Sophocles College Essays Samples For Students

Cocteau makes references to the Oedipus as human. In essence, he represents him to possess human characteristics and traits. He illustrates Oedipus as a virginal youth. On the same note, Cocteau states that, Oedipus arrogance was too overwhelming in the interactions that he engaged in. In his interactions with Sphinx, she enables him escape a deadly situation. However the case, Oedipus does not recognize the fact that assistance had been abetted in his favor. His manifestations of arrogance are hence illustrated along these cones. In this regard, it is according to Cocteau view of what Oedipus was. He goes ahead to ...

Thesis

Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles that begins with the deaths of two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices; their deaths are caused by their own swords in a struggle for the throne after their father, Oedipus, dies. Creon, the relative who takes up the throne allows for an honourable burial of Eteocles but denies Polyneices the same respect. He issues a decree that Polyneices’ body be dumped in the wild and no respect to be paid for it. Antigone, Polyneices and Eteocles’ sister, learns of the decree but goes ahead to bury her brother, Polyneices, despite the orders given by the king, Creon ( ...

Oedipus Rex is an astounding and great Sophoclean play which portrays a tragic hero in a unique way. The play was composed during the ancient Greece time when Sophocles took advantage of the using character flaws in the drama. He gave Oedipus the role of a tragic hero to ensure that he captured the attention of the audience. Sophocles’ play was outstanding because the play-watchers felt to be part of it and experienced a catharsis of reactions. At the beginning of the play, Sophocles gives Oedipus a decidedly recognized character with a high sense of intelligence. Oedipus is portrayed as a privileged individual who is not ...

Oedipus Rex, written by the Greek playwright Sophocles, tells the story of the titular King Oedipus, who reaches the status of King of Thebes only to become embroiled in an investigation into the murder of the previous king, Laius. Over the course of the play, he is informed of a prophecy in which he is said to kill his father and marry his mother; despite the inevitable nature of this prophecy, Oedipus refuses to believe it. However, once he is told that he was the one who killed King Laius unknowingly in a raid some time ago, he learns that he ...

Sophocles was one of the most prescient and well-regarded playwrights of Greek drama, whose tragedies have established many literary and theatrical conventions that are still alive today. While Sophocles’ work is indicative of the culture in which it was created, it is also a trenchant critique of human nature as well. This comes across especially clearly in his Theban plays – Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus – in which he uses his stories and characters to reflect flaws and issues he sees with the human condition and its relationship with the gods. Exploring these critical aspects of Sophocles’ Theban ...

Introduction

The main antagonist in the Theban plays, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, Creon undergoes a major character transformation. This is clearly indicated in the three roles he takes up in respective plays. In Oedipus the King, Creon is the loyal brother-in-law who is accused by the former of murder. He is depicted as a lover of his family and of the people of Thebes. In Oedipus at Colonus, this nature slowly fades away and he becomes devious and deceptive. As a king, Creon, a noble statesman finds himself between a rock and a hard place while he decides to stand for the ...

3 Short Essays

The conversation between Crito and Socrates took place inside the prison wherein Socrates was waiting for his execution. His loyal friend Crito arrived earlier before the break of dawn to tell Socrates to save his life by escaping from prison. By escaping, Crito will keep him as his true friend and will not be accused by people that he did not do what was needed to save a friend’s life. However, Socrates does not care about the majority’s opinion. What he was concerned about is his friends’ would be in trouble from the authorities after ...

The hard-boiled detective seems a decidedly modern invention – the noir gumshoe who cynically navigates a world that seems to conspire against him, working his way through a seedy culture that he can capitalize upon. With hard-boiled detectives in film and literature, there is often a measure of moral ambiguity, as the main character is conflicted between what he does for a living and who he wants to be, or is otherwise blind to the harsher truths that surround him. Roman Polanski’s classic 1974 noir film Chinatown certainly fits this description, with Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes being a dark, morose yet deeply motivated human ...

