Protagonist

One needs to analyze the genre of Shakespearean work, to understand the character’s development and relation to the play as a whole. This play is characterized as a “dramatic comedy,” in which character interaction is the substance of all events that take place within the story. Also, Shakespeare incorporates the traditional aspect: inciting point, rising action, climax, and resolution, so that the reader understands the overall visual meaning of Shakespearean’ creation. The major theme of a “dramatic comedy’ relates to the idea of relationship or marriage, which is seen in the play as the climax and ultimate outcome.

As stated before, the source of conflict and action in a “dramatic comedy’ only exist through character interaction, as seen Prospered and Notation’s relationship. Prosper is seen as the protagonist (figure in which action is being performed) of the play, while Antonio is considered the antagonist (figure doing the action to the protagonist) because of his actions that caused Prospered situation. This relationship is one of the most important of the play because it not only sets the scene for why Prosper organizes his actions, but also how the setting of the play relates to

Prosper. In the opening of the play, Prosper is stranded on a remote island, which the reader later realizes is caused by his brother, Antonio, a conning and power struck sibling, who usurped the Dukedom of Milan from his brother and vanished him from the country. Prospered knowledge of “alchemy’ is the essence that forms his role in the story as the main character and the reason for his powers of creating events within the story. For example, the reason for The Tempest, a big storm, was created by Prospered alchemical sorcery in controlling Ariel, a spirit, to regain his

Dukedom from Antonio who was aboard the ship, as well as attempt to find a companion for his daughter, Miranda, to marry which as a major theme of “dramatic comedy’ comes into play by Prospered will. The play also surrounds the aspects of revenge, in which the reader can observe character transformation as revengeful actions takes place throughout the story, especially as Prosper continues to control the situational outcome of Miranda, Ariel, Antonio, Alonso, Ferdinand, Gonzalez, Clinical, Triathlon, and Stephan. Towards the closing of the play the character’s transformation becomes present, for example;

Alonso changes his attitude towards Prosper from enemy to comrade, Prosper forgive all and gives up his magical alchemy and regaining Dukedom, Ariel becomes a free spirit, Miranda changes from a virgin child to a bride-to-be, Ferdinand becomes By inconsiderateness tainting and a husband-to-be, Stephan and Trillion’s characterization changes trot Godly figure to mortal as other characters, Clinical becomes a wise victim which changed from his naive lack of knowledge of the outside world, and Gonzalez broadens his cognition of knowledge and becomes a “real” aspect of wisdom.

However, Antonio and Sebastian character yields small transformation compared to other characters because they ultimately end in the same situation that they were first seen as, despite Antonio losing Dukedom and Sebastian never gaining power from Alonso. Character’s role and transformation is an important aspect to understand because it helps understand the meaning of the story. Also, visualizing change in the story is the most important part to keep the reader interested, which Shakespeare does with ease, especially with his incorporation of twists and the magical aspect of alchemy that Prosper uses throughout this play.

Using the literary theory of formalism, I analyzed four textual elements of D. H. Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse. The four textual elements I analyzed included protagonist, antagonist, conflict, and setting. There are two major conflicts in this story: an external conflict, which involves the family’s financial state, and an internal conflict, which involves Paul’s desire to please his mother. The external conflict is stated repeatedly in the story: “There is not enough money”.

The family lives in a state of constant anxiety over the lack of funds. The parents live a lifestyle that is above their means: their expenses are more than their income. Paul, the main character, learns through the example of his mother that money will solve the family’s problems. Paul ultimately sacrifices himself in the pursuit of bringing money into the household. Paul is the most important character in the story and could be considered the hero of the text.

The story revolves around Paul and his quest to solve his family’s money problems in order to gain his mother’s love. Therefore, Paul is the protagonist of The Rocking Horse. The character who directly opposes Paul is Hester, Paul’s mother. Hester causes Paul to believe that the family is threatened by poverty. Furthermore, when Paul brings income into the household with his winning predictions, Hester spends the money. The Rocking Horse is set in an upper-middle-class home in London, England.

