The choices made by characters in Oedipus and Antigone ultimately leads to tragedy and suffering due to it being inevitable. In Oedipus the King, the main character, Oedipus is told about a prophecy where he kills his father and marries and has children with his mother. Oedipus isn't aware of him being adopted and believes in that in order to avoid the prophecy needs to be far away from Corinth and what he believes to be his biological parents, Polybus and Merope. His decision to leave Corinth to avoid the prophecy essentially leads to the prophecy being fulfilled, where he kills Laius and marries and has children with Jocasta, his biological parents, ultimately leading to his downfall where he blinds himself for the sin he has committed. Oedipus'
“When someone has to live the way I do, surrounded by so many evil things, how can she fail to find a benefit in death? And so for me meeting this fate won’t bring any pain. But if I’d allowed my own mother’s dead son to just lie there, an unburied corpse, then I’d feel distress. What’s going on here does not hurt me at all. If you think what I’m doing now is stupid, perhaps I’m being charged with foolishness by someone who’s a fool.” (Lines 523-533) Antigone’s words, actions, and ideas contrast with Creon’s character to the point of these two characters having conflicting motivations. These conflicting motivations cause the characteristics of anger, disrespectful and stubborn to be highlighted within Creon’s character. Ultimately these conflicting motivations develop Creon as a tragic hero by him gaining self-knowledge and showing the how he was wrong for attempting to kill Antigone, and the character interactions advance the plot and develop the theme by Antigone falling the laws by the good and Creon falling the laws of himself.
King Creon The Tragic Hero Character in “ Antigone ’’ Creon “ You there , you with your face bent down towards the ground , what do you say ? Do you deny you did this or admit it?” “ I admit I did it , I won’t deny that . “Antigone admits that she has buried her other brother , which was against king Creon orders . These conflicting motivations cause Creon’s arrogant , stubborn , and anxious ways .
The majority of Greek literature has one or more tragic or flawed characters. In the play, Antigone, Creon was the more tragic character, and Antigone had the greater downfall. In Antigone, the majority of the main characters have a tragic or fatal flaw. Creon and Antigone both had fatal flaws, which in the end led to their downfalls.
In both Homer's The Odyssey and Sophocles' Antigone, the concept of glory is explored through opposing perspectives, revealing conflict between individual integrity and societal authority. While Odysseus pursues glory through adherence to divine will and the fulfillment of prophecies, Antigone champions a vision of honor rooted in personal integrity and familial duty, all while challenging social norms. Also in Antigone, Creon offers an authoritarian view on glory that prioritizes obedience to the government authorities and the preservation of social orders. Through the characters' actions and dialogue, both texts offer different reflections on the different natures of glory and the dilemmas encountered in its pursuit. In The Odyssey, Homer
Sophocles was a greek poet known for his greek tragedies, stories and plays popular all across Greece, and even have a strong influence on today’s culture. Tragedies, which was such a large form of amusement that men who were actors could get out of military service at the time. Sophocles is prominent for his plays: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. Despite the many plays he has made, the ones being distinguish here are Antigone and Oedipus the King. Antigone and Oedipus were tragic heroes. It is beneficial to know that Oedipus is Antigone’s father and sibling due to him unknowingly marrying his mother, Jocasta, and killing his own father Laius, committing
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
The ancient Greek societies had a strong corrective method to maintain order. Authorities had to maintain a self-survival attitude, which consisted of putting away those few that could challenge their power and create chaos. Both Antigone of Sophocles and Socrates of Plato are examples of threat to the socio-political order or their respective societies.
Equally important to the role of fate in bringing about the downfall of Oedipus is the human flaw of arrogance that clouded Oedipus’ intellect to reason. One can ultimately see this human flaw in the beginning of the play as he says “Here I am myself – you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (p 262, line 7-9). One day Oedipus heard someone say that he wasn’t his father’s son in which bothered him greatly and triggered his curiosity in whether Polybus and Merope were his biological parents. So, as a way to figure out his identity and true origins, he left to Delphi to see the Oracle. However, instead of answering Oedipus’ answer of who his true parents were, the Oracle told him of his fate that “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see – you will kill your father the one who gave you life” (p. 297, lines 873-875). Hence, his arrogance is clearly showed as he disregards the prophecy, similar to the actions of Laius and Jocasta by escaping it, as he abandons Corinth and sets forth to a place where he “would never see the shame of all those oracles come true” (p. 297, lines 879-880). His flaw of
At least once in our lives we will face a situation where we have to pick the best from two worst circumstances. It might not be a life or death situation but it won’t be an easy decision to make either. But we do choose what we think is the best for us. We all must have heard about the famous play Antigone by Sophocles and the Apology by Plato. We find Antigone and Socrates in a similar dilemma as we read about them. They both face an ethical tragedy where they don’t know what the right thing to do is but they still chose what’s best for them. Justice involves a critical role in both of their lives. How might one define justice? Does it vary person to person or country to country? Antigone and Socrates both have their own view on justice.
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
In the story of “Antigone” Antigone wanted to give her brother a proper burial that was a law King Creon had made. Antigone loved her brother and was not satisfied with her brother’s improper burial. Even though if anyone in the city disobeys Creon’s law will be immediately punished, she did not have concern for herself only for her family. Creon was acting out of hatred and humility and did not have any concern for his new law that most did not agree with. When comparing Antigone and Creon it is apparent that Antigone is the stronger one of the two because she is able look past herself and do what was right for her family.
Both Creon of Sophocles’ Antigone and Achilles of Homer’s The Iliad end up allowing the body of their enemy a proper burial. During the time following the death of Hector, Achilles is in a position very similar to that which Creon deals with in Antigone. Both men show similar flaws, and face similar struggles. The difference between the two men is only subtly discernible until the telling moment when each man is faced with pressure to change his stance on the fate of the fallen warrior. Each man’s initial reaction is quite telling of his character, and the motives behind each man’s decision (although the motives are debatable) also help to expose his true nature. In the end, there seems to be a quality within each man which lies above
Oedipus the King by Sophocles is the story of a man who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. The story continues in the tradition of classic Greek plays, which were based upon the Greeks’ beliefs at the time. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods decided what would ultimately happen to each and every person. Since those gods destined Oedipus to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus’ life was definitely fated. However, the gods only decided where Oedipus’ life would eventually lead; they never planned the route he would take to get there. All the decisions that Oedipus made in order to fulfill his destiny, and the decisions he made after the fact, were of his own free will,
Sophocles’ play Antigone continues the calamitous story of the Theban royal family, recounting the conflict between Creon’s authority as king and Antigone’s sense of justice. While many of the events of the play are certainly tragic, whether or not Antigone and its characters should be considered tragic is less definite. Aristotle’s theory of a tragic hero calls for a basically good character who experiences a fall due to some flaw or error, experiencing a transformative realization and catharsis as a result. When considered together, the traits of both Antigone and Creon come together to fulfill all of the requirements for the play to be a tragedy, but neither character can be considered an Aristotelian tragic hero standing alone.
When comparing Oedipus and Medea we see the battle of good versus evil, as there is in any story that has a heroic or non heroic figure in the, but this time it is a little bit different from a normal good versus evil story since they are of course both tragedies. The question, in these stories, is whether or not Oedipus or Medea display any heroic qualities during the tragic battles, and the answer is yes but also no. As we know, there are many differences between Medea and Oedipus, but they both end up destroying everything they love and cherish around them because of the choices that they have made with the poor judgment that they had while they were fueled by anger.