Literary Tradition Course, Essay Example

Literary tradition refers a works collection, which contain underlying coherence and interconnectedness, which makes them, not just a works group sharing group or geography. For instance, Irish drama and poetry involving writers having a range of preoccupations and voices extend over several centuries, yet people think that they are distinctively Irish. This means that a person can write in the Irish literary tradition although he or she is not Irish or does not even have Irish ancestors. Thus, the person will write in Irish literary tradition using the same structure, references, mythology, historical moments and focal points for cultural meanings. The themes will feature in the writings of tradition and future writers will draw from the themes, which carries the tradition into the future.

Role of magic and the supernatural in Homer’s the iliad Sappho and Virgil’s Aeneid

Throughout the Iliad works, we note that the gods choose the main characters in some way. In both Iliad and Aeneid, the gods have a direct hand in the lives of humans (Ogden 13). The gods also seem choosy about the individuals they want to help. The reasons for their decisions and motivations are not as per any modern Christian notion of whom deserves. The religion of the Greeks embraced fears and powers of all kinds. The Greek gods were within the world, which they never created. The powers or the gods did not ordinarily die but came to the existence through birth. These gods intervened in human affairs and had favorite humans but never lived within the heart of the human beings as in the Christians. Their power had limits, though the Greek considered them powerful.

Since the gods can suffer defeat and have emotional impulses, which drive them to make decisions they   have some fallibility and thus are not as superior as we may expect them. According to how they seem in the works, Iliad and Aeneid, the gods are not all-powerful as they are prone to nepotism and vices. The authors of the works wrote in different times but still we see a similar understanding about the characters and the gods. The authors wrote them at times of social and political strife.

Achilles and Aenas have received favor from the gods, and thus they are similar. This happened because of some divine nepotism and because the two stood out from ordinary people because of their physical or military prowess. It looks something strange for a modern reader, in Christian traditions, that Achilles does not yet have favor nonetheless although Aeneas seems to deserve his gifts.

Myrsiades (65) assert that Aeneas seems proud, but he is not arrogant. Though a warrior, he has significant capacity for immense sympathy and love and rallies his fellow soldiers with a moving speech in time of need instead of abandoning them. Thus, he seems to be a hero worthy of divine intervention and thus, he is a direct descendant of a god this way. Achilles is unlike Aeneas in that he lacks kindness or sympathy and is extremely aggressive. He holds grudges and is quick to react negatively. He is not worthy of what the modern person/reader might think of as a great person in many senses, but he is the descendant of a god as well and has superhuman strength. We remain questioning why the two still receive equal intervention. We note the nepotistic nature of the gods in both works, proving them prone to making poor choices and sometimes favoring them.

In the Iliad and the life of Achilles, the gods occupy a strange role. The gods are not able to meet human characters’ expectations. They support the Greeks, but they do so for reasons that do not have any relationship with morality. The gods hate and love, but about justice they never talk. The narrator, thus, gives the impression that, in any case, Troy must fall and that, however; virtuous the Trojans are victims of power that men cannot conquer (Myrsiades 70). Ares, one of the gods makes a poignant statement in Homer’s Iliad “they (the gods) are everlasting and that whenever they show men kindness they suffer”. From the quote, we note that the gods acknowledge their weaknesses despite their continuance over the chosen mortal humans Achilles and Aeneas. The gods are not perfect and they recognize their faults according to Homer and Virgil. This is a patent statement for it shows that this is a society, which did not believe in god’s ultimate righteousness, but rather knew that they were prone to the same fallacies as mortals in a cultural or religious context.

Achilles and Aeneas have the biggest differences in the way they interact with the gods and the following decision is the way they use in the divine intervention. There seems to be a prevailing tension, which Achilles carries about the fact that the gods have already determined for him in the Iliad. Although Achilles does not have the choice in settling down to the comfort life he wishes for, he already knows his fate and still decides to go to fight. The tension becomes apparent when Achille speaks with his mother, Thetis, the sea goddess, where the goddess asks of what was troubling him. We find an enlightening scene here as it shows Achilles reaction in the face of divine influences, even if the one he is speaking to is his mother. This also reveals him as knowing that his actions were under observation, and perhaps there was some hostility in the same. A modern way of interpreting the line is that Achilles is stating a fact and that he is not angry (Ogden 10). A reader may choose to look into this in different ways, but still will find that the gods are prone to favoritism, violence and error.

