I think the playwright Sophocles’ play, Aias was written in order to illustrate Sophocles’ opinion that greed was unethical, evil, and wrong. In Sophocles opinion, greed could lead to sorrowful consequences. “Sophocles was a playwright, a treasurer for the Athenian polis, a general under Pericles, and an advisor to Athens on financial matters during Peloponnesian Wars.” “Sophocles (ca. 496-406 BCE) was an almost legendary figure in fifth century BCE Athens. “ “Sophocles wrote over 125 plays, of which only seven survive, and he won the City Dionysia 18 times. “ “Aias was composed by Sophocles in the decade before the outburst of Peloponnesian Wars“ During this period, Athens was undergoing many different cultural changes. …show more content…
Aias’ greed damaged the army, fractured his reputation, left his wife a widow, and ultimately led to his suicide. “Within the play, there was a debate whether Aias deserved a proper burial. Menelaus and Agamemnon declined Aias a burial. They did not want to give Aias any respect after what he had done to the animals, and also because he had wanted to kill the council of Generals, including Odysseus. “ “Melenaus and Agamemnon wanted to leave Aias’ body on the street, so animals could devour his corpse for food.” “To the audience’s surprise, Odysseus, the one who received the armor instead of Aias and the one who Aias despised the most, convinced Menelaus and Agamemnon to allow Teucer to bury Aias.” In my opinion, Odysseus allowed a burial of Aias mainly because what goes around, come around. It was not because Odysseus liked Aias and not because Odysseus was kind and compassionate. The act was based on selfishness, because Odysseus was worried about his own future burial. By advocating a burial for Aias, Odysseus hoped he would be given a proper burial …show more content…
Aias acted more like a cave man, but at the same time he had a lot of feelings, including greed and jealousy. I think Aias was not an ordinary person in this play, because tragedy usually does not happen to ordinary people. In my opinion, a tragedy is the fall of a great person and revolves around the idea that such a person of greatness can fall and make a huge mistake. For example, if a homeless person died on the street, it would not be a tragedy inside a play. The homeless person’s death would be just sad, although it would definitely be a tragedy for his friends and family. I think, a tragic play revolves around a person who is great in the beginning, and falls from grace miserably by making a mistake. “The play Aias was a Greek tragedy, and Greek playwrights such as Sophocles truly excelled in the art form of tragedy.” “The basis for tragedy was conflict, but the tensions at work in tragedy – murder and revenge, crime and retribution, pride and humility, courage and cowardice – had far more serious consequences. “ “Tragedies often explored the physical and moral depths to which human life could descend.
Even though many of his men seemed wary of their journey, Odysseus was always determined to make it back to Ithica. When Odysseus’ ship washed up on the island of the Lotus Eaters, all of Odysseus’ men ate the Lotus flowers to escape from the hardships of life, but Odysseus refused. “I drove them, all three wailing, to the ships, tied them down under their rowing benches, and called the rest”(Homer 211-213). Instead, Odysseus tied up his men and dragged them back to the ship so they could get back on their journey home. Even though it would take 20 years to get home, Odysseus always showed great
Alcibiades, one of the generals of the expedition, had a lot of enemies in Athens, due to his luxury life and desire to get as much fame as possible. So, before the departure of expedition his enemies tried to do everything to implicate him in scandals and expose. All in all Alcibiades was
Orestes’ father, Agamemnon, is suffered for the truth of the prophecy, the child is the price: if he kills his child, his country will win the war. Due to this prophecy, Agamemnon is tortured and agonizing between his two important roles: father of his family and father of the country. If he chooses his family and doesn’t kill his child, they will lose the war. All people in the country will be tortured as slaves and colonists. However, if he chooses the win, the peace and the pleasant from a family will not exist anymore. His family will be demolished. Eventually, in the middle of the story, he decides to kill Iphigenia. Agamemnon chooses his country, his subjects, and the win, not his family’s peace. He makes Iphigenia drink three solutions including the pills which make her die. “I feel like I’ve done something so wrong that my whole life, my family, nothing will be able to- the worst mistake. I got it wrong. It was wrong. It was wrong” (Aeschylus, 56.) This demonstrates how he is suffered by the truth that he killed his daughter. His choice, even
Today, tragedy is understood as a disastrous event, that involves an enormous loss of life (ex: terrorist attack, natural disaster, etc.), which gains widespread media attention for public perception and world understanding. As a literary term, tragedy in a fictional narrative, typically drama involves a sorrowful event, where a good individual, who through a character flaw and/or conflict with an overwhelming effect, experiences setbacks of fortune from success to adversity and becomes a tragic individual. Tragedy usually involves the death of one or more characters (including the tragic individual) caused by the actions of a tragic individual and/or the villain in the literary work of art. (Aristotle)
After he is killed, Eurymakhos makes another appeal to Odysseus, saying that Antinous made them do it and they were just following orders. Odysseus does not seem to care. Following Eurymakhos’s plea for mercy was a very bloody, intense battle. Odysseus, with a little help from his son Telemakhos and the goddess Athena, was able to kill all of the men who had disgraced his family. This alone might have been enough, but Odysseus did not stop there.
