The Character Of Conrad And Cormac Conrads Heart Of Darkness

The Unknown Character Limited in their ability to represent the character’s conditions without explicit statements, authors cannot elucidate each event and character’s thought while continuing to hold the reader’s attention. Therefore, many authors utilize the landscape of the story to parallel a character or group of characters. In Heart of Darkness, author Joseph Conrad personifies the landscape as a fluid character. Consequently, as the reader begins to further comprehend the landscape’s meaning, Marlow’s understanding of the people around him becomes more clear. Likewise, Cormac McCarthy, in his novel The Road, utilizes the ashy remains of the forest to parallel the destruction of society due to the apocalyptic event. Both Joseph†¦show more content†¦Marlow first observes this unseen force when he watches the French warship â€Å"firing onto the continent† as if there were someone or something to kill. He remarks that, despite their efforts, â€Å"n othing could happen† (Conrad 11). The French attack the force, one that would reappear throughout the novella, because they do not understand it. Conrad previously set up this imagery of confused Europeans when Marlow visited the company building in London. He draws the reader to a colorful map of Africa, broken into sections based on colonization. Conrad describes the yellow section he sends Marlow into as the dead center, through which cuts a deadly snake. For Marlow, like most of the men who ventured into the Congo, â€Å"the snake had charmed [him]† (Conrad 6). Yellow represents deception, disease, and fear, and with the image of the deadly snake slithering through the center, Conrad makes an allusion to the Bible: the devil using Africa to infiltrate the Europeans. They are confused by the forces of Africa- native plants, animals, culture, and people they had never experienced before- and become hostile, consumed by the forces of evil that stem from the chaos. This confusion sets up the tone for the rest of his novella. Out of the uncontrollable chaos of the French fleet attacking the continent rises the destruction of the Congo: the pillaging, burning, fighting, and terror the resides in both the Africans and Europeans. Marlow also struggles to describe the landscapeShow MoreRelatedThe Landscape In Heart Of Darkness And Cormac Mccarthys The Road2029 Words   |  9 Pagesthe characters’ conditions without explicit statements, authors cannot elucidate each event and character’s thought while continuing to hold the reader’s attention. Therefore, many authors utilize the landscape of the story to parallel a character or group of characters. Both Joseph Conrad, author of Heart of Darkness, and Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, manipulate the landscape to represent the human condition. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad personifies the landscape as a fluid character, so

Art of Love - Ovid Essay - 1256 Words

The Art of Love Framing for a Misogynist The poetry of Ovid exemplified in The Art of Love is one of the only examples of the contemporary social behavior exhibited during the time of Rome. Ovid writes about social activities, proper style, women, and how to obtain them. Through Ovid’s perspective, there are three different ways to consider a woman. These three views include relating a woman to a game, a beautiful treasure, and as a means to assert social status. Comparatively, Andreas Capellanus writes in a way that makes women seem respected, worthy and as something to a man would willingly devote his life to. Both men have a clear fascination with women and their relationship to men. However, their distinct writing styles cause†¦show more content†¦The view Ovid takes on women is not always clear. In some passages he has a violent perspective on women. Ovid writes about how he easily could have taken advantage of women, displaying a negative viewpoint of ownership towards females. Similarly he says â€Å"never a virgin there was free from the lust of a hand†, which shows that men desire women, and a virgin is held as a high prize, one that is worth committing the act of adultery for (Art 1. 89-126). On the other end, Capellanus views the trophy of virginity as futile and counters that while you know â€Å"some other man is enjoying the embraces of your beloved, this will make you begin to value her solaces all the more† (2.2, 3). Furthermore, he makes the argument against adultery, again opposing the views of Ovid. Capellanus explains his argument in detail by stating that a man in love is adorned â€Å"with the virtue of chastity, because he who shines with the light of one love can hardly think of embracing another woman, even a beautiful one† (1.4, 2). Contrary to many men who believe that a man must be strong and not show a woman his tenderness, Ovid shares his heart, saying, â€Å"do not think it a shame to suffer her blows or her curses; do not think it a shame, stooping, to kiss her feet† (Art 2. 