Obscenity, in terms, refers to, “any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time.” Derived from the Latin obscaena (offstage) a cognate of the Ancient Greek root skene, because some potentially offensive content, such as murder or sex, was depicted offstage in classical drama, the word can be used to indicate a strong moral repugnance. In other words, the word can also be said to mean “the character or quality of being obscene or an act, utterance, or item tending to
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When standing at a precipice where one must choose between life and death, one must consider: why strive to prosper in life if all individuals are destined to ultimately perish? This is a major focal point in Ecclesiastes, one of the books of the Old Testament. Some of the primary concepts discussed include the vanity of our ambitions and accomplishments since all of mankind will inevitably die; the narrator of Ecclesiastes, who refers to himself at a Teacher, attempts to find pleasure in life, but
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“Othello, the Moor of Venice,” is a Shakespearean tragedy in which manipulation of the main character, Othello, “a Moorish nobleman… general of the Venetian army, and has secretly married Desdemona, daughter of an important statesman in Venice,” (Bevington, 2014) and innocent lives are lost owing to the duplicity of Iago, “a Venetian soldier and ensign,” (Bevington, 2014) under Othello’s command. William Shakespeare’s masterful inclusion of villains in his plays, “take the audience into their confidence
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Week 2 – Phaedra Civilization 2: Renaissance Through Modern This is story of pain and tragedy involving the life of Theseus, King of Athens and Phaedra the Queen of Greece. This story follows the time-honored tradition that has plagued man since the beginning of recorded history and will continue with no end in sight far into our future. This is a story of unchecked passion between a man and a woman that has the potential to destroy both of their worlds. The story begins with Phaedra who
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Jane Doe Professor Urkel ENG-225 24 February 2012 Application of Aristotle's Poetics in the work Apology by Plato According to Aristotle, the criterion that is expressed in Poetics should be based on the matter, subjects and method. For example; for matter, the melody, rhythm and language are the key considerations to be looked into. The subjects in Poetics usually bring out the character traits that are related to human characteristics. This is what brings out the difference between tragic
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The Importance of Hamlet’s Soliloquies In the Shakespearian tragedy Hamlet, we see the main character, who shares the name of the play, process many of his thoughts and evaluate many different options before he makes each of his decisions through the soliloquies he delivers throughout the play. From the first soliloquy in act 1 to the final one in act 4, many of major events in the play that involve Hamlet are decided through his trains of thought, as well as his opinions on various matters and
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Although Willy Loman does not fit the criteria of the tragic hero, Arthur Miller wanted to show the fate of one of the many ordinary people who are rejected by a system which should support them. In Tragedy and the Common Man, he wrote, “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were”. As Willy enters a “small fine melody on a flute is heard”. A flute is an artificial object; it could be interpreted that its elusive and indistinct sound represents
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unquestionably a tragedy, however the question remains: whose tragedy is it? In essence, is it a tragedy for one or two characters in the play or is it rather a tragedy for the entire populace of the city of Thebes? It is a tragedy in varying degrees, from somewhat tragic to extremely tragic. Analyzing the play it is easy to see tragedy from beginning to end. It’s also simple to see all main characters and even those in the background, the citizens of Thebes, experience some form of tragedy. Thebes
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Revenge is often brought upon someone when one does something horrifying to another. Niccolo Machiavelli once said, “People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear his or her vengeance”. Machiavelli’s quote speaks on how if someone does you harm and you feel you must do harm back, to do it in such a way where they
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what the genre of the play falls into. Some argue it is pure tragedy, others argue drama, but there are others, including Chekov, that argue it is a comedy. While these are very matter of fact and binary answers, I argue that the genre is not so black and white. Due to the paradoxical characters and their tragic demise, the genre of The Seagull can be categorized as a, “tragicomedy.” The Seagull possesses many elements of tragedy such as: believable characters, realistic events, and unhappy
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