Gilgamesh or Achilles

For the mid-term, your assignment will to be to write an essay that is four pages on one of the following topics. Use MLA format. The minimum page length is three and a half pages. Your essay should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Make sure to answer the prompt in the introduction, focusing on something specific about the prompt. Make sure to make a point you can argue against others when interpreting the work in the thesis. Make sure to present background information and an overview of what will be in the body paragraphs in the introduction. You can focus on any of the philosophical, thematic, ideological, psychoanalytical interpretations of the characters, as well as historical, religious, political, and ethical viewpoints in the essay. Make sure to have a clear topic sentence that has the purpose of the paragraph stated. Make sure to, then, state your claim that is your analytical viewpoint. After that, make sure to use a quote from the text to support your idea. State who is speaking and the context of what is taking place in the scene to lead into the quote and then use a parenthetical citation as follows: (author, pg). If you cite from a play, cite as follows: (Act I. Scene ii. 400-405). Explain what the quote means in the context of the argument and prove your point. Make sure to conclude with a statement that describes how the paragraph proves your thesis. The conclusion paragraph should explain how your essay proved your argument. Think about how other scholars might counter your argument, in order to refute opposing views in your claims. Focus on ethical, logical, and emotional appeals that appear in specific quotes that support your ideas to make your own claims. You are required to have a works cited page with the textbook and any other scholarly sources you use. You can use peer reviewed journals from the Troy library, books from the university’s library, or a .edu source to support your own claims. This assignment is due no later than November 15th. Choose one of the prompts that are described as follows: 1. Apply psychoanalytic criticism to the characterization of Gilgamesh or Achilles. Compare and contrast their motivations. Are they controlled predominately by reason or the irrational mind? Review ethical and logical standpoints of the characters. Freud explains that the neurotic crisis is “the struggle between the interest of self-preservation (ego) and the demands of man’s aggressive nature (id).” Apply psychoanalytic criticism to analyze the motivations and roles of these characters. Analyze how Achilles exemplifies the Homeric code of ethics through his courage, despite his irrational nature at times. Focus on specific lines from the dialogue that will justify your claims. 2. Define the heroic identity of Beowulf as an epic hero. Focus specifically on two or three ethical motivations behind the predictability of the rationality in his actions. How do his traits make his role stand out among other epic heroes within the historical context of the work? In other words, the context of the ancient world. Focus specifically on how historical, religious, philosophical, political, or cultural elements in the work influence his predictability as a heroic character. Would his role as an epic hero be the same if he was not a predictable character? Why or why not? Compare and contrast him to Achilles, who is not a predictable character at all times, due to the unpredictability of his emotions. Though he, too, is an epic hero like Beowulf. 3. Justify a point of view on Antigone in which you either support the female as a tragic heroine, or refute her identity as such in the context of the matter of state versus religion. You can focus on how Antigone stands for the philosophical components of the ancient Greek culture, such as stoicism, Plato’s philosophies on the divine law, or Aristotle’s view of the soul as one with the body. How does her appeal to the ethics of the philosophers of the divine law of the gods justify her case as a tragic heroine as she stands for these schools of thought? How does her tragic role represent the past views of the ancients that were changed with new worldviews represented by the role of Creon? 4. You can also focus on how Antigone’s character exceeds her limitations within the view of the state by following the divine law of her gods and refusing to take part in what the present leader wants. Creon became the ruler because he was seen by the people of the time as the best interpreter of the oracle, as Oedipus sent him to interpret the oracle in the first play of the series. Creon more or less disregards other views and makes his own decisions with whatever wisdom he is given, as opposed to previous rulers, which became accepted by the people of that time. Since Antigone defies Creon, the one who represents the views of the populous, how does she exceed her limitations by defying the law of the state?