In the play Equus worship and passion are seen in many contrasting
lights. In the example of Alan, the boy in the centre of the play,
worship and passion are the same thing. What he is devoted to inspires
excitement in him, in this case the God Equus. With his parents, it is
the same, but in different ways of worship. Alan’s mother is a devout
Catholic, and also has worship with a passion, but she is so devoted
to this single cause she is unable to experience passion for anything
else. With Alan’s father, he is not a religious man and has nothing to
idolize, and this creates a lot of passion inside of him with no way
for it to escape. Finally, in the case of Dysart, Alan’s psychiatrist,
he has lost the way to reach his passion and has become distanced from
his wife. He envies the way that Alan can worship a being openly and
feels it would be better to leave this boy with his pain but intensity
rather than ‘cure’ him and leave him alone with no enthusiasm for
life. From this we can see that passion and worship are inextricably
linked, however they can be substituted for each other when needed but
require each other to exist.
In the play Equus, Alan Strang is a boy of 17 who has been sent to a
psychiatrist for blinding six racehorses. Through the course of the
play, we find out that he has been worshipping a new kind of god, a
horse-god he calls Equus. He devotes himself blindly to this horse,
transferring to it all the worship he used to have for Jesus and
Christianity. This is revealed to us by the fact that Alan replaced a
poster of Jesus he once has with a poster of a horse’s head. “DORA:
Well, do you remember that photograph I mentioned to you. The one Mr
Strang gave Alan to decorate his bedroom a few...
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...n a nice
mini-scooter and send him puttering off into the Normal world where
animals are treated properly: made extinct or put into servitude or
tethered all their lives in dim light, just to feed it! I’ll give him
the good Normal world where we’re tethered beside them – blinking our
nights away in a non-stop drench of cathode ray over our shriveling
heads.” Dysart feels that a life without passion and worship is
worthless. By the end of the play he is now that is haunted by Equus,
and feels the need pay homage to it.
To summarise, in the play Equus passion and worship are linked. One
cannot fully be expressed without the other. When a character is
deprived of either, they feel empty and need to search for it through
other methods. Worship and religion are also the main ways that
passion is expressed throughout the play and rely on each other to
exist.
Comparing and Contrasting Relationships in Hurston’s Novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee
One of the most important things in life is finding one’s self. Although this may be difficult to achieve, it is necessary. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, struggles with finding her true identity. This led to her round and multi-layered character. Janie has trouble finding herself due to other characters depriving her from the opportunities she has; she allows other characters to take advantage of her. Although Janie has a very independent personality in the novel, she is dependent on others to make important decisions for her.
it. At the end we find him that he had changed his old corrupted moral
In the first part of the play Egeus has asked the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to rule in favor of his parental rights to have his daughter Hermia marry the suitor he has chosen, Demetrius, or for her to be punished. Lysander, who is desperately in love with Hermia, pleads with Egeus and Theseus for the maiden’s hand, but Theseus’, who obviously believes that women do not have a choice in the matter of their own marriage, sides with Egeus, and tells Hermia she must either consent to marrying Demetrius, be killed, or enter a nunnery. In order to escape from the tragic dilemma facing Hermia, Lysander devises a plan for him and his love to meet the next evening and run-off to Lysander’s aunt’s home and be wed, and Hermia agrees to the plan. It is at this point in the story that the plot becomes intriguing, as the reader becomes somewhat emotionally “attached’’ to the young lovers and sympathetic of their plight. However, when the couple enters the forest, en route to Lysander’s aunt’s, it is other mischievous characters that take the story into a whole new realm of humorous entertainment...
Comedies contain blocking figures and in this play it is Egeus. If he was not in the way, Hermia could marry Lysander. Since he is causing problems in his daughters life by trying to make her marry Demetrius, this begins the journey into the woods. Egeus threatened Hermia with death if she were to marry Lysander so she thinks the only way they can be together is to run away.
Religion has an important impact on our everyday life. Society uses religion to express themselves through faith, God and worshiping. Sports is also a type of religion in today’s society. People worship their teams at games and pray before every game. Sports and religion ties directly into people’s lives every day, take for instance Herman Winston, a golfer in Roland Merullo’s Golfing with God. He is approached by God’s lieutenant and is asked to help God with the yips. Herman later learns he’s on a spiritual journey that evolves from saving his father’s soul through a golf match with the devil and later being reincarnated on earth for a second life to reach his spiritual destiny. Sports and religion relate directly to Herman Winston’s experiences
In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards created the emotion of fear by using imagery and figurative language to persuade his audience. He used imagery and figurative language so the wrath of God is more fearsome and gave you a mental picture of hell in your head.
In order to clearly understand a book, story, event, or action, it is necessary to recognize the people involved. Often times, the idea behind something is greater than what has essentially happened, and therefore makes the comprehension of Janie Starks, the main character of Zora N. Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, that much more important.
In both the plays the common theme that we can observe is that gods dont consider mortals important enough to either give them an important element that can make their lives easy, nor do they attach importance to a human life. The gods even amongst themselves have a complicated relationship. Their power has bounds amongst themselves but in the case of humans they exercise their power without any considerations or limitations.
has committed, and then finally the horror touches upon the priest, who insists on believing in
He realizes that he has great power and should use it to save others from dying from darkness the evil lurking around killing people
learns that he is just a frail being in a world much greater than his own
God performs his divine acts in many ways. Jesus could perform miracles of healing and create food from nothing. These are the more conventional ways we see divine intervention at work. Almighty God, however, does not prefer these standard methods. Instead, he prefers to act in ways we humans can only begin to understand. This is very much true for the short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Within the story, a winged man falls from the sky with no meaning or purpose. The man is shrouded in mystery. Nameless and unable to communicate with the native villagers, he lives among them. His intentions are never truly known to either the reader or to the villagers. However, the biblical parallels throughout the story help us unravel the mysteries behind this strange old man. By analyzing the significance of these allegories, we can better understand the old man’s purpose while, at the same time, learning more about hidden moral teachings and criticisms in the story.
While the overall theme and tone of Mankind had a religious tone, the author of Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge, offers six objections to the ideas and themes of the miracle play. In the first objection, the author states that plays are not performed to worship God. Plays are created to create earthly pleasures for people. Plays make people laugh, bringing joy and distracting them from God. The second objection states that plays are considered a sin because it corrupted a whole community. Plays occupy the whole audience to focus on the vanities of life rather than focusing on faith or charity. The Tretise third objection is that people do not cry while watching the play because of the compassion and devotion that they have towards Christ. Rather, members of the audience cry due to their personal vanities not their own sins. Tretise states the men will not leave sin in order to worship and men will not convert to a more religious lifestyle after seeing the play. The fifth objection implied by t...
Ezeulu has mixed feelings. He sends Oduche to the missionaries in order to gain access to their wisdom, but he fears the aggressiveness of the new religion. However, his devotion to his god, Ulu, is unquestionable, as is seen in his participation in the New Yam festival. Ezeulu, the main character of the novel, is sincere when he refuses to obey Winterbottom's summons to Okperi because such behavior does not befit his sacred role. Ezeulu stands up for what he believes is right, as his god reveals it to him, even when there is no profit in it for himself. He even loses much by saying the truth. Thus, he is like a saint.