fulfillment is what people live for, without it how can a person live? A failed search for self-fulfillment often leads to death. Demonstrated in A Tale of Two Cites, Hamlet, and A Death of a Salesman, each novel includes one character that struggles to fulfill his life, which results in death. Self-fulfillment can include being loved, wealthy, happiness, remembered, respected, or even a being hero. Sadly if none of these objectives is met, the character seems to think death is the only way option. “Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so” as said by Charles DeGaulle, relates to each character in the three novels that they were never determined to improve their life.
The first example of failed self-fulfillment resulting in death is Willy Loman’s from the novel A Death of a Salesman. Loman fails to be “well-liked” and also fails to provide for his family and decides that the only way to provide for them is to commit suicide so they can collect the insurance money. Loman spent most of his life trying to convince his family that he is the best in the business and he wants his sons, Biff and Happy to be the same. Willy tells his sons that with his success he’ll be “Bigger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not -- liked. He's liked, but he's not -- well liked.”(Miller, I.iii) Little do Biff and Happy know, that their father isn’t liked at all, he’s just trying to fulfill one of his goals in life, being “well-liked”. Later when Loman is fired from his job he starts to think about all the hard work he’s contributed to wanting to become successful and then concludes that, “Funny, y'know? After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”(Miller, II.iv) Now Willy starts to see death as the only way to provide for his family, but he also believes that with his death, he’ll be able to prove to others that he was “well liked” because his funeral will be massive.
”Oh, Ben, that's the whole beauty of it! I see it like a diamond, shining in the dark, hard and rough, that I can pick up and touch in my hand. Not like -- like an appointment! This would not be another damned-fool appointment, Ben, and it changes all the aspects.
While everyone is legally intitled to the pursuit of happiness, the truth of the matter is that very few ever achieve it. Ones morals, standards, conscious, or perhaps even fate, keep them from accepting a pure form of satisfaction. While a person can search and struggle their entire life for happiness, the truth of the matter is, that they will never be happy with what they have infront of them. The character Ethan, portrayed in Edith Whartons novel, Ethan Frome, is emotionally weak, he battles constantly with what he wants, how to get it, and what is ethically right. Ethan was obligated to care for his wife Zeena until death, but his misguided decisions lead him to be concerned only with his immediate happiness. Much like Ethan in Ethan Frome, people who concentrate on personal happiness, without factoring in personal responsibility, set themselves up for a painful reality check.
Over all, the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee have grown and matured throughout the whole novel. Boo’s maturity development is shown when he faces his fear of being with the outside world, Aunt Alexandra having some difficulties facing prejudice but, becoming more accepting of others, and Scout developing and learning lessons that she could apply to her everyday life. It shows that no matter whom the person is or what their troubles are, they all grow and mature in their own unique ways.
One of the most famous Shakespearean lines-"To be or not to be, that is the question” is found in Hamlet, spoken by the title character himself. While this is the most obvious reference that Hamlet makes to this own philosophy, Hamlet makes frequent proclamations about his stifled life throughout the play. Hamlet views his life in a negative manner, to the point where he finds himself contemplating whether or not to end his own life. Hamlet does not value his life, which causes him to become flustered with himself and his lack of action. Therefore, demonstrating that Hamlet does not value his life as one should.
Taylor propose the cultural significance of graffiti by exploring its history and context of ancient graffiti
The question asked by Hamlet “To be, or not to be?” (III.i.57.) analyzes the deeper thoughts of the young prince of Denmark. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the battle between living life or dying runs repeatedly through Hamlet’s head. In this famous soliloquy, Hamlet ponders the feelings going through his head, during his monologue, on whether he should live with the disruptions in his life or end it all at once. Hamlet’s life, both fulfilling and depressing, made him act out more when it came to interacting with other people. With all the people who admired him, he still managed to push everyone away using his sarcastic antics to degrade them intentionally. Not only does he portray this type of personality to people, but the change in so
...of Hamlet is hit with hardship after hardship he is affected to the absolute core. Hamlet’s perfectionist nature makes it even more difficult to wade through everything that is being throw his way - he wants every one of his actions to be executed flawlessly, and the inability for this to occur renders him static. Consequently, due to his inactivity, Hamlet becomes more frustrated with himself as he feels useless and unworthy. Though it is a dramatic example, I believe Hamlet has a relatable quality to most everyone. The desire to succeed and hold the unattainable characteristic of perfection is something we have all yearned for at one point or another. Hamlet’s soliloquies give us insight into universal human nature, as well as the startling reality of how one can be negatively affected by being so hard on oneself. We have all felt Hamlet’s struggles to some degree.
