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Pride in the Iliad
The downfall of oedipus
The downfall of oedipus
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Recommended: Pride in the Iliad
The Tragic Figure of Oedipus Rex
Sophocles is perhaps one of the greatest tragedians ever. Sophocles said that a man should never consider himself fortunate unless he can look back on his life and remember that life without pain. For Oedipus Rex, looking back is impossible to do without pain. This pain stems from his prideful life. Oedipus is aware that he alone is responsible for his actions. Oedipus freely chooses to pursue and accept his own life's destruction. Even though fate victimizes Oedipus, he is a tragic figure since his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his fidelity to the truth ruin him.
Oedipus’ pride, strung from his own heroic qualities, is one factor that ruined him. A hero prizes above all else his honor and the excellence of his life. When his honor is at stake, all other considerations become irrelevant. The hero "valued strength and skill, courage and determination, for these attributes enabled the person who possessed them to achieve glory and honor, both in his lifetime and after he died" (Rosenburg 38). Oedipus was certainly a hero who was exceptionally intelligent though one can argue that killing four men at Phokis single-handedly more than qualified him as a physical force of reckoning. He obviously knew his heroic status when he greeted the supplicating citizens of Thebes before the palace doors saying, "I would not have you speak through messengers, and therefore I have come myself to hear you - I, Oedipus, who bear the famous name"(Sophocles 1088). Oedipus is "guilty of Hubris- that is, that he is too sure of himself, too confident in his own powers [and] a little undermindful of the gods" (Brooks 573).
Oedipus, a hero of superior intelligence, also displays this ...
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...anything for granted lest they suffer like Oedipus - a lesson many should carefully consider.
Works Cited
Brooks, Cleanth. Understanding Drama. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1948. 573-585.
Dodds, E.R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Michael J. O'Brien. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 17-29.
Knox, Bernard M.W. The Heroic Temper: Studied in Sophocean Tragedy. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1964.
Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Illinois: Passport Books, 1988.
Sewall, Richard B. The Vision of Tragedy. London: Yale University Press, 1959. 25- 43.
Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." Perrines's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 7th ed. Ed. Thomas R. Arp. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1998. 948-953.
In the late 19th century, when Dracula by Bram Stoker is written, women were only perceived as conservative housewives, only tending to their family’s needs and being solely dependent of their husbands to provide for them. This novel portrays that completely in accordance to Mina Harker, but Lucy Westenra is the complete opposite. Lucy parades around in just her demeanor as a promiscuous and sexual person. While Mina only cares about learning new things in order to assist her soon-to-be husband Jonathan Harker. Lucy and Mina both become victims of vampirism in the novel. Mina is fortunate but Lucy is not. Overall, the assumption of women as the weaker specimen is greatly immense in the late 19th century. There are also many underlying sexual messages throughout the story. The topic of anything sexual, in the late 19th century, was not a topic to be discussed openly. This explains why Stoker decodes all of his references. The late 19th century was the era of the American Renaissance so the novel includes many gothic and Poe-etic elements. In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, the author depicts women in a vulgar and promiscuous way to represent the weakness and dependency of women on men, includes many gothic and Poe-etic elements to relate the novel to American Renaissance and makes many sexual references to add some edge to the story to the delight of men but the horror to women.
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex introduced the one of the most important tragic heroes of Greek literature. First performed in the fifth century B.C.E., the play is centered around Oedipus, the king of the Greek city-state Thebes, and his struggle to conquer his emotions as he seeks out the true story of his life. This work, inspired by a well-known Greek myth, scrutinizes both the tragic flaws of Oedipus and his heroism. Examples of Oedipus’ tragic flaws abound in the play. In his condemnation of Tiresias and Creon, Oedipus is controlled by his emotions. However, the heroism of Oedipus is also an essential theme of the drama, though it is often downplayed. Despite this, careful analysis can uncover many instances in which Oedipus exhibits his heroism by attempting to control his emotions and discover the truth of his origins. In his finest moments, Oedipus is in complete command of his emotions as he searches for the truth, while at his nadir, Oedipus is completely controlled by his emotions and is absolutely unpredictable. This contrast is, in large part, what makes Oedipus a tragic hero. Oedipus, King of Thebes, is among the greatest Hellenistic tragic heroes because of his fight to overcome his greatest flaw, his uncontrollable anger, as he heroically searches for the truth.
