“They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor.”…
How does the narrator’s empathy for human nature and personality help him to achieve his goal? The narrator’s understanding of human nature and character plays an important role in accomplishing his goal. The sinister personality of the narrator, whose name is revealed at the end of the story as Montresor, and his lack of affection toward human kind, makes his goal of killing Fortunato easier for him. Montresor’s urge of revenge against the fortuneless Fortunato shows the evil nature that he possesses, because he wants Fortunato to suffer and knows who is doing it too “It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.” (Poe 144). After Fortunato hurts Montresor a thousand times and insults him, Montresor decides to get revenge and plan the most effective method to get vengeance from Fortunato. As Montresor states in the story “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 144).…
Lastly, he does things for legitimately no apparent reason. When he killed the guy, it was because of how he looked and nothing else. For example, the narrator says, “I loved the old man. He never wronged me. He had never given me an insult.” (542). He brutally, relentlessly murdered the aged man because of his eye, just…
One the narrator’s showcase of conceitedness is displayed through his actions/interactions with others. Upon arriving at the event the narrator is told he will be participating in a battle royal. The narrator relays to the reader “I had some misgivings over the battle royal, by the way. Not from a distaste for fighting but because I didn 't care too much for the other fellows who were to take part. (p.243)” The narrator sees the others as his inferior, as though ignorant to the fact that they are all entertainment. He makes little to any conversation with any of the boys because all that is on his mind is his speech and grandfather’s curse. The persistence shown is shockingly hilarious when the reader reads, “I was limp as a dish rag. My back felt as though it had been beaten with wires… There was still laughter as I faced them, my mouth dry, my eyes throbbing. I began slowly… (p.248)” Had he no respect for his people to walk away from such embarrassment and not deliver this speech? No. His pride was not for his people, but of himself and he was determined to have these men hear his speech. At one point the reader grows concern of whether or not the speech is that important. The reader was surprised by the actions of the narrator, but it is his thoughts that make you question his character.…
What would it take to make Odysseus, the renowned warrior and the pride of all Greece, cry uncontrollably? Surely, he must be put through some sort of extreme physical pain that no other mortal could survive or perhaps he is even forced to watch the horrendous slaughtering of his comrades. But more often than not, it is only mere words and memories, driven on by self-pity, not atrocities committed against his crew, that make Odysseus cry. Instead of acting as a compassionate leader who grieves for his lost friends, Odysseus cries to indulge his own sense of sorrow at his problems, and uses this to gain attention from others. By examining Odysseus' outbreaks of grief, it becomes obvious that his selfishness and pride are at the very heart of the obstacles he has faced on his journey home.…
Beah’s loneliness and grief eventually transformed to anger. Watching his friends die caused his anger to overflow. Consequently, his first kill was complete revenge with no remorse or guilt. Although, to his defense the child soldiers were given drugs and…
Reacting to Agamemnon's threatened seizure of Briseis, Achilles grew angry, almost drawing his sword against the Greeks' military leader. His emotion was expressed as anger against violations of one's honor. There was a huge betrayal of trust between Agamemnon, the commander in…
Similarly to Hardy and Owen, Shakespeare makes war seem a corrupting force both physically and mentally. War turned the Macbeth who was praised by the King, into a Macbeth who was killing people regardless of who they were and also a Macbeth who was disgraced and humiliated in the latter end of his life and after he died. Owen also faced this corrupting force through war, because he says, ‘In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.’ This shows how terrible nightmares and flashbacks are caused by participation in war. A much more unsophisticated version of this corruption can be seen in The Man He Killed because the ‘soldier’ killed a person who had never wronged him in any way and had he had met him outside of war, he would have ‘treat, if met where any bar is, Or help to half a crown.’…
“Comrade, I did not want to kill you…But you were only an idea to before me, and abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was an abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony-forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”~~Page 223…
