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Sydney Brooks
3rd Hour
McCauley
November 4th, 2014

Epiphany
At least once in most peoples lives, one must experience an epiphany. An epiphany is a
sudden realization or understanding of purpose or truth. Plato theorized that one way of reaching
an epiphany is through the process of anagnorisis, or ascending from a place of shadows and
illusions to a place of knowledge. Platos student, Aristotle, expanded on Platos theory that one
could also reach an epiphany by going through a catharsis. A catharsis must include an
anagnorisis and consist of kenosis, hamartia, and peripeteia. In the movies The Fisher King and
Good Will Hunting, the characters Jack and Will went through different processes to reach their
final epiphanies.
Catharsis is the process of self purification, the clarification of vision, and the purging of
fear and pity. The feeling of emotion that is experienced at ones epiphany must follow certain
criteria. In the film The Fisher King, Jack Lucas reaches his epiphany through catharsis. This
means that he also goes through anagnorisis. In the beginning of the movie, Jack is a radio talk
show host. He appears as a very narcissistic, uncaring, cold, mean, and untouchable person.
These characteristics of Jack are his hamartia, or fatal flaw that brings him down. This stage of
his life is the bottom stage of illusions of his anagnorisis. When one of Jacks radio callers goes
crazy and commits mass murder, he quits his job as a radio announcer and becomes dormant for
about three years. These events caused Jack to realize what a horrible person he was and not
want to be that person any more. He did not want to be anyone anymore. But he did not try to

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change; he gave up and started living in a trance. These events caused Jacks peripeteia, or
reversal of fortune.
One night, Jack decides to commit suicide. Jack is about to jump off of a ledge, when he
is attacked by teenagers who think he is a homeless man. Out of the darkness, a group of strange
men come to his rescue. The leader of the group is a crazy man named Parry. Jack quickly learns
that Parry used to be a normal, happy History teacher until his wife was killed in a bar shooting.
The same bar shooting that the radio caller committed after talking to and being offended by Jack
Lucas. After the shooting, Parry fell into a catatonic state and was sent to a mental hospital for
years. When Jack finds out that his actions caused the death of Parrys wife, he snaps out of his
numb state and starts to live again. He automatically wants to help Parry because in a way, Jack
caused Parrys pain.
At this time, Jack is having a feeling of emotion toward the right person, but not at the
right time, under the right conditions, or with the right motive. He thinks that if he gives Parry
money, everything will be fixed. Jack has not yet come to the realization that more than money is
needed to fix Parrys shattered life. Jack continues to be bothered about Parry, so he keeps trying
to help him. Jack becomes Parrys friend, tries to understand him, and helps him talk to a woman
that he intensely admires. Jack starts to do good things for himself too. He gets his job back as a
radio announcer and starts to be nicer to people. These are steps that Jack is taking to bring
himself higher in his anagnorisis.
After a date that Jack sets up for Parry with the woman of his dreams, Parry becomes
scared, is attacked by teenagers, and falls back into a catatonic state. Jack breaks up with his
girlfriend and continues to be successful at his job. Jacks life could have gone on without ever
thinking about Parry again, but Jack eventually decides that the right thing to do is to help Parry.

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Jack goes to him in the hospital and tries to wake Parry up. It takes a few minutes before Jack is
able to fabricate a plan to help Parry.
Jacks continuation and persistence of helping Parry is what leads him to eventually have
the right feeling in the right way, at the right time, under the right conditions, toward the right
person, and with the right motive. The right feeling being the feeling of need to care, help, and
support Parry by choosing to rescue the Holy Grail from the castle. The right way is to dress
up in Parrys knight clothing, climb the tower break in, and steal the Holy Grail. The right
time and conditions being a night that Parry is in his final catatonic state when Jack realizes that
Parry may wake if he gets his Holy Grail. Jacks kenosis, or self sacrifice, is breaking into the
mansion an stealing the chalice for Parry. He sacrificed his well being, job, and reputation for
Parry. At this time, Jack also realizes that he cannot help Parry by giving him money, by helping
him along in romance, or even just being his friend; this is when Jack finally has the right motive
behind his actions. He simply feels the need to help his friend, Parry. When Jack brings Parry the
Holy Grail. Parry awakens from his coma.
After Jack experiences his epiphany, he is enlightened. He now has a friend, has his
dream job, and gets his girlfriend back. At the beginning, Jack closely resembled a heartless,
zombie-like man. After undergoing catharsis, overcoming his hamartia, and coming to his
epiphany, Jack is a much better, understanding, and giving man.
In the movie Good Will Hunting, Will comes to his epiphany through anagnorisis. The
anagnorisis can be compared to a ladder that one must climb to reach the top step, or the
epiphany. In the beginning, Will is in the stage of illusions. His judgement is clouded by his
hamartia, being his unwillingness to connect to people, not wanting to apply his immense
intelligence, and his trust issues. Will anonymously completes a math proof on the chalkboard in