A story is written when a prediction is made. A character’s journey is laid out as they’re being guided towards their fate by the invisible hands of the Gods. Fate is as important today as it was thousands of years ago and this was the reason the Greeks incorporated the concept of fate in their stories and plays. While fate can decide a person’s well-being or destruction, the Greeks almost always depicted fate in a tragic sense. By depicting their heroes as prone to tragedy and fate, the ancient Greeks who conceived these fables might have been looking to ...

Introduction

Myth, particularly in the Greek tradition, places a great significance on place and location – cities such as Thebes, Athens and Crete are given almost mythical importance of their own through their roles in the characters’ journeys. In the case of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Thebes is both the setting and the goal of the story – Oedipus’ loyalty to Thebes, a suffering city, provides a complex goal and metaphor for Oedipus’ own journey to the truth of his own existence and past with King Laius. Thebes is just as much of a character in Oedipus Rex as Oedipus himself or any other figure, solidifying place’ ...

World Literature

‘Antigone’ by Sophocles:
Analyzing the importance of Teiresias in Greek tragedy
Greek Literature speaks of ‘Antigone’ as the tragic play, which was written by Sophocles during 441 B.C. Some of the literary experts are of the view that the original manuscript belonged to years much before 441 B.C.; however, the lack of evidence certifying the earlier dates suggest the former as the age of this storyline (Leach).
This play is an important asset that World Literature preserves with care, and serves as the source for many important inferences that can be drawn from each event that ...

Oedipus the King is one of the most eminent literary works in the history of literature. The work has stood the test of time, and has left an everlasting mark on the minds of the avid readers. The critics across the world have spoken in unison regarding the literary quintessence of the literary work. The character of the protagonist, Oedipus, is an immortalized literary character that embodies one of the most tragic fates in the history of literature. His characteristic traits set him apart, and the chronology of events in his life that shape him as an individual leaves a ...

In Othello and Oedipus we see characters that are vain and incapable of coming to peace with the truth that their lives have reached because the truth is deeply tragic. Both feel compelled to punish themselves. The manner of punishment that they inflict on themselves is different. This difference is revealing of the personalities of the two characters. When we compare literary characters, many considerations must be taken into account. What the plot of the story is; where does the character figure among other characters in the plot; and what the personality traits of the characters are, are few ...

It is clear that a modern and ancient audiences use different concepts and words to express their emotional credentials with tragic characters. According to Aristotle concept of pity and fear in more detail, that indicates why ancient audience may not apply to the modern theater. Aristotle legendarily recognized characteristic emotions produced by tragedy as eleos and phobos which simply means pity and fear. The concept explanation provides a valuable idea as to how ancient audience replied to tragedy. However, to take advantage of his insight, we must clearly understand his concept of pity and fear. Words, after all, change their meanings ...

Law and the Language of Power

Laws are an essential part of life because they are necessary for there to be the order. There are both natural and man-made laws. Even at a very basic level where we eliminate man from the equation laws are necessities. For example, if nature opposed what we now term as the laws of physics then life on earth would not exist. The very premise of man-made laws is that they are designed to benefits persons in positions of power. The code of Hammurabi epitomizes this property of man-made laws. Natural laws on the other hand attempt to bring order in ...

In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the young king Oedipus must deal with demons from his past and the uncertain nature of his future, as he learns the fate of the previous king and the ways in inextricably ties with his own parentage (and marriage to the former king’s bride). Oedipus Rex, being a tragedy, deals primarily with the phenomenon of dramatic irony, in which the main character does not know things that will inexorably change their point of view once they know it. Oedipus is directly contrasted with the prophet Tiresias, who is without eyesight but has a much better sense ...

Introduction:

As in Oedipus the King, a major theme in Othello is man's inability to reliably distinguish between what seems to be and what actually is. Explain how this shared theme of "uncertain vision" is treated somewhat differently in Othello than it is in Oedipus the King.

In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find; Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."

Thesis:
The shared theme of "uncertain vision" is treated somewhat differently in Othello than it is in Oedipus the King
Argument:
Oedipus and Othello both suffer because they believe lies that others told. However the motivations behind those lies, and the reasons for believing them are different. Iago lies out of ...

