Before Oedipus was born, Queen Jocasta and the King of Thebes, Laius, were prophesied by god Apollo that their unborn son would marry his mother and kill his father. Major Characters: One major character in the story is Oedipus the king essay topics Rex. It is crucial that you understand and define in your response the elements that constitute tragedy and how each work fits those conventions. Oedipus the King. Stylistic elements of tragedy for example may include a character's use of metaphor. When all is finally revealed, Oedipus displays his true character by taking responsibility for his actions. According to Aristotle, the philosopher credited with creating the definition of a tragedy, "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament,…, oedipus the king essay topics.
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Oedipus the king essay topics is the only character with a major role in all three of the Theban plays. Does he change over the course of the three plays? If so, how? Although there is little or no onstage violence in the Theban plays, the characters in Oedipus at Colonus are very much concerned with war. How does it shape the way other characters view her? What do these plays say about incest? Is pride really the catalyst for all the catastrophes of the plays? Search all of SparkNotes Search Suggestions Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. No Fear Literature Translations Literature Study Guides Glossary of Literary Terms How to Write Literary Analysis.
Biography Biology Chemistry Computer Science Drama Economics Film Health History Math Philosophy Physics Poetry Psychology Short Stories Sociology US Government and Politics. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Character List Oedipus Antigone Creon The Chorus. Themes Motifs Symbols. Important Quotes Explained By Theme The Law Destiny Blindness By Section Section 1: Antigone, lines Section 2: Antigone, lines Section 3: Antigone, lines Section 4: Antigone, lines Section 5: Oedipus the King, lines Section 6: Oedipus the King, oedipus the king essay topics, lines Section 7: Oedipus the King, Section 8: Oedipus the King, lines Section 9: Oedipus the King, oedipus the king essay topics, lines Section Oedipus at Colonus, lines Section Oedipus at Colonus, lines Section Oedipus at Colonus, lines Section Oedipus at Colonus, lines By Character Antigone Oedipus Creon Tiresias Jocasta.
Suggestions for Further Reading Sophocles and The Oedipus Plays Background. Please wait while we oedipus the king essay topics your payment. Unlock your FREE SparkNotes Plus Trial! Unlock your FREE Trial! Sign up and get instant access to save the page as your favorite. Essays Suggested Essay Topics. Popular pages: The Oedipus Plays. Take a Study Break.
the most dangerous game essay questions
Many themes are brought up in the play, we see tragic flaws, the concept of inescapable fate […]. The definition of the word hero is quite skewed. People tend to have their own definitions and interpretations of what the word means. However, people can usually agree on who a hero is and what makes a person a hero. In most cases, a hero can be described as one who shows great courage and […]. Introduction The tragedy of Oedipus lies in the kings admirable search for truth and openness that meets with obstruction from those who would hide this truth and from his own figurative blindness to truth. Some scholars and […]. In the oracle at Delphi, a prophetic vision claims that King Laius?
is fated to be killed by the hands of his son. Neglecting the truth, Laius abandons his son to die on the mountainside as an act of resistance against the gods. Eventually, Laius is murdered where three roads meet towards Delphi. Years later, […]. When Oedipus was born, King Laius gained from a prophet that he was bound to be slaughtered by his very own child, thus requested Jocasta, his better […]. Geographically the story takes place in Athens, Greece. Since this is the case, it is a traditional tragedy, and if a story takes place in Greece, the time of the story is the fifth century, BCE. I […]. Oedipus was ignorant of his reality regardless of his vision.
Teiresias, then again, could simply see the truth. Oedipus — the King of Thebes — was one of the best-known heroes of all the Greek legends. He had dark, wavy hair and resembled what a perfect, attractive human man would look like. His ankles were covered with scars and he was […]. As part of three Theban plays written by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex is the story of man who consults an oracle and learns of his fate; that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Later, Oedipus becomes king after defeating the Sphinx, that was […]. Have you ever been blinded to the truth?
Sometimes there is more to reality then meets the eye and our own ignorance can lead us down a path that can lead to tragedy. Physical blindness is considered a disability, although blindness to the truth can be much worse. The demise of a person can be […]. The role of woman in each of these works play a significant role in each yet they are all portrayed in different aspects. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a very old story yet still the role of women in the story is very much important. You can get the idea that it might actually not be […]. Sigmund Freud is well known by many of us for countless reasons. He has earned his title as the founder of psychoanalysis Gay , is known for his innovative discoveries involving psychology, and even has psychological phenomena named after him for example, the Freudian slip.