522-553) . This is simply an outstanding statement, as it serves to show the true emotion and character of Ovid. This statement cannot be taken lightlyShow MoreRelatedPlatoï ¿ ½Ã¯ ¿ ½s Symposium, And Ovids The Art Of Love1109 Words   |  5 Pagesphilosophers once said when asked to explain what love is, â€Å"[it] is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.† Since the beginning of time, writers and philosophers have been trying to discover the origins of this â€Å"attack,† and many attribute different reasons for this immense feeling. In both Plato’s Symposium, and Ovid’s The Art of Love, Aristophanes and Ovid attempt to address the genesis of love by asking: what is the feeling that drives us towardsRead MoreArt of Love744 Words   |  3 PagesThe Art of Love, written by Ovid, was a set of three books, the first being a guide or rule book on how to â€Å"pick-up† women and the second book a rule book on how to keep the woman you have or â€Å"caught† satisfied and interested in you. The third and final book that he wrote was written for women on what to do to catch and keep a man, since he felt it was only fair for women to also be â€Å"armed† when it comes to picking- up men. The rules that Ovid describes in The Art of Love are similar to the rulesRead More Promoting Morality in the Aeneid and Metamorphoses Essay1621 Words   |  7 PagesPromoting Morality in the Aeneid and Metamorphoses    Just as the authors of the Bible use an evocative, almost mythological vehicle to convey covenants and laws that set the moral tone for Hebrew and Christian societies, Latin poets Virgil and Ovid employ a similarly supernatural method to foster their own societal and moral goals in Roman society. Where Virgils Aeneid depicts Aeneas as the ideal, duty-bound Roman patriarch absent from the conflicted Rome of Virgils youth, Ovids MetamorphosesRead MoreEssay Music and Morality1472 Words   |  6 PagesGreek philosophers, society had the ultimate say in the influence of moral content in music. However, in the course of time, even up to present day, societies influence decreases as music makers continuously take more liberties in the practice of their art. In the early 400s B.C.E., Socrates, a well-known Athenian citizen, spent the majority of his time expounding his philosophy of life in the streets of Greece to anyone who cared to listen. His mission, which he explains in the Apology, was toRead MoreCan Beauty Stand The Test Of Time?1379 Words   |  6 Pagestime? This is an age old question that can be examined by comparing two works of art in different mediums from the Renaissance period and show how they share a common theme of beauty. The first piece is an exquisite painting by Sandro Botticelli, titled Birth of Venus, which shows a nude Venus entering the mortal world on a shell. The second work is a poem by Publius Ovidius Naso (known as Ovid), called The Art of Beauty, that demonstrates why it is important for Roman women to wear make-up andRead MoreOvid s Metamorphoses : A Collection Of Myths1627 Words   |  7 Pagesare confronted with a problem or a situation and how they react determines their fate. These fates take the form of physical alterattions. Often people transform into flora, fauna, or different human forms. In Metamorphoses the metaphors utilized by Ovid involve the natural world. These mataphors are natural for us to understand because nature is a common reference point for us all. While Ovid’s meaning behind the forms he chooses in his transformations seem simple, recognizing why characters are transformedRead More Augustan Poetry Essay830 Words   |  4 PagesPoetry Often through hardship and nearly insurmountable difficulty great works of art are born. Although years of bloodshed and civil war had plagued Rome since the death of Julius Caesar, some of the most powerful and influential literature in the western world was developed in that timeframe. During the Age of Augustus (approximately 43 BC – 17 AD) such great writers as Virgil, Horace, Livy, Propertius, and Ovid created epic masterpieces of literature and philosophy. It was through the collectiveRead MoreReflection Of Ovids Metamorphoss1330 Words   |  6 Pagespreceded it by twenty-one years, it is elusive and ironic, mythic rather than historical, and, as its name suggests, continually shifting its shape. Rather than chronicling and celebrating the