Euphiletus is being accused of the murder of Eratosthenes, his wife’s secret lover, who she is having an affair with. Euphiletus’s testimony is a sensitive document, considering, first-hand life in Classical Greece. As stated in Athenian law, “if a husband finds his wife in bed with another man, it is the husband’s right to determine what penalty the male adulterer will face”. The Husband could demand he pay a fine, or even justifiably kill him. Euphiletus justifies the murder by admitting he was wrong, and that rather than facing the consequence of being
T.C. Boyle’s short essay, “Caviar”, follows the story of couple, Nathaniel, and his wife, Marie, who attempt to procreate, but are left resort to surrogacy through Dr. Ziss’ recommendation after Marie’s infertility is discovered. As told from the perspective of the fisherman, Nathaniel, explores his sexual urges through an extramarital affair with his son’s surrogate mother, Wendy, as she boards with them during the early stages of pregnancy. The reading ends with Nathaniel assaulting Dr. Ziss after finding him to be in a romantic relationship with Wendy, thus arrested and kicked out of his own household by his wife (Boyle 80-92). At face value, this story could be simply interpreted to being about loyalty as it relates to relationships and
In times of bloodshed and malice, do you stay devoted to your family and companions or do you pursue the love of your life? These are the questions Romeo and Juliet, our protagonists and lovers, had to ask themselves consistently throughout the play. Romeo and Juliet is a classical theater piece that addresses forbidden love amongst the freights of war between two households, the Montagues and the Capulets. That being said, there have been abundant amounts of renditions featuring the same scenarios. This essay will be analyzing and contrasting how well the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet and the movie Gnomeo and Juliet correspond to Shakespeare's original
Throughout life everyone has experienced fidelity, infidelity, betrayal, or loyalty at least once. However, many people do not realize that there can be more than one type of betrayal and infidelity. Betrayal and infidelity are not always present between husband and wife, but can also be between parents and children, between siblings with other siblings, and between yourself. Fidelity, infidelity, betrayal, and loyalty are all present in Madame de Lafayette ‘s book, “The Princesse de Clѐves,” and Laura Esquivel’s book, “Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies”. In Madame de Lafayette’s, and Esquivel’s books they are both illustrating how no matter what a person does they will always betray someone, and that is it okay to be loyal to other people even if doing so means betraying oneself?
A childhood fantasy of many children of the world is to find their supposed soul mate. The person who will love them through thick and thin, the one who will be there at their side when they need it most. Often times in literature we see examples of soul mates, one such example is the bond between Marius and Epinine, not Cosette. Despite Cossette being portrayed as Marius’s perfect match, Epinine cared about Marius, knew Marius better than Cossette ever did, and had better life skills than Cossette.
Just like Monsieur Lantin who is a frank office clerk, can not resist the temptation of money, after became rich he also went to theatre and enjoyed it. Besides, the two marriages of Monsieur Lantin also shows something. The first marriage is wonderful before Lantin knew his wife’s affairs, after he knew the affairs, he only felt ashamed and suffering. However, the second marriage also made him suffered, even though the wife is a “rule” person. The description of Lantin’s marriage is also an irony, the author wants to tell the readers that the marriage is miserable.
While reading Tartuffe, I was constantly dumbfounded by the prevalence in the world today of Moliere’s, comedically portrayed, accusations regarding ignorance in arranged marriage, social class dynamics and religious hypocrisy. Moliere created the characters to the complete contrast to what society saw them as, which was intriguing and comedic. He also displayed the average practices, such as planned marriage, to be disgraceful and shameful. Lastly, but most prevalently, Moliere saturated the hypocrisy of religion by later in the story revealing the religious character’s deceitful and malign nature. In this essay, I will be using historic and literary theory to examine Moliere’s interesting views of such practices and the satire involved.
In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream the sexes are portrayed in many different ways through many different characters. Though the sexes are portrayed in many different ways, there is one view that is repeated twice. This view is that of a dominant male figure. This view is showed through the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta and also through the characters of Hermia and Egeus. Both of these relationships are dynamic, yet they are both still based on the idea of a dominant male figure.
In all of these cases, Yossarian manages to either completely disregard love or sabotage it in some manner as a means of avoiding the detriments which it provides. With this being the case, it becomes quickly obvious that Yossarian treats love as a desirable escape while avoiding it due to its detrimental nature. First, Yossarian’s relationship with the maid serves as an initial instance where he falls completely away from love. Yossarian embraces the maid as an escape due to her sexuality providing a sense of security.
He asserts his own will against the rules of the community and brings tragedy upon all of the families to which he belongs or to which he is dramatically connected. He is driven by deep passion, as his furious travels by horse to and from the Bride’s house demonstrate. Leonardo’s fateful decision to deny the bonds of matrimony in favor of his abiding desire for the Bride occurs only when the Bride is certain to be married to another. This suggests the manner in which Leonardo’s actions are motivated by possessiveness, where as long as the Bride belongs to no other, Leonardo can tolerate their separation. While Leonardo’s motivations are in certain respects selfish or possessive, and while he brings pain and suffering upon a number of persons, the play nevertheless generates a great deal of sympathy for his and the Bride’s
Garcin’s approach towards Estelle for intimacy is spurred on by Garcin’s desire to spite Inez. Yet, with intimacy of body comes intimacy of mind, and reveals Garcin’s terrible doubts. In the middle of intimacy, Garcin tells his story, the story of a man who upheld his ideals, the story of a coward who ran away, the story of a man who made his choices and came to doubt them. He pleads for Estelle to understand him and to judge him right. Estelle merely indulges him.
She finds the stranger her intellectual and spiritual equal and her lover is more like herself, who has the ability to understand her mixed nature. He says “you are more like me, ---you can stand alone” (Egerton1893, 33). The sense of their togetherness is evident as they “ both feel as if the earth between them is laid with infinitesimal electric threads vibrating with a common pain” (Egerton1893, 33). In the story “Under Northern Sky”, Egerton represented the virtue of a wife’s desire to get rid of her husband.
If we press our original question – “Why, for more than romantic reasons, is the highest duty of Shakespearean lovers neither to their parents nor to the law, but to love?”---the answer might be because love, and nothing else, will lead the soul to perfection. The Renaissance “Platonists” were agreed about that, and I suggest it provisionally. But it leaves many knots to unravel; and they will be impossible to loosen, unless we take hold of the threads of philosophic argument at their beginnings in Plato and
While unique characters are very valuable in various forms of literature, authors can successfully utilize stereotyped characters to achieve author’s purpose. The character of Mariane in Tartuffe by Molière is a stereotypical “damsel in distress”, as the other characters must help her while they combat the hypocrisy of Tartuffe. When Orgon, blinded by his reverence for Tartuffe, announces that Mariane is to marry Tartuffe, it causes conflict between characters. Mariane has to express her opinion and defy her father, so that she will not marry a hypocrite and liar, despite being a generally submissive person. In Molière’s Tartuffe, the author successfully employs a conventional character through Mariane, to demonstrate the strife that fanaticism and
Shakespeare’s novel “Macbeth” demonstrates the many ways in which love can factor into a play. Through the connections built between characters, and the relationship Macbeth holds with power, the ways in which love are perceived through “Macbeth” are evident. In Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth,” there is a strong relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, the relationship between the two characters is known as the most obvious - yet this relationship challenges traditional perceptions of love. The attitude Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have towards each other constantly changes, thus making it hard to form a clear-cut opinion of their relationship.
