Sophocles Research Papers Samples For Students

Biographic Information of the Author

The topic, which has been chosen for this paper is Oedipus the King. The author of this piece of writing is Sophocles. Sophocles was the innovator of drama. He has well known as the master of tragedy. Sophocles was appreciated because of his multiple roles including a political, priest and the leader of the military (Zachrisson pp. 313). There are several writings, which are associated with Sophocles. However, most of these writings are ancient. Therefore, it is not possible to consider them trustworthy. The biographical information of Sophocles, presented in this paper, is related to the general information, which is ...

Antigone is a Greek play written by Sophocles. It is a Greek tragedy full of love, betrayal and death. Antigone the main character in the play is portrayed as rebellious and refuses to follow the rules in the family. Even though she took care of her blind father to his death, as was her duty as a daughter and woman, and although she sought to perform rituals over her brother’s corpse to send him to the after life that were tasks known to be reserved for women, Antigone’s character goes against nearly every Greek ideal for women in the 5th ...

Sophocles Oedipus-analysis of the play

The play revolves around a young Greek man who is almost run over by a chariot belonging to a rich arrogant person. This defines the position that Oedipus takes in the society. The play developed in a Greek mythology. Oedipus meets a lot of riddles and challenges that move him to the state of solution and prompts him to use his problem solving skills and resolution tactics. Eventually, due to the solution of one of the riddles that faced him, he rises and becomes the king of Thebes. The previous king is murdered by unknown person, which put Oedipus to task to find a solution ...

Introduction

The research paper is about Antigone, the play by Sophocles. The paper provides a complete overview of the play. Antigone’s love for her brother and obeying the commandments of God are reflected in the paper. The stubbornness and inhuman acts of King Creon are also clearly revealed. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the tragedies of Antigone and King Creon are followed by the story, and Creon is proved the real tragic hero of the story.

Background to the myth of Antigone

The circumstantial events that resulted in the tragedy of King Creon begin as Oedipus arrives at Thebes looking for his real parents. To Thebes has ...

Antigone of Sophocles is a play that represents the Theban saga. Antigone is daughter to Oedipus and Jocasta. Her siblings are Polyneices, Eteocles and Ismene. Oedipus was king of Thebes that was after killing the father and marrying his mother, Jocasta, who killed herself because the husband put out his own eyes (Taylor et al., 30). Eventually Oedipus ceased to be king and his two sons, Polyneicesand Eteocles, agreed to alternate as king, but Eteocles would refuse to give up the throne forcing Polyneices to fight back. The two brothers finally killed one another and Creon, brother to Jocasta, took ...

ORESTES A PLAY BY EURIPIDES

INTRODUCTION

The play was written by Euripides and it was first performed in 1408 BC in Ancient Athens. The play is about the young boy who with the help of his younger sister kills his mother Clymnestria in order to revenge for the murder of his father who was the king of Mycenae (Carson 2010,5). The play starts with the young boy condemned to death by the people of his father’s kingdom and tormented by guilt of killing his own mother (Aeschylus and Arthur 2004, 5).

PLOT OF THE PLAY

The play starts with Orestes sister Electrica telling us of her ...

Write an essay explaining how Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies or refutes Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. Review Chapter 33 in your textbook for the background and overview of Aristotle’s concept of tragedy/the tragic hero and drama. This chapter also contains critical information on Sophocles and the play Oedipus.
Outline and thesis statement

Introduction

This paper attempts to prove that Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero in the context of the story Oedipus Rex. The thesis statement is continued in the definition of Plato’s Theory of Forms which goes along to prove that Oedipus is a tragic ...

Use evidence from Sophocles’ Oedipus, from Shakespeare’s Othello, Moor of Venice, and from secondary sources to explain why you agree or disagree with this statement: “The downfall of Oedipus is the work of the gods; the downfall of Othello is self-inflicted.”

Thesis Statement

This paper is not in complete agreement with the statement “The downfall of Oedipus is the work of the gods; the downfall of Othello is self-inflicted.” Their fate can be better portrayed with the following statement: “both Oedipus and Othello undoubtedly succumbed to vagaries of human life or even to the human condition.” Perhaps the reason behind ...

