Flaws in the human condition - Written by Austin

 My grandson wrote this piece in high school, very well read young man with a beautiful mind yet understanding we as a society of mortals are also flawed.

Austin

AP Literature and Composition

10 March 2012

Flaws in the human condition

            As many people would say in a modern society, “Nobody is perfect”. This is true because as

humans, people are always making mistakes on a daily basis, which is simply a part of growth and

development. Unfortunately, making mistakes is only one of the handful of flaws in what is known as

“the human condition.” The human condition's flaws are a popular subject in all forms of media, from

books, to films and television, and even live theatrical productions. Two prime examples of human

flaws being a major plot point is in both William Shakespeare's “Hamlet” and Barbara Kingsolver's

“The Poisonwood Bible.” Both literary works discuss dealing with states of madness and despair, and

show what prolonged madness and despair can lead to, such as Hamlet dedicating the final moments of

his life to avenging his father's death, and Nathan Price stubbornly gaining the desire to westernize the

area of Africa he currently resided in, and his selfish attitude and actions toward his own family.

Another example of flaws in the human condition being a major plot point is Thomas Hardy's “Tess of

the D'urbervilles” in which the title character is constantly haunted by the shadows of her dark past,

constantly regretting the actions that she had done, and the consequences of those actions, such as the

temporary loss of her husband, Angel Clare, and eventually, her own life at the hands of the British

police force. Each flaw of these characters does eventually lead to their downfall, and eventually their

demise at the hands of some force.

            William Shakespeare's famed tragedy “Hamlet” is the tale of a young prince, if one considers

the age of thirty to be a young age, who is effortlessly attempting to expose his uncle, who has taken

 the throne after the death of the aforementioned protagonist's father, King Hamlet Sr., as the one who

 murdered the previous king. As the tale progresses, Hamlet is slowly driven into a state of madness,

despair, anxiety, with the occasional happiness every so often, which is comparable to modern day

 bipolar disorder, in which a person is constantly rotating between emotions both positive and negative.

As the play progresses onward towards its finale, Hamlet's bipolarity eventually begins to cloud his

judgment, growing paranoid towards his beloved friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, eventually

sending them to their deaths, a death that was originally meant for the young prince himself. His

madness also causes him to gain a sense of lust and sexual feelings for his former lover, Ophelia, which

causes him to attempt to seduce her, with each attempt failing like the last. Unfortunately, his madness

and lust leads to his downfall after his triumphant return to Denmark to confront his past and avenge

his father, if it is the last thing he will do, which ironically, it was, because he died after avenging his

father's death in an act of quasi-suicide, as he inadvertently stabs himself with the poisoned rapier,

thus making it similar to an accidental suicide, as the death is somewhat self inflicted. A similar flaw

along with another is also apparent in Hamlet's contemporary counterpart, Edgar Sawtelle, who also

faced depression for the death of his own father, which like Hamlet, was caused by his uncle, Claude.

Another flaw the young boy faced was his inability to speak or make any sounds, which leads to his

downfall when the barn itself is set ablaze, though unlike Hamlet and his depression, Edgar was born

with this flaw.

            In Barbara Kingsolver's novel “The Poisonwood Bible”, we are introduced to a family led by

protagonist Nathan Price, a former World War II Soldier turned priest who lives strictly by his moral

 code and what is known as his “seven core values” which are taught to every soldier in the military

 and have been taught to soldiers for generations past. The flaw with Bible's protagonist is that he wants

to make others believe he is brave and powerful, but in reality, he is a meek, timid coward. This

cowardice drives him into accepting his rigid moral code as a pastor and wartime veteran, living by a

 strict set of morals and values for himself and his own family. Because of his strict moral code, he puts

the lives of not only himself, but also his wife and children, in grave danger, thinking not of them, but

only himself and situations concerning his own life. Thinking that the world revolves around him, he is

unable to accept the unjust realities of life, unable to accept his role as merely an actor in the stage

known as the earth, seeing himself as a deity on a level close to god himself, while also blaming god

for his sinful lust and sexual desires. His lust starts to build, and rather than venting it on himself, he

diverts his anger to his wife and daughters, blaming them also for tempting him with their beauty.

Another aspect of his stubborn attitude is that he has a tendency to retaliate against those who try to

change his ways, inflicting behavior that is identical to the behavior he inflicts on the women in his life.

            Finally, one more novel that discusses the concept of tragic flaws as a plot device is the

victorian era novel that is simply known as Thomas Hardy's “Tess of the D'urbervilles”, in which the

title character is given a multitude of flaws that, like Hamlet, eventually cause her downfall. At the start

of the novel, Tess is but a simple, pure, beautiful young woman at the simple age of seventeen years,

but when one encounter with a man known as Angel Clare occurs, her life goes in an endless spiral of

positive and negative moments. At the end of the second phase, she loses her purity, either to rape or to

being seduced by her “cousin” Alec d'Uberville, and becomes “ruined”, which completely changes her

character, and leaves her in an eternal state of guilt, which is what causes her husband, the

aforementioned Angel Clare, to temporarily leave her. On a positive note, Tess herself represents the

changing society that occurred in the Victorian era itself, she represents the women desire for

independence from men. As the novel progresses, she begins to not be burdened by the flaws she has

acquired, but rather, she has begun to accept them at around the time Alec returns after Angel leaves.

She begins to accept her past actions and mistakes that she made years before, as Angel accepts the

young woman back with open arms, joining her in her final moments of her life before she is executed.

            As stated earlier, in these three excellent literary works, the tragic flaws of the respective

protagonists are what drives the plot forward, as a majority of the works deal with the characters' flaws.

In Hamlet, it was the title character's madness comparable to modern day bipolar disorder. In Tess, it

was her sense of regret towards her malevolent actions, which she later comes to accept. Finally, in

Poisonwood Bible, it was Nathan's strict morals and selfish attitude. The flaws in the human condition

is something one not only has to accept, but also embrace and empower, because every human has a

flaw within them, ranging from a mental disorder like Hamlet, a past full of regret like Tess, to even a

self-centered attitude, such as with Nathan Price.