Edward Field Icarus

The two myths, Phaethon and Daedalus and Icarus, describe the fatal mistake of 2 foolishly ambitious young boys. Throughout the two texts the authors, Bernard Evslin and Geraldine McCaughrean, who respectively rewrote Phaethon and Daedalus and Icarus, use the literary elements of characterization and imagery to convey their shared theme. Through the use of characterization and imagery, both mythological protagonists, Phaethon and Icarus, demonstrate a common lesson that a prideful disregard of the warnings from those who are older and wiser can quickly lead to disastrous consequences.

In the poem “Icarus” by Edward Field is alluding to the myth of Icarus and Daedalus which is set in a contemporary setting. The poem takes a spin on the myth were instead of Icarus drowning, he is set in today 's world as the fall of the great hero, nothing but an ordinary man. It reveals that Icarus cannot handle being just ordinary and “wishes he had drowned.” (line 30). Through imagery, diction and irony Fields uses a contemporary setting to convey the life of Icarus who is living as a man who once achieved greatness.

Myths explain our circumstances in the world and the universe. A prime example of this is the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Pieter Brueghel painted a picture decrypting the moment of Icarus fall from the heavens. And the two poets William Carlos Williams and W. H. Auden each wrote a poem based on Brueghel's painting, both of which developed a deep meaningful message to the reader. Diction, connotation, and denotation are all used to help describe the emotions and tragedies that Brueghel's painting portrays. These poems are written based on the myth of Icarus.

            To identify the tragic hero in Sophocles’ renowned play “Antigone”, we should first consider both the elements present in Greek tragedies and what characteristics define a tragic hero. Aristotle’s definition of tragedy is: “Tragedy is a story taking the hero from happiness to misery because of a fatal flaw or mistake on his part. To be a true tragic hero he must also elicit a strong emotional response of pity and fear from the audience. This is known as catharsis or purging of emotion.” In most cases the tragic hero begins

Arthur Miller’s play Death of A Salesman demonstrates the life of a man facing troubles within himself and society. A tragedy is the imitation of an action that arouses fear and pity. This play could be considered a tragedy because it depicts the downfall of a perfect family and outlines the deterioration of a man’s life. A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, is someone who exemplifies great importance or heroic qualities; however, Arthur Miller views the tragic hero as someone who struggles heroically with life. Using Arthur Miller’s definition, it can be determined that Willy Loman is a tragic hero. Even though Willy Loman does not fit the classical view of a tragic hero, he is in fact a modern day tragic hero because of his error in judgment, a reversal of fortune, and his excessive pride.

With this quote, it shows Icarus’ immaturity, foolish and playfulness when it comes to his father’s inventions and his life. Icarus is a young boy which is evident from the quote above because he is playing with the wax and watching and admiring his dad. If it was an older boy, he’d probably be off by himself or helping his father with his inventions instead of playing with the wax in the wings. Icarus is an innocent boy who doesn’t understand the importance of being responsible. Not being responsible leads him to his death, which could have been avoided if he had paid attention to what his father had told him. Icarus got swept up in the moment when he was flying, and lost all of his thoughts which lead him to the mistake of flying too high.

How can two people watch or read the same story and yet, interpret it completely differently? Does it have to do with the author’s intentions, or maybe it has to do with the viewers’ own backgrounds and ideologies? Whatever the case may be, viewing one piece of work can lead to a wide array of opinions and critiques. It is through the diversity of such lenses that Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller has become one of the most well-known plays in modern history. There are many different ways in which a play can be criticized, however, criticisms from the approaches of a Marxist and reader-response will be utilized to further dissect Death of a Salesman. Marxist criticism sees pieces of works as a struggle between different socioeconomic classes; what better way to see Miller’s play than for what it is at face value, the struggle of a middle-class man trying to achieve the American dream (1750). On the other hand, a reader-response criticism comes from either an objective or subjective view; in this case Death of a Salesman will be viewed with a subjective lens based on Willy’s deteriorating mental health (1746).