monumentality of Rome and the grandeur of its emperor, Ovid here examines and reflects upon the passions and inner strengths and weaknesses of individuals. The Metamorphoses is a collection of tales rather than one complex story or se t of adventures. Many scholars argue that it is unified by the recurring themesRead MoreEros : Female Souls Thriving And Crumbling1735 Words   |  7 PagesEros: Female Souls Thriving and Crumbling The term â€Å"Eros,† referring to passionate love in English, has long been the mainstream of themes in drama, literature, arts, and cinematic media. The fascinating power of love has been exhaustively publicized, and the pursuit of love is diffused in streets and lanes. Conversely, in ancient times, many poets, especially Virgil, Ovid and Apuleius, described eros as such an evil spirit that it will destroy the female soul thoroughly, except for the one inRead MoreThe Art of Courtly Love, Consolation of Philosophy, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight1454 Words   |  6 PagesThe Art of Courtly Love, Consolation of Philosophy, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Part 1: Consolation of Philosophy, written by Boethius 1. Boethius was a popular member of the senatorial family. He was a philosopher that agreed with Plato that government should be solely in the hands of wise men. After becoming consul, charges of treason were brought against him. He lived in a time in Roman society when everyone was mainly Christian. He was an Arian Christian and believed that Christ

The Hero And The Crown Part One Chapter 5 Free Essays

AERIN WAS GOING to have to take part in Galanna’s wedding after all. The surka was indisputably wearing off – â€Å"It’s lasted this long, why couldn’t it have hung on just a little longer?† Aerin said irritably to Tor. â€Å"It tried, I’m sure,† said Tor. We will write a custom essay sample on The Hero And The Crown Part One Chapter 5 or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"It just wasn’t expecting Galanna.† Galanna had contrived to have the great event put off an extra half-year because, she said coyly, she wanted everything to be perfect, and in the time remaining it was not possible to drag a sufficient number of things up to meet that standard. Meanwhile Aerin had resignedly begun to take her old place in her father’s court; her presence was not a very necessary one, but her continued absence was noted, and the surka hadn’t killed her after all. â€Å"I wonder if I could at least convince her that I’m too woozy to carry a rod and a veil or throw flowers and sing. I could maybe get away with just standing with my father and looking pale and invalid. Probably. She can’t possibly want me around any more than I want to be around.† â€Å"She should have thought more exactingly of the timing involved when she goaded you into eating the surka in the first place.† Aerin laughed. Tor said ruefully, â€Å"I almost wish I’d had the forethought to eat a tree myself.† Perlith had asked Tor to stand behind him at the ceremony. The first companion was supposed to hold a sola’s badge of rank during his wedding; but in this particular case there were some interesting politics going on. Perlith was required by tradition to ask the king and the first sola to stand by him for the ceremony, and the king and the first sola by tradition were required to accept the invitation. The first companion’s place was, as attendants go, the most important, but it was also the most attentive; the slang for the first companion’s position was rude, and referred to the companion’s location near his sola’s backside. Asking Tor to stand first companion was a token of Perlith’s unrivaled esteem for his first sola, as the first companion’s place should go to Perlith’s dearest friend. It would also be Perlith’s only chance ever to have the first sola waiting on him. â€Å"You should drop the badge with a clatter just as the chant gets to the bit about family loyalty and the unending bliss of being a member of a family. Ugh,† said Aerin. â€Å"Don’t tempt me,† Tor said. Fortunately Galanna did not have her future husband’s sense of humor, and she was glad to excuse Aerin from participation on the grounds of the continuing unreliability of the first sol’s health. Galanna was incapable of plotting much of anything over a year in advance, and the surka incident had had nothing to do with the predictable approach of her wedding day. It had had to do with the loss of her eyelashes just when she knew Perlith had decided to offer for her – which offer had then had to be put off till they were long enough again for her to look up at him through them. (She had actually been weak enough to wonder