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The effects of personal identity on a character
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The existential drama, No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre, and the absurd drama, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard both portray characters with an ambiguous sense of identity. While the characters in No Exit delude themselves with respect to identity and shirk responsibility for their identity-making choices, the characters in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are primarily controlled by outside forces that confuse and limit their sense of identity. Both these authors do a fine job of portraying the relationship between identity and the outside forces
The only character in either play that exhibits a true sense of identity is No Exit's Inez. by Comparing and contrasting the identites of the characters we can see how identity unfolds admist oustanding forces.
The identity of a person is created by how one precieves themselves to other people. With respect to Garcin of No Exit, this is very evident. He claims: "I'm no talker, I don't move much; in fact I'm a very peacful sort of fellow"(Satre 9) even though speaks and voices his opinion often. Garcin becomes more comfortable when he begins to realize his identity, "I'm no gentleman, and I have no compunction about striking a woman". Thomas Whitaker believes "Garcin...finally sees that one who identitfies conciousness with any role or ideal must submit to the unpredictable validating judgement of others"(par. 4). Garcin's identity becomes clear as soon as he enters the room when talking to the valet: "I tell you, I regret nothing"(Satre 24). This is also evidence that Garcin thinks of himself as a hero. Garcin's deludes himself by convincing himself that he did do the right thing: "I shan't be sorry for myself, I'll face the situation, as I said just n...
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...oing anything, or nothing at all.
Works Cited
Berlin, Normand. "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Theatre of Critism." Modern Drama 16.3 & 4(Dec. 1973): 269-277. Rpt. in Contemorary Literary Critism. Ed. Roger Matuz and Cathy Falk. Vol. 63, Detroit: Gale Research, 1991. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. "No Exit." New York: Vintage Books, 1947.
Stoppard, Tom. "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1967.
"The Fools of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." Free Essays 29 November 2010
Whitaker, Thomas R. "Playing Hell." The Yearbook of English Studies 9(1979): 167- 187. Rpt. in Contemorary Literary Critism. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Vol. 52. Detriot: Gale Research, 1989. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Dec. 2010.
A person is created by the experiences they go through and by the things they learn throughout their life. It is the question of who each individual is and what makes up their identity. Writers, no matter the type, have been addressing the issue of identity for thousands of years. One playwright who stands out in this regard is Shakespeare and his play Hamlet. The play continually questions who the individuals are and what makes up the person they are. Yet another play can be associated with Shakespeare’s masterpiece, as Tom Stoppard takes the minor characters in Hamlet and develop them into something more in his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The twentieth century reinvention of the supporting characters from Hamlet, contains three major messages or themes throughout the play including identity, language, and human motivation. The play has deep meaning hidden behind the comic exterior and upsetting conclusion and each of these three themes add to the ultimate message the play invokes into its audience.
There are many factors that lead to the development of an individual’s identity. Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” illustrates an extreme change in Gregor Samsa’s external identity and the overall outward effect it has on the development of his family. While James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” illustrates a young man struggling to find his identity while being pushed around by what society and his family wants him to be. Both of these characters exhibit an underlying struggle of alienation but both also demonstrate a craving for belongingness. This conflict of trying to belong to something as well as satisfying the needs of society, has directly impacted their own individuality and the lives of the people around them.
In general, identity means how one sees himself/herself and others around in order to distinguish himself/herself as different. David Snow differentiates between the ‘individual’ and ‘collective’ identity as “personal identities are the attributes and meaning attributed to oneself by the actor, they are self-designations and self-attributions regarded as personally distinctive.” (Snow 2) On the other hand, the “collective identities attributed or imputed to others in an attempt to situate them in social space. They are grounded in established social roles.”(Snow 2) This research paper aims at examining the role of ‘collective’ identity that is formed on the expenses of the ‘individual’ identity and how this leads to physical and psychological repression in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Isaac Babel’s “My First Goose.”