In terms of feminist theory, Dracula is much like that of Henry Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; both portraying the role of women (or lack thereof) in a Victorian setting. During the turn of the century women did not have the freedom granted to them today and not much was expected of them in terms of masculine obligations. Men were expected to be smart and strong while women were supposed to be motherly, gentle, and nurturing. For example: the superiority of men over women in Dracula is made clear when Lucy addresses Mina: “why are men so noble when women are so little worthy of them?” (Stoker 54). Stoker portrays all of his female characters’ vulnerability against evil when each one of them seems to have a weakness to a male character. Dracula can be analyzed through and against feminist theory by relating the stereotypes of the three female characters: Mina Murray Harker, Lucy Westenra, and the three vampire “brides” of Dracula.
Dodds, E. R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays.
Similar to almost every piece of literature ever created, Dracula by Bram Stoker has been interpreted many different ways, being torn at from every angle possible. Just as one might find interest in interpreting novels differently, he or she might also find interest in the plot, prose, or theme, all of which ultimately lead to the novels overall tone. Throughout the novel, it becomes blatant that the novel contains an underlying theme of female incompetence and inferiority. Through a true feminist’s eyes, this analysis can clearly be understood by highlighting the actions of Mina and Lucy, the obvious inferior females in the book. Through Stoker’s complete and utter manipulation of Mina and Lucy, he practically forces the reader to analyze the co-existence of dominant males and inferior females in society and to simultaneously accept the fact that the actual text of Dracula is reinforcing the typical female stereotypes that have developed throughout the ages.
The great Sophoclean play, Oedipus Rex is an amazing play, and one of the first of its time to accurately portray the common tragic hero. Written in the time of ancient Greece, Sophocles perfected the use of character flaws in Greek drama with Oedipus Rex. Using Oedipus as his tragic hero, Sophocles’ plays forced the audience to experience a catharsis of emotions. Sophocles showed the play-watchers Oedipus’s life in the beginning as a “privileged, exalted [person] who [earned his] high repute and status by…intelligence.” Then, the great playwright reached in and violently pulled out the audience’s most sorrowful emotions, pity and fear, in showing Oedipus’s “crushing fall” from greatness.
Oedipus is widely known for being the man that killed his father and married his mother. After Oedipus finds out about what he has done he proceeds to jab both of his eyes out and remains blind for the rest of his life. By Oedipus doing this it means that his fate that was told to his parents at the beginning of the story had come true. With Oedipus jabbing his eyes out, this made it clear that this was a tragedy. Oedipus is the perfect fit of being a tragic hero. First of all by being born into royalty and throughout his life he held a royal persona. Also he makes some choices that leads him to his own destruction. For example, with him already marrying his mother and his mother had already had several of his kids their was nothing that he could do when he found out that his wife was also his mother. In the story as he went back to confront his mother/wife, she had already hung herself. As for being a hero, he done many heroic things throughout his life. For example, when he arrived at the city where he met his mother and father, there
Boston: Pearson, 2013. 1396-1506. Print. The. Sophocles. “Oedipus the King” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
Good Morning/Afternoon Today I will review Bram stokers’ 1897 novel Dracula, the approaches I will be using to reviewing the novel include the world centred approach, and the reader response approach exploring the themes of reader positioning and the authors intented reading and reader, then focusing on the world centred approach of the feministtheory.
During the Victorian era, Bram Stoker’s Dracula took the literary world by storm, introducing a new style of literature that proved to be one of the most read literary genres even to this date. Dracula, a gothic horror novel, continues to remain at the center of academic discourse as professors around the globe ponder the themes of good versus evil and how these ideas tend to conflict within the story’s main arc: the demonic possession of Dracula over the women in the story, and the fight for Mina’s soul and the ultimate excavation of evil from the world.
