Lewis Carrolls Through the Looking Glass Essay -- Literature Children

Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass â€Å"If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic,† according to Tweedledee, a character in Lewis Carroll’s famous children’s work Through the Looking Glass (Complete Works 181). Of course, Lewis Carroll is most well known for that particular book, and maybe even more so for the first Alice book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The connection between Lewis Carroll and logic is less obvious for most people. In reality, Lewis Carroll is the nom de guerre for the Reverend Charles L. Dodgson, a â€Å"puttering, fussy, fastidious, didactic bachelor, who was almost painfully humorless in his relations with the grown-up world around him† (Woollcott 5). Though it may seem that Dodgson and his pseudonym emit two very different personalities, as Braithwaite points out, there really only existed â€Å"a completely integrated though singular personality† (174). While Dodgson under his true name usually only published books on mathematics and logic, under the name of Lewis Carroll he published books for the young, with some exceptions. One such exception to this division of subjects is the work Symbolic Logic; this textbook was published under the name of Lewis Carroll. It is through Dodgson’s children’s works that his integrated personality emerges. His Alice books, for example, contain many statements of logic and games of mathematics, intended for the amusement of his audience. Dodgson â€Å"regarded formal and symbolic logic not as a corpus of systematic knowledge about valid thought nor yet as an art for teaching a person to think correctly, but as a game† (174). With this perspective, it is easy to see why he was interested in... ...tin. The Universe In A Handkerchief. New York: Copernicus, 1996. Gardner, Martin. The Annotated Alice. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. Gattegno, Jean. Lewis Carroll: Fragments of a Looking-Glass. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974. Goldfarb, Nancy. â€Å"Carroll’s Jabberwocky.† The Explicator 57 (1999): 86. Hofstadter, Douglas R. Gà ¶del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. New York: Basic Books, 1979. Holmes, Roger W. â€Å"The Philosopher’s Alice in Wonderland.† Phillips 159-174. Phillips, Robert, ed. Aspects of Alice: Lewis Carroll’s Dreamchild as seen through the Critics’ Looking-Glasses. New York: Vanguard Press, 1971. Wilson, Edmund. â€Å"C. L. Dodgson: The Poet Logician.† Phillips 198-206. Woollcott, Alexander. Introduction. The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. By Lewis Carroll. New York: Random House. 1-9.