Aristotle was one of the greatest Greek philosophers. He wrote on many areas including, meteorology, climate, biology, animal anatomy, psychology and ethics. His philosophical works focused on logic and the use of inference and deduction. He also wrote a number of works on the arts including the structure of the Greek Play. For the ancient Greeks, the tragic play was the greatest form of drama, and Aristotle ideas of Greek Tragedy and the tragic hero were based on the views of the times. According to Golden, Aristotle’s defined a Greek Tradgedy as, ". . . an imitation of a noble and complete action, having ...

In Sophocles’ Theban play Antigone, the titular character defies the orders of her king in order to permit an honorable burial for her brother, who had just rebelled against the state of Greece. By showing the flaws of the state, Antigone is successful in her suicide; Antigone’s steadfast dedication to the individual and the family unit (supported by the gods) is a harsh critique of the cold-hearted nature of the state, as well as the corrupting nature of power. While Antigone knows systemic oppression as a woman, she knows she must fight for what she feels is right; Creon is ...

Gender is a social construct, not tied to sex in any neat, definitive manner and hence, amenable and open to (re)construction in order to challenge power relations. This paper explores gendered power relations in Euripedes’ Medea and Sophocles’ Antigone, in an endeavour to explicate upon how such relations manifest themselves in the text, and thereby, shape, influence and contribute to an understanding of the overwhelmingly misogynist and patriarchal social reality of ancient Greece. The paper also seeks to take issue with the use of language as mediating an elucidation and plurification of meaning/s in the text, and aiding in ...

English

Sophocles’ Antigone is the story of two protagonists’ Antigone and King Creon, who, in their pursuit to define their destiny, fade into oblivion. The two form the nucleus of the play around which Sophocles develops his tragedy. On close observation of the reading of this play, it is hard to eliminate the explication of the Greek rhetoric that, all humans are mortals. The phrase, “We die for ever” (58), was told by Antigone to her sister Ismene, when Ismene tells her that they would have to face the wrath of Creon, should he come to know of their act. ...

Introduction

Oedipus the King and The allegory at the Cave are great allegories with excellent moral teachings. Oedipus the King is an Athenian tragedy that was written by Sophocles. It tells the story of King Oedipus and his virtuous reign in power over the people of Thebes. The allegory at the Cave was written by Plato and it offers moral lessons on the importance of education. Both stories compare relatively well on several areas and offer timeless moral lessons to societies across social and cultural divides.

Comparisons of the stories

The two stories were told by philosophers who defined morality and upright living in ...

Over the years, the definition of tragedy has undergone considerable evolution. According to Aristotle, a tragic play can exist without characters but it cannot exist without a plot (Poetics), however, this is not agreeable from a modern standpoint. By today’s standards, both the characters and the plot are vital aspects to a meaningful tragic play. On the other hand, Arthur Miller is more focused on the “tragic hero,” exposing the man behind the tragic mask rather than the contents of the plot itself. His idea of depicting a tragic hero as a common man is more up to date. Thus, tragedies like Sophocles’ “Oedipus ...

Looking at Antigone the play, it is a play that originates from ancient Greece. The play however has themes that are really applicable to our day to day lives. In this play, the broad themes include state control, natural law and contemporary legal institutions, civil disobedience, citizenship, fidelity, portrayal of the gods and lastly, there is love and family. If then all this themes are applied in a movie, it will attract attention and curiosity from the viewers. With the current issues, it will shed light on the inhuman political leaders we have in the world. It will then demonstrate that ...

Written around 441 BC, Antigone is one of the seven surviving plays produced by the Greek playwright Sophocles and is considered to be the classic example of hubris, meaning extreme pride or arrogance that is ultimately a person’s undoing. This play, however, has several other important themes including Sophocles perspectives on human rights and women’s rights. Both are quite fascinating considering ancient Greece practiced slavery and certainly was a male dominated society, but the burial of Polyneices by the hand of Antigone, as well as her rejection of Creon’s decree denying those funeral rites, illustrate Sophocles felt people ...

