Throughout centuries famous literature have been known to share common themes in order to teach a moral lesson to audiences across time. Two pieces of famous literature that showcase this well are William Shakespeare 's work The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and August Wilson’s successful play Fences. Shakespeare’s play is set decades before Fences but the two still share similar themes, one of the most significant being the fruits of sin and forgiveness. In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Claudius murdered his brother, King Hamlet, in order to become king and marry the queen, Gertrude. In Fences, Troy Maxson commits adultery by cheating on his wife, Rose, and is left with a child to raise on his own after the pregnancy. In both plays large male …show more content…
In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Claudius shows this remorse when he claims, “Pray can I not. / Though inclination be as sharp as will, / My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, / And, like a man to double business bound, / I stand in pause where I shall first begin, / And both neglect.” (III.iii.2375-2380). In this moment Claudius shows his feelings of remorse and regret for committing his sin. Having a sense of guilt is often tied into understanding that an action was wrong and is meant to keep someone from going through the same decision making process as before. This is an important step to asking for and receiving forgiveness in order for the person giving forgiveness to feel secure in their decision and restoring their trust. This again is something that Troy does not display in Fences. Throughout the months following months after Troy told Rose about the pregnancy he continues to make excuses like, “A man’s got to do what’s right for him. I ain’t sorry for nothing I done. It felt right in my heart” (Wilson 79). Statements like these show that Troy did not have remorse for his actions and in fact felt that they were justified by his feelings. Without feeling that he never did anything wrong, because what he did was right for himself, Rose is put in a difficult place. Without Troy feeling remorse there is no biological …show more content…
In the play Fences, Troy comes forward to Rose about his affair, although it is a little to late. After Troy speaks to his friend Bono he comes clean to Rose and tells her, “I’m gonna be a daddy. I’m gonna be somebody’s daddy” (Wilson 66). Although Troy does not display a lot of characteristics of an apology deserving man, he does admit his fault to Rose and remains open with her from that point forward. This is another quality that is very necessary in order to receive forgiveness because without openly admitting to those who were harmed by the situation the sinner continues to live in secrecy. Claudius on the other hand, chooses to not apologise to his wife, Gertrude, or nephew, Hamlet, instead he confesses his sin by praying in act III scene iii. By not admitting to his sin to either his wife or nephew Claudius did not allow for the opportunity for any harms to be repaired. This speaks to his cowardly character and his inability to take full responsibility for his actions. Because he never came forward to either Gertrude or Hamlet he was never able to be forgiven and ultimately died before any amends could be
I ain’t sorry for nothing I done. It felt right in my heart.” Did he mean having the affair felt ‘right’ in his heart? He didn't even apologize for having the affair or wanted to stop seeing Alberta. If the roles had switched, where Rose was the one who was having the affair, knowing Troy and his wild temper he would not have handled the situation as Rose did.
The play Fences, written by August Wilson, tells the story of Troy Maxson and his family during the 1950s. Throughout the novel, Troy attempts to gain power and control on people such as his wife Rose and his son Cory. In the play, Wilson uses Troy’s power struggle to develop him as a tragic hero and to enhance his theme of people isolating themselves from those closet to them. Troy can be seen as a hero who overcame great odds.
The Faults of Troy Maxson August Wilson brings out the struggle of Troy Maxson in his play, Fences. All that matter to him end up feeling this struggle, for it remains constantly inside of him. Ultimately it proves to overcome Troy and make many lose the respect and love that was once felt. Troy’s actions and failure to fix them makes his true character known. By giving way to his own desires, becoming a continuation of his father and failing those he loves Troy Maxson proves to be a man flawed at his core.
In Fences, by August Wilson, the protagonist is constantly doing wrong to the people around him, betraying them constantly, and yet they continue to love him. “Sometimes when he touched he bruised. And sometimes when he took me in his arms he cut.” Troy’s wife is the one who is saying this, she is admitting that he did harm to her. Throughout the novel, he consistently betrays Rose by not giving her the love she deserves and by cheating on her.
