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Greek mythology parent and child
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Greek mythology parent and child
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The Impact of Sin in Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Ibsen's Ghosts
Sophocles' play Oedipus the King was written for a Greek audience as a religious right and lesson around two thousand years ago, while Ibsen's play Ghosts was written as a criticism of the Norwegian society during the 1890's. Although these plays were written for very different reasons and under different circumstances, the universal theme connecting them is mankind's liability to sin because the results affect a greater whole. One of the more specific themes of these plays is the negative effect that parents' sins have upon the generations to follow.
In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is born the son of Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. However, when they hear Apollo's prophecy (that Oedipus will kill his father and sleep with his mother) they decide to destroy Oedipus. Apollo's prophecy made Oedipus an unwanted child. In this case, the parents' transgression of the law was that they attempted to defy the gods by evading Apollo's prophecy. Later Jocasta states that "no skill in the world, nothing human, can penetrate the future" (Sophocles 201). Oedipus, as a later response to her statement says, "...all those prophecies I feared - Polybus packs them off to sleep with him in hell! They're nothing, worthless" (Sophocles 214). In this way, Oedipus and Jocasta quit believing in the prophecies altogether. In Ghosts, Regine is the result of an affair that Captain Alving had with the housemaid, Johanna. Since Regine is a child born out of wedlock, she is unwanted by Captain Alving because she is the result of his sin, and if anyone were to discover her true origins it could destroy the respect that society has for him. She is also unwant...
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...ther sins and results that happened after that would never have occurred. In short, do not let your pride blind you to the knowledge of those who are wiser than you. In Ghosts, Ibsen's message is that the Norwegian society was hypocritical and unmoral. This is shown through Oswald's suffering because he is simply a victim who is paying for what a hypocritical society permits - men's immorality. The overall idea behind this play is that hypocrites should not criticize others; as Manders criticizes Oswald the companions that he chose during his stay in Paris. However, they are both combined by the intricate link of sin and its effects on the whole.
Works Cited
Ibsen, Henrik. Four Major Plays. Trans. James McFarlane and Jens Arup. New York: Oxford UP, 1998
Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Classics, 1984