In the short story “Fighter” by Walter Dean Myers, the main character is experiencing a man vs. self-conflict. Billy, the main character, is having trouble deciding in his mind what is best in life for himself and his family’s morale and well-being. In the beginning of the story, Billy had a flashback of when he was in high school. However, Billy was a very poor student and was even expected to fail school. “Billy remembered standing in the back of the room at Junior High School 271, not being allowed to sit down until he had brought his mother in to see the teacher. ‘What are you wasting your time for?’ the guidance counselor asked him. ‘You think it’s going to be easy out there? That was the last day Billy had gone to school” (Myers 35).
As a growing young girl, Scout was learning and experiencing things just like any other child would though growing up. She got older and was able to understand things a lot better as well as being able to apply lessons she had learned in her everyday life. She began to act slightly more grown up in situations such as Aunt Alexandria's dinner party. Scout forgot how much she despised her Aunt and how much she disliked dresses and joined the group of women in their conversations. Despite how she didn't want to "act more like a lady", she played along with her Aunt's "campaign to teach me (Scout) to be a lady" made an exception to please her Aunt and to create some peace between them. Upon hearing the news of Tom's death she concludes "if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I." This shows how Scout was beginning to act more ladylike for her Aunt.
Hamlet cannot decide between a life of action and revenge, or contemplation and fate and he is genuinely concerned with the deeper truths upon which his life is ordered- fate and freewill.
Any goal in life is achieved through ambition, fueled by determination, desire and hard work. Ambition maybe a driving force to success or to a pit of failure, the path chosen by an individual determines the end. Remember that any goal to be fulfilled needs desire, desire that strives to do good or greedy desire that is selfish. Also the actions that contribute to our ‘hard work’ need to be morally and ethically right to enjoy the sweet success. However, when the desire and determination is stronger than conscience, many tend to fail often reach or don’t reach what they strived for, leaving them emotionally or even physically dead. The inner lying consequence of ambition is clearly stated by Napoleon, he quotes “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them”. The undesirable consequence of ambition can be observed in the lives of the protagonists of ‘The Great Gatsby and Macbeth. This describes the direction in which ambition is driven could change the end result, it is simply based on the individual itself rather than the dream they seek to achieve. Therefore, the strong drive of ambition helps the seeker attain their goal but greedy desires and wrong paths taken eventually lead to downfall.
No matter what people say about it, Graffiti is a form of self-expression. It is important to realize the amount of talent and work required to create a piece of graffiti. The scale of such a piece can be small found on a corner to massive one taking up an entire wall. However, there are varying
In Hamlet, Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, but wonders whether the struggle of living and carrying through with his plans is worth the hardships, or if death is a better option. Shakespeare writes a soliloquy where Hamlet discusses with himself whether he should live or die. Shakespeare discusses the idea of suicide through metaphors, rhetorical questions, and repetition until Hamlet decides that he is too afraid of death to commit suicide.
In the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy, Hamlet examines the power of death by suicide. The powerful words of “to be or not to be” question whether to live or not to live. Hamlet weighs the morality of “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer” or to end one’s life. In comparison, death is like sleep, a way to relieve the pain and suffering. Hamlet thinks death is the desirable course, but he worries about the uncertainty of afterlife. After Hamlet’s realization of the afterlife, he reconfigures his metaphor to include dreaming. It is the fear of the afterlife that prevents people from ending their pain with suicide. Hamlet finds i...
DeNotto, Michael. "Street art and graffiti." College & Research Libraries News Association of College & Research Libraries. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2014.
There is a famous Hungarian Proverb “When ambition ends, happiness begins.” We may think of ambition more as a personal thing, but that is not always so. Many superficial things can get in the way and counteract personal ambition, like for example the greed of power and power corrupts. It is possible to be so overreaching about things that a narrow, personal ambition that not only benefits yourself but others around you will be at a potential threat of disappearing. Throughout Shakespeare's tragic drama Macbeth, there is primarily uncontrolled desire. The play demonstrates what can potentially happen when one pursues power at the expense of everything else. In order for certain individuals to reach such happiness, desperate measures will be committed and these individuals will realize that a stupendous imagination to reach specific goals may overrule what they believed in the first place to be an undoubtable pleasure.