In one iconic and powerful exchange in the movie The Dark Knight, Two-Face, a heroic district attorney turned villain said to one of the protagonists, Jim Gordon, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.” This quote eloquently describes the ideology of characters who are neither a hero nor truly a villain, but fall somewhere between. For many, morally grey characters are fascinatingly terrifying since their actions are understandable, but also condemnable. Often, morally grey character have good intentions but have extreme viewpoints or methods that go too far and disregard collateral damage. This type of character is developed in both the fantasy novel Vicious by V.E. Schwab and the fantasy novel The Song …show more content…
After the experiment that ending up giving Victor his powers was successful, he accidently killed his friend and Eli’s girlfriend, Angie, but in the process he had managed to make a scientific breakthrough that could give people the power to do extraordinary things that would have been impossible otherwise. To Victor and Eli, at that point in time, his successful experiment was more important. In the text, its says, “‘Angie’s dead…..I had an idea and it worked and--.’ Eli clearly understood, because he stayed quiet….Eli seemed more interested in his experiment than in Angie...Victor looked down at the body then, expecting to feel some shade of guilt, but there was nothing….” (Schwab 119) This demonstrates how Victor had good intentions when he began experimenting, but clearly crossed the fuzzy moral line of that situation, resulting in his temporary death and an innocent woman’s permanent one. Yet, Victor felt no guilt. His actions were about himself, his success, and his safety only. In this situation, it was later Eli who called 911 and attempted to do the morally correct thing, portraying Victor as the true villain in the story. Yet later in the story, this perspective is altered by the development of both character’s methods …show more content…
The Song of Achilles tells the story of a Greek hero, Achilles, whose name can easily be recognized as one of the great heroes of the mythical and legendary Trojan War. Yet a completely different picture is painted in Madeline Miller’s version of the story. While Achilles started out as the same familiar hero, Miller’s version was eventually overcome by the allure of fame and glory which were so important to the Greeks. Every action Achilles took was for to protect his own honor and glory, regardless of those being slaughtered around him as the war continued onwards. After the leader of the army made a foolish decision that leads to a disagreement with Achilles, Achilles and his army left the battle, and did not return even after the men beg, or after a women was raped, or even after the scales were tipped away from their favor through a deal Achilles’ goddess mother made with Zeus, king of the gods. After all these decisions, while watching the slaughter, it says in the novel, “This is the moment that Achilles and his mother have summoned: the Greeks, routed and desperate, without him. But when will it be enough?.... ‘They should hate Agamemnon. It is his pride that kills them.’ And yours.” (Miller 316) This conveys how while Achilles was driven by honor, and his initial disagreement had stemmed
The great debate between Philopeliades, Misopeliades, and Luvion takes place at Ithaca. It is a hot afternoon when the men go to a river and sit under a tree to talk. Everyone is angry because they cannot come to an agreement on if Achilles should go through with his plan to fight in the war. With different ideas flying round no one will ever be able to settle this. They tell each other how the feel about the decision that Achilles about to make.
In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creature, both display a sense of moral ambiguity. Each character has committed both good and evil alike, and neither knew the consequences of what they had done. However, Victor Frankenstein is generally the morally ambiguous character by his treatment of his creation and his own imperious personality. He wanted to be able to help science by recreating life or bringing it back, but at the same time, he did not want to consider the consequences of doing so. Victor tries to prove himself as a good moral character in the relationship between his creation and himself.
This led Victor to “gain some clue by which he might trace the steps, of his fiendish enemy” (249). After finding out that all the people’s death was because of his creation, Victor found it in himself to kill it. If the monster is dead, Victor does not need to worry about it killing nor affecting anyone anymore. With all those deaths, the only thing a person can do to get rid of the feeling of guilt is to kill whoever is responsible for those deaths. In summary, it was Victor’s fault that all those innocent people died and it led to him feeling
Victor is remarkably self-centered, focusing on his suffering instead of Justine’s, and his refusal to come forward comes across as the epitome of selfishness. He assumes no one would believe him rather than try to help his friend. He could simply say he has an enemy who wishes him harm, who he’s seen at the site of his brother’s murder that’s not hard to believe and would give the court reasonable doubt on Justine’s behalf. Victor wrestles with his own guilt and confession regarding William’s death. He knows his confession would not matter and only make him look mad.
