Hi

 

I got my essay (on Lord of the Flies and Macbeth) topic for my grade 10 english exam, which is tomorrow.:

 

"A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wikedness." - Joseph Conrad

 

At first, I was going to disagree with this since Lord of the Flies and Macbeth have supernatural evils, but I realized the ambiguity of the quotation:

 

If Conrad defines supernatural source of evil as something that's:

 

1) evil then it's impossible to know every wikedness without believing supernatural evil.

 

2) not evil then men do know every wikedness.

 

3) a concrete thing like the witches in Macbeth, then it its possible for men know every wikedness

 

Should I mention this in my essay?

 

Thanks.

This is a *SCIENCE* forum....

Argh right. Feel free to delete the thread. Sorry

Should I mention this in my essay?

Yes, mention everything relating to the question. So long as you keep to the question, you can't include to much.

This is a *SCIENCE* forum....

But this is the Homework Help board.

3) a concrete thing like the witches in Macbeth, then it its possible for men know every wikedness

 

You can make the argument agreeing with Conrad's statement rather easily, I think, especially with Lord of the Flies (I don't remember a specific supernatural power in that book) but even with Macbeth.

 

Even though the witches set things in motion, they even the witches in Macbeth did not force his hand. You can talk about decision-making and responsibility. The witches didn't really use supernatural means to cause Macbeth to kill the king. They merely used words to bring out the natural human faults (notably ambition) within himself.