The world of literature is the sphere of entire features and prospects that never die in peoples’ minds. The fact that the literature comprises the wholeness of the experience gained during thousands of years is apparent and presents many themes for discussion. The paper is dedicated to three works by outstanding authors who are aimed to evaluate whether literature’s main function is to pass judgment on political, social issues and people themselves. The analysis touches upon three works: Agamemnon, The Inferno, Don Quixote.
First, the role of an author dealing with the artistically arranged text is mainly to bring up the inner set of moral features which a man possesses. The examples in all three cases are the best representation of how the writers interpret these three fields of a man’s activities: policy, society, soul. Starting with Dante’s greatest work, the picture of hell is, of course, associated with negative emotions and deeds. Sin is that burden that makes people fall when there is nobody to help, and consciousness tells about the wrong way of coming and how to prevent it. Three types of main sins comparing with three circles of the inferno stimulate a reader not to follow them due to Dante’s picturesque description of the place where the fire never stops burning.
Don Quixote is a farcical character whose activity props up against many contradictory situations provided in society. One of the examples touches upon his disagreement with the traditional way of marriage promotion when a potential bride is forced by others in order to make a wedding ceremony. Thus, the writer wanted to outline that women should have a personal opinion as to whom to marry. The social background was broken with a new initiative from the side of Don Quixote.
Agamemnon’s example straightforwardly illustrates the idea of the reasons for many problems. The woman is the greatest intention for a man’s zeal. The situation got the political coloring when the problem concerned the points of state pride and wholeness. It was an impertinent interference of Paris, but, on the other hand, it was a desire of Helen. Nevertheless, because of two men having violated the moral interests of people being in power, the well-known political conflict of the Trojan War splashed.
The wholeness and contradiction of two parts giving new life on earth, man and woman, is greatly discussed in the above-mentioned works. For example, in Inferno main character is intended to think and get to the point that his desires and passion towards a woman, in many cases, made him suffer and go through the fire of hell. This part of Dante’s work illuminates that many of the sins which a man makes concern women and that love are dangerous but worth doing stupid things.
In Don Quixote’s case, he meets people of various strata of the society: prostitutes, scorned lovers, etc. Their examples urge to think over the so-called moral principles when people are dying from love or passion towards the opposing sex. Cervantes was intended in his work to project the reality of medieval times and to resolve such difficult problems of moral shaping. Society was and is the main obstacle to feel freedom in love relations.
Society played a great role in the issue of Agamemnon, who made Helen his wife without her consent and did not want to leave her alone with Paris. This equaled her death because men had more privileges in ancient times. If only Agamemnon let his wife go, the society and closest people would begin despising him due o the standards of men’s idea “to share and use.” Thus, the way of love met in this story a very cruel and bloody barrier that caused the deaths of thousands of people.
Works cited
- Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. Don Quixote de la Mancha. Harvard University. J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1862
- Seneca, Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Tarrant Richard John. Agamemnon. Cambridge University Press, 1976
- Alighieri Dante. The Divine Comedy. Kessinger Publishing, 2004