Essay Outline
Topic: Peripeteia
Thesis Statement: While peripeteia differs among Agamemnon, Hamlet, ‘’The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’’, and John F. Kennedy’s Secret Society Speech, it is very similar in terms of initial level of vulnerability, the turning point, and the result of the plot reversal. Considering this, the level of catahrsism cause by tragedies decreases as the audience knows what to expect.
Mapping Scheme (Your main points):
- Each protagonist is murdered near the end of the story.
- Initially, the protagonist in each story were not vulnerable to being murdered.
- The turning point of each protagonist, from a position of security to vulnerability, is a result of the protagonists angering their future murderer.
First Point
Claim…show more content… You can hear Agamemnon yelling from his palace ‘’O struck again ! struck with a mortal blow !’’. Afterward, the playwright describes that ‘’The scene opens from behind, and discovers Clytemnestra standing over the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra.’’
- Hamlet is killed by Laertes and indirectly by King Claudius as Claudius encouraged Laertes to kill Hamlet and formed a murder plan with him (i.e. Laertes). The play describes Laertes’ action as ‘’Laertes wounds Hamlet’’ and shortly after, Hamlet says ‘’O, I die, Horatio.’’
- Prufrock, from the poem ‘’The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’’ is seemingly very close to death near the end of the poem. In fact, at the end of the poem, Prufrock is very depressed, which leads to suicidal ideation. Prufrock, knowing this, makes the last words of his poem ‘’We have lingered in the chambers of the sea…till human voices wake us, and we drown.’’ This describes Prufrock’s negative and depressing view of society.
- As for John F. Kennedy, two years after presenting his Secret Society Speech, was murdered by a fellow American