Death Of A Salesman Vs. Hamlet
Willy Loman and Hamlet, two characters so alike, though different.
Both are perfect examples of tragedy in literature, though for separate
reasons and by distinct methods. The definition of a tragedy, in a
nutshell, states that for a character to be considered tragic, he/she must
be of high moral estate, fall to a level of catastrophe, induce sympathy
and horror in the audience, and usually die, and in doing so, re-establish
order in the society. Hamlet follows this to a "T". Death of a Salesman
does not fall within these set guidelines but is still considered tragic
for reasons, though different, somewhat parallel those of Hamlet's.
Hamlet, a rich young price of high moral estate suddenly has his
joyous life ripped away from him when his father, Hamlet Sr., suddenly
passes away. Though originally thought to be of natural causes, it is
later revealed to him through his father's ghost, that dear old dad was
murdered by his Step-Father, and also his Uncle, Claudius. Vowing revenge
upon his Uncle/Dad, Hamlet begins to mentally falter and eventually, is in
such a wild rage that he accidentally kills Polonious believing him to be
his father. Hilarity ensues.
Ophelia, Hamlet's love interest, commits suicide/dies (that's up
for debate elsewhere) after going slightly mad from the impact of her
father's death, then Laertes, Polonius' son, arrives on the scene enraged
and ready to kill Hamlet for what he's done, and just when you thought
things couldn't get any worse, unbeknownst to Hamlet, Claudius has been
plotting to kill him. Talk about your bad days.
A duel takes place between Hamlet and Laertes where Laertes, using
a poison-tipped sword, cuts Hamlet, thus giving way for his impending
death. Hamlet eventually gets hold of the sword and kills Laertes, then
kills King Claudius. Just as the play ends, Hamlet takes his last breath
of air, appoints Fortinbras Jr. as the new King of Denmark, and dies.
In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, a salesman who believed
himself to be a powerful man, has his life unravel before him as he loses
his job, his sanity and the respect of those around him. Many years before,
Willy had an affair. This "dirtied" his appearance to his son Biff, though
his wife never found out. Biff later went on to become a drifter of sorts,
dabbling in one low-paying profession after another until finally settling
on a farm.
After Willy was fired, for being too old, too inept or both,
supposedly, Willy pretends he's still working and doesn't let his wife in
The law making process is a lengthy process. First, a representative must have an idea for a new law and they become the sponsor of this bill. The representative must present to the bill to the Clerk of the House if it is in the house (H.R. Bills), or in the Senate (S Bills). The Government Printing Office, GPO, then prints the bill and distributes it to each representative. The Speaker of the House, for further study, then assigns this bill to a standing committee within the house. The standing committee studies the bill and its contents and has two options, either to release the bill with a recommendation to pass it or lay it aside so it cannot be voted on. If the bill is released, it may be voted on or sent into debate within the house and needs a majority vote for the bill to move onto the Senate. Within the Senate, the bill must go through one of the Senate’s sixteen standing committees, and as with the House of Representatives, the bill is either released or pigeonholed. If it is released, a simple majority passes the bill. The bill takes another step into a conference committee, which is made up of members of the Hou...
Many people seem to get entangled into society's customs. In the novel Anthem, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, lives a period of his life as a follower. However, Equality eventually, tries to distant himself from his society. He is shaped to be a follower, but eventually emerges in to an individual and a leader. On his journey, he discovers the past remains of his community. Ayn Rand uses Equality's discoveries of self to represent the importance of individuality in a functional society.
A captivating novelette in which a man’s priority is to serve only for his brothers, Ayn Rand’s Anthem illustrates a society that has suffered the ghastly consequences of collectivism. She depicts an oppressive culture in which the word “I” is unheard of and men belong to the collective “We.” Men’s lives are determined through the Council of Vocations, a group that maintains a powerful dictatorship by subjugating the public from the beginning of their lives. The idea that “If you are not needed by your brother men, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies” (Chapter 1) has been forced into average mindset of the vehemently maintained society. In contrast, Rand mocks the totalitarian civilization through the main character Equality. Since he was born, Equality possessed a quick mind and constantly strayed apart from his peers. Through his life, he shows an unwilling behavior to conform not only to his name, but also to the rules of society. After he is found guilty of independent thought, he is sadistically beaten and dragged into the Palace of Corrective Detention, an unguarded jail that castigates the public of their wrongdoings. Shackles are unnecessary as a result of the brainwashed society and their compliance to obey orders, which consequently allows Equality to escape. In a collective society, citizens are denied their inalienable right of individualism, which ultimately eliminates all thoughts of opposition. Through their submission, the presence of their souls vanishes and society deems the collectivist tenet true. The lack of guards and old locks in the Palace of corrective Detention symbolize the evils that result from a collectivist society.
