Tragedy

The genre of tragedy is used by many authors, new or old, to create a text that is appealing to audiences and to keep them hooked, wanting to read further. In Aristotle’s Poetics, he explains that people enjoy watching or reading about tragedy because they feel pleasure, not because they want to experience the exact emotions of which the character is but because the pleasure they experience is atheistic. This is called catharsis. Catharsis is a range of emotions felt by someone, it’s what keeps the reader hooked. A common theme in many tragedies is the use of a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a character that makes a decision that ultimately leads to their own destruction, as defined by Aristotle.

This is shown in a film called Gattaca, directed by Andrew Niccol. This is a dystopian film, set in the future where people favor artificially creating children, rather than conceiving them naturally. If you are a person who is naturally conceived in this time then you are looked down on and considered ‘invalid. This then leads to a society who are obsessed with perfection. The main character Vincent is one of these unlucky people who was naturally conceived meaning that he is an invalid person in this society. Vincent has a dream ever since being a small child of being an astronaut but because of his genetic makeup the only job that he is good enough at is cleaning. This is when he meets a man called Jerome who is wheelchair bound from a car accident. Jerome is a classic example of a tragic hero. He like many others in this time was artificially created so he is considered a ‘valid’ human. Jerome was created with the intent that he would be an athlete, he was given all of the characteristics in order for him to succeed at his career as an athlete. In one of Jerome’s swimming races that he had been training for he came 2nd place. Many people would be happy with this second place but Jerome was not happy at all. This is because of the excessive pride that he has in himself. Jerome thinks that he automatically should win this race just because of his genetic makeup. He believes that he shouldn’t have to train or try to hard to win this race it should just happen because of who he is. This is a typical sign of a tragic hero as tragic heroes typically have excessive amounts of pride in themselves. This moment when

The play King Lear, written by Shakespeare is also a perfect example of a tragedy. King Lear is a story about a king who was getting too old to run his kingdom so he decided the time was right to divide his kingdom between his girls. King Lear is a tragic hero, he, like Jerome, had a hamartia of having to much pride in himself. Because of this excess pride, King Lear decides to ask his three daughters to exclaim their love for him and he would divide the Kingdom up depending on how much each daughter says that they love him. Lear’s excess pride is slightly different to Jerome’s as Jerome was fixated on winning and had pride in himself because he is genetically ‘perfect’ whereas Lear has pride in himself in the way a that a king does. He has excess pride in himself because in his eyes he thinks that everyone should automatically bow down to him and respect him in ways that are unreasonable considering he hasn’t done anything to gain this respect. Cordelia, one of King Lear’s daughters exclaims that she refuses to play his game of ‘who loves me most’ and that “I love your majesty according to thy bond, nor more, nor less.” Because of Lear’s excess, this angers him because he believes that she should do what is asked of her and she should exaggerate her love for him. Following Cordelia’s comment about not going along with King Lear, he gets mad and expel’s her from the kingdom. Lear shows that he has great pride in himself while going this as he states “come not between the dragon and his wrath.” In this sentence, Lear is referring himself to a dragon, which are very powerful, strong animals that have a lot of power.  This infers that Lear, himself is a powerful, strong man that holds a lot of power when in reality he is just a human being that sits on a high horse due to his status. When using the genre of tragedy one of the 5  characteristics according to Aristotle that a character must have in order to fulfill the tragic hero role is to have a hamartia. This is used so the audience realizes that a character is a realistic person and they make mistakes. Usually, when this hamartia is introduced the audience doesn’t recognize this, they often see the character as being obnoxious. In this case, when the audience sees King Lear with his excessive pride make the decision to exclaim his daughter from the kingdom they feel great anger towards him. He is so blinded by the pride he has in himself that he doesn’t see that Cordelia is the only genuine, loving child out of the three of them. In traditional tragic hero stories, the characters hamartia leads to them making a decision that will lead to their own fate. In this case, Lear kicks Cordelia out of the kingdom and her two sisters are left to take over it. Lears two daughters eventually exclude him from the kingdom and leave him out in the cold in a storm. King Lear then realizes that his actions have to lead to the way he is being treated by his daughters. It’s at this point in the story that the audience realizes that he is just a person and just like everyone he makes mistakes in life as well. 

