Troilus and Cressida Commentary

This conveys that Athens is confident enough in their security to allow people to enter their city because they believe that they are the most powerful nation of all. However, this is inaccurate because Athens and Sparta were equal in power at the beginning of the war. Thucydides presents courage when he quotes from Pericles that Athens is powerful because they have a natural courage in comparison to a state induced courage like Sparta. However, Thucydides presentation of courage is inaccurate because by talking about the greatness, security, and courage of Athens Pericles is forcing a state induced courage on the Athenian people by giving them no reason to question the outcome of the war. Thucydides presentation of courage and security in Pericles speech was accurate to the citizens of Athens because they are given no other reasons to contradict Pericles claim. Also, the presentation of security and courage is used to make Athens seem greater and more powerful than they actually were to future nations.

A “tragedy, for Shakespeare, is the genre of uncompensated suffering” (Dutton and Howard, 2003, p. 9). To really understand the play Othello is to truly understand a tragedy; thus, this researcher will analyze Aristotle’s view point and compare it to phrases (or quotes) from Shakespeare’s Othello.

Throughout the play there are many themes leading up to and causing the chief event.

The theme of honor can be seen throughout the storyline. In book 3, the war is started when Menelaus honors his wife, Helen, by fighting for her against the Trojans after Paris runs off with her (Homer 50-51). Homer uses Menelaus to show he is motivated by honor when going after his wife. It would give him a cowardly image to let another man run off with his wife and him do nothing in return. The contrast to Menelaus going after his wife is Paris. Paris is shameful for running off with another man’s wife instead of finding his own. He shows shame later on in the story as well. Homer uses these characters and their motivations actions to set up the main conflict in the story and to predict the later decisions that they make.

The poem in Book 1 lauds Achilles as the finest warrior of the Athenian army. Nonetheless, when his commanding general, Agamemnon refuses to return to return the captive Chryseis to her father, the priest of Apollo, and a plague ensues, Achilles becomes an insubordinate (disrespecting his commander) by demanding that he return

Nevertheless, Aeneas despite seeing that he and his men have been defeated, he continues to mobilize his men to defend the city ‘lost in flame.’ He tells his men, ‘let us die, we’ll make a rush into the thick of it.’ This event that happens just in the beginning of the poem shows the high importance of the theme of conflict in the Aeneid. Even though Aeneas and his men are defeated, they choose to go on fighting for their country. This event shows how conflict begets conflict. Even though Aeneas has lost the battle, he chooses to press on fighting in defense of his country. The event creates a picture to reader of the importance of conflict in the poem; conventionally, the vanquished are supposed to flee from the battlefield or show a sign of surrender, however, this never happens to Aeneas and his men. It creates the impression that Aeneas should continue fighting if he is to win a country and heritage for his descendants, the Romans (Moschovakis

In Homer’s The Iliad and Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, warriors are defined by their moira, the allotment of life each mortal is awarded. Both Achilles and Pericles achieve greatness as the leaders of their respective societies, but both are destined to die when fate commands it. The impact they create before they reach death is dictated by their virtues, the guiding, moral principles that determine their beliefs and aspirations. Though both Homeric and Athenian traditions value warriors’ acceptance of the balance of victory and grief within their lives, Achilles exemplifies the Homeric virtues of personal glory, while Pericles embodies the Athenian virtue of devotion to one’s people.

The shield of Nestor can be viewed as representing the importance of familial bonds and cooperation betwen generations and embodies this role which Nestor plays for the Achaians (Atchity 148-49): “So he [Nestor] spoke, and took up the wrought shield of his son / Thrasymedes, breaker of horses. It lay in the shelter / al shining in bronze. Thrasymedes caried the shield of his father” (book 14, lines 9–11). Nestor is the oldest and one of the wisest of the Greeks fighting in Troy. Although his physical strength has waned in his old age, he stil embodies the spirit and bravery of a great warior. He inspires the younger generation to go courageously into batle. The younger wariors honor and respect Nestor. This cooperation betwen generations is exemplified by father and son exchanging armor as they take on the enemy. Odyseus and Telemachos provide another example of father and son arming together as they prepare to fight the suitors in The Odysey.

England’s former Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” This quote impeccably represents the struggle of the Trojans on the battlefield and it also provided a test of morality and loyalty. During the Trojan War, the Trojan themselves were faced with many clashes of ethical values, such as their need to have a fair and just election versus them making a quick and effective decision, indeed this was tested when the Trojan Horse was left in front of their gates. The Romans had Clear views on their values, and their main three were honesty and fairness, to uphold honor on the battlefield, and to respect duty and divinity.

