To give you guys a taste of what the final will be like, I thought I would post some sample questions here that are SIMILAR to the ones you might see that morning. Let's start with one that connects the literature we've studied thematically.
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
People are often advised to practice moderation in everything they do. The way to succeed in achieving their goals, they are told, is to remain balanced, controlled, and restrained. But this advice is misguided. Instead of being moderate, people should be passionate and intense. Throughout history, moderation has produced nothing extraordinary or exceptional. Excellence in any pursuit requires excess — great enthusiasm, high energy, and extreme effort.
Assignment:
Is moderation an obstacle to achievement and success? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from the pieces of literature we've read this semester.
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
People are often advised to practice moderation in everything they do. The way to succeed in achieving their goals, they are told, is to remain balanced, controlled, and restrained. But this advice is misguided. Instead of being moderate, people should be passionate and intense. Throughout history, moderation has produced nothing extraordinary or exceptional. Excellence in any pursuit requires excess — great enthusiasm, high energy, and extreme effort.
Assignment:
Is moderation an obstacle to achievement and success? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from the pieces of literature we've read this semester.
Your 3E response to this prompt is due by TUESDAY at 8pm!
The idea that one can accomplish his wildest desires with moderation is absurd. The very notion that moderation is a necessity ignores achievements that innovate our daily lives but are rooted in exceptional levels of passion. It is abundantly clear that moderation is a dangerous obstacle to success and achievements.
ReplyDeleteWhen one uses moderation whilst pursuing their goals, they doubt themselves and their ability to achieve such goals. The very idea of moderation is rooted in restraint. Further, clear connections can be made to works of literature where the lack of moderation is key to substantial results. This can first be seen in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where the protagonist, Victor has to be enveloped by his passion in order to create the monster. While this experiment went awry, Shelley makes it clear that the project would never have been compatible with moderation. If Victor worked with that type of restraint, he might have abandoned the project in hopes of not distorting nature's laws. While it is a general consensus that the experiment was a failure, the possibility and potential of it remained extremely bright. The possibility to bring back loved ones and to never experience the loss of death would have critically outweighed any pain the monster brought to his victims. Any possibility of success would have been derailed with moderation. It is only with a burning passion that one may successfully pursue their passions. While supporters of moderation may point to the monster being the very reason why moderation is necessary that argument has major flaw in it. The argument contends that moderation is a necessity to prevent harms that could be associated with one’s passions. While that may be true, that argument is not applicable to the prompt. When it comes to whether moderation affects success, it is clear that an attempt to mitigate risks and harms will drastically reduce one’s chances of achieving their goals. Moreover, another connection can be drawn to the Brave New World. In the utopian novel, John hopes to isolate himself from the apathetic society and decides to do so with no moderation. While this drives him to eventually commit suicide, he did indeed accomplish what he wanted to do. He was disgusted with society and wanted to escape it. If he had done so with moderation, John would have been too scared to fully commit to absolute isolation. Therefore, moderation was detrimental to John’s ability to accomplish his goals.
Overall, it is clear that moderation is not a safeguard, but an obstacle that is detrimental to Innovation and success. Choosing to maintain restraint is simply a way for one’s potential to be diminished.
I believe moderation is a key to achievement and success in life. Moderation is the opposite of excess, extremism and superfluity. Although some who exhibit unconstraint have flashes of brilliance and success, they often burn out and fail in the long run. You need moderation in your life at work, school and home. Moderation lets you use the people, technology and tools around you to find a balance between work and play. You want to have a sustainable, successful lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteModeration enables you to perform better at tasks without the presence of stress and anxiety. It also allows you to enjoy the good things in life that you may have missed when you are consumed by work and chaos. Moderation is an aspect anyone can apply to almost every part of their life. Some examples of positive moderation would be eating, using electronics, working out and doing research. You need moderation in each of these areas to have a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
One example of moderation used positively in the literature we read is in The Canterbury Tales. Moderation is a virtue. The Knight displayed moderation, humility and generosity. He was never overly gluttonous or greedy. He wore basic clothes and was not overly wealthy, as he donated much of his time and money. He lived a good life and was well respected. The Doctor also practiced moderation. He was wealthy but was not gluttonous in his eating and he rejected excess. While researching The Canterbury Tales, I found that Chaucer states, "Moderation... involves staying balanced in whatever you do." (579)
In the novel Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein demonstrated a lack of moderation. He showed that we should temper our extremes. In the book, one piece of Victor's failed experiment was his lack of moderation. He was too ambitious and self absorbed with creating the Monster. He was obsessed and stated that he could not "tear my thoughts from my employment, loathsome in itself, but which had taken an irresistible hold of my imagination." (56). The Monster "swallowed up every habit of my nature." (56) claimed Victor. he was unable to control his obsession with his work and the Monster and lost perspective. Victor stated, "When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation." This displays how Victor is disgusted and afraid of the Monster and how he didn't want to find the Monster because he wanted to distance himself from him. Victor is consumed by his creation and a lack of moderation.
Throughout the novel Brave New World, Huxley suggested that moderation is key to a well-functioning society. Huxley shows the desire for self-gratification versus the desire for self-sacrifice. Societies' lack of moderation in taking the highly addictive drug soma was a big factor in this dystopian society. The leaders have everyone hooked on the drug and this makes the people obedient. This Society had such an excessive desire for this drug, which allowed its leaders to control everyone. Once again, a lack of moderation is seen. Moderation is a way to keep things in balance and often is a key to a successful life.
Great potential lies within each person, and while many may say that a spark is sufficient to ignite a fire, I believe that it is the fuel's energy that leads to either great destruction or a beautiful show. It's merely a matter of perspective to consider ambition and mindlessness and disparate things as both often lead to the same result: something remarkable or incredibly disastrous. Deciding if safety overweighs ingenious creativity is an unfathomably complicated topic. For example, one may stop playing a game altogether to avoid losing, but in doing so, he also prevents himself from winning. Is it desirable therefore to be leading a life in fear of new inventions or to embrace the fact to achieve something sacrifices must be made in return? I thus hope to resolve this dilemma through the examples of Mustapha Mond from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
ReplyDeleteIn Brave New World, Mustapha Mond, a highly powerful and prestigious member of the alpha caste, constantly displays his fear of creativity and art. He combats his fear of social disorder by creating a dystopia characterized by brainwashed children, a highly uneducated and almost robot-like population, and the absolute eradication of all forms of literature. He justifies his actions by simply reiterating the fact that sacrifice is essential for stability. However, is a sacrifice not a form of moderation? The results of this moderation is vividly seen in Brave New World; wherein the citizens of their so-called stable state have lost their capability to think freely and are mere programmable servants obeying a futile purpose. Their actions are of no significance because they have lost the ambition that had driven countless discoveries before the establishment of that world state. Thus in the context of Brave New World, Mustapha Mond appears as a lucid culprit with very little justification for his actions appearing acceptable.
Although in Brave New World moderation appears as a culprit, a shift in perspective in Frankenstein leads the reader to believe that ambition is harmful to society. Victor's creation of the monster is often regarded as a climactic moment from whereon Victor is commonly seen as the culprit. And although the two years of solitude Victor spent working on the monster did not give him the results he wished to achieve, his actions and time spent were not wasteful at all. For instance, even if his creation was deformed in shape and embodied with superhuman strength, and perhaps even a threat to humanity, one should not discount the fact that he managed to embody life in an inanimate creature, a truly remarkable scientific feat. An argument framing ambition the true cause of harm is analogous to saying that Einstein is responsible for the creation of the atom bomb, whereas he simply expanded the capabilities of science which when exploited by others led to that disastrous creation. Furthermore, the wrath brought upon in Frankenstein due to Victor's negligence and contempt towards the monster. Had he remained ambitious about his creation and visualized the creature that stood before him as a mere setback and not an utter failure, he may have prevented the deaths of many members of his family. It was, therefore, the moderation he adopted after having created the monster that led to an angry and broken monster.
ReplyDeleteEverything great requires dedication and hard work. Countless years of study are undertaken by scientists before they make any significant contribution to this world, a task that is impossible to undertake if one is not passionate for the path he or she is undertaking. I believe that "practice beats talent" and no matter how gifted a person may be, the differences in this world are made by those who care enough to make a difference. Our mind and passion are what differentiate human beings from other animals and thus it is extremely important for us to bring out that hidden potential through dedication and passion. After all, if having been moderate and impassionate about our actions, we still would be living in the dark ages, something I think we can all agree upon as being highly undesirable.
Throughout the course of history, excellence has always been rewarded to individuals who gave an excess amount of time, effort, and energy into the task at hand. Different time eras display different thoughts and feelings regarding how one achieves success. For instance, the ideal Elizabethan man would never act wrongly and out of place. If they did so, the great chain of being would get disrupted, therefore causing the universe to shift out of place. But in Brave New World, the most raucous and obnoxious individuals were the ones who ended up taking full power of the dystopia. Although it may be subjective, I believe that moderation can be both an obstacle and a blessing when it comes to success.
ReplyDeleteIn William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character MacBeth selfishly wants to claim the throne. In order to achieve that goal, he must kill the current king, King Duncan. MacBeth does so, and begins to disrupt the great chain of being. Although he utilizes extra effort and time, he also knowingly shakes up the entire universe. In this specific situation, one could infer that this would lead to his downfall. Macbeth committing this act of murder is no justification for his selfish desire to be King. In this way, going above and beyond for a goal would not pay off. In fact, it only ensues more chaos and violence in the world. Although Macbeth did go the extra mile in order to reach “success”, he did so in a way that would never be rewarded. On the other hand, if Macbeth acted morally and with moderation but with excess desire, things may have looked bright for his future. But in the Elizabethan time era, murder would not catapult Macbeth to the throne. His burning desire was utilized in one of the worst possible ways. Because of this, he was not rewarded with the title of King.
In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the knight is a character that is praised for achieving excellence on the battlefield. In doing so, he also builds a reputation for being one of the most humble and soft spoken characters. The knight did not have to kill a King in order to achieve his high social ranking. By going the extra mile on and off of the battlefield, the knight has achieved excellence in itself. In doing so, the knight catapulted himself in front of all of the characters in The Canterbury Tales. The knight’s moderate temperament but excessive pursuits of excellence further elucidate how one must go above and beyond in order to achieve success.
As demonstrated from various characters, different individuals achieve differing rates of success. Both characters above utilized different tactics that went above and beyond; both with differing rates of success. As elucidated above, moderation could be a blessing but also a curse when it comes to achievement and success. Based upon time eras and social customs, success could come from both moderation and enthusiasm.
In Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World, and Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, the issue of moderation is pertinent. Brave New World shows a moderated society, however, in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows the extraordinary things that can come from an unmoderated society. Moderation is an obstacle to achievement and success because people believe nothing bad can happen, but they forget that this means nothing good can happen either which is shown in Brave New World and Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteIn Brave New World by Aldous Huxley the consequences of moderation are evident. For example, when a girl named Lenina from the society in BNW meets John the Savage; the consequences of moderation become evident. John the Savage has lived his life with highs and lows and has experienced life to the fullest. Lenina, however, has lived her life in the moderated society of BNW and her life has been a single line with no ups and downs. Lenina has no passion to do something good, unlike John the Savage who has the ambition and passion to attempt to change the corrupt society of BNW. Some people believe a lifestyle of moderation is the best way to live life because they are never sad. They do not realize they are also never truly happy. A society that is unmoderated breeds human beings who are going to achieve success, like John the Savage, compared to a moderated society which produces humans that are robots, like Lenina.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, moderation is one of Victor Frankenstein’s opposers. For example, Victor Frankenstein’s father tells him to give up on his ambition to learn. Frankenstein does not listen to his father and creates a creature that is stronger and faster than any human. If Frankenstein had given into moderation, then this extraordinary creature would never have been created. Moderation nearly stood in his way of one of the greatest scientific discoveries in this novel’s world. The monster’s actions do not matter because Frankenstein was successful in achieving his goal and this could not occur if he chose to be moderate. Moderation was one of the obstacles he overcame to complete the experiment.
Frankenstein and Brave New World both show how moderation stands in the way of success. In Brave New World, the comparison between Lenina, representing the moderated, and John the Savage, representing the unmoderated, shows the moderate are unable to create and think for themselves and the unmoderated can think of extraordinary ideas that have the power to benefit the world around them. In Frankenstein, the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, must overcome moderation in the form of his father by standing up to him and continuing his studies causing him to make an amazing discovery. Moderation stands in the way of achieving success as well as the ability to live life to the fullest.
Living life in moderation is often recommended. While moderation can be beneficial, the opposite, passion, is a crucial element to high achievement and success. For example, extreme passion becomes an obstacle for characters in many of pieces of literature such as Frankenstein. The main character, Viktor Frankenstein, becomes too engrossed with his love of science. His ardent dedication to his experiment blinded him to the consequences of his work. He believed that succeeding in creating life would bring success and fame but it backfired on him, as his creation stripped him of everything close to him: his friends, his family, his new wife, and his peace of mind. In the end, his precious creation even destroyed itself. If Viktor had exercised moderation and slowed down his work long enough to think through the consequences, he would have realized he was behaving like a madman; creating life from corpses to most people is unnatural and creepy. Viktor had not considered the possibility of bringing malevolent life into the world, as he only the good things his creation would bring. In Brave New World, society is so passionate about maintaining stability that individuality is completely lost. With the loss of individuality comes the the loss of art, creativity, and all the happiness associated with these.
ReplyDeleteIn modern society, passion is usually viewed as the way to success. High school students are told to be passionate in an activity so that colleges will be interested in them. Most successful public figures are very passionate in their work, including many leaders in the technology industry like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. If these businessmen did not believe blindly in themselves and instead worked in moderation, many aspects of our interconnectedness, computing lives, and transportation world would not be the same. The simple light bulb would not exist without the ardent work of Thomas Edison, who, rumor has it, tried one thousand times before succeeding in making artificial light. In today’s society, celebrities in sports and music got there thanks to their love for their activity. Soccer star Neymar grew up in the streets of Brazil in poverty but through tireless dedication grew to be one the best players of all time. Musician Stevie Wonder, although blind, did not let his disability obstruct his music from becoming world class. In other words, passion is crucial to success, until a certain point, when moderation is necessary.
This Title Is Just Average
ReplyDeleteSociety implies the dangerous idea that being average is ideal. When applying to college, students are encouraged to include a variety of good achievements on their resume over extraordinary achievements in one activity. Similarly, doctors and other health professionals recommend a balanced diet. However, this presumption of moderation being an ideal is full of flaws. In order to excel in any activity, many must put forth all their resources towards that given activity, discouraging moderation. While this extreme effort towards a goal or project is often required to achieve anything great, it also can become excessive. For example, in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Frankenstein puts forth all his time and energy into creating the monster. Ambition is motivation, as he creates a phenomenon previously unknown to science. However, soon the effort Frankenstein puts into creating the monster becomes obsessive. He stops sleeping and spending time with his loved ones. Therefore, Frankenstein loses sight of his objective in creating the creature and creates a monster that haunts him for the rest of his life. Frankenstein’s lack of moderation allowed him to make new scientific discoveries, as he was focused only on creating the monster. Yet, once his ambition became obsessive, things began to fall into the abyss.
