Criseyde: Negligence, Manipulation and the Lack of Willpower
We all know what it is like to be pressured into a relationship. Okay, maybe we don not ALL know what it is like, but most of the general dating population has had this experience. It works in this way: your friend Susan comes to you and tells you that your other friend Jim likes you, you never really thought about Jim in this way—but begin to think that there could be a little chemistry there. Susan loves playing matchmaker. She is persistent and will not stop until she gets what she wants. In the end, you wind up going on a few dates with Jim, but the relationship never really blossoms. This scenario sounds a little like the story about the forced relationship of Troilus and Criseyde, by Pandarus, in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. The only difference between my real life scenario and the relationship of Troilus and Criseyde is that when Criseyde finally falls for Troilus, which alleviates his ‘lovesickness’, she leaves him for another man. And, although Susan was persistent, she never stood in the bedroom when you and Jim ‘turned off the lights.’
Criseyde changes her mind just after the reader is informed that Criseyde and Troilus are in love, and Troilus has become a better knight and a better man because of this love. Why would a woman leave after getting so emotionally involved in a relationship? As the text says, “For she began to turn her shining face/Away from Troilus, took of him no heed,/And cast him clean out of his lady’s grace,/” (st. 2, 179)—Criseyde simply turned her head from Troilus, taking “of him no heed” and moving on to Diomede. I believe that Criseyde was unjust in her actions, yet she was forced into the relationship due to two weaknesses that she possesses: her own negligence to the importance of the situation and a lack of willpower. Criseyde is (seemingly) manipulative, yet Pandarus very easily manipulates her at the same time. From the beginning, the reader realizes that Criseyde is not interested in a relationship, but her eccentric uncle does not take notice.
I believe that Abigail Williams is to blame for turning the town of Salem against many people, and I think it is her fault that several people were killed. Abigail Williams sends the town into a state of hysteria by accusing men and women of practicing the satanic art of witchcraft. Abigail’s flaws - her lustful desire for John Proctor, her deceptive habit of lying in order to retain her good name in the town, and her selfishness and obsessive aspiration for power – led her to be ultimately responsible for the catastrophe of the witch hunt in Salem.
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
As the adolescents wail in their pretentious horror of a fictional bird, Proctor slowly realizes the conformation that Satan has entered Salem. Arthur Miller’s tragic allegory, The Crucible, shows the destruction of sinister Salem in 1692. The protagonist, John Proctor, a damnable farmer, has a lecherous affair with the antagonist, Abigail Williams, an ignorant and covetous juvenile. Satan mixes their interior motives to manufacture a catastrophic concoction. The ingredients of destruction consist of selfishness, immaturity, and corruption. The voracious desires of the natives of Salem lead to their evil and self-indulged intentions.
Nettie was wanted by Mister because she was beautiful, her father wanted to get rid of Celie because she was the ugly, spoiled one. Celie believes she is ugly until Shug forces her to face her beauty, her smile, and her strength but still the Mister wanted to get rid of her. The reason Shug can get away is through her voice, her talent, and her attractiveness. But in The Odyssey some women are known for the deeds of their sons or husbands, and never for a heroic deed of their own, their personalities, what they do themselves. The only accomplishment women could achieve was being beautiful. Penelope, Odysseus ' queen, is paid attention to only because of her position. Because she has a kingdom, she has suitors crowding around her day and night. Being a woman, Penelope has no control over what the suitors do and cannot get rid of them. The suitors want her wealth and her kingdom. They do not respect her enough to stop feeding on Odysseus ' wealth; they feel she owes them something because she won 't marry one of them. One of the suitors, tells Telemachus "...but you should know the suitors are not to blame- it is your own incomparably cunning mother "(Homer 21). Even Telemachus doesn 't respect his mother as he should. When the song of a minstrel makes her sad and Penelope requests him to stop playing, Telemachus interrupts and
However, his journey isn’t over yet. This last leg of Odysseus’s journey is perhaps the most important and crucial. Odysseus’s nurse and maidservant, Eurycleia is the first woman in Ithaca to know that Odysseus is back after she recognizes the scar on his leg while she is washing him. Eurycleia vows to keep his identity a secret. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope has stayed faithful to Odysseus for all the years that he was gone. Penelope was consistently unweaving her web to the delay the suitors. The reader even grows sympathetic for Penelope as “we see her struggle to make the virtuous choice about her marriage, despite pressures from her suitors, her son’s endangered situation, and her own uncertainty about Odysseus’s survival” (Foley ). Finally, Odysseus reveals his identity and Penelope is bewildered, but quickly embraces her husband after he tells her the secret of their immovable bed. It is the faithfulness of Penelope and nurse Eurycleia that insures Odysseus’s survival to the very end.
