Skip to main content

Do characters display any similar qualities/traits in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and William Golding's Lord of the Flies?

In both Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and William Golding's Lord of the Flies, due to the character trait of hotheadedness, characters regress to acting on instincts rather than on rational thought; furthermore, their instincts drive them to act upon wild, passionate emotions.

In Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt serves as one example of a character who acts based on the primal instincts of wild, passionate emotions as a result of his hotheaded, fiery temper. One example can be seen in even the very first scene. The moment the two Capulet servants, Sampson and Gregory, break out into a fight with the two Montague servants, Abraham and Balthasar, Benvolio rushes out to break up the fight, saying, "Part, fools! / Put up your swords; you know not what you do," and according to the stage direction, "beats down their swords" with his own (I.i.50-51). Yet, Tybalt sees Benvolio with his sword drawn and, rather than rationally assessing the situation, as a result of his fiery temper, is driven by his instincts to conclude that Benvolio has started a fight with the servants and rushes out with his own sword to join the fray. Had he had a calmer, more rational temper, Tybalt would have used his rational thoughts to recognized what Benvolio was really doing and joined him in trying to make peace.

Similarly, in Lord of the Flies, the boys on the island are driven by instincts to act on passionate emotions rather than on rational thought. Such instincts lead to heinous acts, including the murders of Simon and Piggy, and it is primarily Jack, an equally hotheaded and even arrogant boy, who leads the boys to act upon their wild, instinctive emotions.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...