Learning from the Greek Dramas in class over a period has made my outlook on life and the activates I do very questionable, but in fact more understandable. I learned about 2 play writes that have been the most influential tragedies ever made, Oedipus Rex and Antigone written by Sophocles, which I will go in more detail later. This topic is very important to me because when I go to church and participate in sport; swimming. I learn about how God has a plan for us, like fate featured in the tragedies. Our fate is sealed and everything thing we do whether it’s bad or good has a reasoning for our life. Certain characters in the tragedies I can very much relate too and have personally have made me almost emotional. The characters almost all go through a rough rollercoaster of bad and good but some thrive from it and others fall because of it.
The tragedy Oedipus Rex was about a plague plaguing Thebes and the only way to end it was to find the murder of King Liyus and to banish him. We learn later from the story that Tiresias the blind prophet proclaims that Oedipus is the murder. Oedipus doesn’t know he is the murder due to his complicated childhood of been a foster and growing up with his non- biological parents, even though he doesn’t know he was abandoned by his real parents. Due to the prophecy and fate of Oedipus, he will kill his real father and marry his mother. Oedipus later learns of this prophecy and tries to escape his fate because he loves his parents, but during a
Full of drama and tragedy, Antigone can be used to relate to current conflicts. One such conflict is that between Haemon and his father Creon. Haemon looks up to Creon with honor and pride, but as conflict arises, that relation is disassociated and new feelings grow. The first conversation between them is what initiates the downfall of their bond. While it seems that Creon is the most important person in Haemon’s life, Antigone is in fact the one that has won Haemon over.
One day, Oedipus went to the Oracle of Delphi and found out that he was destined to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus tried to escape his fate by running away from Corinth, leaving who he thought were his real parents. However, he ended up running right into his real father. He saw a group of people riding a chariot at the crossroads and assumed that they were thieves. Laois happened to be one of them, and Oedipus killed him not knowing that he was his real dad. This is important since Oedipus fulfilled part of the prophecy. Oedipus remembered about his encounter with the chariot near the end of the play and said, “But he more than paid for it and soon was struck by the scepter from this very hand, lying on his back, at once thrown out of the car. I killed them all” (Sophocles, 39). Quite soon, he also won the throne of Thebes by answering the riddle of the Sphinx and unknowingly married Iocaste, his real mother.
Oedipus is a very ignorant character. The play reveals that he killed his father and slept with his mother. To make matters worse, he has no idea that he has done either of these things. As the play progresses, hints of Oedipus’s wrongdoings pop up sporadically, yet he does not catch on until the end. Other characters realize what is going on before Oedipus does. It is Oedipus’s ignorance that prolongs his search for King Laius’s killer and his realization of his
In the beginning of the story, Oedipus is very taken back by the situation. He will not accept the truth of his fate and accuses Tiresias of lying to him so Oedipus’s bother- in- law, Creon, could take the throne. Oedipus is extremely dumbfounded by this news because he had no knowledge of killing his father or marrying his mother, but what he learns later is that who he thought were his parents were not his real parents. When he finally realizes that he did in fact marry his own mother and kill his father, he accepts it and punishes himself in order to uphold his promise to his people. By this point there is no way Oedipus can escape his fate. Tiresias says to Oedipus, “No man in the world can make the gods do more than the gods will” (811). Since he did kill his father, the previous king, Oedipus has to be shunned by all of Thebes. Because there is no way of changing his fate, he accepts his responsibilities by giving himself the punishment he assigned to the murderer of Laius.
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
Oedipus the King is a tragedy that displays irony throughout the play. In the play, King Laius and his wife Jocasta learn that in the prophecy their newborn son, Oedipus, will kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent the prophecy from occurring, they decide to bind and tie his ankles and then abandoned him. When Oedipus grew up, he eventually learned about this prophecy and decided to leave his parents. What he did not realize was that the parents who raised him were not his biological parents. On his voyage to Thebes, Oedipus ended up in a chariot accident
Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles and was is titled Oedipus Rex in Latin. It is one of the most well-known Greek tragedies. As is the case with Greek tragedies—or roughly most tragedies that make their way to stage—fate plays a key role in the events in Oedipus Rex. Oedipus discovers there is a plague on his city. The only way to lift the plague is by slaying the former king’s killer. As the play’s acts unfold one discovers about the prophecy concerning Oedipus. The prophecy states that Oedipus is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. But was this just by chance or his predetermined fate.