A few years ago, my mother told me something thought provoking: we had once lived on the same block as the leader of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter. That had been in Charlotte, North Carolina, around 1994. The Ku Klux Klan, according to Blaine Varney in Lynching in the 1890’s, used to “…set out on nightly ‘terror rides’ to harass ‘uppity Negroes’….” They are far more infamous, however, for their “lynching”—nightly “terror rides” that included murder—of African Americans. Varney tells us lynching levels reached their pinnacle in 1892, with 161 recorded murders that year. In modern times, most Americans would agree that the Klan, along with any form of white supremacy, has no place in society—and pointing out its survival is a good way to imply that we, as a people, are still not perfect.
Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan: 1865 to the Present by David Chalmers records the history of the Ku Klux Klan quite bluntly, all the way from its creation following the civil war, to the early 1960’s. The author starts the book quite strongly by discussing in detail many acts of violence and displays of hatred throughout the United States. He makes a point to show that the Klan rode robustly throughout all of the country, not just in the southern states. The first several chapters of the book focus on the Klan’s creation in 1865. He goes on to discuss the attitude of many Americans following the United State’s Civil War and how the war shaped a new nation. The bulk of the book is used to go through many of the states, and express the Klan’s political influence on both the local and state governments. The author starts with Texas and Oklahoma, and goes through the history of the Klan geographically, finishing with New Jersey and Washington. The author stresses that the KKK did not just commit acts of violence towards minorities, but also carried political power. He continues to discuss the impact of the Klan on Civil Rights movements in the 1960’s, and various other important political controversies between the 1920’s and 1970’s. Towards the middle of the book, David M. Chalmers focuses on portraying the feelings of governments and state legislatures, as well as normal citizens towards the Klan. To do this more effectively, the author uses excerpts and quotes from editorials and newspapers, along with several dozen pictures. The conclusion of the book was used mainly as an overview of all of the major incidents and deaths involving the Klan, and how their persistence has allowed them to still exist today despite a lack of resources and support.
Ayn Rand’s Anthem is a politically satirical novel is set in a future society that is so highly collectivized that the word “I” has been banned. The world is governed by various councils who believe that man’s sole reason for existence is to enforce the Great Truth “that all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together” (Rand, 20). Any indication of an individual’s independent spirit is swiftly and brutally put down, with the transgressors being punished with severe prison sentences or even death.
First, in the long process of a bill becoming a law is introducing a bill. After someone from Congress in either chamber has come up with an idea for a bill they must introduce it. For members of the House of Representatives this is easy. All they have to do is put their idea in a mahogany box at the front of the chamber called the hopper. Now for a Senator to introduce a bill they must either hand it to the clerk of the Senate or they must talk about it in a presentation to their peers in a floor speech. Sometimes though Senators can cut down this process by adding their bill as an amendment to legislation that is already being processed. This saves them a lot of time. Also, new ideas for bills are labeled depending on what chamber they come from. Bills from the house will always be labeled with an H.R. with its number behind it. Well bills from the Senate will always be labeled with an S. followed by its number.
How Tragic are Hamlet and Gatsby? A tragic hero is defined as “a character in literature who has a fatal flaw that is combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy”(site). Both Hamlet from William Shakespeare 's play Hamlet, and Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel The Great Gatsby share many similar fatal flaws in their stories that eventually lead them to their ultimate demises, thus they both the definition of a tragic hero.
