Literary Analysis of the Hopeless Human Conditions Portrayed in Literature i

By
Annetta Assanah

1046660

University Of Guyana

Dept. Education And Humanities

ENG 1104: Introduction To Prose

Lecturer Name: Mark Mc Gowan

Due Date: 28th October, 2023

Table of Contents

Introduction...............................................................................................................................................1

What is the Human Condition?................................................................................................................2

How Is Hopelessness Portrayed as A Human Condition In Literature?...........................................3

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................6

Bibliography..............................................................................................................................................7
 Literary Analysis of the Hopeless Human Conditions Portrayed in Literature 1

Introduction

The Task:

“The human condition is essentially hopeless.” Discuss to what extent you agree with this

statement.

To discuss “the human condition is essentially hopeless,” three questions paramount to this

discussion must be answered:

1. What is the human condition?

2. How is hopelessness portrayed as a human condition in Literature?

3. How does Miguel Street and The Story of An Hour portray the human condition?

This analysis examines the ability or lack thereof of the writers to portray the human condition as

hopeless.
 Literary Analysis of the Hopeless Human Conditions Portrayed in Literature 2

What is the Human Condition?

The concept of the human condition refers to the shared experiences, emotions,
and challenges that are common to all human beings, regardless of culture, race, or
background. It encompasses both the positive and negative aspects of human existence,
including joy, love, and fulfillment, as well as suffering, pain, and mortality. (Practical
Psychology, 2023).

The human condition reflects lived experiences. This is the basic tendency and characteristics all
humans embody from behaviour to personality traits. Emotions and conflicts fabricate the
structure of the human condition. In other words, having feelings is paramount as a human being
which is well accompanied by conflict, a struggle or problem.
 Literary Analysis of the Hopeless Human Conditions Portrayed in Literature 3

How Is Hopelessness Portrayed as A Human Condition In Literature?

Like a neglected garden, despair grows best in the soil of isolation. When a

garden is left unattended, the soil of isolation becomes fertile ground for negative

emotions to grow. It feels like we are alone, and no one can understand our struggles,

which leads to feelings of hopelessness and despair.

In Literature, for the development of a character, hopelessness is not just getting a hit where the

character cries, it is the exploration of the descent into misery that creates the slow erosion of

joy.

One of the most scintillating ways to infuse this hopelessness is to make the protagonist yearn for

connection, hope and the promise of attaining such, only to see it sloughed off. Putting it just out

of reach creates a sense of despair, allowing you to feel the character’s pain, like a taste of the

poison and the craving of the antidote.

How Does Miguel Street and The Story Of An Hour Portray The Human Condition?

As the Story of An Hour begins, Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as a frail, delicate

character, afflicted with heart trouble, as great care is taken to break to her, the news of

the death of her husband. The human condition explored by Kate Chopin here is grief as

Mrs. Mallard ‘wept with sudden wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms’. As she sat

transfixed in a moment where her reality meets her possibilities, the antithesis of joy in

death plagues Mrs. Mallard momentarily. And birthed was an anticipated freedom, a

freedom unknown but welcomed by Louise Mallard, “She did not stop to ask if it were or

were not a monstrous joy…”

Coming to the realization that the death of her husband means she is free to live the way she

chooses, unshackled by marriage, there is a renewed sense of hope that the reader is allowed to

feel for her with the hope that she achieves thus, ‘Free! Body and soul free!” For reasons not

stated in the story, the ability to connect the audience to the cruel kindness of finding freedom in

death, puts her freedom within her grasp only for it to be snuffed out as her husband was no

longer dead. Oxymoronically, it is the wife who died because the husband lived. Hopelessness?!

Hopelessness.

In Miguel Street, we will be examined the characters of Bogart and George shared experiences of

despair are portrayed. (Naipaul, 1959)

The story of Miguel Street begins with the introduction of Bogart, a man without a name, who

attempts to escape the futility of the ‘little room’ in which he occupies. Confined to a small part

of a larger, more glamorous world, Bogart masks his real identity behind an assumed

Americanism, which is eventually revealed as the themes of disillusionment and escapism plague
 Literary Analysis of the Hopeless Human Conditions Portrayed in Literature 5

the characters of Miguel Street. Bogart lived a peaceful life. He was a popular figure in Miguel

Street until he vanished one day. Upon his return, the narrator describes his complete

transformation as he had started drinking and talking a lot. Something he had not done before,

‘They never seen Bogart drink so much; they had never heard him talk so much…’ In his

ambition to embody the Bogart portrayed on television, he got a job on a ship where he started

smuggling things. He was eventually arrested thereafter returning to the street. He became the

most feared and awful man with an American accent now. Bogart disappeared the third time and

finally when he reappeared, he got arrested by Sergent Charles, for the crime of bigamy. Thus,

Bogart’s great desire for success ruined his life.

George is depicted as a bully who failed in marriage and divorce. He is described as brutal and

cruel towards his children and wife. It was believed by some of the men of Miguel Street that

George beat his wife to death. Further, the men of Miguel Street did not show favour in his

behaviour and actions. ‘It good for George. He beginning to pay for his sins.’ Eventually he was

utterly secluded and died alone. His expression of escape comes through the way he treated his

children. The narrators’ tone and use of dark depressing words painted George as hopeless.
 Literary Analysis of the Hopeless Human Conditions Portrayed in Literature 6

Conclusion

Were the writers able to portray ideally, the hopelessness of the human condition in the Story of

an Hour and Miguel Street? Categorically and through the use themes such as escapism and

disillusionment Kate Chopin and V, S Naipaul were able to create the mood and tone that give

targeted audience a sense of despair in the characters. Through the characters’ struggles and

emotional state, in the case of Louise Mallard, where the hope of freedom was cut short by her

death because her husband lived. In Miguel Street, despair is also portrayed through death, a

physical death, the death of George, or metaphorical death, death of an idea

Bibliography

Naipaul, V. S. (1959). Miguel Street. Edinburgh: Andre Deutsch Ltd. 1974.

Practical Psychology. (2023, September 15). The Human Condition(Definition+Explanation). Practical

Psychology. Retrieved from https://practicalpie.com/the-human-condition/