Ibsen's Ghosts Vs. Aristotle's Poetics Essay

1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot.

"Sure God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft before the final masterpiece." Author unknown. It is indeed hard to imagine or comprehend such a quote in a society where women are often portrayed as sex symbols and sex objects. Media is one of the major sources for gender depictions in our society and it has played a major role in placing unfathomable gender roles on women in regards to how they are to behave, and address themselves within a society. The gender depictions of women in our society are truly very saddening and mind-blowing!

boldness, bravery and , unyielding morals are all extremely important to her role in the play.

No matter what a woman did or thought, she was still seen as the lesser of the sexes.

Disadvantage may indeed be an excuse; it is not, however, an intellectual position. Rather, using as a vantage point their situation as underdogs in the realm of grandeur, and outsiders in that ideology, women can reveal institutional and intellectual weaknesses in general, and at the same time that they destroy false consciousness,

Merchant’s representations claim that “both nature and women are subordinate and essentially passive” furthering the proof that women are held at a lower standard than men (Merchant 9).

     Several ministers attended the second day of the Woman's Rights Convention, and were not shy in voicing their opinion of man's superiority over women. One claimed "superior intellect", one spoke of the "manhood of Christ," and still another referred to the "sin of our first mother."

accomplishments that built her to be the well known figure she is today and this proves how hard

Thesis: The themes and context in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston demonstrate how women were represented as inferior to men.

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.

is like no other woman in the book or indeed of her time and by

expressed by J.P. Mahaffy when he states: ?This equality upon the position of women is

Only then can we engage in mutual dialogue that does not reduce each one of us to instances of the abstraction called woman. (Ibid. 30)

Our lives are build out of experiences. Depending on where we live, what we are going through, or our state of mind, we build our personal lives by making some concessions and adjustments in order to cope with others. In the play GHOST by Henrik Ibsen, Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders are two characters whose stories differ because of secrets, misunderstandings, and masquerade.

Ibsen also employs the use of many smaller themes within his play, A Doll House. Respect and reputation, love, lies and deceit, and money are just a few of these smaller themes. Respect and reputation are something that the men of this play are obsessed with. Some of the men have good standing in society and would do anything to keep it. While other men have lost their good name and would go to great lengths to get it back. Even though the play is set in a private home, the reader knows that the public eye is constantly peeking in. Another important theme that Ibsen puts in to this play is love. He uses the