#comparative essay

(Note: This essay is based on the show. Yes I have read the books, but I actually enjoy the show more, so this essay is show based, with only one point coming from the books)

Cersei Lannister is a brat. She grew up a lady of Casterly Rock, with servants at her beck and call, owning plenty of fine clothes and expensive jewelry, daughter to the richest and one of the most powerful men in all of Westeros. In adulthood, she married a king and continued to live a lavish and luxurious life. Daenerys Targaryen grew up with nothing but her abusive brother and her name, being forced to move all over Essos, not knowing luxury until she and her brother were taken in by Magister Illyrio in Pentos. She was married to a Dothraki Khal while still in her childhood, a slave in all but name to him at the beginning of their marriage. Cersei Lannister is a self serving and power hungry queen, unfit to rule the seven kingdoms, despite her decades of political experience, while Daenerys Stormborn of the house Targaryen is a sacrificial and confident queen, who has been an excellent ruler, despite the fact that she has only been a player in the game of thrones for a few years. Cersei’s wickedness and Daenerys’s goodness is evidently portrayed through Cersei’s similarities and Dany’s differences with the mad king, Cersei’s arrogance contrasted with Dany’s humbleness, and Cersei’s ignorance and disgust of different cultures compared to Dany’s embracing and open minded nature with different cultures.

Cersei Lannister has many similarities with the mad king, Aerys II Targaryen, Dany’s own father, who was overthrown by Cersei’s husband, Robert Baratheon. The first matter that Cersei and Aerys II have in common is the most obvious: Burn them all. Aerys II was famous for his last words, Burn them all!, an action that wasn’t carried out until Cersei Lannister came to power. Aerys used wildfire as a weapon against his own people, including his warden of the North, Lord Rickard Stark. Cersei Lannister used the mad king’s wildfire to burn down a historic and ancient landmark of King’s Landing, the Great Sept of Baelor, as well as her daughter in law, her uncle, her cousin, and hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent civilians while she watched from a distance, grinning as she sipped wine from a goblet. The second matter that Cersei has in common with Aerys II is incest. Both Cersei and Aerys II have had sexual relationships/marriages with their siblings, which both resulted in three children; two sons and one daughter each. Daenerys, however, broke the cycle of the Targaryen tradition of incest, by marrying Khal Drogo and not having sexual relations with her brother, Viserys III Targaryen. The third and final similarity between Cersei and Aerys II is their obsessions with members of the other’s family. This is canon in the books but is never acknowledged in the show, but Aerys II was unrequitedly infatuated with Cersei’s mother, lady Joanna Lannister, while Cersei was unrequitedly obsessed with Aerys II’s son, prince Rhaegar Targaryen. These one sided infatuations have displayed the lustful and greed driven natures of both of the mad rulers. This shows how their own selfish desires impacted their abilities to rule well, leading to Aerys II’s eventual downfall, and (hopefully) it will also lead to Cersei’s.

Cersei is ignorant and arrogant while Daenerys has remained a humble ruler who puts her people before herself. In S4E10, the charred remains of a three year old girl burnt by Drogon were presented to Dany by the dead girl’s father. By the end of that episode, Daenerys had two of her dragons locked away to protect her people. She looked on tearfully as she watched her soldiers block the entrance to her children’s new enclosure. Cersei’s eldest son, the false king Joffrey “Baratheon”, was a danger to his people. In S2E4, he had Sansa Stark publically beaten, stripped, humiliated, and almost killed before his uncle, Tyrion Lannister, stepped in and stopped him. In that same episode, he forces Ros to beat her fellow whore Daisy, and in S3E6, it’s revealed that he brutally murdered Ros with a crossbow. The list of Joffrey’s damage goes on, but the point I’m making here is that Cersei stood idly by watching him harm his people for his own pleasure, not doing a thing to punish him. The only time that she did discipline her son was in S2E1, when he insulted her, which she responded to by slapping him. This shows how she doesn’t care about others being harmed, in fact, she sometimes relishes in it, yet when she is wronged, she lashes out.

Cersei Lannister has shown disgust towards different cultures, specifically towards the Dornish, whom she views as dirty and vile. She also has distaste for her own people, specifically the ones who live in poverty. Much of her shame in her walk of atonement comes from the fact that she is being viewed as less than those people around her, as she sees them as the lowest of low. In comparison, Daenerys has shown love and compassion for her people and other cultures. She learned the language of the Dothraki, and even considers herself to be one of them. She respects and honors their beliefs, yet does not shy away from taking down those khals who challenged and insulted her, as they blocked the path for Dothraki success in Westeros. When she burned Khal Drogo’s body in S1E10, she allowed what remained of his khalasar to leave unharmed and free. This was easy for her, as she did not yet hold much power. However, in S3E4, she had a whole army of Unsullied soldiers at her disposal, yet she gave them the same offer that she gave those Dothraki slaves: She gave them the opportunity to leave unharmed, yet they all chose to stay and serve her. In S3E10, she gives the same offer to the freed Yunkish slaves, who embrace her and call her Mhysa, an Old Ghiscari word for Mother.

In this essay, I have stated my reasoning for why Cersei Lannister is the mad queen and Daenerys Stormborn of the house Targaryen is the rad queen. There are many more reasons for Cersei’s incompetence, such as her dishonesty to herself and others, her unjustified revenge, and her overly prideful attitude, yet I won’t go into that now. So now I leave you with this: Although Cersei has been proven to be evil, and Daenerys to be good and competent, the true test lies in who will deal with the threat of the wights and white walkers.

There are many times when I hear other student complain about writing a comparative essay. It’s true that they are somewhat harder than a classic one subject essay, which is why I made this guide. Here is how I learned (and prefer) to write comparative essays, particularly in English but it can easily be adapted to other subjects! 

So lets go step by step through the essay:

>> TITLE

so this is a pretty important part of your essay and you will 100% be judged on it. 

bad title = teacher isn’t excited to read 

Your title should state the texts you’re talking about (whether it be the characters or authors) and the topic you are exploring. 

I like to use the “quote” : statement of essay / subject of essay  

Example: “These violent delights have violent ends” : Temptation and Revenge in Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Austen’s Persuasion. 

YEah its long. but long titles aren’t necessarily bad. 

Or follow the title format your teacher provides! 

>> INTRODUCTION

no generalizations. you should be talking about your subject (i.e. books) from beginning to end. talking about the world and then narrowing to a thesis is a) very difficult and b) tells the reader that if you’re generalizing in your intro, you’ll probably be generalizing in the rest of your essay. 

no “this essay will” statements. Just get into it. Stating what your essay will be doing is redundant and takes up precious words. 

identify your subject in the first sentence. Don’t make the intro a long mystery to the subject. Stay to the point. Your subject shouldn’t be too far from your thesis.

set up your thesis. In one or two sentences, set the table for the meal! For comparison essays, I usually devote one sentence to each subject and explain how the topic (1st sentence) is related. 

thesis statement. You have the table ready, and now its time to serve the meal. Your thesis statement should be what you argue. In some cases, teachers ask for your three justifications but some don’t. Make sure to check with your professor on what sort of thesis statement they prefer!

>> BODY

the ~fun~ part. 

Generally, you should avoid re-stating comments made in class. You want your ideas to be original, to show the teacher you’ve truly understood and analyzed the texts. 

integrate quotes plentifully and only what is necessary. The general rule I use is no quote over 6 words! Quoting one word is fine but that word should support your arguments. For example, its okay to say: Anne was “resentful” (Citation) and “genuinely disliked” Eric (Citation). It supports your statement and gives the citation right away. 

That being said, combine quotes and ideas. Especially when the word count is small, its important to compress things into precise, and concise sentences. Try to explain, What and how in one sentence. 

have a dense analysis. have nothing unnecessary. Every. Word. Counts. 

****Don’t address the texts separately! Many have been taught to devote one paragraph to one text, another paragraph to the other text. DO NOT DO THIS! Address both. For example: Anne was “resentful” towards Eric when he cheated on her, just as Taylor was “angry” to the extent of “seeking revenge” upon Nate. Combine both as much as you can.***

do not take a bias. Address both texts evenly. 

never mention the reader or the readers actions. you don’t control how the reader responds. 

avoid summary-style writing. the teacher / grader knows the text, so you don’t have to summarize the plot. 

make sure your arguments relate back to the thesis ALWAYS. 

>> CONCLUSION

wow you did it and now you gotta wrap it up. 

unset the table. 

state how your arguments make your thesis correct. 

ideally, you should dedicate one sentence to each paragraph and capture the essence of your arguments. So if you have 4 different body paragraphs, you should have 4 sentences.

the final sentence is a restatement of your thesis. 

but don’t introduce anything new. you end with explaining how the two texts and the arguments associated with your thesis are important. and then you re-state your thesis. 

my other tips / masterposts

Find infograph on How to write a Comparative Essay

The role of specific gender as highlighted by writers in different stories is different. This depends on the message that the author aims to convey to the readers and the picture that is represented by a specific story. De Profundis and The Thing Around Your Neck are stories where the writers have used gender differently to convey their messages. The Thing Around Your Neck tells the story of a Nigerian lady who wins a green card to the United States. The expectations of the family as well as her own dreams are shattered when she arrives in USA. She faces a hard life until she meets a caring and honest White man who truly loves her. On the other hand, the story De Profundis tells the story of a man that is imprisoned for the actions of her wife who disregards the bond that they had together. She wants to take advantage of a man who lives only on the hope of the love between the two.

Thesis: Gender has been used to highlight different social behavior and models that are used to define others

The author of the Thing Around Your Neck uses the lady to highlight the problems that are faced by African women when they go to the United States. Their families expect the world from the young people as though there was a job and a home that awaited the people once they arrived to the States. She is also used to highlight gullibility and lack of awareness of a new person in a new country. “You wanted to write that rich Americans were thin and poor Americans were fat” (Adichie 119).  The treatment by others is that of skepticism and lack of understanding of such an individual in the society. She is a world where she does not understand different aspects of the new culture and instead of people helping they aim to take advantage of her. The same case applies to the prisoner who had taken imprisonment to protect his wife but she later turned on him. She was gullible in believing that love would conquer everything and did not mind imprisonment for his love. “But do you think that you were worthy of the love I showed you then?” (Wilde 27) These are the different atrocities that can be drawn from the stories where people turn against each other after being given a high level of trust.

The men in the Thing Around Your Neck are found wanting and do not offer any form of help but are instrumental to the demise of the livelihood of the unaware girl in the US. “Until your Uncle came into the cramped[PS1]  house where you slept[PS2]  with old boxesand pulled you forcefully to him, squeezing your buttocks, moaning[PS3] .”(Adichie 116) The Uncle looks to take advantage of her and her employer keeps on making funny jokes about her while she is working. On the flipside, the women in De Profundis have all been aimed at ensuring and foreseeing the demise of the prisoner. The wife is committed to making his life hell yet he was the only one that the prisoner believed in and was protecting. She gets back on all their promises and even threatens to share personal testament of love by the Prisoner to the public. In contrast to the first story in the second story the women have been cited as the evil ones and not the men.

Although the two start their stories with hope and a lot of vigor and trust in the system they are both broken at the end. The two are committed to their cause and whereas one believes in success the other believes in love. However, by the end of the two stories the two are broken and although there have been some hope in their lives they end up crashed by the larger society. 

 Works Cited

Adichie, C. N. The thing around your neck. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Print.

Wilde, O. De Profundis and other writings. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. Print.

  [PS1]Citation, source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5094748/The-Thing-Around-Your-Neck-by-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie-Review.html

 [PS2]Citation, source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5094748/The-Thing-Around-Your-Neck-by-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie-Review.html