Theme Of Happiness In Sophocles Antigone

Superior Essays
Happiness is an emotional state that is experienced through social, emotional, and physical relationships. For lasting happiness, the importance placed on the relationships must be centered on eternal goods, not temporary pleasures. People succeed in reaching this state of contentment and joy by cultivating meaningful relationships. The good life is realized by intentionally searching for eternal truths while living ethically and respectfully. People believe that happiness comes from obtaining coveted material possessions; however, true happiness resides in meaningful relationships with other people, spirituality, and nature.
According to Sophocles’ Antigone, happiness is doing what is right for your family and adhering to eternal law. Antigone reasons that honoring the gods and familial relationships is more important than
…show more content…
He firmly believes that by cultivating a relationship with nature, he will gain happiness. The insincerity Alex feels from those around him drives him to seek solace and answers in nature in a profound way. Alex believes that it is important to “discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover” (Krakauer 57). He lives out this belief by searching for truth and appreciating all that God has created in nature. In the beginning of his journey, Alex sees that a good life stems from living life authentically and searching for truth instead of temporary happiness such as familial love, money, possessions, and sex. “Living to the fullest extent” is what Alex plans to do when he embarks on his physical and spiritual journey (Krakauer 37). By going into the wild, Alex lives out his theory that people are meant to push themselves to their limits in order to discover life instead of being told how to live. In other words, people need to find their own happiness and not just heedlessly venerate the matters claimed by society to provide

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    As a true tragic hero, Antigone does not let society influence her decisions or dictate how she should act and feel. Instead, she decides her course of action by thinking about and acting in accordance with her virtues and values. That is what Antigone views as an essential constituent of leading a good life. As Antigone courageously accepts Creon’s order for her impending death via being imprisoned in a tomb, she says to her sister, “You chose to live. I chose to die” (Antigone 625).…

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Defining happiness is an incredibly difficult idea to portray. Different things make different people happy and there are so many ways that a person could express what happiness means. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as an agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind and the possession of those circumstances or that state of being, which is attended with enjoyment. Researchers claim that up to half of a person’s happiness comes from their genes. However, happiness is not determined by your biological makeup, but rather your mindset and the external influences around you.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Happiness is a word that is seen in a multitude of different ways by a multitude of different people. Everyone has their own idea of what happiness means to them, but it is a word that has no set definition. The author of “Happiness and Its Discontents”, Daniel Haybron views happiness as an entire emotional spectrum that is affected by several factors such as life satisfaction and being exposed to both pain and pleasure. Whereas Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener the authors of “Can Money Buy Happiness”, describe happiness as the emotion someone feels when they obtain an object they believe will improve their life and can be acquired within their means. An example of this would be the joy someone might feel when they are able to buy a car…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Everyone has their own individual definition of happiness. Richard Taylor describes happiness as “a state of being, not a mere feeling” (Taylor, 116), but how may one come to this total state of fulfillment? Vivien Sung who wrote Five-Fold Happiness and Richard Taylor who wrote a chapter on happiness in his book An Introduction to Virtue Ethics both agree that happiness is made up of many different parts. Because happiness is made up of different components, achieving prosperity, longevity, and wealth are three elements that can lead to being fully…

    • 91 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As the great Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sophocles both had the same idea of selfishness causing destruction Sophocles just wrote a play displaying that idea instead of saying it. In Antigone the famous play written by Sophocles, Antigone and her sister Ismene also Oedipus’s children decide to return to Thebes with the intention of helping their brothers, Eteocles and Polynices to avoid the fate that displays they will kill each other in a battle for the throne of Thebes. But upon her arrival in Thebes, Antigone learns that both of her brothers are dead. Eteocles has been given an…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The play Antigone by Sophocles presents a case of the conflicting perspectives between the protagonist and the antagonist. The contrasting notions are evident regarding religion, duty, country and family. The contrasting views are occasioned by the sense of pride among the characters who believe their stance to be right as compared to the attitude of the other. However, the play partly promotes some of the conflicting perspectives while it also leaves the audience to choose on the stances to promote. To enable the reader to make a decision, it is observable that the perspectives taken by the two characters have dire consequents.…

    • 102 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The play Antigone is intended to portray that morality is more important than the law. In order to demonstrate this, Sophocles presents a situation in which a woman is willing to go to the extremes, even facing death, in order to fight for what she believes is right. The play struggles with the idea of right versus wrong, the characters are forced to make decisions based on their conscience even if it does not coincide with the law. The purpose of laws is to set a standard of conduct for the population to follow; usually these laws are for the good of the citizens who are living in the country.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Scientifically, happiness is satisfaction, positive feelings, and a lack negative feelings (Porter 459). Most of us can agree with this statement and acknowledge that they feel the most happiness in these conditions, but what exactly is happiness? “For if happiness is what people strive for, one needn’t waste time trying to figure out what makes people happy. One must only look at what people do” (Porter 460). We choose to work and make money to benefit our happiness.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It’s safe to assume that most people strive to be happy in their life. Individual happiness can be defined in a number of ways, for many people wealth is the answer to becoming happy while others may view health as an important component to happiness. Seneca, a wealthy and notable philosopher during the Roman Imperial period, does not consider wealth nor health as essential to our own happiness. Instead, he regards virtue alone as being sufficient for happiness (Vogt 2016). Aristotle, on the other hand, does not regard happiness as a human feeling but he views it more as an objective state or an achievement (Aristotle on Eudaimonia).…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (5) The speaker wants to live his life to the fullest, and appears to enjoy the good things in life, such as nature. The speaker notes that he would want to…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Once Oedipus was out of the picture so many things have happened over time. Creon becomes the new king of Thebes after both princes have died. Eteocles and Polyneices were killed by each other's hands and only Eteocles was given a proper burial. There is a new law that is being enforced: No one shall bury the traitor Polyneices, anyone who buries Polyneices will be punished. Antigone hears the new law but, she immediately acts on it.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Happiness: How to Achieve It, Find It, and Experience It When answering the question, what is happiness, there are many things that come to mind. Many different interpretations of the same question can lead to a variety of answers, the state of being happy is called happiness, but what exactly causes us to be happy? In pursuit of happiness I have found that, happiness can be measured in different measures from a low to high range of happiness. One can experience happiness from eating an ice cream cone, however that differs from the happiness of having a promotion at work.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, in modern day the word happiness has seemed to equate itself, or go hand-in-hand with money, love, and relationships. Furthermore, people think money, love and relationships can create happiness in their lives. So, what exactly is happiness?…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Happiness is very essential in life. If you lead a happy life, you will live for many years. Happiness is that elusive thing we are all striving for and hoping to find. Everyone seeks to be happy and live a more fulfilling life. Happiness is mostly an attitude, a feeling of satisfaction with yourself and your place in the world.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I find that the definition of happiness depends on the person and circumstances, and to me happiness is not a mere emotion that I wish to have every single moment in my life. Happiness is a relative term that some people consider an expected result of doing good deeds, and I believe it is a memorable feeling that lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of effort and always linked to a place in some way. In order to understand what happiness is, I looked into my past and tried to find out if there is a formula for happiness. From my perspective, the level of personal happiness fluctuates depending on the situation.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays