Chaos in Art and Literature

1686 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literature and chaos essay

Chaos in Art and Literature

Abstract: The following paper deals with the expanding world of the new science of chaos. Chaos is unique because it can be applied to all the core sciences, and more importantly it can be applied to subjects not considered to be science. The paper below deals with the evidence of chaos in literature and art, and how it functions in this world. While many aspects of the chaos present in art and literature are different from the science of chaos, some similarities still emerged and can be seen when examined closely. Chaos was found to be especially evident in the works of W.B. Yeats, John Milton, Wallace Stevens, William Blake, Jackson Pollock, and in the works of those involved in the Futurist Movement.

Chaos is a word with many applications. It has been used to describe situations that lack order, and at the same time it has been used to describe underlying mechanisms of the core sciences. Interestingly enough, chaos now can be found in other realms of the scholarly world, most notably in art and literature. By examining the literature of William Blake, W.B. Yeats, John Milton, and Wallace Stevens, and the art of the futurist movement and of Jackson Pollock chaos can be found as can its connection to the more scientific world.

The chaos found in literature is not something too entirely modern. In fact one of the first examples of chaos in literature according to Ala'a H. Fawad was found in William Blake's poem "Auguries of Innocence." The poem describes how a world can exist as a microcosm in a our world in a grain of sand and how the world Blake lives in could perhaps be a grain of sand in another world. Fawad insists that this poem sums up the idea of chaos: the science that "describes the cosmos at both extremes." Those extremes according to him were the largeness associated with the theory of relativity and the smallness associated with quantum physics (Fawad's Chaos on the World Wide Web).

Chaos, though, has also been found in more recent works such as in the poems of William Butler Yeats. This Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize in literature is known for his nationalistic poetry that celebrates Ireland as well as its culture and folklore. More importantly, though, Yeats was interested in philosophy.

Show More
Related

  • East of Eden - Self Knowledge

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ances in a person's life, is salvageable to anybody through the idea of free will. Steinbeck advocates the notion of free will throughout the novel, especially via the character Lee as he relates it to the story of Cain and Abel in the bible. Free will is a natural law given to all humans, which allows them to choose to do whatever they want to do, offering the ultimate possibility to anybody to attempt to change the course of their life and be who they want to be. Though Cal has difficulties involved in his relationships with his father, mother and as a result the relationship he develops with his brother, Timshel is there to offer hope to Cal in modern-man's-salvation kind of way. The novel and the idea of Timshel ultimately offers that the loss of self-knowledge and self-identity experiences as a result of ones life-situation is always under their own control.

    Read More

  • Erick Fishl´s Scarsdale Painting

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fischl creates a scene of chaos in this picture through the way he uses his paintbrush in the painting of the dress. The brushstrokes show in an untidy way, which creates a feeling that this woman’s life may be in chaos. At least, it has not gone the way she intended it to. Fischl expresses this through the sense that his brushstrokes do not seem to have gone in the way he intended them to. At the lower left part of the dress, it appears as though he could not be bothered to straighten the lines out or fix the colors. This seems to suggest that the woman, tired and disillusioned wit life, can no longer straighten it out, either. Her posture seems to follow Fischl’s painting technique and suggests hopelessness, as though she has tried everyone and nothing has made her happy.

    Read More

  • Creating Chaos and Losing Knowledge

    1324 Words  | 3 Pages

    Indirectly through out his novel, Camus compares people who rely too much on their logic and rationality, versus those who accept that our world is confusing and unpredictable. Similar to his thinking, in “Crickets, Bats, Cats and Chaos” Lewis Thomas suggests that chaos stimulates the brain and actually suggests that even crickets or cats have thoughts during chaotic or unpredictable situations. Even though I have always seen chaos as a total lack of order, a desperate situation in which an individual loses control, Thomas gave me a new concept for chaos. He says that it emerges when a system is altered by a small change or small uncertainty in its interior; chaos is then the

    Read More

  • Gruesome, Unique Twist on Classic Story

    2100 Words  | 5 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Macbeth is similar to the 1971 film dramatization of Macbeth directed by Roman Polanski since the film reinvents Macbeth’s hallucinations, horses breaking free from their stalls, and the symbol of sleep. The two versions differ in terms of the characterizations and of the witches and Lady Macbeth, the amount of violence seen by the audience, and the ending of the play. In addition, most of the film takes place in daylight while most of Shakespeare’s Macbeth takes place at night. Some differences between the two sources are supported by the use of technology and special effects which Shakespeare did not have at his disposal. Although gruesome violence and vulgar nudity in the 1971 movie version is unnecessary, the film is entertaining and breathes in new life into Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

    Read More

  • How the Absence of Favorable Interpersonal Exchange Leads to Disorder in Frankenstein

    3130 Words  | 7 Pages

    ... in order to affect the world. Chaos becomes, by the end of the novel, nearly

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Massacre Of Innocents By Giuseppe Piamontini

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the world was created there was chaos, that chaos has since persisted throughout the course of human history. In Giuseppe Piamontini’s twin pieces, The Fall of Giants and The Massacre of Innocents, he shows two pivotal moments in human history that have forever shaped society through a single action: the creation of the religious world. The use of cold dark bronze in these works helps display the gloom and terror of the scenes. While the intense detailed expressions on the characters faces conveys their horror, grief, or insatiable lust for violence. Piamontini does a fantastic job showing these violent beginnings will have violent ends, there is no escaping it as the cycle will always repeat.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Macbeth And Throne Of Blood

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth and Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood have many things in common and many differences. There are key plot points that are different and completely change the plot. The biggest and most obvious difference is the setting. The Tragedy of Macbeth takes place in medieval times in Scotland. Throne of Blood also takes place during medieval times but in Japan. The setting itself is different introducing different kinds of soldiers to their stories.

