Preview

It's Choice Not Chance

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
967 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
It's Choice Not Chance
Essay Question:
Critical response: 1000wds
How successful have the texts you have studied been in presenting ideas about choice? In your response refer to Antony and Cleopatra and two related texts of your own choosing.
You may use one related text that was studied in class if you wish.

Choice is defined as an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities. Chance is defined as a possibility of something happening. To be able to choose something is a much broader concept in life then leaving something down to chance, having choices is something everyone takes for granted yet everyone seems to be constantly over analysing the possibilities of chance. A universal paradox states “you are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choice”. These ideas are clearly explored in Shakespeare’s 1600 play Antony and Cleopatra, Gil Junger’s 1999 movie 10 things I hate about you and Tony Lintermans poem “The Escape from Youth” as their protagonists make irrational decisions and struggle to deal with the consequences of their choices.

Choices made by a character can be strongly consequential when their choice may hurt or affect other individuals. This theory is clearly explored in Antony and Cleopatra when Antony is completely controlled by his desire to be with Cleopatra and is blinded by his love for her, that he forgets about his Roman duties. This is shown in Act 1, Scene 1, line 34 when Antony says to Cleopatra “Let Rome in Tiber melt”, this hyperbole reinforces the idea of Antony is choosing lustful Egypt over the noble Rome. He uses another hyperbole along with an appropriate metaphor to perfectly capture how Cleopatra has him under her spell when it comes to decision making. Antony says “I must from this enchanting queen break off. Ten thousands harms, more than the ills I know, my idleness doth hatch” this emphasis how utterly controlled and manipulated he is by the love he feels for Cleopatra and how

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some may lead to tragedy but not all because if the intentions of the individual were to only help it couldn’t create tragedy for someone else. If the individual was to help another person there wouldn’t be any tragedy because either the person could have been in trouble or worse.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women In Macbeth

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    People decide to do everything, they choose which path to take, and choose the consequences or rewards associated with their decisions. Surprisingly many do not know “when you have a decision to make, the standard advice is to think everything through and weigh the pros and cons and reason your way to the right choice.” Many people just react without thinking, it is human nature to follow the impulses felt, but no one ever stops to think what bad things may occur from their idiotic choices. Especially in today’s society, every single decision made can lead to a person’s destruction or even death, the free will humans posses is something of use for good but many abuse it and end up hurting their fate more than helping…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Roman's godlike worship of Caesar threatens the prominence of the Senate. To retain his dominance Mark Antony chooses to become a close ally to him. Cassius, Brutus, and the other conspirators however, plot Caesar’s demise. In the end, Mark Antony finds high esteem and the conspirators receive banishment and death. The play is an example, or maybe even a warning, that our actions and reactions have real effects. Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Cinna, Trebonius, and Cimber respond swiftly and without thought to Caesar’s rise and pay a heavy price for it in the end. Mark Antony sees the worth in being Caesar’s friend, and their friendship benefits him when Caesar is dead. In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare the principal characters' initial reactions to Caesar’s rise affect their conclusive outcomes.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Unit 4222 305

    • 3637 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Choice – Choice means having access to a wide range of options and information. People need to know the pros and cons of all the options to decide for themselves which ones suit them best. This is called informed choice…

    • 3637 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth's Choices Analysis

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Decision making is part of everyday life, these choices one decides on lead towards the fate of an individual. Since death is inevitable, the fate that one chooses is the only thing others can learn from. Therefore, making moral decisions is important because it is the only thing others remember of an individual. In William Shakespeare “Macbeth”, many factors and characters influence the main character in making decisions. Despite such influences he is responsible for his fates’ outcome due to the fact, that he controls his own destiny by the choices he wants to make with no one forcing him to choose those decisions. Although, Macbeth’s choices are drastically impacted by the witches’ through their prophecies, Lady Macbeth controlling tendencies…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essay Questions