Kenneth Schiff wrote an editorial for the Marine Pollution Bulletin in 2014 where he asked environmental scientist about the effectiveness of the Clean Water Act. Three topics were discussed to support their approval; The Cuyahoga River, Platform A and declines in marine life. The Cuyahoga River in Ohio had hit a point 1969 where there was so much oil on the surface of that it caught on fire and now it has been deemed as fishable by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, thanks to the Clean Water Act. Platform A was located in Southern California. In 1969, an explosion occurred, causing 100,000 barrels of oil to devastate beaches along the Pacific Ocean and kill thousands of animals located in this region. Also discussed was the effects of hazardous substances, in this example DDT, on marine life. The use of this pesticide caused brown pelicans and California sea lions to experience intense decline in population- thanks to the Clean Water Act being followed by much research, restrictions and bans were able to be placed on these chemicals, allowing these populations to flourish once more. Within this editorial, there is also many who state that this Act has not been effective enough. One big argument is that the EPA has a list of pollutants that has not changed since the 1970’s yet in the last 40 years, there has
Oedipus fits Aristotle's definition of the tragic flaw and protagonist almost flawlessly. Aristotle described the protagonist as "someone regarded as extraordinary rather than typical..."(1117). Oedipus freed Thebes from the Sphinx by solving her riddle-- something nobody else had been able to do. The priest in the first scene of Act I calls Oedipus "...our greatest power" (1121) and describes him as rated first among men.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question" (Shakespeare 1750). "Human beings have no part in the craft of prophecy" (Sophocles 1582). Both quotes are part of famous plays. Although the plays appear to be completely different they do have some similarities such as containing a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a character that makes a mistake and eventually leads to their defeat. A tragic hero usually contains at least 5 characteristics such as a flaw (hamartia), reversal of fortune (peripetia), character 's actions leads to a reversal, excessive pride, and the character 's fate is greater than what they truly deserved. Hamlet and Oedipus are both great examples of what a tragic hero is because they both contain flaws, reversal of fortune, and
I chose to watch the Frontline episode on “Poisoned Waters”. This documentary showed the environmental issues involving case studies on the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound. By examining how these rising pollutants along with industrial contaminants like PCB, lead, mercury and agricultural pollution. America has kept from making many of the nation’s waterways fishable and swim able again. This was a goal set by Congress nearly four decades ago.
According to Aristotle there are five characteristics of a tragic hero: Flaw or error of judgment, (Peripeteia) a reversal of fortune, the enlightenment (anagnorisis) the discovery or recognition, (hubris) excessive pride, and the character’s fate. Oedipus finds the elders of Thebes praying to the gods for liberation of the plague. Oedipus “alone can help. The cause of the trouble is himself; the chances he has had in his life are precisely the source of the plague” (Diski 1). Oedipus is the cause and the solution to end the plague, but he is blind to the true. Hamlet, differently from Oedipus, is a “man of thought and action, a justice seeker and a criminal, a victim and a wrongdoer, a deeply reflective introvert and a man capable of acting on impulse” (McHugh 1). Hamlet’s free will, injected him with the desire to vengeance his father at any cause. Both Hamlet and Oedipus meet all of the characteristics of a tragic hero. In the beginning of both stories is introduced the first characteristic of a tragic hero, the flaw and error of judgment. In Hamlet, the ghost of his father tells him to revenge his death and In Oedipus; the oracle warns Oedipus about killing his father. Next, the reversal of fortune, in both tragedies leads to the death of their mothers. The anagnorisis of Hamlet was when he discovered how his father died and in Oedipus when the shepherd recognized Oedipus as the killer of Laius. The hubris overpowered both heroes, Hamlet for vengeance of his father’s death and Oedipus to revenge the death of Laius, which ironically was his real father, and he had killed him. Hamlet and Oedipus have the five characteristics of a tragic hero, the main characteristic that both share, is the error of judgment, however, their fate ...
Frank Lloyd Wright has been called “one of the greatest American architect as well as an Art dealer that produced a numerous buildings, including houses, resorts, gardens, office buildings, churches, banks and museums. Wright was the first architect that pursues a philosophy of truly organic architecture that responds to the symphonies and harmonies in human habitats to their natural world. He was the apprentice of “father of Modernism” Louis Sullivan, and he was also one of the most influential architects on 20th century in America, Wright is idealist with the use of elemental theme and nature materials (stone, wood, and water), the use of sky and prairie, as well as the use of geometrical lines in his buildings planning. He also defined a building as ‘being appropriate to place’ if it is in harmony with its natural environment, with the landscape (Larkin and Brooks, 1993).
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are two very prominent names in the field of architecture. Both architects had different ideas concerning the relationship between humans and the environment. Their architectural styles were a reflection of how each could facilitate the person and the physical environment. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture and Le Corbusier s Villa Savoye helped define the progression that modern architecture was to take in the 20th Century. Both men are very fascinating and have strongly influenced my personal taste for modern architecture. Although Wright and Corbusier each had different views on how to design a house, they also had similar beliefs. This paper is a comparison of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s and Le Corbusier ‘s viewpoints exhibited through their two prominent houses, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.