Preview

Excessive Pride

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
570 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Excessive Pride
Krystiana Turner
Period.6

EXCESSIVE PRIDE

Dangers of pride and having excessive pride can be harmful. Both the book the Aeneid and the play Medea are some good examples of why pride can be harmful. The Aeneid was written by one of the greatest known roman poets during the Golden Age of Rome, Virgil. Virgil was requested to write the aeneid by Octvious because he wanted Virgil to write Rome a history. Virgil wrote a 12-book epic that tells a story about a love story about a queen named Queen Dido and a man named Aeneas. The main focus in Book IV of the Aeneid was Virgil gives specific details about why Aeneus has to leave Queen Dido right after they marry. On the other hand the play Medea was written by Euripides in 431 B.C. Medea was about a sorcerer named Medea and her husband named Jason who decided to leave her. The theme for the Aeneid was “Duty to you gods before personal desire”. As for the play Medea the theme was “To think rationally in difficult times”. Both essentially resulting in death for instance the killing Queen Dido’s self, and killing sons to seek revenge.

The epic “The Aeneid” and the play “Medea” both show why danger of pride and having excessive pride can be harmful. For example in The Aeneid, Queen Dido says, “Projects were broken off, laid over, and the menacing huge walls with cranes unmanning stood against the sky”. By her saying this she pretty much telling us about how in love she is with Aeneus, and how she is forgetting about her duties as Queen of Carthage. Meanwhile the play “Medea” the nurse says, “It’s a bad thing to be born of high voice and brought up willful”. Meaning that people are born spoiled and greedy causing them to feel like they are better then everyone else. In the end in both “The Aeneid” and “Medea death was the last resort. In “The Aeneid Virgil wrote about how Queen Dido killed herself, she killed herself due to the fact that Aeneus was leaving to found Rome and she could not bear to live without him.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the story “Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst, a theme is shown to the reader that sometimes, pride can be a destructive weapon in life if we use it to look down on others. The narrator starts the story by jumping into the past, he tells a story where he was ashamed of having a mentally and physically disabled brother, and spends all summer teaching him how to walk. However, he does this out of embarrassment and shame not out of love. One stormy night, Brother leaves Doodle behind alone forcing him to run faster, but he pushes too far, causing Doodle’s death. From Doodle’s death, he realizes how his pride got in his way of accepting Doodle for the way he is not for what he isn’t. In the story, he admits “I did not know then that pride…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In novels and play writes such as Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible and Euripides, Medea, the theme Role of women arises: women in many societies are subjugated and displayed as the inferior gender, when they are truly the strongest; they carry all the pain and suffering of society, the wars and the deaths; thus they are the pedestal that keeps everyone up. In order to reveal theme Kingsolver and Euripides make use of literary devices such as symbolism, imagery and diction. Using all three literary devices Kingsolver reveals that women such as Orleana believe that they are just rag dolls that are pulled, pushed and just there, even so realize how strong they really are; that if it was not for them their children would not be able to live. Medea on the other hand represents all the pains and struggles of women and is attempting to inform all women that they have the power and must stand up for themselves.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst clearly conveys a theme that pride can account for one’s achievements or for one’s destruction. The narrator, Brother, is very prideful and soon it greatly affects those around him, and not in a positive way. Brother is embarrassed and ashamed of his brother, and how his disability makes him different. The narrator even took control the situation, determining to smother his brother if he ends up being mentally disabled as well admitting to himself that, “It was bad enough having an invalid as a brother, but having one who possible was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow” (1. 5. 1). The narrator showed significant signs, even at such a young age,…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pride has forever been seen as a negative characteristic. In the Holy Bible, it is seen as a characteristic of the devil. The devil 's pride led him to the desire to be more powerful than God. As a result, he was expelled from the holy kingdom and sentenced to live among society. That has been a tragedy for humanity because the devil brought all of his evil with him and spread it among the living. It was God 's will to expel him from the heavens and it is now the will of society whether to live as proud as the devil. A character of pride is a person that is arrogant and too stubborn to understand reasoning, so to speak. In the plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone by Sophocles, similar scenarios are present in the way that there are those characters who live with pride and try to prevent the wills of the gods. The one difference in these two plays is that the main characters are of the opposite sex, which readers may conclude…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From early peoples trying to earn the highest rank of their tribe to the conquests of territories to even the pursuit of the top job in a company today, human beings need to be the cream of the crop. No matter where in the world, there’s always a Julius Caesar or Donald Trump kind of person. In a lot of instances, these types of people end up with a wealth of success, but it always comes with a cost: they expose who they really are, for better or worse. In Antigone, a tragic play by Sophocles that takes place in Greece in around 441 B.C., a man named Creon takes over as king of Thebes after the exile of his brother in-law and former king, Oedipus. He starts to really show his colors when Antigone, Oedipus’ daughter, attempts to bury her dishonored brother, Polynices. Sophocles’ message of power in this instance and throughout the book is simple: sovereignty exposes the whole person. Throughout Antigone, the power of the throne rips off Creon’s false personality and shows that he always has his well-being before…

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As we were told when we were young children, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. The same phrase can apply to aspects in lives now. Literature shows how pride can be a good thing, but too much of it is not. In fact, the opposite of pride, humility, is an extremely important value. The Bible and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology both show how a lack of the value humility will result in consequence through characterization and plot.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the Oedipus trilogy by Sophocles, the Greek concept of hubris is a prominent cause of the constant disastrous results. Most characters who show great pride and self-confidence have disastrous consequences. The character most represented by this shortcoming is none other than Oedipus. Oedipus constantly shows his weakness of excessive pride.…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As children, many people are told to take pride in themselves. Parents remind them to be prideful of their work, heritage, accomplishments, and goals. When kids get older, most are continuously reminded that they need to be confident. However, few are informed that this pride can bite. While confidence isn’t a killer, too much never leads to anything good. Pride allows many needless sins. Four books, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, share this theme. Each book tells the same prideful and destructive story in a different way.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jay Gatsby Tragic Hero

