Damon And Pythias Analysis

Comparing the two stories, I believe that “Two Friends” is much more realistic than “Damon and Pythias”. “Two Friends” is historical fiction, and the components of this story are much more realistic than “Damon and Pythias”. First of all, the background of the story is the Franco-Prussian war, which gives a real historical background of the story. During the war, people were starving, so they had to finding food to eat. The story starts when the two friends go out and fish for food, which fits into this historical background. Unlike the story “Damon and Pythias”, the ending of “Two Friends” is tragic. “Damon and Pythias” has a happy ending, which is consistent with most legends and fairy-tales. The tragic ending shows the reality of the war.
According to idioms.thefreedictionary.com, it writes that “Damon and Pythias” is also used in an idiomatic way, which means “two faithful friends.” The structure of the story is clear. The plot includes one evil antagonist and two protagonists. The protagonists in this story are Damon and Pythias, who are loyal and trustworthy to each other. The antagonist is the tyrant, Dionysius. The vocabulary used in this story also makes us understand the moral lesson the story is trying to teach us. Russell uses words like faith, trust, true friendship, and devoted love. These words are also repeated frequently, which allows the reader to catch the hidden meaning in the story. At the end of the story, there is a happy ending. The concluding lesson is that the faith and trust the two friends shared led toward a happy ending that influenced the antagonist’s mindset. Russell writes, “Thus did the two friends of Syracuse, by the faithful love they bore to each other, conquer the hard heart of a tyrant king, and in the annals of true friendship there are no more honored names than those of Damon and Pythias…” (Russell,
In both stories, the obstacles are related to death. In the story, “Two Friends”, the obstacle they face is when they are caught by the German soldiers. While they are seized, the German officer asked them to spill the password or else they would die. The reader does not know if there is an actual password, but both friends decide not to say anything. This was their first obstacle. The second and the biggest obstacle they faced is when the German officer pulled each one away from the other man and asked, “‘Quick, the password? Your friend won't know. I'll pretend to relent.’”. (Maupassant, 1239). This was the chance that one might live and the other die, and they could have betrayed each other. However, even with this obstacle, the friendship and loyalty within them did not break, and they both decided to die together. The obstacle Damon and Pythias face is similar to the one M. Sauvage and Morissot encounter. Pythias was accused of trying to overthrow King Dionysius, and he was told that he would be executed as a result. However, Pythias declared that he needed to settle his business before the execution. King Dionysius agreed only if he left a hostage behind to replace him. Pythias was replaced by his best friend, Damon. Pythias could have used this chance to run away from the fear of execution, but he did not. Russell writes, “Pythias, breathless and