Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes Plot Summary

Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes (Hepta epi Thēbas; Latinized as Septem contra Thebas) was originally performed at the City Dionysia of 467 B.C., as the final tragedy in a trilogy about the family of Oedipus (aka the House of Labdacus). Aeschylus won 1st prize for his tetralogy (the trilogy and a satyr play). Of these four plays, only Seven Against Thebes has survived. Polynices (a son of the famous Oedipus), leading a band of Greek warriors from Argos, attacks the city of Thebes. There are 7 gates in the protective walls of Thebes and 7 valiant Greeks fight on either side of these entry points. Polynices attack on his native city fulfills a paternal curse, but the action that precipitated it was his brother Eteocles unexpected refusal to surrender the throne at the end of his year. All action in the tragedy takes place inside the city walls. There is controversy about whether the last episode in the play was a later interpolation. Among other issues, it requires the presence of a third speaker, Ismene. Sophocles, who introduced the third actor, had already defeated Aeschylus in the preceding years dramatic competition, so her presence is not necessarily anachronistic and her part is so small that it might have been taken by one of the otherwise non-speaking performers not listed among the regular, speaking actors. Structure The divisions of ancient plays were marked by interludes of choral odes. For this reason, the first song of the chorus is called the parodos (or eisodos because the chorus enters at this time), although the subsequent ones are called stasima, standing songs. The episodes, like acts, follow the parados and stasima. The exodus is the final, leaving-the-stage choral ode. This is based on Thomas George Tuckers edition of Aeschylus The Seven Against Thebes, which includes Greek, English, notes, and details on the transmission of the text. The line numbers do match the Perseus online edition, especially at the point of the funeral dirge. Prologue 1-77Parados 78-1641st Episode 165-2731st Stasimon 274-3552nd Episode 356-7062nd Stasimon 707-7763rd Episode 777-8063rd Stasimon 807-940Threnos (Dirge) 941-9954th Episode 996-1044Exodus 1045-1070 Setting The acropolis of Thebes in front of the royal palace. Prologue 1-77.(Eteocles, the Spy or Messenger or Scout) Eteocles says that he, the ruler steers the ship of state. If things go well the gods are thanked. If badly, the king is blamed. He has ordered all the men who can fight, even those too young and too old. The Spy enters. The Spy says that the Argive warriors are at the walls of Thebes about to choose which gate to man. The Spy and Eteocles exit. Parodos 78-164.The chorus of Theban maidens is in despair hearing the charging army. They behave as though the city is collapsing. They pray to the gods for help so they dont become slaves. First Episode 165-273.(Eteocles) Eteocles chides the chorus for shrieking by the altars saying it doesnt help the army. He then criticizes women in general and these in particular for spreading panic. The chorus says it heard the army at the gates and was afraid and is asking the gods for help since it is in the power of gods to do what humans cant. Eteocles tells them their noise will bring the ruin of the city. He says he will post himself and 6 other men at the gates. Eteocles exits. First Stasimon 274-355.Still worried, they pray to the gods to spread panic among the enemy. They say it would be a pity were the city to be enslaved, sacked, and dishonored, the maidens raped. Second Episode 356-706.(Eteocles, the Spy) The Spy informs Eteocles of the identity of each of the Argives and allies who will attack the gates of Thebes. He describes their characters and their matching shields. Eteocles decides which of his men is best suited to go against the specifics of shield character flaw of the Argives. The chorus responds fearfully to the descriptions (taking the shield device to be an accurate picture of the man carrying it). When the last man is named, it is Polynices, whom Eteocles says he will fight. The chorus begs him not to. The Spy exits. Second Stasimon 707-776.The chorus and reveal the details of the family curse. Eteocles exits. Third Episode 777-806.(The Spy) The Spy enters. The Spy brings news to the chorus of the events at the gates. He says the city is safe thanks to the single-handed combat between the men at each gate. The brothers have each killed each other. The Spy exits. Third Stasimon 807-995.The chorus reiterates the conclusion of the boys fathers curse. The funeral procession comes in. Threnos 941-995.This is the antiphonal dirge sung by the funeral procession, notably Antigone and Ismene.They sing about how each brother was killed at the hand of the others. The chorus says it was at the instigation of the Erinyes (Furies). The sisters then plan for the burial of the brothers in an honored spot by their father. The Herald enters. Fourth Episode 996-1044.(Herald, Antigone) The Herald says that the council of elders have decreed an honorable burial for Eteocles, but that his brother, a traitor, may not be buried. Antigone responds that if none of the Cadmeans will bury Polynices, then she will. The Herald warns her not to be disobedient to the state and Antigone warns the Herald not to order her about. The Herald exits. Exodos 1045-1070.The Chorus reviews the situation and decides to go help Antigone with the illicit burial of Polynices. The End