The house can be considered upper-middle-class because Lawrence described the house as both pleasant and run by servants. Further to this, the nursery within the home is described as ‘full of toys’. The author implies that the story takes place near or around London, England through the naming of various London-area horse tracks. Therefore analyzing these four textural elements using the literary theory of formalism, the reader can have a better understanding of how these were used in the story.

Victor In the very first sentence of Sherman Alexie’s “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” you can assume that the main character, Victor, is facing a hard life. Not only did he lose his job, he also lost his father to a heart attack the same day. The story tells the journey of Victor and an old friend, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, traveling to Phoenix to pick up his father’s ashes, pickup truck, and money from his savings account. Victor did not have any money and neither did anyone else living on the reservation, “Who does have money on a reservation, except the cigarette and fireworks sales-people? (page 275) Victor has to turn to the tribal council for money, but they are also low on funds and can only give him one-hundred dollars. Thomas is considered the town’s outcast and he is the only one willing to help Victor. Victor goes on to say that he used to be friends with Thomas until they were about fifteen and then Victor turned his back on him because everyone else thought he was weird. He also talks about their childhood and the memories they share and the fact that Thomas knew about Victor’s father wanting to leave before it ever happened. Once, when they were seven years old, when Victor’s father still lived with the family, Thomas closed his eyes and told Victor this story: “Your father’s heart is weak. He is afraid of his own family. He is afraid of you. ” (page 275). Thomas ends up giving Victor the rest of the money he needs, but only if Victor allows Thomas to go along. The author never really gives any physical traits, but you know he is an Indian, does not have a lot of money, just lost his father, and lives on a reservation.

The author does not specially tell you how old Victor is. There is no mention of any other family besides his mother, “…and the rest of his family didn’t have any use at all for him. ” (page 275) Even though Victor’s father did not play a big part in his life, “there still was a genetic pain, which was soon to be pain as real and immediate and a broken bone. ” (page 275) Victor is a dynamic and round character because he slowly begins to change throughout the story. Victor is continuously complaining about Thomas or making fun of him.

When they are on the plane and Thomas is talking to the gymnast, “Victor was ready to jump out of the plane. Thomas, that crazy Indian storyteller with ratty old braids and broken teeth…” (page 278) I think that Victor is somewhat ashamed of his Native American background because he did not want to turn out like Thomas. Throughout the course of their trip, Victor begins to accept Thomas and understand him more. When Victor agrees to listen to just one of Thomas’ stories, “Just one time when I’m telling a story somewhere, why don’t you stop and listen?

Thomas asked. Victor waved his arms to let Thomas know that the deal was good,” (page 282) the reader begins to see the new, more accepting Victor. The old Victor would be too afraid of what others were thinking about him to stop and listen to Thomas tell a story, but now he accepts who he is and also who his cousin Thomas is. “Victor was quiet for a long time. He searched his mind for memories of his father, found the good ones, found a few bad ones, added it all up, and smiled. This is another turning point in the story because this is where Victor finally accepts his relationship with his father and is at peace. “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” shows the true value of friendship. In the later part of their relationship, Victor was a really bad friend to Thomas, but Thomas has been there for Victor so many times throughout their childhood, and even now that they are adults. Although Thomas was not physically by Victor’s side, he was there the whole time waiting to come to Victor’s rescue.

The story goes back and forth to show how Victor and Thomas were once friends. Thomas even made a deal with Victor’s father to watch over Victor, “But he said I had to watch out for you as part of the deal. ” (page 279) Victor is in debt to Thomas and even gives him some of his father’s ashes. By the end of the story, Victor finally realized the true meaning of friendship with his own cousin Thomas, and that all those other guys that made fun of him for being friends with Thomas when they were children were not true friends.