Achilles is unlike Aeneas in the way he becomes prone to fits of rage, and despite seeming a bit daunted by gods at times, they should help him control his worst character flaw, rage. For example, the readers quickly learn that the gods who favor Achilles act as his balancers to his anger when they first see how aggressive he is. We can recall the scene where the thoughtless Achilles is about to kill Agamemnon and Athena intervenes giving one of the crucial quotes “That he had come, from heaven, to check the killing rage if Achilles would listen. Hera had sent Athena and that Hera had a concern for both of them- Achilles and Agamemnon.

For the ancient Greek culture, female power poses notorious problems. It is difficult for women to exercise power without transgressing the norms constituted to regulate their behavior. This is because Greek ideology and cultural practice both place severe restrictions on female agency. At the heart of the norms, lies the control of female sexuality. Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman, poses a danger as according to the Greek culture. The beauty of this immense woman gives her enormous erotic power over men, which results in a devastating historical war according to the Greeks.  Helen had other potentially dangerous sisters such as Clytemnestra, but they were not as destructive as she was.

The destructive power of Helen equals Achilles’ power who was the mightiest Troy Greek warriors. The authors link Helen as potential Achilles’ sexual partner in several traditional strands. The connection seems to fit as the two represent, at its most glorious, the gendered body: they take the female beauty and male strength apogee respectively.  According to the writers, they view Helen and Achilles as a couple responsible for the Trojan War, enormous destruction. Helen is the official reason of the slaughter while Achilles is the agent. Each of the two characters receives a destruction mode appropriate to their symmetrically and iconically gendered status: Helen’s beauty is as deadly as Achilles physical strength (Ogden 11). The supreme expression of masculinity receives a prediction on the supreme feminine expression. Helen’s transgression, at the same time, provides a shielding fig leaf for Achilles and other Achaeans from violence blame, transmuting slaughter into heroism and invasion into justice.

Having shown a dangerous female beauty, and giving imagining an absolute beauty standard, which a single extraordinary woman fulfils and in whom the danger culminates, Greek culture gives significant energy to trying to deny or control its own creation power. This occurs through enabling Helen serve as a convenient scapegoat for the Trojan War while subjecting her to social control.

Role of magic and the supernatural in Shakespeare’s, hamlet

Shakespeare wrote the hamlet in 1600 during the final years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign who had led England for over 40 years. According to Jackson (44), the person to take leadership after her death, was a hot subject at the time, as the queen had no children. James of Scotland, the only person with a legitimate royal claim and the son of Mary, Queen of Scots represented a political fiction, which Queen Elizabeth opposed. James did inherit the throne in 1603 when the queen died.

This is one of Shakespeare’s plays focusing on betrayals, upheavals and uncertainties accompanying shifts of power and general fear and the sense of anxiety associated. The Hamlet begins with the death of a beloved king, and his brother has inherited the throne rather than his son. Everyone is grieving the king’s death, and there is lots of suspicion from both the people and the guards at the castle.

On a chilling, misty night outside Elsinore Castle, there was a supernatural appearance of a ghost indicating that something was wrong in Denmark. The ghost has a function of enlarging the shadow King that Hamlet casts across Denmark showing that the King’s death has caused an imbalance in nature. The ghost’s appearance also represents the physical form of the fearful anxiety surrounding the transfer of power following the death of the king, showing Denmark’s future as unpleasantly a dark future. According to Horatio, the ghost is an ill omen that binds turmoil and violence in the future of Denmark and is comparable to supernatural omens associated with Julius Caesar’s assassination in ancient Rome. As Horatio becomes right and the ghost’s appearance represents the later tragedies in the play, the ghost foreshadows the tragedies upon the characters and the audience.

We also get the introduction of Horatio in the scene, as he is the prime main character in the scene with the exception of the ghost. Shakespeare depicts Horatio as a skeptic of supernatural things, educated and intelligent. He never believed in the appearance of the ghost, in the beginning of the scene. He was still even reluctant to believe it when he had seen. On the other hand, we can see Horatio as not being a blind rationalist as he did not deny the ghost’s existence when he saw, and he became so overwhelmed by terror (Jackson 53).  We see the fundamental trustworthiness of Horatio’s character in his ability of accepting the truth even when his predictions become negative. Horatio’s reaction to the ghost serves in overcoming the sense of disbelief of the audience, as it is something convincing when a skeptic, trustworthy and intelligent Horatio believes and fears the ghost. Shakespeare thus uses Horatio to represent the perspective of the audience throughout this scene, in this subtle way. The ghost gains the audience’s suspension of disbelief by overcoming Horatio’s skeptical resistance.

