Narcissus Research Paper

Uncommon within the preponderance of Olympian gods, with the exclusion of the rather tenacious Zeus. His romantic escapades were frequent and never too long since his last. However, no action goes without consequence. This can be perceived in its prime within the myth of Echo and Narcissus. In this instance, Zeus uses the help of a nymph named Echo, “To keep Hera occupied with gossip while Zeus crept away on one his romantic escapades” (Head 27). It is shown that Zeus fully aware of the rash and unforeseeable acts of Hera, left Echo vulnerable and susceptible. Suspectedly, when Hera unearths the truth she is prevaded with outrage; unable to vent her ferocity with Zeus she condemns Echo to a life without a voice. Able only to repeat the sounds she had previously heard. Consequently, it is evident that there are numerous cases of infidelity each holding its own

She is a “bewitching nymph” and “lustrous goddess” (206). She forces Odysseus to stay with her as her lover for many years. Odysseus was able to escape from the Cyclops’ cave. However, neither his strength nor his cunning can free him from Calypso. He is doomed to remain there until the gods intervene. Women’s irresistible charm leads Odysseus to disaster.

In contrast to all of these women, the most significant type of woman in ancient Greek society that is portrayed in the poem is the good, intelligent and faithful woman. Among the mortal women in the poem, a few who represent this type of woman are Queen Arete, Nausicaa, and Penelope. Queen Arete and Nausicaa are very helpful to Odysseus when he arrives to their land. Nausicaa finds him and guides him to find his way to Queen Arete and King Alcinous. Once he finds his way there, Queen Arete is very hospitable, and she helps him find his way home to Ithaca. Penelope, however, is the most significant female character in The Odyssey. Through her actions, she proves to be a very wise and clever woman. She continuously stays faithful to her husband for twenty years of his absence. Over the whole period of Odysseus’ absence, she leads the suitors on by devising plans to keep them there, continues to receive gifts, and gains wealth while she waits for her husband’s return. Even after his return, she is wise enough to be cautious and test him to be sure that he is really her husband. After this all occurs, she becomes famous for her wisdom, intelligence, and cleverness. When Agamemnon is speaking to one of the suitors in the Land of the Dead, he says, “what a fine, faithful wife [Odysseus] won! What good sense resided in [his] Penelope—…The fame of her great virtue will never die. The immortal gods will lift a song for all mankind, a glorious song in

The nymph, Calypso, is a prime example of the use of sexuality by women in this story. Calypso has Odysseus held captive on her island, and attempts to make him stay there and become immortal, to be her mate. Calypso is looked upon negatively by the gods for having slept with a mortal man, but Calypso wishes for Odysseus to be made immortal by the gods and to stay with her on the island, as was done for Dawn. Calypso is a nymph, described as lustrous and queenly. Since she has kept him captive, Odysseus won’t believe her at first when she tells him he is being let go to journey home. She has kept him on her island, and in her bed, and kept him from the wife he loves. And even before he leaves the island, she makes him sleep with her one last time.

In a similar manner, Odysseus is shown with numerous female suitors and comparisons to the gods. Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa are all women with an exceptionally high social status who show interest in Odysseus at some point in the book. Although it was partially because of his guile, it was almost equally because of his physical appearance. Nausicaa in particular displays this. When she first sees Odysseus she is horrified, but once he has bathed, she wants to marry him. Odysseus is also compared to the gods, just like Penelope. There are numerous accounts of characters using the phrase “god-like” to describe Odysseus or comparing his stance or figure to that of a god’s. Small pieces of evidence like this are scattered throughout the book, but the comparison of Odysseus to a god is most notable in Book Nineteen, when Penelope is talking about her dream. “This great hook-beaked eagle,” and ,”I once was the eagle but now I am your beloved husband,” are found in the description of the dream (407, 408). The eagle is the

The most unforgivable and important women in the epic are Penelope, wife of Odysseus, Anticleia, Odysseus' grieving mother and Naussica, a king’s young daughter. Also such female characters such as Arete, Circe, Calypso, Helen and Athena also play major roles, as well. The women help to understand the backgrounds of why these women were memorable regarding Ancient Greece.