Freud and the Unconscious Essay

Few theories hold more intrigue than that of human psychology. Throughout history, many have sought to decode the structure of the mind. Amongst those who were determined to investigate the nature of psychic material, one of the most prominent remains Sigmund Freud (also known as â€Å"the archaeologist of the mind†). Freud had very pronounced views on the innate components of human psychology, within which one idea remained central – the ‘unconscious’ mind; he uses this concept to make sense of phenomenons such as that of parapraxes. In his essay, â€Å"The Unconscious†, Freud introduces a unique perception of human thought, action, interaction and experience. He details a state of dualism that exists in our psychical life in stating, â€Å"consciousness includes only a small content, so that the greater part of what we call conscious knowledge must in any case be for very considerable periods of time in a state of latency, that is to say, of being psychically unconscious† (2). He argues that although we are blind to our unconscious mind, it determines a greater part of our behavioural being and participates just as much as psychical activity as our conscious mind. Freud also adds, â€Å"In every instance where repression has succeeded in inhibiting the development of affects, we term those affects ‘unconscious’† (7). He states that the unconscious is where repressed desires are stored, ideas that are suppressed from surfacing into the realm of our awareness e. g. we recognise our emotions – we ‘feel’ – because they have moved from amongst the elements of the unconscious mind to the conscious mind. The notion of â€Å"what you see is not all there is†, of the uncertainty of appearance or self-knowledge is a message that identifies very well with Freud’s theory of the unconscious. Freud’s arguments entail that a significant reality (and â€Å"most importantly† he would most likely say) exists in that which is intangible. He claimed that the unconscious could not be realized by the individual themselves through introspection, but is potentially made possible during psychoanalysis. In â€Å"The Unconscious†, Freud states, â€Å"[it transforms] into a qualitatively different quota of affect, above all into anxiety; or it is suppressed† (7), alluding that the unconscious mind, or rather a conflict between conscious and the unconscious intentions is the root of neurotic or histrionic behaviour. Thus, not only did he perceive psychoanalysis as a useful tool for uprooting unconscious ideas, but the very understanding of the concept played a central role to the successful treatment of his patients (that is to say, that Freud believed that he could lead his patient to recovery by making aware the unconscious idea that is conflicting with the individual’s consciousness). Freud believed that naturalized phenomenons such as innocent ‘mistakes’ (â€Å"parapraxes†) or the state of dreaming were in fact meaningful and were indications of the active unconscious, an idea which echoes to the notion of conscious and unconscious communications which we discussed in the second week of class – that in both forms there were â€Å"logical relations†. This is the essence of Freud’s belief that there is psychical process in every movement or act (whether in a state of wakefulness or asleep/acts that are intended of ‘unintended’), which is to say that order exists in every action including the seemingly ‘disconnected’. With reference to this notion, he famously claimed that parapraxes (slip of the tongue, mishearing, forgetting, memory loss) were significant phenomenons worthy of interpretation, because they were evidence that the unconscious mind exists. In â€Å"Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis†, Freud explains his view in which the unconscious plays a significant role in the phenomenon of parapraxes. Though parapraxes are often disregarded as â€Å"small failures of functioning, imperfections in mental activity† (28), he explains, â€Å"They are not chance events but serious mental acts; they have a sense† (44). Before moving on interpret what Freud meant by this, it seems useful to first introduce an idea which Louis Althusser presents in â€Å"Lacan and Freud† (which was also touched upon in class), in which he states: â€Å"the ‘effects’, prolonged in the surviving adult, of the extraordinary adventure that, from birth to the liquidation of the Oedipus complex, transforms a small animal engendered by a man and a woman into a little human child† (22). The transformation that Althusser describes resonates with a sense of ‘humanization’ whereby a feral being is tamed by society and progresses into a ‘human’ existence; it alludes to the ultimate sacrifice that is made by the primitive soul in order to survive amongst civilization [the desire for instinctual satisfaction]. Keeping Althusser’s portrayal in mind, perhaps it could be said, then, that the unconscious manifests impulses whose intentions are deemed ‘too disturbing’ or unfitting with civil behaviour. This conforms to Freud’s argument that a ‘spontaneous’ or unexplainable error is an indication of a compromise between two conflicting aims of the ‘disturbed’ and the ‘disturbing’ consciousness (44). By means of distortion or substitution, the irrational impulse disguises its intentions under an appearance of rationality. He communicates, essentially, that parapraxes should be interpreted less as â€Å"faulty acts†, but instead, should be considered as faulty achievements of our unconscious desires. He indicates this when he states, â€Å"the disturbing purpose only distorts the original one without itself achieving complete expression† (35). Freud theorizes that an inaccessible part of our mind – the unconscious – does exist and evidence of its reality is apparent, such as in the very happening of everyday pathologies, or â€Å"parapraxes†. He maintains the significance of the unconscious mind as a meaningful, valid psychical force that pursues its own intentions (its presence undeniable in its ability to elicit bodily responses). In the discovery of this, Freud stresses the idea that individuals should place more value in what we so often dismiss as ‘mistakes’, ‘accidental’ or ‘random’ behaviour, because there may be significant meaning to the obscured intentions they convey. On a different note, the underlying notion that there is no such thing as ‘involuntary’ acts or ideas, reinforces more than ever a disparate sociological thought: that we, as individuals, are truly and solely responsible for our own actions.

Oedipus The King A Tragic Hero And Greek Classical Order

Sophocles a tragic dramatist, priest, Athenian general, is an ancient Greek writer who’s work has survived since circa 400 BC.; Oedipus the King is one of the three plays about Oedipus, believed to be first produced in 425 B.C., five years after the plague had broken out in Athens (Kennedy 947). Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero and Greek classical order. As Oedipus says in the play â€Å"if you think a man can sin against his own kind and not be punished for it I say you are mad† (Kennedy 962 line 39-40). Oedipus is punished for his sins, and it is his hamartia —a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine— that leads him to his fate. Oedipus went to a shrine at Delphi seeking answers about his father, but in return got this message from the god: Full of wretchedness, dreadful, unbearable: As, that I should lie with my own mother, breed Children from whom all men would turn their eyes; And that I should be my father’s murderer. (Kennedy 968) Oedipus’ believe in the gods was so strong that he left the only life he had ever known to make sure the oracle wouldn’t come true; he set off down a new path which lead him to becoming the King of Thebes. Oedipus’ life reminds us that we cannot escape our fate. Oedipus was born to be royal, which makes him the perfect candidate to be considered a tragic hero, according to Aristotle. Oedipus has royalty in his blood; naturally born the Prince of Thebes, but sentenced toShow MoreRelatedEssay on Oedipus: The Reign of a Tragic Hero1266 Words   |  6 PagesThe time period of Greek theater’s popularity was a very influential time in our world’s history. Without knowing what Greek theater was all about, how can someone expect to truly understand a tragic play and the history it comes with? The history behind the character of Oedipus, in the play Oedipus the King, is very complicated. His intricate past dealing with prophecies, family members, and murder is the main focus of the story. There are many characteristics that complete Aristotle’s definitionRead MoreEssay on King Oedipus as The Classical Greek Tragic Hero1360 Words   |  6 PagesKing Oedipus as The Classical Greek Tragic Hero In his Poetics, Aristotle defined the term tragedy as a man not preeminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon him not by vice or depravity, but by some error in judgement the change in the heros fortune must not be from misery to happiness, but on the contrary, from happiness to misery. 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