Forever changing the way we understand ourselves and other people, […]. Oedipus the King has been portrayed as a victim of fate and the gods in the tragic play by Sophocles. The success of the play is based on the innocence of Oedipus, which makes it evident that he was not entirely responsible for his downfall. I believe Sophocles would agree that the events that unfolded for Oedipus were destined to occur. Some events, like Oedipus Marrying his mother and killing his father, were prophesied to Laius and Jocasta, his parents. The author represents destiny as a powerful tool. Before Oedipus was born, Queen Jocasta and the King of Thebes, Laius, were prophesied by god Apollo that their unborn son would marry his mother and kill his father.
Unfortunately, Oedipus does not die on the mountain, in fact, he grew up as a strong man who kills Laius unknowingly. It indicates that Oedipus was blindly following a path of destiny, which he denies. As a result, Thebes experiences a series of plagues by the gods, which is another instance of fate. Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert. Plagiarism checker Do the check. Writing Help Ask for help. Paraphrasing Tool Paraphrase my essay. Essay examples. Essay topics. Oedipus Rex: Tragic Hero Oedipus displays the Aristotelian elements of a tragic hero when his hamartia causes him to suffer a peripeteia in which he loses all that he holds dear, his catharsis offers some relief from the pain of his downfall, and ultimately this tragedy creates a legacy that suggests fate is an uncontrollable force that cannot be […].
Oedipus Vs Hamlet In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, when Thebes is struck with the aid of a plague, the human beings ask King Oedipus to supply them from its horrors. Oedipus the King: Oedipus Complex In Oedipus The King by Sophocles, tells the story of the new king of Thebes who fulfilled the prophecy of killing his father and having sexual relations with his mother while trying to avoid it Sophocles. Situational Irony in Oedipus Rex The Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex has many examples of irony. Symbolism and Irony in Oedipus the King Oedipus the King begins with Oedipus, the king of Thebes.
Tragedy as a whole is composed of six elements: plot, character, language, thought, spectacle and melody. In this passage, Shakespeare brings into lucidity Hamlet's tragic flaw: as he delayed his plan to avenge his father against Claudius, Hamlet opens an opportunity for the murderer of his father Claudius to plan ahead and instead, turn the tables against Hamlet, which eventually results to his death. It was only at the end of the play that Hamlet redeems himself from his mistakes in life. This is when he achieves "catharsis," the "end or goal of tragedy" Hamlet finally kills Claudius before he dies himself, and Fortinbras best illustrates his redemption by exulting him by saying, "Let four captains Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, for he was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royal, and for his passage, the soldiers' music and the rite of war Speak loudly for him" Although Oedipus in the play "Oedipus the King" can be….
By the end of the play, Othello does not even try to seek out the truth. When he finally talks to Desdemona, he is so outraged what she has to say does not matter. His mind is already made up and she does not stand a chance. Truth becomes apparent for him when it is too late. He tells Lodovico that he is Desdemona's murderer and that he "loved not wisely, but too well" Shakespeare V. Oedipus, too, becomes aware of his own foolishness when it is too late for him to correct anything. Truth, they discover, can be quite far from what they once believed. Oedipus does not suffer from jealousy but he does fall victim to arrogance. It can be just as damaging as jealousy when it comes to clouding judgment and limiting logic.
With Oedipus, Sophocles allows the play to come full circle with the chorus…. Othello" by William Shakespeare, "Oedipus the King" translated by Robert Fagles, and Girl by Jamaica Kincaid. These are dense and rich pieces of writing that have stood the test of time. These works continue to influence and offer insight in the modern moment. These plays and this novel are filled with many themes, motifs, symbols, and other literary techniques. The paper will primarily focus upon themes of jealousy and betrayal, gender and power, vision, and at the heart of it all, fear.