The aim of this essay is to present you with a portrait of a drama which was written in the Ancient Greek Classical period in approximately 442 B.C., by Sophocles, one of the three poets of Ancient Greece, who along with Aeschylus and Euripides are considered to have established the tragedy as a poetic, theatrical kind of writing.
This portrait will emphasize on the main thematic core of this drama and how this idea which is its thematic core, is of classical value. The main idea ‘Antigone’ puts across to its audience and readers is the idea of the conflict between ...

The aim of this essay is to present you with a portrait of two dramas. The first one is ‘Antigone’ and it was written in the Ancient Greek Classical period in approximately 442 B.C., by Sophocles, one of the three poets of Ancient Greece, who along with Aeschylus and Euripides are considered to have established the tragedy as a poetic, theatrical kind of writing. The second play is ‘Another Antigone’, a modern theatrical play of nowadays which was written by A.R. Gurney and first produced in 1987. The portrait of both plays will be drawn in this essay so that both plays ...

Argue for or against the validity of Sophocles' Oedipus the King being interpreted through Sigmund Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex
According to Sigmund Freud, the stalwart of psychology, Oedipus complex is the tension between the child and the father as the child takes his mother as his object of sexual desire. Thus, a friction grows between the two male members of the family. The child sees the father as a competition to him for the lady’s love and affection. The child despises the love and bond between the parents and feels like being in the centre of attraction ...

Sophocles’ plays and Elie Wiesel's holocaust are two works that are closely correlated. Sophocles is one of the ancient Greek tragedians whose play has endured the aspect of time. Born in around 496 BC, and a luminary force in Classical Athenian culture, his plays have ostensibly attracted lots of attention since most of them portrayed the real things that were actually going on in the society during those times. The themes that Sophocles wrote about are still relevant even in the contemporary world. Elie Wiesel, born in 1928, was a human activist who tried so much to reconcile his personal humiliation ...

Oedipus the King and Antigone are great plays written by Sophocles. They give an account of the tragedies which befell Thebes. Whereas Oedipus the King chronicles the story of Oedipus, a mysterious man who suffers during childhood before eventually murdering his biological father, marrying mother and becoming a king, Antigone continues the chronicle by giving the story of King Creone who established his rein before eventually falling due to fate and his own arrogance.
Both plays have heroes. Although they establish their leadership regimes in this kingdom, they really suffer. However, this suffering is not only attributed to fate, but ...

Antigone, by Greek author Sophocles, is one of the most famous and important plays of all time. It has gone through numerous reincarnations in many different time periods, and has been studied by such famous philosophers as Hegel and Goethe. This may be because it includes issues that have been problematic throughout Western civilization: the difference between right and wrong, between just and unjust laws, the importance of family, the place of deity, etc. Nevertheless, contrary to what its name suggests, the tragedy is not Antigone’s, but Creon’s, as this is the character whose downfall through a character ...

The concept of free will is an interesting one when taken in a Biblical context – if God has a divine plan, and everything happens for a reason, where then is the level of choice we are assumed to have as human beings? The tale of Joseph in Genesis 37, 39-46 demonstrates the ability of God to provide for those who are good through the effective use of prophecy. This is slightly different from Sophocles’ tale of Oedipus Rex, wherein prophecy is treated as completely immutable – there is nothing you can do to stop it no matter what you do. Free will is ...

Sophocles’ Oedipus the King portrays the tragic fall of Oedipus from his paramount position of the king of Thebes as he gets to know of his real identity in the chronology of events. The fall of the transcendental figure can be analyzed into definite transition phases. The literary work documents the omnipotence of fatalism and mocks the human strength which is exposed to be futile. Oedipus’ fall can be analyzed into three transitions.
In the beginning, Oedipus is found in the midst of a testing time when a plague hits the land and he sends Creon, his brother-in-law, to seek ...

The two characters Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Oedipus the King of Thebes have been presented as being responsible characters. Oedipus is ruler who takes quick action with great insight working to the expectations of the people he rules. For instance, when the citizens request him to act on the plaque, he has is already a step in advance having sent Creon to the Delphi oracle for top seek advice on the issue. Jimmy Cross on the other hand takes responsibility in the Vietnam War. He is unwilling to take up a role as a team leader in the Vietnam War. However, he ...