Insanity is perceived in different aspects depending on what or how someone ended up insane. For example, a person can be driven insane by someone else or by the way they were raised. However, insanity is not a trait that you inherit or are born with, it is a concept or state of being that grows and develops as a person faces experiences throughout their lifetime and how they react to said experiences. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, it is shown Victor is driven insane by his circumstances rather than a force he had within himself all along.
Victor hated his creature. He never gave him love and attention. We don’t consider him in charge of murder because he didn’t directly kill the certain people. Although the monster did, it was not his fault. In any case, the monster had a bad beginning.
When Victor rejected The Creatures want for a girl companion he replied, “I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night.” When this was said, Victor knew of the possible danger that Elizabeth was now in but refused to warn her of this danger and this lead to her death. The penalties that Victor faced due to keeping the existence of this creature a secret it what lead to the deaths of the people that he cared for, and the fact that he had the ability to save these lives but chose to not even try says a lot about
The Pursuit of Happiness Who I am today has primarily been dictated by the environment in which I have been raised. I will continue to be molded throughout my life, but now I am entering a period of my life where I will be the one deciding who I am. Today, I am not the person I want to be and not the person who many perceive me to be, but am striving to become the man I want to be. In my life, I constantly find myself trying to balance friends, family, school, and sports.
He failed his parental duty to take care of his child and his needs and as a result he got Elizabeth killed. Finally, Victor learns that he has been in the wrong the entire time so he pledges to end his creation even if its the death of him. “I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! He is cold, he cannot answer me” (237).
In the epic poem, the Iliad written by Homer, several characters taking part in the warfare between the Achaeans and the Trojans are portrayed as embodying the heroic code of courage, physical strength, leadership, arete of value of honour, and the acceptance of fate. The heroic code is illustrated by the actions of the Trojan prince, Hector and the Achaeans strongest warrior, Achilles. Both of these characters display the Greek’s image of a hero, and can also let the reader discern what the society admires, looks up to and aspires to in its heroes. There are also characters who fail to be heroic, such as the Trojan “vivid and beautiful” prince, Paris. These characters in the Iliad illustrate the qualities that Ancient Greek society values.
In literary works, authors often use minor characters to accentuate certain characteristics of a main character, often traits that are going to be important down the road. Justine, the family servant, is accused of murdering Victor’s young brother, William. Even though she pleads guilty to this crime, her and Victor know she’s innocent. However, Victor knows that his creation is responsible for the murder but doesn’t say anything, letting Justine take the fall for it. When people only think of themselves, others often innocently suffer for those actions.
This unquestionably exhibits his egocentric conventions as he places himself above everyone else even in matters of life and death. Furthermore, if Victor himself is willing to take responsibility for her death then it becomes unambiguous as to whether he should be held accountable for the actions of his creation. Throughout the story, the monster struggles with the repercussions brought about by his creator which leave him in turmoil. He does eventually overcome these obstacles, although it is undoubtedly too late.
This paper describes three particular scenes throughout The Dark Knight and elaborates on those scenes in terms of three specific psychological principles. The psychological principles discussed in this paper is Kohlberg 's theory of postconventional morality, the social trap theory, and antisocial personality disorder. One scene that illustrates Kohlberg 's postconventional morality is Batman 's rather rough interrogation of the Joker. In this scene, Batman is interrogating the Joker in order to receive directions regarding where Harvey Dent and Rachel were (they were strapped up to chairs surrounded by bombs in different locations).
1. Introduction The Dark Knight is part of the Batman trilogy. In this movie, it focuses more onto Batman and The Joker. The Joker is known to be one of the most fearful criminals in Gotham city because of his attacks that is unpredictable and causes chaos towards the city.
Iliad is recognized as one of the most famous ancient monuments of literature. The full understanding of this epic poem is hardly possible without thorough analysis of its main characters. Among all the episodes of the Trojan War, Homer chooses the moment of Achilles’ wrath and thus creates a poem in which he becomes the central figure. From the Ancient Greeks’ point of view, Achilles represents the ideal of manliness and pure heroism, for he is brave and fights for heroics, not profits. Today, one can agree with this interpretation, yet Achilles is probably the most controversial character because he combines various personality traits and acts in accordance with his ambiguous nature.