Odysseus definitely justified his actions. The wooers were all trying to get his home, and his family. Yet everyone thought that Odysseus had died. I wouldn’t like to finally get home from the many trials that he was forced to go through, and find out that these people who claimed to serve me were all trying to take my family and home. He did what any one of us would’ve
Tragedy is a common genre in many plays especially in Shakespeare works. A tragedy is a play that has a catastrophic event that ends with an unhappy ending or the main
“Oedipus Rex” was a Greek Tragedy written by Sophocles in the fifth century BC. It was the first of a trilogy of plays surrounding the life of Oedipus. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays approximately 100 years before Aristotle even defined a tragedy and the tragic hero. Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy is “… an imitation of an action of high importance, complete and of some amplitude; in language enhanced by distinct and varying beauties; acted not narrated; by means of pity and fear effecting its purgation of these emotions” (Kennedy and Gioa 2010). According to Aristotle there were six elements to a tragedy: the plot, the character, the
Suddenly, Aigisthos ruled covering Agamemnon's state. Although in the end, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, appeared to revenge for his father and killed Aigisthos together with their mother. Menelaos and Helen were celebrating the separate marriage of their son and daughter. Telemachos and Peisistratos arrived at the court of Menelaos and Helen where they were welcomed. At dawn, Menelaos questioned why Telemachos occurred to Lacedaimon.
Oedipus the King is perhaps one of the most famous and influential of Sophocles' plays. It is a tragic play which focuses on the discovery by Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. On the surface of this drama there is, without a doubt, a tone of disillusionment.
During his flight, he Oedipus kills a caravan of presumed low-class travelers. Oedipus comes into Thebes a stranger and hero who solved the riddle of the sphinx. Believing that he is blessed with great luck, Oedipus marries the recently widowed Iokaste and becomes King of Thebes. After many years, a plague vexes the city and Kreon, brother of Iokaste, comes to Oedipus with news from the oracle. He states that the plague will be lifted when the murder of Laios is avenged. Oedipus claims that he sees and understands the terrible fate of Thebes and vows to find the murderer. Since the criminal is said to still be in Thebes, Oedipus believes that a man of his intelligence should have no difficulty in finding the perpetrator. When Oedipus is confronted by Teiresias with truth, perhaps it is Oedipus’ own hubris, which blinds him to the unthinkable truth.
Sophocles ' play “Oedipus Tyrannus” is an enigma. His play includes incest, murder and self-enlightenment all leading into the main theme of fate. Athenians believed that fate is not left up to man, but that is provided solely on the whims of the gods. Because of his dramatic approach to his plays Sophocles was considered one of the most brilliant and creative writers of his time.
By definition, a tragedy is a story that details the downfall of a protagonist. Most often, the protagonist (tragic hero) is a member of high society who is faced with an oppositional force, be it internal or external. In his Poetics, Aristotle states that "tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves, and these- thought and character- are the two natural causes from which actions spring, and on actions, again all success or failure depends...." This quote illustrates an aspect of tragedy upon which many works are based, including
The definition of tragedy in Webster’s dictionary is, "drama of elevated theme and diction and with unhappy ending; sad event, serious accident, calamity." However, the application of this terminology in Shakespearean Tragedy is more expressive. Tragedy does not only mean death or calamity, but in fact, it refers to a series of steps that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero and eventually to his tragic death. Lear, the main character in King Lear was affirmed as the tragic hero because the play meets all the requirements of a tragedy. In order for a character to be qualified as a tragic hero, he must be in a high status on the social chain and the hero also possesses a tragic flaw that initiates the
Aristotle defines a tragedy as a ‘representation of an action which is important, complete and limited in length. It is enacted not recited and by arousing pity and fear, it gives an outlet to emotions of this type.’