Retributive justice is a very common element found not only in literature but in almost all text that tries to evoke moral values. A nemetic ending is often used to provide the reader or spectator the satisfaction of seeing the hero be rewarded for his or her virtuous actions. Alternatively, the evil or malicious characters are usually punished thanks to the hero 's actions and thus brings a somewhat “happy ending” to the conflict. Many authors and playwrights would mostly hesitate to bring an unpleasant end to their stories so that the audience may leave their seats with a more positive outlook on the play. Nevertheless, it might be debatable if a standardized nemetic ending would transmit a more poignant message to the spectators, numerous plays that do not follow this norm are well known to have a very similar, if not equal, impact. To illustrate this tactic, we will mostly focus on the ending of “Snow in Midsummer” by Guan Hanqing that may end in a slightly ambiguous note rather than directly rewarding our hero Dou Er. Henceforth, we will also look over the case of Oedipus the King by Sophocles, that challenges the ideal retributive justice at the end of the play. We, as spectators, have a desire to connect with the characters and the issues they try to get through, as long as the heroes remain praiseworthy and villains fall and get defeated.

For the Loman family, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the titular man and his family fail to redeem themselves or even learn any valuable lessons. After presenting two acts full of pure human misery and dysfunction, Miller leaves us with little to no hope for the characters or the world they live in. The play is supposed to be a stunning takedown of the “American Dream”– a work made for the common man. Yet it just left me feeling completely bereft of joy or hope. As a person who considers herself a tentative optimist, works like Death of a Salesman upset me immensely– I usually end up throwing the book aside, frustrated at the hopeless situations and dilemmas. While Death of a Salesman is undoubtedly an important work, I failed to make a connection with it because of its bleak pessimism and unrelatable characters.

  Willy Loman, the title character of the play, Death of Salesman, exhibits all the characteristics of a modern tragic hero. This essay will support this thesis by drawing on examples from Medea by Euripedes, Poetics by Aristotle, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, while comments by Moss, Gordon, and Nourse reinforce the thesis.

The poem “Icarus” by Edward Field explores the downfall of a man named Icarus from glory to mediocrity. He crossed the sea with huge wings to escape prison, but he flew too close to the sun, which melted his wings, causing him to fall into the ocean. Field uses several literary devices, such as connotation, alliteration, metonymy, and repetition, to adapt the Icarus myth to a contemporary setting.

Oedipus is one of the most famous tragic heroes in drama history. His bizarre fate leads him to a tragic defeat that leaves the audience and reader feeling emotionally overwhelmed. According to Aristotle’s definition, Oedipus’ story makes him as a tragic hero. Oedipus is the personification of Aristotle’s characterization of a tragic hero through his ability to maintain and keep his virtue and wisdom, despite his shortcomings and situation in life. Aristotle’s observation of a tragic hero does not reveal the lack of morality or the evil of the character, based on an error in judgment. The tragedy and drama fit the Aristotelian characteristics of Oedipus.

In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.

Arthur Miller presents his play ‘Death of a Salesman’ in the ancient form of a tragedy. Aristotle has defined his idea of the ‘perfect’ tragedy in his text, ‘Poetics’ (350 BC).Here he suggests that the protagonist must fall from an elevated social standing as a result of a “fatal flaw” within the character; the fall from the main character creates resolution to the play which is seen as just; finally, Aristotle identified that the action of the drama should take place within a 24hour timeframe. An ancient play which is believed to be the perfect tragedy is Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. ‘Death of a Salesman’ is definitely a tragic play, but is Willy

Around 60 BCE, the ancient Greek writer Diodorus wrote the story of Icarus, in which the son of Daedalus ignored his father’s warnings, and after flying too close to the sun plunged to his death as the wax holding his wings together melted. While the story incorporates themes of human nature and curiosity, it more importantly conveys a lesson of unchecked ambition. Whether it is for wealth or a better future, humans tend to strive for what is best for themselves in life. Unfortunately, unchecked ambition often ends with poor results, as seen in the story of Icarus. Centuries later, ambition remains a prominent theme in literature, and authors have utilized this natural human trait in countless stories and novels. Two authors who do so are Charles Dickens in his book Great Expectations, and M.L. Stedman in The Light Between Oceans. In both novels, unchecked ambition affects different characters negatively.