Redcrosse In The First Canto Of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene

Everyone is in control of their actions. One must be held accountable for . Sometimes though, fear can infiltrate one’s mind and block their ability to make rational decisions. In John Connolly’s “The Book of Lost Things”, it is evident that fear plays a large role in how David, Beauty and Beast find love and how the King and wicked Queen in Snow-white rule their kingdoms. Some overcome their fears while others allow it to consume them and cloud their judgement.

Envy is a sin that poisons the sinner and is self-destructive in nature. The common perception of envy is that it is an emotion that, much like jealousy, that comes from a desire to possess something that someone else has. However, envy goes a step further and causes an individual to not only desire what someone else has, but to also wish that the other person did not have it at all. Spenser uses the conventional view of envy stated above in conjunction with some unconventional imagery in order to elaborate on the nature and implications of being an envious person. In doing this Spenser is able to teach to reader an aspect of envy that they may not already know or understand. In his portrayal of envy in book one of The Faerie Queene, Spenser is trying to convey to his readers that people who are envious are trapped in and endless cycle of envy that leads to nothing but unhappiness and misery. Spenser’s interpretation of envy, like the other deadly sins in the house of pride, can be broken down into 4 images: the animal that he rides, his appearance, how he behaves, and the ailment he has. This paper will use the first three of these images to show how Spenser’s depiction of Envy is meant to teach the reader that the sin of envy can only lead to perpetual unhappiness and misery.

Candide, with his innocent optimism, taught the reader that there isn’t always a silver lining; Irene Redfield proved that one’s judgement and actions don’t always go hand-in-hand; Bob Hicok illustrated that, despite all of one’s observations, hope can still be found. These lessons were brought to us, for the most part, through observations which these narrators had seen and experienced. The lessons found in these texts also show the hypocrisy which these characters have, despite their observations and experiences, still permeates their beliefs and morals. To begin, it would be best to know what observation entails: the term “observation” means “the action or process of observing something or someone carefully or in order to gain information” or, in fewer words, gaining knowledge through watching the world around us. The use of such vivid imagery and observation has long been a powerful weapon in the arsenal of great writers, like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling, and has brought about multiple lessons and teachings for people throughout the ages. The narrator’s observations in Voltaire’s “Candide, or Optimism”, Larson’s “Passing” and Hicok’s “Go Greyhound” allows them to realize their own hypocrisy and disconnect between their actions/experiences and beliefs.

By the end of the journey, it is obvious the narrative is a tragedy. The author has formed this safety blanket,

The use of magical occurrences or fantasy in Brockmeier’s story plays a crucial role in the development of the overall moral lesson in the story.

When Swami Sivananda said, “A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.” He was correct because every microscopic action that we commit has an unintended consequence. Some consequences, are good. Other consequences, on the other hand, can be miserable. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore, both stories exhibit that each choice a person makes has a consequence, good or bad.

As one develops, the values that he/she support mature in sync with mental, physical, and emotional developments. With this maturation, individuals create a moral code that is based on the values and beliefs that are deemed most important. Whether the creation of this code of conduct is intentional or not, it nonetheless serves as a guide for the way in which one behaves. These moral codes ensure the maintenance of order within one’s own life. By token of consideration, Raymond Chandler’s “Red Wind” follows Philip Marlowe as he subscribes to a moral code of chaotic good, wherein he behaves in a seemingly unprincipled manner. However, he does so as a mode of ultimately serving the common good. Comparatively, society as a whole also creates regulations to live by with the intention of maintaining order amongst the masses. The court of law, for example, ensures that individuals behave ethically and in favour of the common good. Without these general regulations, society succumbs to chaos. With reference to the text, the world that Marlowe lives in is one that supports moral systems that are in opposition to his own. The interaction between one’s personal values (moral code) and social sanctions (e.g. the law and societal ideals), may result in a shift in an individual’s belief system. The following essay will explore the ‘world’ that Chandler has created for the characters, Marlowe’s moral code in response to the world in which he lives, and finally, the state that Marlowe

This reckless behaviour causes Lear to lose a valued and trustworthy follower. Without a doubt, Lear's rash behaviour contributes to the suffering he endures at the hands of others.

In Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and William Shakespeare’s King Lear it is evident that the punishment of innocent individuals by evildoers catalyzes violence thus, culminating in the disruption of society.

