Hubris College Essays Samples For Students

According to Aristotle a tragic flaw is when the hero has a flaw in his/her judgment or personality that causes them to commit acts that will lead them to disaster (Froula). In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare the titular character of Hamlet has a number of tragic flaws. His biggest flaw is the fact that he thinks that he is cleverer than he actually is. Hamlet’s second tragic flaw is his indecisiveness and failure to act. Even though he has been told by the ghost of his dead father that "The serpent that did sting thy father's ...

When the film Titanic was released, it was released to an audience that was unsure about the potential success of the film. James Cameron, the director, had approached the film with such fastidiousness that caused the release of the film to be delayed significantly, and caused it to become one of the most expensive movies ever made up to that point (Maslin). There is no doubt that Titanic was a landmark piece for James Cameron, and Cameron’s ability and willingness to broach the hard subjects of death and class during the film made it even more powerful. While ...

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex essentially bulges, pregnant with the themes of hubris and hamartia that the Greek playwright so frequently used. It is the play’s protagonist, King Oedipus, who is the unfortunate soul born unto a terrible prophecy that foretold that he would one day kill his very own father and marry his mother. In order to prevent such a horrendous nightmare from occurring, Oedipus’ father sent baby Oedipus to be murdered but he was instead given to the childless king and queen of Corinth to be raised as their own. Oedipus in later years hears rumors of the prophecy. In ...

Introduction:

This essay attempts to analyze the relationships of love, hubris and isolation in the novels American Born Chinese and No No Boy where we have contrasting tales and characters which have several different outcomes. The characters analyzed are those of Jim Wang in American Born Chinese and Ichiro Yamada in No No Boy who both have to grapple with different problems yet face the same sort of problems at the end of the day. Both novels are social commentaries which are important to the understanding and intrinsic reflection of the situation faced by Japanese Americans as well as Chinese ...

‘History repeats itself” is a common phrase that has been used for years to mean that what happens in the past has a way of haunting the future. Individuals who do not remember history are most likely condemned to repeat it. The film clearly explains the fictional weapons and web of deceit constructed by President Bush and his allies to justify the invasion of Iraq. Secondly, the consequences suffered because of the war were thousands of civilian lives were lost and soldiers’ lives put on line because of a fraudulent case that the United States government was making against Iraq in 2002-2003. ...

Sophocles was one of the most prescient and well-regarded playwrights of Greek drama, whose tragedies have established many literary and theatrical conventions that are still alive today. While Sophocles’ work is indicative of the culture in which it was created, it is also a trenchant critique of human nature as well. This comes across especially clearly in his Theban plays – Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus – in which he uses his stories and characters to reflect flaws and issues he sees with the human condition and its relationship with the gods. Exploring these critical aspects of Sophocles’ Theban ...

Oedipus the King is one of the most eminent literary works in the history of literature. The work has stood the test of time, and has left an everlasting mark on the minds of the avid readers. The critics across the world have spoken in unison regarding the literary quintessence of the literary work. The character of the protagonist, Oedipus, is an immortalized literary character that embodies one of the most tragic fates in the history of literature. His characteristic traits set him apart, and the chronology of events in his life that shape him as an individual leaves a ...

"Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun [or son] of York".

Richard III is an important play in the Shakespeare canon since it depicts the dangers of hubris and nemesis by leaders who are crazed with power. My reading and interpretation of the play is focused on the American Presidency which will feature a particular President as Richard III who will do his utmost to usurp power and will use every single method in the book to get to his goal. It is an interpretation based on the utter ruthlessness of a dictator who brooks no qualms about destroying the social order of the country to achieve his own selfish gain.
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There are many historical pieces of literature that continues to be read, studied and analyzed in order to understand the characters and events in, both, broader and focused, respects. Who are the heroes and who are the villains? What is the lesson to be learned? Is the ending happy and just or is it simply tragic. In the case of “Oedipus the King” the story has very taboo subject matter, dark foreshadowing and an entirely tragic ending. Oedipus’s choice to blind himself is not a selfish act and the story does not really have a just ending. It ...

