba Beta once said: "“Justice could be as blind as love.” Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream captures the blind bias of both love and justice. Egeus, a respected nobleman in Athens, arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry nobleman Demetrius. Egeus tells his daughter that she must obey his wishes: if she does not, she can either choose to become a nun, or die. Hermia, much to her father 's dismay, is deeply in a mutual love with a different nobleman, Lysander. In addition, Hermia 's childhood best friend and Demetrius were in love prior to his sights turning towards Hermia. This crushed Helena, causing her to lose self-confidence, but still: she yearns for Demetrius 's reciprocated love. Lysander and Hermia are in love with each other. Egeus does not approve of his daughter 's chosen love. The couple wishes for Helena to be happy with Demetrius.
Heart vs. mind is one of the most common yet complex internal conflicts of man. Shakespeare’s being one of the most well-renowned authors and playwriters of all time, his literature would mainly consist of the theme heart vs. mind. With this theme of heart vs. mind being internal, it would start to conflict the character in difficult times. There’s a saying that goes, “the heart wants what the heart wants” and this includes going against what’s good for you or your mind. In some of Shakespeare’s literature, Sonnet 130 and Romeo and Juliet’s balcony speech in the play Romeo and Juliet¸ Shakespeare uses the theme of heart vs. mind which was new for this time-period. Shakespeare’s work some of the first to dive into human emotions in literature and have his characters/ narrator be intact with
A Midsummer Night’s Dream dealt with the universal theme of love and its complications: lust, disappointment, confusion, and marriage, featuring three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Theseus, Duke of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta. The play rotates around different forms of love, two of them being love for friendship (Philia) and romantic (Eros) or true love. Love is the most important theme of the play and the asymmetrical love seen in the play between the four Athenians and romantic encounters cause conflict within the play. There is a strong friendship love between two characters, Hermia and Helena. These two ladies are regarded as sisters as they have grown up together always having each other’s
In Charlotte Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the speaker seems to be suffering from postpartum depression or "temporary nervous depression." (648). Accordingly, her husband makes the decision for her and takes her to a country house because he believes that it would be good for her. The narrator is not allowed to take care of her own child as she was imprisoned in her room where she should do nothing but "rest." In her childhood, the unnamed narrator has had a wild imagination which still haunts her: she admits "I do not sleep," and as a result she becomes restless.(653). Her imagination makes her live in an imagined world of her own and completely detached from reality. The
Romanticism is a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.
can be a great thing, especially since ignoring a romantic partner’s flaws can lead to a happier relationship. However, in A Midsummer Night 's Dream, Shakespeare takes his characters’ love to an irrational extent - so much so, that a prevalent theme of the play is the foolishness and folly of love.
In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream the circumstances surrounding love have been put into question, this occurs when a magical nectar is put in the eyes of three major characters, and changes their feelings towards the people in their lives. Titania, Lysander and Demetrius all have had the nectar put into their eyes, though Demetrius avoids having this done to him in act 2 scene 2 which is the scene that the focus of this paper will be looking at. Throughout the play, we focus largely on the love life of Helena, which unfortunately does not seem to exist. She is in love with Demetrius, whom does not care for her in the same way, he does not cherish her at all before he is under the influence of magic. Once Lysander declares