Troy’s inability to commit to building his fences despite his repetitive speaking of how he is going to finish his fence shows how his isolation from his wife stems from his inability to truly commit to his wife even though he always told her he loved her. He wanted to protect his wife from the truth that he cheated on her and has a baby on the way with her but the fence prevented true communication with his own wife. Troy's inability to see the change in civil rights during his time period because of the fence led to the isolation of his mindset towards African American rights and the straining of his relationship with his son. His struggle to be accepted into playing professional sports alongside white men lead to preventing his son from playing professional football despite the changing times in civil rights. Without isolation from change, his relationship with his son could possibly be a happy one.
Many things affect us as people and as individuals. Parents being the ones that have the most influence over us as children and sometimes, even as full-fledged adults. In the play Fences, Troy Maxton was the father of three children who were affected greatly by him, his actions, and how he treated them as a whole. When the sins of our fathers visit us
He becomes a "woman less man". In addition, the fence appears to symbolize thedifference in personalities of Troy and Rose. It takes Bono to make Troy realize that "Rose wants tohold on to [him]", for Rose gives everything she has to Troy, including her entire life andlove. Yet, in contrast, Troy's in no rush to build any type of fence. He
In the epigraph, August Wilson states that we do not always have to act out the sins of our fathers and that it 's possible to banish them with forgiveness. While Troy may not have forgiven his father, after he marries Rose, he doesn 't act on the sins of his father. Troy 's father didn 't teach Troy any positive traits directly, instead Troy adopted them in order to differentiate himself from his father and to live a better life. Troy learned the value of hard work from his father and all the time he spent working on the farm when he was younger and he lives by that trait. He takes care of his family because he knows it 's the responsible thing to do no matter what.
In the play Fences by August Wilson, Troy Maxson presents as the protagonist. He is an unsympathetic character who seems to hurt all those around him with his aggressive persona. Troy is a selfish man, with a one sided perception on life which made him unable to accept the choices others made. Due to his upbringing, Troy is unable to show love in a normal fashion. Instead, he blocks his family out by using a harsh exterior, emotionally excluding himself from his underlying love.
As Claudius repents, Hamlet feels as though it's the best time to kill him until he says: And so ’a goes to Heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scanned. A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his son, do this same villain send To heaven (3.3.73-78) Essentially, Hamlet wanted to murder Claudius because he was the Old King’s murderer.
Troy chose to escape his reality by having an affair that gives him some laughs and good time every now and then. However, despite the flaws in Troy’s character, he was a providing family man who wants to insure a better life of his sons than the one he had. Based on the play’s time period, which took place at the 50’s, apparently the main problem of Troy Maxson’s character was racism against African Americans at the time that had prevented him from achieving his dreams. Throughout the play, Troy expresses his dissatisfaction in several scenes with the other characters.
Troy uses that as an excuse to validate having an affair on his wife, but when the universe catches up to him and he produces a love child, Troy is forced to confess to Rose.
The play “Fences” by August Wilson shows the dynamics in relationships and the multiple dramatic means by which they are established by using one pinnacle point. Wilson uses his main character Troy to stem of four other types of relationships. He shows the complexities of marriage and love in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s wife, Rose. He shows the commitment and betrayal of in the relationship between Troy and Troy’s
Even more, Claudius prays to God for forgiveness but it ends up for his benefits instead of repentance, yet he continues to harm more bad deeds toward Hamlet. In addition, a mineral that can truly symbolize Claudius is a rusted iron on the ground due to his corrupted and dirty
To test Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet adds a scene reenacting the murder of Hamlet’s father. Claudius abruptly leaves the play, and afterward, tries to pray. When Claudius is praying, Hamlet is considering killing him, but decides not to because he wants to kill him in sin so that he does not get a chance at last confession. They also all end up dying later in the story due to a sword fight and poison.