Midterm

1-Based on what we learn of the Mesopotamian ideas about the afterlife, how do we explain Gilga-mesh’s fear of death, and his search for eternal life?

The Mesopotamians believed in a higher power and they believed in what we would call Heaven and Hell. The devil, or the Queen of Darkness, rules the Palace of Irkalla which in basic terms is hell. Enkidu describes all the terrible things he’s done and in describing the dream he has while he’s on his death bed, he tells Gilgasmesh, “There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness” (Gilgamesh 92). After Enkidu’s passing, Gilgamesh realizes that the actions he’s taken in his life are not going to send him to heaven to be with Anu and he does not wish to suffer for all eternity, so he begins his quest for eternal life to avoid his inevitable death.

4-Why is it significant that Medea is known to be clever?

Euripides casts Medea as a clever and spiteful woman because he is a misogynist. In his eyes, women are mean and hateful creatures who know nothing of the world except their own house and their own bed. Medea is known to be clever because she is cunning and manipulative which is im-portant because if she was not, she would not have been able to carry out her plan for revenge. My fa-vorite quote from Medea says, “You have / the knowledge, not mention woman’s nature: / for any kind of noble deed, we’re helpless; / for malice, though, our wisdom is unmatched” (Euripides 416-19). Ba-sically, the negative connotation that comes with the word clever implies that women are useless for anything in the real world, but when it comes to affairs of the bedroom, th...

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...the loss of her virginity (not necessarily sex-ually) as well as her plunge into madness and eventually her suicide.

9-Hamlet is a tragic hero. What is his flaw? Where do you find evidence of this flaw, and where do we see the consequences?

Hamlet proclaims in a soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 2, “Oh what rogue and peasant slave am I!” (Shakespeare Line 560). Here, he realizes that his cowardice is keeping him from avenging his father’s death. I believe his tragic flaw is his inability to act. When he has the chance to kill Claudius while he is praying, he hesitates and talks himself out of it. He sets up the play Mouse Trap to prove Claudius’s guilt, but fails to kill him even after it’s proven. Throughout the play he is offered many opportunities to confess his love for Ophelia, but each time he fails to do so and actually has her convinced he never loved her at all.