Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Betrayal essay introduction
Internal symbolism in the flowering judas
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Judas Iscariot, the disciple, hanged himself from a tree after betraying Jesus Christ and giving him a kiss. The tree in which Judas hanged himself is known as “Judas Tree” mainly found in Southern Europe and Western Asia. In the short story “Flowering Judas” written by Katherine Anne Porter the title is related to this religious event of betrayal, murder, and denial. “‘Flowering Judas’ is possibly her most remarkable story of tension, sustained, threatened, and reestablished” (Gottfried 134). The two main characters in this short story are Braggioni and Laura. Braggoni is a cruel, powerful leader of Marxist revolutionaries in and around Mexico City. Laura a beautiful American women, age 22, who took up residence in Mexico. The most known theme in Porter’s short story “Flowering Judas” is betrayal. Laura, Braggioni, Braggioni’s wife, and Eugenio are all guilty of betrayal.
Starting off, Laura betrayal’s her students who she teaches. The students in her school love her and are enthusiastic about learning from her teaching. “Children [write] on the blackboard, ‘We lov ar ticher’” (Porter 1695). But Laura does not put all her commitment and passion to her teaching. As stated by Sister Mary Bride, “Even though she was a teacher, she had no love for the little children who crowded around her each morning with fervent greetings and festooned her desk with flowers. They ‘remain strangers to her’” (129). A teacher is supposed to love her children, to be part of them, and to focus in her children. With the lack of eagerness and vow to accomplish her activities as a teacher, she is making less of herself and betraying her students.
Continuing, Laura betrayals love in her life, by rejecting all men who intend to reach for her heart. “B...
... middle of paper ...
...y Porter presents to us a related event in a dream that Laura has with Eugenio. Eugenio says to Laura in the dream “Then eat these flowers, poor prisoner,” and from a Judas tree he stripped the warm bleeding flowers, and held them to her lips (Porter 1700). Here Porter mentions Judas as to referring to the disciple that betrayed Jesus. By Laura accepting and eating the bleeding leave from Eugenio, ripped from the Judas tree, she is accepting the contribution in his murder. Just as a Christian’s accept Jesus on Sundays by Holly Communion. Then Eugenio says to Laura “Murder and Cannibal”, and Laura awakes frighten and terrified, and can no longer go sleep (Porter 1700). Laura has betrayed Eugenio by participating in his murder. As stated by Ray B. West Jr., “She is, like Judas, the betrayer; and her betrayal, like his, consisted in a an inability to believe” (126).
The life of Jesus is one that is often discussed and debated among scholars and authors since the time Jesus walked this earth. Gerd Theissen’ s work, Shadow of the Galilean, takes the unique perspective of a grain merchant who has been enlisted by Pilate to find out information on various religious sects and report back to him. After Andreas, the grain merchant’s, first report he is given the task of finding out more about this Jesus who is gaining quite a following. Pilate and the Romans want to know if he is a threat to them. This book follows Andreas as he goes on a journey to find out more about Jesus from various sources for his report to the Romans.
Many hearts are drawn to history's greatest love stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, and Helen and Paris to name a few. One could argue that humanity’s way of finding happiness is to seek love. Pure, unadulterated love is one of the hardest feelings to acquire, but when one does, they’d do anything to keep it. Through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and his characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, readers discover that this innate desire to be accepted and loved is both our most fatal flaw and our greatest virtue.
Jim’s feeling of loneliness has a big impact on his view of Alena. If Jim met another girl that day on the beach, and who was not as attractive he would have acted very different. Jim was very vulnerable at that moment and needed som...
2. Wright, James. "Saint Judas." Approaching Poetry, Perspectives and Responses. Ed. Meg Spilleth. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997. 70.
In John Steinbeck's short story," The Chrysanthemums," there is a strong underlining of betrayal. We can see betrayal in three forms throughout the story. First we see Elisa being betrayed by the salesman who plays on her emotions by giving her a sales pitch only to get some work out of her. Then, in result to confiding in the salesman Elisa betrays her husband by opening herself up, and confiding to a complete stranger things which she couldn't reveal to her own husband. Finally, we see Elisa betraying herself by not allowing herself to fully express her true emotions, and by being too afraid to step out of societies norms for woman during this time.