The movie Gladiator is another great example of 

The genre tragedy is used by many authors to create texts that have drama and keep the audience hooked in the story, wanting to read on. Tragedy creates a catharsis of emotions for the audience which is what keeps them hooked. Catharsis is a range of emotions felt by someone. 

Convention character the tragic hero

scene 1
Slave collection – fall from authority, he is below the animals in the chain of being. He used to be higher up

• long shot showing all the people around the cart and Maximus under the animals
• “dont die, they will feed you to the lions. They are worth more than us”

Scene 2 –
fall from authority, he is forced to do what the emperor commands him to do whereas he used to do the commanding.

Talk about Maximus’ role as a tragic hero in a tragedy.. what is a tragedy. 
Melody and spectacle Aristotle not thinking that they are the most important aspect of it but they help out understanding.

The film Gladiator by Ridley Scott is an action film that is set in the Roman times about powerful general, Maximus that falls from his authority due to an event that leaves him forced to be a common gladiator. This film is an obvious tragedy. As defined by Aristotle a tragedy as it contains a series of incidents that arouse pity and fear to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions. To do so the film must have a change in a characters fortune from happiness to misery which must be bought on by their own actions. This allows the audience to feel as though the character had it coming to them and that they bought it upon themselves but when the character meets the fate larger than what they deserved then the audience starts to feel pity and sorry for them which brings about the catharsis of emotions Aristotle spoke about in his poetics.

Throughout this film it is apparent that the main character, Maximus is defined as a tragic hero.  According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a character that falls from his or hers authority due to a judgment error made by themselves which eventually leads to them facing a fate which is far more than what they deserve. Aristotle wrote about how a tragic hero must uphold 5 different characteristics, these characteristics are the character must have a hamartia (a flaw) in this case Maximus’ flaw is that he is very strong headed and will not go against his morals even when it means that he is putting his family in danger. The second characteristic is the character must have an excessive amount of pride. Maximus takes pride in how he is a ‘good’ person as he will never go against his morals. The third one is a reversal of fate that the character experiences, this is bought about because of their own actions in this case the mistake that Maximus made was having to much pride in his morals even when it puts his family in danger. The reversal of fortune then happened when his family was killed and he was then forced to become a slave for the emperors and forced to fight to their death for the entertainment of the Roman Empire.   In this scene where Maximus has come back to see that his family has been killed it shows the 5th characteristic which is a fate worse than what he deserves. At this moment the audience feels pity and is scared for Maximus because he did not deserve this fate as he is a good man that sticks to his morals but made the mistake of being too strong headed which ultimately lead to this fate. The fourth trait is when the character discovers his fate that he is having to live with has been bought about because of his own actions.

One of the scenes that shows Maximus as a tragic hero is just after his reversal of fortune when he is taken by the slave collectors from his families grave with the intentions that he will become a common gladiator. Slave collectors have strapped Maximus down onto a cart so he cannot move, there is a cage of animals above him as well as animals roaming on and around him, he is covered in blood from his wound.

The first time you see this is when Maximus is waking up seeing a range of flashes in his mind as he wakes. When he comes to, a medium, level-eyed shot is used to show a monkey that is chained to the side of the cart, on top of Maximus’ lap. Diagetic screeching sounds can be heard coming from the monkey. This shot shows the audience that Maximus has been stripped of all his rights and sense of belonging and he is being treated like the animals. He, like the monkey is also chained up to the cart, stopping him from getting away and he is placed on the cart with the animals cages above him. The slave collectors have more respect for these animals than what they have for him. The director has purposely placed the animals on top of Maximus to symbolize the chain of being and how Maximus has now fallen to the lowest point in his life. The chain of being was used in this time of life to form a hierarchical structure of all living things. Before this point in the movie, Maximus was quite high up in the chain of being as he was a general and the emperor had asked Maximus to replace him when he dies. This scene shows the audience that Maximus has fallen from his authority and is now treated less than an animal. This is evidence is supported by some shots that are from Maximus’ perspective. Maximus is looking around while he is still strapped to the cart. These perspective shots show men walking beside him carrying large sticks. A diegetic roar can be heard in the background which is when the camera pans slightly to the right which is where a lion can be seen in a cage beside him. At this point the director has used a medium shot from bird’s eye view of Maximus’ face looking up, this then flicks to an eye-level shot of a man also sitting on the cart. This man the says “don’t die, they will feed you to the lions. They are worth more than we are.”  The director used this quote to ensure that the audience knows that Maximus has really fallen from his authority and is now worth less than the animals in the chain of being. This quote brings a catharsis of emotion to the audience as they feel sorry for Maximus, as he came from having a good life, a family and being a highly respected general to being abducted and stripped off his rights. Although the audience may believe Maximus had this coming to him some people may feel that this fate is more than what he deserved as he made a simple mistake due to his excessive pride. Ridley Scott, the director of the gladiator has given Maximus a fate more than what he deserved to illustrate to the audience that Maximus is a perfect example of a tragic hero and he matches the 5 characteristics in Aristotle’s definition of one.

