The Ultimate Motive “But if it be a sin to covet honor, / I am the most offending soul alive” (Shakespeare IV, iii, 28-29), King Henry states Shakespeare’s play in Henry V. Even as a king, which represents the highest of the societal hierarchy, Henry is constantly concerned with the matter of maintaining “honor”. Regardless of the time of era or class, honor seems to be prioritized within the society. The desire to maintain honor sometimes drives people’s actions. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez depicts a Spanish family that is not afraid of committing immoral deeds to preserve its honor. Similarly, Honoré de Balzac portrays French men striving to sustain “the name” in Eugénie Grandet. In both Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Eugénie Grandet, characters’ motives to preserve family’s honor reveal that honor persists even during times of immorality. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Vicario family’s name is besmirched when Bayardo San Román, Angela Vicario’s husband, discovers that she is not a virgin. People doubts “that Angela Vicario wasn’t a virgin. She hadn’t known any previous fiancé and she’d grown up along with her sisters under the rigor of a mother of iron” (Márquez 37). The word iron is both a metaphor and a hyperbole which characterizes Pura Vicario as an austere mother. The use of hyperbole through dictions such as “mother of iron” further exaggerates moral firmness of Pura Vicario. Pura Vicario then “holds [her daughter] by the hair with one hand and beat [her] with the other with such rage that [she] thought [her mother] was going to kill [her]” (Márquez 46). Throughout the novel, Pura Vicario demonstrates strictness and austerity to protect the family’s honor. Furthermore, Pura Vicario ul... ... middle of paper ... ...ealth and money. Therefore, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Eugénie Grandet differ in regaining the honor, the former by committing a murder and the latter by purchasing a name. Yet regardless of the class and what their honor consist of, the honor is valued. Gabriel García Márquez and Honoré de Balzac both build distinct characters by change in characteristics or portraying characters’ sole motive in preserving honor which conveys that honor prevails in any society even when situations may cue for immoral actions. Works Cited Balzac, Honoré. Eugénie Grandet. New Yrok: Oxford University Press Inc., 1990. 37-73. Print. Márquez, Gabriel García. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. 1st Vintage International ed. New York: Random House Inc., 2003. 43-184. Print. Shakespeare, William. King Henry V. Cambridge, Great Britain: The Univeristy of Cambridge, 1992. 166. Print.
The belief and concept of dishonor in the Greek and Colombian culture of ‘Antigone,’ by Sophocles, and ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold,’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is a deciding aspect that blinds characters moral values. It is evident that in both societies Greek and Colombian, a family or an individual without honor is an outcast to the community. As honor plays a drastic role in outlining the culture of the society. Therefore the belief that a perpetrator has brought dishonor upon the family, or community foreshadows punishment for the individual, often conveyed through death.
Shakespeare, William. Richard II. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Ed. G. B. Harrison. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1948. 430-67.
Shakespeare, William. Henry the Fourth, Part 1. Ed James L. Sanderson. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1969.
Shakespeare, William. Henry V. The Norton Shakespeare Based on the Oxford Edition: Histories. Eds. Greenblatt, Stephen et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 736-793.
Shakespeare, William, and Claire McEachern. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth. New York: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Honor is a trait few possess in the modern world. Cyrano de Bergerac, a play by Edmond Rostand set in France during the sixteen hundreds, discusses honor in it’s truest form. But honor is not simply a code or a way to describe a man, there are characteristics that make a honorable individual. The main character, Cyrano, lives what many in his city would call an honorable life. Rostand uses this character to explore what characteristics make a man of honor. Some of the prominent traits the author presents as honorable are possessing controlled wit, bravery on and off the battlefield, and the ability to love unceasingly.
Women in Latin America were expected to adhere to extreme cultural and social traditions and there were few women who managed to escape the burden of upholding these ridiculous duties, as clearly shown in “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”. First, Latin American women were expected to uphold their honor, as well as their family's honor, through maintaining virtue and purity; secondly, women were expected to be submissive to their parents and especially their husbands; and lastly, women were expected to remain excellent homemakers. One of the most prominent expectations of women in Latin America, and certainly the main idea surrounding “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, is the idea that women should be pure, maintaining their virginity, prior to marriage. In the novel, Angela Vicario was forced by her parents and family into accepting a proposal from Bayardo San Roman, none of whom knew she was no longer a virgin. Knowing that her future husband would expect to spend their wedding night with a virgin, Angela scrambled to find ways to reinstate her virginity and deceive San Roman so he would not detect her impurity.
Since the beginning of time, and for long past the unimaginable, life has begun with the pretense that death is the fate for all persons. Many have tried to escape this destiny, many have tried to alter it or postpone it; however, from the first page of every story, every word used to describe the events held closest to one’s heart brings the final sentence closer and closer. The concept of time has been perceived to be linear in nature; while we attempt to analyze the past and better our future – the majority of concern is focused on the present. We are a world of now, often forgetting what has gotten us to the current and often forgetting what we must do for the later. Past, present and future: these terms represent stories and events across generations; although, as a species, our nature hasn’t changed much during these periods. Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude critiques this trait in man – while the characters and setting may change, the stories always seem to remain the same. One Hundred Years of Solitude’s timeline exhibits these facts by adopting a cyclical concept of time. The terms past, present, and future no longer represent a boundary between ages; instead, the past is the future, the future is the present, and the present is the past. The novel is told across six generations of the Buendía family – subsequently, the reader quickly can see that the blessings and curses of one generation are not excluded from the others. Márquez raises many questions concerning the nature of man and the dealing with the destiny of death. Furthermore, the author uses a cyclical timeline to criticize the unending nature of man; the lines between past, present, and future...
Shakespeare, William. 1 Henry IV. The Norton Shakespeare. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2008. 606-672. Print.
In a psychological perspective, the author’s life is linked with the behavior and motivations of characters in the story. The author’s name is Edgar Allan’s Poe who portrayed his self in his writing. The miserable life of Poe can be measured through “The Cask of Amontillado” in which character named “Montressor” showed indifferent feeling towards his victim. After burying Fortunado alive, Montressor felt bad after burying his victim alive but then he attributes the feeling of guilt to the damp catacombs. To the character and to the author, it seems that ghastly nature murder and the immoral approach of treachery is merely an element of reality. This story is a true representation of author’s anguish and torment nature.
Shakespeare, William. The Life of King Henry the Fifth. New York: Unicorn Publishers Inc, 1950. Pg. 173-295.
* Shakespeare, William. 1 Henry IV. Ed. M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1, 6th ed. New York: Norton, 1993.
Shakespeare, William. Richard II. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997, 943-1014.
Gabriel Garcia Collected Novellas: Chronicle of A Death Foretold. New York[:] Harper Collins Publishers, 1990.
Walter, J. H. Introduction to King Henry V. Ed. Walter. The Arden Ed. of the Works of William Shakespeare. London: Methuen, 1954. HSU PR.2812.A2.W3.