Power of Citizenship - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 825 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/04/15 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Citizenship Essay Did you like this example? Over the course of my civic engagement experience, I met and talked with a lot of people. I got trained, and volunteered many hours with the on-campus voter registration drive, attended the Clear the Haze debate, worked with my teammates, and participated in Change Your World Week. interacting with so many people in a relatively small amount of time is always an interesting adventure. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Power of Citizenship" essay for you Create order Meeting so many different people with many different and sometimes opposing viewpoints, has helped me to expand my own. These experiences gave me new and unexpected insight and connections to the content I learned for class. As I learned in chapter one, and in my own experience, public policy is very important. Public policy is a purposeful action or actions taken by the government to reach a specific goal or objective. Examples of public policy include the environmental policy and the energy policy. Public policy is essential, it keeps our country from falling into chaos, as it is what regulates most every aspect of our government. When it comes to veterans healthcare, it is very obvious that public policy is very important and closely related to this issue. A change in the policy around veterans healthcare is needed, as I found out not only in my research, but also in talking to veterans themselves. The staff of the Delta College Veteran Services Office and many veterans I talked to at Change Your World Week, agreed that changes needed to be made, the current policy is simply not cutting it. In reading chapter six, I learned about public opinion and what it is. Public opinion is essentially the opinion of the public, to be straight to the point. Is it the culmination of the attitudes and beliefs of individuals about certain issues or officials. If anything is to get done in our government, a supportive public opinion is very helpful. As we are a democracy, the government is intended listen and respond to public opinion. I received quite a hefty dose of public opinion while taking part in Change Your World Week. most of the students, staff, and passersby were ready and eager to tell me what they thought about the issues currently surrounding veterans healthcare in this country. My group and I also were a part of that public opinion as we shared our thoughts to others. Overall, I learned that the overwhelming public opinion of those on the Delta College campus is that they believe our veterans are being neglected and that needs to change. My proof of that is a certainly sh own with all of the signatures we collected over various days. Chapter eight taught me about interest groups and their purpose. Interest groups are groups of citizens who share a common interest. That interest can range from political opinions, to religious or ideological beliefs, to a social goal, or even to an economic characteristic. Interest groups attempt to influence public policy in order to benefit themselves. My teammates and fellow classmates were basically and effectively interest groups ourselves. We all advocated in our papers, presentations for Change Your World Week, and letters to officials that there is a change or changes that needs to happen with our various issues. We worked as groups to get our topics heard by as many people as we could and to influence as many people as we could as well, which we were able to do because they agreed to sign our petition. Voter mobilization and what the purpose of it is, is taught in chapter 9. Voter mobilization is efforts made to encourage citizens to participate in elections and other types of voting. As a democracy, voting is the backbone of our government. In order for it to work for the, those citizens need to vote. By participating in getting trained and then volunteering to get people registered to vote, I helped encourage voting. Afterall, if youre not registered, you cant vote at all. Its not a longshot to guess that at least a few of the people I helped register to vote actually did go out and vote. If they hadnt been registered on campus, it is very possible they wouldnt have ended up getting registered at all. In chapter two, factions are described and defined. Factions are any group that puts its own interests above those of the rest of society. Factions unite people to achieve goals that advance their agenda and position. Factions often become politically aimed and are not limited to political parties. At the Clear the Haze deliberate dialogue, I was able to see factions at work. Each side, for or against the legalization of marijuana, wanted their agenda to be the one that prevailed. The side that was against, mostly ignored the positive outcomes, and of course, the side that was for mainly brushed off the possible negative results. Each side was only interested in what it wanted, regardless of the wants and needs of others.

Woman Suffering From Hypertension Has Improvement...

Woman Suffering from Hypertension has Improvement Following Chiropractic Care Juan Munoz Student Intern, Palmer College of Chiropractic Case Core III August 15, 2014 ABSTRACT Objective: To show the results of chiropractic care for a 45 year old female suffering from neck pain and hypertension over 30 chiropractic visits utilizing Torque Release Technique. Clinical Features: The subject of the study presented with chronic neck pain of over 2 years. The pain was focused in the upper cervical area. The patient also reported hypertension disease as reported by her medical physician. Intervention and Outcomes: Torque Release Technique was the chiropractic technique of choice for this patient. The care plan for this patient†¦show more content†¦Key words: chiropractic, subluxation, hypertension, blood pressure INTRODUCTION It has been shown that in the United States approximately 50 million adults have primary high blood pressure (BP) or essential hypertension.(1,2) One in seven people can expect to have high BP at some time during their life. A substantial reduction in life span is seen even for borderline hypertension.(3) In this case study the patient demonstrates essential hypertension. Essential hypertension accounts for 80-95% of high blood pressure cases and applies to individuals with elevated blood pressure and no demonstrable cause, whereas secondary hypertension is named for causes where the causative factors are known.(2,3) Essential hypertension is thought to be a multifaceted disease with abnormalities of regulatory mechanism normally associated with control of blood volume, sodium excretion, cardiac output, and systemic vascular resistance.(4) Hypertension has been shown to be one of the most common reasons for visits to primary care providers.(1) Hypertension remains one of the most mo difiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease globally. Non-modifiable risk factors for hypertension include greater than 55 years old and male. Family history of premature cardiovascular disease is also a risk factor for males less than 55 and females less than 65 years old. Risk factors that can be modified include sedentary lifestyle, poor dietary habits, abdominal obesity, abnormal

Critically Assessing The Advice About Punishment - 1929 Words

Critically evaluating the advice about punishment in a parents magazine article Introduction I looked for articles in an online parenting-advice magazine called Aha! Parenting. The article I chose is called 10 Steps To Guide Children Without Punishment and was written by Laura Markham (2015). The child development aspect concerned by this article is child discipline. The main idea of the article is that parents should not punish their children, and that instead, parents should stay calm and kind when children misbehave. According to the author, this is because punishments are ineffective at changing behavior, and in fact create even more misbehavior. I will critically evaluate the advice in this article using the class teachings and relevant literature. Skinner’s model of punishment and reinforcement The main theme of Markham’s (2015) article is that disciplining children does not improve their behavior. One of the most famous researchers into the nature of punishment was B.F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist. Skinner believed that behavior is largely caused by well-learned associations between causes and consequences. He created the theory of ‘operant conditioning’, which states that behavior can be changed by ‘operants’, which are negative or positive stimuli. Although most of his theory came from experiments on rats, he believed that operant conditioning also plays a major role in human behavior, and that operant conditioning is therefore relevant to childShow MoreRelatedEvaluation Of An Individual Assessment Scale1682 Words   |  7 Pagesmodel was measured with a MiniIPIP6 questionnaire (R) while RST was measured using the Jackson 5 questionnaire. When these scales are completed you re ceive your score on these and other scales. These scores are used throughout this assignment to critically discuss my scores compared to the mean score of other participants who preformed the Individual Assessment Scale. 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Sociology Syllabus Free Essays

Each chapter has a module quiz associated with it (aside from chapter 9 which is included with Modules 8 and 10; Module 10 also includes chapters 11 and 12). You must take the quizzes in each section prior to taking the exam. In the end, this will benefit you. We will write a custom essay sample on Sociology Syllabus or any similar topic only for you Order Now Please look closely at the attached schedules and due dates. You will be responsible for keeping these commitments. You may complete the course as quickly as you like, as long as you abide by the due dates. Exams and Assignments Exams: There will be a total of three exams: two exams will be worth 100 points each and the final exam will be worth 120 points. Exams will cover material from the assigned online modules, quizzes, lectures, class discussions and experiential learning exercises. The exams will be administered totally online and will consist of multiple choice questions. The dates and material covered by each exam is set forth in the course outline located at the end of this document. To encourage students to master the material before testing, all exams will be timed. Students will be given 50 minutes to complete each exam. Please note that you will only be permitted to â€Å"move forward† during an exam. You may not skip a question and return to it later, or answer it and later try to change your answer after you have saved your response. Please be advised that the order of the exam questions will vary for each student. Quizzes: You must complete the assigned online modules in order to successfully omplete the class. At the end ot each module, you must successtully complete a 1 question multiple choice quiz by answering at least 7 questions correctly. You may repeat each quiz as many times as you wish to achieve the desired score; however, you will be required to wait at least one hour before repeating the quiz. All quizzes will be timed. You will be allowed 10 minutes to complete each quiz. Students who fail to correctly answer a minimum of 7 questions or who do not complete the quizzes during the assigned time period will receive a zero. Please note that no make-up quizzes will be given. Reflection Paper: Identifying how and why we behave and why we have certain attitudes and beliefs can be a daunting task. During the semester, students will be asked to reflect on their beliefs related toa topic. The reflection paper will be worth 25 points. Please note that students will be penalized one letter grade for poorly written work (please proofread). Specific instructions for each paper will be posted on Blackboard. Survey Completion: Twice during the semester, students will have the opportunity to express their beliefs and opinions about a specific topic by completing a brief, online urvey. These surveys will give students the opportunity to compare their views with those of their classmates in a non-threatening and anonymous way. While student responses will not be â€Å"graded,† students will be required to complete the surveys within the time provided. Please note that no make-up surveys will be given. Each survey is worth 10 points. https://donemyessay.com/sociology-exam-3-chapters-6-8/ Attendance As an online class students are responsible for completing all quizzes, exams, and assignments in a timely fashion. Assignments must be completed by the noted date. Students who are unable to complete an assignment in a given time period is ncouraged to contact the professor as soon as possible. The professor is likely to be more accommodating prior to a missed assignment versus afterwards. Grade Calculation Final grades will be determined through the use ofa point system. The maximum value of each exam and assignment along with the range of points associated with each letter grade are listed in the tables below. How to cite Sociology Syllabus, Papers

Mortality Ad Immortality Essay Example For Students

Mortality Ad Immortality Essay Mortality and ImmortalityNew York Society, in Edith Whartons Age of Innocence (1920), is paradoxically immortal and mortal. Like the Olympic pantheon of mythological Greek antiquity, New York Society cavorts and carouses, bickers and condemns while it feasts on ambrosia and canvas-backs. Newland Archers sister is the gossipy Cassandra; his wife is the huntress Diana. And he, by all instances of the society around him, should be Dianas archer twin: Apollo. He, too, should be immortal, that is, like a god, a deity, never aging, perfect, alive although dead, icy, condemning and aloof. Surprisingly for Newland and the expectations of his society, after meeting Ellen Olenska he recognizes through the contrast between her and New York that he, like her, is different from the others in New Yorks pantheon. He, too, is mortal, that is, human, aging, imperfect, feeling, compassionate and warm. Once Catherine, the great matriarch of the pantheon, is able to fall from immortality and become a mo rtal, there is a possibility for Archer to leave the pantheon and live a mortal existence himself. But despite his realization of this possibility, Newland never leaves the pantheon to take on a mortal existence. His inability to freely act on his desires casts the icy perfection of immortality in a new light: immortality becomes a form of paralysis. He, ironically, is trapped in his immortality like a soul in a statue. Through the dichotomous metaphor of immortality and mortality, Wharton is able to cast New York and her hero (or perhaps, more precisely, anti-hero) Newland Archer as paradoxically god-like yet paralyzed. When Wharton first describes the characters of New York society, they are always conceived of as immortal in some way. Beginning with Catherine Mingott, her immense accretion of flesh rewarded her by presenting to her mirror an almost unwrinkled expanse of firm pink and white flesh. So, Catherine, despite her very old age, manages to escape wrinkles. She is not alon e in escape aging, a sign of her immortality. For example, Mrs. van der Luydens portrait by Huntington is still a perfect likeness though twenty years had elapsed since its execution. Wharton further emphasizes this point: Indeed, Mrs. Van der Luyden . . . might have been the twin sister of the fair and still youngish woman drooping against a gilt armchair in the painting . . . In fact, Mrs. van der Luydens youth is so eerie that, She always, indeed, struck Newland Archer as having been rather gruesomely preserved in the airless atmosphere of a perfectly irreproachable existence, as bodies caught in glaciers keep for years a rosy life-in-death. Her husband, Mr. van der Luyden, also has the same quality of being alive but dead. His home is like a place for the living dead: As Archer rang the bell, the long tinker seemed to echo through a mausoleum; and the surprise of the butler who at length responded to the call was as great as though he had been summoned from his final sleep. Inde ed, van der Luydens home always, looms up grimly, even in the summer. In his grim state of being alive but dead he is a sort of immortal. His immortality is made even clearer when, later, Mr. van der Luyden is described as Ellens protecting deity. Everything about this ruling family of New York society seems to insist upon their life-in-death nature, or their immortality. Another member of the pantheon, May Welland, is also described as an immortal. When she first enters the Beauforts ballroom, in her dress of white and silver with a wreath of silver blossoms in her hair, she looked like a Diana just alighting from the chase. When Newland visits May in St. Augustine, May, walks beside Archer with her long swinging gait; her face wears the vacant serenity of a young marble athlete. In both instances, May is described as an immortal, something beyond human. She is described as being superhuman in Newlands mind for pledging to give him up if he truly loves someone else. Newland later t ries to understand what makes her seem so immortal. He guesses that perhaps the faculty of unawareness was what gave her the look of representing a type rather than a person; as if she might have been chosen to pose for a Civic Virtue or a Greek Goddess. May is, in some sense, the most immortal of the immortals, since even on her honeymoon she is as icy and frozen as ever: She looked handsomer and more Diana-like than ever The inner glow of happiness shined through like a light under ice. Later, when May suggests that Ellen would be happier with her husband than in New York, Newland condemns her suggestion saying, Watching the contortions of the damned is supposed to be a favorite sport of the angels; but I believe even they dont think people happier in hell. Here he suggests that May is like an angel watching Ellen suffer. The archery tournament is the most vivid example of Mays godliness. When she comes out of the tent to the tournament, She has the same Diana-like aloofness as wh en she had entered the Beaufort ballroom on the night of her engagement. Her nymph-like ease makes her stand out from the other participants. Also, she, like Mrs. van der Luyden is able to defy the aging process: In the interval not a thought seemed to have passed behind her eyes or a feeling through her heart; and though her husband knew that she had the capacity for both he marveled afresh at the way in which experience dropped away from her. As another attribute of her godliness, May never shows pain; her only wounds are imaginary: Archer thinks if May had spoken out her grievances (he suspected her of many) he might have laughed them away; but she was trained to conceal imaginary wounds under a Spartan smile. May is always young; she is always innocent and without visible pain. As final testimony to her ability to defy age, she dies quickly and mysteriously of pneumonia after she weans her second child. Ellens mortality stands out in stark contrast to Mays immortality. Ellen age s, cries and feels. Early in the novel, It was generally agreed that Ellen had lost her looks. Even Archer agrees that her early radiance is gone. The red cheeks have paled; she is thin, worn, a little older-looking than her age, which must have been nearly thirty. Her mortality is emphasized by the fact that she ages; and it is made even more apparent when compared to the cast of gods who never age. Further, Ellen is the only character (besides Newland) who cries . Her first sadness is revealed when she explains to Newland her frustration of the real loneliness, which is living among all these kind people who ask one to pretend. Her humanism and sympathy for others is also quite exceptional in her society of gods. Ned Winsett points out that Ellen bandaged and rescued his little boy: My little boy fell down chasing his kitten, and gave himself a nasty cut. She rushed in bareheaded, carrying him in her arms, with his knee all beautifully bandaged, and was so sympathetic and beautifu l that my wife was too dazzled to ask her name. Ned, a mortal, is the first to recognize Ellens beauty. No one among the pantheon recognizes her beauty except Newland , of course, and Catherine after her stroke. Ellens aging, sympathy and humanism cast her as a mortal against the backdrop of immortal New York. Catherine is the only one among the gods of New York that seems to fall from immortality. In the beginning of the novel, she seems as immortal as the rest with her vast flesh keeping her skin smooth and pink and wrinkle-free, despite