The next time we see this theme of Maximus falling from authority and being treated less than an animal is in one of the fight scenes. During this scene, there is a close shot that shows Maximus waiting for the guards to open the gates for him into the arena. This close up shot shows Maximus standing in the dark with light shining through onto his face and he is looking concerned as he is about to go into battle. Later on in the scene, a medium shot is used to show Maximus get knocked down onto the ground by his opponent when he hits the ground, it opens up and a tiger can be seen arising from this hole in the ground. This tiger symbolizes how Maximus has fallen from his authority and is treated the same or less than the animals. The tiger is chained up just like how Maximus was chained to the cart in the first scene when he was taken from his family and he is kept under the Colosseum in a cage. Maximus was also kept under the Colosseum in the dark waiting for his fights and he was also kept under the animals, meaning the people respect the animals more than Maximus.  This scene is very different from what we do for entertainment today. It has gone from people being forced to fight for their lives for entertainment now to people forcing animals to do so for entertainment. This is because in our day and age there isn’t as such a chain of being that people rule their lives by but people now view the animals as being lower ranked than all humans. Many people today frown upon using people and animals for battle for the entertainment of humans as when this happens you are completely stripping the being of all of their rights and sense of belonging and it is also seen as unethical. This practice is becoming less and less common.

These techniques have been used throughout the scene of the film Gladiator to portray Maximus as a tragic hero. One of the 5 characteristics that aresotole mentions to be a tragic hero is the character must meet a fate more than what they deserved. This happen to Maximus when his family was killed and he was abducted to be a slave gladiator.

King Lear 

Using my knowledge of Aristotelian tragic hero it reveals a lot about Shakespeare’s intentions when writing this play.

King Lear is a play written by Shakespeare about a King and his Kingdom. This play is a pure example of a tragedy. Tragedy was a popular genre for ancient Greek literature, it was used to create an interest or pleasure in reading them.  “A tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; and in appropriate and pleasurable language;… In dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents, arousing pity and fear wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions” – Aristotle. According to Aristotle people enjoy watching tragedy because people feel pleasure when reading tragic literature not because they want to experience the exact same emotions as the characters but because the pleasure they have is aesthetic. He believes that tragic literature arouses specific emotions such as pity and fear, this brings out a healthy and pleasurable experience called catharsis. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses many different techniques to illustrate the tragedy.

A tragic hero as defined by Aristotle is a character in a story who makes a judgment error that leads to their own destruction.  Aristotle stated that “a man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” An Aristotelian hero should be morally the same as general people in order for the audience to establish a relationship with them and identify themselves with the character. A crucial part of any tragedy is the ability for the audience to feel pity for the character, this stems from the character being morally the same as a normal person. This is an important part of any tragedy because if the character was perfect then the audience would feel as though the fate given to them was completely unreasonable or they wouldn’t care because of the superiority of the character. The same goes if it was the other way around. If the character was a really bad person then as the audience we would feel like the character had what was coming to them and that they deserved the fate. It is important for a hero to have a moral that is somewhere in between these two extremes. Typically the tragic hero dies after they realize what a terrible mistake they have made in the past. According to Aristotle, the hero must accept their death with honor.

