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Antigone, Star Wars, and the Good Life

Good Essays

Sophocles’s play Antigone promotes a good life that, through careful analysis, is very similar to the Stoic theory of the good life. Antigone is a story about the members of the ancient Theban aristocracy vying for control of themselves and others; however, in its core it contains an exploration of the good life, that is trying to investigate what values will allow one to get what they want out of life. A group of philosophers, also of Greek origin, produced a theory of this topic; this group of thinkers is called the Stoics. Concerning the good life they had two main values, from which they believe a good life can originate. The first of the two is finding happiness from inner resources, or trying not to depend on things around you such as wealth or adventure to give you a sense of happiness. The second facet is that of not worrying about things that are out of your control, as there is no use. Antigone brings to stage these topics, and shows characters who either live according to them, and exit with a good life, and others who deny these, and end the play living in a bad life. Therefore the play shows through example, that Stoic values will lead to a positive way of living, and living against the values will lead to you not getting everything out of life. The two main characters in this tragedy are Creon, the king of Thebes, and uncle of the other character Antigone, the daughter of the last king of the same city Thebes. Creon does not live according to the values of

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