At the end of the story Victor realizes how hurtful he has been to Thomas when in reality; Thomas was the only one who stood by Victor’s side and in return “all Thomas had ever wanted from his whole life,” (page 282) was for someone to just stop and listen to him tell one of his stories. I think Victor became a man at the end of the story. He finally learned to accept Thomas, his relationship with his father, and his Native American heritage.

“The authors of ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Wasp Factory’ present their protagonists Patrick Bateman and Frank Cauldhame to have very similar personalities. ” How far do you agree? ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Wasp Factory’ are two controversial dark novels in which the protagonist gets away with murder. They were published only seven years apart, ‘The Wasp Factory’ being the first. ‘The Wasp Factory’ was Iain Banks first published novel, and was released into the conservative United Kingdom in 1984, which would have coolly accepted it.

This era of the United Kingdom did not approve of horror, especially when the protagonist remained uncaught. However, the book gained a great deal of attention and publicity via its controversy, and has maintained popularity throughout the years. ‘American Psycho’ by Bret Easton Ellis was originally published in 1991. At this time there was great controversy over its extent of gore and pornographic scenes, so much so that Ellis received numerous death threats and hate mail after its publication.

Both protagonists narrate their author’s novel and each appears to mirror their author himself. However, the protagonists clash with each other when it comes to their settings, needs and reasons for behaviour. This demonstrates how the personalities of both Patrick Bateman and Frank Claudhame are presented differently by their authors. On the other hand, there are ways in which Bateman and Frank are presented to have similar personalities. For instance, they are both obsessive, misogynistic, have the desire to kill and have an abnormal mind set.

These factors suggest a strong similarity between Patrick Bateman from ‘American Psycho’ and Frank from ‘The Wasp Factory’, even though their upbringing and personal characteristics more than often differ. Due to this, the true extent of similarity between their personalities is hard to distinguish. Through Bateman’s narration in ‘American Psycho’ the reader learns of his career on Wall Street and everyday life in great detail. For example, when describing to the reader his morning routine, the yuppie states how he uses “a deep pore cleanser lotion […] a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub”.

This shows the true extent of unnecessary detail that he will go into. As well as this, from the very start of the novel the reader is introduced to this rich and perfected lifestyle in New York of this “self-absorbed” character who thinks of himself to always “look great”, be superior to everyone else and constantly try to maintain his hierarchy within society. Ellis starts the novel with Bateman and his friends at a posh dinner party; this immediately demonstrates his wealthy lifestyle that Ellis is trying to portray.

As well as this, Bateman showing off his “platinum American Express Card” demonstrates his feeling of superiority. This provides the reader with a strong rather negative impression of Bateman as a rich, selfish, predatory man living in New York. This lifestyle can relate to that of Ellis himself, a man who isn’t affected by the recent recession, in his late twenties and living in the city that never sleeps. As well as this, like Ellis, Bateman’s parents are divorced. Validating this, Ellis has even admitted in an interview that “Patrick Bateman was about me”.

In contrast to Bateman’s lifestyle is Frank’s. Frank is half-educated and lives in an isolated unnamed island off the Scottish coast. Frank is only sixteen, unemployed and greatly controlled by his father. This can be said to relate to the life of Iain Banks, who lived in a small village on the Scottish coast and moved around due to his father’s work. As well as this, Banks was sixteen when he completed his first book, indicating why he might have chosen this age for Frank. He also spends most of his time with the wildlife torturing, killing, collecting and “sacrificing” animals.

In addition to this Frank entertains himself with his imagination and talks to his wasp factory. When Frank plays games such as building the dams and chooses which of the imaginary people live or die. Here the reader sees his childish and dark side as well as how there is little for him to actually do on the island. This also relates to Banks as he must have been very imaginative at Frank’s age as he was writing. In relation to this, making him seem incapable of his own choices, Angus has a huge amount of control over Frank.