‘Once upon a time’ is perhaps days when it was one of our hobbies to read fairy tales as a part of our daily routine. These fairy tales took us to the world of fantasy, happiness, sorrow, dilemma and we had the very tendency to fantasise these characters to be real. These tales had a happy conclusion where good inevitably wins over the evil with a happy ending; and ending lines mostly happened to be ‘and they happily lived ever after’. These endings justified the human sense of justice when good overpowers the bad. The imaginative and adventurous experiences we encountered while reading fairy tales which gave us a reflection of the course of human life full of obstacles and many unbearable pain which the characters undergoes portrays the cycle of human life. The fascination of a heroic character always drew our attention towards the positive side and made us believe that sooner or later there will be turmoil or a twist which would change the emotion of the reader. Fairy tales were always successful in relating to human emotions by exclaiming and happiness, love and loneliness, dream and reality, adventure and thriller, highs and lows, fears and longings, death and the various aspects that accompanies the formative experiences of human existence.

Many of the old fairytales have either hinted at or flat out stressed the connection between virginity and beauty and innocence. Though often implications of the stories err on the side of preserving a women’s innocence, and often the women who succumb to sexual experiences end up attacked, tortured or killed. And while the authors do not always outright condemn the tainted women, suffering seems to plague the impure females. Even some of the Red Riding Hood stories follow the pattern of stressing her youth and innocence –virginity, only to strip away that innocence and immediately punish the girl. Angela Carters version is one of the few versions that not only does little red not need to be saved by someone else, she never really suffers.

Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear discusses how people quickly blame fate for events that are actually the fault of their own actions, saying that, “This is the excellent foppery of the world… when we are sick in fortune,—often the surfeits of our own behaviour,—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity” (Edmund, King Lear). Similarly, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry demonstrates that the joys, injustices, and cruelties present in the characters’ lives happen due to circumstances beyond their control, such as government regulations and the societal traditions and systems surrounding them everyday. Amidst the political turmoil and uproar of the Emergency in India, Rohinton Mistry depicts the lives of good, everyday people as they struggle to gain stable footing in a highly corrupt and hierarchical society. In this depiction of various characters living in Indian society, Mistry portrays how India’s deeply rooted societal traditions and systems create an indirect line of causalities that disguises itself as fate.

Wycherley shows how jealousy can make people lose their moral standards and commit acts with little regard for others. Harcourt’s jealousy causes him to go to extremes. He disguises himself as a parson with the intent to deceive Sparkish into believing he has been married to Alethea. Wycherley reveals Harcourt’s real plan to marry himself to Alethea to the audience through the use of irony: “nobody else / shall marry you, by heavens; I’ll die first, for I’m I should die / after it” (IV.i.148-150). Harcourt is propelled by jealousy, resorting to deceit and manipulation while holding little regard for others. Through Harcourt we witness jealousy’s corruption of society, making people superficial and selfish.

What we can learn from King Lear, we can learn from tragedy. Lear’s downfall is not just central to the plot; it tells us a lot about Lear’s character. And his struggle is complex, unable to be resolved and without true justice. The way that Lear and those around him drive and drive away his misfortune illustrates humanity’s brilliance and the magnitude of the dependence that most of us have on friends and family. Lear’s tragedy is caused by his folly, heightened by his love, manifested in his suffering and responsible for his outrage. By examining each of these elements, we may better understand Lear’s downfall and how both our actions and the actions of others play a role in shaping our fortune.

The transition of the pre-modern to modern outlook was shown in King Lear, one of the most famous of Shakespeare’s plays. Ever since, the king was at the top of the medieval society, after him the lords and nobles, knights, merchants, and peasants at the very bottom, but this will no longer be the case when Lear’s daughters decided that they wanted to be equal in power with the king. Traditionally, children were supposed to honor and respect their father and mother, but for Goneril and Regan, Lear’s wicked daughters, they were only interested in their own individual interests, a demonstration of very modern values. Cordelia was the only daughter who followed duties and kept to her proper place. The storm at the heath also represented chaos and instability because the natural order of things was disrupted with the king losing his rank and authority by being reduced to a crazy peasant. His journey to madness symbolized his own transformation and a change of perspective in the way he looked at life.