INTRODUCTION

Sight is a very prevalent theme in a great variety of fiction; it can often be a symbol for understanding, comprehension, and enlightenment. Hindsight and foresight are often rewarded as virtues, or at least play heavily into the plot of a story. A blind person is often thought to ‘see’, or comprehend, more than the normal person, and sometimes people are not aware of a shocking truth, despite it looking them straight in the face. These two scenarios are found in the stories of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles and Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral.” In this essay, the use of sight in these ...

Institutions Affiliation

Introduction
The historical claims and preferences on the Sophocles drama date back in the early B.C. Sophocles were born by Sophilus, a wealthy armorer in Colonus in the land of Athens, c.497 B.C. The creativity and critical and analytical thinking domain to establish modern and great tragic drama started when he was an adult. The life determination and an artistic creation of the playwrights gained him popularity in the city of Athens as he received the citizen's love. The prevalence's of the Sophocles started in early childhood that is at the age of sixteen when he led the boys’ ...

Introduction

Antigone is a dreadful tragedy written around 441 BC by the Sophocles. It was the last of the Theban plays but chronologically written first. The other pieces of Sophocles have attracted more controversy and nothing has inspired people more than Antigone (Lewis, p. 35). It is an outline of achievements of man, modern in its tone deceptively, has impressed many, and most probably, it is said if it is attached with, choral odes would turn to this poem. It was written at a time of a national intensity or fervor. When the play was performed, Sophocles was known to ...

The play Antigone addresses the issues of the legal theory and the law in general that are important for the contemporary society jointly with the fact that the humans treated the rule of the law in the different manner through the different stages of the evolution. In order to respond to the attitude of the characters in the play to the rule of law and other legal principles, the description of the theme and the characters should be provided. Antigone is reflected in the story as the orphaned daughter of Jocasta and Oedipus. Due to the fact that she ...

Fiction explores nature in a way that sometimes is more truthful than science. Even though for many years people believed that one was naturally inclined to love and cherish one’s parents, two thinkers two millennia apart expressed their opinions otherwise. The first of these was the artist, Sophocles in Oedipus Rex; the second, the scientists, Sigmund Freud, with his postulation of the notorious Oedipus complex. He saw a pattern in children, and himself, to go through a process in their infancy that was characterized by feeling attraction for one’s mother and the desire to kill one’s father. Freud remembered ...

Sophocles was a fifth century Greek writer whose play Oedipus Rex was exalted by Aristotle in Poetics as the perfect tragedy as it invokes both fear and pity in the audience. Aristotle explains that a tragic hero is one who is befallen by tragedy brought about primarily by factors usually outside the control of the aforementioned hero thus possessing a noble sense and attaining stature in the society. The hero he however argues is not an embodiment of righteousness but rather an ordinary man prone to the common failings of man but who stands up for his values. His fall is also ...

Introduction

Regarded as the founding father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist by profession. Psychoanalysis is a clinical method developed by Freud in order to treat patients with psychopathology through an exchange of dialogue between psychoanalyst and a patient. In his creation of psychoanalysis, Freud came up with the concepts of id, ego, superego and defense mechanisms in order to resolve the conflicts between the trios. His psychoanalytic views on feminism and gender have sparked controversy in his own life time and still are a topic of debate and discussion. This paper would discuss in detail about Freudian psychoanalysis, his psychoanalytic ...

Introduction

Thesis Statement
“Deliberately ambiguous”, as Seth MacFarlane the producer of the show “Family Guy” describes him, Stewie Griffin is a confused child, when it comes to his sexuality, although he has all the abilities and features for being a genius. Stewie Griffin is a character born out of the Macfarlane’s ambitions of featuring a personage meant to generate humor because of his sexual confusion and in the same time facing the biological and psychodynamic challenges of his age.

Aims and Purposes of the Paper

The current paper aims to debate Stewie Griffin’s sexuality, as the character develops in the TV series “Family Guy”. In this respect, ...

Part 1: Annotated Bibliography

Chris Vervain "Performing Ancient Drama in Mask: the Case of Greek Tragedy." New Theatre Quarterly. 28.2 (2012): 163-181. Internet resource.
The author of article has conducted through research into Greek plays and the use of masks in Greek Theater. This resource will be helpful with the paper mainly because it contains extensive information on Greek costumes that are used in plays. In addition, the article is current and up to date with the author being a very credible source. This is mainly because he is a renowned Greek theater mask maker.

Bain, David, and Peter D. Arnott. "The Greek Theatre." Classical Review. 40.2 (1990): 298-300. Print.