if Aerin was Gifted after all, her timing in this case being no less than diabolical.) But it had occurred to her lately that it would be a boon to find a way to keep Aerin out of the ceremony itself, without giving visible public offense (and since the surka hadn’t killed her off, which, to give Galanna what little credit she deserves, sh e had not been attempting). Galanna understood as well as Perlith did why Tor had been asked, and would stand as first companion; but Tor was reliable, for all his disgusting sympathy for his youngest cousin. He believed in his first sola’s place as Aerin had no reason to believe in her place as first sol; and Aerin, if dragooned into performing some ceremonial role, would by fair means or foul mess things up. Nothing was going to spoil Galanna’s wedding day. She and Aerin understood each other very well when Aerin, formal and smiling, offered her apologies and regrets, and Galanna, formal and smiling, accepted them. Galanna and Perlith’s wedding was the first great state event since the celebration of Tor’s coming to manhood, and thus his taking his full place at his uncle’s right hand, less than two years after his own father died. Aerin had been a part of that ceremony, and she had been determined to perform her role with both dignity and accuracy, that Tor would not be embarrassed in front of all the people who had told him not to ask her to be in it. The result was that she remembered very little of the day-long rites. She did remember frantically running her responses through her mind (which she had so firmly committed to memory that she remembered them all her life). When the priests finished naming the three hundred and ten sovereigns before Arlbeth (not that all of them had ruled quite the same country, but the sonorous recitation of all the then-who-came-afters had an impressive ring to it), she had to rename the last seven of them, seven being the perfect number be cause of the Seven Perfect Gods, and name their Honored Wives or queens (there hadn’t been a ruling queen in a very long time) and any full brothers or sisters. The finish was: And then who came after was Tor, son of Thomar, own brother to Arlbeth; Tor came next. And she had to not squeak, and she had to not squeak three times, for they went through it all once at dawn, once at midday, and once at sunset. She also had to hold his swordbelt, and by the evening she had blisters across both palms from gripping it too hard. But she had done everything right. Tor had been busier since then, often away from the City, showing himself to the Hillfolk who came rarely or never to the City, that they might one and all know the face and voice of the man who would be their king someday; and it had also been soon after Tor’s coming of age that Aerin had eaten the surka. While it lay heavily on her she had not wished to see much of him even when he was at home, though he had come often to sit by her when she was too sick to protest and even, without her knowledge, put off one or two trips that he might stay near her. But as she got enough better to be surly about not being well, and as his absences of necessity increased, a barrier began to grow up between them, and they were no longer quite the friends they had once been. She missed him, for she had been accustomed to talking to him nearly every day, but she never said she missed him, and she told herself that it was as well, since the surka had proved Galanna three-quarters right about her , that the first sola not contaminate himself with her company too often. When she did see him, she was painstakingly bright and offhand. A few days after Talat had trotted halfway round his pasture with Aerin on his back, she asked Hornmar what had become of Talat’s tack. She knew that each of the court horses had its own, and Kethtaz would never be insulted by wearing bits of his predecessor’s gear; but she was afraid that Talat’s might have been destroyed when his leg had doomed him. Hornmar, who had seen Talat jogging around his field with Aerin at attention on his back, brought out saddle and girth and bridle, for while he had thought they would never be used again, he had not had the heart to get rid of them. If Aerin noticed that they appeared to have been freshly cleaned and oiled, she said nothing but â€Å"Thank you.† The same day that she carried Talat’s gear up to her room and hid it in her wardrobe (where Teka, finding it later, also found that it had left oil spots on Aerin’s best court dress), she saw from her window Tor riding in from one of his rounds of politi cal visits; and she decided it was time to waylay him. â€Å"Aerin,† he said, and hugged her gladly. â€Å"I have not seen you in weeks. Have you your dress made yet for the wedding of the century? Who won, you or Teka?