The absence of moderation is also evident throughout Canterbury Tales. Each of the pilgrims Chaucer observes is either preoccupied with their job or a certain malicious behavior. This lack of moderation characterizes Chaucer’s pilgrims, which focuses the reader on Medieval life in England. Specifically, the Knight is known for being an honest and brave man who does not boast about his victories on the battle field. Without putting his heart into his job, the Knight would not possess this prestige. On the contrary, the Friar completely ignores his job and concentrates on being lusty towards the local women. Despite this being morally wrong and sinful, the Friar is successful in attracting women due to his extra hours obtained by ignoring his job. Thus, moderation would be an obstacle for the contrasting characters, the Knight and the Friar, since neither of them would be able to achieve what they are known for without the extra effort. However, it can be noted that the Friar went a little overboard with his effort with the ladies, as he often resorted to rape.
Throughout Brave New World, all citizens of the World State have a predestined future. Thus, social class, academic success, and other achievements are predetermined. The lack of passion and ambition caused by every achievement and opportunity either being given or never dreamed of causes many of the citizens to feel unsatisfied with their lives. Therefore, the basic plot of Brave New World supports the idea of moderation being an obstacle to achievement since many of the citizens are unsatisfied with their lives due to an excess of moderation. In addition, Macbeth relies upon ambition to become a battle hero, and later kill King Duncan to claim the throne for himself. If Macbeth had been moderate, he would never have become the brave hero in battle he is known to be. However, his ambition became obsessive and dangerous, which led to his killing of King Duncan for the throne. Finally, moderation is an obstacle to satisfying successes since it forces one into becoming average. Yet if effort to better oneself becomes obsessive, it may cause egregious effects for the person.
Moderation is needed in certain situations throughout one’s life span, but with a lack of passion in lieu of an overall equanimity approach in life, can cause detrimental effects in one’s future. If there is an average way of living, there are no opportunities for failures and recoveries. Without this, there is no overall learning experience from these mistakes which increases the likelihood of succeeding. However, if there is little to no moderation taking place in certain aspects, this causes an overall unbalance in life. Many of the characters in the literature works presented has shown that they are unable to find a balance between each elements of their lives. Overall, a diverse combination of one passionate subject and the inclusion of other aspects will create a dynamic way of life.
ReplyDeleteOne piece of literature that exemplifies the importance of balance between several aspects is Huxley’s novel, Brave New World. In this dystopian world, the leaders urge the community to realize the importance of unity over individuality. These high positions use this idea to then create a community where each person is each other’s split image. One individual (John the Savage) however, is mentally and physically unable to handle the overall simplicity of the society and lack of uniqueness. After a series of events, the society slowly begins to dissolve, creating chaos to the world. The leaders’ approach of their ideal society by creating everyone with identical lifestyles did not provide a substantial way of a flourishing community. Huxley shows the importance of having ups and downs in life instead of a living a steady pace and normal life. Shelley on the other hand explains the dangers of pursuing a passion deeply through her work, Frankenstein. M. Frankenstein, a devoted man to his works decides to isolate himself from all humans to create a creature resembling man. This includes his family, his social nature, his mental and physical health. Because of Frankenstein’s new addiction to his new motivation, he excludes the other important elements of his life. This caused him to lose contact with his family for a few years, his hallucinations and dreams, his body becoming weak and frail, and sickness. Frankenstein although was able to finish his creature, it caused him problems in the future and sacrifices that were not needed to be made. In addition to Frankenstein, Chaucer implies in his novel, The Canterbury Tales that an excess in one subject (sin), can lead to corruption to the individual themselves. One specific character, The Friar displays the dangers of focusing on one subject, in this case, his lust. His love for sexual interactions with woman overpowers his actual job and causes him to impregnate many women. Another individual with this situation is the Monk. Although the Monk has a high position in society, he is unable to prioritize the proper subjects, causing him to not follow his position in the Estate. This leads the reader to believe that these characters are corrupted and unable to balance each element of life and turn to sinful behavior instead.
Through these pieces of literature, the tendencies of believing to have an overall moderate lifestyle or a devoted life to one activity are both ineffective to have a successful and joyous life. Too much attention on one matter can distract one from the other matters in one’s life. Having one subject provides a beneficial motivation but only in addition to also having a steady amount of time and effort given to other aspects in life. A respected amount of time and effort given to these other aspects will create an overall balance between these elements while still managing a driving passion.
Opinions on the debate of whether moderation is an obstacle towards an individual's achievements or success range widely. I believe that moderation does come in the way of a person's goals, but I also do believe that moderation can play a significant role in one's success as well. Therefore, I think that depending on the perspective of the person and their definition of success, the answer to this debate can be determined. In the three core novels that were read in the class, each displays a certain kind of moderation and take a side of whether it is or it isn't good.
ReplyDeleteIn Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the society is a "utopian" dystopian world, where everybody is controlled and essentially created by the government. In this piece of literature, Huxley presents multiple interpretations of the role of moderation and its correlation with "success". In this world, success for the government is defined as conforming and controlling everyone. In this sense, the government is successful in achieving their goal and thus moderation was not an obstacle, but rather a significant tool. On the other hand, if the reader were to define an individual's success is happiness, the citizens of the society in Brave New World is far from it. Although people might believe they are happy, they don't know what true happiness is (as defined in the world we live in today), which is free thought and individuality, because of moderation. Therefore, with that perspective, moderation is standing in the way of one's success and happiness.
In the Prologue of Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, a wide variety of characters are introduced with various personality traits. The few examples of good characters included the Knight. The Knight displayed admirable traits as he acted on all seven virtues. However, a reader can observe that as a moderate and equal balance of virtues. He is not extreme in a singular virtue but rather moderate in all seven, as similar to the other characters that were considered good by Chaucer. This emphasizes the fact that conforming is a good thing and helpful towards success. However, one can see that the seven virtues are the extremes if one looks at it as a spectrum of ten with the virtues being ten and the deadly sins being zero. This will mean that the moderate people would be a five, both sinful and virtuous, and people who possess all seven virtues being extreme. This would emphasize that moderation is not good.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the pros and cons of passion and exceptional talent can be observed more than ever. Frankenstein has an extraordinary mind with a passion for an unusual project, beyond the amount of what a normal person would have. The monster that he creates is without a doubt, exceptional and extraordinary, and a success for that was what Frankenstein set out to accomplish and eventually accomplished. Thus, because he lacked moderation, he achieved what was rare and incredible. However, in the eyes of the society, he created a horrible monster that only created destruction. Thus Frankenstein was not successful, because he lacked moderation.
As demonstrated by many authors in multiple pieces of literature, there is a limit to passion and everything depends on how the reader interprets the ideas and scenarios set in front of them; which is what literature is all about. In conclusion, everything depends on the perspective and boundaries set.
In order to gain complete personal achievement and success, one must be freed of moderation. Without moderation one has the ability to become fully immersed and dedicated to accomplishing anything. Without the hurdle of moderation there is no restraint on one’s full potential or an obstacle preventing passionate energy and intensity required for success.
ReplyDeleteIn Macbeth, Macbeth does not allow moderation to get in the way of his goal to become king. Macbeth does not allow moderation and restraint keep him away from his ambitions. He puts extreme levels of effort and energy into overcoming King Duncan and taking his place as ruler. Moderation would have ultimately hinder Macbeth from gaining personal success. Doctor Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, achieves personal and scientific achievement due to his immense amount of passion, driving him to greater and greater success. His passion allows him to pursue his goal of scientific accomplishment with high amounts of energy and enthusiasm encouraging to pursue more and more. Without moderation as a roadblock, Frankenstein becomes an extraordinary scientist whose uniqueness differs him from others. In Brave New World, the World State and government is able to obtain a stable and successful civilization due to the lack of moderation and abundance of intensity. This intensity allows the government to create a prosperous community with no roadblocks potentially weakening the government. Moderation would only prevent the civilization from reaching its full potential.
Without moderation in the way high levels of personal success and achievement are gained. No one is restrained or held back from achieving full potential. Without moderation, lack of restraint and prevention of passionate energy and intensity there is a path to success.The possibilities are endless when one sets one’s mind to anything and does not let moderation interfere with personal gain.
Although this passage argues that moderation is an obstacle in the pursuit of achievement and success, quite the the opposite is true. People are often advised to practice moderation in all activities in order to achieve success because it is advice that has proved its value through all of time. One way to define success is honorably reaching a set goal. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley proves that great enthusiasm and extreme effort does not always result in success. On the contrary, the consequences of these uncontrolled emotions and actions are often disastrous as shown by Victor Frankenstein’s tragic life story.
ReplyDeleteFrankenstein started out as a young boy fascinated with science and full of potential to improve the world with his eager attitude and work ethic, but as he becomes more and more invested in his work of creating the monster, Frankenstein leaves himself no chance to take a step back from his work and recognize all the possible consequences of his actions. Frankenstein’s original goal had been to artificially create life, but rather than completing this task in moderation, Frankenstein obsesses over his project, even while his mental and physical health deteriorates, without preparing for all the possible scenarios that could occur. After Frankenstein creates a monster, it murders many of Frankenstein’s loved ones, elucidating the importance of moderation when undertaking such a futuristic project. Although Frankenstein puts in extreme effort into his project, which is necessary when taking on the difficult task of artificially creating life, he does not stop to think about how exactly he would care for this artificial life form. Practicing moderation allows people to be fully aware and take control of their actions instead of getting caught up in their own ambition. If Frankenstein had taken some time to contemplate the weight and meaning of his actions, then perhaps he would have been more cautious in creating this creature, and maintaining the well being of his body and mind.
In addition to Frankenstein, the effect of practicing moderation on achieving success is also discussed in countless other literary works including the novel Brave New World, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and the famous play of Macbeth. In Aldous Huxley’s cautionary tale, Brave New World, Huxley creates a society in which all the citizens practice moderation in every way. This results in a dull society filled with uniform citizens, none of which are allowed to express their individuality. Although this society is not considered favorable in today’s world, in the eyes of Mustapha Mond, the World State is an extremely successful society that fulfills his goal of achieving conformity. In contrast to Huxley’s story, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales shows a variety of characters.The successful characters, including the Knight, the Plowman, and the Oxford Cleric, each display all seven cardinal virtues. This shows how practicing moderation in regards to moral standards can lead to success. Finally, in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself show little restraint as they hunt down the crown. Particularly Lady Macbeth focuses all her efforts into gaining power, paying no attention to how evil or destructive her methods are. Although Lady Macbeth and Macbeth achieve their goal of becoming royalty, it is not obtained in an honorable fashion and thus was not a success.
Success is defined by the completion of a task, whether it be minute or extensive, as well as the satisfaction that accompanies the achievement. Success can be reached in various ways; while it is possible to reap benefits from intense labor and exertion, this method of extreme effort can instead disrupt the process of fully succeeding in a pursuit. There is no harm in working moderately rather than excessively and thus moderation is not an obstacle to success. Working in moderation allows one to ponder every move and adjust accordingly. In fact, immoderation can be detrimental to the process of achieving a goal; this is reflected in the experiences of Victor Frankenstein from Frankenstein, Lady Macbeth from Macbeth, and John from Brave New World.
ReplyDeleteIn Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explicates that ambition at an unhealthy level could be harmful rather than beneficial. This is reflected in Victor Frankenstein’s ambition for creating life out of death due to his desire for fame. Victor succeeds in creating a living creature but does not consider it a success to himself; this is evident in how he neglects responsibility over the creature and expresses disgust at the mere existence of it. He was blinded by his ambition and had no true logical explanation for creating what he did. Finally, it was Victor’s own impulsive decisions that had led to his ultimate demise as well as the deaths of all his loved ones. If Victor truly obtained success, he would not have fled from it.
The most aggressive figure in Macbeth is Lady Macbeth; she is assertive and indubitably ambitious. More than anything, Lady Macbeth strives for power and to satisfy herself she organizes the murder of King Duncan. She successfully murders King Duncan but that success is ephemeral. Shakespeare is no amateur in the design of death; Lady Macbeth dies at her own hands which explicates how short-lived her success truly was. It is undeniable that she accomplishes her goal yet it is at a cost. This further supports the idea that a lack of moderation could hinder the ability to fully succeed.
John from Brave New World exhibits human qualities to the utmost. He is passionate and impulsive to an extreme. John ventures into a society of people who view him as a primitive savage, yet he aims to change their view. His act of tossing soma out of a building proves his unrestrained will to save the individuality of mankind. Ultimately, he suffers a similar fate as Lady Macbeth and ends his own life due to the pain of failing to succeed. His tireless efforts come to an end despite the determination and zeal behind it.
The idea of success depends on the individual; therefore, it is most important to consider the happiness of that individual in accomplishing their most desired goal. Victor, Lady Macbeth, and John face tragic deaths unique to their own stories. Their desires and ideas of success are also unique; however, a shared trait among them are the brief yet overwhelming sparks of ambition and drive displayed.
The dictionary defines success as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose”, each individual or group of individuals in the real world and the fictional world of the novels we have studied has a goal. In the novels that have been studied, moderation can be seen as a necessity or hindrance to the accomplishment of a specific goal. Despite moderation slowing the process of success, in my mind it is a necessity in the “success” for any group or individual in order to keep a goal from consuming humans completely. While passion and devotion to the completion of a goal is one of the key factors to success, wellbeing and sanity can be compromised when enthusiasm to succeed is taken a step too far.
ReplyDeleteFrankenstein by Mary Shelley most prevalently supports the idea that a lack of moderation can drive humans to madness. In this novel, Mary Shelley highlights how intensely Victor Frankenstein worked on his creation and how the lack of moderation in doing so greatly backfired on Frankenstein’s heath, wellbeing, and creation. Closing himself off from society for months drove Victor into a downward spiral emotionally resulting in an unsuccessful creation in addition to personal ailment. For Frankenstein, moderation would have likely boosted him towards success by upholding his mental health and stamina, he would have been able to devote himself to his creation in a healthy way resulting in a creation he could be proud of.
In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the overriding goal for society’s individuals is to achieve a state of mind that is clear, stable, and “positive” to their standards. In order to do so, the member of this dystopian society utilize soma. Soma allows the members of this society to achieve the goal that has been set forth as beneficial to the whole. Thus, by moderating the use and distribution of soma, the members of the “new world” would be hindered in their achievement of the goal that had been agreed on as a society and seen to be positive and necessary. However, in light of today’s standards of happiness and success, a totally numb mind would not be seen as a successful accomplishment and through slight moderation the members of the new world would learn not to rely on soma day to day but to use it in times of dire need to achieve a momentary state of well-being in order to make it through difficult times.
In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the members of society that are deemed as “good” display moderation to the highest extent. In the context of the book, Chaucer’s goal for the members of society is to be a good virtuous member of society that contributes in a positive light. In order to achieve this goal in Chaucer’s eyes, an individual must display an even amount of all seven virtues. Members of society such as the Knight, not only display each virtue to an obvious extent, but they also properly and honestly do their given job to benefit society. Out of all the books I have discussed, The Canterbury Tales contextually shows how moderation is necessary in order to achieve success or the presented goal. In no way does Chaucer describe moderation, or the equal depiction of each virtue to be a hindrance or obstacle to success, but instead highlights the necessity for a balance of each virtue in order to succeed.
Each novel presented support the idea that moderation is needed in order to achieve goals, or succeed in a healthy positive way. In addition to supporting the idea that moderation does not hinder this success but can be a positive force to success as seen in Frankenstein. While each novel has a different goal for a character or characters these goals are or would be achieved positively through moderation.
When analyzing the question is moderation an obstacle to achievement a success one of the first points you come across is how is success defined? There is a common thread of ideas that many people share when defining success but everyone’s idea of success differs. Therefore there is no one right answer to this question and it varies based on each scenario and the persons in question ideas of succeeding.
ReplyDeleteFirst looking at the Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, a highly controlled dystopian society that has eliminated any possible outlets for bliss or despair. In the book, the people living in the society seem content with the way they’re leading their lives and the controllers believe the way of live they’ve developed is the most suitable way of living. However, when looking from the outside readers can instantly tell that this society is far from functional and has eradicated the essence of life, its citizens are no longer living but simply functioning. To its citizens the idea of success seems to be completed their daily tasks day in and day out. Brave New World is an example of when moderation is pushed to the extreme and throughout the book its becomes clear that their society can never achieve true success. True success being the ability to experience the high points in life and achieve your goals. Instead of feeling the points of life and even the low points their citizens have been robbed the chance of experiencing either. Therefore, in their instance moderation poses as an obstacle in achieving success because they cannot truly achieve success.
In the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer 32 people are traveling to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket who are throughout the journey described by Chaucer. Each character tends to be described as either containing some of the deadly sins sinful or the 7 cardinal virtues. Two of the characters are the Knight and the Squire, a father and son pair. The father is characterized a kind, zealous, and modest while the Squire is lustful and filled with pride. The Squire choses to be lustful and doesn’t seem to keep moderation in mind when doing so. It can be seen in his case that the lack of moderation was an obstacle in his path to being “successful” or a good, virtuous person like his father.
Based on my personal beliefs and experiences, I feel as if moderation, especially when it comes to achieving a specific goal, deems to be a pertinent aspect when involved with success. Many works of literature that which we have read this semester prove this, as too much ambition often has led to failure and physical and or mental exile of that character. For example, one of the main themes in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein connects directly to this question. Victor Frankenstein, in this tale, was very intense and passionate with his work and scientific discoveries. However, his climbing ambitions exceeded “too far” when he shut himself off from the rest of humanity and created something far from it. The issue with this is that, in this case, moderation would have proved to be appropriate because Victor and his findings were anything but. There’s a point where a person can truly cross the line which can affect that person’s and others’ perceptions. One should not be focused on one goal so much that they cut off everything else to which they had previously loved and or cared for deeply. Moderation does exactly what it sounds like; it moderates or simplifies the bigger issue to better the overall well-being and the success of whatever goal is in the process of being obtained. Due to Victor not following this form of belief, he took on too much (not in moderation) and even while he reached his goal of created an abominable monster, this ultimately led to the death of a brother, friend, wife, and lastly his own life.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of moderation being a more successful approach to exceeding a goal as opposed to possessing great enthusiasm, high effort, and extreme energy is Adlous Huxley’s timeless novel titled Brave New World. This book, being extremely ahead of its time, speaks of a far-off society in which much has changed from what we call our “civilized” society. The people are programed and have a set life for them the second they are made in the lab. They hold far different beliefs, such as what an intimate relationship is, while also enjoying the most astounding performances to which we would find odd and exceptionally inappropriate today. This way of life that is labeled as “normal” to these people and it is exactly the opposite of what we would perceive as moderation. It is an advanced society where we as highly educated students see as over the top and where we also get a different perspective from reading it all on simple pages bonded together. Due to this, the readers do not understand this way of life and because of this they start to interpret how such a life could reach that point where it doesn’t comply to the definition of living. Without true emotion to which the drugs surround, there really isn’t a point. And this, is what a society can become due to lack of moderation. If this dystopia were to be mellowed or toned down, it would indeed be more successful. Being a balanced, controlled, and restrained society is what success proves to be through not only works of literature but also our individual life experiences. One would never desire a life to which every aspect is accentuated. As we have discussed in class, if everything were heightened there would no longer be room for enjoyment, which is why moderation while going after a goal is essential.
hold on i have another paragraph
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley an ambitious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, creates a monster he is unable to control and ultimately leads to the death of many of his loved ones and eventually himself. During the creation of his monster Frankenstein allowed himself to be consumed by his ambitions and the idea of fame that he loses sight of the effects his creation might have. Frankenstein, like Canterbury Tales, is an example of when the absence of moderation can lead to failure. Frankenstein believed the creation of his monster would achieve him fame, success, and recognition but his inability to control his ambitions led him down a path of madness and eventually his demise.
ReplyDeleteIn the classic MacBeth by William Shakespeare, the Scottish noble’s desire to be king leads him to commit unspeakable acts and ultimately his own death. After being told a prophecy by witches he begins his journey to becoming king MacBeth kills anyone he must in order to obtain the throne. Similarly to Frankenstein, MacBeth allows his desire to become king consume him completely. Although he does achieve his goal and fulfills his definition of success he commits many horrible deeds and is killing in the end. Therefore, MacBeth never achieve true success and instead ignores taking things in moderation.
Through these four examples it can be seen that it depends on the instance and the goal at hand that determine whether moderation is an obstacle or an essential. In Brave New World their use of extreme moderation resulted in a simply existence based society. In Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein, and MacBeth the excess of lust, ambition, and desire resulted in the characters ultimately failing in either achieving their idea of success or their downfall. Therefore it can be said that the concept of having things in moderation should not be pushed to any extremes or it can lead to a debacle.
In contrast to this argument, some may say that moderation is exactly the problem with the Brave New World society because the freedom and individuality was taken away from each person involved. However, this is not the case because there are different kinds of moderation that can benefit different situations. Building from this, there are also contrasting opinions and definitions of what true success is. For example, using Brave New World, Mond sees their society as highly successful and as himself (the keeper of all the “irrelevant books”) modifying what this new world can’t handle. Whereas the savage, John, has a differing view on this society and rather than ordered and perfect sees it as alien and far from successful. He sees it as a trap in which people have learned to live in. John hates it, and his distaste of this so-called civilized society is made clear through his constant rebellion towards the idea. Overall, this can be a highly debated topic whether moderation is the key to success rather than high passion and aspiration. These ideas clash so much because of what everyone sees as successful and they would choose to approach that, however, moderation proves to be the persistent and is a cautious yet smart way to reach success as it is displayed in these works of literature.
ReplyDeleteTo understand if moderation hinders or aids in success, one must define what success truly is. In the various societies of the novels we have studied this semester, there are many different views in what qualities of a person lead to true success. Our modern-day values and ideals greatly affect the way in which readers analyze both the prompt and the works we have read.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the members of the civilization in Brave New World are too afraid and ignorant to succeed in the ways that one would in our society. Yet, their definition of success is completely different than that of our modern readers. Moderation is required of all the members to ensure the success of the society as a whole rather than allowing the people to express themselves as individuals. In their case, moderation does not act as an obstacle to achievement because of what they are trying to achieve. Though we see their artificial happiness as a loss, the characters in the novel cannot grieve over the loss of something they never had in the first place; essentially, they are happy living in their “civilized” lives without knowing of the outside world. These people do not think of themselves as failures when their system requests nothing but moderation from them, and that in itself is a success because their mental state says more about their achievements than any physical award.
The story of Canterbury Tales revolves largely around the idea of moderation and how important it is to achieve the ultimate success of going to Heaven. In the time period in which the book is written, religion is extremely significant in the members of society’s everyday lives. So, going to Heaven is the only goal which the people are striving for. Chaucer writes about and criticizes the amount of faith people place in physical moderation to achieve success. Their society wants nothing but moderation from its members, and the story portrays those with an imbalance of physical traits as sinful. The writing of the story actually contradicts the point that moderation is necessary to ensure success. Chaucer writes his criticizing opinions of the people considered to be highly revered in society in Canterbury Tales, something that would be considered out of the norm and unaccepted in the society at the time. We now study his piece as a major factor in the change of perspective on people’s morals and values in a large amount of Europe. The writing of the literature is now considered to be a huge success, though Chaucer defied the rules and norms of his society at the time of the authorship.
Success can be defined as an individual that is apart of a greater society, achieving something that benefits themselves or the society as a whole. Moderation is an obstacle to achievement and success. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, all the citizens are moderate because they feel and lack passion and enthusiasm therefore do not succeed. However, people like Mustapha Mond and the others running the government show passion in controlling the society. In the Canterbury Tales prologue, the knight and oxford cleric contain all seven virtues. This conflicts moderation because one of the virtues is zeal, meaning enthusiasm. However, moderation depends on social class and what the enthusiasm is expressed for. In the knight’s scenario his zeal is for his duty as a knight. However, his counterpart the squire uses his zeal towards the ladies. This shows the difference between the effects of moderation and zeal. An example of how passion can often be bad is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Frankenstein goes through great extremes in order to achieve his goal of creating life. This shows that passion can be used to achieve a goal but it may not be for the best. His “success” ultimately destroyed not only his life but his loved one’s too. Frankenstein does not display moderation in achieving his goal. This shows that both moderation and passion/zeal can be used to achieve a goal but passion may also corrupt the goal itself.
ReplyDeletePeters, Sean
ReplyDeleteEnglish 2 H, Per. 5
1/8/19
Practice Essay #1
Is moderation an obstacle to success? Success, something that on the surface seems very straightforward, can be very subjective to different people and situations. It can refer to the bare minimum of or completion of a certain task, or it could mean going above and beyond, excelling in a set goal. Many times throughout history and literature both moderation and extremism has caused massive issues and successes.
In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the world is under extreme control and moderation. People no longer have individuality, or their own feelings and thoughts. In this instance, moderation is seen as a bad and sometimes evil thing, stopping freedom and emotion. Although painting a very bad picture for moderation Brave New World also envisions a world where people can indulge in all of their pleasures, being almost opposite in moderation. Though, Brave New World mainly focuses on the extremes of both moderation and indulgence, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer describes both in a more moral and secular perspective.
In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer creates a plethora of characters that overindulge, seeming to have no restriction in their actions. Almost the polar opposite, Chaucer created four characters that expressed cardinal virtues and moderation, representing the protagonists of the book. Both of these types of characters are described as being completely opposite of each other, not displaying any balance, which makes them seem to be unrealistic and to only display the good and bad in people and not the complexities of real life.
Overall, it may be said that moderation and extremism can both be powerful and destructive. In most situations, moderation and having control over some things can lead to success, but without some sort of drive and unrestrained passion can success be achieved. In conclusion, nothing in life is as simple as black and white. Every situation is different, and the definition of success can vary through a wide arrange of people. Balance, as in most situations and circumstances always proves to be the pathway to success.
Success, and the way it’s achieved, is an idea based around perspective, and different people can view the way others achieve success in various different ways. Moderation relates to success, determining how moderate one needs to be to achieve something, and to lose moderation would lead to passion. Certain times, passion as opposed to moderation can be seen as very admirable and can rally others around them, yet others can see it as cocky or unnecessary. Moderation however can allow for rational thinking and a more unbiased standpoint when decision making, whereas another person can view it as pacifistic or not powerful enough to achieve a goal. However, in the end, both are merely levels of how intense someone wants to succeed.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned before, moderation can be seen as an obstacle, unable to be persuasive and may come off as pacifistic. A prime example is located in the society of Brave New World, where we see characters lack passion, and act with moderation. Obviously, the entire society conforms to the government’s choices of prohibiting individuality, and are content. The whole of society shows moderation in their daily lives by simply taking soma to get rid of troubles, emotions, and negative thoughts instead of merely dealing with them. They would rather take the easy way out of problems in life by drugging themselves to simply forget instead of fighting for themselves and what they feel passionate about. A specific example of moderation turning into an obstacle comes from the lives of Bernard and Helmholtz in the book Brave New World where they clearly have things to say about society, yet choose to simply do nothing about it. They feel like they are misplaced in society, and want to be truly happy, yet choose to drug themselves with soma to achieve fake happiness. They have no passion for what they want, as opposed to a character like John, who caused a disaster showing negative passion, but at least John had the urge to fight for his rights, and for his beliefs. Moderation played a role in blocking Bernard and Helmholtz from grasping their wishes, and eventually got exiled, forcing them into an even deeper, more lonely pitt than they started in. Moderation becoming a block for a character is also seen in Frankenstein with the Monster in his early stages of development. When the Monster is taking refuge in the De Lacey cottage, he refuses to man up and attempt to become acquaintances with the family, even though we see why he should not have introduced himself. Although not a very symbolic example, we see how his moderation led to his built up of the emotions he developed after a year in the household.
In works of literature such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, characters usually experience becoming the moderator or the moderated. In most situations, moderation is a pathway to achievement and success, but it depends on the view of a person. To Mustafa Mond from Brave New World, moderation is necessary in his “utopia” similarly to the views of readers while reading The Canterbury Tales. On the contrary, Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth do not depend on moderation, even when necessary. Moderation can be an obstacle or an advantage, depending on the goal being achieved.
ReplyDeleteIn the views of the audience, Mustafa Mond created a dystopia, but Mond believes that he created a “super utopia” due to his desire for a balanced world. He believes that his moderation is benefitting society rather than harming it. He has achieved his goal and it is a complete success while to contemporary society, conversely, his goal has been achieved if only he wanted a world of hate and discord. Comparably, readers studying The Canterbury Tales believe that Chaucer’s characters are in desperate need of moderation. Extremely corrupt, the success of the friar, the woman of Bath, and the pardoner is shocking due to their method of earning money and establishing class – readers could say that they need Jesus. Though moderation is necessary, in some cases, moderation is not a definite answer to solving a problem.
Lady Macbeth is an extremely independent woman, so she would very much like to be a man. She married a buffoon and she does not need moderation, too, to get in her way. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth will do anything to improve her class: she would even risk disrupting the Great Chain of Being and killing a king. Obtaining money and establishing her place in the social order is her achievement and she has successfully achieved this goal while moderation would be an obstacle in this feat. Likewise, Victor Frankenstein had a God-defying coup and defied moderation. His passion drove him to fulfil his goal coup (even though his accomplishment stabbed him in the back, in the end). For these characters, moderation would have been a disadvantage to their goals.
To different people or groups, moderation can either an advantage or an obstruction. Sometimes, unmoderated events, places, or people become unruly: though, there isn’t any fun if something or someone is too strict.
Passion, although necessary in certain areas, can prove to be an obstacle for many. Frankenstein is the poster child of “passion gone wrong”. Following the Monster’s stay at the De Lacey household, we see in detail how he deals with Old Man De Lacey. He has too much passion built up from being too moderate, harming the blind old man. This led to a turning point ultimately, resulting in harmful passion from the Monster for the rest of the story. His passion led to the murdering of Frankenstein’s family. With moderation, this could have been prevented. Moderation could have proved to be useful at the time, allowing the Monster to rationally examine the situation, and could have prevented murder, as well as Frankenstein’s death too.
ReplyDeleteThere are also numerous examples in the literature we have studied where passion and moderation are not necessarily roadblocks, but affects the way one attains achievement and grasps success. Numerous characters in Canterbury Tales show negative passion, resulting in corruption in the church from those like the Monk or Nun, or corruption in character’s specific professions. Passion is also showed positively in the frametale from the Knight, whose passion leads him to glory and success as a knight. Moderation is not necessarily seen as a roadblock in the tale, but is shown positively through the Plowman, who keeps to himself, does not wish for more even with his benefit to society. I think that this is a tough topic to choose one side, due to the fact that moderation ultimately leads to individual downfall, as opposed to passion which more often that not harms those around or affected. I think that there should be moderation in certain things like the Monster’s decision making, but passion for what you want for your individual health as opposed to Bernard and Helmholtz.
Moderation is an obstacle to achieving success
ReplyDeleteIf Everyone were moderate, no one would take risks to strive being above average and there would be little growth. Most breakthroughs and revolutions were caused by people being anything but moderate. Those willing to take risks and go the distance are the ones who more efficiently achieve their goals and are the names that history remembers
Throughout our first semester reading list, the novel that furthest showed this point was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In this novel, our main character Frankenstein becomes obsessed with unnaturally creating life. Yes, his project did end up becoming a malevolent creature who caused the death of multiple people, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that he was able to do something extraordinary- create life! If Frankenstein remained “moderate”, this breakthrough could never have been achieved. His extreme effort and intensity were what made it all possible, and he is only one of the many examples of scientists that achieved success through extreme effort and enthusiasm. Modern surgery and information on the human body wouldn’t have been discovered if people hadn't secretly dissected human bodies at a time when it was illegal and unholy, and if scientists such as Jane Goodall didn’t turn their passions into their life then human knowledge and development would remain close to stagnant.
When thinking of the other extreme, consider the novel Brave New World. In a society where everyone must remain moderate, they have sacrificed culture and individuality. They removed all of life's extreme highs and lows; love, hate, passion, fear... everything is gone and replaced with a constant contempt. But is life worth living if everything and everyone is the same? If everyone has an exact place in society and is devoid of ambition no one will attempt to achieve great things and move up in life. Their only purpose is to exist, not live.
The novel Canterbury Tales shows the importance of passion and taking chances not only through the novel itself, but also through the author Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer was living in a time where heresy or going against the throne was punishable by death. However, this didn't stop Chaucer from writing one of the most famous pieces of literature that scathingly criticizes the Clergy and the Noble class. If Chaucer chose to remain moderate like most of society, then who else would have been brave enough to call out such powerful figures? It takes courage to fight the norm, and those who remain restrained would rather be agreeable then spark change, whether it's for the better or worse.
Finally, the play Macbeth shows how moderation can be an obstacle to success through the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Without Lady Macbeth’s determination, Macbeth’s moderate attitude would have prevented him and his wife from ever gaining political power. If it were not for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have been too scared and guilty to murder the king and would have most likely given himself away if Lady Macbeth hadn't planned their plot down to every last detail. Lady Macbeth proves that extreme effort and high enthusiasm are almost vital to success, while Macbeth shows that remaining moderate and passive can keep you stagnant.
Moderation, when used correctly, is one of the ultimate tools of power. Although living in moderation is one of the safest and most cautious ways to live, sometimes the tortoise wins the race. Excessiveness can either get you extremely far or not far at all. Living excessively is high risk and low reward, which is often elucidated by authors trying to make a point, or trying to add drama to their writing. Both moderation and excessiveness can help get you where you want to be, the success part of it comes within the person themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Huxley elucidates the ideas of moderation and excessiveness through his writings about a “New World”. In this dystopian society, people are often a subject to drugs and other escapees that help them completely do away with emotion. Mustapha Mond, a government leader in the new world, has different opinions on a world that is “successful” than most do. He ’s leading a world state based on pure power and control over his population's free will and motive. He uses extreme excessiveness in having a “perfect” controlled society, and from his point of view, it is perfect. Soma, a popular drug in this novel, is taken by most of the inhabitants of the world state to do away with all emotional hardships they might face. While soma can help at times, when taken excessively, leads to a life of merely existing and not actually living.
Furthermore, a novel with the name Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer provides characters with an array of motives. Chaucer explains the two sides of the social classes in the renaissance period, those who are virtuous and those who are sinful people of all social classes. Chaucer himself is using extreme risks in writing this because of his heavy use of satire and sarcasm to explain the faults of certain careers and social classes. This can churn hatred and might appall people who find this type of writing offensive. Nonetheless, people have been studying this work for the past 700 years. In this case, Chaucer's extremities help him immensely in delivering his message about the corruption in his time period.
Hence, the use of moderation and excessiveness is somewhat unpredictable and is up to the person handling it. Both of these strategies can be used to help people gain the success they want immensely, but only if used correctly and in the hands of those who truly understand how both work inside and out.
Throughout history, human societies are always comprised of conflicts and changes. These clashes, oftentimes viewed as consequences of the dark side of humanity, were indeed the major forces that drove human progress. Although in nature people favor moderation and stability while seeking individual success, the obstacles that truly blocked their ways are the reliance on reserved tradition and the fear of facing discomfort and challenges. Such philosophy is reflected in many of the great literary works throughout times, specifically in three that we’ve studied in class: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
ReplyDeletePeople who achieve success that others don’t not only hold outstanding talents, but also a curious and fearless heart that helps them to perform distinctive deeds. Victor Frankenstein portrayed by Mary Shelley expresses such courageous characteristics in the story depicted full with horrific dramas. Despite the impressive conflicts between Victor and the monster, the ambitious scientist did indeed achieve an enormous success in the field of medicine and biology. Regardless of the complicated consequences resulted from his creation, Victor is a successful scientist who conquered the moral line of mother nature and created a living being. He achieved his goal not from moderation, but from daring, crazy ideas that people would consider extremes. Whether or not his creation is considered a “success” to society, Victor exerts his intense passion that drives him through the obstacles and helps him win the prize of individual success as a scientist. The creation of the monster not only shocks the scientific society, but also underscores the impressive achievement as a result of Victor stepping out the “comfort zone” and having strong determination to reach success. Hence, bold and eccentric ideas may sometimes lead to exceptional success as individuals and perform laudable endeavors than having a moderate and restrained mindset.
Similarly in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, qualities that are often considered (odd and uncomfortable) are emphasized as vital components to achieve success. However, such claim is not stated in terms of the story; it is stated in the aspect of the author and the literary work itself. Although the depictions of the characters in the story express ideas that support a more balanced, moderate society, Chaucer, as the author of this notable piece, achieved an remarkable success in the world of literature. As an impactful work that drove people’s ideas from feudal perspectives to new philosophies at the cusp of the Renaissance, The Canterbury Tales was a controversial piece at the times and extended its influences till today. The despicable corruptions and detrimental means of the high estates are criticized under the satiric words of Chaucer, who took the courage to write about the flaws and sins of feared powers. As a result, The Canterbury Tales not only achieved notable success as a known literary piece from the Middle Ages, but also a beneficial source for students and scholars later to study thoroughly about the history during that time. Chaucer himself consequently became one of the few influential authors from that period and earned him the title “Father of English Literatures”.
In addition to the great literary works of Shelley and Chaucer, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World also illustrates the adverse consequences of lacking changes and conflicts in a over-restrained society. In the moderate society created by Huxley, everything is restricted in order for the establishment of a long-term stability. It seems to achieve a success in terms of overall peace and order, where conflicts and violence are prevented. But as individuals, people within such society hold no freedom and rights to express themselves. The human civilization as a whole gradually loses its desire to progress as no individuality is expressed and everyone feared the changes that occur outside of their comfort realms. As a result, the human race becomes a group of animals without any presence of sanity and humanity. Although there’s an achievement of success in social stability, the loss of individuality and pursuit of individual success would eventually stop the progressive steps of human society. The dreadful consequences of such restrained society are revealed in the story of Brave New World, where John the Savage becomes a victim of such society full of cruel, idiotic hearts. Thus, in order to improve further as individuals and as a society, effective changes are needed to “disrupt” certain balances and challenge the traditions.
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion, creativity is often needed to proceed toward individual success. Endeavors that challenge one’s habits indeed build the stairs that lead to the achievement of a goal. Certain moderation and balance are also essential in keeping social order, but too much restrictions will limit the vital changes that contribute to human progress as a whole. Hence, while restraints may benefit order and regulation in societies, they often limit one to fully express his or her potential through innovations that provoke distinctive changes.
Moderation is not an obstacle to achievement and success. Moderation is a guideline that inspires others to put in extreme effort and passion into everything they do in order to succeed. I believe there is a balance between the amount of passion you put into tasks and also going at a moderate pace to guide you. In order to complete a task you need to have passion and enthusiasm to perform your best, but must remember to have the self restraint to work in moderation.
ReplyDeleteIn literature you clearly see how a balance of moderation and passion is needed in order to succeed. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley the character Victor Frankenstein poorly shows this balance. Frankenstein creates a monster through passion. As a result his creation spirals into destruction. Frankenstein showed only extreme passion and effort leading no room for him to stay balanced. If Frankenstein would have worked in moderation he would have slowed down and had time to think if his actions were crossing the line. In contrast you see this balance well displayed by the knight in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The knight shows passion in serving but has the self control to not gloat in his accomplishments. The knight “had followed chivalry, \ Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy” (line 46). The knight followed all social codes by being passionate in his work. He showed truthfulness to all and never went overboard to top anyone else. He was generous and as “modest as a maid” (line 71). These traits come with self restraint, it is very easy to become full of yourself, think highly of yourself and not others. The knight did not, instead he he was courteous to all and it showed. The knight put in extreme amounts of effort to succeed and still paced himself allowing him to be balanced.
The knight clearly shows that in order to succeed you need moderation and extreme passion. I believe that you must have passion in what you are doing in order to succeed, but moderation is key. Self control is very important, you never want to over expose yourself. Be passionate in what you do, take your time and you will have the best outcome.
In one’s journey to achieve success and accomplishment, one must display some level of self-control and moderation when working toward one’s ambition. Moderation does not hinder one on one’s path toward success because it is neither too excessive nor unsatisfactory in terms of how it influences ambition. Most situations require some amount of moderation because an individual still needs to have some level of motivation and effort, but not in excess. To not overexert oneself when pursuing a goal, one must moderate the level of intensity and effort in that pursuit. Individuals are seen to result in failure after not moderating themselves in the stories of Brave New World, Frankenstein, and Macbeth.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, true success between the two societies found within the Savage Reservation and the World State. An individual, like John the Savage, needs to find themselves between the two extremes presented by the lifestyles of each society, thus reaching a moderate middle ground. The Savage Reservation exhibits humanity within its people, yet it is primitive, harsh, and unaccepted while the World State shows the success and satisfaction of their society at the sacrifice of humanity. So, success within this world would require one to be happy in society while also still expressing individuality. John the Savage needs moderation in his journey toward satisfaction in society by retaining human nature and being happy with the world he lives in. If he leans toward one way of life too much, he will either lose his individuality or not be content with his life, ultimately ending without success in life. John’s final moments are somewhat representative of him meeting a moderate place between the two societies as he is not a part of either society, but at a halfway point. In his isolation, he is not deprived of his own human nature, and he is not completely cast out of society, so he achieves moderation even though he is does not reach success because of how the corrupt World State treats him.
While complete moderation may be needed to find success sometimes, other situations need some ambition that is moderated. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a character that does not achieve success because he does not moderate his motivation. Although he may have achieved his original goal of artificially creating human life, his journey to do so is not controlled so his life is practically ruined. Frankenstein is over enthusiastic when making the creature, so he is isolated from society and blinded by his ambition leading to his ultimate failure in life. If Frankenstein had restrained his passion, his life would overall be more successful as he would not have the monster that he made ruin his life. This exemplifies that at certain times one needs moderation to limit one so that one is not excessive and destructive with one’s effort. (1/2)
Furthermore, in Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth himself lacks moderation which leads to his downfall. Macbeth lacks the trait of moderation, so he acts impatiently without restraint, causing him to not achieve success in the end. For example, Macbeth disrupts the Great Chain of Being by going out of his way to kill King Duncan without controlling himself and letting it happen naturally instead. Had Macbeth showed control and moderation, he would not have put himself into trouble and he would have achieved success as the king without any worries. This is another example of needing moderation in one’s path to reaching success because one must have control so that one’s goals are not ruined by too much ambition.
ReplyDeleteHence, moderation is necessary to achieving success as it prevents one from being so excessive that it impairs one’s path to success. Moderation creates a regulated position for individuals to use so that they are not underachieving or overachieving to the point where it is detrimental. Success needs some amount of passion so that something is actually achieved but this passion should not be too extreme that it is ruinous. Several characters in works of literature show that moderation is needed so that neither an extreme high nor an extreme low is met, which would lead to success. Achievement is not hindered by moderation and it is instead aided by it as it helps one to be productive while not meeting failure by being too extreme. (2/2)
The word “moderation” can be defined as the avoidance of excess or extremes, especially in one’s behavior or political actions. Whether or not moderation is an obstacle to achievement and success is a subjective question, and I believe that one needs to have a little bit of moderation in order to succeed.
ReplyDeleteThis can be seen in “The Canterbury Tales”, a frame tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer from 1387 to 1400. A satirical poem that mocks those of the higher class and the corruptness of the church, this story also highlights virtuous people. The knight, for example, is the perfect example of a moderate clergyman who seems to maintain a balance between his sins and virtues. Never going over the top, he exhibits moderation of the highest degree, but it is his moderate personality that allows him to succeed in a society that is geared towards being as virtuous as one can be. Taking a different approach to moderation in “The Canterbury Tales”, one should also consider the time period in which it was written. During the 14th century, the church was revered as the most powerful estate in the Middle Ages. Everyone followed the idea of self preservation and being a virtuous citizen. Chaucer steps apart from everyone else and declares in a slick way the wrongdoings of the church and of people in higher estates by using satire and humor. Making light of a dark situation, Chaucer broke through what the norm was considered at the time and set the ball in motion for the rest of the Renaissance. Today, “The Canterbury Tales” is revered as one of the best works of writing, and it was all because Chaucer chose to express himself and go past the moderate folk of the time. However, by cleverly disguising his ideas in humor and satire, Chaucer still exhibits moderation in his writing, supporting the idea that success needs a little bit of moderation to help it along.
Then, in the book “Frankenstein”, by Mary Shelley, the idea and belief that moderation and success walk hand in hand is once again exhibited. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Victor Frankenstein’s goal was to create a human-like creature that the world had never seen. So focused on fulfilling his ambition, Frankenstein ends up creating a monster that threatens both him and humanity. Originally, his intentions were innocent; he wanted to create a new meaning of science and had a vision of how he was going to do that. However, his ambition slowly became out of hand and he saw his whole plan start to fall apart. Because he did not have moderation in his plan to success he could not succeed. His greed, pride, and ambition grew into excess and that is why his plan failed. If, instead, he had kept a balance in his life and had not been so obsessed with staying in his lab for hours and days and weeks on end, then the whole situation could have been avoided. Because of this lack in moderation, Frankenstein lost both his family and the thing that he wanted to hard to create.
Lastly, the people of “Brave New World” exhibit a state in which moderation is good. In fact, there is an excess in moderation, which creates a situation in which there is no societal improvement or change. The leaders of this dystopian world are so obsessed with creating a perfect and uniform world that progress cannot be made and individualism is looked down upon. With temptations of soma and of being like the rest, it is a success that one can separate themselves from the rest of society. After all, that is what is encouraged in today’s society, and since this book is placed in the future, individualism should only grow with time. This shows that the new world’s success has come to a halt, with people functioning like robots, and that in order to start society back up, change has to occur.
Moderation can lead to a character's success or their demise as can be seen through the books we have read throughout the semester. In each story a number of characters can be seen leaning towards either one of two sides, one side favors moderation as their moral compass and the other side prefers to preserver through hardships with their passionate and intensive characteristics. For example, Brave New World epitomizes what may happen when moderation goes too far and those like John who have an ardent personality become lost and overpowered by the ani matrons that most humans seem to be more akin to which goes against everything he was taught. This over exhausting feeling of hopelessness and insanity pushed him to end his life so he could die with the beliefs he thought were right instead of being influenced by others and give in to the idea of moderation which has intertwined itself through everything in their society. Every other book we have read usually has a plot that’s galvanized through either the characters misplaced zeal, overambitions, and or power-hungry actions. I feel that moderation is helpful in some aspects of our daily lives to help restrain us from doing something illogical that could affect me in the future. In other situations, for example school, it is praised upon students to put more energy and extreme effort into our work, so we have a successful future. However, if students were to put moderation to every aspect of their lives then there would be no enjoyment and satisfaction because we would never achieve above and beyond what our limit is which leaves everything to be dull and tedious. With ambition there is a similarity to moderation that helps us understand that in the end both give an end result that is not what is hoped for. It is true that ambition and effort have helped humanity make strides in many professional fields but that is moderated ambition. Moderated ambition helps curiosity to flow through and not reach the point of insanity which is a perfect example of how Frankenstein was regarded as when he neglected family, food, and sleep to accomplish something that had a probability of backfiring on him. Part 1
ReplyDeleteOverambition and exuberance can lead to detrimental effects to the mind, body, and to the surrounds. For instance, John thought that he could persuade the others to know that their society was flawed but he didn’t anticipate the people to not understand. Reason being that the higher ups in their society deprived most people of knowledge and so do not understand when John talks about certain things like freedom or human rights which John feels defeated by. That feeling of pain can fester and help destroy one's own self esteem which leaves them weakened and prone to acting on a whim which is the cause of dangerous emotions like anger and insanity. So, there is no true right answer and it just depends how stable the person is and how capable they are when faced with a dilemma such as what Macbeth and the monsters experience. Both of those characters were influenced by others to become the irrational, vengeful beings that are portrayed in the story which leads them to not live a life in moderation but for their downfall to be from there over delusional hope that at the end it was going to be just fine. Macbeth's efforts did lead him to become king, but he became paranoid which lead to his downfall unlike the monster whose self-made downfall was through his desired vengeance toward the one person that was supposed to help him. They both became crazed with the power they had and through their determination they became shells of their former selves. There is never a in between with the personalities of these characters which helps the reader easily judge each character. This is also what Chaucer did to help give a background for each of his characters so that we understand the truth about their deceitful lies and a look into their true selves. Chaucer wrote his book to show us who they really were behind there cleverly crafted mask so that we knew who understood moderation and kept it as a part of their lives and others who pretended to understand but really used it as an excuse to indulge in more corruptive tasks. Overall, we hold moderation to the highest esteem when is held to a standard that we must promote so that we are not excluded from the societal norms which makes feel better about ourselves. However, this teaching is flawed because of the few unique beings that society shuns because of their lack of moderation and because of this they feel betrayed which leads to irrational actions being made and therefore ruining their life. There is no middle in this mindset of overambition and moderation because both can lead to success if we understand control and educate ourselves to be mindful of the effects it could cause if lead down the wrong path. Part 2
ReplyDeleteModeration is simply a fancy word for “half-ass”. Furthermore, as Ron Swanson once said, “Never half-ass things. Whole-ass things.”
ReplyDeleteTo be moderate is to have a balance between things. However, what is considered the perfect balance? One person might say one thing, while another person might have a completely different response. Moderation is an obstacle to achievement and success, as someone’s personal goals and values decide what they need to do to get things done.
Exhibit A. The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer satires many characters about how they live their lives. He believes that because they are not exhibiting all seven of the cardinal virtues, they do not live a moderate life that fits the cookie cutter definition of “success”. Despite this strong opinion that Chaucer has towards characters such as the Franklin, these characters themselves do not seem to believe that they are living an unjust life. In fact, they are quite happy with what they do in life. They are doing what they actually want to be doing, not what the society wants them to be doing. To me, that is actually more admirable than the few “good” characters. It is hard to find a place in this world; it is even harder to find out what you truly love to do. The fact that these characters are able to not hold themselves back, or practice moderation only in fear of what others might think is truly what success is.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, moderation is definitely not a tactic that Macbeth uses. When Macbeth gets the idea from some witches that he is supposed to be king, he does everything he can to make sure that comes true. He even commits murder on multiple people including Banquo, his best friend, just to achieve his goal. That is surely not a moderate thing to do. As a result of his passion and drive, he ends up getting what he wants: the throne.
A more obvious example would be in Frankenstein. In order for the creature to achieve his goals, he needed to fully put himself out there. He seeked to destroy Frankenstein after Frankenstein did not fulfill his request. If the creature had practiced moderation, he would not have been able to achieve his goal, hence possessing his own feeling of success. Driven by his hate towards Frankenstein, he managed to destroy everyone that was close to him, slowly ruining Frankenstein’s life. The creature wholeheartedly achieved his goal by destroying all that was dear to his creator, which would not have been accomplished if the creature was moderate in his actions.
Brave New World is perhaps the greatest example of why moderation is so dangerous. The government desired happiness so much, that they stopped at nothing to achieve this. It is actually kind of ironic, because they did not practice moderation whatsoever to create a society where moderation is the key value. In this moderate society the humans are stripped down to nothing more than mindless pieces of flesh (as I sometimes feel after school). Everything is controlled, down to the feelings you are able to experience. Once one bad feeling comes up, the person’s automatic reaction is to take soma, a drug that makes you live in a fake reality. These moderate feelings lead to moderate people. Without a person’s ability to experience pain, suffering, and loss, they often lose the ability to create. Since these people experience no emotions, they have no desire to do things that make them happy. Things like these include writing poetry, reading literature, and and having meaningful conversations with those around you. This extreme form of moderation leads to people not knowing what they want out of life, as they have seen nothing else. Therefore, they will never experience the feeling of success because “achievement” is not in their vocabulary.
The idea of moderation has been shed upon multiple times, whether in life or literature, and has been argued greatly of whether it contributes to success or takes away. Some pieces of literature that provides evidence for the authors point of view is Macbeth, Brave New World, Frankenstein and The Canterbury Tales. I personally believe that Moderation has good and bad side effects and it depends on the situation of where moderation takes place.
ReplyDeleteMacbeth takes the standpoint of against moderation and that the only way to be successful is to be excessive and passionate. For example, when Macbeth told Lady Macbeth of the witch's prophecies of how he will become king, Lady Macbeth already knew that the only way of achieving that goal is by killing the King. Here, the characters automatically jump to the conclusion of how the only way to be successful is by being ruthless and inhumane. The characters take the path that goes against nature's laws and disobeying the idea of being moderate. IN this situation, not being moderate is bad and caused ultimately death. However, in Brave New World, multiple standpoints are presented. The government has to be quite ambitious in order to make a successful, moderate society. This dystopian society survives on its citizen's being moderate and not having individualism while for the government to succeed this they need to create a powerful drug that is quite ambitious. Here not being moderate leads to success to some level. It creates success for the government however it harms it's citizens by not letting them experience humanly emotions.
Frankenstein is one classic that greatly emphasizes the point of moderation. Dr. Frankenstein isn't characterized as being moderate, far from it, and this does allow him to be creative and reach for the stars. However, there's a line. Because he didn't express even a hint of moderation, he caused obsession and obstruction. In this situation, it shows that moderation is good because it restrains you from creating something harmful. Lastly, The Canterbury Tales is a piece that shows the exact opposite of moderation. Just the fact that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote this during his time period, shows ambition and rebellion. He wrote about powerful members in society and gave them a corrupt personality except for a few characters. Chaucer's inability to be moderate gives us a beautiful expose, that is still read today, that tells us of the corruption that can be seen throughout time. Moderation is something that has been debated much, giving us different views on how it impacts that idea of success.
Ema Straser
In order to fully answer this prompt the reader must first understand how different sources define success. Many of the novels read in the class this year use either individual success or the success of a society as a whole. The reader must also remember that many of the characters in the novels have there own personal definitions of success. For example in canterbury Tales characters such as the knight see her success as expressing the cardinal virtues, whereas the Miller sees it as gaining wealth and glory in whatever means he can. Another example is in Brave new world where The goals of the members is to conform to the ideals of the society, but some may argue that some members goals are to break the norm. For the purpose of this essay the reader can view success as the goals set by an individual.
ReplyDeleteModeration is sometimes linked to the idea of being well rounded, but again falls into the abyss of the many ways you can define and use it to describe things. In frankenstein the doctor's obsession over the creation of this monster does not show moderation. Due to this lack of moderation it could be said that he was not successful in the idea that he created life but was not able to connect to it. In another circumstance such as canterbury tales you could also say that the characters didn't show moderation because most either exhibited cardinal virtues or deadly sins but not many showed both. Still many of the characters were successful at their own personal goals.
In conclusion there is no real correct way to answer this prompt due to the many different definitions of success and ambition depending on characters point of view and own personal goals. Characters were both successful and unsuccessful when showing moderation, therefore either side could be defended or criticised.
Ewan Macfarlane
While throughout history the pure balance and restraint of moderation may not have been the true driving force for the extraordinary, it is invalid to label it as an obstacle in the way of success. First, it is important to note that each person holds their own standard of success. While some define success as the attainment of fame and glory, others simply see maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle as an achievement of its own. In such cases as Victor Frankenstein’s and John the Savage’s, moderation would absolutely serve as an obstacle in the way of their goals. Meanwhile in such a case as the Knight in The Canterbury Tales, success is still attained even through his temperate way of living. In the end, the consequences of ambition come down to where the line is drawn.
ReplyDeleteVictor Frankenstein grew up having an ambitious character, helping him to earn his position at the top of his class. Especially excelling in the understanding of natural sciences, he became fascinated with life and began to set his sights high by challenging the limitations of human knowledge. He was blinded by his determination and need for greatness which further heightened his hopes to exceed the laws of nature and secure himself into the highest position of glory-a creator. Victor consequently became obsessed with his experimentations of creating life, all the while neglecting all other aspects of his life. Although he was successful in his creation of the monster, his lack of moderation led him to cross a line which only led to the destruction of everything that he had truly loved in his life. Another example of a life turned awry by an excess of passion is John the Savage. Growing up experiencing the thrill of true human emotions, John found himself repulsed by the society’s mindless and perfectly ordered structure. He is the protagonist of the story and should be the one to try to change the society. Although he does attempt to spur reform by preaching to the Delta class citizens during their visit to the Park Lane Hospital, he finds the task impossible. He instead misplaces his zeal by focusing his all his passion and ambition into his own suffering, solely to prove that he will not be overcome by the society. In the end, the intensity of his ambition leads him to commit suicide, ultimately effecting no change on the broken society.
While the Brave New World society exemplifies moderation in a negative way, removed of all passion and emotion, the Knight from The Canterbury Tales proves that success can still be achieved through the practice of moderation. He is known to conduct himself in a mild manner in everything. The knight is proficient in his duties, he “always killed his man,” and is even of high social status, yet he does not boast in his appearance, his speech, or even in his own mind. He always remains faithful and loyal as a servant to the king, but only for the purpose of fulfilling his duty as a knight. Despite this, “he was of sovereign value in all eyes,” distinguished as a successful by all who saw him.
Moderation is not necessarily an obstacle to success, but rather it is a key feature of a successful person along with passion. One character who fits this description would be the Oxford Cleric from The Canterbury Tales, who is one of the role models. He has a passion for teaching others and learning from them, however he never boasts about his knowledge due to his humbleness, which restrains him from being prideful. Being able to suppress his pride, the Oxford Cleric becomes a modest man who never brags about his intelligence. Having a balance in the distribution of all seven virtues, he does not have a single sin. The Oxford Cleric’s moderation and enthusiasm for more knowledge leads to success, making him a true role model. Without moderation, a person would become someone like Victor Frankenstein from the novel Frankenstein. Frankenstein eventually achieves the goal of creating a form of life, however he sacrifices his sleep and isolates himself from everybody. Even when he reached his objective, he gave up his sanity for it and his creation ended up causing everyone to suffer. If Frankenstein was able to control his extreme devotion towards the ambition for creating life, he would have experienced a jovial life where he would still be sane. Even though being desirous is better than being controlled, having a bit of moderation can prevent the person from being too ambitious by allowing the person to have self-control.
ReplyDeleteNanako Tanisaka
I believe moderation is an obstacle to success, but moderation is also needed to insure safety and achievement. The balance between ambition and moderation is difficult to obtain but once found it becomes the balance needed to live a full yet sane life. A balance of ambition and moderation can aid a society, or even an individual achieve their highest potential while still protecting the individual from having too much ambition. Although this is true, moderation has another stong and valid way of showing itself. Moderation can be an obstacle, blocking a society from advancing and progressing in life. These two points are shown in many novels, for example are Brave New World and Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteBrave New World represents how moderation can be an obstacle and prevent a society from success. In BNW there is a society completely controlled and moderated by the government. In this society the government believes subsiding passion and ambition is better than letting citizens have free will. By the end of the book it is shown that the government using an immense amount of moderation does not work, yet in the leader's eyes they believe it helps. Immense moderation became the norm, but the people couldn’t think and believe for themselves. Moderation caused a whole society to become controlled and unhappy making no progress in human welfare. This novel illuminates the horrors of moderation and how it can cause chaos and block the creativity and passion in people's hearts.
Contrary Frankenstein shows how moderation is needed to keep an individual sane and protected. In the novel Frankenstein Dr. Frankenstein becomes engulfed in ambition and passion. He obtains no moderation in his journey causing him to abandon the people he loves. Frankenstein's ambition and passion causes him to enter a perplexing journey filled with danger and hate. If moderation was present in his life Frankenstein could have had the correct balance of moderation and ambition to move him in a positive direction. This represents how moderation is needed for someone to stay sane and not become too ambitious to the point where they sacrifice their life.
In these two novels the balance between ambition and moderation was not met. Both novels strongly suggested their belief of what moderation is. This shows how difficult the balance is to obtain especially when people believe their way is the only correct way. There are many other novels where it is shown how moderation helps achieve success or how moderation can become an obstacle. Thus, moderation is neither an obstacle or a guide but rather it must become balanced with ambition to cause good.
What is success? To achieve a goal? To do what very few have accomplished? Then, in order to achieve this success, you need to be better than the competition. Yes, it must be a competition. There is a clear winner and that must be you.
ReplyDeleteModeration kills that drive. Moderation means that many can win. It gives room to compassion and consideration. It lets others have what you want. By definition, moderation means to not do (or have) in excess or lack of. So by means of moderation, you can be better than a few but less than the best. It gives way to being content. It creates a lack of passion to pursue a greater goal. In BNW (Brave New World), the main character Bernard Marx yearned for a respected status in his society, but was content with where he was. He wanted to succeed but was content with being moderately happy. It wasn’t until an opportunity appeared before him that he was looking to complete that goal. Moderation was his obstacle. It clearly was a hindrance in his societal climb.
