“Delia was an overbearing cake with condescending
frosting, and frankly, I was on a diet.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Lament: The Faerie
Queen’s Deception
Look carefully at the quotation that appears above. Virtually every literary character in Moore, Dante, Homer, Virgil, Sophocles, Marlowe, and Shakespeare who we will read about together, cannot stay on a diet or steadfastly refuses to embark upon one in the first place. Select a temptation (in one of these attached texts) that threatens to irrevocably mess things up for our hero.
What is the temptation? Why does the hero or storyteller give in (they always do)? Are the events depicted timeless or do we still see evidence of these occurrences today?
Select one of the attached texts and focus upon it and authors who write critically about it (and the author). There are a few ways to approach this study. Imagine yourself as a psychologist or a psychiatrist or a counselor. How would you ‘treat” the hero? Can he/she see that he/she is making mistakes? Does he or she have a mentor? Would others deal with these circumstances differently?