In order to be a tragic hero, Aristotle came up with 5 characteristics that he believed a character must have in order for them to be a tragic hero. These characteristics are…

In King Lear, written by Shakespeare the main character King Lear fits the 1st characteristic as he has a hamartia. King Lear’s hamartia first becomes obvious in act 1, scene 1 when the King asks his three daughters to exclaim their love for him and he would divide the kingdom up depending on how much each daughter loved him. The first two daughters went on to tell Lear exactly what he wanted to hear, lying through their teeth that they loved him to undescribable lengths in order to gain wealth of the Kingdom. When his third daughter Cordelia didn’t want to play his game of who loves him most he got very defensive.   She stated that
” I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less”
Meaning that she loved him as a father and loved him as much as a daughter should love her father, not on material based items. Lear’s error of judgment is that he was blinded by the amount of pride and praise his first two daughters gave him and when his third daughter who truly loved him did not tell him what he wanted to hear he quickly become very offended by this. This also shows part of the 4th characteristic of showing excessive amounts of pride. The king uses the quote “come not between the dragon and his wrath”  to describe how furious he was by Cordelia saying such things. King Lear refers himself to a dragon as a dragon is a powerful creature that is dominant in the food chain. He has such pride in himself and believes that he is at the top of the food chain, he is invincible and everyone should always give him the respect he thinks he deserves. Lear goes on to banishing his daughter from the kingdom and telling her that he hopes that she will never have children.  Shakespeare has purposely given King lear this error of judgment because of his knowledge of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. It also angers some of the audience that he has banished his daughter and used such harsh words to her just because he is so blinded by the pride he has in himself. This is evidence of the fourth characteristic from Aristotle’s poetics saying that a tragic hero must have excessive pride in themselves. The audience may see that Cordelia is being genuine in her response but King Lear does not see this side of it. This draws the audience to continue reading to see what the outcome of this fatal decision is.

The second characteristic that Shakespeare has used in his play is the peripeteia (reversal of fortune). Shakespeare uses this characteristic as it starts to show the audience that Lear is getting what he deserves. King Lear splits his kingdom into two, half for Goneril and half for Regan. Lear’s reversal of fortune happens when he starts to realize that his daughters are running against him and taking over the whole kingdom. This realization comes when his two daughters devise a plan to kick lear out of the kingdom in order to gain total power and wealth behind Lear’s back. They then both kicked him out leaving him to fend for himself in the massive storm that is brewing. This leaves him homeless with none of his family around him. Lear seeks shelter in a nearby shed. This reversal of fortune comes as a massive shock to King Lear as he believes that because he has the title of the king everyone should respect him as a King should be respected. Out in the storm, Lear starts to realize that his daughters have treated him with such shame. He says
“Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness’
I never gave you kingdom, called you children,
You owe me no subscription. Then I let fall
your horrible pleasure. here I stand your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, despised old man”
This quote shows that Lear is mad with his daughters and is feeling sorry for himself because he believes that he has never done anything wrong and he should not be treated like this by anyone especially not his daughters. He compares his daughters to the storm, the storm has no reason to treat him any better than what his daughters have been doing and that is owed him nothing.
In Lear’s despair, he starts to go crazy and delusional. This is shown in the story with Lear’s language. Shakespeare has changed the way lear uses speech from changing to verse to pros. Verse is usually used for people with intelligence and a higher social status whereas Pros are everyday language that any normal person uses. King Lear, because of his status of being a king spoke in verse throughout the first few acts where he was still in this social status. When he was kicked out from his kingdom and left to be in the storm he started to go insane and realizing that his decisions had led to the position he was in, which is when he started to use prose. We could identify the different language techniques because Verse is written with a formal pattern of rhythm and often rhymes. All verse will begin with a capital letter, for example, earlier in the play when King Lear still had his sanity and status as a king he said when he was banishing Cordelia from the kingdom
“Peace, Kent!
Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!”
As you can see this is very organized sentence structure and obviously written in verse.
This then changes to writing that does not have a structured meter and will only begin with a capital letter if its the first letter of a new sentence. An example of a prose speech from King Lear is
“Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness’
I never gave you kingdom, called you children,
You owe me no subscription. Then I let fall
your horrible pleasure. here I stand your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, despised old man”
This obviously not as structured as the last quote and doesn’t make as much sense.
Shakespeare uses a change in his language to help define the change in fortune that he is going through and highlight that he is going mad. Lear’s change in fortune brought about his realization that he has to lead to this fortune by the error of judgment he made when kicking out Cordelia. which is evidence of the third characteristic of a tragic hero.