The paper will limit the scope of the comparison to the aforementioned themes and mostly primary characters within each. What do these literary texts have in common and what do they teach readers about the human condition? Jealousy and betrayal are rampant in "Othello. He convinces Othello that Desdemona, Othello's fiancee, conducts romantic affairs outside of their relationship. Macbeth and Oediups Rex are great tragedies from two very different time periods. Even though such different writers wrote them, and in such different times, the similarities that exist between the two are remarkable. Shakespeare and Sophocles both understood exactly what it took to write great tragedy. By comparing how fate plays a part in each play, it is better seen that perhaps Sophocles and Shakespeare were on similar wavelengths.
Are the tragic heroes of each play doomed to live out their fate or is there an element of free will that causes each of their downfalls. Surely, it may be a little of both. Oedipus tells the story of a young boy named Oedipus, who, when he was born, was given up to be adopted by his mother and father. Later when Oedipus was growing up, he asked his adopted parents who his mother and father really were. academic quality sources play film margins 1 inch left 12 point Times New Roman Arial font document sources cite APA format. The story of Oedipus has pervaded out society and has come to provide a great deal of individuals with more information regarding thinking in Ancient Greece. Sophocles designed the story so as for audiences to gain a complex understanding of the tragic irony unfolding as the storyline progresses.
The ancient Greek tragedian told the story of a young individual who becomes addicted to material values and unknowingly comes to murder his father, marry his mother, and eventually ends up being both brother and father to his children. Irony is one of the principal concepts dominating the play and it makes it possible for audiences to express little to no surprise regarding how the storyline unfolds. Oedipus' father is the person responsible for triggering a series of…. The vengeance of the gods is further underscored by the Chorus who warns that "But if any man comes striding, high and mighty, in all he says and does, no fear of justice, no reverence for the temples of the gods-let a rough doom tear him down, repay his pride, breakneck, ruinous pride!
In the last stage, Oedipus is a man who has become humbled with the pain and dejection of knowing the truth of reality as he is forced to admit his tragic destiny by the overwhelming evidence. The writer shows the sudden change in the protagonist's persona when Oedipus condemns himself by saying, "I stand revealed at last -- cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands! Aristotle and Tragedy To Aristotle, tragedy had to follow certain characteristics. These included certain rendering of protagonist, the style of the writing, the direction of the plot, the diction, the reflection, the context, and the melody.
Each and everything had its own nuances and meaning and the ideal Tragedy would be written in such a way that the reader or spectator would find the protagonist similar to himself and pity him all the more. Seeing the protagonist as a naive person whose misfortune came about through error rather than through vice, the reader may identify with himself and see the same situation occurring to him. This purging of fear will cause a catharsis that will balance the emotions and leave the person with a greater emotional well-being than he had before. It is in this manner, that Aristotle considered Tragedy to be a greater tool than history since it dramatizes….
This is because Sophocles deals with deep and important human situations and emotions. Even though we can no longer imagine what it would be like to live in the world which Sophocles inhabits, we can completely understand his characters because they are fully human and human nature does not change much over time. Though he writes about kings and queens and the wealthy of Greece, his characters have the sense of being representatives of every man and woman, in every era. His characters struggle with pride and with sin and with accepting the will of the gods -- when they do things they should not do, in the end they are punished, and accept this punishment. This gives them a greater morality than sinners who are portrayed….
The things that ruins his life is his humanity and while this is a sad tale, it is one filled with knowledge for those who want to see how not to ruin one's life. It teaches us and one of the most resilient characteristics of man is that he can learn from his mistakes if he is courageous enough. Plato considered drama and tragedy from another perspective, namely an isolated one. He wrote, "We would not have our guardians grow up amid images of moral deformity. until they silently gather a festering mass of corruption in their own soul" Plato X and he also expressed the notion that artists would better serve the world if they were "gifted to discern the true nature of the beautiful and graceful" X.
In Book X, he writes we should "remain firm in our conviction that hymns to the gods and…. Sophocles' "Antigone" Antigone is motivated to disobey Creon's edict and give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial because she believes both Eteocles and Polyneices deserve the same honor, to be reunited with their deceased parents to live in death in Hades. Antigone says, lines "Yea, hath not Creon, of our two brothers slain, honored with burial one, disdained the other? When Antigone says, "So with my loved one loved shall I abide, my crime a deed most holy: for the dead longer have I to please than these on earth," it shows us the importance Antigone places on the afterlife. It is because of this importance and Antigone's own sense of right that she was motivated to disobey Creon's edict.
Ismene is a foil to Antigone when she refuses to help bury their brother, Polyneices. The Oedipal Loop: Substance Abusers vs. One is, after all, literally on top of things by law, decree, and birth-the other only gets "to the top" in an illusory world created by reliance on the drug of choice. But upon closer examination, especially in the play Oedipus the King, the mindset of the substance abuser and that of a misguided monarch turn out to be similar in an almost uncanny number of ways. It has been said that Oedipus is above all a "victim. Similarly, many people in the web of substance abuse consider themselves "victims" of their addiction.
However, this sort of view of both King and addict is something of an oversimplification. In both…. Prior to Oedipus' arrival, Creon was left the thrown while the true king, Oedipus' father, went to consult the oracle for advice. Of course when doing this he was killed, which set into motion Oedipus' arrival, unseating of Creon and marrying of his mother. The question then is, in this story, why is it that Oedipus as king becomes a fool when his father, as king, went to seek advice. What can be gained from this story is that in order to become king one must take something from somebody else and is thus thrust into a life of always being on the defense.
In such a state, one trust nobody as everyone is potentially after your power. In other words, power corrupts in a manner of paranoia. Thus, it lead Oedipus' father to dress as a servant and roam the roads for advice on keeping his power. It led…. Antigone Sophocles, an Athenian politician and dramatist, wrote Antigone and Oedipus the King, two famous works, known for the connection of tragedy between generations of the characters. Indeed, Antigone's fate is shaped not only through her own actions, but through Oedipus' sin as well. Any analysis of Antigone is therefore incomplete without first taking into account its linkages to Oedipus.
Both Antigone and Oedipus have the same theme of the hubris or arrogance of even the most powerful of men Oedipus and Creon ultimately having to bow down before 'the supreme will and power of the Gods', as exemplified in "But if any man comes striding, high and mighty, in all he says and does, no fear of justice, no reverence for the temples of the gods -- let a rough doom tear him down, repay his pride, breakneck, ruinous pride! There isn't one time in the film that Martin doesn't act out of passion. Unlike Oedipus, Martin does not choose blindness but rather it is a result of his passion and desire for Mini.
Watching Mini's First Time, the audience has a sort of god-like perspective as perhaps the audience felt in one of the great Greek theatres. As one watches the film, there is a definite feeling that it isn't going to end well for the humans involved. We can see the machinations growing and growing until they spin out of control and utter chaos is revealed. We are not sure what the fate of the characters will be, unlike Oedipus because we are so familiar with it, but like Oedipus, we know that there isn't much hope. In the Iliad and Odyssey, the gods do occasionally look down upon the humans with some compassion and interest -- and…. Classical and Modern Greek Theater There are clear connections between the classical and modern theater in Greece - just as there are clear connections between the theater of classical Greece and the modern theater of the West in general.
Much of what we believe to be proper theater-making comes from classical works: We still use many of the same ideas about character, about motif, about plot. But even as many of the internal structures have remained the same, the culture in which the plays of ancient and modern Greece are written and produced has changed dramatically, thus changing the content and understanding of the plays themselves. We can see how theater has changed and how it has not by examining one particular aspect of that runs through so many Greek plays, the concept of free will. The works of the ancient Greek playwrights are difficult for us to read within….
Instead, the servant leaves the baby outside to let the Gods decide what will become of him. He is eventually given to the King of Corinth who was childless. Hitting adolescence, Oedipus also consults an oracle who tells him he will mate with his own mother and kill his father. In order to avoid this, Oedipus leaves Corinth, thinking he will protect his parents from the prophecy. On his way from Corinth to Thebes, Oedipus has an argument with a chariot driver regarding the right of way, a fight ensues, and Oedipus kills the other man. Oddly, the other driver was Laius, his real father, thus fulfilling part of the prophecy. Continuing his trip, Oedipus solves the infamous riddle of the Sphinx -- "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?