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Discuss the idea(s) developed by the text creator in your chosen text about the conflict between pursuing a personal desire and choosing to conform. (Jan 2011)…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explore how Julius Caesar and ONE other related text of your own choosing represent conflicting perspectives in unique and evocative ways.…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Decisions. Decisions are what make the world go round. Without them, time would be frozen, never moving forward. They are the choices people make that determine our future. Some decisions are hard, some are easy. But, no matter what decisions are made, they will always end with the same result: an effect. So, it's important that people go through the decision making process to eventually come to a final choice. Everyone has to make many decisions every day that affect our lives. Julius Caesar also had to make many decisions that had substantial results. But, only one of his decisions stood out from all the others. Only one decision would determine his rue fate. This essay will talk about the causes and effects of Julius Caesar's significant decision to be present at the Senate meeting or not. This determines his tragic fate in a matter of life or death.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Choice Theories

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A choice theory I can personally relate to is general deterrence. I got pulled over today in Hampton. I was going ten mph over the speed limit because my daughter was hungry and crying. I rather speed a little bit so I can get home sooner to feed my daughter. I would never excessively speed with my daughter, but if the speed limit is twenty-five and I’m going thirty-five, at that time, getting home outweighed going the speed limit. I wasn’t thinking about the consequence at the time, but ten minutes later, I got handed an eighty dollar…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Choices are like flowers. There are so many, but only a few are good enough to be picked. In the Chosen Danny and Reuven experience this within their friendship. They make the hard choice not to talk to each other for fear of consequences. They would have chosen the other ‘flower,’ which would have been to ignore Reb Saunders's wishes. Free choice allows children to fully experience life. The ability to make choices grants freedom, allows one to learn from mistakes and leads to happiness.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Psychological study of decision making began after theories were introduced in order to understand an individual’s thought process when faced with decisions. The aim of these theories was to examine whether or not humans are rational decision makers by introducing probabilities and the evaluation of risk. This essay will evaluate The Expected Utility Theory, The Prospect Theory and other potential influences to decision making. As well as state both the strengths and weaknesses of them, in order to determine how they have contributed to the understanding of human thought and decision making.…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A choice is equivalent to a possibility that could prosper or extinguish. Choices really do make a difference. Writer, author, columnist, Meghan Daum knows the conception of “making big life decisions” in order to contemplate the innate right to discriminate right from wrong. In “Right-to-die laws: Do we have the gumption to make such big life decisions”, Daum already presents who she will be, and test her audience audacity to make a crucial life choice. Who would we be if our lives were out of our grasp ? The question does not pose to discern who each reader is. Moreover, the main point is to prove an inevitable truth that pervades through society. Daum begins her column with a heart-wrenching story of Brittany Maynard, 29, who commits euthanasia…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Choice: the act of choosing between two or more possibilities. The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a young boy named Jonas. The novel is set in the future in a community that has strict laws and rules. No one in the community knows about the past before the community apart from the Receiver, the person who holds the memories. Jonas is given the Assignment (job) of the Receiver. As his training progresses, Jonas learns more about the past and how different the past is from the now. One of these differences is about choices and how in the past individuals were free to make their own choices, but now The Elders, heads of the community, make all the choices for everyone. It is better to have the freedom to make choices even if it’s the wrong choice because you can always learn from mistakes, makes the world more interesting and it makes you an individual.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, he highlights the fact that unfortunate events happen, not because of destiny, but because of the faults in character that are in man. He suggests that depending on how a person acts and the results of their actions are the catalysts for the events that cause their downfall. Each of his main characters in the play holds a fault that would ultimately lead to their deaths. Ambition is explored as a fault, as too much of it can drive people to perform terrible acts. The fault of ignorance is looked upon as it is the lack of knowledge and perception that would lead one to their demise. Bad judgement is another fault that Shakespeare highlights, as it is due to bad judgement that people decide to do things that would eventually be the cause of their ruin. He emphasises that the fault in man is the cause of their destiny throughout the play and their fate is not already predetermined.…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Luck

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Figurative language and imagery help develop a selection’s mood, character and conflict. In this essay I will compare and discuss how figurative language and imagery help to develop the mood, character and conflict of all of the selections done in class.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays