A Terrible Tragedy

only crime is pride." This quote can be seen through the chorus when they say "Great words of boasting bring great punishments"(Sophocles 1536). Creon’s fate is shown by the chorus quote, when he learned much too late that he was wrong and faced a terrible punishment. Creon's pride is the key factor most responsible for his downfall and suffering from the death of his loved ones. Pride is seen even before the play starts with Oedipus' sons, who were too prideful because they did not agree on the…

In his essay “Tragedy and the Common Man” Arthur Miller redefines the genre of tragedy and the tragic hero. Miller defines a tragedy as a person struggling against an injustice in the world around him to which he responds forcefully. Miller states that the “wound from which the inevitable events spiral is the wound of indignity, and its dominant force is indignation” (). The wound is described as originating from an environment, but it gets registered by the character as an “indignation” or…

sticky…or shiny and hardened” (“The Facts about Chimney Fires.”). In fact, this creosote problem affects many chimneys all over the world, enwheeling the 7,000 chimneys that are present in the city of Venice, Italy. Venice is the main setting of The Tragedy of Othello, a play written by 15th century English playwright, William Shakespeare. The play is built upon the flaws that each of the characters possess, and how these flaws are exploited by another individual, ultimately leading to their…

Zoya Siddiqui Antigone’s Rule What would have happened if Antigone had come into power in Sophocles’ famous play, Antigone? Would she have been able to restore Thebes to its former glory? The answer in no. Antigone’s inherent nature would have prevented her from ever being a successful ruler of Thebes. However, this is not necessarily her fault, it is simply the way she is. However, this would have led to Antigone’s leadership being tainted with rash decisions and…

Shakespearean Tragedies and Tragic Heroes A Shakespearean tragedy is when the main character has a hamartia, placed in a ghastly situation, and has a disastrous ending. A tragic hero is someone who is set-up to be defeated, and the hero doesn't have to be in high status. Shakespearean tragedies include: Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Titus Andronicus. Shakespearean tragedies were one of the most liked and popular plays that he produced, and it has shaped other stories and plays that we…

When we think of a tragedy we usually think of a real disaster or a life where someone loses someone that they are close to or love. Williams Shakespeare’s play “Othello, the Moor of Venice” is a perfect drama play that gives you a little bit of tragedy. Shakespeare wrote the play during the renaissance in Venice and Cyprus. It was believed to be written around 1603. There were many details in this play to make it such a perfect drama. The play is about the story of Othello. Who was a Moorish…

Through his persisting efforts to learn the truth, he revealed the true nature of his terrible deeds. Towards the end of the play, Oedipus said that “deeds were fated” but how you respond to your fate is a matter of free will. At the heart of the drama, Oedipus believes in his own power to rid the people of Thebes from the plague prevailing…

Tragedy is a form of drama, theorized to have been created as a tribute to the Greek god of theater: Dionysus. This form of drama was very popular in Ancient Greece, and was performed in theaters from the late 6th century BCE (Szemerényi 302). One of the most popular tragic playwrights of the time was Sophocles, who was known for his famous work, Antigone, a tragedy in which the main character suffers greatly after burying her brother against the king’s wishes (Ridgeway 141). This tragic play…

Aristotle considered Oedipus Tyrannus the supreme example of tragic drama and modeled his theory of tragedy on it. He mentions the play no fewer than eleven times in his De poetica (c. 334-323 b.c.e.; Poetics, 1705). Sigmund Freud in the twentieth century used the story to name the rivalry of male children with their fathers for the affection of their mothers, and Jean Cocteau adapted the tale to the modern stage in La Machine infernale (1934; The Infernal Machine, 1936). However, no matter what…

Picture this. An oracle has just told you that you’re doomed to murder your father and marry your mother. What do you do next? In the Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, Oedipus receives this fate from an oracle named Tiresias and immediately runs from Corinth to escape his destiny. Along his journey, Oedipus murders a man on the road named Laius. Oedipus later realizes that Laius was his biological father. Once Oedipus arrives at the city of Thebes, he defeats the Sphinx and…