Antigone, Medea, And Oedipus The King

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Several similar themes are present between the three plays Antigone, Medea, and Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles and one by Euripides. The three plays were written during the time of the ancient Greek civilization and, therefore, contain the morals and values of that time. Throughout the three plays, it is observed that the protagonists all carry similar traits: a sense of duty and stubbornness in their ways. Both of these traits lead to a tragic ending for the characters in the three plays. By observing the three plays and comparing them, readers are able to see these two traits play out among them and see how they ultimately lead to their downfall.
Early Greek civilization was centered on a sense of duty; duty to your …show more content…

In Antigone, Creon feels his duty as king has a great importance than his family and their happiness. One moment this is observed is when he exclaims, “Unworthy wives for sons of mine I hate” (Sophocles 22). The women he once thought were good for his sons are now unworthy. Creon is caught up in his job and his duty to his people that he forgets about his morals and the values that are more important than the law. Creon does not realize he is neglecting his family until the very end of the play and soon finds that all he once loved is now lost. Oedipus finds himself in a similar situation when he realizes he is the one that killed his own father and married his mother. His sense of duty to his people and to himself is so strong that he took it upon himself to banish himself from the land and to gouge his own eyes out. He felt the shame that he had caused and decided that his people would be better off if he were not there. Antigone, on the other hand, is in a different situation. She feels that it is her duty to bury her brother Polynices even though this meant that her own life would be lost.

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