In the last scene of the play, King Lear met his fate. This fate may be more than what he deserved which is the 5th and final characteristic of a tragic hero. All three of Lear’s daughters died. Goneril poisoned her sister Regan, she then felt such shame once she realized what exactly she had done and she believed the only option was to commit suicide. Cordelia was hung because she went to war against her sisters, once King Lear had discovered that all three of his daughters were dead he then passed of a broken heart. Shakespeare used his knowledge of an Aristotelian hero when deciding on the fate of King Lear. Aristotle stated in his poetics that a tragic hero should meet a fate that is more than what may be deserved. Shakespeare would have used this in order for the audience to be able to recognize that King Lear is a tragic hero.

Knowledge of an Aristotelian hero has revealed a lot about Shakespeare’s intentions when producing the play King Lear. He deliberately wrote this way so that the audience would be hooked on the play and would recognize that King Lear is a tragic hero. He used many techniques that Aristotle wrote about in his poetics about what he believed a tragic hero is. King Lear, the play was heavily influenced by these poetics. One example of this is that King Lear fits all 5 of the characteristics that Aristotle wrote saying that a tragic hero must fit.

Act 2, scene 4
This is a verse as there is a capital letter at the start of all of the lines.
Iambic pentameter – showing that he is using education and that he is smart and in a good state of mind.
Except to of the lines, the 5th and the last line. eg To bear it tamely, touch me with noble anger.
and
Stain my man’s cheeks
Both of these sentences are talking about Lear’s feelings.

Act 3, scene 4
– This is an prose as there is not a capital letter when its the start of a sentence.
– Iambic pentameter showing that he is using education and that he is smart and in a good state of mind
–  It isnt in any form and is all mixed up because he is starting to go crazy and his speech is reflecting this.

Characters

• Goneril and Regan went against the natural order as when King Lear handed the Kingdom over to them because they proved their love for him.  They then turned on King Lear and threw him out of their homes. This Goes against the natural order because Goneril and Regan should respect their dad, the king but by doing this they show that they don’t.
• They also went against the natural order by putting kent in the stocks, when Lear arrives to see that kent is in the stocks he demands to see the girls. The girls refuse to see him excusing themselves on the fact that they are too tired from traveling. Lear gets angry and upset that they won’t come and see him. they are going against the natural order by offending and disobeying the kings’ orders.  The natural order is something that everyone at this time went by, it was an order of hierarchy that must not be broken. Many people in this time would have been offended about this.

“The body is delicate. The tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there.”

“This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more.”

A tempest is a violent, windy storm so in these sentences Shakespeare has chosen to use this word as a reference to how Lear is feeling like he is going mad. It says that the ‘Tempest’ (storm)  is clouding his judgment and the rest of his thoughts.

 

“I’m a man more sinned against than sinning”

• With a classical approach to this statement, I agree that he has been more sinned against than sinning.  In the time that this story was published the people religiously believed in this hierarchy where you shouldn’t show any disrespect to anything higher up in the system. King Lear  In the publics eyes, King Lear has not ever done anything wrong (or sinned). Even King Lear himself wholeheartedly believes in this system meaning he has never done anything wrong. The public then sees when King Lear’s daughters turn against him and feel very uncomfortable about the fact that they are being so disrespectful towards Lear.

The chain of being is a concept where medieval Christianity thought to believe in a strict hierarchical structure of all matter of life.  The hierarchy system starts off with God and progresses downwards to angels, demons, stars, moons, princes, nobles, commoners, wild animals, domesticated animals, trees, other plants, precious stones, precious metal and lastly minerals.

The play starts off with Gloucester and Kent discussing the fact that King Lear is about to divide the kingdom among his three daughters. Kent then asks Gloucester to introduce his son, which he then introduces his son Edmund who is a bastard.

• Gloucester and Kent discussing the kingdom being divided.
• Introduced to Edmund, Gloucester’s son. Gloucester explains that Edmund is a bastard that is being raised away from home.
• King Lear enters the throne room and declares his plan to divide the kingdom amongst his three daughters. He plans to divide the kingdom up by asking the girls to show how much they love him through a speech. The girl that loves him the most will get the greatest share of the kingdom.
• Lear’s older daughters Goneril and Regan respond to his request, telling the king how much they love him.
• Cordelia, the youngest refuses to tell him how much she loves him in order to get shares of the kingdom. She explains she will love him as much as a daughter should love a father
• King Lear is not impressed by this and flares into a rage, disowning Cordelia and dividing the kingdom between the two other girls.
• Kent, who has served the king for many years expresses that he disagrees with the way he has awarded his two eldest daughters for flattery and disowned his youngest even though her love is pure unlike the other two.
• Lear turns his anger towards Kent who is then banished from the kingdom, having only six days to leave.
• The king of France and the duke of burgundy and waiting for Lear to decide which one of them will be marrying Cordelia.
• Lear explains that Cordelia no longer has any title or land so the Duke of  Burgandy, removes his offer but the King of France is impressed by her honesty so Lear sends Cordelia away with the king of France to become his queen.
• Goneril and Regan decide that they need to reduce their father’s authority so they plan in secret a way to do this.

Scene 2

• Edmund expresses how he is dissatisfied with society’s attitude towards bastards.
• Edmund is very jealous of his legitimate half-brother who is set to inherit their fathers’ estate so Edmund then decides to do away with Edgar and seize the privileges that society has denied him.
• Edmund plans to discredit his brother by writing a letter in which it appears that Edgar is plotting his father, Gloucester’s death. Edmund makes a show of hiding this letter in front of his father, so naturally, Gloucester demands to read it.  Edmund answers his father’s questions with lies and Gloucester is then lead to believe that his legitimate son is plotting to kill him to hasten the inheritance of Gloucester wealth and lands.
• Edmund talks to Edgar and tells him the Gloucester is very angry at him and that he should avoid him and should carry a sword at all times, this will ensure that Gloucester will definitely think that Edgar is trying to kill him.

Scene 3

• Lear is spending the first part of his retirement at Goneril’s castle.
• Goneril complains to her steward that Lear is acting righteous and that Lear is an obnoxious guest.
• She requests that her servents act rudely towards Lear and his attendants.

Scene 4

• Kent comes in a disguised as a peasant calling himself Ciaus
• He is accepted into Lears service
• Lear’s servants and knights are noticing that Goneril’s servants are disobeying their commands.
• When Lear asks Oswald where Goneril is, Oswald walks out without replying.
• Oswald walks back in and gives disrespectful replies to Lear which Lear gets very angry and strikes Oswald.
• Kent helps Lear by tripping Oswald.
• The fool comes in and delivers a series of puns and double entities telling the king that he has made a huge mistake handing the kingdom over to his daughters.
• Goneril comes back in and tells Lear that servants and knights have been too disrespectful that they have to leave
• Lear is totally enraged by Goneril saying this that he curses at her and insults her and demands that he is going to stay with Regan.
• Little does Lear know that Regan doesn’t want to house him and his hundred knights either.

Scene 5

• Lear sens Kent to deliver a message to Gloucester.
• The fool once again takes the piss out of Lear’s decision to hand the power over to his girls and Lears naivety to think that Regan will treat him any different to how Goneril was treating him.
• Lear leaves for Regans

Character quotes

King Lear

Cordelia – “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond; no more no less.” – This quote shows Cordelia’s personality

Goneril

Regan

Kent

Glouster

Edmund

Edgar

The Fool

2 long texts –
Kelly wilson
I am not Esther

Kelly Wilson,
This story is a bibliography about Kelly Wilson and the lives of her two sisters and her who are all a massive part of the equestrian world not only in New Zealand but around the world. She has written three books about different events or challenges that the sisters have taken on. This book is about when they rescued 11 wild Kaimanawa horses from the 2015 Kaimanawa muster.

I am not Esther by Fleur Beale.
I am not Esther is a story about a girl who is left by her mother to love with relatives she has never met before. Her family members are a part of a religious cult and she is forced to live by the strict social rules of the cult. She is given the biblical name ‘Esther’ by her elders, throughout the novel she is determined to not lose her identity.
Throughout the novel it is apparent that Kirby is she is challenged with her identity. She is shipped off to live with relatives in a religious cult, her name is changed to Esther and she is forced to live by the rules set by the religious cult. This is a massive shock to Kirby as she has lived with her mum in the past and hasn’t been a part of any religion.
Identity is who a person is and what, who, where they identify themselves with. I can relate to some of Kirby’s traits as she is a very determined girl. This is shown throughout the book, one instance is while she is staying with her relatives Kirby is determined that she will not lose her identity and not forget the people and where she came from. She uses many different techniques throughout the book to do so.