† She pulled a face. â€Å"Teka has won more ground than I, but I refused to wear it in yellow at all, so at least it’s going to be a sort of leaf green, and there’s less lace. It’s still quite awful.† Tor looked amused. When he looked amused she almost forgot she had decided that it was better that they weren’t such good friends any more. â€Å"Have supper with me,† he said. â€Å"I must have dinner in the hall – I suppose you are still pleading ill health and dining peacefully with Teka? But supper I may have alone in my rooms. Will you come?† â€Å"Pleading ill health indeed,† she said. â€Å"Do you really want me to have a dizzy moment and drop a full goblet of wine in the lap of the esteemed guest at my right – or left? I’m less likely to cause civil war if I stay away.† â€Å"A very convenient excuse. I sometimes think if I have to look at Galanna purring over the latest detail of the upcoming event I shall throw an entire cask at her. You’d think we were declaring bloody independence from a genocidal tyrant, the way she goes on about the significance of the seating of the barons’ third cousins twice removed. Did you know that Katah doesn’t want to come at all? Her husband says he may have to put a bag over her head and tie her to her horse. Katah says that she knows Galanna and he doesn’t. Will you come to supper?† â€Å"Of course, if you’ll shut up long enough for me to accept.† She grinned at him. He looked at her, feeling a twitch of surprise; in her smile for the first time he saw that which was going to trouble his sleep very soon; something very unlike the friendship they’d enjoyed all their lives thus far; something that would raise the barrier between them much faster than anything else could; the barrier that thus far Aerin alone saw growing. â€Å"What’s wrong?† she said; some of the old familiarity still worked, and she saw the shadow pass over his face, although she had no clue to what caused it. â€Å"Nothing. I’ll see you tonight, then.† She laughed when she saw the place settings for their supper: gold. The golden goblets were fishes standing on their tails, their open mouths waiting for the wine to be poured; the plates were encircled by leaping golden deer, the head of each bowed over the quarters of the one before, and their flying tails made a scalloped edge; the spoons and knives were golden birds, their long tails forming handles. â€Å"Highly unbreakable. I can still spill the wine.† â€Å"We’ll have to make do.† â€Å"Where in Damar did you get these?† Something like a flush crept up his face. â€Å"Four settings of the stuff was one of my coming-of-age gifts; it’s from a town in the west known for its metalwork. I only just brought it back, this trip.† It had been given him for his bride, the town’s chief had told him. Aerin looked at him, trying to decide about the flush; he was brown to begin with, and copper-colored from sunburn, and it was hard to tell. â€Å"It must have been a long and gaudy ceremony, and they covered you with glory you don’t feel you’ve earned.† Tor smiled. â€Å"Near enough.† She didn’t spill anything that evening, and she and Tor reminded each other of the most embarrassing childhood moments they could think of, and laughed. Galanna and Perlith’s wedding was not mentioned once. â€Å"Do you remember,† she said, â€Å"when I was very young, almost a baby still, and you were first learning to handle a sword, how you used to show me what you’d learned – â€Å" â€Å"I remember,† he said, smiling, â€Å"that you followed me around and wheedled and wept till I was forced to show you.† â€Å"Wheedled, yes,† she said. â€Å"Wept, never. And you started it; I didn’t ask to get put in a baby-sack while you leaped your horse over hurdles.† â€Å"My own fault, I admit it.† He also remembered, though he said nothing of it, how their friendship had begun. He had felt sorry for his young cousin, and had sought her first out of dislike for those who wished to ostracize her, especially Galanna, but soon for her own sake: for she was wry and funny even when she could barely speak, and loved best to find things to be enthusiastic about; and did not remind him that he was to grow up to be king. He had never quite learned to believe that she was always shy in company, nor that the shyness was her best attempt at a tactful acknowledgement of her precarious place in her father’s court; nor that her defensive obstinacy was quite necessary. It was to watch her take fire with enthusiasm that he had made a small wooden sword for her, and shown her how to hold it; and later he taught her to ride a horse, and let her ride his own tall mare