In the "Odyssey" Achilles says to Odysseus, that it is better to be a living dog than honored in Hades. Submission to fate is ultimately what the Greeks seem to honor as a 'good' attitude. Oedipus the King finally accepts his cursed status, rather than fleeing from it, and from the beginning of her life, Antigone seems to anticipate that she will meet with an unhappy end. Although she is betrothed to marry, she does not seem to see her future as a married woman as an obligation that supersedes her obligation as a sister, and even says that because she can only have one brother, unlike a husband; obligations to the family come before everything. The play seems to suggest that this is valid, given the wrath that falls upon Creon's head.
But evil also falls upon the heads of the innocent, because of the actions of the guilty,…. Religions Ancient connections Christianity: Compared with Greek and Roman religions Christianity is a monotheistic religion. In contrast, Greek and Roman religion were polytheistic and viewed the world as being controlled and created by many gods. Most conceptions of Christianity viewed God as existing as a trinity: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but in Greek and Roman religion, the 'gods' were plural in number and comprised many personas of different genders and levels of power. In the Holy Trinity, all aspects of the divine were equally powerful, while in Greek and Roman religion, certain gods had greater power. In Greece, the Olympic gods had greatest authority. In Rome, Jupiter was a powerful god, as were the household gods, and even the deified Emperor himself.
The conception of the beginning of the world in Christianity suggested that God made the world with a specific intention, and that God wished to make…. Classical Literature Job and Oedipus: A Comparison and Contrast Essay There are many similarities between Job and Oedipus, and there are a few differences that must be discussed as well. The purpose and goal of this paper is to make clear the important ways that Job and Oedipus were very much alike, and also the important ways that they were different. In doing so, much about the two men and how they lived their lives, at least in the tales told of them, will be brought to light for examination and scrutiny based on how they react to situations that they are placed in.
It is clear that Oedipus is definitely acting in the best interests of the community, but he does not do this because he feels some moral or ethical obligation toward that community. The things that Oedipus does he does only for himself, and there is nothing…. Arthur Miller was certainly aware of the nature of Greek tragedy and made a deliberate decision to use the structure of Greek drama as a basis for his play A View from the Bridge, as he had previously done for All My Sons. The central character, Eddie Carbone, fits well with the central figure in All My Sons and Death of a Salesman, being a family patriarch who has also been a complete failure as a father. He has no children of his own, so he looks after his wife's young niece.
Over time, he has developed unconscious sexual feelings toward her, affecting everyone around him. Eddie is an ordinary man living among other ordinary men. The high-born nature of the traditional tragic hero is gone now, though Carbone can be seen as a middle-class version of a high-born hero because he is respected in his community and the head…. Tragic Hero begins with an examination of Oedipus Rex. But, while he is the archetype of this particular literary character, Hamlet is, perhaps, the most well developed and psychologically complex of tragic heroes.
For the Greeks, all things in life are preordained, which is what makes for the tragedy of Oedipus - his attempt to make his own destiny. Over the course of time, however, while the form of the tragic hero did not change, the reason for his being tragic did. The social world of the Renaissance had shifted from a philosophy of determinism to one of individualism - that we all have the choice to accept or deny our relationship with God. This makes Hamlet a tragic hero who is punished not for a flaunting of destiny, but because he is mad. It is the purpose of this paper to examine both Oedipus Rex and Hamlet as tragic…. Sophocles According to Aristotle, the tragic hero's suffering results from an error hamartia he or she makes. Does Antigone make a mistake, and if so, of what kind?
Sophocles wrote the play Antigone in BC in which the emotions of loyalty, love and honor are found in conflict of each other as Antigone ignores Creon's law and follows that of the Gods, by burying her brother, Polynices who otherwise has died a traitor. In this regard, Antigone shows nothing but pure, unadulterated love for her brother, coupled with the need to fulfill what has been written above that of Creon and the laws of man. Antigone therefore does not make a mistake in wanting to bury her brother and disobey Creon, as she states in "As for the poor corpse of Polynices, however, they say that an edict has been published to the townsmen that no one shall bury…. Similar to many other initiation myths, Gilgamesh has to overcome obstacles such as the scorpion monsters that bar his way.
