During the story The Rod of Justice by Joaquim Maria Machado De Assis, Damiao seems to be a standard, cut and dried main character, but underneath he is riddled with mystery. He must make crucial choices but remains a cowardly character. Damiao’s personality, relationships, and choices play a big part in defining him.
Throughout the story, Damiao demonstrates many facets of his personality, while he seems to be a static or flat character, not showing too many other emotions than his powerless and cowardly nature; he tends to display a hypocritical and manipulative trait.
Damiao demonstrates a weak front as shown by the fact that he is unable to face his father after he leaves seminary school nor inform his father that he does not have the desire or passion to go to seminary school. Damiao’s inability to confront Sinha Rita about not beating Lucretia is another display of weakness. Damiao lacked the courage to stand up to Lucretia and defend his morals.
Damiao displays a hypocritical nature throughout the story, wanting to be helped, but not willing to help others. Damiao goes to Sinha Rita for shelter and guidance at a critical time, but hesitates and refuses to help Lucretia in her
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Because Damiao has entrusted Sinha Rita to get his godfather to help Damiao get out of seminary school, he tries not to anger her and risk not being able to leave the school. Sinha Rita understands the predicament that Damiao is in and is willing to help him, though there are no real benefits for her. Sinha Rita is a person who offers Damiao a lot of comfort, constantly trying to cheer him up in his distressed state. Sinha Rita could possibly be lonely, shown by how she is constantly working and monitoring the slaves while they are completing their tasks and she may need something different in her life, such as Damiao, to stimulate some excitement in her life (Assis
Delia is a hard working woman who uses her faith in God to guide and protect her from her husband’s physical and emotional abuse. She, as a protagonist, is physically weak but yet spiritually strong. Sykes, in the story, tormented Delia in many ways throughout the story. One incident was with the bull horn when he tried to scare Delia while she was sorting the white clothes. Sykes also kicks all the clothes she had sorted all over the floor. Through all the pain and torment she goes through with Sykes, she still goes to church on Sundays and pray and come home go back to working around the house.
While Delia has been working all night long; the man of the house arrives and does not acknowledge her exceptionally done work. Instead, he torments her about the fact she’s working on a Sabbath and calls her a hypocrite. He expects her to maintain him and treat him like her overlord.
Honor is a concept that is held true and dear to the residents of the Columbian town depicted in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Honor can represent the status of one’s family, it can determine whether a person is fit for marriage and, if stolen, can resort to violent consequences. In the Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold honor is a prominent theme that is underscored through a major symbol as well as various characters throughout the novel. Each character displays their respect towards honor in different ways.
Delia is a hard-working woman who is very obedient and faithful to her husband, Sykes. Through harsh words, he cuts her down about her work of washing white folks clothes and her looks saying that he 'hates skinny woman';. Delia's appearance resembles her hard work, with 'knuckly hands'; from using the washboard. Delia has put many hard- earned tears, blood, and sweat into her house while supporting Sykes' habits and taking all the abuse he could dish out. On many occasions Sykes has cut down Delia and her kind nature, even to her religious beliefs, accusing her of being a 'hipocrite'; because she worked on the Sabbath day.
Every myth, and arguably every story, has one thing in common: an antagonist. The key to writing or creating a memorable story is to have an intriguing counterpart with whom the hero will duel. This can take many forms, the classic being the amiable and admirable protagonist who must conquer the evil antagonist and put an end to his despicable deeds. In cases such as this the reader will most often agree with the protagonist’s reasons for destroying the evildoer. Interestingly, though, the...
The hero’s, Othello, tragic flaw could be seen to be his lack of self-knowledge which brings about his downfall. It can be argued that Othello has a number of problems such as a propensity to jealousy, poor judgement of character and a violent nature, however this could all be resolved through self-knowledge. In addition to this, throughout the play Othello proves that he is self-centred and lacks self-knowledge because he gives in to his propensity to jealous which makes him lose sight of what is happening around him. He is so blinded by jealousy that he is unable to balance emotion with logic and becomes stubborn when he hears Iago’s lies. This suggests that his lack of self-knowledge and reason sets him up for his own demise due to the fact that he possesses a weak character and has a propensity to
The four scenes that best illustrate the theme of selfishness and the realities of a self-centered life, and empathy are the first scene in which Juvencio begged his son to save him, the scene in which Juvencio describes the crime he committed with a total lack of empathy, the scene in which don lupe describes the viciousness with which Juvencio killed his father, and the scene in which don lupe’s son orders that Juvencio be killed. All of these factors add up to a very interesting work of
One of the most useful in advancing this story is the typical, powerful character. Whether it be supernatural or cunning this character always comes out on top in the situation and holds the most control over others and their actions. The “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” , “Leda and the Swan”, and “Harrison Bergeron” all utilize an archetypical powerful character to create tension from how each character uses their power.
In the very beginning of “Sweat” one can see that Delia possesses a very strong work ethic, by the way that she is working vigorously to wash the clothes for the white people that she worked for to put food on the table and a roof over her and Sykes’ head. The white clothing that Delia washes in the story represents her character. White signifies her virtuousness and wholesome spirit. Delia has a docile personality and a prevailing belief in God. Delia’s body may be physically broken from all the years of tough labor and mistreatment from Sykes, however her spirit remains unbroken. Delia is a church going woman that is inspired by her trust in God. She has confidence that God will steer her the right way and shield her from Sykes cruel physical and emotional abuse.