The authors of this article have critically examined ...

In this particular discussion paper, the role of fate has been identified as the major discussion topic from the legendary Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King. According to the Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, there is a strong belief that the fate of an individual is ultimately predestined and unchangeable. In this Greek tragedy, the irony of fate had conveyed the collapse of Oedipus, the son of King Laius. Sophocles, the creator of Oedipus the King, presented King Oedipus as a protagonist whose fate had decided the actions pointed towards him (Musurillo, Knox and Sophocles). The father and mother of ...

Introduction

Marriage is often considered as an important milestone in people’s lives and in ancient Greece; this was no different. The vast amount of ancient Greek literature that is currently in circulation features many themes with marriage being one of the most prevalent. Just like its definition of in the modern context, a marriage in ancient Greece was seen as a sacred bond between a man and woman. However, the Greek marriage had a lot of differences to the current type of marriage. The modern type of marriage dictates that the man are woman are equal partners, but this was not the case ...

Artist biography MAX ERNST (1891-1976)

Max Ernst is a German painter, sculptor and poet. He's one of the brightest figures of Surrealism. The artist was born in 2 April 1891 in Brühl, Germany. He was a second child in a catholic family of Philipp and Luise Ernst (Fiedorek).
In 1908, Max Ernst graduated from the lyceum in his native town, and in 1909 he started studying philosophy in the University of Bonn. During his studies at university, Ernst thoroughly studied psychology and showed a great interest to the art of mentally ill people. Soon young Ernst left the university and fully devoted himself to art. A ...

Introduction

Oedipus tragedy is predicted even before his birth in the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, as his father, Laius, will meet his fatal death in his hand and he will marry his own mother, Jocasta, when he grows up. The oracle is the major reason for his parents to infanticide him. Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, adverts Oedipus as a best example of tragic hero ever. Aristotle’s panorama about Oedipus is vividly described in the following lines: “must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous-a personage like Oedipus” (Poetics XIII paragraph 2) and “he who hears the tale ...

According to the ancient Greeks, a hero was an immortal religious figure that had received cult honors and was anticipated to come back, so to bring prosperity to the entire community (that worshiped the hero), including the animals and the fertility of the crops (Nagy). However, a hero could also be a mortal, hence a literary figure, whose life had to undergo an ordeal, in order to receive immortalization after he dies (Nagy).
Born with a heavy legacy already on his shoulders, Oedipus spent his entire life trying to avert an ominous prophecy that placed him as the person that would kill his ...

Introduction

Ancient Greek literature refers to the kind of literature that was written in the language of Ancient Greece from the time of the earliest texts to the time of the rise of the empire of Byzantine. The period of Greek literature stretches from the time of Homer to the time of the rise of Alexander the Great (Highet p.2). Mycenaean was the earliest Greek writings written on clay tablets using the Linear B syllabus. The Greek literature was well defined into literary genres that had an essential proper organization with both metrics and dialect. The ancient Greek literature involved ...

The stories of Antigone, Oedipus. Odysseus, Richard III and Othello all still resonate loudly within modern times. All of these characters had significant flaws that took their greatness and threatened to undo it – and often did undo it when circumstances refused to change. The pride of Antigone was both her strength and her demise; the boldness of Oedipus both brought him the throne in Thebes and sealed his doom. The cleverness of Odysseus brought him through trial after trial, but it also blinded him from fact of his dependence. Richard III’s acumen on the battlefield and in the ...

Ancient Greece and Rome were very familiar with the concepts of mass entertainment in the form of theaters, games and races, although these were quite different civilizations from the modern world in many ways, such as the absence of television, radio, computers and other forms of electronic mass communications. There was no concept of a 24-hour news cycle or a wide variety of information and entertainment programs offered by cable and satellite television and the Internet. Most people lived at or below the subsistence level, and no middle class or system of mass production, consumption and distribution existed. Almost always the ...

Sigmund Freud was one of the most innovative and pioneering figures in the field of psychology, pioneering many of the basic principles and practices of the field that are still used to this day in one form or another. However, in order to fully understand where these concepts came from, it is vital to know more about Freud’s complex, intriguing and short life. The things he experienced and observed all form the basis and inspiration for many of his essential theories (psychoanalysis, Oedipus complex, and so on). In this essay, we will explore many of his more popular ...