The House of Mannon Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra is a play of revenge, sacrifice, and murder conveyed through visible references to Aeschylus’ House of Atreus. O’Neill alludes to The House of Atreus in order to ground the play; attaching the plot to well-known aspects of history. As well, it brings a certain significance that otherwise would be neglected if their underlying manifestations went unnoticed. The most prominent of these allusions is that to Aeschylus’ House of Atreus. O’Neill specifically modeled Mourning around Aeschylus’ work, modernizing it, applying it to a new generation of readers. Agamemnon, a general in the Trojan War, becomes Ezra Mannon, a Civil War soldier of the same rank.

The Trojan War was fueled by the Greeks and Trojans hunger for honor and fear of disgrace. Yet, it is this same notion of glory that led to the demise of it’s greatest heroes. Alessandro Baricco An Iliad and Trojan Women share the stories of Achilles, Patroclus, Hecuba, and Andromache, and the consequences they faced when they valued their honor too highly. Both Achilles and Pandurus viewed their prestige as their social status, leading them to make selfish and impractical decisions to preserve their glory. Hecuba and Andromache believed that their character was determined by their honor, and when it was taken from them, they lost all composure and gave up on life. Additionally, since these individuals allowed themselves to be controlled

The “good win out in glory in the end” (Aeschylus 125) is three times repeated by the chorus of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. Though the chorus had not yet received confirmation of the Greeks’ victory over Troy, they already dreamed of the demise of Trojan enemies in idealistic, certain terms. Shaping this idealistic speech is pre-determinism, which thematically diverts the audience away from the notion of social responsibility necessary for democracy. To begin with, the chorus describes themselves as “the old, dishonoured ones, / the broken husks of men,” who live to suffer and learn under the iron-hand of justice (79-80; 250) These men are deemed incapable of physical action because of their age and by analogy are incapable of social action; consequently, they fail to address the need to act in accordance with social responsibility. As a result, the chorus opts instead to narrate history and events through the lens of ordained justice.

Our Trojan War is a unique theatrical production that uses scenes from ancient texts written by Sophocles, Homer, Plato and Euripides, to discuss modern political questions on democracy. The opening scene, “In the First Version of the Story,” introduces the audience to a procession of U.S. soldiers who are dressed in camouflage. Each soldier presents a different view of Odysseus at war. In their differing points of view, Odysseus is sometimes seen as a hero while at other times he is seen as a disgrace. The group of U.S. soldiers is sent on a mission to search a home in the Middle East. The soldiers break into the house of a teacher and find a collection of hidden books of the most renounced ancient texts. After the teacher is criticized for

From how people structure their speeches to how they use words, the audience can understand a lot about their traits and personalities. This is used by many authors in literature, and it is called characterization. Characterization is the method in which the author reveals the attributes of characters. In the play, Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare uses speeches by two Greek leaders to further their characterizations. This story takes place during the Trojan War, in which the Greeks fought the Trojans over the theft of Menelaus’ wife, Helen. While the main story of the play revolves around the two lovers, Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare incorporates many aspects of the war as well. In Act I Scene III, Agamemnon, the general of the Greek army, encourages the Greek army by motivating them to persevere through the long lasting war. He believes that the Gods are trying to test them, and Troy will eventually crumble if they show constancy. On the other hand, Ulysses, one of the Greek leaders, responds to Agamemnon with another speech emphasizing that the reason for the failures of their camp is the absence of hierarchy. This exchange exhibits Agamemnon’s imperfect character and Ulysses’ intelligence through their rhetoric, which also relates to their roles in the Greek army.

King Archidamus of Sparta, from Thucydides’ On Justice Power and Human Nature has a certain viewpoint and conception of courage that plays uniquely upon many Spartan ideals, namely shame, self-control, and moderation. In his speech, Archidamus attempts to describe in a very common-sense way why the Spartans should refrain from going to war, because he is of the opinion that in their current state they are unprepared. He explains why it might be advantageous for the Lacedaemonians to exercise restraint and self-discipline in spite of the numerous calls to attack Athens. Archidamus’ notion of courage is one that heavily emphasizes a sense of shame, yet not in the common sense of the word: “self-control, the chief virtue associated with Sparta, is essentially linked to a sense of shame…” (Thucydides page 27, note 77). We think of shame as a feeling we get when we do something bad or embarrassing. For Archidamus, “shame leads to courage, because men who have a sense of shame will not want to be seen as doing anything cowardly” (Thucydides page 27, note 77). Archidamus knows the Lacedaemonians are a courageous people. The calls to refrain from war for the time being are not because they are afraid or because they think they will not win, they are because they are a smart and cautious people. They must be prepared before they undertake hasty actions, especially actions will consequences that will have reverberating effects to come: “…I am afraid that we shall leave this war as a