Theology

Jessica Channell
Mrs. Zanfini
English 10
December 17, 2012
Critical lens

“...although the world is full of suffering, It is also full of the overcoming of it.” Helen Keller, Optimism 1903

The quote by Helen Keller means even if the world is full of suffering, there is those people that try to get over the fact that it is. One might say lets take the bad of the situation and make it good and that is what the quote means, the hero must take the forces larger than him and be optimistic to overcome them. One may agree with this quote because its takes place in both books Tale of Two Cities by Dickens and Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. In both of the novels the main characters Lucie and Brutus are trying to purify their lives by trying to push the forces larger than them away. In the tale of two cities, Lucie is personified as the “golden thread” meaning that she is going to weave through the people in her life and try to help them. Its ironic that Lucie is characterized by being called the golden thread when Madame Defarge is sewing a hit list. One might also think she is characterized as heroic, not because she actually saved people as in healing them physically but some mentally. Her father is an example of this, he was locked in a cell for almost 18 years and came back calling himself his cell number. One may say she was called the golden thread because every person in her life was influenced by her. Sydney Carton is another of who she influenced and purified by Lucie. he was known for being not a very good person then giving his life for the person that mentally saved him. The one thing Lucie couldn’t control was the war, it was bigger than her It was something she couldn’t help or purify the people.
The overcoming of all her suffering was based on people and setting. In the event of a window in the jail cell, Dickens created this as an escape for Lucie to see her. There he uses setting, It is a way that she can get past what is going on and just sit and watch him. This did help her get over some suffering but it also reassured her what was going on. This connects her with trying to be hero for everyone else but, realizing that this war is bigger than her
In Julius Caesar Brutus was characterized as a noble person also do yo the fact that he is hubris. Being noble and being hubris contradict in brutus’s case. Due to the fact that Brutus has hubris and believed in republic government, Julius wants to take that away by the people crowning him a dictator. Brutus let Cassius get to his head. Brutus had too much pride and Cassius used that for revenge against Caesar. In Brutus’s mind he thought he was being a hero by killing Caesar, but that didn’t work well. Brutus let his pride that was bigger than him get to him, he ended up killing one of his friends and realizing that Cassius wasn’t a good one. This shows the irony and the true characterization of each character to bring out the truth in each other. In the book Cassius is characterized as the antagonist, he is this because he is in the way of Brutus’s thoughts. One may think that pride would be a theme in this book, it is brought up in the main points of the story. For example the death of Caesar was caused by a threat in Brutus’s pride, he didn’t make it any better by having hubris.
The overcoming In Julius Caesar is based on people and setting. The way Brutus gets over suffering is by killing himself. He let his pride get bigger than he was, and that lead to Cassius being the ruler of Rome. It is ironic that Brutus didn’t want Caesar to be ruler, then letting Cassius be ruler. This shows Brutus suffering by him not dealing with the pain of Cassius ruling over himself and bringing down his Grandfather legacy
Both Lucie and Brutus are similar because in both books they want to help the people. Lucie is known as the golden thread and an overall good person. She has been through so much suffering and through all of it she can overcome it. Unlike Brutus when he suffered after trying to make the people better,but doing it in the wrong event. Death either separates people or brings them together, in Lucie’s case brought people together and in Brutus’s case tore people away from him.
In conclusion Brutus was trying to overcome his pain and make better for his people and he did in that he was heroic. As for Lucie she mentally saved people and did better for the people around her and was heroic. The force that they couldn’t control was out of their hands but they both did the best for their situations. In the end the overcame what the could and really prove the quote by Helen Keller by overcoming their fear and suffering to be a better character.