The history of wars and battles can be dated back almost to the beginning of time and has since been a prominent motif in stories from various cultures and religions. Centuries later, descriptions of fighting styles to warriors to weapons, has greatly evolved. Despite the constant evolution of the ways fighting is portrayed, one thing has remained consistent over the years: the reason for initiating war. When a man’s pride is wounded, the idea that he will stop at nothing to restore it, can be seen throughout literature in many different cultures. Through the malicious and extravagant battles exhibited in The Iliad, the idea that vengeance is sought once an individual's pride has been harmed and can only be resolved by combat, is developed.…
The one and only tragic flaw of the eminent epic hero is that he possesses an excessive amount of pride. Since his status stands as the renowned warrior of the Trojan War, he requires much dignity to support his heroic background. For example, when Odysseus escapes from the dreaded Cyclops with his men, he shouts his name and boasts in victory to have his legacy grow. This action presents his hubris because he jeers and brags that he has indeed defeated the one-eyed monster, "Kyklops, if ever moral man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye..."(IX, 548 - 551). His insults to Polyphemus eventually brings misfortunes and catastrophic disasters on his journey back to Ithaca. Odysseus lessens his heroism value by this because he puts his group and himself in danger, which contradicts the traits of a hero. He should have considered the consequences and the jeopardy of revealing his true identity to Kyklops.…
Like many tragedies, Shakespeare’s Hamlet does not fail to provide readers with tales of fervent, bloody revenge which satisfies the primal impulses of characters in the play, wrought on by unjust murder and a desire for vengeance. With a temperamental demeanor and mercurial mood, Laertes is portrayed in many instances as a brash, near irrational son whose desire to avenge his father’s death leads to both verbal and physical conflict. Even Hamlet himself enjoys his own moments of frustration, slandering his duplicitous and incestuous uncle in private scenes and soliloquies. Unlike many traditional revenge tales, however, Hamlet also illuminates the question of the morality of revenge itself: whether or not the adage of “an eye for an eye” may…
Remorse is the moral anguish, the sorrow and shame, and the regret and guilt, which may haunt even the fiercest, mightiest king. It is often accompanied with the consequences of the individual’s wrongdoing. Remorse takes a principal part in some of Greek’s classic tragedies. One could say, the tragic hero is likely to experience such feelings, likewise in the Greek tragedies Oedipus Rex, rewritten by John Bennett and Moira Kerr, as well as Antigone written by Sophocles, two characters Oedipus and Creon both display signs of remorse. Yet ultimately, it is evident through the emotions displayed, admittance of their sins, and further self imposed retribution, that Oedipus suggests a higher degree of remorse.…
In the first act, Macbeth is a soldier in the army. In the Act 1, Scene 2, the captain explains to the king, that Macbeth has killed the traitor. “Which smoked with bloody execution, like valor's minion carved out his passage till he faced the slave; which nevr shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unseamed him from the nave to the chops” (Act 1 Scene 2: 18-22).The killing of the traitor was the start of Macbeth’s killing spree, also the start of the post traumatic stress disorder. The way Macbeth killed the soldier, was very gruesome. The gory, intense event shocked Macbeth and left a horrible image in his head. Dr. Roxanne Dryden Edwards says “People who are exposed to war combat have been diagnosed with PTSD”. After that death, Macbeth’s next victim was King Duncan, so Macbeth could become king.…
Before lieutenant Henry had experienced the consequences of the cruelty he experienced, he was very loyal to his country and his men. When, for example, he resorted to shooting and killing the engineer who refused to help the men with their army ambulances, Henry was overcome with his duty to his men and thought only of being loyal and dedicated (180). However, as he grew wary and distressed, his ambitions for his cause grew fainter and became unimportant in his mind. The cruelty of the events that unfolded caused for a political upheaval among the army, functioning as a stressor among their job and allowing for a drift away from nationalism. As Henry became more aware of his place in the army, he mentioned, “I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain” (161). With an American heritage and culture in his background, the victim was no longer a nationally motivated lieutenant due to the political factor of cruelty, shot soldier on 180. The political factor primarily impacted the solider and the army, by creating a less motivated group of men in the pursuit of Italian victory.…