Frankenstein was looking to challenge the boundaries of science. He clearly saw himself at the forefront of discovery. What could be more exciting than the creation of life; something no one else had been able to accomplish? He did. He didn’t care that others may have had concerns. He didn’t give into being sort of the best scientist on the brink of scientific breakthrough. He created life. He may have regretted it later on ethical grounds, but in terms of his own accomplishments and surpassing what was capable, he deemed that the idea of creating life was possible and that he had succeeded.
Would Macbeth had become king without coaxing from his wife? He was content with being Thane of Cawdor and that contentment stirred from his lack of pursuit in his ambition to become king. He had the thought. He lacked the drive. His consideration for the life of King Duncan gave way to hesitation. It was his wife who convinced him to claim the throne. Moderation was the killer. Moderation was the reason why people become content. They consider others before considering themselves. This thoughtfulness is not a key in achieving what others cannot. It is not conducive to success for Macbeth.
Tiffany Cha
What is success? To achieve a goal? To do what very few have accomplished? Then, in order to achieve this success, you need to be better than the competition. Yes, it must be a competition. There is a clear winner and that must be you.
ReplyDeleteModeration kills that drive. Moderation means that many can win. It gives room to compassion and consideration. It lets others have what you want. By definition, moderation means to not do (or have) in excess or lack of. So by means of moderation, you can be better than a few but less than the best. It gives way to being content. It creates a lack of passion to pursue a greater goal. In BNW (Brave New World), the main character Bernard Marx yearned for a respected status in his society, but was content with where he was. He wanted to succeed but was content with being moderately happy. It wasn’t until an opportunity appeared before him that he was looking to complete that goal. Moderation was his obstacle. It clearly was a hindrance in his societal climb.
Frankenstein was looking to challenge the boundaries of science. He clearly saw himself at the forefront of discovery. What could be more exciting than the creation of life; something no one else had been able to accomplish? He did. He didn’t care that others may have had concerns. He didn’t give into being sort of the best scientist on the brink of scientific breakthrough. He created life. He may have regretted it later on ethical grounds, but in terms of his own accomplishments and surpassing what was capable, he deemed that the idea of creating life was possible and that he had succeeded.
Would Macbeth had become king without coaxing from his wife? He was content with being Thane of Cawdor and that contentment stirred from his lack of pursuit in his ambition to become king. He had the thought. He lacked the drive. His consideration for the life of King Duncan gave way to hesitation. It was his wife who convinced him to claim the throne. Moderation was the killer. Moderation was the reason why people become content. They consider others before considering themselves. This thoughtfulness is not a key in achieving what others cannot. It is not conducive to success for Macbeth.
Tiffany Cha
I believe that moderation is not an obstacle for achievement and success. Brave New World is an extreme scenario of moderation; everything is balanced. In Brave New World, the world leaders desire a society in which nothing is out of the norm and everything is regulated. Balance and stability define success in their society. Helmholtz has absolutely no passion and does not feel fulfilled with the World State. However, by society’s standards, he is extremely successful in the ideal Alpha Male model. He appreciates high art, but the World Leaders have banned literature and replaced it with the “feelies.” Mustapha Mond explains to John that if everyone, including the common person, could read literature then there would be no balance. In order took preserve the stability of the society, high arts had to be banned and moderated.
ReplyDeleteIn Canterbury Tales, the knight is an exemplar and role model for the squire. Chaucer describes the knight as being balanced while the squire is overly jovial and sanguine. The Knight, a member of the Second Estate, is considered successful in their society. The squire however, is overly sanguine and is described as unsuccessful. This indicates a positive correlation between moderation and success
In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is filled with passion, longing to recreate humans post-mortem. Extremely passionate about cheating death, Victor cut off all his relationships until he achieved his goal. Victor did end up creating a living creature, but at what cost? In the process, he had lost his William, Henry Clerval, and Elizabeth. While Victor technically achieved his goals, due to the egregious passion Frankenstein possessed, it cost him the lives of his brother, best friend, and newly-wed wife.
Throughout the literature we have studied this year, many individuals in the story have succeeding in the goal that they set out to do. Most of these achievements were not made through a moderate approach; they were achieved ambitiously. But, with these achievements came detrimental repercussions. Also, the characters who tried to achieve their goals through moderation were unable to do so. Therefore, moderation is an obstacle to achievement and success, but the consequences after success could be harmful.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most ambitious characters we have read about is Victor Frankenstein. In Frankenstein, Victor creates a living being which is far from moderate. But, he set his mind on a goal, and he is able to follow through with it, showing that he avoided the obstacle of moderation and was able to succeed. However, even though he did meet his goal, he is haunted for the rest of his life and ends up dying, partly because of the very creature he created. So even though Victor achieved his goal, he was faced with a huge consequence. Macbeth also shows a character succeeding without moderation. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide on a goal to kill the king and overtake the throne, and they do. This was an extremely immoderate solution to something that could have been resolved through a simple talk. But Macbeth and his wife succeed nonetheless. However, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both face the same fate as Frankenstein and die by the end of the book; another consequence for such ambitious actions.
In Brave New World the society and its people are completely moderate. The people are forced to remain neutral in all aspects and, essentially, are not permitted to achieve any goals they may have. This shows that success can’t be achieved through moderation because the entire population of a moderate society doesn’t have any achievements or ambitions. In The Canterbury Tales, there are many successful people who are characterized by displaying all seven of the cardinal virtues. To be a completely virtuous person is definitely immoderate because that person has to strive to be perfect in almost every way, which is very near impossible. So, the characters who display all of the virtues are ambitious when it comes to their goals. Ambition and immoderation are also shown in the characters who become successful through less virtuous means. For example, the Pardoner is a very sinful person, but he has one main goal: to become extremely wealthy. And he does become wealthy by ripping people off and lying to them, which is not moderate, but it works for him. In conclusion, if someone is trying to achieve a goal, they can’t be moderate because moderation doesn’t allow the person to act with passion towards the goal they have set out for themselves, therefore, dooming them to failure.
Society often teaches that a “happy medium” is the key to success. However, is success plausible, or even possible, when the individual is held captive by “moderation,” or the whimsical idea of avoiding excess effort, passion, and ambition? The more negative entity may view this idea as simply half-heartedness, or lack of discipline on the individual’s part. Defining success as an individual’s attainment of his or her endeavors and objectives, a character has rarely achieved as such from using only part of his talents and resolution, shying away from passion and intensity. Characters such as Bernard from Brave New World, Victor from Frankenstein, and Macbeth from Macbeth display this truth, as well as the converse reality that zeal and initiative often produce the desired accomplishments of the character.
ReplyDeleteIn Brave New World, the general society thrives on extreme moderation, using soma and other technology to tame any extremity, such as emotion, human experience, or pain. However, Bernard Marx, one of the few characters opposed to such dehumanizing tactics, made several attempts to lessen the use of soma and increase the humanity of the Brave New World society. However, he rarely had the courage to defy deeply rooted standards, and so often relapsed into the use of soma. Bernard could not bring himself to use his whole potential and effort, and therefore could not reach his goal of a truly human society. For Bernard, moderation served as an obstacle to his success, preventing him from living free of soma and encouraging others to do the same.
Victor Frankenstein, a zealous and determined character from Frankenstein, used quite the opposite of moderation in his endeavors. In his efforts to create human life from his own intellect, Victor worked tirelessly day and night, cut off contact with his friends and family, and rejected even necessary human upkeep like food and hygiene. Although painful, this intense lack of moderation served to Victor’s benefit in the journey to reach his goal. Through his extreme effort, he was able to attain the human life he wanted to create. His goal was never to foster a loving relationship with and to nurture this creature, so this disastrous piece of the outcome cannot be attributed to Victor’s ferocity with which he completed his experiment. Victor’s lack of moderation allowed him to produce the necessary breakthroughs and scientific discoveries in order to complete his goal and be successful.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a prime example of the danger of moderation in achieving one’s intentions. In this play, the character Macbeth organized the murder of King Duncan, and did succeed in carrying this out. However, because Macbeth did so with such hesitation and uncertainty, he displayed signs of guilt such as lack of shock, the murder of the guards, and even bringing the bloody daggers back to his room. These resulted from a lack of passion and zeal for this activity. Had Macbeth been fully immersed in carrying out this murder and getting cleanly away with the deed, he would not have acted so conspicuously afterwards. His suspicious actions led Macduff and Banquo to suspect that Macbeth had committed the murder, which eventually led to his downfall. In summary, Macbeth’s use of moderation in his endeavor to kill the king exposed his true motives to other characters, and was an obstacle to his success.
Moderation is an obstacle to achievement and success for several notable reasons, though it depends on the scenario presented. It’s important to highlight the significance of defining success since it can mean a multitude of things. Some define success and achievement by having a reasonable life and living quietly, while others define it as living large. When living a quiet life, moderation is perfectly acceptable since the person’s motivations aren’t extensive. Moderation is no obstacle at all for someone not striving for more in life besides simplicity. In Brave New World, Lenina and society in general do well with a moderated society. They have no need for complex emotions and rely on their animal instincts more than anything. Anything but moderation would ensue chaos that would drastically affect society, much like John did when he was introduced to the utopia. He disrupted the cycle of moderation and went to the extremes to achieve a life he strived for. He would have achieved this if it not were for moderation, but most in society were perfectly content with their moderated lives and saw him as a threat.
ReplyDeleteThough moderation is acceptable and welcomed, it puts strain on goals that are bigger than oneself. Moderation can limit people’s big ideas and prevents them from achieving their goals. Going to the extreme is sometimes necessary in order to achieve something great. Without avoiding moderation, Frankenstein wouldn’t have been able to construct his monster. Though the monster ultimately presented its creator with problems of great catastrophe, he brought back the dead which is a notable achievement. He shut himself out from the world and spent copious hours contributing to his creation. Without moderation, he was able to create something that many in his time could not comprehend.
Moderation limits both creativity and creates stability depending on the life and achievements one strives for. Moderation is great for living an average and fulfilling life without the desire for something more. Moderation, however, isn’t well suited for the above and beyond, as it takes passion and determination in order to attain some goals. In conclusion, moderation depends on what the definition of success is, which can be various answers according to the one who defines it.
Olivia Martino
Through the pieces of literature that we have read this semester there has been multiple examples of characters who are striving to complete their life goals. However, in striving to complete these endeavors some of this characters can maybe take things a little to far. These characters in my opinion find greater success with employing a bit of moderation to their goal. I think that moderation is often more helpful than harmful when trying to complete a large scale task. This point can be represented throughout all the pieces of literature that we’ve read so far.
ReplyDeleteTo begin Frankenstein is a golden example of how to much dedication to one goal can lead to the things around you that are equally important to deteriorate. When victor was trying to make the monster he completely devoted his life to achieving his goal to create life from death. To do this he locked himself away so that he didn't have any distractions from the outside world to hinder his progress. However in doing this he may have been able to achieve his goal quicker but he also had to face the repercussions of him staying away from the outside world. One of these said repercussions is his lost touch with his family. After being away from his family for almost 2 years caused him to be blinded by his ambition and need to complete his project that his family was put second under his goal.This blindness is why moderation is important because after doing something for so long you begin to develop a sort of tunnel vision on what you want to complete. This causes you to be less and less concerned with the world around you which can be dangerous. However taking a break and only devoting a fraction of your time to something instead of all of your time could help you keep a more open mind. It lets you focus on everything equally and as a result balances out life more.
Furthermore Brave New World supports my point by having the entire goal of the citizens in BNW to be moderate with everything in their lives. In their world it is encouraged to be moderate and never spend more time then absolutely necessary on a certain thing. However, this philosophy is taken a little to seriously in BNW which can lead to consequences just like working to much on something. If you are to sparing with everything in your life then nothing can be special and give you a drive to be better which takes away individuality. But stated previously to much devotion can lead to someone being too one sided. Using another piece of literature we studied, The Canterbury Tales, you can also use to support how moderation in life is good. The knight is what Chaucer uses to show the reader what a exemplary human is with mostly all the cardinal virtues backing him. Through this we can infer that the Knight has successfully balanced all aspects of his life and still was able to achieve his goals. For example he is described as being a great knight and fighting well for his country and still being able to retain a seemingly good home life. This is represented by how he has a son and there is no mention of them feuding in any of the passages. So by looking at the Knight we see that using moderation in life can really help you live a good and well rounded one.
Moderation is important in life, because if you lose sight of what is important, you will not reach success in your life. It is important to have ambition and passion, but whatever you are passionate about is not worth surrendering your health and close relationships in your life. Obviously, you should work hard at your passion to reach the achievement you wish, but if you work all the time, you will lose relationships that as humans we rely on, conscious of this or not. Victor Frankenstein was a brilliant man who was very passionate and set on using these tools to create monster out of flesh. His ambition and talent were positive, but if he had showed moderation, and spent time with family instead of working on this monster constantly, he would have been able to see the bigger picture that even if he made this monster rise, the monster did not belong on Earth, because it did not have a companion.
ReplyDeleteIn his case and many others, moderation is necessary to pacify the victim, and help them to stop and think of the consequences of their actions. As a society, if we encourage people to lock themselves in a laboratory and work 14 hours every day on what they love, this will have egregious consequences for the world. People need to realize that even if they have good intentions, working too hard will have a negative effect on your decision-making skills. Additionally, you will not be able to maintain personal relationships, which will be used as a second opinion. If Victor had been in touch with his family and talked to them about his work, if he had not seen what he was doing, his family would have, and they could have helped him reach a better solution. If the ambition and work ethic is there, moderation is a necessary tool to help protect the health of the person who needs moderation, and society from the person who without some moderation to get some perspective, may take it too far.
Moderation keeps you in check with morality. Yet, it becomes a hindrance when it prevents your personal drive for better. The answer depends on the writer’s interpretation of success. Is success embracing individuality, or is it determined by how society runs smoothly as a whole.
ReplyDeleteRegarding individuality, yes moderation is an obstacle to success. Moderation is homeostasis. Moderation is existing rather than living. Without risk there is no reward. When individuals are too scared to take risks nothing happens. This is an issue the society in Brave New World could not understand. The members of this dystopian society were willing to sacrifice free will for stability. These people lacked emotion and empathy. When an individual in society loses emotion, they lose their humanity. They lacked the problems humans face to make them stronger. They were shielded from failure, so they could not better themselves. The majority of the population were sheep that had accepted their predestined lives. Whenever they started to wake from their brain washing, they simply downed soma to numb themselves. As a society, things had order. Nobody was dissatisfied with their jobs because they simply did not know better. People were shielded from knowledge that provoked “radical” ideas to prevent questioning. If there was ever an error in the system they either downed soma or they were sent away. Moderation is good but at what cost? John the Savage tried to instill this in the hearts of “civilized society”. Yet, they were too blind to see it. Life is not moderation. We have our highs and our lows. We laugh, and we cry. We take risks. These things are what make us humans.
Individuals as long as they are in moral right should not be deterred by moderation. In The Canterbury Tales, there are only three good characters that used moderation to stick to their morals. The knight, the parson, and the plowman displayed the seven heavenly virtues. While, others strayed in the eyes of God. Both Victor and Macbeth have great ambition yet it is misplaced. Both lose their morality. Victor toys with the laws of nature playing God. While, Macbeth kills to obtain power that is constantly out of his reach. Even with all the waters of the ocean, their hands would not be clean. When you lose yourself in blind ambition, it leads to fatal obsession.
