Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

Seeing inside Stephen's mind as he writes in a stream of consciousness allows for one to understand why he acts different ways.
-Fear: As with a fear of hell, stephen begins praying
-Past Experiences: "do you kiss your mother?" "do you love your mother?"
-Want to be true to himself
-love
-curiousity
-confusion

Playboy of the Western World

Why did Christy act the way he did? He seemed to lie about who he was and what he did. As it turns out, his 'lie' was an exaggeration, played up with the help and encouragement around him.

Could it be that people tend to make expectations of others based on first impressions? If this is true, then it could explain why Christy exaggerated his story. He could have been trying to live up to the expectations of the town, and wanting to impress them.

Also, the people of the small town rarely encountered travelers. There is the chance that they have gotten bored of their town and usual day-to-day occurrences. When a mysterious, young man happened upon them, they may have fantasized about who he was, and they probably made his story more extravagant than it was in reality. For Pegeen, the chance of falling in love instead of being in an arranged marriage sounded exciting and fantastic.

Christy's story sounded gruesome and frightening; why would anyone want to be around such a person, or even marry him? It could be that people can make excuses, and in fantasy and delusion, change bad qualities into good ones. He killed his da?!?--- He must be strong and brave! ---He must have had good reason; He's probably been through a lot! ---Poor Christy!

The people quickly turned on Christy when his tale turned out to be exaggerated and his dad not truly dead. Though he may not be as much of a criminal, his tale wasn't as exciting, and he wasn't as brave and not very honest. The people's impression was wrong, and they felt as if they had been lied to. Also, their relief from their boring day-to-day life wasn't as fantastic as they had hoped, or as it had been made out to be.

King Lear

What influences Lear and the people around him to do what they do? Some possibilities could be the images of authority and want for love. Power can also play a role in why they act in certain ways. Could Desperation also play a role?

• Authority
• people want to serve Lear (Kent and Oswald) and want him to reward them for their servitude. in a similar way, his daughters profess their love for him, wanting to please him and earn some of his land.
• Love
• Lear's daughter profess their love for him in order to gain something from him.
• Cordilia truly loves her father, and thus, chooses not to say it elegantly because she believes love is more than just words. However, her father does not understand this and thinks she does not love him and sends her away.
• Edmund likes both Regan and Goneril and decides he will be with whichever one does not die.
• Power
• Many people strive for power, and when they are in the position of power, they can abuse it.
• Lear goes crazy when he realizes he is loosing his power.
• Others try to undermine him for his power
• Desperation
• In Lear's desperation and loss of his kingdom, he goes mad, and acts erractically.

First posting and a half.

The reason for which I have picked my question is that I am very interested in the interactions of people. Why do people act the way they do? How does it differ from when they are alone to when they are in a group? Around authority? It may be possible to gather some answers from literature.

Currently, I am taking a sociology class in which some of these ideas are addressed. The main focus of sociology is how people interact in a group. From time to time, I can include the ideas from my sociology class into my Big Question.

• Some current ideas: Authority, fear from it/ of it, wanting to be included, information surrounding them has suggested that they should act a certain way (ie. media).
  

Oedipus

Fate? --he ended up committing the act because he attempted to avoid it based off of his own knowledge

Guilt? --he ridiculed himself after finding out what he had done

Denial or ignorance? --he wanted to catch the person who killed Liaus, and said condemning things about him, not knowing that it was he who committed the crime