Antigone is a play about a woman who disobeyed the King's order to not bury her brother. The play was written by the famous Greek tragedian, Sophocles, in 441 B.C. The story took place in the city of Thebes and the time period is not mentioned. The main characters introduced in the play are of Antigone, Ismene, Creon, and Haemon. The primary focus was centered on Antigone and the consequences she faces after breaking the King's orders.
Sophocles, a famous and renowned Greek dramatist, is the playwright to both the play Oedipus the King and Antigone. Along with Antigone and Oedipus Sophocles had also wrote Electra and Fete. Sophocles wrote many Greek tragedies which are plays in which the main character in the play suffers a tragedy due to some flaw of theirs. An example would be how Oedipus (thinking he is defying a prophecy) murders his father and weds his mother. His flaw was him trying to defy fate if he had not just stayed where he was he would’ve been fine. His works are referred to and taught all over the world in many schools along with colleges; this should give light to how will written his plays are and how
Humans can attempt to avoid a certain fate but if destinies are fixed they cannot be altered. Sophocles supports the notion that free will eludes us in works such as Oedipus the King and Antigone. Oedipus, Creon, Antigone, and Tiresias are characters in these epics whose lives represented the battle of truth and wisdom. Oedipus attempted to escape the prophecy in which he killed his own father and married his mother. He hastily discovered his past while trying to cure his city, and his efforts to change his fate fail when the prophecy is realized. His daughter Antigone wanted revenge after Oedipus’ death. Creon would not bury her brother so she did it herself and then allowed Creon to punish her by enclosing her in a tomb. She believed in
Over the course of history, rulers have been looked as responsible for the wellbeing of the people and a representation of the civilization. These rulers have often been strong dominant males, as depicted in Sophocles’ two Greek tragedies, Oedipus the King and Antigone. The plays are written in a series falling into the same setting. Oedipus and Creon both deal with being rulers in contrasting styles and we can see their true characteristics when stressful situations arise during their respective reigns. Oedipus is portrayed as a strong, yet fair ruler to his citizens. However, when Creon obtains power soon after, he embodies conflicting ideals and looks to serve his personal ego. Unlike Creon from Sophocles’ Antigone, Oedipus in Oedipus the King values his family, recognizes the importance of women, and serves well as a king. As a result, Oedipus’ demise was due to fate; however Creon’s demise was his own construction.
As the play begins Antigone is just meeting up with her sister and is telling her about the decree of King Creon. Antigone and her sister, Ismene, had two brothers who had killed each other on the battlefield. One of their brothers, Eteocles, was buried with the military honors of a soldier’s funeral, and yet the other, Polyneices, was to be left out to be food for the carrion birds since he died fighting against the city of Thebes. King Creon forbade publicly for anyone to bury the body of Polyneices under the penalty of death. Antigone is now determined to bury her brother and wants Ismene to help her. Ismene does not want to go against what the king has ordered and is fearful of what may become of her if she
Hans Rockwell 8/26/17 Question 1 Question 1.) One of the responses people usually have about Oedipus is if he really deserved the fate that he ended up with. It’s not his fault that Jocasta and Laius tried to outsmart fate and dispose of him.
In the Greek play, Oedipus unknowingly has cursed the entire town of Thebes. He was cursed to kill his father and marry his mother but never knew who his true parents were. As a result of him escaping from the town he was sent off to, he did exactly what was prophesied, killing his own father and marrying his mother, without knowing who his parents were. His father was the king and
In the Greek plays Oedipus Rex; Antigone (both by Sophocles); and Medea (by Euripides), they all share common motifs. Three of those motifs are determination, homicide, and suffering. In Greek plays there is always main characters with a determination to find or do something. While trying to achieve their goal it usually always leads to at least one homicide; however, some plays start off with a homicide. This makes the plays tragedies and causes characters great suffering.