Question

Select FOUR of the short stories read this semester, and analyze them in terms of theme, characters, style, images, etc. Indicate which, in your opinion, was the most effective – and why. ( Barn burning, Gimpel the fool, and The Glass Menagerie, Wants by Paley, ) 5. Compare “Oedipus Rex” and “Othello” in terms of their designations as tragic heroes, keeping in mind Aristotle’s definition of the qualities a tragic hero should possess. Which seems most worthy of the title of “tragic hero”, referring SPECIFICALLY to events and actions in the play to support your position. ( Quotes from Short story from Literature Approaches to Fiction Poetry and Drama by Robert Diyanni) Other online sources as well .

Answer 1

Note* This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. Also, you can elaborate wherever you feel necessary based on your personal convictions of these stories.

(Analysis)

• Barn Burning:

• Theme – Loyalty
• Characters – Abner Snopes, Sarty Snopes, Mr. Harris.
• Style – The style of continuity persists throughout the story. This is because of Faulkner’s use of long, uninterrupted sentences.
• Images – The imagery of the incident of the eponymous burning barn.

• Gimpel the Fool:

• Theme – Faith and conviction. (Also the obvious gullibility)
• Characters – Gimpel (Since he is the narrator and it is his personal story and perspective, every other person is more like a trope to help take the story forward. Empirically, Gimpel is more like the dependent variable and everyone else is an independent variable.
• Style – Writing from a single perspective as opposed to a third person narration.
• Images – Imagery is mostly about the quarrels between Gimpel and his conscience

• The Glass Menagerie:

• Theme – Memory play (Flashbacks)
• Characters – Amanda, Laura, Tom, Jim
• Style – Saga
• Images – Imagery of a labour class family in the 1930’s

• Wants by Paley:

• Theme – This dramatic description has elements of both a dialogue and a narrative.
• Characters – The woman and her ex-husband
• Style – The authoress is quite descriptive indeed. For instance, he does not say things like “meeting him made me feel awkward.” Rather, she describes the meeting and makes the reader realise it was awkward.
• Images – The banal milieu of the library scene.

Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero – Aristotle states that the audience should sympathise with the tragic hero and feel fear or pity for him. He feels that an audience should say, “”

Based on the above definition, Oedipus Rex and Othello are both tragic heroes due to the loss they incur because of their misfortunes.

Othello is a victim of the jealousy of his peers. This results in the people around him to be very conniving towards him. At the end of the play, Othello commits suicide because of disgrace and self-pity.

Throughout the story, it can be seen that Othello may have his flaws but is not deserving of the extreme circumstances that he is faced with.

Oedipus Rex is banished from his kingdom and separated from his children. He is a victim of superstition and envy in the kingdom.

In both cases, Othello and Oedipus are dealt with punitively. Whether they may have deserved a few impediments was beside the point. They got more than they bargained for. This makes the audience pity them and see them as tragic heroes