For example he home-schooled him, limiting his contact with society; he constantly tests him on the measurements of the furniture in their house; and uses the story of their dog, Old Saul, to cover up Frank’s real identity. This shows the great contrast between Bateman’s busy city life and of Frank’s in the rural; as well as the contrast of their author’s lives. However, the protagonists Frank and Patrick do have things in common, such as obsessions and their love of control. Both Patrick and Frank have obsessions which are seen throughout through the novels. Ellis uses Patrick Bateman to demonstrate the obsessions which one might have.

Most of Bateman’s obsessions are very artificial, such as his obsessions over designer brands and technology. Patrick’s obsession to keep up to date with the latest technology, such as VCR, CD’s and Walkman’s, reflects the lifestyle of many American’s living 1980s-1990s. This demonstrates Ellis using Patrick’s obsessions to connect with the readers of his novel. Patrick also obsesses over “taking care of [himself]”; which can be shown via his “balanced diet and rigorous exercise routine” and his detailed daily movements which link to his obsession of detail and routine.

His comment stating how he only uses “an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older”, further validates his obsession over appearance and health. Ellis places the information of Patrick’s obsessions from the very start of the novel to increase their impact upon the reader and to truly reveal their importance to Patrick. Throughout the novel, Ellis also portrays Bateman’s true love and need for control. The reader sees this many times, for instance the control he can have over people’s lives. He is always control of a life.

Even when he “can’t control [himself]”, (which often occurs when committing murder), he is still controlling the life of his victim. This idea of control is used by Ellis to demonstrate the power Bateman feels, and needs to feel, he has. Similarly to Patrick, Frank’s obsessions are frequently mentioned throughout ‘The Wasp Factory’; however some of Frank’s obsessions are different to Patrick’s. Frank appears to have an obsession with animals and torture. Throughout the book we see how Frank is fascinated by animals and collects their remains suggesting that Frank is obsessed with animals.

In addition to this, Frank is shown to be obsessed with killing and torturing. For instance, within the novel he states how he once tied wasps to the “striking-surface of each of the copper-coloured bells” on his alarm clock “where the little hammer would hit them” when the alarm went off, and that he always woke up before his alarm went off, “so [he] got to watch. ” This shows Frank’s dark mind consisting of thoughts about death, torture and the need for control over others, like Bateman.

This shows the reader how even young minds can think this sadistically. Similarly to this, the reader learns of Frank’s need for control when he is placing signs around their “private property” to warn off “intruders”. This demonstrates a way in which Frank feels it’s essential to control people and his father’s property. Frank’s overly meticulous attention to detail also connects with Patrick’s obsessions. Like Bateman this can be seen in the description of his grooming routine which, like Patrick, is the same every time.

These obsessions show a similarity between Patrick and Frank’s personalities, demonstrating how Ellis and Banks present their protagonists in a similar manner even though they have different lifestyles. In conjunction to this, both Ellis and Banks show their protagonist’s to have misogynistic attitudes; further presenting them to have similar personalities with one another. Frank states how his “greatest enemies are Women and the sea” and that Women “are weak and stupid and live in the shadow of men and are nothing compared to them”, expressing Frank’s misogynist view towards women.

Showing Bateman’s views on women are his comments such as “you’re a fucking ugly bitch” and “you piece of bitch trash”. These comments are used by Ellis to portray Bateman to have an aggressive misogynistic view. This shows a way in which the authors of ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Wasp Factory’ present their protagonists to have similar personality traits as they are both sexist and have anger towards women. However, saying this both Bateman and Frank show misogynistic behaviour for different reasons. Frank’s hatred towards women has stemmed from his father who independently brought Frank and his brothers up.

Angus dislikes women so much so that he changes Frank’s gender from female to male and leads him to state how he hates his mother “her name, the idea of her”. In contrast to this, Bateman’s misogynistic behaviour is based more on the idea of dominance, lust and control. This shows a way in which Ellis and Banks portray their protagonist’s to have contrasting personalities with each other, disagreeing with the statement. Although Bateman and Frank have contrasting lifestyles; a ten year age gap; different obsessions and versions of hate towards women; they both have one pastime in common: killing.

