Acting on Emotion

Intensions – the very word itself provokes an interrogative stance. The observation of intentions can be utilized as a lens universally in our lives when viewing those that have engaged in wrong doings. A similar lens must be applied when critiquing written pieces, such as the work Oedipus The King, written by Sophocles. In this work, the tragic protagonist Oedipus is revealed throughout the course of the work to have committed several acts of malpractice – including some too heinous to discuss. However, Oedipus’ intentions consistently remain pure. Oedipus is a wholly noble and fearless character despite of his shameful acts, as shown in his actions of defeating the Sphinx, fleeing from

This is the role that sophocles played in shaping what is theatre today; what made him such a good playwright? Was it his Views on Religion? Did he differentiate himself on his opinion of women in his plays that of other playwrights of his time? Is he originally creative or just imitating other playwrights of his days? In this paper you will find the answers to all these questions and see the impact he has on today's theatre.

By examining the use of ethos and pathos in Antigone, it is clear that they both help to achieve Sophocles purpose. His purpose in writing the play was to show people that they need to stand up for what they believe in, even if that means they have to defy the government. Ethos is prevalent throughout the play with use of determining if things appeal to the greater good and if things are credible. Pathos is also prevalent throughout Antigone when the characters use personal beliefs, threats, and calls to action. The two rhetorical methods of ethos and pathos are used in many ways, to achieve Sophocles purpose.

The pursuit of justice is an endeavor that many find to be challenging and a quest itself, as one will come across various trials and complications that may stop them in their pursuit or may mislead them. As humans, we find moral correctness and righteousness a very appealing state to be in, as justice will act as a platform to satisfy the desire for this correctness. In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, we meet our miserable anti-hero, Oedipus, in his pursuit for truth and righting the wrong of the plague that is affecting his people of Thebes. As he makes efforts to solve this problem, he comes to find out that he is the source of the issue, thus exposing the tragic flaw of Oedipus and effectively making this play a very effective Greek tragedy. This pursuit of righteousness ends up being the downfall of Oedipus. In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, Oedipus pursues justice through his realization of his past, his interactions with various characters in the play, and comes to understand more of justice in his situation through his reactions to adversity in this play, in order to portray a questionably successful pursuit of justice.

Throughout the tragedy by Sophocles, the king Oedipus relies on his personal glory to attain long lasting fame and balks when confronted with anything that might shatter this perception that he is the best. While both characters have done marvelous deeds in the past, their inherent arrogance, which is part of the tragic flaw of each of the characters,

Many times in life, people think they can determine their own destiny, but, as the Greeks believe, people cannot change fate the gods set. Though people cannot change their fate, they can take responsibility for what fate has brought them. In the story Oedipus, by Sophocles, a young king named Oedipus discovers his dreadful fate. With this fate, he must take responsibility and accept the harsh realities of what’s to come. Oedipus is a very hubris character with good intentions, but because he is too confident, he suffers. In the story, the city of Thebes is in great turmoil due to the death of the previous king, Laius. With the thought of helping his people, Oedipus opens an investigation of King Laius’s murder, and to solve the mystery,

Sophocles gives the readers many different views of the play Oedipus the King in which we can take and analysis accordingly to things we are most interested in. Throughout the play Oedipus personally changes. He starts off as a being a smart leader, calm, and determined, but at the end of the play it reveals how he is angry, irrational and is blind to certain aspects, which becomes his downfall.

Both plays consist of characters that have varying personalities and convictions, these differing individuals show several universal truths. Specifically, these characters show that remaining stuck in one perspective based on beliefs can prevent the truth or morals needed for a situation from being acknowledged. With Sophocles’s Oedipus, the conflicted

Sophocles was able to project an outstanding tragedy by mirroring his own perspective into the play. Sophocles’ own political and military background is able to explain why King Kreon was adamant to uphold public order and the law

The author in this play appears to look for a more in-depth answer by indicating that the character is the hero and the foe thus showing a deeper understanding of how the conflict with the destiny of the characters leads to the union and severance of the relationship with others. In Sophocles play, he is asking the spectators to question their relationship with family, friends, and society? “Can we choose to embrace or reject our family, friends, and society, or do we have to accept the place to which we were born?” (p 701, Norton). The writer remains objective and all-knowing.

When Teiresias asks in Antigone (line 1051), "What prize outweighs the priceless worth of prudence?" he strikes (as usual) to the heart of the matter in Sophocles' Theban Plays. Sophocles dramatizes the struggle between fate and free will, in one sense, but in another sense the drama might be better understood as the struggle between the will of the goods (which it is prudent to follow, according to Teiresias) and man's will (which is often imprudent). Sophocles' characters are moved by their own wills, of course (either in accordance or in conflict with the will of the gods). Oedipus in Oedipus the King is determined to pursue the truth in spite of the objections of Jocasta, the priest, and his own misgivings. In Oedipus at Colonus, Theseus "cannot rest" (line 1773) until he has served both Antigone and the late Oedipus (implying that conscience is his motivator awareness, in other words, of his duty towards them). In Antigone, Antigone acts in accordance to the will of the gods (but in disobedience to the will of Creon) and does so knowing the punishment that awaits her: "Go I, his prisoner, because I honored those things to which honor truly belongs" (lines 178-9). This paper will show how while fate is a powerful force in The Theban Plays, the characters themselves are still left to exercise their own free will (either with respect or disrespect to will of the gods). Thus, the main drama consists not in the

John F. Kennedy once said “A man must do what he must in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures...and that is the basis of human morality”. But when someone’s ambition is to do something wrong, how does their actions reflect on their morality? In the play Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone and King Creon’s decisions and choices reflect on their consequences and morality. One of the main characters in play, King Creon, makes some awful decisions that make him reflect on his own moral values. Another character, Antigone has a compulsive motive to bury her brother, Polynices, but she isn’t allowed to transgress the king’s command and despite the consequences she still attempts to bury Polyneices. Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan are two psychologists that created the Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development and Gilligan’s Ethics of Care Theory scales which show where one’s morality may rank depending on one’s actions. Even though Creon and Antigone started with the same circumstances and conditions, their morality causes them to stand on different levels and stages on Lawrence Kohlberg’s and Carol Gilligan’s scales and as well as on other Moral scales.

Imagine that in your life you have everything you've ever wanted. Money, perfect job, perfect spouse. Your life has become the dream you’ve always had. Then you lose it all, just because of the prideful way you treated others. In life, we often believe in karma; the theory that what goes around comes around, and when society treats others unfairly we often lose our humility along with important people due to your pride. In Sophocles plays Oedipus the King and Antigone, characters face tragedy because of their pride which leads them into conflict and overall tragedy.

Consequently, he realizes the futility of war and begins to develop a deep hatred for war and its senseless misery. Sophocles (496-406 BCE) was the greatest Athenian dramatist who wrote the play, Oedipus the King, which has stood ever since Classical times as a symbol of Greek tragic drama. Sophocles combined an awareness of the tragic consequences of individual mistakes with a belief in the collective ability and the dignity of the

Sophocles rarely had his chorus intervene in the action, but it continued to have a close emotional bond with it in terms of its observations, advice and admonitions. The chorus rarely appeals to the audience, using words coming directly from the intentions of the poet. Nevertheless, however topical they may have seemed to his audiences, statements of this kind, such as the glorious tribute to Attica in Oedipus Coloneus, or the admonition against flouting divine law in Oedipus Rex, never lacked adequate motivation in terms of the actions. (114)