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Geno Urbano
Seminar 20-013
Professor Leither
1 November 2010
How the Hulk Saved Christmas: The Dilemma of Emotions Saving the World
Yoda once said, “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering” (Star
Wars: The Phantom Menace). Emotions are very tricky. People can tame them but emotions can
control people too, causing suffering for everyone. When emotions take full control, a person’s
perspective becomes clouded as objectivity is replaced with feelings. Judgments made through
emotions like anger, fear or love may seem right to the person but, through an outsider’s
perspective, may also be wrong. Judgments can be greatly affected by emotions. For example, in
the Star Trek movie, Spock becomes overcome with anger towards Kirk, especially after Kirk
mentions Spock’s deceased mother, and lashes out, attacking Kirk to the point where Spock is
choking Kirk. At that point, Spock realizes what he is doing and relieves himself from his
position of Captain due to being emotionally compromised (Star Trek), showing that too much
emotions interfere with rational thinking. If emotions are in balance with objectivity, judgments
are just as right as something made through objectivity alone. This problem is not new. Even
though it appears in modern media, the problem existed as far back as the times of Ancient
Greece in the literature. In Greek writings like the Sophocles’ tragedies, Homer’s Odyssey, and
Thucydides’ “Mytilenian Debate,” the effect of emotions on judgment have shown to provide
motivation for characters but do they provide motivation for the better or for the worse?
Emotions provide a motivation to overcome obstacles. Antigone uses her love for her
brother, who is denied a burial by Creon, to work up the courage to defy Creon’s ruling. She uses
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love to overcome the fear of punishment. In the face of certain death, Antigone tells Creon, “But
if I dared to leave the dead man […] dead and unburied, that would have been real pain,” and
finds that the threat of execution is not a real threat to her (Grene 178). If it were not for her love
for her brother, she would have been another weak woman, like her sister Ismeme, as Ismeme
was overcome by fear and did not have the emotional motivation to join Antigone in burying
their brother. Antigone burying her brother, despite the decree against it by Creon, was a
judgment because Antigone was honoring her family and without her emotional response, she
would not have buried him.
On the contrary, emotions do skew a person’s judgment by making people more selfish.
For example, Oedipus, in fear of the truth, becomes angry and paranoid to the point where he
lashes at Creon, throwing out irrational accusations at him. Another example is in Homer’s
Odyssey, when Odysseus sees the ghost of his father. Odysseus has been emotionally charged
with anger, desperation and suspicion, causing him to act out of self-preservation rather than
logic. This is apparent in the way that he contemplates how he should approach his father: to
embrace him or to test him (Fagles 475). Odysseus chooses to test his father, which is odd and
wrong. His emotions affected Odysseus to the point where he lost trust in his family. Diodotus,
in “the Mytilenian Debate,” explains, “do not be swayed too much by pity or by ordinary decent
feelings. I, no more than Cleon, wish you to be influenced by such emotions” (Copley 36).
However, both speakers try to manipulate the audience’s emotions, bending them to the decision
either speaker wanted. The ability to manipulate a person’s decision through emotion shows the
dangers of involving emotions in making judgments. Overall, emotions make fair judgments
impossible due to people being susceptible to selfishness and manipulation under no evidence
and just through emotional responses within Greek literature.
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Anger corrupts the mind and rationality as anger causes a person to rashly act on
anything that opposes him or her. Oedipus presents this through his lashing out at Creon.
