Exploring the Consequences of Lying: Insights from Hippolytus and Bible

965 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay of reasons for telling lies

Yvonne Bell
Mr. Crook
AP language and Comp
January 13, 2015

Why is the justification of lying such a controversial subject? The play, “Hippolytus”, written by Euripides and the Revised English Bible has numerous accounts of lying. Each story teaches us the importance of honesty. They use a suggestive manner to imply that lying harms everyone involved in the lie and there is no positive outcome. Although lying may be the simplest decision to follow through, it is always best to tell the truth because deceit can cause further problems down the road. Telling a lie can jeopardize the people around you and they’ll have to pay for your actions regardless of their innocence. "What have you done?’ The woman answered, ‘It was the serpent who deceived …show more content…

No because even if you might think it’s the slightest lies it can lead to something much worse like death. In the play “Hippolytus” Phaedra had lied about being raped by her own son because she didn’t want to ruin her reputation. “I only know one way, one cure for these my woes, and that is instant death.” (Phaedra, 12, Line 5) She confessed to her son that she was in love with him, felt too embarrassed and thought he was going to tell everyone, so she killed herself. Lies can make the innocent appear wicked. “Why say this, if, as thou pretendest, thy lips are free from blame?” (Hippolytus, 12, Line 12) Hippolytus did nothing wrong, and did not want to reclaim his innocence because he felt like he didn’t need to justify himself. If his friends and family were true to him, they would believe him. But ultimately, they did not. “Come, my comrades in this land, young like me, greet me kindly and escort me forth, for never will ye behold a purer soul, for all my father’s doubts.” (Hippolytus, 20, Line 14) Hippolytus is standing his ground and knows he has done nothing wrong, whereas his father believes he has done wrong to his wife, and later on kills him for it. The truth is bound to leak out somehow no matter how hard you try to cover up your tracks. “She meantime, fearful of being found out, wrote a lying letter, destroying by guile thy son, but yet persuading thee.” (Hippolytus, 23, Line 7) Artemis reveals the truth to Theseus, the

Show More
Related

  • Critical Analysis Of Richard Gunderman And Ericicsson's The Ways We Lie

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Richard Gunderman asks the question, "Isn 't there something inherently wrong with lying, and “in his article” Is Lying Bad for Us?" Similarly, Stephanie Ericsson states, "Sure I lie, but it doesn 't hurt anything. Or does it?" in her essay, "The Ways We Lie.” Both Gunderman and Ericsson hold strong opinions in regards to lying and they appeal to their audience by incorporating personal experiences as well as references to answer the questions that so many long to confirm.

    Read More

  • Perspectives on Fear: The Crucible and the McCarthy Era

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lying is bad but the fear that can come from it is worse. Fear can rule a person which drives them to extreme and irrational acts that can shape society in a negative way. We as people are so accustomed to how we should act that during times of fear and crisis our vision is blurred and sometimes our decision making abilities are impaired. We often look past at how much fear can affect us and our society. Starting from Salem 1692 and going to the McCarthy era fear ruled the people and even now in present time America we are constantly living in fear.

    Read More

  • Lying vs. Truth-Telling in Genesis, Othello, and The Lie

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although it is considered wrong to tell lies, it seems that literature has offered us situations where telling lies isn’t necessarily bad. Of course, lying often has a tragic outcome, but not always for the person or people who told the lie or lies. Oftentimes, these unfortunate outcomes are directed at the person about whom the lie was told. Furthermore, these stories have explained that dishonesty can result in success for both the liar and the target. Maybe we have been teaching the wrong values to our children.

    Read More

  • Culminating Writing Task II

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    In these stories, lying has been crucial to not only the storyline, but to saving the lives of others. If Mary would not have been pregnant, then her deceit would not have been right. If Nora only wanted to go to the South to shop, she would have been wrong to lie under her dying father name on the bond. In actuality, these were not the cases. As a result, lying is, in fact, justified under the right circumstances.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Lying In The Crucible

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever told a lie to protect yourself or someone you love? People lie for their own purposes. Some people lie for themselves or for their close one. They depend on the lies so much that they do not care that their lies might hurt others. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, almost all the characters lie for their own desires and to protect their own interests. Even though lies are forbidden in their religion, some people are blind to understand the punishment of lying. The concept of lying to save oneself is also evident in “Fear Was Reason For Lying About Shooting, Woman Says” by Mary Spicuzza. The article highlights how a woman hid the truth about witnessing a murder just for the sake of her own life. Another article, “The Truth

    Read More

  • Lying In The Crucible

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    When confronted with a problem, why does the human brain default to lying? Dishonesty is never a solution, although it may seem like the best option in the spur of a moment. My grandma always gave the example of her youth: she avoided and deceived her friend’s sister because the little girl riled everyone. Come to find out, the sister passed the following month due to an illness. I could never imagine the guilt she experienced. Nevertheless, everyone has been deceitful before and many characters were in the tragedy, The Crucible, by playwright Arthur Miller. Reasons for lying are understandable, but most people will admit that mendacity has only caused pain. Lying’s outcome is never positive: it may seem like a good option, for falsehood can save a person’s life, benefit someone, and it eases stress, but these are all transitory.

