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Theme Of Madness Essay

710 Words3 Pages

There are three significant reasons that the theme of madness is such a dominant recurrence in these pieces of ancient literature. The three reasons are that it tells an interesting story that will entertain the majority of its readers, shows the audience how far humankind is capable of going, and tells the common person why we should be afraid of our inner self. These stories present viable elements to that to tell an interesting story. The audience is able to witness a character get passionate over another character. In addition to that the audience is able to get and account of the character's emotions running wild. These characters have to do these over the top rampages to teach us lessons. The audience is able to see Achilles enter …show more content…

Even though this stories are classics and they teach valuable lessons. They also show humankind to be afraid of one another, for example we have Odysseus who killed everyone just because they tried to marry his wife. Even though he was presumed dead for many years and they were not even that ignorant to him when he appeared as a beggar. In the heat of the moment he slaughtered a vast quantity of unarmed men. These men did nothing to offend him, but they sought to marry a widow. There is Goddess, Ishtar, who represents human emotions, she wanted to kill a whole city just because Gilgamesh told her the truth of what she has done to men. Achilles thrashes Hector’s dead body and refuses to allow the body to have a proper burial. Hector even asks Achilles whoever wins will give the other one a proper burial. This is honorable request, but Achilles wants none of it, he wants to let the dogs tear into Hector’s dead body. These acts showcase how cruel humans can become, and show the reader how humans can throw out all rational thoughts and become wild animals that want nothing but to harm another. Although these moments of madness can be contributing to make a story entertaining and show how far humans are capable of going; they should be remembered to show the dark parts of human nature the most. Human can be loving creatures that wants to help out one another, but under the right circumstances can become wild animals and do unimaginable horrible actions to one

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