The story of Narcissus is a great lesson embedded within a tragedy. We all know that Narcissus was a handsome young man with whom every girl he met fell in love with. One of these young women was Echo, a nymph named Echo. Echo had been doomed to forever repeat the words of others, and when trying to have a conversation with Narcissus, he thinks her to be mocking him and sends her away. She eventually deteriorates so that the only part of her that is left is her voice (fable for the creation of echo). Narcissus was so vain that when he saw his reflection in a pond, he fell in love with himself. He did not eat, sleep, or interact with any other people, he simply stayed at the side of the pond, staring at his own reflection. Finally, he died, and in his place there were some lovely yellow flowers (which can be seen on the left) which were called Narcissus after him. This story is a clear warning against vanity, which was not appreciated in the ancient Greek civilization.
One cannot help but wonder what might have happened had Narcissus not been so vain. Perhaps if he'd realized that he was mortal and had his faults, he might not have died in the tragic way that he did. Had he fallen in love for an ugly girl, he may have lived happily for the rest of his days, and the moral of the story would have been the old cliche 'do not judge a book by its cover', which again warns against vanity.
Do you think that Narcissus deserved the death he got? Do you think he 'had it coming'? Why or why not? What decides what is a fair death of certain people?
I can understand why Narcissus was frustrated with Echo, we all get frustrated when our siblings would repeat everything we say to annoy us. It is similar to the situation with Echo. It was not her fault that she repeated everything and there was no possible way for her to tell him so that he could understand. So Narcissus did have a good reason for leaving her. It was inevitable that one day he would see his reflection and fall in love with himself. Poor Narcissus was cursed, because he could not help falling in love with his reflection but i think the story was created to show people about the root of narcissistic people. Because of his curse he did 'have it coming' but real narcissistic people can control their love for themselves. He had a horrible death and no one came to snap him out of his trance. Which to me translates to, if you know a person well and they are narcissistic they should be gently told about this issue because they are not fun to be around. As for fair deaths in general i think if someone really does wrong even when they knew what they were doing was wrong then they deserve death. For example if someone takes the life of another person then they should be killed too. But as we see frequently in the Greek myths people get eternally punished in horrible ways. For example Prometheus, Tantalus,and Sisyphus. A lot of the myths are to teach us valuable lessons so that we take something away from them.
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ReplyDeleteNarcissus absolutely deserved the death that he received. His punishment, or his death, can be viewed as the "echo" of his actions. Had he not been vain enough to interpret Echo's words as mockery, she would not have deteriorated. Had he not been so vain as to fall in love with himself, then perhaps his eventually death would not have occurred. Although the story obviously describes Narcissus as a very vain character, and this fact makes the reader unable to relate to him (hopefully), the story definitely is more interesting the way the myth was written. If the story did follow the typical pattern for the lesson of vanity, the world would have shrugged the story off as just another story about 'do not judge a book by its cover'. The death of certain people is determined by there own actions, and is not anyone's responsibility besides their own. In general, death is not fair, so a fair death is a lot to be asking for anyone. Although, sometimes when a court decides on a sentence to death, citizens believe that to be a fair judge of somebody's death. But really, it wasn't the actions of the court that planted the original cause of the death; it was the criminal who first got himself into the situation where he would be in court looking at a life sentence or death penalty. Yes, Narcissus did deserve the death he had coming, but it is still hard not to feel sorry for the guy who is so vain that he would die staring at a reflection of himself.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Narcissus did have his punishment coming. His only thoughts were with himself. Life is about focusing on the beautiful things, not necessarily focusing on yourself. Although you are supposed to believe in your inner and outer beauty, having too much confidence in yourself and thinking you can survive on your own is just not logical. Maybe this is what the gods were trying to get across to the civilians: surviving depends on relationships with others and partially relying on others. So in a way, Narcissus did have his punishment coming. Did he deserve to die, though? Well the gods needed someone to help them get this point across to everyone. Narcissus just seemed like the perfect example. I think that peoples' choices and their own personal priorities and ideas determine who deserves punishment: more specifically, premature death.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Narcissus had his death coming because he was the sole cause of his death, and he could have prevented it at any second. He deserved his death because not only did he because it, it was over a selfish reason and did not benefit any, not even himself. Narcissus did not die to save others, old age, disease or any acceptable reason. His own vanity killed him. He started at a reflection of himself without moving, eating, drinking, he just sat there. Eventually he starved to death over his reflection. A fair death is determined by whether the person who died, if they died for a honorable or inevitable cause that is fine, but if they died for a selfish cause that only caused harm, that is not okay.
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