Oedipus’ nobility and asset is responsible for his first strategic to success as a tragic hero. The nature of Oedipus ‘noble position as son of a king, earns him veneration from not only people of Thebes, but the audience also. The audience must respect a tragic hero as someone superior and more control below themselves. In line 13 of Oedipus the King play, Oedipus states, “tell me, and never doubt me that I will help you in every way I can”. By saying this he means no matter what it takes, he is willing to sacrifice whatnot for his people, the individuals of Thebes. A kingly courage is something he had and held it high over his head, so high over his head he made a sacrifice to flee away from his own city. Oedipus exiled from the city to die out the plague, so citizens of Thebes wouldn’t harm any longer. He had taken things in his own matters. Oedipus felt he was a problem and things would only be right if it was he who left. Doing this great deed Oedipus shows that he is far from being self-regarding and closer to a leader. His ...
Prescott, Charles E., and Grace A. Giorgio. “Vampiric Affinities: Mina Harker and the paradox of Femininity in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Victorian Literature and Culture 33 (2009): 487-515. JSTOR. Web. 29 April 2013.
At the beginning of Oedipus the King, Oedipus’s wisdom and actions as a king are very effective. To his subjects he is respected and very well accepted. His intelligence is known to his people as a hero as a result of his correct answer to the riddle of the sphinx. Oedipus’s subject’s affection is shown by the chorus’s account, “People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus. He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance, he rose to power, a man beyond all power. Who could behold his greatness without envy? (Oedipus the King, 1678–1682). His intelligence also corresponded with his swift nature. Oedipus was always looking towards the future which could be a product of his many prophecies which seemed to always haunt his nature. During the tenure when Oedipus was successful, his quick actions were useful. He was always trying to stay one step ahead, for example, he tries to save the city against the plague by sending Creon to the oracle of Delphi for a solution to the problem. After Oedipus’s reputation and successful lifestyle began to fall, his quick actions began to damage his status rather than assist it. His immediate perceptions began ...
Oedipus is a hero, as defined by Johnston. According to Johnston, ‘a hero is someone who confronts fate in a very personal manner and whose reaction to that encounter serves to illuminate for us our own particular condition’ (Johnston, Part 2). Oedipus definitely confronts fate in a personal manner. Among other things, he challenges the mysterious qualities of fate by pursuing the Shepherd despite warnings from Jocasta (Sophocles, 71). Oedipus follows through on confronting fate with his individual approach of uncompromising persistence and integrity (Johnston, Part 3). Even at the end of his downfall, Oedipus maintains that Kreon should banish him and that he must obey the curses he himself ordered for the murderer of King Laios (Sophocles, 89-90). Despite being so broken and publicly shamed, Oedipus still persists with his former way of interacting with fate : noble defiance (Johnston, Part 3). Although this quality itself is admirable, Oedipus takes uncompromising to the extreme, losing insight on everything else. Oedipus becomes ignorant to his surroundings, leading to his downfall (Johnston, Part 3). Oedipus’ story also challenges the fundamental belief that life should be rational and just. (Johnston, Part 3) His story illuminates that fate is arbitrarily cruel and will sometimes pick the gre...
The phenolic compounds are the main component responsible for antioxidant activity, is mainly due to their redox properties, which can play an important role in absorbing and neutralizing free radicals, quenching singlet and triplet oxygen, or decomposing peroxides. Recently, phenolics or polyphenols have received considerable attention because of their physiological functions, including antioxidant, antimutagenic and antitumor activities. They have been reported to be a potential compound to combat free radicals, which are harmful to our body and foods systems (Nagai et al., 2003). Phenolic constituents are one of the major group of compounds acting as primary antioxidants especially as free radical terminators (Oviasogie et al., 1985; Ka, 1999). The level of antioxidants as evidenced in this study imply the presence of phenolics. Phenolic compounds comprise a large group of biological