Similarities Between Oedipus The King And Antigone

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Research Essay Sophocles is known as the Father of Tragedy. Although he wrote over one hundred and twenty plays in his lifetime, only seven survive today. Sophocles was quite famous at the religious festivals of the Dionysia and the Lenaea, and won twenty four of the thirty competition he competed in never scoring lower than second place. Some of his most important contributions to tragedy are introducing the third character element, his work Oedipus the king, and Antigone. Greek tragedies have many intricate themes to them, a crucial element is conflict. Before Sophocles, there were mostly two characters in the popular plays of the time. Sophocles added the third character element, building on Aeschylus’ introduction of the second character. …show more content…
In the play, Oedipus and my Oedipus’ parents who, when he is born damage his legs and send a servant away with him to have him drowned in the river. After surviving his parents attempt to kill him, Oedipus grows up and learning of his fate tries to distance himself from the family his thinks is his own, which inadvertently causes him to meet and kill the King of Thebes. After marrying the deceased King’s wife, Oedipus has four children with her. When a plague hits the city of Thebes, Oedipus learns the truth about his life and is so distraught that he gouges his eyes out. In Oedipus, Sophocles uses themes of neutrality in Oedipus’ character, Throughout the play Oedipus is shown to not completely be a good character, yet also not being an evil on either. In the play Oedipus does try, as any person understandably would, to escape his doomed fate by leaving the people he believes to be his actual mother and father. This was an important feature in Greek tragedies, because having a completely good character would make unfortunate endings seem too unfair, where as having a character that was too bad would make the ending seem too justified. In his writings, David Bain describes Sophocles writing as; “Sophocles changing the details of a particular heroic legend in order to enhance the isolation and suffering of the central …show more content…
Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, tries to secure a funeral for her brother who dies after trying to rule along-side his brother. After many issues, and arguing for power both brothers are ultimately killed in battle. Antigone, defying the laws made by Creon the new king of Thebes, decides to mourn the loss of her brothers, and in the end, hangs herself. Antigone has many elements of love for one’s family, civil disobedience, and a struggle for who’s laws should be obeyed first. Antigone has been argued for on both sides of the tragic hero spectrum. On one side, Antigone does fit the criteria for a tragic hero in the sense that she does cause her own demise, but there is the argument that there was no “judgmental error”. Antigone willingly chooses to define the new king and mourn her brothers, though is goes against the law. Sophocles used Antigone to address some of the serious issues of the time, such as disobedience (especially that of a woman disobeying), the right of a daughter to continue the lineage of her father, and moral punishments. Sophocles built most of his writings on Aeschylus’ writing; in his writing H. A Sharpiro claims “In Aeschylus’s play, as far as we can tell, the burial of Polyneices in particular was not a sticking point; this seems to have been an innovation of Sophocles” (Par, 16. Sharpiro). Sophocles

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