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Divine interventions were a traditional staple of epic, conferring status upon the human events portrayed and
evoking a world where gods and men were closer to one another. Both "The Iliad and The Aeneid are
classics in epic poetry. They invoke fate, soldierly duty and heroism. Where the Iliad focuses on the end of the
Trojan War and wars destructive power, however, the Aeneid takes up the tale during the wars aftermath
and lays the foundation for a new civilization and the celebration of the conquerors.
Despite the wide margin of time that elapsed from the writing of Homers Iliad and Virgils Aeneid, many of
the same themes are apparent in each text. Within both The Aeneid and Iliad, there is a strong urge to present a
world in which wars are glorious and which is filled with the magical and supernatural machinations of the gods
who have a direct hand in human events.
Throughout both The Aeneid and Iliad, The Gods and Goddesses control almost everything that happens in the
story. The gods having a direct influence on the lives of mortals is symbolic of the glory age of Greek. The
gods in both The Iliad and The Aeneid are shown not only to have a direct hand in the lives of mortals, but also,
they are shown to be choosy about who they wish to help. As we have seen, its gods were within the world, one
that they did not create. These superpowersgods, nymphs, and other spirits - did not die (ordinarily) but were
born. Though they intervened in human affairs, but they did not live within the human. They were powerful, but
their power had limits.
Although The Iliad and The Aeneid were written in entirely different eras with different political structures and
cultural systems, both Homer and Virgil had a similar understanding of the gods and their characteristics. All
gods, including Zeus, were subject to fate. The fallibility of the gods is apparent in both works since they are
capable of being defeated and they have emotional impulses that drive them to make decisions. They are not
represented as being all-powerful, and are prone to vices and nepotism.
both in The Iliad and The Aeneid Each of the main characters is chosen by the gods in some way and have
gained favor not only because of their birth (the partial sons of gods or goddesses) but also because they are
destined to fulfill a certain fate or prove themselves in some other way. Two protagonists of each text since
many of their actions are based on these gods wills and decisions. While they may react differently (Aeneas
with submission and Achilles with rage and defiance) the fact remains that they are just as much out of control
in some senses as the gods that, through all their bickering and self-interest appear to be.
In the Iliad, Everything from starting the war to picking who wins the battles to the fate of the lives of the
humans was influenced by gods. They used power to persuade warriors in the battle or even go as far as joining
the battle themselves and killing people. "Athena and Hera....were sitting close together thinking what they
could do to hurt the Trojans." At one point Hera seduces Zeus, her husband, in a dream to get him to buy
time for the Acheans to attack without Zues there to help the Trojans. The gods and goddesses in the story are
constantly fighting or tricking each other, always causing some sort of commotion or disaster amongst
themselves or the humans below. Apollo often entering the battle as himself to save someones skin. The list can
go on and on but the bottom line is that the gods will always prevail throughout the story and without the gods
there is no story. In the Iliad, there is a particularly poignant statement made by Ares in regards to his role in the
lives of humans when he states We everlasting gods . . . Ah what chilling blows/ we sufferthanks to our own
conflicting wills /whenever we show these mortal men some kindness. (Iliad 5.346-348). It is clear from this
statement that the gods realize their failures yet they continue on the behalf of their chosen mortals.
In contrast to Homer, Vergil does not allow his gods to take part in the battle scenes. But Vergil's
gods, for all their anthropomorphic representation, are set apart from the human events that they seek
to influence and are occasionally.
The gods occupy a strange role in the Iliad, as homer commends They love and they hate, but they never talk
about justice. (Kip 381).
Both Homer and Virgil show that the gods are not perfect and that they are capable of recognizing their own
faults. In a cultural/religious context, this is a potent statement since it reveals that this is not a society that
believed in the ultimate righteousness of their gods, but rather knew that they were prone to same fallacies of
mortals.
Hester Prynne
It is safe to argue that in the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's attitude toward Hester Prynne
clearly shows that he intends to make her character more virtuous, more dignified, stronger, and more worthy of
pity than that of Dimmesdale.
Hester Prynne is first described in the chapter, The Market-Place, when a group of townspeople gathered on the
lawn outside the jail witness her release. The women in the crowd have a poor opinion of Hester, calling her a
malefactress (a female criminal).
The first physical description of Hester follows just after her release. Described as a young tall, woman with a
figure of perfect elegance on a large scale.". Her most impressive feature is her "dark and abundant hair, so
glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam." Her complexion is rich, her eyes are dark and deep, and her
regular features give her a beautiful face. In fact, so physically stunning is she that "her beauty shone out, and
made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped."
But What is most remarkable about Hester Prynne is her strength of character. Through her public humiliation
and subsequent isolated life in Puritan society, Her inner strength, her defiance of convention, her honesty, and
her does not break.