“A Wall of Fire Rising”, short story written by Edwidge Danticat, presents one man’s desire for the freedom and also, the gap between reality and fantasy which is created by the desire. Two different perspectives of evaluating the life bring the conflict between the Guy and Lili who are parents to the little guy. Throughout the story, the Guy implies that he wants to do something that people will remind of him, but Lili who is opposing to the Guy, tries to settle the Guy down and keep up with the normal life that they are belong to. The Guy is aggressive, adventurous and reckless while Lili is realistic and responsible. The wall of fire is the metaphorical expression of the boundary where divides two different types of people. One is for the people who accept their position and try to do the best out of it, and the other for the people who are not satisfied with the circumstances and desires to turn the table. Through this essay, I am going to reveal how the contradiction in an unwise idealist’s attitude and his speech, and also how it drove the whole family into a horrible tragedy as well.
In contrast to a square’s apparent strong uniform image, it is a considerably weak geometric figure, especially in comparison to shapes such as a triangle or a diamond. If enough pressure is placed on the edge of a square, it doesn’t evenly distribute its weight, usually faltering within seconds. In the same fashion, Othello’s character, although seemingly strong on the outside, falters when pressure is placed on him by Iago, ultimately ending up in a total collapse, Othello’s death. The seemingly week interior, of the warrior, is first introduced through Othello’s insecurities about himself when being made aware of Desdemona’s possible affair. When Iago suggests that Desdemona may be cheating on him, Othello jumps to the conclusions that she has done so because he is black, rough in speech, and older. He specifically states “Haply, for I am black and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have, or for I am declined Into the vale of years” when analyzing why Desdemona would ever cheat on him. The viewer can see Othello’s true vulnerability and inner weakness, that makes it so easy for Iago to take advantage of him. This lack of inner fortitude is one of his main character flaws, which makes the comparison between his character and a square true. They are both truly weak on the inside and this leads to further downfall, structural failure. He lets the structural pressure, Iago’s lies about Casio and Desdemona’s affair), cause him to unjustly murder Desdemona and eventually commit suicide, displaying the collapse of Othello’s character. He cannot withstand the idea of Casio and Desdemona having an affair and it causes him to crumble just as a square would crumble if pressure was placed upon it. He transitions from a noble strong leader to a collapsed murderer who commits suicide. He started off as a
This paper will analyze the passage in the book Don Quixote where Sancho physically fights with Quixote to prevent Quixote from lashing him. On a practical joke playing duke's suggestion in the last chapter Sancho had promised to lash himself over 3000 times as a way to remove the spell that turned Quixote love interest, lady "Dona Dulcinea del Toboso," from a noblewoman to a peasant girl.
Tan succeeds in her use of pathos as she manages to make her mother seem helpless. This is quite a feat, as her obvious strengths have already been displayed in situations such as when yelling at the stockbroker. Tan supports her depiction of her mother as a victim by bringing up how people “did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.” (37)
In many instances in literature, the flaws of characters lead into conflicts that arise and that the characters must attempt to overcome over the duration of the storyline. In some cases, the character facing these problems, typically the protagonist, is unable to triumph over such issues. This can cause their major character flaws to overwhelm them, and they can encounter even more troubles or even their own downfall. A comparable situation as the aforementioned is found in the Shakespearean tragedy, Othello, where the character flaws of the protagonist, Othello, cause weakness in his character, which ultimately leads to his downfall and death. One of the flaws that lead Othello to his downfall is the fact that he has very poor judgement, which is indisputably seen through the consistent trust that he finds in Iago. His downfall also occurs due to his overwhelming struggle against jealousy, which materializes primarily from the relationship that his wife has with Cassio. Furthermore, Othello’s insecurities cause weakness in his character, allowing the antagonist of the story, Iago, to use them in order to lead Othello into his downfall. With these faults in his character, it is evident that Othello’s downfall comes about due to his major character flaws.
Othello’s personality was shaped largely by war and his pride as a capable soldier. He was intelligent and strong enough to live through countless battles and lead troops into war with successful results. Even Iago, who hates Othello for passing him over for the lieutenant position, can not deny Othello’s noble yet naïve nature, which he explains to Roderigo, “The Moor is of a free and open nature” (Act 1 Scene 3 390). However, as Iago continually hints to Othello that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio, more of his negative personality traits begin to show up. Doubt, mistrust, jealousy and rage all grew with Iago’s hints and led him to believe that his wife had damaged his reputation by being unfaithful to him. In the beginning of Othello, Othello betted on his life that Desdemona loved him and would never betray him and by the end of Shakespeare’s story, he suffocates and kills his wife out of honor in order to preserve his reputation and sense of self. He killed her not only out of a sense of duty, but also because of how hurt and betrayed he felt about her perceived infidelity. Therefore, Othello represents the good and the bad side of human nature by being intelligent, loving, open, and honorable and the bad by doubting his wife, exhibiting jealousy, anger and