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King oedipus as a characteristic greek tragedy
King oedipus as a characteristic greek tragedy
King oedipus as a characteristic greek tragedy
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Oedipus Fulfills a Hero’s Journey In the play, Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, Oedipus departs on a quest to find and meet his birth parents. In doing so he experiences all three stages of a hero's journey. Starting with his departure from Corinth, Oedipus becomes King of Thebes until he is banished and blinded on his return. Moreover, Oedipus loses his biological parents, has a supernatural aid, engages in tests of strength, and receives a unhealable wound. Oedipus’ long and painful journey incorporates many stages of the hero’s journey. During Oedipus’ departure, Oedipus receives new information as his call to action. One night in Oedipus’ early life, a drunkard comes up to Oedipus and tells him that Merope and Polybus are not his biological …show more content…
parents. Confused, Oedipus confronts Polybus and discovers that he Polybus and Merope adopted him as a baby and that his adoptive parents do not know who his biological parents are. This scene shows the characteristic of a hero's journey that is losing one's parents. Additionally, this is Oedipus’ call to action, and he soon departs on a journey to find his true parents. The next step in Oedipus’ journey is the initiation, in which Oedipus receives supernatural aid and endures a test of intelligence. Upon departing Corinth, where Merope and Polybus live, Oedipus travels to the Oracle at Delphi. The oracle uses its supernatural powers to tell Oedipus that in his future he will kill his father, and sleep in the same bed as his mother. Asking the aid of supernatural forces is another element of a hero's journey, and an important part of a hero's initiation. Another important characteristic of a hero's journey is a test of strength or of intelligence. This test occurs upon Oedipus’ entrance into Thebes. He encounters a sphinx, who asks Oedipus a riddle. This riddle is challenging, yet Oedipus uses his own intelligence to answer the riddle and abolish the sphinx. Oedipus becomes the King of Thebes, where he is allowed to show off his intelligence to his subjects. Overcoming a test and showing off the gift, such as intelligence, that allowed one to overcome such a test is another characteristic of a hero's journey. Both supernatural aid and overcoming a test are attributes of Oedipus’ journey to find his parents. As part of Oedipus’s return, he acquires an irreversible wound.
After realizing that the prophecy given to Oedipus by the Oracle at Delphi is true, Oedipus does not wish to see the truth. As his own punishment, Oedipus blinds himself and then banishes himself from Thebes and society. In doing so, Oedipus ends his hero's journey. He also completes another characteristic of the hero's journey, suffering a unhealable wound of which he hero never recovers. At the end of his journey, Oedipus understands that he can not avoid or change his own fate. Through his rise to power, Oedipus had fulfilled the prophecy given to him by the Oracle at Delphi, showing that no one can escape their fate. With a unhealable wound and a lesson learned, Oedipus ends his hero's …show more content…
journey. Oedipus, a brave and curious man, fulfills many characteristics of a hero's journey. In the departure, he loses his parents and is raised by adoptive parents. During his initiation, Oedipus calls for supernatural aid and overcomes a challenge of his intelligence. Upon his return, he receives a unhealable injury and learns a lesson from his journey. All these listed above are characteristics of a hero's journey as it relates to Oedipus and his own quest. Is Happiness the Price for Refuting Societal Norms? Throughout many years, people have wondered what causes people to abandon societal norms. Many people who “stick to the status-quo” cannot fathom what makes a person abandon the security of conditional society. After reading the books Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham one can understand that a person's pursuit of happiness is reason enough to escape the rules of society. Although going against society is uncertain to give one happiness, the idea of being happy is enough to make one abandon society. Some people abandon society to find what they think will make them happy, though it makes them more miserable in the end.