Success is, in my opinion, when one is able to feel satisfaction when looking back at their life. Therefore, success is personally tailored to each and every person and their overall goals in life, whether they wish for a great family, a successful career, or a great legacy. Moderation is, in any case, important during the fight for one's goals, because restraint and balance are necessary to materialize them. That being said, however, nothing truly great has ever come from a passionless mind. Mahatma Gandhi, The Beatles, and Robert De Niro are figures whose greatness, like many, is rooted in their passion. Gandhi's passion for freedom led him to a restrained (although incredibly intense) peaceful fight for liberty. The Beatles revolutionized music by beginning the British Invasion and treating music as experimental. Robert De Niro breathed life into passionate and troubled characters such as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, revolutionizing acting and exploring the psyche of humanity. However, these people all exercised balance and focused their passion correctly, whether by peacefully protesting to change inequality, creating and sticking to a songwriting pattern that would reach a wide audience, or restraining while acting to create a character one could relate to and understand.
ReplyDeleteIn literature, the theme of success and moderation is touched upon incredibly often. Moderation in favor of the success of society is warned against in Brave New World, for the characters in the society have lost all ability to feel. The novel warns against the death of individualism for the sake of a larger society, and emphasizes the importance and beauty of art and passion. I believe these citizens have not found true success, because not only have they not fulfilled their dreams, but they have completely lost them. The society is too absolute: moderation is the replacement of passion.
In another novel, Frankenstein, ambition is warned against. If Victor had not been so impassioned, he could have taken a logical stance in his creation of the monster and a catastrophe could be avoided. However, the novel shows failure as a result of passion. In my opinion though, moderation would not have led Victor to contentment and success, but ambition driven in the right focus and moderation would have given him a sense of contentment. For ambition is the founder and moderation is the executor. An example very similar to this is in Macbeth, for his ambition causes him to stray horribly from what is lawful and ethical. Had he not killed King Duncan and, instead, had done what is right, it is quite likely Macbeth's passion for Scotland would have allowed him to rule his country in the future.
Lastly, in the Canterbury Tales, the takeaway is more muddled. The horrible characters have a lack of restraint and are unbalanced and intense for the wrong purposes, while the great characters seem balanced and restrained by possessing each virtue equally. However, I would argue that the good characters are not simply moderate in their lives, but that they know how to restrain each of their passions. The bad characters simply lack moderation or a focus to their ambition.
These beautiful pieces of literature all have very interesting ideas about the definition of success and how to come by it. I believe that success is a satisfaction of one's soul, and that moderation works. However, being extraordinary is rooted in ambition, passion and intensity. The passion founds the idea, and moderation helps to carry it to its peak and to keep it on the right track. To put it simply: moderation is the handmaiden of passion.
I don’t mean to be redundant, but I believe moderation is only useful in moderation. While it does help to be careful and not expend too much energy in one area, it is also not productive to be moderate to the point of minimal effort and little enthusiasm. This issue is especially prevalent in the novels Brave New World and Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteBrave New World details a society that encourages moderation to the point of suppression of self-expression and free will. This method is overall not productive or helpful to their society, and instead initiates a societal regression (if “progress” is defined as our current definition of progress-pushing the limits of society and achieving change). The characters in the Brave New World society are primed and molded to think certain thoughts and behave in specific ways. They are shunned and exiled if they express any individualism that deviates from the societal norm. This over-moderation does not allow the society to advance at all, and instead appears to regress with their primal, animal-like emphasis on pleasure derived from sensual activities. The citizens in BNW are merely shells of human beings, possessing only the most basic human characteristics, and lack any intellectual and emotional depth. Thus, I believe excess moderation, like the kind shown in BNW, is ultimately harmful and hinders achievement and success.
On the other hand, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley delivers a more cautionary message about the dangers of excess ambition. Victor Frankenstein is a prime example of how hubris and an overabundance of ambition can lead to a tragic downfall. Victor has the ambition of creating a better, more advanced human being to attain a god-like status. It is debated as to whether Victor was motivated by the allure of personal glory or by the desire to better the world, but it ultimately doesn’t matter; Victor threw himself into the project with the utmost zeal and even sacrifices his personal health and relationships to attain his goal. He certainly lacks restraint and moderation to achieve his goal and it pays off; Victor gets what he wants and creates a human being. However, the consequences of his actions, I believe, outweigh the triumph of Victor achieving his goal. Victor also seems to share this sentiment, as he expresses deep regret and sorrow at his former actions later in the novel. Because the novel is framed in such a cautionary-tale type of manner, it delivers a specific warning against the surplus of ambition. Shelley also flirts thematically with the balance of nature, and it is framed in such a way that the reason Victor suffers so greatly is because he upended the balance of nature in his creation of the monster. This ties in nicely to the themes in Macbeth, which revolves heavily around the “Great Chain of Being”. Consumed by his own ambition, as well as his wife’s, Macbeth kills King Duncan and disrupts the Great Chain of Being, upending the balance of the world. Much like Victor Frankenstein, Macbeth does not have a boundary for his ambitions, and ultimately harms and hinders himself as he is consumed by it and pays the ultimate price as a result.
Still, with that being said, I believe possessing passion and excess ambition is better than being too moderate; too much moderation and restraint does not lead to progress and instead leads to stagnancy and even regression. While Victor and Macbeth did ultimately meet untimely and tragic ends as a result of their excess ambition, they still did accomplish their goals and possess, albeit briefly, a sense of fulfillment as a result. I think having a balance of enthusiasm and control is the key to achieving success; people should be passionate and work hard, but still possess a sense of self-control, at least to the extent they are not swallowed by their own ambition and end up harming themselves.
Nowadays, being average isn’t enough. In a society that is constantly advancing, if one doesn’t work hard to surpass personal limits, they will just fall behind. The way success and achievement are defined varies among individuals, and we can see this throughout the pieces of literature our class has read this semester. I strongly believe that moderation can be an obstacle in certain situations, but it can also be advantageous when people are trying to accomplish a goal. Furthermore, a famous saying by Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American Essayist, states that without risk there is no reward. I partly agree with Emerson however, I believe that people need to have a balance of risk and moderation. This balance can keep people in check and help them stay grounded and stable, preventing poor decisions or even failure.
ReplyDeleteIt is apparent that in the novel Brave New World, the majority of people living in the dystopian society go with the flow and have no ambitions or feelings towards anything besides drugs and sex. They are programmed to be average and normal, making them content with being like everyone else. Although, there are the select few people, such as, Bernard, Helmholtz, and John who see the flaws in the society. Bernard and John are consumed by the moderation and eventually give in to it. This leads me to the conclusion that being ordinary in the BNW society is not an obstacle because the people in the society are fulfilled by being mediocre because achievement and success are accessible when remaining controlled and restrained.
In the novel Frankenstein, the protagonist Victor Frankenstein isolates himself from his family, friends, and the outside world. The reason for his confinement is to pursue his dreams of success and praise. Victor wasn’t moderate at all, in fact, he took risks by stealing corpses and creating a living creature from them. If he was ordinary, his family wouldn’t have been killed by his own creation, in which he risked it all to bring back the dead. He would have lived a normal life but may also have been miserable doing something he didn't enjoy.
Lastly, in The Canterbury Tales, we read about the archetypal knight, one who follows all his orders, wins battles, and does everything without a problem. He is ordinary but in Chaucer’s time being so was ideal. Following directions and obeying the strict laws kept you safe and successful. We can conclude that the knight had many achievements and was ranked high in the second estate. On the other hand, the squire was the complete opposite and due to his excessive lust and inability to be moderate, it is obvious that he is going nowhere in life. After analyzing these works, I have come to the conclusion that a balance of risk and moderation are the most fitting for success in life.
Although moderation doesn't necessarily speak to achievement and success as an obstacle, it is often willingly overtaken by great passion. Looking back at the long history of the greatest human achievements, moderation is not considered as part of its formula. It is the passion and extraordinary effort people take that is revered and continues to inspire us for the future. Brave New World proffers a cautionary message drawing upon a dystopia with the absence of passion, while the Canterbury Tales provides an historical account of the result of human desire. Frankenstein directly speaks to this conflict between moderation and pursuit of something great.
ReplyDeleteThe main conflict in Brave New World is moderation which is defined as the denial of the humanities and any strong emotions. The World State has successfully conditioned people to only want and do what is appropriate to their caste with the aid of soma if there is a rift in this mentality. The State claims that passion leads to instability and stability and happiness are more important than humanity. Everybody belongs to everybodyelse. However what exists is an unnatural world where there is no individual success to any extent, nonetheless a desire for success. Judging from its nature as a cautionary tale, the book seems to make a claim that it is passion and the sacrifice of moderation that makes life truly worth living. It also criticizes the overindulgence of soma which helps keep moderation. However the search of individual greatest involves a great deal of effort; striving and fighting against odds. It is John’s passion for individualism which strikes through and encourages rumination of our own society. Bernard who was unable to let go of the euphoria seems to lack the passionate desire for individualism and his cowardice seizes to make him seem an abominable figure from the perspective of the readers.
By the time the Canterbury Tales was written,, the emerging middle class and intellectuals were becoming nascent in medieval society. Chaucer recognizes these changes through the guild fraternity and characters such as the Cook and Reeve. The mercantile class gained upward mobility through passion or greed, disregarding moderation as expected by the cardinal virtues. Without the shifting views on life, estates structure would have stayed constant; it was passion that spurred great change.
The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as Victor attempts to surge beyond accepted human limits and access the secret of life. Likewise, Robert Walton attempts to surpass previous human explorations by endeavoring to reach the North Pole. Although the direction of the storytelling seems to preach about the dangers of excessive ambition, we can't deny the fact that he did accomplish what he was initially set out for. It was the obsessive desire seen early on from his childhood that made way for his academic pursuits and ability to invest his entire life into a single creation. At its core passion is the only thing that creates the narrative.
When something is perceived extraordinary, mental stability or moderation is often disregarded within historical achievement.
Alyssa M
Moderation. Many see it as an unnecessary trait, valuing aggressiveness and action. People see moderation as a weakness one that will be exploited by others. Is moderation really an "undesirable" aspect of a human?
ReplyDeleteAlthough it becomes apparent that people who have achieved share the archetype of being a confident, assertive person, an excess of this trait can lead to downfall. A classic example of this in literature is Dr. Frankenstein. While Frankenstein was an ambitious and confident person, these qualities would end up becoming the instrument to his downfall. His desire to acquire recognition and become great would lead to him creating a monster, that would end up killing his loved ones. Even when Justine was about to be executed, he could not admit to his wrong doing to save her. He chooses to to go after the monster alone, not enlisting the help of others. If he had practiced moderation, and maintained a calm collected mind, things may have not turned out the way they did.
Another example of the importance of moderation is in Brave New World. Mustapha Mond's nature led to a creation of a world where everyone conformed to his beliefs. He doesn't put into consideration other peoples desires. His nature to put himself above others and desire to rule over others led to him creating a society which could be argued to be as or even less successful then the one before. His overabundance of these traits would lead to many tragic fates, like John the Savages suicide. A little moderation in his decisions could have created a world much better than the one that ended up coming to fruition.
In the Canterbury tales, the difference between characters that practice moderation and the ones that don't become even more apparent.
Characters like the Friar, Monk, Skipper all have an excess of a certain humor, causing them to sin. Characters who don't have an excess of humors, such as the knight, live virtuous, successful lives.
The last literary example is Macbeth. Macbeth, persuaded by his wife, ends up killing the king, his friend, just to become king, in the end facing his own end because of the acts that he committed. He could not be satisfied with his position, even though he was already successful by Elizabethan standards. Him and and wife's greed for more power would lead to them losing their lives. The inability of holding back and calming down is something that can and will lead to the downfall of many.
These examples shown in these literary works make it apparent that while achieving success requires a certain amount of enthusiasm, energy, and effort, to much of this can lead to the exact opposite. Sometimes, patience, and critical thinking becomes necessary in certain situations. The inability to recognize when to back off is a flaw that must be fixed in order to achieve true success. We can learn from these characters to create a mindset of balance between the two qualities in order to meet our own goals and create a long lasting happiness.
ReplyDeleteAmbition is a component to life that drives society. It is motivation that guides humanity into obtaining success, even if one’s perception of success differs drastically from another’s. Often it is said that “everything is okay in moderation” and I question if such a statement is fully accurate. There are various extents to which this is truthful, to which I can provide evidence for, however, it sometimes takes excess to gain excess. Moderation can be necessary for achievement in certain situations, while being a hinderance in others.
Throughout the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley incorporates this obsessive behavioral fixation on the monster from Frankenstein himself. The doctor isolates himself from everyone he’s ever loved in order to devote countless hours into doing what he believes to be revolutionary scientific work. It’s this lack of restraint, lack of limitation, and over-exhaustion that plunge Dr. Frankenstein into a fickle emotional state. Some days he’s overjoyed with his progress and nearly approaching success, whereas others he’s dreadfully longing for those he loves. A longing that aches and is replaced with guilt as his family lies dead due to his own creation’s longing for love. Comfort and family seem to be aspects of life that are not worth losing. Both of these characters appear lost without such things. Could riskily creating such a scientific wonder be worth the expense and distance of everything one loves? Can demonstrating behaviors outside of moderation ultimately distance relationships, take an emotional toll, and burden oneself? Or simply, is it applicable to ask if achieving one’s idea of success is worth the emotional pain to everyone involved? It’s not only Frankenstein, but society who often allows state of mind to fall 2nd to the goal, and work. It occurs in real life families and relationships. In Brave New World however, observation of complete moderation can be made. These humans are simply existing, their mind never experiencing intense emotion, the good and the bad. They are deprived of the things that make up a truly fulfilled life, including long-lasting love. If everything is in moderation, everything is not okay, for emotions need to be felt and one must have mental lows in order to enjoy the highs. The universal idea for success is happiness, which cannot be achieved if feelings are not felt and dealt with, like in Brave New World, or if an individual’s personal idea of success overshadows the importance of this one.
In less pressing settings. Small goals can be achieved in moderation. For example, one may wish to obtain or sustain a healthy diet and eat unhealthy meals. All with the intention of one’s overall well- being. There are extents to which moderation is applicable and makes sense in order to gain success, however the argument truly exists as to where such distinctions can be made between what is moderate and what is not, or if a success is truly a success through everyone’s eyes. This is why I deem moderation to be important for obtaining goals, but can also be hurtful.
Moderation has often been considered a counterpart to success. Often said, its existence hinders the minds of the innovative and limit success. However, moderation has played a key role in maintaining balance and allowing true success to prevail. Throughout a countless array of literature, passion and drive have counterintuitive effects, leading to downfalls. Specifically, in Brave New World, Canterbury Tales, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Frankenstein, the lack of moderation turns the wheel of failure while success remains a far-away illusion.