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the hallway of a prestigious college that he works as a janitor in. When the math professor of the
college finally realizes that Will was the one to complete the problem, Will is in jail. The
professor offers Will a deal to get him out of jail if he agrees to do the math problems/proofs that
he is provided, and talk with a therapist.
Will accepts the professors deal and goes to talk with the professors old colleague
therapist named Sean. At this time, Will is in the belief stage of his anagnorisis. He does not have
his own ideas about his life, so he believes the things that everyone else say about who he should
be. He thinks he will never do anything greater than laying bricks and drinking beer with friends.
He knows that he is smart, but he does not think he should try to escape his situation. Will gets a
girlfriend named Skylar whom he talks about sometimes during his counseling sessions.
One day when Will thinks everything is going great, Skylar asks him to move away with
her. This causes him to panic and feel that there is no way that she would really love him if she
knew everything about him, and breaks up with her. Skylar moves away and Will continues to
have appointments with Sean. Will letting himself be vulnerable for Sean allows him to realize
how poorly he has been living his life and how he could better apply himself. This also exposes
Will to many ideas and views that he would not have otherwise been exposed to.
As Will begins to connect with Sean, he is taking another step up the ladder of his
anagnorisis into the math and reasoning stage. Sean begins to break down Wills walls. He goes
out of his way to overcome Wills defense mechanisms and understand him. Will has major trust
issues due to abuse as a child and feels like anyone who claims to like him will eventually leave
him because they do not really care. After many sessions with Sean, Will begins to open up and
the two men become friends.

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The final stage of Wills anagnorisis into intelligence occurs as he begins to go to job
interviews and explore what he may actually want to do with his life. He begins to understand
why he feels the way he does. Wills epiphany, or moment of sudden realization, occurs one day
when he is talking to his best friend, Chuckie. Chuckie says that Will needs to get out of that
town and do something with his life. He says that Will owes that to him because Chuckie and all
of his friends are going to be stuck in the same town, with the same construction job for the rest
of their lives. Will is sitting on the winning lottery ticket and he is too afraid to cash it in.
Chuckie tells Will that any of them would do anything to have what Will has and it would be an
insult to all of them if Will was still hanging around in twenty years. Chuckie says,
...Let me tell you what I do know. Every day I
come by to pick you up. And we go out we have a
few drinks, and a few laughs and it's great. But you
know what the best part of my day is? It's for about
ten seconds from when I pull up to the curb to when
I get to your door. Because I think maybe I'll get up
there and I'll knock on the door and you won't be
there. No goodbye, no see you later, no nothin'. Just
left. I don't know much, but I know that.
It is in this moment, that Will realizes that he needs to start living his life. He has an
epiphany. Following his epiphany, Will goes after Skylar, leaves a note for Sean, and becomes
determined to make something of his life.
Recently, in my life, I have experienced a small epiphany, or realization. A couple of
months ago, I realized that I am my own person. I realized that my mother does not control me.

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What she perceives as being the right thing to do is not always what I think is the right thing.
Until that point, I believed that I had to do what she wanted me to or she would not love me.
Before, I was conditioned to think that anything I did for myself was selfish. I did what she told
me to even though it wasnt fair to me. This thought process was based on my thoughts that she
would kick me out of the house and hate me if I did not do everything that she wanted me to.
Now, I am not only making decisions based on what she would think or how she would react. I
am doing more things for myself. I am taking a leap of faith and hoping that even though my
mother does not say it, she will support me no matter what. Analyzing the process of Will and
Jacks epiphanies has helped me to identify my own epiphanies. Now I understand the stages of
anagnorisis and catharsis and the specialized terminology involved in the discussion of the
epiphany. Plato and Aristotles theories proved to be very useful in examining the lives of oneself
and others.

Works Cited
Good Will Hunting. Perf. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck. Miramax Home
Entertainment :, 1997. DVD.
The Fisher King. Perf. Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges. Columbia TriStar Home
Video, 1998. DVD.
Butcher, S. H. The Poetics of Aristotle. London: Macmillan, 1895. Print.
Bloom, Allan David. The Republic- Plato. New York: Basic, 1968. Print.

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