Macbeth, Napoleonic Europe, Antigone

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The Motivator Fear is the animus of all life. This singular emotion, fear determines the outcome of almost any situation. Fear can be a huge wall in the way of self-fulfillment or a miniature hurdle in your existence. One of its few opposing forces is love, it being the only soldier who can overthrow omnipotent fear. Love can overcome the heart and brain and drive a person to do things they would never do. But fear is always there. Every person knows fear. In literature such as Macbeth and Antigone and in the Napoleonic era fear helps readers understand a situation or character. This is because it is a motivator, a force behind the actions of any living thing. In Sophocles’ Antigone, fear drives Antigone to journey to Thebes fearing that her brothers (Polynices and Etocles) would kill each other and hoping to prevent such demise. She was perfectly happy where she was but because of her fear for her brothers’ lives, she changed. She then arrives in Thebes and both Polynices and Etocles are dead; one properly buried; the other, splayed out, outside of the city walls decomposing. Creon, ruling by fear, issued an order; if anyone buried Polynices they were to be killed. Even the sentry was overcome with fear just to face Creon because he would have to inform him of the burial of Polynices. He then is forced to fetch the culprit, Antigone, which he does because his life was threatened. Most any human in this situation would also obey the threatening character. When one’s life is threatened one will do whatever it takes so stay alive not only due to their will to live but also because of their personal fear of death. Because of a prophecy about Creon’s death and Antigone’s freedom, Creon tries to release Antigone only to discover that Antigone has killed herself in prison. The prophecy has now taken Creon’s place as king and Creon has been reduced to the sentry doing

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