Category: Literary Criticism

According to Aristotle,  a tragedy should arouse in the spectators the feeling piety and fear  pity mainly for the heros tragic fate and fear at the sight of the dreadful suffering that occurs the characters, particularly the hero. By arousing these feelings of pity and fear, a tragedy aims at the catharsis or…

The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defines a tragic hero as a character having valiant traits that earn the audience’s sympathy but also have human flaws that ultimately lead to their own downfall. Aristotle states a tragic hero’s fortune should be not from bad to good but from good to bad caused by their own doing. A…

Thank you, Your Honor. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you for your time as all the evidence was carefully presented. So, all the facts and evidence have been presented to you today and with that, Id like to say the fate of Oedipus life now is within your hands. Oedipus has been convicted…

Aristotle in his famous book ‘Poetics’ describes the traits needed to complete the tragedy. As in accordance to Aristotle, any tragedy is a perfect tragedy when the action has soberness, expansive, and ideal in it. Some of the important factors of a perfect tragedy are Peripeteia, Anagnorisis, and catharsis. King Oedipus of Greek mythology owns…

Literature is an art that allows an author to exhibit the undesired primal aspects of humanity. The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde is a prime example of this. Published in London in 1890, the gothic literature carries heavy themes of aestheticism, the superficiality of beauty, homosexual undertones, and hedonism which directly attacked…

Oedipus determination, in this case, to rule, can be seen as one of the main reasons for his downfall. In the story, The Sphinx presented the following riddle for those who sought to rule Thebes: ‘What is it that walks on 4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet and has only one voice, when…

When comparing whether family or authority holds a higher status to Sophocles, it becomes clear that the aspect of the family has greater value. Although many of the characters believe that a strong authority prevents chaos, the need for authority was taken too far and resulted in their downfall. Even though certain characters were facing…

Sophocles The Three Theban Plays explores the faults in ones character that triggers irrational and unlawful behavior. A specific fault seems to recur throughout the plays and pushes characters to commit the greatest crimes. To find this fault, it is vital to retrace the motivation of each characters actions. The root of all their actions…

Brilliantly interesting and convincingly demystifying was Joseph Campbells revelation of the hero monomyth. This revelation is detailed in his prominent work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in which Campbell stresses the significance of the hero monomyth present in all heroic myths. And because the monomyth can be identified in any work presenting a hero,…

Quote: just because everything’s different doesn’t mean anything has changed – Irene Peters Young people often make irrational decisions that determine the outcome of their lives. William Shakespeares Dramatic Tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1895) explores love and how characters can hold more responsibility than fortune does. Irene Peters quote, Just because everything is different doesnt…