Let us first examine Laura. Walter seems to fall in love with Laura at first sight. She is the image of the perfect Victorian woman. She is beautiful, rich, and pliant. She is willing to do whatever it takes to make other people happy. She has a dee...
The betrayal of Jesus serves as an important Biblical allusion in Benito Cereno. In the beginning of this novella, Delano still doubts whether Cereno is dangerous or not. He says, “Or was the Spaniard less hardened than the Jew, who refrained not from supping at the board of him whom the same night he meant to betray?” (70). In this quote, Delano asks himself if Cereno will betray him that night, but also asks if Cereno has more restraint than Judas. Here, Melville uses the betrayal of Jesus to show not only Delano’s ignorance, but to represent the bond that has grown between the two men during their short time together. In Delano’s perspective, Cereno’s strange behavior and their respect towards each other are signs that something is amiss. Delano believes, incorrectly, that the out of place happenings on the ship are due to an imminent betrayal by Cereno. Demonstrated again is Delano’s ignorance as represented by his isolation from the real world. Delano’s limited knowledge of slavery, because he is from the north, causes him to buy into the terrible stereotypes against Africans, which is an evil unto
In the Flannery O’Connor’s great book, “Wise blood”, Hazel motes, the main character of the literature, is a hero struggling against his prophetic vocation, yet turning out to be a Christian martyr at the end of his long and futile ordeals. The development of the literature centers around the protagonist’s struggle to run away from Jesus, who poses Jesus as “something awful,” and his final return to him. Hazel’s movement throughout the literature, therefore, may be seen as a journey: a modern man’s progress from rebellion against God, to penance, and to return to him through the painful recognition of his sinful and fallen nature. The shrill thesis of the literature is stressed by its circular journey pattern of escape from and return to God.
•The execution of “this Christ” suppressed the “dangerous religious movement” of the Christians for a time, but then it quickly broke out again, first in Judea, but then spreading rapidly as far as Rome
This vacuum of trust was fixed when both Erin and Jamie put their trust in their students. When the students realized that both teachers trusted their abilities and their attributes, the disciplinary problems started to wane. In ...
The reader encounters the first “Flawed Christ” in the form of Benji Compson, formerly Maury, who is widely held to be Christ the loving. Faulkner makes it explicitly clear that Benji is Christ by not only making him 33, (traditionally held to be Christ’s age at the time of the crucifixion), but also by setting his narrative on Holy Thursday; in addition to this, the case can be made that Benji’s fixation with trees is intended to remind the reader of the tree that Jesus himself died on. In the same way that Benji was linked to Christ, he has even more importantly linked to love- he never attempts any form of violence, or even engages in any malicious acts during his narrative. The loving Christ Benji has been linked to is the Christ seen in John 8:7 (“Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone”), or Matthew 19:14 (“let the children come to me”). However, Benji is a flawed Christ; he is too overwhelmed by his Christ-like love and emotion to do anything meaningful with his time aside from gathering flowers, miss his lost family members, and wander about. This, of course, could be attributed to the character’s mental disability, but it could also be the cause of his mental disability; Faulkner le...
Jim is very self-assured and attempts to help Laura with her problems of self-esteem and shyness. Laura seems to be responding to his efforts of help when he unexpectedly announces his engagement to be married. Of course, this brings an end to the well-planned evening. At this point, there seems to be a wake-up call for these characters. A...
Love is expressed differently by all, some like Salamono may tuck it away, only to release it when the lover has left forever. Others , like Marie, choose to boast it to the world without hesitation. This quality is her confidence is herself shining through. She never fails to attest to what she wants “Then she said she wondered if she loved me, and there was no way I could know about that…Then we went for a walk through the main streets to the other end of town” Marie did not want Meursault to simply love her, she just assumed that asking was the best way to assert her feelings. What she wanted was to test if Meursault wanted to stay with her, for all that mattered to her was that...
Scene seven in The Glass Menagerie is critical for the audience to fully understand Laura. In this scene, Laura begins to show a different side...
Like so many innocent, selfless girls, untouched by the world, I forgave him. The pain dispersing through my body reminded me that I was strong and all I needed to do was heal. I would cry without tears at first, the sadness inside me so intense, that the hollowness in my heart would weigh me down. My heart’s deep hollowness was so immense, that the loudest shrie...