her old age. As if conscious of her position in the pantheon, Catherine has a grand mural of the Olympiad painted on her summer home. She also speaks like a god, condemning Ellen to her fate: And now its too late; her life is finished. She spoke with the cold-blooded complacency of the aged throwing earth into the grave of young hopes. Her ability to judge, condemn and bury alive is seen in her treatment of Ellen and then later Mrs. Beaufort. But soon after her abandonment of Mrs. Beaufort, Catherine suffers a stroke. Unlike Mr. Welland whose sickness is a sham induced to protect the reputation of his bad doctor, Catherine is the first character in the novel to really become ill and almost die; in this sense, she is the first of the immortals to fall from godliness. Her body, which once never aged, now shows physical signs of deterioration. She looked paler with darker shadows in the folds and recesses of her obesity. Also, her temperament has changed from being the cold, callous goddess to a more understanding mortal woman. Wharton describes the change in Catherine: The growing remoteness of old age, though it had not diminished her curiosity about her neighbors, had blunted her never very lively compassion for their troubles; but, for the first time, she became absorbed in her own symptoms and began to take a sentimental interest in certain members of her family to whom she had hitherto been contemptuously indifferent. Aft er her change, Catherines first impulse is to bring Ellen back home. Her focus has changed from purely godly concerns to human concerns. Although previously she had been the first to condemn her, to cut her off from her allowance when she refused to divorce, she suddenly identifies and sympathizes with Ellens plight. Something has changed in Catherine; she is now mortal. She invites Archer to her home, specifically denying May the invitation. Archer tells Catherine that she is handsome, but Catherine immediately uses the complement as a segue to champion her granddaughter. She says, Ah, but not as handsome as Ellen. She is the first of the gods of New York Society to see beauty in Ellen. She also resolutely decides that Ellen must stay with her and receive her allowance: The minute I laid eyes on her, I said: You sweet bird, you! Shut you up in that cage again? Never!' A clearer indication of this change in her mortality is her own recognition of the change. Catherine says, She hadn t been here five minutes before Id have gone down on my knees to keep her if only, for the last twenty years, Id been able to see where the floor was! This statement is highly ironic because, of course, literally she has not been able to see the floor because of her extreme obesity. But on another level, she admits to being off the floor, not leveled in reality, on the ground and in a mortal existence. Through Catherine we realize that it is possible for someone to relinquish his place among the gods and choose a mortal existence. Despite the fact that Newland recognizes the possibility to shift from an immortal existence to a mortal existence, he remains in the pantheon. In the pantheon, Newland plays the role of Apollo. In Greek mythology Diana (called Artemis by the Greeks) and Apollo are the archer pair. Artemis and Apollo are the great twin archers in mythology; May makes clear, particularly to Ellen that she and Newland are the same in all feelings cementing the analogy betwee n the mythological archers and the New York Archers. Janey, Newlands sister, is referred to as Cassandra-like. In Greek mythology, Cassandra is the gossipy lover of Apollo, thus, once again securing the analogy between Newland and Apollo. Apart from the godlike similarities , Newland also behaves as an immortal in other ways. For example, he, like the van der Luydens, often senses that he is alive but dead. In conversation with May, he thinks to himself, Ive caught my death already! I am dead. Ive been dead for months and months. In another scene, Wharton describes Newland as absent from life, as though her were dead. By being godlike like May and simultaneously alive-in-death like the van der Luydens, Archer is an immortal and fits in well in New Yorks pantheon. Despite his immortal characteristics, his mortality is starkly visible, particularly when he visits Ellen. Early on, Newland sees evidence of his mortality first in the literature that he reads. He first begins to feel trap ped in his role when May and Mrs. Welland insists he go from family to family announcing his engagement. He feels like he is a wild animal cunningly trapped. He supposes that his readings from anthropology are forcing him to take such a coarse view. Further evidence of his mortality is in his agreement with Ellen. On their first meeting in her home, she tries to explain away the van der Luydens place in the pantheon. She suggests that they remain powerful and exclusive because they receive so seldomly; thus, she debases their immortality. Newland, laughed and sacrificed them. Newland is able, like Catherine, to become mortal and sacrifice his gods. But, he lacks the boldness to do it outside of Ellens company. With Ellen he is able to view New York as through the wrong end of a telescope. But once he steps outside her