Final Exam Essay
 Possible Topics
o Tragic heroine
Tragic Hero
o knows did something wrong, suffers
reversal of fortune (peripeteia)
o have fatal flaw (Hamartia). Common fatal
flaw is Hubris – excessive pride and
arrogance
o Free will – cannot be a victim, has to have
high stature in the community, has a lot to
lose
o Have an epiphany and realization at end
o In end must be punished
Tragedy - a play dealing with tragic events and
having an unhappy ending, esp. one concerning the
downfall of the main character.
 Blanche and Antigone
 Antigone - Creon
o Peripeteia – reversal of fortune for
Creon
o Hamartia/flaw - Creon’s desire for
power
o Excessive pride – lot of hubris –
toward or defiance of the gods
leading to nemesis/the gods being
against him. His hubris causes a large
number of problems
o High standing in the community –
Creon is king, rich with a lot to lose
o Epiphany in end/stunning realization
of his downfall after losing everyone
and everything. (family and power
and position) = his punisment
o Has Chorus to indicate the beliefs of
society
o Beginning, middle, end
o Antigone is not a Tragic hero
 Blanche
o Wrong - Made 1st husband kill
himself, lost Belle Reve
o Fatal flaw – desire
o Lost Bell Reve, the families home,
which is the source of her wealth
and a part of their families history
o No realization in end
o Punished because put in mental
institution
o Power
 A primitive instinct present in all men.
 Lord of the Flies – Jack
 Jack – Id; relies on instinctive impulses –
primitive/primal side of man. Represents
the instinct of savagery within human
beings as opposed to the civilizing instinct
Ralph represents.
 From the beginning he desires total power
above all other things(greedy). He is
furious/jealous when he loses the election
to Ralph, and pushes for more power.
 Becomes increasingly wild, barbaric, and
cruel as novel progresses – leads away
from democracy
 The more savage he becomes, the more
he is able to control the rest of the group.
o There is a connection between
Jack’s love of authority and violence
– they both enable him to feel
powerful and exalted
 Becomes leader of hunters
 He is an expert in manipulating the other
boys, as evidenced by getting most of the
boys on the island to join his hunting
group.
 He learns by the end of the novel to use
the boys’ fear of the beast to control their
behavior --- this is a reminder of how
religion and superstition can be
manipulated as instruments of power
(Can also put under illusion/mental state.)
 The Lord of the Flies head symbolizes the
primitive instincts of power and cruelty
that take control of Jack’s tribe
 Antigone – Creon (tyrant)
 Decided that Eteoclces will be buried and
honored as a hero and Polyneices’ body
will be left to rot in disgrace. He stated
that the penalty for trying to bury the
body is death.
 Exhibits his power over the people, family
members, and even the gods trying to
defy their rules.
 He was warned by Tiresias the blind
prophet that the gods were mad at him
for not burying Polyneices and that
Haemon would die in punishment. He
agrees to bury him and even free
Antigone, but when he gets to the cave
she is dead and Haemon tries to attack
Creon and then stabs himself standing at
her side in distress.
 A ruler with all qualities a king should not
have – Is punished in end and lesson is
that gods should be respected
 Slaughterhouse Five – Effects
 No power over fate/free will
 Pre-determinism – believed that all in life
including death was pre-determined
 No power over time – becomes unstuck in
time
 Time existed simultaneously – all at once
 Streetcar – Stanley
 Tries to seem macho
 Control over Stella
 Control over Blanche
 Poker game they are not allowed
 Gets involved in Stella’s business relating
to Bell Reve with Napoleonic code –
demands papers from Blanche
 Angry when Blanche turns on radio –
throws it out the window. When Stella
attempts to stop him, he hits her
 Gets Stella to keep coming back even
after hurting/beating her – passionate to
her
 He is epitome of vital force
 Tries to destroy Blanche (cruel to her) – her
relationship and what is left of her in end
o Distrusts her
o Threatens - He says and finds out
things about her past in Laurel and
that she was told to leave the town –
hotel, fired from teaching job bc
affair
o No patience for Blanche lying
o He gives Blanche a ticket back as a
b-day present
o Rapes Blanche
o Gets Stella to believe him rather than
her own sister. Stella does not believe
Stanley raped Blanche
o Primitive side of man/ animalistic characteristics –
Intentional cruelty similar
 Lord of the Flies - Jack/Roger to Simon/Piggy
 William Golding himself stated the theme:
An attempt to trace the defects of society
to the defects of human nature – the
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defects of human nature are the defects
of society
o **All men have savagery/primal
instincts in them
Steps toward Savagery
Jack’s hunting group – become
preoccupied with act of hunting,
separate from the rest of the boys
Simon killed by others with hands and
teeth on the beach during their chaotic
revelry(like animals.) Simon Is Jesus –
represents purity, spirituality, insight. This is
why he has to be killed. He realized that
the beast does not exist externally, but
rather is present within each boy.
o LOTF head – savagery/animal
present within every man (on the
island) = evil in human nature
Roger – a sadistic, cruel boy older boy
who brutalized the littluns
Jack’s hunters take away Piggy’s glasses.
Ralph and his group travels to Jack’s
stronghold/fort to resolve their differences,
but Roger, Jack’s lietuentant, kills Piggy
when he rolls a boulder down the
mountain. He also shatters the conch.
When the glasses and conch break, it is
the end of society (order and reason).
o Piggy – superego; He wants order –
he is rational and has a conscience,
knowing what is right and wrong
Ralph escapes and is hunted like an
animal by the others.
o Ralph – ego; struggles with his
conscience as he is influenced by
both Piggy and Jack (in attempting
to create a balance)
 Amazement of the officer at the sight of
these savage children. How does man
reach this point.
