Comparing Ovid's Metamorphosis: The Nature And The World

Nature can do, visually, almost anything to mankind; however, man still tries their hardest to defy and go against nature. In Things Fall Apart, the people of Umuofia and other places use gods and goddesses as a way to describe what nature does to them. They say the gods and goddesses will punish for misdemeanors or reward for virtues. In all honesty the people of Umuofia just cover up the fact that nature is in charge

Ovid's Metamorphoses is filled with erotic love stories between gods and humans. Many of these stories feature male gods with a strong sex drive for female mortals. Some of these stories also contain the rape of the female mortals by the male gods who wish to sleep with them, one story specifically being the story of Jove and Io. In this tale, Jove rapes Io and turns her into a hefer to conceal her identity. As no surprise, Io does not agree with Jove's actions and is grief stricken during her life as a hefer.

The three themes present in these tales of creation are chaos, sin, and transformation. From the beginning we see how God brings order to chaos, not creation out of nothing. Chaos is the primordial state of existence in Greek myth, and hence, these stories have an immense effect on the way people think of the universe. Chaos has a pervasive presence not only in the physical world but also in the lives and actions of human beings as Lycaon’s case represents. Ovid described Chaos as “a huge agglomeration of upset”. By separating and transforming material object and living being, the creator god imposes rational order on unruly matter. Thus, transformation is another important theme in these tales of creation. This shows that the Greco-Roman community

When individuals are rejected by family and society, they tend to feel abandoned and unloved. In Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s transformation into a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1) results in him being psychologically and even physically abused by his family. Rejection from his mother, sister, and father leave Gregor feeling unwanted and feeling as if he is a terrible burden on the family and their well being.

Titan’s inspiration of Adonis and Venus originated in the story of Ovid’s “Metamorphosis”. Overall, it’s a love story between Goddess Venus and Adonis. The artwork display movement as Venus attempts to stop Adonis from meeting his fate before he died hunting a boar while his dogs eagerly wait. His interpretation took reference from Greek mythology and other mythical stories during the renaissance. Nearly 100 years later, Rueben was inspired by Titan’s original theme. Based on his composition and the position of the lovers are strikingly similar. Despite the similarity, the different eras also cause great contrasts on how each artist interprets their version.

Love in itself is a very complicated emotion, being either the driving force for a great blessing or a pressing burden. When comparing the surrealist chronicle, The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, and the down-to-earth short story Samsa in Love, written by Haruki Murakami, this idea truly takes form. The Metamorphosis is the story of Gregor Samsa, a young man who works vigorously to support his disconnected family. One morning, Samsa awakens to find spontaneously himself transformed into a giant cockroach. No longer able to support them, the roles are flipped and Gregor is now being cared for and quickly becomes a burden on his family. On the other hand, Samsa in Love transforms Kafka’s original story as in this version, Gregor Samsa

However, Ovid uses these human emotions in regards to the commitment found in ‘Ceyx and Alcyone’ in book eleven to emphasize the similar nature found in some species of animals. The focus of the story of Ceyx and Alcyone is the love and commitment shared between them. Even as Ceyx is on the verge of death “his lips call on his wife… he thinks again, again of her” and his last wish is that the waves bring his body to the shore of his home “where he may yet be seen by his Alcyone and she, with love, may bury his dead body.” It is the moment that Ceyx’s body floats to shore that Alcyone “tore her cheeks, her hair, her robe” in intense grieving, which is when she turns into a bird. At this moment, where Alcyone is grieving, Ovid writes “her mouth… gave forth such sounds as seemed to come from one who knew lament and grief.” This comment serves to note that while the connection between humans and animals does not go as far as animals grieving for the loss of life for a human, it does include commitment. As soon as the gods take pity on their relationship, they turn Ceyx into a similar bird as Alcyone to ensure that “one wed, they still were wed” and the emotional commitment to each other stayed true and strong despite their transformation into monogamous

In one word, the author Ovid describes the overall content and theme of his poem with the word “Metamorphoses” in the title. Some relative synonyms of this word among others are; altar, change, mutate, develop, and reshape (metamorphose). But Ovid goes further to describe the theme within the first two lines of the poem.

Frank Kafka is considered one of the most influential writers of all time. Helmut Richter would agree with this statement. Richter agreed that Kafka was a very prominent figure in world literature and was amazed by his mechanics and word usage. I feel that his essay is supportive of Kafka’s writing, but also leaves out many important details in its brevity. Richter did not include Kafka’s flaws and tendencies in his essay.

Firstly, the gods are distinguished from the humans strictly by their immortality, which is made clear throughout the epic. The gods often punish the humans when they do not act in the way that the gods wish, though the gods act in the same way (and sometimes even worse still.) It is apparent that Ovid his little respect for the gods because of this, which is why he does not agree with the deification of Julius Caesar. When Jupiter brings together a council of the gods to discuss the removal of the human race, he speaks of Lycaon, a man who was meant to kill Jove, but instead murdered another and ate his flesh (I.216-251). Lycaon was turned into a wolf, though Jupiter describes the man as maintaining the same beast-like spirit and tendencies, of which Jupiter states, ‘“Let them all/ Pay quickly the price they deserve- this is my edict”’ (I.250-251). This description compares to Jove’s own beast-like nature when he chased down Io who refuted his advances. When Io refused to lay with him, Jove took advantage of her and then transformed her into a cow to avoid ridicule from his wife Juno. This sort of hypocrisy makes it understandable why Ovid had little respect for the gods, and why he disapproved of Julius Caesar’s deification. There is no purpose for another god if the gods themselves contain the same human-like traits that they so very often condemn.

Transformations from one shape or form into another are the central theme in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The popularity and timelessness of this work stems from the manner of story telling. Ovid takes stories relevant to his culture and time period, and weaves them together into one work with a connecting theme of transformation throughout. The thread of humor that runs through Metamorphoses is consistent with the satire and commentary of the work. The theme is presented in the opening lines of Metamorphoses, where the poet invokes the gods, who are responsible for the changes, to look favorably on his efforts to compose. The changes are of many kinds: from human to animal, animal to human, thing to

Ovid's "Metamorphoses" is sometimes argued as a non-epic as well as a true epic. It is mainly viewed as a non-epic because Ovid's subject matter is far from the heroic themes of the "Illiad", "Odyssey", and the "Aeneid" (Keith 237). Ovid was different and was motivated to push the epic beyond its previous boundaries (Ovid). Perhaps in hopes to confirm the structure of his work, Ovid declares that he will undertake "one continuous song in many thousands of verses" (Keith 238-239). Ovid's wording here is a self-conscious declaration that he is going to write in the epic mode.

Metamorphosis In the short story, Metamorphosis, the narrator describes Gregor’s new life as an insect. He then goes on to describe Gregor’s sister, Grete, with a reflection of Gregor’s opinion in the description. Kafka employs a number of stylistic devices including descriptive imagery, metaphors, and symbolism in the passage to describe the situation.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a novella that begins with an absurd concept. A man wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. While this concept for a story is certainly absurd, Kafka contrasts this plot with a rather dull, plain narrative. It may initially seem novel to explain a ridiculous situation in a simple manner, but this causes the novella to be quite boring.

This story "The Metamorphosis" is about Gregor, a workaholic, who is changed into an insect and must then deal with his present reality. The hardest part of being an insect for him was the alienation from his family, which eventually leads to his death. In reading the short story "The Metamorphosis," (1971),one can realize how small the difference is between Magical Realism and Fantastic. This literature written by the Austrian, Franz Kafka, is often debated over.