Seneca, as he begins his letter to Lucilius, wants to tell his dear friend not to excessively grieve over the death of his best friend Flaccus. He feels that Lucilius should not grieve at all because it is the wrong thing to do. Though, it is impossible to not feel sadness or grief over the death of a dear friend or acquaintance, but when you do grieve over a friend or relative, you should only feel a “twinge of pain…but only a twinge” (Seneca, paragraph 1). When we mourn for someone, we should not cry too much nor stop ourselves from crying for certain matters such as the death of a person. Seneca distinguishes the difference between the twinges with tears one should have as opposed to the act of lamentation. A person should never grieve so much and shed so many tears for the death of a friend because over time it becomes more than just grieving. Lamentation will shape into something worst then the feeling of sadness for someone who has passed. When we unduly cry, we are making ourselves be aware of our grief. It is our way to justify what has happened, due to the fact that no one cries in such a way just for their own well-being.
Seneca in paragraph two creates a possible objection that he may receive from his friend Lucilius. He feels that his harsh criticism from the first paragraph would leave Lucilius questioning the right to grieve for his friend Flaccus. But with a simple objection, there is a simple counter-argument. Seneca goes on to saying “Well, you are not proposing to keep him very long in your memory if his memory is to last just as long as your grief” (Seneca, paragraph 2). What Seneca is trying to say here is that just because Flaccus died, Lucilius is not arguing that he must grieve for his friend for the rest...
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...ing Lucilius not to do. From personal experience, Seneca has learned that because Fortune both gives and takes, “fate [does not pay] any regard to seniority!” (Seneca, paragraph 6). Death does not wait for old age, but rather subtly takes away when it pleases. Due to this, everyone is “liable to death as we are ourselves” (Seneca, paragraph 6). In addition, because liability does not follow any “rules”, anything can happen on any given day. This should give us more of a reason to reach out and create many more bonds and prevent grief from allowing us to reach “enlightenment” (Seneca, paragraph 5). To conclude his letter, Seneca leaves Lucilius with the idea that soon someday meet with the same ends as Flaccus, without denying the idea of another world after the physical world, as foretold by “sages” where those supposedly dead have gone on ahead in wait for others.
...for success, he robs his audience of the right to make certain determinations about characters such as Tarquin Superbus and Romulus because of his bias toward the motivation behind their actions. Livy’s The Rise of Rome was a grand effort and an amazing undertaking. Cataloguing the years of Roman history consolidated rumor and legend into fact, creating a model for Rome to follow. Livy’s only error in this vast undertaking was in imprinting his own conception of morality and justice onto his work, an error that pulls the reader away from active thought and engaging debate. In doing so, Livy may have helped solidify a better Rome, but it would have been a Rome with less of a conception of why certain things are just, and more of a flat, basely concluded concept of justice.
Thesis: The completion and substance of Oedipus Rex allows Oedipus to live grief-stricken throughout his successful search for justice.
Hamlet throughout the play lives in a world of mourning. This bereavement route he experiences can be related to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s theory on this process. The death of Hamlet’s spirit can be traced through depression, denial and isolation, bargaining, anger, and acceptance. The natural sorrow and anger of Hamlet’s multiple griefs include all human frailty in their protest and sympathy and touch upon the deepest synapses of grief in our own lives, not only for those who have died, but for those, like ourselves, who are still alive. Hamlet’s experience of grief, and his recovery from it, is one it which we ourselves respond most deeply.