ReplyDeleteBrave New World’s plot encompasses a dystopian society where free thought no longer exists, and individualism occurs in rare, fleeting moments. Based on my perspective, this futuristic scenario epitomizes the downfall of mankind. Rather than applying moderation and clearly contemplating their decisions, the World Organization rashly decides to produce genetically modified humanoids. The end result, as stated, leads to shells of humans which fail to produce any meaning in life. Out of fear for the past wars, the government has neglected and ignored the will of the people and bulldozes straight through to a rushed solution. The majority of the public cannot even object to the subjecting treatment from the government. If anything, this situation is not a success but rather constitutes as an obvious failure.
In addition to governmental shortcomings, Canterbury Tales describes the sins of those who rush. Within the stories, Geoffroy Chaucer uses the Knight to exemplify the positive aspects of humankind, and I also believe that success as a human involves following in the Knights’ footsteps. The Knights’ actions consist of pacing and moderation rather than constant ferocity. Compared to his father, the Squire’s drive for sex and pride demonstrate that moderation is a necessity in order to prevent sinful behavior. Furthermore, such characters like the Miller and the Doctor display such great levels of avarice without restraint and control. But, if such systems were enacted, then the ideal human being could possibly be achieved.
Moreover, Macbeth's personal tale shows the negative effects of hasty rushing. Success in this case would be Hamlet’s coronation and longevity as a king. However, contrary to the ideal goal, Macbeth gets slain by MacDuff due to his own murder against King Duncan. Even though the witches prophesized that Hamlet would inherit the throne no matter what he did, he chooses to hasten the result to taking matters into his own hands. The egregious error of regicide ironically leads to his own demise. By taking a step back and applying moderation, Macbeth would still be king and more importantly, still live. His own actions turned around and backfired.
Lastly, Victor Frankenstein’s tragic story exemplifies the dangers of pure passion. The infamous tale of Frankenstein’s shut-in behavior to complete the monster is widely known. Because of his burning drive, he ignores all other factors in his life resulting in a weaker relationship to his friends and family. If he had just considered moderation to his work, he could have maintained or repaired his social networks. In addition, if Frankenstein had truly fathomed the idea of creating a whole new being, he might have understood the repercussions and ended the project before losing his whole livelihood.
Overall, passion and moderation must both be applied equally and strategically. If one outweighs the other, chaos and anarchy will ensue. From Brave New World’s mistake in making molds of humans to Canterbury Tales’ error of greed, moderation is needed for characters of all literature.
In general, moderation is an obstacle to success and achievement because those who try to something to pursue because society pushes for the balance in a person to achieve goals, to be the perfect person, and to be successful. This may appear impossible to the average person since a single human being could not single-handedly be all of these things, yet it seems that being successful relies on having a balance of these “humors” and moderation. Extraordinary abilities and excessiveness of feelings or a personality in a person is seen as peculiar and leads to a destruction of the self and failure. Through the works of Brave New World, Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein, and Macbeth moderation is what should be strived for and excessive behaviors and passionate feelings ultimately lead to an imbalance and destruction.
ReplyDeleteI believe that moderation is both an obstacle and an advantage to achievement and success. This is because in certain situations moderation is beneficial to success and in others it is not. I would classify success as achieving a goal or objective which can be reached with and without exercising moderation. Moderation is displayed in some books such as Brave New World moderation is shown as being advantageous as well as an obstacle. In Frankenstein, Victor does not display moderation which is shown as an obstacle because he is overly passionate about creating the monster. This shows how moderation can either have a positive or negative effect in certain situations.
ReplyDeleteIn Brave New World, the citizens of the society are moderated by Mustapha Mond. Mustapha Mond controls everyone in the society and everyone is required to follow a strict schedule depending on their caste in society. People are assigned to a particular role starting from a very young age and are expected to perform a certain job in order to maintain stability in the society. Some children are also trained to dislike certain items such as books in order to keep the society balanced and moderated without any outside persuasions. The society cannot develop and grow because the whole society is being controlled and remaining balanced, so there won't be any new discoveries in the society.
In other books such as Frankenstein, Victor is extremely passionate about the development of the monster and he gets carried away. He creates the monster without thinking of the consequences and abandons it directly after its creation. This causes terrible ramifications because Victor’s family is targeted and killed by the monster due to the way Victor treated it. If Victor displayed moderation and was not overly passionate about the creation of the monster, then there may have been a decline in the consequences because Victor would have thought about his decision of abandoning and creating the monster.
The moderation of a person and their choices is necessary in order to maintain a life that is not only simple but safe. This is a true statement that many can easily agree with and can also relate with on a personal basis. However, when looking in terms of the amount of success and achievements a single person earns, does moderating themselves actually help them reach their maximum potential? When looking on the concept of if moderation is an obstacle that prevents success, the more thorough way of looking at this question is what type of success a person wants to achieve. For most people, the less complex, the better one’s life is due to the less stress and the mind being further calmed. Yet, some that have higher goals to meet and accomplish, moderating themselves does not even phase through their mind. So, for me, looking at success as more of an extravagant accomplishment that had to be earned through lots of trials and errors, I believe moderation is an obstacle to obtaining this success.
ReplyDeleteIn literature, this conflict between moderation and success is seen quite frequently. One vivid example of going up and above moderation to achieve success is displayed by Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. In this novel, Victor Frankenstein, a very diligent scientist, works on an experiment that has not only took him a long time to complete, but also completely isolated him from his friends and family. When he finished his creation, a yellow-skinned, eight-foot monster, he became so afraid of what he had just done that he left urgently from his workspace. Looking at the result of Frankenstein’s experiment, one can say that his over-ambition and zealousness in completing this task overwhelmed and destroyed his relationships with his loved ones. However, the truth is, although Frankenstein had to make sacrifices in order to complete his goal of finishing the creature, the success of what he just accomplished is absolutely astonishing when someone stops to admire the brilliance of his creation. If moderation restrained his desire to complete this task, the potential in which Frankenstein is capable of would be completely obliterated. To waste such talent just to remain balanced in life, that goes against all adventurous and talented minds in this world. Many people may include the detail that the monster Frankenstein unleashed onto the world killed many lives. This is true but that is not in fault to Frankenstein’s lack of moderation. The thing that ended up giving Frankenstein so much grief and hopelessness was not his burning ambition to finish the creation, but the disastrous decisions he made afterwards. If Frankenstein only gave the monster a soul to love it once the monster was born, the despondency of the monster could have been destroyed which in result would have saved innocent lives.
Another piece of literature that displays how moderation is an obstacle to success is shown in the character John the Savage in Brave New World. John the Savage is a character that has been thrown into a setting which is extremely disparate from the “normal” world in which he was grown up in.
The society in Brave new world created by Aldous Huxley is one where moderation is the only thing the citizens know it is seeped into their very bones. Their Moto is “everyone belongs to everyone else” and there is no sense of individuality because all essences are erased. People fear difference and love is seen as recreational with no true feelings involved, and generality is what they thrive on and find success in social norms. The “savages” on the outskirts of the town seen as wild and crazy beings who are viewed as animals who live differently by loving and having personalities and mourning death. John the savage born to a citizen of the new only knows the ways of the savage and feels deeply. John views death as a real thing and tries to find love with lenina but finds that the citizens don’t have true feelings. He sees the people and realizes they are all robots of the world controllers, he tries to bring change through his passion and feelings but this ultimately destroys him. John realizes the people will never change and the moderate people who have no care or feelings in the matter over John will view him as a savage. This feeling of never fitting in was a he obstacle for John that he never over came because he never found success. In this society people must have moderation to fit in, the overtly passionate and extraordinary are the ones who end up without success and in this case joins ability to change the views of the city state.
ReplyDeleteModeration is not found in the characters in Chaucer's Canterbury tales. The pilgrimage in which the characters; the nun, the squire, and the friar is an atonement for their many sins and passionate secrets and obsessions. To be a respected person people had to have the seven virtues to be balanced. For example the nun who has an obsession with becoming the second estate or a noble lady when she is supposed to have compassionate and care for others is obsessed with herself, she is not a successful nun who caters to the poor but a faulty nun. Chaucer highlights her greed and lays blame on the clergy for allowing her to continue her work as a nun. Her
Part 2: This new setting he finds himself in does not value the human morals that John is used to. Also in this “new world”,the system that controls all of the nations is organized into a very moderated type of society. Everyone is brainwashed into knowing and not knowing certain things. For John, being thrown in a world so contrasting from his own began to irritate him. His irritation increased so much that at last he had enough and began to preach the wrongs of this new society to the citizens that lived there. Due to the extreme moderation in which these citizens are placed under, the remarks that John explains in his speech was barely understood by them. This elucidates the domination and complete control moderation has on people. If this new society John was placed in did not have this type of moderation implanted in it, the ideas John spoke about would have gone through to the people of this society and could have been introduced to foreign ideas, something that helps develop the minds of people everywhere.
ReplyDeleteexcess avarice is what leads her to tip the balance towards the seven deadly sins The squire a hot and lecherous boy who has the potential to be a moderate noble like his father has hidden passions for women. If he continues to behave in this way it will destroy his reputation as a night and he will be characterized as a terrible night who is not honorable, self less and battle ready but will only be focused on the battle against women not armies. The friar is an extreme example of a very sinful man who possesses most all the seven sins and who does not possess moderation. Te flair going against social norms as a friar and being sinful and gaining money through dubious means. Those with out moderation are not people of moral intentions and having these sins set them back from completing there goals as cleverly members or nobles. Moderation is needed to fit in and be successful in the cusp of the renaissance. Because these clergy members have to face the obstacle of fitting in and being like the others they are not successful
ReplyDeleteFrankenstein already does not fit into the social mold of a normal scientist and is met by the hurtle early on when he is characterized as the monsters creator. By reading old science books and being confronted by his father to fit furthers his endeavor. Blinded by his need to create life form death Frankenstein is shunned by his teachers because they see his scary passion for creating a human being from dead bodies.Frankenstein believes that once he creates this monster he will be praised for what he has done and be accepted by society. Once he creates this monster Frankenstein realizes that not only does he not possess moderation but his creature also, in which Frankenstein created defying natures rules. Frankensteins glory of his science creation that he dedicated his health to is cut short by his realization the consequences from what he thirsted to do. He realizes his a mistake and Frankenstein cowers away leaving his monster to flee. Frankenstein try’s to reclaim success by dedicating his life trying to fix what he messed up in the great chain of being. Frankenstein dies before he can accomplish this never winning what he wanted so badly the death of his monster. His inability to gain a name for himself in the science world for doing good was truncated by the fact he couldn’t be a normal scientist and instead chose to mess with mother nature. Like the rest Frankenstein does not achieve success because of social norms.
Success is deeply personal and individual. The definition of success is specific to each person; many define it as achieving fame or wealth, while others may deem it as growth, character, or satisfaction. While many believe to practice moderation in all things, others believe that success, or the unordinary, can only be reached if people perform in excess of energy, effort, and ambition. In Frankenstein, Victor practices excessive ambition as he dedicates his life to his creation to attain his personal idea of success. Victor seeks glory and fame, leaving his family and wealth behind for, as he believes, a greater purpose. The ending conflict of the deaths of those around can be seen as a result of excess of ambition. Mary Shelley elucidates the dangers of pursuing excellence through the means of excess effort, energy, and ambition. While the practice of extreme effort can be seen to result in many devastating failures, such as the deaths of Victor’s family, it is also results in impactful innovation. Chaucer’s excessive ambition creates the Canterbury Tales in an effort to reform the Medieval Society and as a result of his extreme effort, 600 years later, the piece is considered one of the most impactful literature pieces. Moderation can be seen as a safe passage in order to avoid the great failures that extreme effort may bring, but moderate effort can only bring moderate results. While extremism is a high risk in comparison to moderation, it is only through extremism that innovation and impact occurs.
ReplyDeleteEverythig in moderation......????
ReplyDeleteMany say that the achievement for success only comes through the abandonment of moderation. I quote many teachers and highly regarded adults that say the only way to get into a college is to discard the path of moderation in each subject and to pick one thing to invest all our time and excel in. This, as many claim, is what colleges want now in days as “the well-rounded person” is no longer as highly valued in process of applying to colleges. In perspective, I think that moderation is not an obstacle for success and instead paves the way for acceleration as evidenced in Brave New World. Success in Brave new world is not to be different in any way, people strive to just be part of the machine of society and live an easy life free of thought. Still in this world dominated by moderation, those who are passionate rise above. Helmholtz and John the savage both manage to recognize there is something more to the world and use their higher level of thinking to attempt to change it. This novel moderation is not an obstacle but a way for those to fuel there passion and allow for those truly different to stand out. Without moderation the true genius of Helmholtz's writing would have been smothered by society. The Night from Canterbury Tales is another example in which moderation proves not to be an obstacle to success, but rather a springboard that makes him an exemplum of his estate. Success in this time period is for one to have balance in the four humors and to not be to sanguine, melancholic, chloric, or phlegmatic. Doctors would make their diagnoses on these humors and if one was not balanced then medical procedures would be taken to cure them. The Knight is humble, not to rich, religious, and devoted. He proves himself to be of balanced mind and spirit as well as one of the few good characters in Chaucer's story. He contrasts with the Squire who excels in one thing, that being the bedroom. The Squire spends all his energy in that one area and therefore neglects his duties of one day being a good knight to the king. If he had more moderation in his life and put some effort into his duties, then he might have been able to succeed at his profession which it is apparent is going to be his downfall. Canterbury Tales is a testament to the public to call them out for there devotion to things other than what Chaucer's characters are supposed to be. He calls them to take there energy away from evil deeds and calls them back to devote their time to becoming better people. Frankenstien throws himself into his ambition of creating new and perfect life. This is ultimelty what drives him into madness, secultion, and the death of everythign he loves. His hellish ambition turns into a living breathing monster that punishes Frankenstein for rash actions that moderation had no effect on. What was supposed to be Frankenstein’s success then becomes what kills him as soon as moderation was abandoned in his work. Therefore if we abandon moderation we abandon the thing that keeps us a good person and paves the way for healthy achieves
Too much of one thing is harmful just like too little of anything is harmful, which is why balnce in life, or moderation is a good habit to have. Sometimes moderation could prevent one from reaching their goals, or full potential such as in Brave New World, but I believe it just depends on the case for when moderation harmful, and when it is not. In Brave New World, Mustapha Mond had moderated society to an extent where individuals were not truly living life. Mond is trying to be an absolute ruler and by practicing absolute rule he causes individuals to become the same in terms of personality, and uniqueness. In the BNW society their lives are viewed as normal, because society has not been shown to another way of government, and life. Moderation in our view has damaged the society of BNW, but for them it is a normal society. The people of the society use soma as an escape for whenever emotions have to be dealt with, because moderation has removed all obstacles from society. Moderation ultimately caused society to not advance, moderation held this socity from advancing.
ReplyDeleteIn Frankenstein Victor experiences ambition to a point where he is forgetting everything but creating the monster. Victor is shown to have a lack of moderation over his ambition, which in the end cause him to create his monster. While ambition is a good thing, ambition became harmful to Victor, causing him to become ill, and in a nervous state. In Frankenstein moderation, could have possibly made Victor avoid his ill state, and asides from that could have prevented the harm caused by the monster. Because of Victors ambition he was hesistant to creating a second creation for the monster to be able to fit in with someone. Victors ambition obver moderation cause pain internally to the monster, and Victor. Ultimately in Frankenstein if moderation were shown by Victor in his ambition then there would be more good then harm. Moderation could have been saving Victor, but ambition took him over.
kiana rad