(A). Both Antigone by Sophocles and Apology by Plato reveal that although the concepts of the rule of law and civil disobedience seem to be completely different and opposite of each other, if we keep in mind that a higher authority exists, we may view the two ideas as compatible.
Sophocles very effectively depicts the apparently unsolvable conflict between the two concepts in his tragic drama Antigone. It becomes apparent that Antigone has absolutely no regard for the rule of men since she performs an illegal act of mercy and is condemned for it. Instead, she holds divine, unfailing ...

Oedipus Rex tells the story of Oedipus, a young king who comes to wrestle with his past and his destiny, involving the inadvertent and unknowing murder of his father, and the marrying of his own mother. The play's setting is Thebes, where Oedipus has become king. The prologue of Oedipus Rex foreshadows all of the tragedy that is to befall the main character; it establishes Thebes as a city under attack from a plague, and the only way to solve the problem is to address the mystery of Laius' death. When searching for the murderer of the former king Laius, he finds ...

Despite the emphasis on male characters in Greek epics and tragedies, particularly as arbiters of virtue and responsibility, there are quite a few strong women characters present in this literature as well. These characters defy the oft-repeated trope in Greek literature of women being fickle, weak or treacherous, and are able to assert their own desires in their own ways. Athena in The Odyssey and the titular character of Antigone are both uniquely bold and independent women, who both defy their equals/superiors to do something for someone in need. While Athena defies the other gods to help Odysseus in his quest ...

Antigone is one of the most famous classical Greek tragedies even though Sophocles structured his play a bit differently than the typical structure of Greek tragedies. A definition of tragedy was outlined by Aristotle in his Poetics and for the most part, Sophocles’s Antigone follows all the elements of Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. Of course, Sophocles came from the same culture and period as Aristotle, and shared the same cultural values as him. So it is not surprising that Sophocles closely structured Antigone according to the definition outlined by Aristotle. This paper is a critical analysis of the structure ...

Both Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Rex and William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello share some characteristics, such as an heroic yet tragic figure whose own character flaw brings about the final tragedy. In both plays, the main character’s wife dies as a result of the husband’s flaw. However, some essential differences exist between the plays. In Oedipus Rex, fate plays a central role in determining what happens to the main character, but in Othello, a very human antagonist sets the sequence of tragic events in motion.
In each play, the playwright establishes the protagonist as heroic. In Oedipus Rex, when the ...

- Introduction - Context
In general, I am a person who lives under the sign of “Carpe Diem” – “Live the Moment” and I am doing this every day, living my life to the fullest. This is not to say, however, that I do not have a personal plan, but I am not forgetting to live, to enjoy the little joys and emotions that life has to offer, for the sake of strictly following my personal plan. I never considered too much the expression “You can’t escape your destiny”, until this year. It is probably because I consider that we, ...

Statement of the Problem

A hypothetical company called Ajax Manufacturing Company (Ajax) is using a cost accounting method that is considered traditional. Ajax is a manufacturing company produces 3 products (A, B and C) and accounts for costs by computing a standard cost based mostly on labor hours used and accounts for margins by slapping a 35% add on to that standard costs.

The results of this approach has puzzled management. Product B has sold less even at reduced prices and Product C sells well even at selling prices. The company’s controller did some pencil pushing, substituting machine hours as a determinant rather than labor costs.

Executive Summary

Ajax ...

“Antigone” is one of three Theban plays written by Sophocles approximately in 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third tragedy of the cycle, as the events in it happen last; however it was written first. The character of Antigone is unique and presents a huge historical interest, as it is the first female character in the world literature that fights against the power of men and exhibits great bravery comparing with those men who scorn her. This play is not only feminist; it is also very radical in wide meaning of this word, as it rebels against authority in general ...

Writings of any kind and form and movies represent humans’ projection upon life, their feelings, thoughts, desires and aspirations regarding the world they live in. As such, Anouilh's version of “Antigone” (based on Sophocles’ play with the same title) and Wim Wenders movie “Wings of Desire” reflect the author, respectively the director’s view upon the world they lived in, with the realities specific of those times. The key common component of these two representations stays in their theme, which is the loss of innocence, the awakening and the fight for freedom, rejecting imposed ideologies and authorities.
Based ...