From the perspective of humanism, identity is something fixed, unchangeable and stable. With the development of deconstruction, new ideas about identity begin to prevail. Deconstructionists regard human identity “as a fluid, fragmented, dynamic collectivity of possible ‘selves’” (Tyson 335). Eddie’s identity is always fragmented, and each of the children represents a fragment of his identity. From the perspective of
In life, one goes through different experiences which makes and shapes us into the person who we become. Whether something as little as a "hello" by a crush or a death in a family, they contribute to the difference, as they are all equal in importance. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the protagonist Hamlet struggles throughout his life as he is in search of his true identity. The Webster's dictionary, under the second definition, defines identity as "The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group." As life only moves forward for Hamlet, he struggles to find his place in life, nonetheless to revenge the murder of his father.
The fact that the narrator has been given a new identity and is not sure which one is himself means that the he has no identity at all: “I would do the work but I would be no one except myself--whoever I was” (303).
The “play of difference” contributes to this cycle through what Hall identifies as “the Other,” an outside group used for differentiation. He claims that “only when there is an Other can you know who you are.” The “Other” serves to provide a comparison in order to discover that which one is not; this is differentiation. Identity does not solely rely on the social differentiation of the self – identity is mutually constructed. It does not exist without “the dialogic relationship to the Other.”(Hall, 11) That is, one’s personal narrative of the self must also come into play, relating identity to difference.
The. Detroit: Gale, 2002. http://www. Literature Resource Center -.
The themes of identity and intimacy were difficult to define when analyzing the social dynamic between African Americans and White Americans. When evaluating their interactions with one another, it was interesting to observe the many complexities of human beings. Slavery created the need for identification. As the slave trade increased, ethnic sub groups’ exposure to one another and to Europeans resulted in the reinterpretation and acculturation of cultures. Identity persisted as an entity of importance from the African-based communities to their descendants as identification could emancipate black slaves from the shackles of slavery. Even though slavery was a shared success for global markets, the relationship between slaves and slaveholders
When thinking about Identity, it might be easy to just say that is “who we are”, or it’s just me. An identity is much more than that though. I like to think of it as a living puzzle. There are hundreds or thousands of pieces that come together to form the complete identity, or the complete “you”. I say living because an identity grows throughout the years and even changes depending on the situation. There is a multitude of influences that goes into forming a person’s identity some of which a person chooses and others they don’t. Family members and guardians are a primary source of learning when a child is young. As a person grows, the sphere of influence broadens to include mentors, media, and school. This identity is then a lens through which
In the theatrical play No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre, is set in 1944 and has an existential theme popularized by Sartre. This play describes the mysterious adventure of three characters, Garcin, Inez, and Estelle, who are trapped in a room by the Valet. By being trapped in this room, they are forced to confess their crimes. Annette Petrusso, author of “No Exit” an article written about the play, refers to the characters as cowards, or how they lack courage. Even though Petrusso makes a good point about how all of the characters show a cowardly trait, she leaves out the fact that each character becomes less of a coward throughout the play just by being trapped with each other. The setting of the play takes place in a place that could be resembled as purgatory or hell. Garcin, a newspaper editor from Rio de Janeiro, claims that the reason he was persecuted was because he was a pacifist. He was later forced to reveal how he
As a question, ‘who am I?’ poses many complications. Each of us are aware of being someone “with a past, a present and a future…” however, it is the fact that we are not “only aware of inhabiting a distinct personal world, but also…social and cultural…” which leads to confusion. This essay will therefore explore the Psychological foundations behind the question, in regards to evidence provided by the ‘Twenty Statement Test’. Analysis of this study made it apparent that ‘the self’ could be classified into three main groups; social, relational and personal selves, with each of these being readily related to the various theoretical assumptions. This essay will examine how each of these categories seek to answer the question ‘who am I?’, as well as briefly discussing how cultural variation may influence both social and individualistic approaches to the self.
Detroit: Gale Books, 2007. Literature Resource Center -. Web. The Web. The Web.
Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.
Humanity is defined by one major factor: one’s understating of the self. By understanding one’s self, one can understand society and the world that surrounds themselves. There is one thing that can often distort one’s personality, one’s identity. By identifying as one thing a person can often change how they act or do certain things. This is often found to hide one’s true motives or intention, but it can also be used to hide hidden factors that aren’t as prevalent. One’s personality and identity are very closely linked, and tend to play off one another. This fact can be show in within multiple works. To name a few authors who demonstrate this fact: Clifford Geertz, Horace Miner, and Andrei Toom. Their works seek to dive deeper