Their murderous ways and attitudes towards it present Frank and Patrick to have mental disabilities like that of a sociopath and psychopath. For instance, Bateman and Frank both display symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, (which is a factor of both psychopathic and sociopathic behaviour). As well as this, they both display a high predisposition to violence, maybe Patrick more erratically, and a tendency to act impulsively when it comes to crime, which a psychopath can display. In addition to this, both protagonists find it hard to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

This, and his psychopathic ways, can be shown when Frank states how he “must be lots of different people inside [his] brain”. Banks uses Frank’s psychopathic and sociopathic behaviour to show the importance of parenting, stability and connections within society that a child needs to be able to function adequately. Patrick’s confusion with reality is also shown to the reader. For instance, as said by Andrew Jacobsen, (a literacy critic), “the supposed ‘real’ world around him becomes as one with his insane imagination world.”

As well as this the mystery of the bodies at the end of the novel can be said to demonstrate Bateman’s misperception of reality. Due to this, Ellis and Banks can be seen to portray their protagonist’s to have similar personalities. This is because they are presented to be mentally ill and confused with reality. In connection to this, both protagonists show a lack of empathy towards their victims, and are able to commit a crime and act as though it’s the norm and not really a crime at all. For example in ‘The Wasp Factory’ Frank states how he killed Esmerelda because she was “simply the easiest and most obvious target”.

This simple view and minimal motive for murder displays Frank’s lack of empathy, and expresses his absence of perception that murder is abnormal or morally wrong. Iain Banks presents Frank in this way to illustrate how cold, cruel and absent-minded humans can be, even the young. In relation to this, Bateman sleeping with and killing girls whilst in a relationship with Evelyn as well as the homeless and young shows his lack of moral rights and care towards others. Furthermore, Patrick crimes are opportunistic with little or no motive, normally due to urges, lust or as a means of superiority.

Bateman commits these crimes without hesitation, suggesting that to him it is just the norm. Also demonstrating Patrick’s dark personality, lack of empathy and morals he jokingly says how he is “into, uh, well, murders and executions, mostly”. This comment and others similar to it demonstrate to the reader Patrick’s sinister view on his murders; thus, they are used by Ellis to cause the reader to despise Patrick yet be slightly amused by his satirical sense of humour. These similarities suggest that the personalities of the protagonist’s from ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Wasp Factory’ are presented in the same way.

To conclude, I believe that the authors of ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Wasp Factory’ present their protagonists to have personalities which are similar with each other as well as dissimilar. Aspects such as their lifestyles; having different obsessions; and reasons for being misogynistic present a complete contrast between Patrick’s and Frank’s life, and their personalities. This is because their lifestyles can lead them to desiring different effects. This links to obsessions, as for example, Frank obsesses over animals but Patrick doesn’t, as there are a lot less in the city.

Also, Bateman, who unlike Frank has frequent contact with people, obsesses more over appearance and health. As well as this, there reasons for being misogynistic are due to their upbringing and the environment surrounding them. This shows how lifestyle and upbringing can affect ones personality traits such as their obsessions. Therefore, this demonstrates how lifestyle is a key subject which has been used by Ellis and Banks to present their protagonist’s personalities in different ways, which also results in other personality traits being different too.

However, both the protagonists have similar obsessions with one another; have a desire to kill; personality traits suggesting they have mental issues; and misogynistic views resulting in them having similar personalities with each other. These are very strong personality traits which all connect Frank and Patrick closely together, even though there are some ways in which they are dissimilar. Therefore, I believe to a great extent that “the authors of ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Wasp Factory’ present their protagonist’s Patrick Bateman and Frank Claudhame to have very similar personalities”.