Teiresias accuses Oedipus to be the murderer and Oedipus becomes stricken with fear of the
truth and becomes angry (Grene 26). Oedipus becomes concerned with self-preservation and,
while still filled with anger, searches for a way to make his denials a reality by searching for a
scapegoat, which becomes Creon (Grene 35). In Oedipus’ accusations, he had no logical
justification behind them, just using ad nauseam as his logic, which is a fallacy. Oedipus lashed
out because of selfishness, which is caused by his fear of losing his praise and power. Creon and
the Chorus, unlike Oedipus, are aware of the dangers of Oedipus’ current emotion status,
especially the Chrous when they tell Oedipus, “[Creon’s] words are wise […]. Those who are
quick of temper are not safe” (Grene 37). Being “safe” does not only apply to the safety of
Oedipus but also the people that would be affected by the actions of Oedipus in his state of
anger. Both the Chorus and Creon are aware that emotionally charged people like Oedipus are
not safe to himself and to the people around him. Oedipus does not care about the people around
him; he just cares about himself and his throne.
Emotions do not only affect a person short-term but it can have long-term effects on
people. Odysseus shows the long-term effects of emotion on a person. When Odysseus sees his
father, he is conflicted with how he should approach his dad. He is conflicted between “hug and
embrace his father, pour out the long tale—or probe him first and test him every way” (Fagles
475). Odysseus lost all trust with the world around him because of his fear, which started
because his pride when he reveals himself to Polyphemos that it was Odysseus that injured him,
instead of keeping his pride under control and keeping his identity secret, causing Odysseus’
torment by Poseidon (Fagles 227). Unlike Oedipus, Odysseus did not have clear and present
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danger when he encountered his father. The encounter happened after he returns home and kills
the suitors. With emotions controlling his actions for years, he could not leave the paranoid
mindset, which causes Odysseus to question everyone he meets. Odysseus questioning Penelope
was necessary because she could have been disloyal but Odysseus questioning his father was out
of line. Odysseus’ emotion of fear due to his suspicions against everyone around him causes this
conflict that should not exist. Instead of accepting his father, Odysseus becomes concerned for
himself because of his previous constant state of fear where he thinks that testing his father is the
right thing to do. Being emotionally charged for years, Odysseus became a radically different
person by the
Emotional people can be manipulated and manipulate others using both their own
emotions and the emotions of others. In the Mytilenian Debate, Diodotus and Cleon uses their
emotional speeches as propaganda, even though Diodotus explains, “do not be swayed too much
by pity or by ordinary decent feelings. I, no more than Cleon, wish you to be influenced by such
emotions” (Copley 36). Although the claim implies that emotion is something that is not of
Diodotus’ or Cleon’s concerns, they both manipulate the emotions of the listeners of the
speeches to sway their votes to either Diodotus’ favor or Cleon’s favor. People who can
manipulate emotions become puppet-masters and it all comes down to which puppet-master is
more powerful. This takes away the population’s ability to think, which strips the major aspect of
democracy from the Greeks: power to the people. The people have no true power because they
are subtly controlled by the emotional manipulation of the higher powers. This does not create
informed decisions of the people but a crowd of people who is influenced to choose a certain
choice without any input of the individual. The population’s choice does not become fair but
biased towards whoever had the most impact on the majority. The people who have the power
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become selfish because each one wants to be known as right instead providing the greater good
for the people. Emotion causes Diodotus and Cleon become more concerned with who is right,
which is a symbol of power, rather than finding the best solution to the problem, which is the
most practical.
Although emotions do make people selfish and create unfair judgments, pure objectivity
is rarely achieved, making fair judgments an ideal. Objectivity may be an illusion as people can
convince themselves that they were objective, even though from an outside perspective they
were not. A person being aware that he or she is emotionally compromised, on the other hand,
may be the closest a person can reach to being purely objective. There will always be an
emotional reaction to situations but how well a person can handle emotions, like a balance, is key
to making fair judgments instead of pure objectivity.
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Works Cited
Copley, ed. Greek, Roman, Early Christian, and Medieval Thought. 3rd ed. Moraga: Saint
Mary's College, 2009.
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1997.
Sophocles. Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. Trans. David Grene.
Chicago, Il: University of Chicago, 1991.
Star Trek. Dir. J.J. Abrams. Perf. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. Paramount Pictures, 2009.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Liam Neeson and Ewan
McGregor. Lucasfilm, 1999.