One important characteristic that Penelope and Odysseus share is their loyalty to each other. Odysseus failed to return home seven years after the Trojan war. Because he is assumed dead, 108 wealthy noblemen and princes invade his palace and refuse to leave until Penelope has married one of them. By marrying her, the suitors hope to gain control over Odysseus’s wealth and power. However, Penelope remains faithful to Odysseus. But, as a woman, she is powerless to remove the suitors from the palace. And without a man in the household, she is subject to her father’s decisions. However, despite his wish for her to remarry, Penelope clings to the hope of Odysseus’s return and remains faithful to him. She waits and gathers information by asking strangers who arrive in Ithaca about Odysseus. She goes through the stories of their encounter point by point, and asks about every detail while tears stream down her eyes. Although the suitors promise her a secure future, Penelope continues to wait for Odysseus. Without Odysseus, she does not believe that she will ever be happy again.
Although women are one of his weaknesses, Odysseus does not get distracted by the offerings of luxury and immortality offered to him by women throughout his journey, that could interfere with his dedication to get home. The women he meets are beautiful and have many wonderful pleasures to offer to Odysseus but he is still looking forward to reuniting with his wife, Penelope. The women that he meets are both wealthy morals and immortals who will provide Odysseus a life of lavishness. However, he gives it all up for the true adoration he has for Penelope. Odysseus was unsure of how faithful Penelope was to him while he was at war in Troy but he was still willing to come back for her and risk his life doing so. The love that bonds Odysseus with Penelope was strong because he was faithful to Penelope even though he had been away for a long period of time.
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
The roots of the Peloponnesian war can be traced long before 431 BCE, when it officially started. It can be traced back to as early as the Persian Wars, where the Athenians had found their home burned by the hands of the Persians. That disaster left the Athenians with no home and no sanctuary. Even though that was a defeated battle amidst a victorious war, they still had reason to believe that the Persians will come back for more. Apprehensive at the thought of having their city burned yet another time, the Athenians knew they had to do something. Naturally, they chose to get help. Gathering up the neighboring city-states around them, the Athenians formed the Delian League; an alliance working directly to defend the whole of Greece from Persian attacks (Kagan 8). In the beginning, this worked out well; everybody got their say on what went on in the league, and everybody was satisfied. However, the Athenians saw that if they were to take more power, the members of the league would not be strong enough to resist. Therefore, that was exactly what they did; they took more and more power until what was the Delian League became the Athenian Empire (Kagan 8). As they grew even more powerful and wealthy, their neighbors of Sparta and the Peloponnesian League, Sparta's alliance, could not help but notice (Kagan 13). In 431 BCE, lighted b...
...g happy together? Women who have no feelings for a man, would never bother trying to convince a man to stay. Adding on to that statement, women who are not madly in love with a man would not seem so crazy and flip flop their emotions like Circe does in the poem. Circe cares for Odysseus, and because of that she lets him go instead of keeping him prisoner. If letting go of him and lying about her true feelings will make him happy then it is what must be done; this is proof of her love.
Slave narratives were one of the first forms of African- American literature. The narratives were written with the intent to inform those who weren’t aware of the hardships of slavery about how badly slaves were being treated. The people who wrote these narratives experienced slavery first hand, and wanted to elicit the help of abolitionists to bring an end to it. Most slave narratives were not widely publicized and often got overlooked as the years went by; however, some were highly regarded and paved the way for many writers of African descent today.
In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written by Frederick Douglass himself, is a story of Douglass’ courageous journey through the dark and wretched period of slavery, acting as almost as the slavery’s version of The Diary of Anne Frank. Douglass, a former slave, had an utmost strong desire to acquire the knowledge of literacy—the ability to read and write. In Chapter 6, Douglass overheard a discussion between different white men speaking about how that literacy would allow the slaves to understand their condition and make controlling them a seemingly impossible job for the slave-masters to deal with. With this knowledge in mind, Douglass decided to “set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost
...is kidding around with Pandarus, she seems to be more of herself. She tries to be strong and think from her head about whether a relationship with Troilus would be beneficial to her or not, but in reality it seems as if she does genuinely like Troilus and wants to just be with him for pleasure; but she doesn’t want to reveal this to anyone or confront it in her thoughts. Instead, she seems to look for a reason to like Troilus and justify a relationship with him. Criseyde’s behavior varies with the degree to which she wants to constrain her true personality in front of Pandarus and Troilus. Criseyde seems to want to be in control of her feelings, but as her thoughts reveal, she is confused as to how she should behave. This leaves the reader open to expect anything from Criseyde, since her behavior is at times quite the opposite of how she is in her thoughts.
Is there any idea worth more than a human life? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor decides that he has nothing left to live for, and therefore becomes a martyr. The question for him or one in his position would be whether or not there exist causes worth dying for and if his position is one such case. There is no principle worth more than a person’s life and therefore principles worth dying for, only principles worth living for.
In The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, an African American male describes his day as a slave and what he has become from the experience. Douglass writes this story to make readers understand that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that he still has intellectual ability even though he is a slave. In the story, these messages are shown frequently through the diction of Frederick Douglass.