company, New York once again becomes vast and imminent and May the loveliest woman in it. Newlands mortality is addressed more directly by the Marchioness Manson: in j est, she says while referring to Dr. Carver, How merciless he is to us weak mortals, Mr. Archer! Although the expression is clearly just humor, there is also the question of Archers mortality that is distinctly articulated. Not only does Newland recognize his mortality in the conversations he has with others, but he also sees it reflected in his studies of relics and of future inventions. Through a comparison with his readings, Newland comes to understand his society as a hieroglyphic world. Hieroglyphs are obscure symbols, but they are also very ancient. In this comparison, Newland shows an understanding that all the codes of his modern society will someday be as obscure and meaningless as hieroglyphs. He compares the simulated reluctance of Mays acceptance of the engagement as similar to the books of Primitive Man that people of advanced culture were beginning to read, where the savage bride is dragged with shrieks from her parents tent. In comparing the rituals of the immortal so ciety in which he lives with the barbaric and ancient traditions of the past, he understands that his society, too, will one day be gone. This acceptance is extremely mortal; the recognition of the near possible end to his pantheon shows that he is, at heart, not an immortal. The final meeting between Ellen and Newland in the museum highlights this sense of impending mortality that Ellen and Newland share but that the other immortals can not seem to grasp. Newland and Ellen begin their final conversation while staring at a relic from a society that may once have been as powerful and immortal as New York society. Ellen says, After a while nothing matters any more than these little things that used to be necessary and important to forgotten people, and now have to be guessed at under a magnifying glass and labeled: Use unknown.' Ellen and Newland both realize that all the rules and regulations that have forbidden their happiness will soon become relics just like the museum exhibit. In an earlier scene, the same sense of mortality is found by looking into the future rather than the past. Ellen and Newland speak lightly about the future of the telephone and the fantastic predictions of Jules Verne and Edgar Poe. They speak of the future and speak of the past, placing themselves in a transient age, and naming themselves as mortals that are born, grow old and die. Although he clearly possesses the characteristics of the mortals and immortals, Newland is unable to fall from immortality as Catherine did; he is unable to vocally champion and publicly love Ellen as Catherine is able to. Unlike Catherine, Newland never chooses to act against the rules of the immortal society. Instead he lives a life of pretend, upholding the rules of immortals while suffering as a mortal. His life of faade is so convincing that people begin to call him a good citizen. He allows his true love, the only other mortal who had been included in the pantheon, to live alone, exiled. Meanwhile, h is lack of boldness makes him miss the flower of life, the freedom that he, ironically, had always pictured himself as possessing. He can never freely choose the life he wishes to live. And, in this sense, his immortal life is more paralyzing than liberating. Ironically, it is the mortals who are free to live where they want to live and be who they want to be. The juxtaposition of mortality and immortality in Age of Innocence is the most informative tool that Wharton could have used to relate the true nature of the last pantheon in American history. Newland, in his struggle to confront his own mortality and then in his cowardice to deny it, is the most befitting narrator for a tale of such a society. He is simultaneously in the circle of gods, while also a mortal, rejecting and criticizing the lives that the others lead. His decision not to cheat on May and not to abandon his unborn child is simultaneously a tribute to his understanding of immortality and mortality. He stays with he r, partially because he is sheltered, protected and empowered by the pantheon. At the same time, he and Ellen agree that a life of infidelity would make him just like the others. A life of cavorting and carousing, like that of Larry Lefferts, would be a life of the cold immortals. So, in his decision to be forever faithful, his life is a tribute to the compassion of human mortality. In this sense, Wharton leaves the question of whether Newland is a mortal or an immortal open. He never seems to grow old, or age just as the immortals. At the same time, his compassion and fidelity are so unlike the characteristics of the others that he seems entirely distinct from them. Perhaps Wharton places Newland in the paradox position between mortality and immortality intentionally. After all, Newland, in his position of flux, has the gift of an insider perspective while maintaining a critical eye. Simultaneously, he lacks the power to change and reconstruct his society in order to allow us, read ers, to observe his entrapment in the marble mausoleum of New York society. Words/ Pages : 3,106 / 24 We Wear The Mask Essay