Sophocles

plague. Throughout his journey, he learns the genuine truth about himself and in the end, succeeds in finding the murderer and punishes himself to save his city. Throughout the play, Oedipus’ perception of justice is seen throughout the entire Sophocles play. In the beginning of the play, Oedipus’ interpretation of justice is seen when he learns of the plague that strikes his city and the cure that will supposedly get rid of the plague. His understanding of justice is to find the murderer of…

In life, “we [can] do everything right, act on the best information available, and with the best of intentions, yet still commit unspeakable horrors” (“The Tragic Hero in Greek Drama”). Aristotle created a definition of a tragic hero based on Sophocles’ characters in the tragedies Antigone and Oedipus the King. His definition, known as the Aristotelian tragic hero, has specific requirements the character must possess. Creon is the character that best exemplifies Aristotle’s tragic hero because…

kingdom to be stable and safe for his subjects to live. Creon in the Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophocles is the tragic hero of the play who has flaws that lead to his eventual moral destruction and loss of power. The flaw in Creon lead to him making poor decisions that build up to his eventual demise. Creon tells Leader that ,”men our age, we’re to be lectured, are we?-schooled by a boy his age?” (Sophocles Lines 812-814). Creon, as Haemon’s father and king, sees his son’s…

The Roles of Fate and Free Will in “Antigone” Could Antigone avoided her punishment and lived a happy life with her fiance, Haemon? Could Creon avoided the path of grief and let Antigone live? “Antigone” was a play written by Sophocles around 441 B.C.; which tells the story of Antigone, the main character, disobeying her uncle’s, King Creon, proclamation. At the result of her stubbornness, Antigone kills herself, which triggers Haemon, son of Creon and Antigone’s fiance, and Eurydice,…

The first of a very famous trilogy, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, is a greek tragedy in which Oedipus (the main character) struggles to find the truth of his birth, and face his horrible fate of murder and incest within his own family. Throughout the whole story, Oedipus constantly faces these conflicts. Even though he was considered a well-respected king, Oedipus experiences complications with himself, society, and the gods, just like other tragic heroes. One of Oedipus’ hardest things for him…

Antigone was written by Sophocles in around 442 BCE, but it was not his only piece of literature (Classical Literature, 2009). Before the writing of Antigone, Sophocles had also written Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Seven against Thebes (Classical literature, 2009). Therefore, the story is categorized as drama in the classical period. Antigone was written when the national issues were held dear and were of great concern in Greece. For example, there was a thrilling and brutal war…

receive an honorable burial. The final stasimon of Sophocles’ tragic play Ajax revolves around the question of Ajax’s integrity and what it means to be honorable. While Agamemnon relies on societal definitions of nobility and alliance to denounce Ajax’s honor, Odysseus stands up for his new enemy claiming that his actions have earned him honor despite his treachery. Because of the mercurial nature of culturally ascribed understanding of honor, Sophocles contends that instead of relying on those…

To absolve Oedipus and Othello of their sin on the grounds of intent (in the matter described above), one has to assume the natural understanding of the play; it is, however, possible to understand the characters as having far less noble intents. Sigmund Freud, for example, views Oedipus as having realized a universal sexual urge for a man to have sexual intercourse with his mother. Tayeb Salih notes that in colonial times readers saw Othello as a “convert who reverts to an essential and…

Melissa Dibene Westbrook Professor Davis English 102 2 April 2018 Binary Oppositions Oedipus the King and Antigone are two of Sophocles surviving plays about the Theban saga. Estimated to be written in 441 BC and 430 BC. Oedipus the King and Antigone were not written in chronological order of events within the stories; Antigone is actually the last play. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus has fathered four children with his wife who is also his mother. Oedipus has killed his father just as it was…

Collin Edwards Mrs. Beverly 10th Grade Literature 23 April 2015 Creon the Tragic Hero You may think a tragic hero is a person that saves lives and does great things for people, but a tragic hero is a character of noble birth that has a tragic flaw. A tragic flaw may lead to the characters downfall. Pride in Creon over power his mind and his actions. Creon imprisons Antigone for breaking his laws and imprisons her in a closed in cave, which leads to his downfall. Antigone is the…