    Read More

  • Is Mary Maloney A Sympathetic Character

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    If, someday, I committed a horrible crime and was going to be punished for it I would definitely lie to save myself. I might tell the truth if I was being eaten by guilt and didn’t care about anything anymore, but definitely if I didn’t care very much. If anybody says they would tell the truth, I’m sure if something really happened they would lie too. It’s human nature to want to survive and thrive, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to stay out of prison or not get the death penalty. In a real situation, where I would die if I were found guilty of your crime, I would definitely lie to save myself.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Lying In Animal Farm By George Orwell

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    American writer and speaker, Dorothy Allison, once said “things come apart so easily when they have been held together by lies” (Allison). One of the first lessons that kids are taught is to be honest and always tell the truth. Being honest is not always easy, but the result of lying is much worse then telling the truth. In Animal Farm, George Orwell demonstrates how lies and deceit will ruin society if everyone always believes what the leader says, people lie to themself, and if laws are changed to benefit the group in power.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Ways We Lie

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, analyzes and reflects on how lying has simply become the norm in our society. We all lie, there is not one person in the world that does not lie. Most people lie because they are afraid of telling the truth, however what they do not know is telling a lie can lead them in the wrong direction because many things can happen when lying to a person. The person can find out when everything unravels that person will not have trust in you and you would be known as a liar. To every action there is a consequence, so why not deal with just one consequence when telling the

    Read More

  • The Ripple Effect of Lies: Insights from The Crucible

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are always consequences for lying, whether it happens immediate or nebulous, a punishment will occur. Some lies cause other people to hurt that have nothing to do with the situation but still get punished. For example, someone stealing an answer key to an important test in class will make the class suffer by taking a much harder test. Another example is a basketball team having to run for a teammate’s lies. Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible is based on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and it proves this exact point.

    Read More

  • Plato's View on Lying

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    In book I of Plato's Republic, when Socrates (speaking for Plato) is discussing what does, "doing the right thing" mean with Cephalus is when the morality of lying is first brought to discussion. Cephalus stated that justice is, speaking the truth and paying debts. Socrates argues and states that," Everyone would surely agree that if a sane man lends weapons to a friend and then asks for them back when he is out of his mind, the friend shouldn’t return them, and wouldn’t be acting justly if he did. Nor should anyone be willing to tell the whole truth to someone who is out of his mind." Socrates thinks that when you are friends with someone than it is just to tell a verbal lie to protect them, which is what a good friend would do. Plato approved of lying when telling the truth is the wrong thing to do. Plato thinks that it is never right or just to do evil or harm to anyone, and if you have to lie to protect someone then it is a just thi...

    Read More

  • Deception In The Odyssey Essay

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    These lies may be necessary to keep a person out of trouble or worry. When Odysseus was in Polyphemus’s cave, he knew that the Cyclops would kill him if he knew his name. So when the Cyclops asked he answered,” Nobody is my name.” This was a lie, but it saved him from being eaten by Poseidon’s son, who hated him. Odysseus lied to the Cyclops a second time when he said, "Poseidon, Shaker of the Earth, has shattered my vessel. He drove it against the rocks on the outer coast of your country, cracked on a cliff, it is gone, the wind on the sea took it.” He knew that the Cyclops was trying to trick him into revealing the location of the ship, and that he would kill his crew if he knew where the boat was, so he had to lie to save their lives. Many times, deceptions are also given to spare someone’s worry or feelings. For example, when Telemachus left Ithaca to go and find his father, the only person he alerted was his childhood nursemaid. He told her, “Do not fear, nurse. This plan was not made without a god’s will. But swear to tell my beloved mother nothing about this until the eleventh day has come or the twelfth hereafter, or until she misses me herself or hears I am absent, so that she may not ruin her lovely skin with weeping.” He knew that his father’s mother had killed herself over worrying about her son, so he did not want to give that same fate to his mother, who already had enough stress on her from dealing with the

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Telling The Truth

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Telling the truth teaches one person self- respect for themselves and others as well. Telling the truth also sets a good example for others to do the same thing and make a “chain reaction”. People can make a “chain reaction” by passing on what they have done from one person to another, and before you know it, everyone is changing greatly, and the world is progressing tremendously. Lies are told all around the world, and they are told every day. One lie can often lead to another lie and cause you to be caught up in one big lie that will be hard to get out of if people do not tell the truth. If a person thinks that is okay to lie, they better think again, the truth always comes out no matter how hard a person tries to keep it in, or how much someone thinks that they can get away with lying. No person can keep in or hold a grudge with what they have done. After all, telling the truth is the right thing to do, and everyone should do it. Telling the truth is always much easier than the trouble of a

    Read More

  • Cause and Effect Essay: Lying

    403 Words  | 1 Pages

    Can you remember the last time someone lied to you? Or how about the last time you lied to someone else? Did you ever stop and ask yourself why? There are so many different reasons that a person might lie. Maybe a lie about something to keep oneself out of trouble, or even a lie to impress other people. But either way there are always going to be serious consequences or effects of lying.

    Read More

  • Is Lying Always Bad?

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up, we are always told to never lie because it is the worst thing you could ever do. “Lying will only lead to a horrible situation with less than mediocre results. While lying is not always good, it is not always bad either. Samuel Butler once said “Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

    Read More

More about Exploring the Consequences of Lying: Insights from Hippolytus and Bible

Open Document