Essay

Can you ever love your mother too much? In an essay of at least 1000 words, compare and contrast the two characters, Oedipus and Hamlet.

Thesis

While love—towards anyone or anything—can be beautiful when passionate, when it hinders on obsession, love can often render more harm than happiness, and in the case of Oedipus and Hamlet, their obsessive love caused their tragic ending. However, in both their cases, it was not the love for their mothers that cause their downfall, and so, it cannot be said that they suffered and caused suffering because of their attachment to their ...

Oedipus the King is one of the most famous plays of the world by Sophocles, who is considered a maestro of Greek tragic literature. The Oedipus was written by the author centuries back and the idea of Sophocles has probably inspired the Sigmund Freud to enact his theory related to child and mother relation centuries later. This paper discusses the several aspects of the story as well as the Laius relationship with the Oedipus and what Oedipus thinks about the whole affair.
The story of the play revolves around Oedipus and his set of mind. The story depicts that a ...

Ismene and Antigone are different in many aspects. Ismene is beautiful while Antigone is plain. Antigone is brave while Ismene is timid. The most important difference lies in Antigone’s willingness to change and Ismene’s wish that she can live thorough without making changes. This difference is so evident in their behaviors toward the burial of Polyneices. Antigone is willing to do anything for her brother to be buried. However, Ismene just worries about her sister. These differences in behaviors continues. Ismene accepts Creon’s demands, but Antigone taking risks. For example, Antigone even sacrifices her life to ...

English Literature

Throughout literature, authors use symbolic imagery in order to assist the reader in conjuring up mental images from the words on the page. Symbolism is a common literary device which is used to help make the story come to life and to make it more three-dimensional (Bloom 1339). This is seen in every work of literature ever written and for the purposes of this essay, the symbolic language used in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie will be discussed. In each of these texts, the author has used symbolism to help build ...

Product costing systems have been developed specifically for production processes. They are a management tool, which helps to determine the cost of producing every product. In recent years product costing practices have been improved, emphasizing quality, waste reduction, concentration on value-added activities and customer satisfaction. Product costing can provide valuable insights into performance through analysing products costs, productivity, material used, labour expenditures and special demands as well as help to decide which products to promote further and which should be redesigned or taken out of production.

LIFO (last in first out) costing method provides a means for evaluating stocks, assigning the ...

19th May, 2011.
When laws are accepted to work and yet morally they are not upright, then there is trouble. This means that with the laws there are victimization, there are immoralities of all kinds that must be connected in one way or the other with the law that will be in use and yet morally dead. Such laws are many and they exist in very many societies even to day. For the sake of this research, I will use the apartheid law in South Africa.
In the play Antgone, the law of the state is given ...

What is the main theme of The Epic of Gilgamesh?

The primary theme of The Epic of Gilgamesh is that of love and friendship, and how it can make people change for the better. In the beginning of the tale, Enkidu is an arrogant, self centered warrior, and Gilgamesh is a tyrannical king who bullies his people. Over the source of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s friendship causes them to see the better parts of themselves. Gilgamesh causes Enkidu to change into a better, more noble man instead of a savage, and Enkidu brings out the more heroic qualities in Gilgamesh. Their own unique qualities complement each other, and the love ...

In Oedipus Rex, the main character spends the entirety of the play escaping a prophecy that he heard as a child; that he would kill his father and marry his mother. However, circumstances and mistaken assumptions lead him right back to his parents, and the prophecy is fulfilled before he even realizes it. By the beginning of the play, he has already killed his father and married his mother – the play is about the circumstances of his discovery of that fact. The Greeks placed a great emphasis on fate and the power of destiny in people’s lives; if you were fated ...

