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Betrayal Essay Introduction
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The feeling of having been betrayed by a trusted or important figure in your life can result in emotional damage, which can eventually lead to personal destruction. “Stone Angel” by Margaret Lawrence and “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, are two works of literature that put that very statement into context. Although, the theme of betrayal is evident in both pieces, the protagonists of the different plots – Hagar Shipley and Willy Loman – experience betrayal in two very different fashions. Hagar Shipley is destroyed by her loss of independence and Willy Loman is forced into taking drastic and unnecessary actions. Acts of betrayal are scattered throughout the lives of the two protagonists. Betrayal put them off the path of life on which they originally began, and drops them on a path of destruction, which in time leads to their premature end.
Independence is something most humans strive for, although some are not lucky enough for it to be an option for them. When a person loses their independence they lose the faith in themselves that they are even capable of being independent. Once the right is taken away, a person will become dependent on others, and unable to function as they used to. Most people would sit back and let their right be taken, but not Hagar Shipley. Hagar loses her independence as most do, because of her age. Doris confronts Hagar about an accident she had when she wet the sheets, and Hagar begins to feel the vice slowly closing down on her already tiny slice of independence. Feeling threatened, Hagar snaps, “That’s a lie. I never did any such thing. You’re making it up. I know your ways. Just so you’ll have some reason for putting me away.” (Lawrence 74) As if Hagar wasn’t having a difficult enough time wat...
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...heme of betrayal, although it does affect each plot, and it’s characters differently. Each protagonist deals with their situation differently, but in the end, death was the only escape from their problems. In “Stone Angel” Margaret Lawrence writes of a character, Hagar Shipley, who is stripped of her right to self-govern her life. She is forced into a home, and dies, still fighting the same battle for her independence. A similar story in that of “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, protagonist Willy Loman’s constant disloyalty towards his family destroys his relationships and in the end, leads him to suicide. Despite the major differences between the two pieces of literature, the similarities are what matter. Betrayal can do awful things to people. It can drive decision-making without critical thinking. It can ruin lives, just ask Willy Loman, or Hagar Shipley.
Examples of loyalty can be found in many pieces of classic literature such as _Don Quixote_, _The Odyssey_, and _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. Many characters in the stories profess their loyalty to other characters. Some of them fail in their loyalty tests while others prevail. I found loyalty to be an underlying theme in all three pieces of literature covered in this paper. The examples provided should prove the theme of loyalty.
Bad choices are made every day by everybody. Those bad choices could lead to consequences that are going to bother a person for a long time. Even more, that person may try various ways to correct that error. The intention is good, but things can go even worse if the effort is based on unrealistic fantasies. This effort is presented as a part of modernist ideas. Modernist writers dramatize this effort through the tragic outcomes of the characters. Three modernist pieces, A Street Car Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, all of them sent out a message to the audience, the loss of past and how it cannot be recovered. Each piece features a character who lost hope, strived to recover the hope, and ended with a tragic outcome. A Street Car Named Desire featured Blanche; Blanche spent her whole life trying to get some attentions. Death of a Salesman featured Willy; Willy spent his whole life trying to apply the idea “Be Well Liked.” The Great Gatsby featured Jay Gatsby; Gatsby spent his whole life trying to win back Daisy. All of those characters ended with tragic outcome. Blanche was sent to asylum by her own sister. Willy committed suicide after felt humiliated by his sons. Gatsby was murdered with a gunshot planned by Tom Buchanan. Blanche, Willy, and Gatsby’s tragic fates are caused by their false beliefs about life, which are proven wrong by the contradictions between the reality and the illusion.
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "Death of a Salesman" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson; Longman Publishing, 2007. 1212-1280. Print.
...and people and their betrayal has caused major indents in the course of history. Benedict Arnold was a man that was not satisfied with his home country so he decided to betray it and join the British forces. This was not the right thing to do and it supports the fact that the end doesn’t justify the means. His actions support this statement because even though he got money and got away from his “misery” in the American army, he wasn’t liked even by the British and he had died without being known. In the end he didn’t make much of a so called “profit” from his actions. The main theme to learn is that betraying someone is not the correct thing to do.
Interestingly, the concepts of death and deceit are intertwined. Deceit often leads to death and illustrates gender bias in even the portrayal of death. The woman’s suicide is almost always portrayed as the coward’s way out of a difficult situation, whereas the man embraces death in order to keep intact his pride and glory, being even braver in death than in life. In both instances of male and female death, female deception plays a vital role and the woman is frequently responsible for creating the unsavory situation.