What we know about Hester from the days prior to her punishment is that she came from a "genteel but
impoverished English family" and married the much older Roger Chillingworth, who spent long hours over his
books and experiments; yet she convinced herself that she was happy. When they left Amsterdam for the New
World, he sent her ahead, but he was reportedly lost at sea, leaving Hester alone among the Puritans of Boston.
Officially, she is a widow. While not a Puritan herself, Hester looks to Arthur Dimmesdale for comfort and
spiritual guidance. Somewhere during this period of time, their solace becomes passion and results in the birth
of Pearl.
The reader first meets the incredibly strong Hester on the scaffold with Pearl in her arms, beginning her
punishment. On the scaffold, she displays a sense of irony and contempt. Walking to the scaffold from the
prison, she holds her head high and doesn't get affected by the evil glares from the public. she has to accept the
consequences. The irony is present in the elaborate needlework of the scarlet letter. She displays a dignity and
grace that reveals a deep trust in herself. She remains exactly who she is: strong, kind, proud, but also humble.
Contrary to what the gossiping women on the grass at the beginning of the book think, Hester is not without
shame. She is honest about her affair, but after she is released from jail, she isolates herself from the rest of the
society and covers her beauty by wearing a hat. Appropriately distanced from everyone else, Hester raises her
daughter who she thinks God gave to her for a reason.
Though she is strong in public, her weakness is revealed in private through the shedding of her tears.
A second quality of Hester is that she is, above all, honest: She openly acknowledges her sin. In Chapter 17, she
explains to Dimmesdale that she has been honest in all things except in disclosing his part in her pregnancy. "A
lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side!" She also explains to Chillingworth that, even in
their sham of a marriage, "thou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any."
Hester's honesty is evident in her dealings with both her husband and her lover. Hester is true to her word. Even
though she is questioned by Reverend Wilson, the Governor, and Chillingworth to reveal the identity of Pearl's
father, she refuses to do so. Hester defies Chillingworth when he demands to know the name of her lover. In
Chapter 4, when he interviews her in the jail, she firmly says, "Ask me not! That thou shalt never know!" Also,
she obediently keeps the promise of not revealing Chillingworth's identity and requests his permission before
she breaks it. In all her actions other than her sin of adultery, she is presented as a woman with excellent values
and noble qualities.
Hester is not a bitter person, but rather a kind and generous person. She never complains about her difficulty
and never tries to make Dimmesdale feel responsible. Neither does she hold any grudge towards Roger
Chillingworth, who is partly responsible for her denouncement.
Finally, Hester becomes an angel of mercy who eventually lives out her life as a figure of compassion in the
community. Hester becomes known for her charitable deeds. She offers comfort to the poor, the sick, and the
downtrodden. When the governor is dying, she is at his side.
In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrayed Hester Prynne as a woman who despite her sin,
exhibited excellent values and noble qualities. As Hawthorne wrote, "Such helpfulness was found in her...that
many people refused to interpret the scarlet "A" by its original signification. They said that it means "Able"; so
strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength."
One analyst wrote:
All the contradictions of Hester Prynne guilt and honesty, sin and holiness, sex and chastity make her an
enduring heroine of American literature. She is flawed, complex, and above all fertile.
Hester wonders whether a woman must die for following her heart.she decides to escape, at least momentarily,
from a loveless marriage .Hester is thus paired with Dimmesdale upon the scaffold for his final moments.
Hawthorne and Hardy reveal societys hypocritical and vain nature by showing that mirror to the readers in a
way that describes what society is really like. So overall, at this point in the novel, it is very easy to compare
Tess and Hester in terms of what society can make of a person, but it is more difficult to find similarities in how
they handle what happens to them. the central difference between Hester and Tess is the contrasting ways by
which they deal with their illegitimate pregnancies and the after effects. Hester chooses, more or less, not to
move on whereas Tess does her best to forget the shameful events.hester guilt is the result of her following her
heart, while Tess was the victim of the circumstances.
Block quotations
According to the MLA format, quotations that are 40 words or more are considered block quotations and are formatted
differently than regular quotations.
The following is a list of the unique formatting that is needed for block quotations:
long quotation is set off from the text and start on their own line.
Always use a colon at the end of the signal phrase.
The entire block quotation is indented 0.5 inches, the same as the indentation for a new paragraph, and is double
spaced.
Block quotations are not surrounded by any quotation marks.
The punctuation at the end of the block quotation goes before the citation.
The ending citation is included on the last line of the block quotation.
The text after the block quotation begins on its own line, with no indentation.
For examples, Long quotations
For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of
text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented one inch from the left
margin; maintain double-spacing. Only indent the first line of the quotation by an additional quarter inch if you are citing
multiple paragraphs. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse,
maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)
When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs is less than
four lines. Indent the first line of each quoted paragraph an extra quarter inch.
Short quotations
To indicate short quotations (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the
quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line
numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods,
commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should
appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they
are a part of your text.For examp