In these tragedies, pity is often one of the first things that people feel. For instance, during the September 11 attacks family members of loved ones who had passed showed their feelings by crying and remembering them. “No matter how many years pass, this time comes around each year- and it’s always the same,” says Karen Hinson. In Romeo and Juliet, they showed pity the same way by
During Brutus’ speech, he used pathos to establish the emotional contact with the Romans that Antony’s was lacking. Having one’s audience emotionally invested to their listening is precisely critical to have a greater outcome. Using a great deal of emotion, Brutus spoke, “I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my county to need my death” (3.2.37-38). By saying this, Brutus made all the Romans feel compassionate about his strong devotion towards Rome. Since he was willing to die, the Romans foresee him as a hero. Although Antony used emotions in his speech, he did not use it to the extent Brutus did, “I will not do them wrong; I rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, than I will wrong such honourable men”
“I might have said, 'He's got over it. He's forgotten his wife,' when the truth was, 'He remembers her better because he has partly got over it.'” (4). When analyzing Lewis’ discussion of grief, one should focus on his preconception of grief prior to his experience of loss. Prior to losing his wife, Lewis originally thought that grief was a time of extreme sorrow and anguish, but one that is eventually overcome and healed, as a barrier is overcome and conquered or an injury healed. After personally experiencing the death of Helen, Lewis begins to understand that it is a daily process of readjustment, not one of overcoming. Although healing and life can occur afterward, Lewis suggests that it cannot be the same. Nor would Lewis agree that the healing and peace of grief comes by forgetting the death and pain, rather, grief can only bring healing and peace once people accept the inevitable truth, let go of the past to a degree to move forward, and begin the journey with God into the stores of the
“You all did love did love him once, not without cause: what cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?”. Mark Antony wants the population of Rome to be emotional by saying the Ruler that they love and honored is now lifeless. “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now”. Antony is actually telling the community to be emotional about the current situation they were bombarded into. Copious examples of Pathos appear in the speech of Mark Antony considering it is an effective way of grasping people’s
Many sources on grief declare it to be something that must be faced or it will never go away. Ophelia never faces her grief, but it does go away when she drowns herself. She resorts to singing to solve her problems, while Laertes takes to violence. He believes he will feel relief once Hamlet is dead. Hamlet, on the otherhand, grieves for his father and does not take action for some time. He also has strong feelings on how his mother should take a longer time to grieve for her former husband. These three characters endure the same sort of grief at times, but choose toreact differently. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, but as many of the characters in Hamlet discover, grief can overtake one’s life and lead to downfall.
"’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, / nor customary suits of solemn black / [ . . . ] but I have that within which passeth show; / these but the trappings and the suits of woe” (Shakespeare 1.2.76-73, 85-86) says Hamlet when confronted about his way of grieving over his father’s recent death. Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is a remarkable tale that is centered on the idea of death and grief. While death is a universal occurrence, meaning every person will deal with it, how we grieve after a loss is completely individual. To look at a formula of grief, most turn to the five stages of grief developed by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a psychiatrist, who studied the topic in her book On Death and Dying. This model consists of denial, anger, sadness, bargaining, and acceptance, although the duration and order of the stages are different for every person. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the stages of grief are evident in his sadness, anger, and finally acceptance.
As a “speculative man of high motives and refined sensibility”(Catherine C. Dominic) Brutus does have his confusion of motives. Act I, scene ii, is the first we see his weakness, “his concern with reputation and appearance, his subtle vanity and pride”(Gayle Green). Yet the main bases of Brutus’s bewilderment of motives takes place in Act II, scene I, with his famous soliloquy beginning with “It must be by his death”. This speech may be the turning point in which Brutus feels better about the assassination of his once called friend.
Tragic moments often lead individuals to continue with their life since death is an acquaintance and we will all obtain it one day. Mankind had proceeded to failure due to not containing an ounce of caring in their bones. This is interrupted throughout Ovid, Brueghel, Auden, and Williams’ showing the failure that was designated to the people who didn’t care enough for Icarus.
William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar, is based on the plot against and the assassination of the ancient Roman general, Julius Caesar. After being stabbed twenty-three times by Roman senators for conspiring against Rome, Caesar is buried and at his funeral, two of his closest associates, Brutus and Marc Antony, present speeches which provide their perspectives on Caesar’s death. Brutus justifies his role in Caesar’s assassination and Antony counters Brutus’s allegations. Although both delivered strong, well-constructed speeches, Brutus’s use of pathos, ethos, and rhetorical questions is far more effective than Antony’s.
...d saddened by Caesar’s death, this is also hyperbole. Antony is exaggerating his current emotions. He doesn’t truly need a moment before he goes on. He simply wants the crowd to react to his speech so far. In saying his heart died with Caesar, the pathos generated moves the crowd and gives them an opportunity to respond to Antony.
Have you ever felt fear or pity towards characters in something you have read? That’s exactly what catharsis is, the release of fear or pity. Medea by Euripides contains parts that have you left feeling many mixed emotions towards characters and how they may be affected by Medea. In the play both fear and pity are felt and throughout the reading at some points both were even felt. The fear of what Medea was going to do to her kids, Jason her ex-husband, and Jason’s new wife for Jason leaving Medea. In the play it tells you what Medea is going to do to her children, but it still leaves you with fear. This also happens with the other characters Medea wants to harm/hurt. The pity that is felt is for Medea when Jason married someone else and how
First and foremost: Thank you very much for the vote of confidence, and such a long and detailed response! Totally appreciated!