Literature is a term used to describe written and sometimes spoken material. It represents the culture and tradition of a language or a people. The Sophocles’ trilogy is an adequate example of literature. The stories of Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus are tales that correspond with one another. The key symbols in the stories reinforce their main theme: fate.
Sophocles' trilogy of Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus discusses the theme of Fate. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus’ characteristics of sagacity and impudence are displayed when he goes on his gallant search for the murderer of Laius. He goes on this quest because of his certainty that its solution will give him the same glory he experienced when he solved …show more content…
When we first see Creon in Oedipus the King, he is shown to be divided from the citizens of Thebes. He has a secretive, deceiving personality which stands in contrast to Oedipus. Contrast shows the difference between two objects. Whilst Oedipus is intent on saying what he means and on hearing the truth, Creon is happy to disseminate and dodge the truth. Creon is at his most dissembling in Oedipus at Colonus. His ingratiating speeches to Oedipus and Theseus are made all the more ugly by his cowardly attempt to kidnap Antigone and Ismene. In Antigone, we at last see the king comfortable in the place of power. This relates to one of the many themes or main ideas of Antigone, The Power of Unwritten Law. To Creon’s way of thinking, the good of the state comes before all other duties and values. However, the subsequent events of the play demonstrate that some duties are more fundamental than the state and its laws. The duty to bury the dead is part of what it means to be human, not part of what it means to be a citizen. That is why Polynices’ rotting body is an “obscenity” rather than a crime. Moral duties—such as the duties owed to the dead—make up the body of unwritten law and tradition, the law to which Antigone appeals. Creon’s penitent wailings in the final lines of Antigone echo those of Oedipus at the end of Oedipus the King. Creon in his final lines begins to …show more content…
After Odysseus returned home, suitors had taken over his house. With some help from Minerva, Odysseus and Telemachus were able to defeat the suitors. Afterwards, Odysseus proclaimed that he wanted to see the women who had slept with the suitors. He then forced them to clean up the blood and the bodies. However, it was Telemachus that decided the women did not deserve a “clean death.” Telemachus then proceeded to hang them, observing their convulsing bodies for a short while. “Your wisdom appealed to one world – mine, another,” is from the story of Antigone, when Antigone asks her sister Ismene to help her bury their brother (a request which Ismene declines). In this snippet, Antigone is saying that some people will say that her decision to refuse to dishonor Polyneices and let him remain unburied, even though such a decision will lead to her death, will be seen as wise by some people, while others will be more inclined to agree with Ismene's decision to save her own skin and refuse to help
Sophocles' trilogy of Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus discusses the theme of Fate. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus’ characteristics of sagacity and impudence are displayed when he goes on his gallant search for the murderer of Laius. He goes on this quest because of his certainty that its solution will give him the same glory he experienced when he solved …show more content…
When we first see Creon in Oedipus the King, he is shown to be divided from the citizens of Thebes. He has a secretive, deceiving personality which stands in contrast to Oedipus. Contrast shows the difference between two objects. Whilst Oedipus is intent on saying what he means and on hearing the truth, Creon is happy to disseminate and dodge the truth. Creon is at his most dissembling in Oedipus at Colonus. His ingratiating speeches to Oedipus and Theseus are made all the more ugly by his cowardly attempt to kidnap Antigone and Ismene. In Antigone, we at last see the king comfortable in the place of power. This relates to one of the many themes or main ideas of Antigone, The Power of Unwritten Law. To Creon’s way of thinking, the good of the state comes before all other duties and values. However, the subsequent events of the play demonstrate that some duties are more fundamental than the state and its laws. The duty to bury the dead is part of what it means to be human, not part of what it means to be a citizen. That is why Polynices’ rotting body is an “obscenity” rather than a crime. Moral duties—such as the duties owed to the dead—make up the body of unwritten law and tradition, the law to which Antigone appeals. Creon’s penitent wailings in the final lines of Antigone echo those of Oedipus at the end of Oedipus the King. Creon in his final lines begins to …show more content…
After Odysseus returned home, suitors had taken over his house. With some help from Minerva, Odysseus and Telemachus were able to defeat the suitors. Afterwards, Odysseus proclaimed that he wanted to see the women who had slept with the suitors. He then forced them to clean up the blood and the bodies. However, it was Telemachus that decided the women did not deserve a “clean death.” Telemachus then proceeded to hang them, observing their convulsing bodies for a short while. “Your wisdom appealed to one world – mine, another,” is from the story of Antigone, when Antigone asks her sister Ismene to help her bury their brother (a request which Ismene declines). In this snippet, Antigone is saying that some people will say that her decision to refuse to dishonor Polyneices and let him remain unburied, even though such a decision will lead to her death, will be seen as wise by some people, while others will be more inclined to agree with Ismene's decision to save her own skin and refuse to help