    Read More

  • Antigonem by Sophocles

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    People are undisputedly faced with the challenge to grow and encounter headfirst all the unexpected changes life throws at them. Change, perhaps the solitary constant factor of life, drives people to make decisions that will be reciprocated with an unforeseen event. This principle of life is applied as an underlying web of the plethora of ironies throughout all of Antigone. Set in the age of reconstruction in Thebes, no doubt due to the aftershock of a war between brothers and their ongoing family curse, Sophocles’s constant use of irony in Antigone around Creon, the king of Thebes, indicates that the ironic nature of man contributes and lurks in their ultimate demise.

    Read More

  • William Butler Yeats Research Paper

    1954 Words  | 4 Pages

    William Yeats is deliberated to be among the best bards in the 20th era. He was an Anglo-Irish protestant, the group that had control over the every life aspect of Ireland for almost the whole of the seventeenth era. Associates of this group deliberated themselves to be the English menfolk but sired in Ireland. However, Yeats was a loyal affirmer of his Irish ethnicity, and in all his deeds, he had to respect it. Even after living in America for almost fourteen years, he still had a home back in Ireland, and most of his poems maintained an Irish culture, legends and heroes. Therefore, Yeats gained a significant praise for writing some of the most exemplary poetry in modern history

    Read More

  • Oedipus Rex Dramatic Irony Analysis

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plot of Oedipus Rex uses dramatic irony as a key narrative element. From beginning to the end, Sophocles expose the audience to irony. The result is both shocking and devastating for multiple main characters. Oedipus, for example, states the weight of the punishment Laius’ killer will face. This builds irony because Oedipus is Laius’ killer, but he does not realize it yet. As realization of Oedipus’ crime against the Greek gods begins to set in, so does the climax and resolution of the irony. Overall, Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony is integral to both the progress of the play and to its climax.

    Read More

  • Romanticism In Conrad And Stoppard's Arcadia And Heart Of Darkness

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both ‘Arcadia’ and ‘Heart of Darkness’ present literature that emerges out of two main intellectual movements- The Enlightenment and romanticism, both use these conflicting schools of thought to express ideas and themes about chaos versus disorder. Both Conrad and Stoppard do this mainly through setting and characterisation. The Age of Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th century Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition and religious beliefs. On the other hand, the Romantic Movement originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. It was partly a revolt against the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. Romanticism embraced the exotic, the unfamiliar, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape.

    Read More

  • John Keats, Going against the grain: Changing perceptions of inspiration in music

    1627 Words  | 4 Pages

    Keats was inspired by spring to create his previous odes; this is because they were written in the spring of 1819. Spring is usually associated with inspiring music, because it represents a time of optimism and rebirth. “The speaker’s mentioning of the spring in the beginning of the third in Keats’s poem signals that spring is associated with the rebirth of the sun and thus with youth, whereas autumn with sunset and old age.”(Karadas 104) Thus we see the images in the third stanza are all associated with the dark. This achieved by he image of the “barred clouds” blooming and “the soft –dying day” (line 25). However, by focusing primarily on autumn and then implementing the idea of spring in the last stanza; Keats cre...

    Read More

  • Cultural Influences In Antigone

    2409 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sophocles’ background influenced him to write Antigone. One important influence on the drama was the author’s life in the “golden era” of Athens during fifth century BCE. In that time, Athens was experiencing much change in all facets, and drama was a major factor in Athenian culture. In his essay “Sophocles,” Ed Downey reports that Sophocles was born at the beginning of the “golden era” in Athens and lived a long life influenced by “the artistic and cultural achievements in the ancient Greek world”. Sophocles was a wealthy and highly educated, “happy man.” As a young man, Sophocles began his playwright career, eventually becoming one of the greatest writers in history although only seven of his works are still intact (1). Similarly, the setting

    Read More

  • Chaos Theory Portrayal In Heart Of Darkness

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, the strongest conflict is an internal conflict that is most prominently shown in Marlow and Kurtz. This conflict is the struggle between their image of themselves as civilized human beings and the ease of abandoning their morality once they leave society. This inability has a close resemblance to the chaos theory. This is shown through the contrast of Kurtz as told by others and the actuality of him and through the progression of Marlow's character throughout Heart of Darkness.

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis Of Antigone By Sophocles

    2438 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sophocles’ background influenced him to write Antigone. In the fifth century BCE. the “golden era” of Athens, is an important influence in the author’s life. In that time, Athens has experienced so much change in all facets; in addition, drama continues as a major factor in Athenian culture. In his essay “Sophocles,” Ed Downey reports that Sophocles was born at the beginning of the “golden era” in Athens; furthermore, he lived a long life influenced by “the artistic and cultural achievements in the ancient Greek world.” Sophocles is a wealthy and highly educated, “happy man.” As a young man, Sophocles begins his playwright career, so he eventually become one of the greatest writers in history;

    Read More

More about Chaos in Art and Literature

Open Document