Scene two of the play is the morning after the ghost appeared to the guardsmen and Horatio and the King Claudius give a speech explaining his marriage to Gertrude, the widow of his brother and Prince Hamlet’s mother. Shakespeare devotes the second scene to the seemingly jovial court of the recently crowned King Claudius having established a dark, ghostly atmosphere in the first scene. Claudius, the king promises to bring balance through his marriage to the widow, which sounds contradictory, as one would question how the act would bring happiness. ‘Defeated joy’, ‘dirge in marriage’, ‘auspicious and dropping eye’ and ‘mirth in funeral’ all have a contradiction to what the king is promising. Shakespeare uses these words to make an impression of uncomfortability in the audience. The king asks Hamlet, the bereaved, to stop grieving and lead a normal life, which gives a further negative impression. Hamlet should have inherited his father’s throne had Claudius not taken by force from him.

The blatant dishonesty shows a situation of need in Denmark just like in the first scene. The second scene hints at the weakness and corruption of the king and his court while the first illustrated the fear and supernatural danger lurking in Denmark.

Prince Hamlet betrayed by his mother’s marriage and devastated by his father’s death appears the only one unwilling to get along with Claudius. We get a notion that he is the honest character of all in the royal court, one of high standing and, who feels that his father’s death has offended his sensibilities (Jackson 64). Contrary, we can view him as a malcontent character, refusing to get along with others in the king’s court for the sake of stability in Denmark. The hasty marriage by his matter has also shuttered his opinion concerning womanhood.  Their relationship with the mother decays as he enters a romantic relationship with Ophelia.

Hamlet has a soliloquy about suicide, crying, for his solid flesh, to melt, thaw and become dew, which brings a central idea later in the play. Although it is painful living in a world like the one shown in the play, committing suicide to end the pain damns one to eternal suffering in hell within the Christian framework of the play.

The third scene goes through a member’s family motif giving one another advice and orders masked as advice as in the preceding scene.  Claudius and Gertrude had asked Hamlet not to leave Denmark and cease from his mourning. The subsequent short, transitional scene serves a number of functions, as Shakespeare starts constructing, out of the various play environments, a unified world. Hamlet has had an association of the world inside Elsinore, and here he ventures into the darkness outside. Similarly, the terror in the outside of the castle has been separate from the court’s revelry, but the carousing of king Claudius connects to Hamlet and companions in the dark outside.

Scene iv again depicts the ghost appearance giving a return of spirituality, uncertainty, or the uncertainty of truth themes in a world filled with spiritual ambiguity. Hamlet finds difficult telling whether the ghost is the spirit, of his father,  or it is an evil demon from hell.

According to DESSEN (2), the ghost’s demand that Hamlet to revenge on Claudius plays a pivotal role in Act one of the play. Hamlet feigns madness and interacts with many people, which Shakespeare uses to depict his character to the audience. This introduces retributive justice as an idea in the play. Claudius the king has sinned, and the sin must receive punishment to restore balance in the kingdom. Retributive justice goads and haunts characters in the whole play, serving a motivation for activity, spurring Hamlet to avoid suicide, Claudius to guilt and Laertes into murderous rage when Polonius and Ophelia had died.

In the subsequent acts and scenes, we see the influence of the ghost in the life of Hamlet. He has become exceedingly mad though, in reality he is feigning, we as the audience believe that it is the reality. Act three scene two shows Hamlet more in control than the previous scene. Both he and Claudius have devised traps on each other. Hamlet attempts to catch the king’s conscience in the theatre while the king spies, on him, to establish the real nature of his madness. We get the story of Gonzago and his wife, Baptista in the play-within-a-play. Hamlet considers the play as giving a lot about the king’s guilt than the ghost’s claim. He tries to establish whether Claudius is guilty through reading his behavior for psychological state signs of guilt. This is because he lacks a way of knowing whether he could believe a spirit world member.

Hamlet finally seems prepared to put his desire of revenge in action, in scene iii of Act III. When he enters, he finds the King, Claudius praying perhaps praying for forgiveness due to his sin making Hamlet withhold killing his as doing so would send the king’s soul to heaven (DESSEN 3). Furthermore, we see Hamlet reasoning within himself about what he was about to commit. He seems not to understand what had happened that led to his father’s death. Hamlet’s killing of Polonius becomes a tragic moment in the play, as the audience would not regard him a hero any longer.

Works Cited

DESSEN, ALAN C. “Portable Shakespeare: Exigencies And “Magic” In Five-Actor Productions.” Shakespeare Bulletin 29.1 (2011): 1. EDS Foundation Index. Web. 25 July 2012.

Jackson, Russell. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. United Kingdom (UK):  Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.

Myrsiades Kostas.  Reading Homer: Film and Text. Madison, New Jersey:  Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 2009. Print.

Ogden, Tom. Complete Idiot’s Guide To Ghosts And Hauntings. Alpha Books, 1999. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 25 July 2012.