According to dictionary.com betrayal means "an act of deliberate disloyalty,”. Betrayal is something that is very prevalent throughout the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini which is a story about the betrayal that a young boy named Amir does to his friend Hassan. Amir shows that he is a betrayer to Hassan when he belittles, plots, refuses to acknowledge their friendship, and walks away from Hassan. With each betrayal listed they progressively get worse and worse as Amir continues to show how little he really cares for Hassan.
These authors create exits for characters, which flow seamlessly with the preceding storylines. The concluding scenes of these novels, while similar in the suicide theme are worlds apart when viewed through direct evidence of the characters actual feelings and past. It is interesting to note that both are basically suicides, but one becomes a clear suicide while the other becomes a liberating jump into family heritage. By using evidence written in specifically for the readers, both of these authors make it very clear how their endings should be understood, so that finally all ends well, understood.
Both plays were very similar considering the fact that both were tragedies. They each had a major protagonist that rose up, then fell down and ended in misfortune. Even though both plays were written at extremely different times they both helped support the fact that “…fear is simply the consequence of every lie.” This is because a theme that was consistent in both plays is that the act of lying and its consequences causes the downfall of even the greatest leaders. This theme full heartedly supports the critical lens because it is saying that the betrayal and lying causes the protagonists to be afraid and therefore cause their own downfall.
Someone who has poor mental health has symptoms that are also known as depression. People feel that without forgiveness they will never be good enough in life. The study showed that self-compassion and the relationship between lack of forgiveness and depression drastically changed. The relationship was stronger for those who had low self-esteem. “Globally, depression is a common mental illness and one of the leading causes of disability at all ages (World Health Organization (WHO), 2015.)” (Halvorsrud 170). This article is related to Death of a Salesman because Willy believed his family would always be there for him regardless of his actions. At the end of the play when Willy passed away no one showed up to his funeral. At the beginning of the play he was cocky. Willy told his sons about all of the friends he had and how much he was appreciated. Throughout the play he slowly becomes confused and depressed throughout the play driving his family away. Today, medicine has been developed in order to help this condition, but during this it wasn’t as common. Historical criticism plays an important role in this article because during the time period the play was written in affects how Willy’s depression was handled. If Willy would have had the medicine we have today his life might have been
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller highlights the result of an unfulfilling life through Willy Loman’s pursuit of an unrealistic American Dream and the effects it creates on himself as well as his family. This story has many strong examples which prove the psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud and his concept of the human
Whether a person’s life is something experienced authentically, or factually written down as literature, there are more complexities faced then there are simplicities on a daily basis. This multifariousness causes constant bewilderment and hesitation before any sort of important decision a person must make in his or her life. When it comes to characters of the written words, as soon sensations of ambiguity, uncertainty, and paranoia form, the outlook and actions of these characters are what usually result in regrettable decisions and added anxiety for both that character as well as the reader. Examples of these themes affecting characters in the world of fiction are found in the novel The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, and the play Glengarry Glen Ross written by David Mamet. Throughout both of these texts, characters such as Oedipa Maas who allows these emotions to guide her in her journey of self discovery, and Shelly Levene who is so overcome with these emotions that they become his downfall. For both of these characters, these constant emotional themes are what guide their most impulsive actions, which can generally also become regrettable decisions. Even though it is a distinguishing factor of human beings, when these characters are portrayed in print, it somehow seems to affect the reader more, because they are able to see the fictional repercussions, and also know how they could have been avoided.
Arthur Miller's, "Death of a Salesman," shows the development and structure that leads up to the suicide of a tragic hero, Willy Loman. The author describes how an American dreamer can lose his self-worth by many negative situations that occur throughout his life. The structure and complications are essential because it describes how a man can lose his way when depression takes over.
Green’s novel has a lot of lessons to teach. The story is based around love and relationships, but there is a lot more depth to the story than the science of breakups. Green includes a wide spectrum of personality in his characters.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Seventh Edition. X.J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999. 1636-1707.
Though humanity can never express itself fully, it is never deterred in its quest to do so. Literature brings such light and expression for humanity to communicate across time, space, generations and ever-evolving society. However, no modicum of talent suffices to satisfy people throughout the ages for literature and its ability to communicate directly and indirectly. Arthur Miller stands as a classic American author with his ability to explore the darker and deeper parts of humanity and individuals facing the adversity of a larger society. In Miller’s Death of a Salesman, he demonstrates the struggle of a family with an illusion of the American Dream against new ideas of success and striving for personal happiness rather than wealth or prestige.