The tragedy “Antigone” depicts the conflict between the king Creon and his niece Antigone. What is the cause of the conflict? Antigone’s brothers (who were the sons of the late King Oedipus) both die in the war for power. Eventually, their uncle Creon inherits the throne. The new King ordered to bury with honor his nephew Eteocles, who was a defender of the city, while his brother Polynices was claimed to be an attacker and left without burial. Antigone decides to violate the order of Creon and buries her brother in accordance with the laws of the gods.
...

Basic Conflict and its Context

The main conflict in Sophocles’ Antigone revolves around the burial of a corpse. Antigone wants her deceased brother Polyneices to have a proper burial, and is decided to have this happen in spite of the obstacles that she may find in her way. On the other hand, King Creon prohibits this because he believes that Polyneices is a traitor, saying that he died “laying waste the land for which he fought” (Sophocles). This obviously clashes with Antigone’s set desire, as the titular character is intent on burying him, claiming that this is right, regardless of what Creon’s ...

Introduction.

The main idea of the tragedy.
Key elements of the “Oedipus the King”.
Dramatic structure as an inherent part of the composition.
Divine interference as the decisive point in the tragedy’s plot.
King Oedipus as the main character of the tragedy.
Perception of the main characters from the point of a reader.
Conclusion.
The tragedy "Oedipus the King", written by Sophocles, has laid increased emphasis on one of the most important issues of his time: the will of the gods and man's free will. Each tragedian interprets mythology in his own independent way, as it serves as a ...

Antigone and Creon are characters who assume parallel perspectives. There is a sharp contrast between the two and in almost all instances—they do not seem to be in harmony. Oedipus was Antigone’s father. There arises great tension after his departure on who would be the next king. Antigone’s brothers, Eteocles, and Polyneices had agreed to share the leadership roles in the throne. Creon is Antigone’s father (Schakel, and Jack 1105). The two are brought out as very different characters with conflicting ideologies on religious law and the law of men. They also differ on issues ...

Antigone and Ismene meet before dawn and talk about the misfortune that has befallen their brothers who have died after fighting over the control of Thebes. They discuss the decree given by the new ruler, Creon, which has prohibited any mourning of the two brothers. Antigone comes out as courageous and daring while Ismene appears to be more timid and non-confrontational. Antigone wants to go against the decree by the new King by going ahead to bury her brother and seeks Ismene’s help who, however, declines and opts to follow the King's law. This is seen in Ismene’ ...

Status is a common term in every society with structure since some members set the pace while the rest follow. Pride is therefore a familiar scenario as members of a certain social status seek recognition and respect from the rest of the population. Pride is a prevailing theme in the Antigone and tempest plays that feature characters who demonstrated pride in different degrees. Both plays feature historical societies where power wrangles defined every society. They also feature members of high social status and close to power. Antigone emerged at a time of national tension when the king needed to ...

Oedipus the King is an ancient drama set in Athens and written by Sophocles. The drama explores the events that take place in a kingdom called Thebes. The major character in this book is King Oedipus, who succeed King Laius. When a plague strikes Thebes, the people of Thebes ask King Oedipus to save them from them from the sufferings brought by the plague. At this time, Creon, who was the brother-in-law to King Oedipus, returns after visiting the oracle of Apollo and says that the plague that was experienced was a punishment for the death of King Laius ...

Theme of loyalty to family and traditions is illuminated in a tragedy Antigone written by Sophocles. The woes and misfortune of Oedipus`s family line are passed to his children now, thus been born in misery Antigone and Ismene face another calamity. Their brothers Eteocles and Polyneices have killed each other in a battle against the Argive army who tried to assault Thebes. Furthermore, by Creon Polyneices is declared to be a traitor; therefore he cannot be buried with military honors and is left in fields for vultures and dogs unlike his brother Eteocles who had a soldier's funeral. ...

Sophocles’ classic tragedy Oedipus Rex demonstrates one of the most prominent and fascinating examples of a tragic hero in its protagonist, King Oedipus. When his city of Thebes falls under the spell of a mysterious plague, he embarks on an investigation to find out who killed the previous king and brought the curse on them. By the end, however, he finds that he himself killed the king in a series of circumstances – who also turned out to be his father. Throughout the play, Oedipus himself fights against a sense of destiny that has written his fate since childhood, Sophocles ...