It is believed by many scholars like Ellen Moers, who wrote Female Gothic: The Monster’s Mother that when Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly wrote Frankenstein, she wrote the story as a reflection of her own fears and issues with parenting. I also think that Shelley may have felt that her offspring were somehow against the laws of nature and that this is why most of them died at birth or in early infancy. Where Victor only had created life from the confines of death, she herself brought death from what should have been life. This of course was no fault ...

In Coriolanus, the titular character’s mother tells him “You are too absolute” (Shakespeare). Volumnia, in this case, is trying to convince her son to approach the common plebeians for their votes to the Senate. Coriolanus is a proud man and an excellent soldier, but he struggles throughout the text with problems associated with his pride and his unwillingness to engage in political maneuvering. His mother, who ostensibly wants to see her son elected and placed in power, tries her hardest to convince him that he should participate in the process of trying to woo the people (Shakespeare). By “ ...

Introduction

Myth, particularly in the Greek tradition, places a great significance on place and location – cities such as Thebes, Athens and Crete are given almost mythical importance of their own through their roles in the characters’ journeys. In the case of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Thebes is both the setting and the goal of the story – Oedipus’ loyalty to Thebes, a suffering city, provides a complex goal and metaphor for Oedipus’ own journey to the truth of his own existence and past with King Laius. Thebes is just as much of a character in Oedipus Rex as Oedipus himself or any other figure, solidifying place’ ...

The worlds of Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey are often harsh, with mankind being essentially at the will of the gods and prone to failure. To that end, even the best among men in these works have their own flaws – Achilles and Odysseus respectively provide that sense of romantic antiheroism inherent to Homeric works. Whereas modern heroism values moral and ethical virtue as part of being a hero, the Homeric ideal of heroism is actually quite anti-heroic. Greek heroes do not have to be the most ethical or civilized; they just have to possess supreme bravery, strength, military ...

A critical analysis of the paintings of the Tower of Babel directly suggest the perspective of the both the translation and labor that refer to the utopian spirit of social critique as well as to the resistance to the authority. The art paintings appear to embody an expectation of a multiplicity of tongues as a result of the harsh judgment from the Supreme Being. The Tower of Babel may not be a realized vision. It can be understood in an angle where the Utopian ideal was to be discovered. The Utopian discourse was presented in a manner that allowed the 15th century society ...

Heroes in myth and literature are, in the Campbellian sense of the word, typically selfless, virtuous figures who sacrifice and go through many struggles in the name of the protection of others. In Greek mythology, however, this selflessness is somewhat subverted: one would be hard pressed to find many Greek heroes who did not have some sort of selfishness in their character. In the minds of the Greeks, true heroism came in achieving great, impressive deeds that elevated one’s own sense of reputation and ego; while there can be selfless, magnanimous motives behind these actions, the ultimate goal ...

As realists like Kenneth Waltz, Hans Morgenthau and George Kennan always insisted, the international system is dominated by great powers that act on their interests, For most of modern history, as Gordon A. Craig and Alexander L. George asserted, it has been a multi-polar system rather than one controlled by a single hegemon or superpower. Even the United Nations was created as a realist institution since it can raise no funds, create a peacekeeping force or take any other action in the international arena with the approval of the member states. Far from being a one-world government of a super-state, the five permanent members of ...

Pride is a very powerful theme in The Iliad - the first few lines mention the idea of pride, with the many injustices the gods inflict on men and each other due to petty quarrels. For example, Atreus' people are stricken with a plague because his son had insulted a priest of the son of Jove and Leto. In The Iliad, many of the characters suffer greatly as a result of their hubris, or pride. Many of the warriors and characters of the Iliad are very sure of themselves, and believe that their way is the best way. However, as the story progresses, ...

Discussion Post

Personally, my favorite story line is the troubled journey home, first undertaken by Gilgamesh but then made the most famous by Odysseus and, later, Aeneas. In more modern times, the Coen Brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which details the travails of Ulysses Everett McGill in the days of the Great Depression. The reason that this story line appeals to me is that while the main character is heroic, he is also flawed, which makes him more realistic. It is his own hubris that has landed him in this particular pickle, and he must learn to use his ...