As in Adam & Eve, history has proven time and time again that it is women who have always corrupted humanity. Ever since the shift from the ancient matriarchal society women have been depicted in a negative light in art and literature. Woman has been depicted as the catalyst for humanities corruption in western religions, from Christianity to Greek mythology. Whether depicted as innocent or malicious, woman always seems to corrupt man through indirect or direct methods. It is inevitable as death.
In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Curley's wife demonstrates multiple time that she is a villain and in many ways is the cause of her own death. One example would be when Curley's wife when she is in the stable with crooks and she slams him. He was just trying to defend himself and Curley's wife made sure he knew that he was beneath him.
(Macbeth I, v, 26) Lady Macbeth made Macbeth feel bad about himself, by lowering his manhood and bravery. Lady Macbeth deceives everyone so well that people were scared to tell her about Duncan’s death, not thinking she can handle it. “Look like an innocent flower /but be the serpent under it” (Macbeth I, IV, 65-66) this means to look innocent and pure but to be evil on the inside. At first Lady Macbeth is able to keep her cool and not think anything of the deed. Macbeth on the other hand cannot sleep and starts to see things.
Antigone was very heroic and brave at first, Creon now punishes her, and she does not fight back, but she simply badmouths her father. “O Oedipus, father and brother your marriage strikes from the grave to murder mine (7.40-41) says a coward Antigone. Creon, on the other hand who is supposed to be the strong king of the land, does not manage to control his anger, and fights his own son in an argument. This can be considered a sense of pride, since Creon did not want to change his opinion. Part of being a tragic hero is having a destruction.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth while being filled with ambition, convinces her husband to kill the king. There are many atrocious crimes committed in the play, not least of all regicide, and the most guilty of all the characters is Lady Macbeth, husband to Lord Macbeth. Lady Macbeth may seem to the outside world to be innocent as a flower, but in fact she uses deception and persuasion to convince others to carry out her bidding. When her lackeys fail at their tasks, she is fully able to finish the deed for them. Near the end of the play she admits to her crimes, further solidifying her guilt.
The story of Medea, written by Euripides, is a romantic tragedy that ends in an unexpected way. Throughout the play, it is easy to feel sorry for Medea who has devoted herself to Jason, only to have him leave her and her children for another woman and a better life. However, readers will begin to despise Medea as her final revenge on Jason is to kill her own children. Even though Medea knows it is wrong, this paper will argue whether Medea murders her children out of selfishness or out of love? Medea fell in love with Jason the moment she met him.
She shaped the mindset that it was necessary to murder someone who trusts you for more power and accordingly she changed Macbeth’s way of thinking. Lady Macbeth’s breakdown is at its peak in the middle of the night, when she was walking the halls and she says “Here’s the smell of blood still: all/the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little/ hand. Oh, oh, oh!” (5.1.50-52). Also another major example in Macbeth of how corruption leads to devastation is when Lady Macbeth is so overwhelmed by her guilty conscious she commits suicide and Macbeth is left to deal with this dilemma on his own, “Wherefore was that cry?/ The queen my lord is dead” (5.5.15-16). In this case Lady Macbeths need for power is extremely destructive.
We see into the mind of the speaker, sensing her raging jealousy and determination for revenge. It could be possible this is not the first time the speaker has felt this betrayal. She talks of a Pauline and a Elsie, although it is not stated who they are, she fantasizes of their death “And her breast and her arms and her hands, should drop dead.” The poem sets off in an alchemist, where the poison is being produced. The speaker appears psychotic through her elation as she see’s the poison created before her very own eyes. “Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste, Pound
“My boyfriend and all my relatives do not want me to become a stewardess,” repeats the girl and she does not even try to make her dream come true. Culture’s gender stereotypes imposed by the society girls live in, have an enormous influence on their lives. The conception of the Good Girl presented by Lucy Gilbert and Paula Webster in their essay “The Dangers of Femininity” clearly describes the proposed model of girls’ behavior. Good Girl should dedicate her life to other people, in particular to her husband. Being always ready to help she is obliged to forget about her own wealth.
Robert Browning uses jealousy as a theme for most of his poems, claiming that the duke in the poem “My Last Duchess” was obsessed with the Duchess and kills her due to the fact that he does not want other men to be seduced by her appearance, and likeness. In relation to this in “Porphyria's Lover” Browning displays this theme in the poem by talking about how the Young man took this nice young woman into his house, and then strangled her and kept her corpse so he could be with her. In the poem “A Light Woman” Browning talks about a flirtatious woman who takes a man’s attention and then diverts her attention towards one of his friends who in the end wins her heart. The speaker unravels his jealousy as she changes her attraction to another man. He uses the characters portrayal in each of the poems.