Comparing Existentialism In Jean-Paul Sartre And Albert Camus

Both Sophocles’ Antigone and Avid’s metamorphoses show the lust for power that both these characters have that cause to be ineffective leaders in the city of Thebes. Plato’s Symposium supports this case while showing how these characters attempt to ascend to the next level in the divine ascent in their own ways. Creon and Pentheus both contain the trait of being narrow-minded in similar ways. Creon shows the trait of being narrow-minded in several ways including the main plot of the story with Antigone. He refuses to look at both sides of the story before making a decision on whether he should bury Eteocles or not.

While they refuse to act upon their free will, their relentless pursuits carry each of them away from society. This, in turn, isolates them from the world outside themselves. While talking about the character’s fates, Hogle exclaims that “obsessive quests for truth beyond the domus lead to the drift of alienation and the cold prison of self-involvement” (Hogle). This conflict is damaging, and a large part of the reason why each character’s story ends so badly. In one of Mary Shelley’s essays, “On Love,” she describes selfishness as “the offspring of ignorance and mistake; it is the portion of unreflecting infancy, and savage solitude, or of those whom toil or evil occupations have [blunted or rendered torpid;] disinterested benevolence is the product of a cultivated imagination, and has an intimate connexion with all the arts which add ornament, or dignity, or power, or stability to the social state of man” (P. Shelley).

Alexander DeLarge can never truly be changed, as his character is flawed by his inability to feel any compassion for anyone. As I read more about Alex, I can not feel sympathy for someone that has no sympathy for his actions. Alex has no remorse for what he has done and he do as he please; “What I do I do because I like to do” (Burgess). Another example of Alex inability to feel compassion is when he raped F. Alexander’s zheena, while making him watch the whole scene; “Grab hold of this veck here so he can viddy all and not get away” (Burgess 22). This scene portrays how foul Alex is, as he goes back to the milkbar we can see that he showed no remorse; “We were all feeling shagged and fagged and fashed, it having been an evening of some small energy expenditure” (Burgess 26).

Nathaniel Hawthorne is often hailed as one of the core representatives of Dark Romanticism, which is the opposite to the other current in the American Renaissance, the Transcendentalists. He believed that individuals were full of darkness and hidden sin, subsequently convinced that true social reforms were nigh impossible. Such convictions were adroitly rendered in his short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” where he plainly tells the reader that since people are fearful of isolation, they are forced to don a mask to conceal their sins, or risk alienation due to society’s inability to cope with them. Resulting from those somber views, you can appreciate the subtle criticism of the town’s people (they embody humanity in general) present in the story. Folks immediately start gossiping, practically “…the whole village of Milford talked of little else than Parson Hooper's black veil.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s creation is at the heart of the plot being the cause of every event and proves to be the most morally ambiguous character in the novel. The creature’s moral ambiguity, especially in regards to social interaction, works towards revealing the meaning of the work as a whole that without proper guidance, we are prone to imperfection. The creature’s behavior throughout the novel is erratic and unpredictable. With absolutely no instruction or education from his creator, he runs into the wild blind to what he may encounter and how to go about those things. Therefore, his morals are purely instinctual and misguided.

Jean-Paul Sartre, born June 1905- April 1980, was a French philosopher who was one of the main figures of the 'philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology '. In 1930, Sartre met and eventually was in a romantic and open relationship with the well-established writer, feminist, and philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir. Later in his life Sartre came out with his major philosophical work, entitled ' 'Being and Nothingness". In 1945, he gave a lecture called, "Existentialism is a Humanism". This talk was where he really put an emphasis on his statement of "Man are condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."

In a sense, causality is needed for free will to exist, because an essential part of free will is the idea that we cause our own actions. In order to answer this, we must define the difference between actions and choices. Actions are the effects of a cause known as free will. Free will causes our actions by the choices we make. We choose many things that influence our lives, such as beliefs, movements, the way we act and the things we do.

In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton depicts Ethan as a tragic hero who gets downtrodden by his circumstances and mainly, his personality. He has the tragic flaw of not being willing to put anyone in pain even if he benefits from it. Through this, he gets blocked from pursuing an education when he must care for his ill parents. Consequently, he also doesn’t get to socialize with other people of his age, making him feel awfully lonely. To further his tragic predicament, he marries Zeena, his cousin who arrives to take care of his mother and unfortunately, she prevents him from pursuing his love for nature and engineering by wanting to stay in Starkfield forever for her own ego.

The meaninglessness of life is a major theme in The Stranger. Meursault seems to have no reasons for his actions such as marrying Marie even though he’s never thought about it before she mentioned it, writing the letter for Raymond, and killing Raymond’s mistress’ brother. Everyone around him tries to rationalize Meursault 's actions. At the court they try to figure out Meursault 's reasoning for killing the Arab man. The prosecutor and Meursault 's lawyer come up with explanations based on logic and reason, yet Meursault doesn’t really seem to care about what he has done and doesn’t want to think about it either.

Fyodor’s middle child, Ivan, on the other hand, is very conflicted. Not having a good relationship with his father, led him to really doubt mankind. Unlike Alyosha, Ivan was not that invested in others. Ivan believes that people like to depend on the idea of right and wrong because they think that it somehow defines their afterlife. Contrary to those beliefs, Ivan thinks that people can do whatever they want to without regarding any morals.

The tragedy begins with Iago’s soliloquy, here Iago’s envy towards Cassio is immediately conspicuous. He states that Cassio has “Never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knows, More than a spinster”. Consequently Iago’s envy is mistaken for jealousy, which is why he comes across as the villain in the play. However, he also tries to disguise his villainous actions by “justifying” them. “Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty” “I am not what I am.” Here Iago is trying to hunt for motives in order to justify his malignity and envy towards Othello.