For the character that seems most like a living, breathing human being to me, I chose Orgon from Tartuffe (Moliere, 1664). It is so easy for some people to be taken in by others, especially those who simply refuse to see the bad in others. Orgon reminds me of a friend of mine who is easily fooled by people who appear to be something they are not in that he did not see what Tartuffe was like even though so many others tried to tell him. Tartuffe could be many people in present day society, a believer who was trusting to a fault, yet refused to believe what others tried to warn him about the man he believed in so much. My friend has been scammed before because, much like Orgon, she simply refuses to believe there are people in this world who do NOT have anyone’s best interests at heart, but their own. Gilgamesh (The epic of Gilgamesh, 7th century) seemed to be the least realistic character I have met this course. While I have always enjoyed reading about ancient Greece and Rome and the gods and goddesses they worshipped, I never actually believed in them. Gilgamesh was portrayed as a half-man/half-god character, and that just does not seem realistic to me. I felt that while the writer did a good job of portraying the character, I just did not feel it. In the world today, Gilgamesh would not be allowed to do the things he was portrayed as doing in The Epic of Gilgamesh. He was doing things such as making certain he was the first to have sex with any woman he wanted, even if it was her wedding night; the first tablet of the epic shows that he does not leave any girl to her mother, any daughter to her father, or any bride to her husband (The epic of Gilgamesh, 7th century). Gilgamesh was shown as someone who did what he wanted, when he wanted, with no regard to anyone else. He believed that since he was part god, he was entitled to do anything he wanted and feared reprisal from nobody, as he felt they would not dare go against him. Gilgamesh reminds me of the Smurfs; it may be a fun idea but not real in the slightest. I enjoyed reading Gilgamesh about as much as I like Smurfs, which is not at all. The naiveté of some people is very annoying to me as I am the type who will question everyone’s motives and worry more about how I am going to live my own life rather than how someone
