Ancient Greek Dramas : Oedipus Rex, Antigone, And Medea

Sophocles said that a man should never consider himself fortunate unless he can look back on his life and remember that life without pain. For Oedipus Rex, looking back is impossible to do without pain, a pain that stems from his prideful life. Oedipus is aware that he alone is responsible for his actions. He freely chooses to pursue and eventually accept his own life's destruction. Although fate victimizes Oedipus, he is a tragic figure since his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his undying quest for the truth ruin him.

In Sophocles play Oedipus the King, Sophocles depicts the horrible fate of Oedipus, a pompous, arrogant young ruler. The story begins in the Greek town of Thebes. A plague has descended upon the Thebians causing death and famine throughout the land. Oedipus, being the heroic king, takes full responsibility to find out the cause of their aliments. While working to discover the source of the plague, Oedipus stumbles upon the tragic truth of his heritage and the horrifying implications of his appointment to the throne. Unfortunately for Oedipus, everything ends in tragedy. With the suicide of his mother/wife and the self-inflicted blindness followed by exile from Thebes, Oedipus paved the path to his own

Greek theater encompassed many aspects that reflected the moral values and ideals of society. Their customs were tightly woven into the scripts of plays. Antigone and Oedipus the King, two renowned works of the Greek playwright Sophocles, explore these values through a plot thick with corruption, virtue, and determination. These plays reveal the burdens two Theban kings, Oedipus and Creon, as their lies and poor judgment corrode the integrity of their city, their families and themselves. Possessing a strong faith in their respective gods, the characters of these Greek plays are often led astray as they try to escape the twisted hand of fate, further warping their perception of reality. As their vain

Both the stories of "Antigone" and "Medea" are tragedies as per Aristotle's disaster subjects. Antigone and Medea both have plots that are brought into the play on account of certain sad occasions. For Medea the plot is that Medea's better half is going to wed the ruler of Corinth's little girl and, out of trepidation, the lord tries to oust Medea and her youngsters. So to settle the score with all of them Medea ascertains an approach to turn the tables on all of them regardless of the stakes. For Antigone the plot of her needing to cover her fallen sibling despite the fact that he is taboo from constantly being covered with the discipline being demise. She faces on the results by conferring suicide thus does her future spouse who happens to

The characters in the play Oedipus The King, by Sophocles, respond to suffering in a variety of ways. Characters like Tiresias respond altruistically to protect others from the truth, other characters similar to Oedipus tend to approach these situations with gall and are hasty with allegations, and the remaining characters respond like Jocasta with disbelief and extremity. Ironically, although suffering is painful and destructive, the way the characters dealt with suffering brought each of them to find the true value of clarity and healing that can be found when suffering.

The effect of pride is the centers piece of man’s perpetual role in his own destruction. This is illustrated by various characters’ such as Creon in Antigone by Sophocles, Oedipus in Oedipus the King by Sophocles and the Trojans in the Aeneid by Virgil. In the Antigone we see the consequence of one’s pride and desire for power take hold, when Creon decides to punish Antigone for disobeying the law off the land and proving Polynices with a burial. The disregard for any form of sympathy would eventually come to hunt Creon, in a reversal of fortune that would see him loose not only his power but his family as well. A similar pattern is observed in the Aeneid by Virgil, where the Trojans filled with pride and neglecting the voice of reason,

Tragedy deals with unexpected or unfortunate events that usually results in negative outcomes that affects the downfall of the main character in a play. Tragedy within Greek drama incorporates the time within the their lifestyle of religious and superstitions. Greek writers use tragedy as a theme in literature because it represents their civilization. Sophocles uses this theme in his dramatic plays because the audience is able to correspond to the story line. It allows the audience to relate and be able to feel vulnerable and let go of all the feelings such as sadness, anger, fear or pity. A Greek tragedy symbolizes the ability of a man or hero that has no control over the destiny God intended him to have. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, he illustrates Oedipus as a hero who encounters a tragic end. When Oedipus was born, the prophecy predicted that he would murder his father and marry his mother. His parents wanted to avoid his destiny by leaving him to die on a mountain. A shepherd found Oedipus who then gave him to the King and Queen of Corinth. They took him in and raised him as their own. Apollo told Oedipus what the out come of his destiny would be and did not want to face his fate so he left the city of Corinth, not knowing the king and queen of Corinth were his foster parents. He was seen as a hero because he saved the city of Thebes from the curse that was created by the Sphinx by solving its riddle. It was not until the city of Thebes broke out in a