The intense desire that Gilgamesh has to find the answer to eternal life is shown in the poem by the fact that he rejects the advice of Siduri to accept the limitations of the human condition. He also has to travel over the Waters of Death. When he meets Utnapishtim he is told the story of the flood and the decision of the gods to destroy mankind, and how Utnapishtim obtained everlasting life. Utnapishtim makes Gilgamesh undergo certain tests in order to obtain the gift of immortality. However Gilgamesh fails the test to stay awake for a week. As he is departing, Utnapishtim's wife persuades her husband to tell Gilgamesh about a certain plant that restores youth.
Gilgamesh takes the plant with him to share with others in Uruk. While the judges can be considered responsible for hamartia, Socrates himself is also accountable for hamartia when considering that he plays an important role in influencing the judges in wanting to put him to death. He actually has a choice, but he is reluctant to adopt an attitude that would induce feelings related to mercy. Ethos is also a dominant concept across Socrates' discourse, as he apparently believed that by influencing the audience to think about how they perceive goodness he would open people's eyes and influence them in seeing that he was actually innocent. Socrates basically felt that people needed to think about themselves and on how they understand the difference between right and wrong in order to be able to learn more about his personality.
He practically believed that by adopting this attitude he would influence the masses in feeling that it would be extremely wrong for them…. organized response topic options. Discuss role religion literature Ancient, Middle, Renaissance periods, work period illustrate comments. How writer view God gods? How work view man's place universe. Select two works from the readings for this course and demonstrate how each fits the definition of a tragedy. It is crucial that you understand and define in your response the elements that constitute tragedy and how each work fits those conventions.
The classical definition of a tragic hero is that of a great man brought low by a tragic, fatal flaw. Such is the case with Oedipus. Oedipus begins Sophocles' play as a great and respected king, widely beloved for freeing Thebes from control of the evil Sphinx. Oedipus is so confident in his ability as a leader that when a plague strikes Thebes, he vows to get to the bottom of the problem and exile the citizen who is responsible…. Creon as a Tragic Hero Antigone, a play written by Sophocles consisted of three main themes, all of which play a significant role in the portrayal and understanding of the play.
These themes comprise of love, fate, and pride. To begin with, Oedipus has murdered his father, who was the king of Thebes, unaware that it was his father. Subsequent to this, he took over and became the king of Thebes. What is more, Oedipus ended up marrying the reigning queen of Thebes, who was his mother and bore four children. Antigone is one of the children that was born out of this relationship. In the end, when Oedipus came to the realization of what he had actually done, he went on to move away and cut out his eyes. Subsequent to all of this, it is Creon that ended up taking over as the king of Thebes.
The sense…. Today, however, it is largely considered that a tragedy can be comic in parts, and need not necessarily result in an unhappy ending or death Thorndike, p. Thus, it is evident that types or genres of drama are intended to be categories that are not firm and that many plays may fit into a number of categories simultaneously. Indeed, the preceding observation is certainly true of many of Shakespeare's plays: "Shakespeare -- uses comedy in tragedy and tragedy in comedy difficult to categorize. Antigone Literature has the ability to reflect the society in which the piece was created and the cultural beliefs of that community. This cultural perspective also has to do with the religion of the community in which the piece of literature was written.
The discrepancy between religious belief and the demands and order of the governmental system is a particularly common theme in literature. Perhaps one of the best examples of a piece of literature representing this dichotomy is Antigone which is the second play in Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy. Although the story of Antigone may be less well-known than that of her father Oedipus, it is no less compelling and tragic. Antigone desires to bury her brother properly, according the religious beliefs of Ancient Greece but is thwarted because he is regarded by the people of Thebes as a traitor. Polynices, her brother, has engaged in warfare with his brother….
Hamlet and Revenge Hamlet -- Prince of Denmark -- is considered to be one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Meyer, It is also one of his most complex plays. It is about the evolution of a character within the context of a revenge drama -- that of Hamlet in Hamlet. In keeping with the revenge-theme of this drama, this thesis of this essay will aver that Shakespeare exalts Hamlet as a hero -- justifiably, though within reason. Indeed, Hamlet is a hero. He rights a horrible wrong. The reader of the play hopes against hope that his quest for vengeance is successful. This vengeance takes the form of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
The reader of the play is taken to emotional upheavals when the failure of Hamlet's quest almost becomes a certitude but for a quirk of fate -- the exchange of swords. Thus, the nobility of Antigone's character lies in her reluctance to condemn her sister, whereas her tragic flaw lies in her fanatical devotion to the men in her family, to the point that she wishes to lie with her brother's corpse. Antigone's fall comes when she is caught burying Polyneices' corpse, and the fact that her subservience to patriarchy is the precise reason for this fall is revealed in Creon's response. When Creon condemns Antigone to her early grave, but before Ismene enters in her attempt to claim responsibility, Creon tell Antigone that she should "Then go down to the dead.
