Tragedy In Oedipus Rex And Antigone By Euripides

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

            To identify the tragic hero in Sophocles’ renowned play “Antigone”, we should first consider both the elements present in Greek tragedies and what characteristics define a tragic hero. Aristotle’s definition of tragedy is: “Tragedy is a story taking the hero from happiness to misery because of a fatal flaw or mistake on his part. To be a true tragic hero he must also elicit a strong emotional response of pity and fear from the audience. This is known as catharsis or purging of emotion.” In most cases the tragic hero begins

Euripides’ Medea is a controversial play which explores the actions of the protagonist as a result of a moral dilemma. Immediately, the audience’s sympathies for Medea are stirred by the Chorus and Nurse who describe Medea’s suffering coupled with betrayal and immoral actions of her former husband Jason. Despite this however, the audience cannot help being disgusted by the extent Medea goes to in order to guarantee the questionable revenge of her traitorous husband. Although it is without a doubt easy to see that the sorceress’ situation is miserable because of the betrayal by Jason, it is nevertheless very difficult for the viewers to forget that she is vindictive and heartless due to the events that occur during the play’s climax.

In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.

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.

Born sometime around 496 BC, Sophocles was an ancient Greek playwright who wrote about 120 plays, though today only seven of his plays are in their complete form and was with Aeschylus and Euripides one of the classical Athens’ three great tragic playwrights. Out of all his plays, his most famous tragedies were Oedipus and Antigone, which are generally known as the Theban plays and in which Sophocles covers topics like murders and mysteries. By adding a third actor, Sophocles influenced the development of drama, but he is also known for writing many inspirational and motivational quotes. The quote “There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us” can be deciphered in many ways, but in the end the

Sophocles is “one of the three great writers of tragedies in ancient Greece” (1099). He wrote “Oedipus the King” in approximately 469 BCE. Arthur Miller provided his version of a tragedy in 1947 with the play “Death of a Salesman.” This paper will compare and contrast Sophocles “Oedipus the King” and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” to show that Sophocles had the better tragedy.

exercising his free choice by making bad decisions . Oedipus certainly meets these portrayals of a tragic hero. The dialect of tragedy consists of two circles: one is a relative point and the other is impacted and the effect on its audience. Sophocles and Aristotle’s achieve that task with absolute clearness. The modern reader, coming to the classic drama not entirely to the enjoyment, will not always surrender himself to the emotional effect. He is apt to worry about Greek ‘fatalism’ and the justice of the downfall of Oedipus, and, finding no satisfactory solution for these intellectual difficulties, loses half the pleasure that the drama was intended to produce . In dramatizing stories, there will dependably blends of passionate sentiments, suspense, and fervor to discover what’s

Tragedies involve a regular person experiencing a reversal in fortune because he or she results in a catharsis arousing fear and pity of the audience. In Greek tragedies, fatalism plays a dominant role in doing so as one is not a free agent because future(in tragedies, reversal of fortune) is predetermined - even if one knows and attempts to avoid it.

Plays can be compared despite being composed in different historical times, tragedy plays started progressing from traditional to modern by focusing on self-discovery and less on tragic mystery and destiny. Today, we will be comparing two tragic plays: Oedipus The King was a Greek tragedy by Sophocles was written in 429 BC, whereas The Death of a Salesman was written in 1949 by Arthur Miller. The two plays compare and differ in ways even though they were written at different times. Ancient Greek Drama honored the history of Athens, and-as Athens was in a protected war with Sparta-also honored the power of the gods and goddesses who might be prevailed upon for protection.

Aristotle’s poetics goes into vast detail regarding what characteristics are necessary for a top-notch tragedy. While these norms ' may seem to be easily understood through the reading of Aristotle’s fine-tuned poetics, there is a different understanding that needs to be interpreted to truly grasp the significance and qualifications that makeup a good tragedy. Of the many tragedies that Euripides provides us with, I chose the tragedy of Medea to further analyze, and present a strong argument for why I think Aristotle would find Medea a top-notch tragedy. According to Aristotle, a top-notch tragedy consists of six main elements, a strong plot, storyline, style, morals, ideas, staging and music, with the most important of these six being that of the plot. I strongly feel that in terms of what entails a quality tragedy, Euripides Medea meets a large majority of these things. Medea offers us a tragedy that is filled with a concrete plot, a strong source of tragic effect as well as a well-put together sequence of events to which lead up to the unfolding of such events.

The production of great tragedy in ancient Greece was a pursuit attempted by many but accomplished only by some. Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is considered today as one of the greatest tragedies produced by an author during this time. Carefully crafted motifs, character-developing monologues, and poignant irony all combine to create a tragedy that leaves readers stunned and grieving for poor Oedipus. Throughout Oedipus Rex, the motif of blindness and sight emphasizes the struggle between the power of free will and the power of the gods made evident in Oedipus’ interactions with Tiresias, Jokasta’s attempts to assuage Oedipus’ fear of his crime, and the development of Oedipus’ own character from a man who held little faith in prophecy to one who

The Greeks considered tragedy the greatest form for literature.  However, the tragic ends for the characters were not ordained or set by fate, but rather caused by certain characteristics belonging to that person.  Such is the case with the characters of Sophocles' plays Oedipus the King and Antigone.  Oedipus from King Oedipus, and Antigone and Creon from Antigone posses characteristics, especially pride, that caused their tragic ends.  As the play progress, other characteristics appear and further add to the problem to such a point that it is inevitable that it will end in tragedy.  Therefore the tragedies were not a result of a plot by the fates, but rather a result of the

In his Theory of Tragedy in the Poetics, Aristotle explains the characteristics necessary to create a good tragedy. He defines tragedy as “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude.” In other words, a tragedy must be focused and realistic. It must also evoke a “sense of fear and pity within the audience”, through its six parts, and end with a katharsis or cleansing of these emotions. The six parts of, a tragedy determines the quality and the most important parts include: plot and character. Aristotle also outlined the characteristics necessary in order to create an ideal tragic hero. Oedipus the King written by Sophocles, is an example of a perfect tragedy and Oedipus is a perfect example of a tragic hero.