Choose one of the questions below for your essay response,Your paper should be 5 typed, double-spaced pages. Remember to support your opinions by reference to the texts, and be sure to include at least 6 quotations from the literary texts. Please see the (attached) English Department’s rubric for the grading criteria. I have sample essay outlines for the majority of questions #1 – 8 and will post these detailed outlines throughout the next few weeks. Did you know that you can submit a revised essay as often as you wish until you get your desired grade? I’m happy to accept revisions anytime.
Achilles set the model for a kind of heroism still immensely influential in the imagination of the West. His rage, egotism, and the motives that drive his tragic, obsessive behavior are compelling. Who is the true hero of the Iliad – Achilles or Hector?
Both Achilles and Hector are heroic, courageous, and vulnerable. Both realize that they are fated to die, although they are helped by the gods. The semi-divine proud runner and the Trojan warrior have strengths of character and possess positive characteristics as well as flaws. Compare and contrast these two Homeric heroes.
Consider the presentation of the gods in Homer’s epic poem. What is the gods’ role? Do they control humans? Do humans have free will? Are the gods simply fickle, or do they support some essential order?
It is the actions and circumstances of “the great godlike runner” Achilles which drive the plot of Homer’s epic poem, and without the rage of “blazing” Achilles, there would be no Iliad; his wrath, fire, and overweening pride fuel the Trojan war, and although the fierce Greek warrior is flawed, he acts within a certain moral compass and is only motivated to seek vengeance after being harmed by others. The archetypal hero Achilles – a demigod who possesses an uncontrollable temper and can be vengeful, pitiless, and cruel – is the inspiration for countless modern-day heroes whose motivation to act is based on rage. This story of the flawed and deeply wronged hero, motivated by fury, has since become a common narrative of modern-day story telling of the west and can be found in many action films, such as in John Wick, where, intruders kill the dog of a former hit man, causing him to go on a ‘justified’ murdering rampage. The hero of Kill Bill, another flawed, former assassin, goes on a killing spree after being wronged by her former boss. Compare/ contrast Achilles to the heroes of one of these modern day films.
Although Medea is a woman, Euripides has presented her as a figure previously thought of as exclusively male – a hero. Analyze her character in the play as a combination of the salient qualities of Achilles.
Sophocles’ Antigone is both admirable and troubling as a heroine, and despite characters’ statements to the contrary, she reveals the power and influence that women in the Greek culture held. She defies Creon, the guard, and the law of Thebes, and through her actions, she gains the sympathy of of the populace, her sister, Tiresias, and Haimon. While her determination and independence are admirable, Antigone’s apparently self-destructive resignation (she does not try to escape her punishment or to deny the charges that are made against her) lends a complexity to her character that is troubling. Are you sympathetic to her character?
Despite their marked differences, Sophocles’ Antigone and Creon also share similarities as both are stubbornly loyal to their values, both are powerful figures, and both characters are outsiders. Compare and contrast these two characters from Sophocles’ Antigone.
Compare the chorus in the two Greek tragedies.
Choose one of the questions below for your essay response,Your paper should be 5
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