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to Aristotle, a tragic hero should have pride as a flaw (tragic hero defined by Aristotle), however I disagree. Tragic heroes should have flaws, but I do not believe tragic heroes need pride as a flaw because it causes them to seem conceited and unlikeable. Tragic heroes should make the audience feel relatable to him; the audience should like the hero to make the story feel further tragic. Excessive pride will make the audience dislike the character and feel unsympathetic towards the character. Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman has excessive pride as a characteristic. Gatsby believed Daisy still loved him and never moved on, and loved him more than Tom (F. Scott Fitzgerald 133). Also Willy Loman believed he was extremely popular and handsome, he even killed himself believing millions for people would come to his funeral (Arthur Miller 135). These situations caused the audience to feel unrelatable and unsympathetic towards Willy Loman and Jay…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The act of arrogance has various effects on one’s life. During the ancient times, Greek and Roman citizens levels of arrogance were taken into great consideration in attempt not to displease their gods. Back then, when the belief of Roman and Greek gods were widely popular, the idea of being hubris and offending the gods was highly frowned upon which would explain the numerous plays and books about it. One story in particular, titled Antigone, displays this form or arrogance. In the story, The reader comes to understand that Sophocles’ message to his audience is arrogance can lead to one's demise. This theme becomes apparent when one examines Creon’s development over the course of the text, as well as his interactions with other characters.…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story Antigone by Sophcoles, Creon was mistaken of not burying Polynieces because he thought that he was right by creating his own law. However, when Antigone tries to bury polynieces, a dust storm comes and hides her from the guards. It shows that gods are on her side and the dust storm symbolizes that gods are on Antigone's side because gods believe what Antigone have done is right, burying Polynieces is gods law .Creon initially rejecting the prophet's advice to yield , subsequently conceded to the wise prophet's advice, but it was too late. Antigone had hung herself, Haemon had died of his own sword , and Eurydice, his wife had killed herself out of grief. In attempting to prevent disorder. A destroyed man realizing his errors.Creons tragic downfall was the result of his pride, he was consequently forced to live through the plague that he has caused.This example shows that having too much pride is being afraid of something u will lose, because anything could happen to you and you can get punished by the god.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pride can be a very powerful thing. It can be very good in helping build self esteem but, too much pride will cause harm to his/her self or others close to them. In Sophocles play, Antigone, the Characters Creon and Antigone show very distinct types of pride which put them in very unpleasant situations. Creon's pride is excessive and causes him to become the tragic hero of the story. Antigone's pride got to her head which didn't allow her to think about how servere the consequences are.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pride In The Crucible

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the Christian faith or tradition, there are seven deadly sins that are considered the worst thing one can do, leading to that person’s downfall. Of all the sins, pride is considered the most negative character trait one can have. It is defined as; a deep pleasure derived from esteem in one’s own achievement, a super confidence and high esteem in one’s own abilities and inordinate vanity. Pride fools a person into thinking the source of greatness is only found within themselves. Pride considered to be the most negative attribute for the reason of being the key to all other deadly sins. All in all, pride corrupts the common good. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucibles”, pride foreshadowed the the downfall of Salem.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antigone paper

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Pride is a powerful emotion, it can lead us to be people we are not, and lead us to be hurt. The act of being prideful comes from the power we are given through society, to say we are something others cannot say they are. Its also what makes everyone who they are, but too much pride can seize control of us causing an uproar of karma to surge our way. In Antigone, the blind prophet, Tiresias warns Creon that, “A corpse for a corpse the price, and flesh for flesh, one of your own begotten.” Furthermore he states, “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” In Antigone the real crime is to be unjust with your power, just because you have power does not mean you have to use it, so it is shown throughout history, and in our media that certain examples exhibit this behavior. This is the major downfall in their ways, for example: Rome, King Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible, and even in our kids shows certain cartoons exemplify pride, teaching kids that it is wrong such as Sandy in Spongebob. Each character exhibit this prideful quality, in which in turn each has led to their down fall of some kind, and with this unjust power they have been reprimanded in some way. Sure the quote could be retaining to Antigone, Creon, potentially all the characters of the story, though the real audience it is preaching to is all of man-kind. Everyone has their flaws and faults, because pride is in all of us, it is human nature to take pride in all of our work. The overwhelming flaw in human nature is to be consumed by this beast of pride, to take control of the chains of power and keep our pride in check. Pride is a scary thing; Antigone kept her pride in check, though when Creon is consumed by his pride it becomes his fault. Thus it reveals to us that Creon is the tragic hero in which his hamartia is revealed, which in turn is his pride.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    English Medea Essay

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Medea is the tragic story of a woman desperate for revenge upon her husband, after he betrayed her for another woman’s bed. It was written by Euripides, a Greek playwright, in 431 B.C. Throughout the play each character shows us their inconsistent and contradicting personalities, in particular, Jason and Medea. The play opens with the Nurse expressing her anxiety about Jason betraying and leaving Medea for another, wealthier, woman. Our initial reaction is to feel empathetic towards Medea, who has been abandoned so conveniently. But towards the end of the play, when Medea takes revenge on Jason by killing their two sons, we feel sympathetic. Certain incidents, such as the death of Glauce and Creon, alter our perspective on these two complicated characters.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays