Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Guan Hanqing`s Rescued by a Coquette both demonstrate concern for women`s ethical choices and orthodox order by depicting their unique ways of maintaining ethical order and their struggle against ethical order disruptors. The high similarity in plots makes it possible to conduct comparative research between the two plays. Two plays depict the different ethical choices made by various female subjects under the manipulation of the Sphinx factor, highlighting the decisive role of humanistic and animalistic factors. Writers use the subtle ethical choices made by female characters to form a complete process of ethical choices and present the maintenance of ethical order. This article aims to clarify the various ethical choices made by ethical subjects under the influence of the Sphinx factor, as well as the progressive relationships between subtle choices, and the role of humanistic elements in shapig character`s ethical deicisions. The interplay of ethics, agency, and cultural representation all reveal the process of making choices, which has achieved the ultimate success of ethical choices for female characters.

“Die Wiederholung” is a long novel by Austrian writer Peter Handke, published in the 1980s. Within the novel's multilayered memories and narratives, the recurring portrayal and imitation of “patterns” permeate the entire storyline and plot progression. Through its distinctive forms of “repetition” and “juxtaposition,” the novel not only delineates the internal texture of sensory patterns but also constructs their external contexts. These narrative techniques reflect the author’s perception and contemplation of the “new subject” and its relationship to external reality. This involves a series of questions about how “narrative” captures and reproduces the original “feeling” of human experience and how it recognizes, responds to, and engages with such feelings.This paper analyzes the unique manifestation of the concept of “perception” in “Die Wiederholung” within the socio-cultural context of the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the novel's linguistic and formal characteristics. By examining the textual details and structural features of its language, this study seeks to trace the trajectory of sensory modes and their generative logic. Through the dual dimensions of “sequence” and “externality” of sensation, this paper aims to uncover the role and intention of “patterns” in Handke’s creative work. Additionally, it examines the connection between the “new subject” and “affect,” shedding light on how these elements contribute to the broader thematic framework of the novel.

The theatrical form known as the ‘theatre of the absurd’ has made its mark in ‘modern’ and ‘postmodern’ scholarship and generated much recent critical currency. This theatrical form has established itself in opposition to European bourgeois realist theatre, and has come to be seen as avant-garde, fragmented, and often more ‘universal’ than realist theatre. In this paper, the ideas associated with absurdity in theatre will be understood as forming a repertoire of signification, which will primarily be explored in relation to two European dramatic texts of the mid-twentieth century, Samuel Beckett’s 'Waiting for Godot' (1952) and Harold Pinter’s 'The Birthday Party' (1959). By locating various aspects of absurdity in these plays within their contexts and also identifying the similar and different manners in which the ‘absurd’ is manifested, it will be shown that the ‘absurd’ is not a fixed category that can be applied universally to any play that is said to belong to the ‘theatre of the absurd’, and that this concept is seen and expressed differently by the two playwrights. Further, elements of absurdity will be located in Sriranga’s 'Listen, Janmejaya' (1966), to demonstrate that the repertoire of signification surrounding the ‘absurd’ is also visible in, and expanded by, theatrical practices outside of what critics call European avant-garde theatre, and that ‘traditional’ Indian theatre as well as ‘modern’ Indian theatre have continued to make use of these elements to achieve various dramatic effects. The concepts of performance and appearance will be crucial throughout this exploration, as they are sites of the ‘absurd’ as much as language is.

This research provides an inter-artistic comparative discussion with methodological approach focusing on the counter-narrative method applied in Milton’s text 'Paradise Lost' and Cabanel’s painting 'The Fallen Angel'. Living in Foucault’s discursive regime, we know that narratives are not just stories, narratives are power relations holding epistemological views of the world. Narratives create the overlapping spider web of knowledge and discourses that rules the social, political, religious, cultural and ideological positioning of the individual. Human beings usually live in a world that is predetermined and pre described. We are living in a story already ‘told’ by the master or the teller. What if we are the teller, ourselves this time? Does the story change? English poet John Milton (1608- 1674) and French Painter Alexandre Cabanel (1883-1889) addressed this question in their literary and artistic creations. The epic poem 'Paradise Lost' by John Milton and the painting by Cabanel titled 'Fallen Angel' both attempted re-telling the strong theological knowledge written in the Bible. The author and artist represented the story of Lucifer moving away from the grand spot light of religion and the divine torch of God. Milton’s Paradise Lost was first published in 1667 and Cabanel’s painting Fallen Angel is from 1847. Similarities between the text and the art piece are- the theme of Divine error, character of Lucifer/Satan, and the representation of grand narrative with counter story. Differences include- the nationality of English and French, temporality of 17th and 19th century, medium of creation which are word and Image. Counter narrative is a method or a way to present alternative perspectives that challenge dominant narratives from the perspective of a marginalized group, generating stories that generally change the master narrative with the same storyline by refuting it and representing it from several other perspectives. This method tends to detail the experiences and voice of those who are historically oppressed, excluded or silenced in an epistemological setting. Theoretical framework for this study activates two principles of counter-narrative method. First one is Bakhtin’s idea of ‘chronotope’ which refers to how images of the human subject in literature gradually acquire a sense of historicity, of being embedded in specific times and places. The human subject comes to be represented through time as a free agent creating counter-narrative. The second idea is ‘Foucauldian tool box’ of understanding how counter narrative is generated from politics of subject. This study focuses on two comparative points; the critical analysis of the text’s idea and painting’s symbols and further investigating how their ideas and symbols are creating counter-narratives. With all of these portions of understanding tied together, this comparative study unveils how Milton’s 'Paradise Lost' and Cabanel’s 'Fallen Angel' refused grand narrative with counter narrative.