-Buddha

Evil, when we hear this word we think of the devil, death, or horrid things. But the three authors of these books don't bring evil out in such a blunt way, they underline their evil within their characters. The theme of "evil" is apparent in three of the novels that we read this year: Antigone, Return of the Native, and Of Human Bondage. In these three novels the motif of evil leads to the main character becoming an outcast. Because of the different time periods the authors wrote in, they are able to show the same idea of evil in different yet similar ways.

In Sophocles, Antigone, the evil is present within Antigone her-self, because of her high ideals. Antigone had wanted to release her brother's sprit by burying him. In that time of the Greeks, it was not the role of the women to speak out against anything, especially the king. Her actions were perceived as disrespectful and insensibly

In Thomas Hardy's, Return of the Native, shows the motif of evil through the character of Eustasia. Eustasia thought her evil came from the same high ideals as Antigone, but she was sadly mistaken. Instead, Eustasia's evil came from her being disjointed with the heath. When we first meet Eustacia she is described as a dark, mysterious figure, she goes nameless mysteriously for the following pages . Hardy shows her in the image of a forbidden fruit; she was beautiful but cannot be touched. Yet she thought she was about the heath, socially and morally. Her daring independence was not in sync with society and therefore leading to her becoming an outcast also. This is a form of irrational evil where there is one, there is another. We see this form of evil when Hardy writes:

The evil that is shown in Antigone, and Return of the Native, is slightly different than that of Of Human Bondage. The characters evil came from their feeling and emotions, unlike that of Philip's. Philip was born with a clubfoot, and his parents died when he was young. Evil is already taking its toll on Philip, he is an outcast at a young age and can never loose that burden. Philip was instilled with a rigid religion and Philip hated his uncle for this. These ideas made Philip think about what he was doing, this quote shows his realization of life is meaningless:

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1230
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)