Did you ever wonder that Antigone was going to be the tragic hero? In the play Antigone by Sophocles, Antigone’s family history is what sets up her tragic story. Eteocles and Polynices were both brothers who inherit the curse by their father Oedipus. Both were to serve as a king. Once Eteocles served his year as a king, he was going to be replaced by Polynices. Eteocles did not meet the rule peacefully with his brother Polynices, so they both faced each other in a battle before the gates of the city of Thebes. They both killed each other. Eteocles died defending his city, while Polynices went against the city he had come from, dying a traitor. King Creon, their uncle, favored Eteocles for defending the city of Thebes and awarded him with a

When a character in a story experiences great suffering they are a tragic hero. Oedipus suffers when he assembles all that he has been told and discovers that he has been “sinful in marriage, sinful in the shedding of blood” (KO 58). Meaning that he married his mother and killed his father as foretold in the prophecy and now he has to live with this burden. He undergoes pain and distress when he realizes he has killed the man who helped give him life and fell for the women who brought him into the world. Oedipus whole word has evolved, not only is he sinful but also because of him, there is a plague on Thebes. As a king, Oedipus is supposed to help his people but instead, he has caused them to suffer which makes him suffer for not being a

A tragic hero demonstrates three critical effects on the audience. First, the audience emerges an emotional devotion to the tragic hero; second, the audience dreads what may transpire the hero, and finally, after the tragedy strikes, the audience condolences the distressed hero. The independent members of the audience go through a purgation because of these inevitable attachments. Evidently, a tragic hero must be a multiplex and vigorous title character such as Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” and “Antigone”.

The plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone, written by Sophocles, display the themes defined by Aristotle. Are we the authors of our fate or is our fate written and destined to happen? In both plays, Oedipus and Antigone face their downfall because of self-will. They bring on their own doom because of their actions. The author explores many themes such as the high-standing and heroic traits of the tragic heroes as well as to the flaws and pride of Antigone and Oedipus. Finally, the author explores the theme of recognition and catastrophe. These topics are directly linked to the poetics of Aristotle. The two plays display many literary devices, the most significant ones being characterization and conflict. Oedipus and Antigone were of high-standing and had many heroic traits which influenced their actions.

Agamemnon by Aeschylus, Antigone by Sophocles, and Medea by Euripides are all well-written plays highlighting the tragic tales of three women scorned. Exposing all their flaws along the way, Clytemnestra, Antigone, and Medea let their untamed emotions build their paths that shines some light on the true nature of their relationships with the people around them and society in general in the hopes that their heightened emotions will help fix all of their troubles. Some fail to realize that there are levels to revenge and each of these women were all seeking revenge, but they were not all on the same level of the revenge they were seeking. These levels of revenge pertaining to these specific situations can be put in two main categories of direct and indirect revenge. From these two categories we can weigh the intended damage to the collateral damage. Throughout these production, we see that all different aspects of artistic designs are

In the Greek plays Oedipus Rex (by Sophocles); Antigone (by Sophocles); and Medea (by Euripides), they all share three common motifs, which are determination, homicide, and suffering. In Greek plays there is always main characters with a determination to find or do something. This usually always leads to a homicide. This makes the plays tragedies and causes characters great suffering.

Suffering is the most evident and powerful piece of Oedipus as the tragic hero in the story, particularly near the end. And there’s a unique aspect of the suffering in Oedipus Rex that is worth mentioning:

In the plays, Oedipus Rex and Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides (written in Ancient Greece during the 5th century B.C.), motifs: suicide, suffering, and revenge are present. The amount of suicides throughout Greek plays is tremendous, being seen as a brave, heroic way to die; and, one suicide often leads to more killing or, at the least, great suffering. Many of the characters suffer a great deal from situations that could have been avoided, simply if other characters did not seek revenge. Those characters looking for revenge get set on fulfilling their thoughts, eventually succeeding. This combination of motifs make the plays unique and leave the readers with a gloomy mood.