 Antigone - Brother vs. Brother/Creon ,
 Brother vs. Brother – Fought each other.
Killed each other in battle.
o Eteocles(Thebes) fought
Polyneices(against). Eteocles had
exiled Polyneices. Polyneices is a
traitor to Thebes when he attacks it
including his brother.
 Creon – See below
 Women/Family
o Creon punished Ant/Ismene who
were his own nieces. He did not
tolerate what Antigone did. He
would not bury his own nephew. He
wanted to let Polyneices’ body rot.
He initially wanted them both to be
executed. He sent Antigone to a
cave to starve to death. It was also
his son Haemon’s fiancé, they were
to be married. He killed himself
blaming his father Creon and
Creon’s wife Eurydice killed herself
because she was distraught.
 War – men killing each other, savagery,
inevitable
 Slaughterhouse 5-Dresden/Char./Society
 War/Dresden – promises that he would
not glorify war. He condemns war with this
novel and these things have to be told
even if they are negative.
 Characters
 Society - Men killing other men. He
predicted he will be killed by someone
hired by a vengeful man(Paul Lazarro) he
knew from the war
 Paul Lazarro – wants revenge for Roland
Weary’s death so will have Billy killed –
there is no conflict between them
because the Tramalfaiorians have taught
him not to worry about death
 Streetcar – Stanley – see above
 He is not remorseful
o Women in novels
 Weak/inferior to men
 Antigone/Ismene are weak
o In trying to do the right thing by
burying her brother, she is punished
by her own uncle.
o Unreasonable in treatment of
women. - Ismene is innocently
punished for Antigone’s actions.
o Antigone is sent to a cave to starve
to death.
o Seen as supposed to be weak and
not tough and defiant like Antigone
was in burying her brother , going
against the king’s orders
o Since she was women who stood up
for what she believed in, she is seen
as manly and is punished and dies.
o He may have seen her as a threat to
his throne
o Creon did not want to look weak to
woman – part of hubris
 SH5: Montana Wildhack/Valencia
 Streetcar: Blanche/Stella
o Treated like second class citizens
o Stella and Eunice allow their
husbands to hurt them and they
keep coming back, valuing pleasure
o Illusion/mental state
 LOTF: Boys illusion of
society/democracy/monster
 The boys, specifically Ralph and Piggy,
thought that they would be able to
create and maintain order, however it is
not possible to do so, even when electing
a leader.
 Democracy does not always work and
may not always be the best form of order/
It still can lead to disorder and control
those who are savage. Conch breaking is
end of democracy/order.
 They did not expect to act they way they
did toward each other, including killing
one another and becoming savage.
 They lost their morality – right and wrong,
except for Ralph and Piggy. Ralph and
Simon realize that evil exists in everyone.
This is what happens when people are left
alone to survive on an island without
adult. – naturally revert to
cruelty,savagery,barabarism.
 Jack thinks it is a game and doesn’trealize
this is life or death.
 Simon is killed because he is the only
naturally good character on the island. It
is not realistic for him/good to survive in a
world full of savages. His brutal murder
indicates the scarcity of that good amid
an overwhelming abundance of evil.
Simon is the only character whose sense
of morality does not seem to have been
imposed by society like the evil Jack and
the imposed Ralph and Piggy. (He realizes
the beast is not real and his morality is
innate-inbred, unlike the others who have
been imposed by society.)
 They had an irrational fear of a monster
that did not really exist. The beast was just
the savagery and evil present within each
boy on the island/every man.
 The saw shadows such as that of a dead
parachutist, that they believed were the
beast and were not.
 The hunting group put a pig’s head on a
stick as a offering to the beast. This pig’s
head symbolizes the primitive instincts of
power and cruelty in men.
 They were no longer rational in the end
,forgetting that the most important thing
was getting rescued, except for Ralph –
can also be in the other sections.
 Ralph cries in the end with his new found
knowledge of the human capacity for
evil. – loss of innoncence
 Antigone: Creon
 Power
 SH5: Billy Pilgrim
 Tramaladorians show how much war has
affected him – may be hallucinating
about aliens as a way to escape his world
destroyed by war
 Fourth dimension/so it goes – way to
rationalize all the death he has seen
 Free will and human effort an illusion - he
survives even though poorly trainined
 Jumps to various moments in his life
 Time is an illusion
 May have suffered from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) from war and
experiences in Dresden.
 Streetcar: Blanche
 Old vs. New South – Blanche represents
the old south (outcast) and Stella, Stanley,
Eunice, and Steve represent the New
South
 Was distraught after losing Belle Reeve,
almost like PTSD
 Care what people say about her and her
appearance
 She is mentally unstable, a drunk
 She imagines things such as seeing an old
lover, Shep Huntleigh and that he will give
her money to help her and Stella leave
New Orleans is unrealistic. In the end, she
dresses up and thinks that she is seeing
Shep, but it actually is a doctor and nurse
to take her to a mental institution.
 She tries not to appear in bright light, but
under the cover of Chinese lamp
shades/lanterns since she does not think
she is as beautiful as she used to be.
 She often thinks about her first love who
killed himself after she told him that he
was a disgrace after discovering him in
bed with another man. She kisses a young
paper boy who reminds her of him.
 In the end she is taken to a mental
institution. Stanley drove her to this mental
state/insanity(no longer a grip on reality),
and Stella allowed it to happen. She is at
first is afraid, and then is willing to go
because she depended on kindness of
strangers.
o Intentional cruelty – see Primitive side of man/
animalistic characteristics since same
 LOTF: To Simon/Piggy – see above
 Antigone: Women/Family, War
 SH5: War, Paul Lazarro
Def./Define
 Tragedy
 Tragic hero
 Hedonism - the pursuit of pleasure; sensual selfindulgence.
 Peripeteia
 Etc.