“For two hours tonight, he sits in between his parents with his arms spread out and draped behind their backs. He holds the tops of each of their heads and they nod and blankly drone on about what a wonder and a gift

Our ID ego is our wants and needs. If these needs and wants are not met we become a

In spite of the fact that neither Penelope nor Jocasta is the protagonist in the two great works Odyssey and Oedipus, the two characters both play important roles in driving the plots ahead, significantly contributing to the completely different fates of their husbands, Odysseus and Oedipus. Jocasta is a typical representative of the group of women who are passive and dependent. She inevitably falls victim to the male world, in that she fades into the background of the play and is marginalized under the masculine value system. Penelope, on the contrary, is a model of the active and dynamic female image. She is intelligent and courageous enough to act on her own free will and to display her talents at the center of the male stage. Instead of complying to the given adversity, she withstands the pressure of public opinions and takes initiative to convert her unfavorable situation. Consequently, the successful return of Odysseus and the miserable banishment of Oedipus are not unpredictable under these circumstances. The sharply contradictory decisions of Penelope and Jocasta illustrate evidently the remarkable influences the wives have on their husbands’ destinies.

In High Fidelity and Wonder Boys we see characters faced with the struggle of self-image while simultaneously having over inflated egos. Often Rob and Grady are seen treating others poorly and with little respecting, probing the question if that is a reflection of how they feel about themselves. Rob has very little admiration for women, but yet always feels the need to have a companion by his side. Grady and Rob are similar in the sense that they want to always have someone by their side, but can not seem to keep a woman because of their careless manner. These men have a sense narcissism that seems almost too atrocious for one to possess, but leads you questioning whether their narcissism really stems from a lack of self-confidence.

Narcissism is the inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. The term, "narcissism" comes, of course, from the Greek myth of Narcissus. Narcissus shunned all the other nymphs until one of them prayers to the goddess of love and made a request that someday narcissus would feel the joy and pain of love. The goddess granted the wish to the nymph and narcissus soon would understand the joy and pain of love. Narcissus went to get a drink of water and saw the most the most beautiful face that he had ever seen; he plunged in to kiss the face but could because it was his own reflection. Narcissus had fallen in love with his self. He lost all importance of food, movement or anything. Narcissus was cursed with the love of his

Dorian is the modern Narcissus because both shares many aspects like the beauty aspects that in fact they always love. In the case of Narcissus, he always stared at his reflection in the wellspring while Dorian stared at the picture. With this quote we can see that Dorian stares the picture because it gives motivation and also admiration of his

The most complex female, more than any other female character in the Odyssey, is the wife of Odysseus, Penelope. From one perspective, she portrays the motherly-type or good wife characteristics, but from another view, she has traits, or certain feminine qualities, that expose her as being a type of seductress, as well. Other female characters shown to have the seductress qualities come about later in the Odyssey, such as Clymenstra. Penelope starts off as a mother in the story. Further along, she grabbed the attention of the suitors in the palace, showing them that she is mourning her lost love, in an obvious manner. There is a point in the story where one of the bards of the palace begins singing about the suicidal battles that took place; this lead her to assume that her husband, Odysseus, has, forever, vanished into the after-life and begins to publicly weep for him. Telemachus, Penelope’s son, and presumably heir to the throne, has to bring rise to his masculine presence and his sense of leadership to, finally, bring her back to her senses. Telemachas says to his

“As ill as I am, I am/ But with all that’s well I’ll yell/ Good god, what the hell, what the fuck/ A white dove on the hood of a two-ton truck.” That’s what I think of _Eileen_. Skillful details throughout but good god, what the hell, what the fuck? Nice ring to it, right? Yoni Wolf lyric. I brought it up because I wrote a paper on him and Edgar Allan Poe analyzing the use of their appealing rhythm with grotesque/objectifying themes. Humor is appealing, obviously. But another trait I find appealing and suitable for these protagonists is their narcissism. _Eileen_ was definitely that, and with the blend of her moody humor and awful lifestyle, readers keep reading because in the end, we still want to play the game (will only use this “expression”

The story of Echo and Narcissus is that Echo was a young beautiful mountain Nymph who was known to be a bit of a chatterbox. Zeus, the King of the Olympian gods, had numerous love affairs with all kings of women, his wife Hera Queen of the Olympians had no idea of this. One day Echo was talking to Hera and while Echo was chattering to Hera, Zeus went out and fooled around with some of the mountain Nymphs. Hera then finally noticed this and was furious, but she knew better than to start a war with Zeus, so she took her anger out on Echo. Hera assumed that because Echo was distracting her with chatter, Echo must of had something going on with Zeus, so therefore she must be punished by that (myths.e2bn.org).