No woman's going to govern me" Thus, it is Antigone's devotion to honoring men which gets her arrested, and it is the cultural patriarchy of her society which condemns her to being buried alive, perfectly illustrating how Antigone's own tragic flaw…. The fact that Lysistrata's "came to power" by virtue of her own leadership abilities which were recognized and celebrated by their peers rather than having them thrust upon her from above is pointed out by Ober , who reports, "The Athenians' demonstrated concern with native intelligence, their distrust of elite education, and their respect for the authority of the elders are parodied by Aristophanes, who mimics rhetorical topoi in the speech of Lysistrata, the female demagogue: Listen to my words I am a woman, but I'm smart enough Indeed, my mind's not bad at all.
Having listened to my father's discourses And those of the older men, I'm not ill educated. Lysistrata quoted in Ober at Indeed, Lysistrata's leadership qualities were clearly demonstrated in her ability to organize the women of Athens to show the warring men of the city just who in fact had "the power" suggests…. render up myself Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night At first, Hamlet believes the ghost is from Purgatory because of the vividness of these images. In short, Hamlet begins to doubt the doctrine because the ghost ostensibly from Purgatory has asked him to commit a murder, to kill a king. Hamlet seldom displays a consistent attitude to Purgatory in the play. In his most famous soliloquy, Hamlet says that death is a place from which "no traveler returns" indicating he doubts the ghost III.
Hamlet wrestles…. He is described as being of gigantic size and of tremendous emotion. Always Achilles is described with the most exaggerated terms, shining like the sun or falling in the most absolute wretchedness. In a moment of sublimity oddly precognizant of gothic writers like E. Poe, Achilles refuses to bury his beloved Patrocles' body because "since I'm journeying under the earth after you, I'll postpone your burial Till that time, you'll lie like this with me A more archetypal approach would say that he was heroic because, more than any other character, he represented the purity of war.
Archtypically, he represents a purity of action and emotion than can drive men to battle, the pure warrior who is at once filled with the strength of emotion and will and yet resigned to perfect destiny, faithful towards the gods,…. Question Haemon is in an impossible position. Although it could be argued that Antigone is in an impossible position as well, forced to choose between obeying the will of the gods or the will of man, Haemon must choose between loyalty to his proposed wife and his father as the king of the state.
His temperament is such that he is an innate compromiser. He is forced to negotiate between two people who do not believe in compromise, upon any terms. Creon has begun a horrible chain of events. The Theban king has attempted to supplant the will of the gods, refusing to let Polynices' soul enter the underworld and be judged by the gods, thus taking on the role of the gods as judgers of men's souls as well as a judge of his citizen's actions on earth. By refusing to obey the king's orders and defy the gods,…. Thus, the idea of the Morai combined predestination and free will to suggest that a person could choose the actions he or she would take, but was predestined to face the consequences of those choices.
In the Oedipus trilogy, however, this view is questioned. Although Oedipus does suffer from a character flaw -- pride -- and he does kill his father and sleep with his mother, he does not know who they are when he does so. In addition, both events can be explained as rational. Oedipus kills his father, King Laius, when he does not know his identity after an altercation at an intersection. Jocusta, Laius's former wife, becomes his wife after the event. Although Oedipus is not a perfect human being, it can be argued that his treatment was unfair, as he did not make a conscious choice to kill his mother and father.
Indeed, Stephandies points…. Learning Tools Study Documents Writing Guides About us FAQs Our Blog Citation Generator Flash Card Generator Login SignUp. Filter By:. Keyword s Filter by Keywords: add comma between each. Most Relevant Recently Added Most Popular. Home Topics Literature Oedipus The King Fate Essays Oedipus The King Fate Essays Examples. Having trouble coming up with an Essay Title? Use our essay title generator to get ideas and recommendations instantly.
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