The House Of Sand And Fog Character Analysis

A tragedy in its own right must evoke emotion and a response from the audience through effective use of several elements evident in Shakespeare’s and Aristotle’s style of tragic writing. The plot progression of a tragedy should be rather specific under the idea which leads, ultimately, to the downfall of the protagonist. Despite the sorrowful story behind Richard Van Camp’s short story “Mermaids,” the exclusion of several core elements from both styles of writing prevent this piece from being classified a tragedy. “Mermaids” lacked the development of a tragic flaw in the main character, Torchy, and furthermore did not lead the character to their tragic demise, Van Camp also excluded the idea of isolating him over time and rather brought him closer to those around him to get over his inner conflict, which is unlike a tragedy.

Aristotle stated “the structure of the best tragedy should…be… complex” representing” incidents arousing pity and fear “. It’s understood that the focus of tragedy is human suffering and a tragedy must be accessible to audiences, creating a shared catharsis. Although Aristotle refers to classical tragedies, a domestic tragedy like “A Streetcar Named Desire” ensures a greater understanding as it is realistic. Blanche, as the protagonist, endures more suffering than Stella, following Aristotle’s theory that a tragic hero should evoke pity and fear. This should reveal harmatia that they do not initially realise, which coupled with their sense of hubris leads to their

What is a tragedy? A tragedy is a drama in which the protagonist is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. In the play Othello, William Shakespeare uses the literary device characterization in sequence to convey that Othello’s tragic flaw is the main reason that brings Othello to his downfall --- death. The causes of the tragedy of Othello are Othello’s gullibility to Iago, jealousy of Desdemona’s affair, and male pride.

Most readers are aware of the many famous deaths or acts of death within the Shakespearean plays. And when the main characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, indeed, the readers would categorize the play as a tragedy. The problem with any tragedy definition is that most tragic plays do not define the tragedy conditions explained or outlined by Aristotle. According to Telford (1961), a tragedy is a literary

*One of the themes of “The Glass Castle” is that, although you might have a horrible and hard childhood, it doesn’t mean you’ll stay that way. Jeannette had gone through so many things, but because she tried her very best to get out of her struggle she now succeeds in life.

Tragedy is an element of literature. It is rooted in Greek mythology and ancient Greek society. Its definition is “A literary piece that consists of a courageous noble character who must confront powerful obstacles, either external or from within”, and “the protagonist usually has a tragic

Tragedy shakes the audience by tapping into their own private fears. An undeniable connection drawn by empathy links every audience member to the plight of the character, because the itch of indignation is universal among all humanity. As long as someone has a sense of self, they have a sense of dignity. The character in a tragedy has been wronged by some “flaw”, and there is a fear of never correcting that wrong. Every audience member experiences that fear, and so is shaken by the tragedy.

The novel House of Sand and Fog, written by Andrew Dubus III, is a story about how society, events from the past and present situations can affect people’s persona, anima/animus, shadow and self which eventually influences their decisions about life. Dubus explores the conflict between two completely different people with opposite persona. Colonel Masoud Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family’s dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. These two characters are drawn by their competing desires to the same small house and domed by their tragic inability to

Initially, the idea of tragedy is foreshadowed when the author states the reason why the

When we think of the tragedy, we think of something bad happening to someone. This cannot be a tragedy. To know what tragedy is we have to take a look at what Arthur Miller thinks of as tragic.

When hearing the word Tragedy, it would not be surprising if several different individuals would immediately think of several unique examples of the word. Perhaps one is an opera enthusiast who immediately thinks of Puccini’s La Boheme. Another is a war enthusiast that thinks about History Channel’s new episode highlighting the harshest and bloodiest battles of World War One. Even a third one obsessed with Greek mythology could generate a handful of examples of tragedy. Tragedy, like love or comedy is a universal theme that can be used to entertain, enlighten and excite its audiences. William Shakespeare, a world renown writer, was a master of this genre writing works, including Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet. Another lesser known

    By definition, a tragedy is a story that details the downfall of a protagonist. Most often, the protagonist (tragic hero) is a member of high society who is faced with an oppositional force, be it internal or external. In his Poetics, Aristotle states that "tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves, and these- thought and character- are the two natural causes from which actions spring, and on actions, again all success or failure depends...." This quote illustrates an aspect of tragedy upon which many works are based, including

The word ‘tragedy’ is a common in the modern world, and it is often associated with a “sad or unhappy ending”. Accordingly, every time there is misfortune in a work, it is classified as a ‘tragedy’. Arthur Miller offers the observation that a tragedy is something that is more than just sad. Miller argues that tragedy is not a ‘pessimistic’ view on an event, but it allows for “the reinforcement of the onlookers brightest opinions of the human animal”. Since humans are not in control of his/her own fate, unfortunate things are bound to happen. However, the human spirit that is able to withstand catastrophe allows for hope. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare presents his tragic hero, Hamlet, as a noble figure who is to be admired because he

In “The Journey to the West,” the monk was accompanied by Pigsy, the Sha Monk, the Handsome Monkey King, and the horse. Each of these supporting characters possess a certain magical ability that assisted the monk on his journey, additionally they had their own flaws. This contrasts the monk, which has no magical ability and was devoted buddhism. The strengths, weaknesses, and backgrounds of these supporting characters encapsulate the idea of buddhism throughout the novel, and by including them and Xuanzang the book is able to summarize the idea of buddhism.

People have to make many decisions in life such as future, job, spouse, living status etc. Until they accomplish each goal that they set at the beginning, and wants to do more thing to make it challenging since they get tired of the routine life. However, the new change might be right or wrong, no one can predict the future. The main character Niki in the novel The Woman in the Dunes who is tired of his modern world life, and started his trip to catch some rare insects. Unexpectedly, he is tricked by an old man. Therefore, he starts his captive life with a woman. In the experiences being taken as a hostage/ prisoner, the woman is obedient to the villagers but not Niki. On the other hand, Niki is trying to escape the place, but he eventually accepts the life style at the end due to the new relationship with the woman and knows how to save the water from the sand in the dunes.