Confessions in the Ovid's Metamorphoses Essay

it. There was a faint sign of rebellion hidden behind this idea..." (Politzer, 76-77) All of

Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses nearly two thousand years ago and Dante wrote Purgatorio 1600 years after that - two pieces of literature that dealt with topics which transcend humanity's perceived reality. Each piece of literature attempts to arrive at a truth concerning the essence of human existence, Dante seeks answers within the confines of Catholic dogma while Ovid approaches existence from a paganistic perspective. This demonstrates two very different approaches to the same exact query. Mankind has questioned the existence of a metaphysical realm for generations and consequently shapes the nature of the supernatural world.

The Metamorphosis, a story written by Franz Kafka, is about the sudden transformation of Gregor Samsa into a bug. The narrator describes how Gregor’s transformation negatively affects his work, family, and social relationships; it also takes readers through Gregor’s journey of trying to regain his humanity. Throughout the story, Gregor denies his loss of humanity and attempts to preserve his previous work and family relationships because these relationships make up a great deal of his identity. Throughout his life as a bug, Gregor realizes just how much of an influence his work and family have on who he is, and life becomes difficult for him now that he is letting down both his family and his

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.

Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” is an allegory to human pride and limitation. The story describes the skills of Arachne, a young girl who is extremely skilled at weaving. As a result of her talent, Arachne was very prideful and often acclaimed that her work was better than that of celebrated goddess, Pallas. Pallas, however, detested this and therefore disguised herself as an old woman and challenged Arachne to a weaving contest. Pallas warns Arachne that “experience comes from lengthened years,” although, stubbornly, Arachne stands her ground. Due to Arachne’s misguided self-righteousness, she believes that her work is god-like. This however, is not exactly the case.

In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregory Samsa is transformed into a giant bug. He wakes and wonders what has happened to him. As he is trying to get out of bed his mother comes to his door reminding him that he has to be at work. This alarmed others in the home so his father comes to check on him, then his sister, she whispered ‘“Gregory, open the door, please”’ (Kafka, 2006, p.1968). He is trying every way he can to get himself together to get out of bed but is finding it difficult as he doesn’t know what to do with this body. As he is trying to make his way out of bed his boss the chief clerk has shown up at his house wondering why he has not left for work. All of these people are standing outside his bedroom door wondering why it is

Julian E. Wright Dr. Sharon Fulton Literature Humanities/Essay 1 27 February 2014 Violence in Dante’s Inferno and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Scenes of great violence, as the prompt says, are often written into dynamic narratives of great literary merit. From Dante Alighieri’s Inferno to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the inclusion of violence as a literary technique is used to propel the narrative forward, all while adding action, intrigue, and engaging the reader. Despite it’s validity as a literary technique, the inclusion of violent scenes in literature serve much more than the simple purpose of pushing a plot along a set of structured points. Scenes of violence provoke thought in areas ranging from human nature to the nature of

In “The Odyssey”, the protagonist Odysseus must face a series of obstacles throughout a 20 year journey back to his homeland of Ithaca. A surprising number of obstacles involve women in some way or form, either as a mortal or a goddess. The women present some form of danger Odysseys must work his way around. “The Odyssey” presents women as dangerous beings, an interesting contrast of the ancient greek view of women of their era. Through characters such as Helen, Calypso, Kirke or the sea monsters, we see how each provides some sort of danger that must be surpassed by the protagonist Odysseus and how “The Odyssey” portrayal of such women provide a commentary by Homer on the social view of Greek women of the era.

Perspectives, ideals and concepts offered to the reader through mythology come from a context of the time and place of which it was written. Atwood uses intertextual subversion to highlight and contrast the bias and distortion that has taken place in the original telling of the odyssean myth. Odysseus’s unsympathetic adultery “”, psychopathic tendencies “”

Justice, what is justice?  Is justice the administration of law, a way to punish the wrong, create an example for the spectators? Yes, Indeed, by definition justice is the administration of law, it is to push the wrongdoers according to laws. However, in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, “justice” is not just at all. Females are given a harsher punishment than males. Demigods are punished while other gods are not. In Metamorphosis justice is controlled by the superior (the gods), while the inferior (mortals) are always punished whether they committed a crime or not. For example,the story of Io, she was a fair nymph who caught the eye of Jupiter (Zeus), and was punished for many days. This story is one of the many that Ovid writes about in Metamorphosis, where a human or female was punished without fault.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka was first published in 1915, it portrayed a man named Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who is the sole income for his family. He awakes one morning to find out that he turns into a bug. Gregor, facing an unpleasant job leaves no time for himself. The pressure of time and intense monetary ambition of the economic driven world drives Gregor to feel alienated from himself, as well as his family, because of his commitment to provide for them. Gregor’s removal from humanity transcends from his private life into the public realm by impacting his experience and social life.

At first glance, Tales from Ovid appears just to be a compilation of disturbing narratives. It is as if Ted Hughes, finding nothing better to do, decided to try his hand at awfully vivid writing. There doesn't seem to be any clear pattern in the stories. But maybe we are searching a bit too deep for meaning. Reading Ovid is about accepting the terrible things that could happen and do happen.

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.

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.

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