Beautiful Tragedy

The Tragic Destiny of Oedipus Oedipus the king by Sophocles is a distressing play filled with transgression, grief, and tragedies. The unfortunate incidents that the tragic hero, Oedipus, goes through invoke catharsis in the readers. He has been prophesied a dreadful fortune and feels as though “...no one suffers more than [him]” (Sophocles 27).Foretold destiny cannot be derailed as fate will always interfere and insure that the prophecy is fulfilled. Moreover, every tragic hero has a tragic…

The tragic hero is one of the most commonly misused terms in literature. Although difficult to find a character fitting of these qualities, Shakespeare’s Macbeth is deserving of the tragic hero status. In accordance to Aristotle’s poetics, Macbeth is not all good and not all bad, he undergoes proper anagnorisis, as well as proper peripeteia, making him a tragic hero. To be a tragic hero, Aristotle writes in Poetics that the hero must be not all good and not all bad. Scholars who argue Macbeth…

while they live it? —every, every minute”: Tragedy in Our Town Despite the uplifting tone of Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, he suggests that individuals never truly appreciate life. In Our Town, it manifests a tragic vision of life and can be classified as one of the major genres of modern drama, a tragedy. In the tragedy, it implies that there is a symbol of death that is foreshadowed from the beginning. This captures how Our Town is a classical tragedy that belongs to the non-realism phase…

For my final paper, I will be answering the questions posed by Socrates’ critique of poetry and most interestingly, Socrates’ statement that poetry would have to make a better argument for itself if it is to be allowed into the just city. I will be agreeing with the claim Socrates makes regarding poetry’s inclusion into the city and I will attempt to draw the conclusion that Socrates would support that poets are like painters. Painters and poets appeal to a part of our souls that is not…

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” exemplifies a tragedy in many ways. Though others may argue otherwise, “Death of a Salesman” has all the ingredients to be considered a tragedy. A tragedy usually consist of a tragic figure who has a tragic flaw, that tragic flaw ends up leading them to their own destruction. In this case, the plays main character, Willy loman, is the tragic figure. Though many individuals would disagree with the idea of Willy loman as a tragic figure, Willy has the…

Throughout history audiences have been drawn to stories of tragedy. The plays Oedipus the King by Sophocles and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller are considered to be the greatest fictional tragedies of their time. While Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman are very different tragedies, it’s amazing that even with 2,400 years separating them, these plays manage to have many similarities and differences in their stories. Oedipus the King was written around 420 BC by Sophocles which was…

Ignorance and Vengeance caused it. By extension, I guess you'd say it was free will because Montegue and Capulet both used free will to fight and kill and quarrel with each other for who knows how long, but Karma or fate kind of decided the punishment for it, I guess. However, free will allowed both sides to end it at any time prior to Romeo and Juliet's deaths. They just never took it * It was fate that Juliet didn't wake up before he had killed himself. * I think it was circumstance,…

Twelfth Night is a play which does not end happily for all its characters. Did this add to or take away from your enjoyment of the end of the play? In the concluding act of ‘Twelfth Night’, Act Five, there is a mix of emotions for all of the characters. During closing stages of the play, several of the characters are unhappy and confused, whilst others are happy and excited. During the play, one of the main themes is unrequited love. This always means that some would end up being unhappy…

She is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta who were the former king and queen of Thebes and the niece of Creon who is now the king. Creon calls Antigone as a princess even though she is no longer a princess. She has earned a lot of reputation and respect to lose, only because of her high status. People who consider Creon as a tragic hero state that Antigone no longer has a high status in Thebes after her father’s death, so she is not eligible to have a high social position. Although she does not…

The play Antigone was written in 441 b.c by Sophocles, it is an example of a Greek tragedy. King Creon of Thebes dictated over his people, controlling what they did, what they could think about, what they could pray about. Creon is the tragic hero of the play Antigone, showing that having the audience affected by fear, he is endowed with a his own flaw of ignorant pride, and he is responsible for his own fate. As the tragic hero of the play Antigone, Creon shows he isn 't fit to rule, he is…