when the first of her pretty, spoiled ponies had made her wish to give up riding altogether. He had shown her how to hold a bow, and to send an arrow or a spear where she wished it to go; how to skin a rabbit or an oozog, and how best to fish in running streams and quiet pools. The complete older brother, he thought now, and for the first time with a trace of bitterness. â€Å"I can still hunt and fish and ride,† she said. â€Å"But I miss the swordplay. I know you haven’t much spare time these days – † She hesitated, calculating which approach would be likeliest to provoke the response she desired. â€Å"And I know there’s no reason for it, but – I’m big enough now I could carry one of the boys’ training swords. Would you – â€Å" â€Å"Train you?† he said. He was afraid he knew where her thoughts were tending, although he tried to tell himself that this was no worse than teaching her to fish. He knew that even if he did grant her this it would do her no good; it didn’t matter that she was already a good rider, that she was, for whatever inbred or circumstantial reasons, less silly than any of the other court women; that he knew from teaching her other things that he could probably teach her to be a fair swordswoman. He knew that for her own sake he should not encourage her now. The gods prevent her from asking me anything I must not give, he thought, and said aloud, â€Å"Very well.† Their eyes met, and Aerin’s dropped first. The lessons had to be at infrequent intervals because of Tor’s ever increasing round of duties as first sola; but lessons still Aerin had, as she wished, and after several months’ time and practice she could make her teacher pant and sweat as they danced around each other. Her lessons were only a foot soldier’s lessons; horses were not mentioned, and she was wise enough, having gained so much, not to protest. She took pride, in a grim sort of way, in learning what Tor taught her; and he need not know the hours of drill she put in, chopping at leaves and dust motes, when he was not around. She made what she considered to be obligatory protests about the regular hiatuses in her progress when Tor was sent off somewhere, but in truth she was glad of them, for then she had the time to put in, grinding the lessons into her slow, stupid, Giftless muscles. But she was always eager for her next meeting with the first sola, and what he guessed about her private practice sessions was not discussed, any more than the fact that he had not fought unhorsed since he was a little boy and learning his first lessons in swordplay. A sola always led cavalry. Aerin knew pretty well when the time came that if she had been in real training she would have been put on a horse; but this moment too passed in silence. But there was one good thing that also passed in silence, for Aerin was too proud, for different reasons, to mention it: the specific muscular control and coordination of learning to wield a sword finally sweated the last of the surka out of her system. It had been two years since her meeting with Galanna in the royal garden. Tor and Aerin’s meetings on the farthest edge of the least used of the practice fields also gave them an excuse to be together, as they had always been together, without having to acknowledge the new restraint between them, without discovering that conversation between them was growing awkward. Aerin knew that Tor was careful not to use his real strength when he forced her back; but at least, as she learned, he had to be quick to keep her off; and strength, she hoped, would come. She was growing like a weed; her seventeenth birthday had come and gone, with the tiresome pomp necessary to a king’s daughter, and the stiff courtesy inspired by an unsatisfactory king’s daughter, and she was far too old to be suddenly growing taller. Not that she minded towering over Galanna; Galanna’s perfect profile, when seen from above, seemed to beetle slightly at the brows and narrow slightly around the eyes. Aerin also had hopes that she would outgrow the revolting Kisha and be given a real horse. A real horse. She began to have to close her lips tighter over her determination not to mention horses to Tor. A mounted man’s strength was his horse – or a mounted woman’s. But if she asked Tor to teach her to fight from horseback he would have to admit to knowing how much it meant to her, that it was not only an amusing private game she was playing; and she knew he was troubled about what they were doing already. His curious silence on the cause of her eagerness to learn told her that; and he could still read as many of her thoughts as she could of his. How to cite The Hero And The Crown Part One Chapter 5, Essay examples