Throughout the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein becomes an outcast after believing that creating a creature would bring him happiness. In making his creation, Victor turns away from societal norms, for example, he postpones his marriage, avoids his family, and evades getting a steady job to give his creature life and make himself happy. One can understand that all Victor's family dies, along with his sanity, after the creation of his creature. With his family and friends dead, Victor turns into an outcast, believing that he should no longer be allowed to live with civilization. He wanders the globe in pursuit of vengeance on his creature until his untimely death. He becomes a depressed and lonely outcast due to his guilt for creating a monster of such power. Although his monster did not give him happiness, Victor leaves society thinking that it will. He then becomes an outcast from society and feels as though he can never return until the monster he created has perished, which makes him more unhappy. Victor, a dedicated natural science student thought that he would be happy if he strayed from society and did the impossible, but in the end, it crushed him. Another example of abandoning society in the pursuit of happiness is Larry Darrell in the novel The Razor's Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham. Larry, an American man adopted into
old money, does not find merriment inexpensive clothes and other worldly possessions. When nagged to get married, have a family, and get a steady and high paying job, Larry replies that he would rather loaf than be tied down to a job, family, and money. Consequently, Larry crosses the Atlantic Ocean into a new life of serenity and asceticism. The water in which Larry crosses over symbolizes his rebirth into a life without expensive possessions, but with modesty and happiness. Additionally, it demonstrates the discomfort Larry felt when he conformed to society and his renewal into a lifestyle that fit his needs. Larry finds happiness in earning money instead of receiving it and thus becomes a happy man in the final chapters of his story. Larry is a success story for becoming content through making his own path. Unlike Frankenstein, Larry is able to find happiness through leaving society. Although both find that the path to their own personal happiness includes escaping the rules of normality, only Larry is truly happy at the end of his tale. It is up to each person to decide whether society will bring them their own personal success. Following what one thinks will make one happy will not guarantee happiness, but for some, staying with society will guarantee unhappiness.
In Frankenstein, everyone treats Victor’s creation like a monster, including Frankenstein himself. This leads to the creation accepting that title and going on a murder spree. His creation says “When I reflect on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation” (69). Victor’s creation shows that he did not ask to be created, and his existence is miserable.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
The character Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus the King follows a literary pattern known as the hero archetype. The hero archetype is a pattern involved with transformation and redemption. Manifest in three stages called the quest, the initiation, and the sacrifice, Oedipus is transformed from the redeemer of the city to the cause of its downfall. These three stages are clearly revealed and although they are separate entities, each intertwine.
In Frankenstein, Victor’s monster suffers much loneliness and pain at the hands of every human he meets, as he tries to be human like them. First, he is abandoned by his creator, the one person that should have accepted, helped, and guided him through the confusing world he found himself in. Next, he is shunned wherever he goes, often attacked and injured. Still, throughout these trials, the creature remains hopeful that he can eventually be accepted, and entertains virtuous and moral thoughts. However, when the creature takes another crushing blow, as a family he had thought to be very noble and honorable abandons him as well, his hopes are dashed. The monster then takes revenge on Victor, killing many of his loved ones, and on the humans who have hurt him. While exacting his revenge, the monster often feels guilty for his actions and tries to be better, but is then angered and provoked into committing more wrongdoings, feeling self-pity all the while. Finally, after Victor’s death, the monster returns to mourn the death of his creator, a death he directly caused, and speaks about his misery and shame. During his soliloquy, the monster shows that he has become a human being because he suffers from an inner conflict, in his case, between guilt and a need for sympathy and pity, as all humans do.
The question has been raised as to whether Oedipus was a victim of fate or of his own actions. This essay will show that Oedipus was a victim of fate, but he was no puppet because he freely and actively sought his doom, although he was warned many times of the inevitable repercussions of his actions.
He toils endlessly in alchemy, spending years alone, tinkering. However, once the Creature is brought to life, Frankenstein is no longer proud of his creation. In fact, he’s appalled by what he’s made and as a result, Frankenstein lives in a perpetual state of unease as the Creature kills those that he loves and terrorizes him. Victor has realized the consequences of playing god. There is irony in Frankenstein’s development, as realized in Victor’s desire to destroy his creation. Frankenstein had spent so much effort to be above human, but his efforts caused him immediate regret and a lifetime of suffering. Victor, if he had known the consequences of what he’s done, would have likely not been driven by his desire to become better than
In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein secretly creates a monster without considering the consequences. After the creation of the monster and throughout Victor’s life he and the monster suffer constantly. Because Victor keeps his monster a secret from his family, friends and society, he is alone and miserable. The monster is also alone and miserable because he is shunned by society due to his grotesque appearance.
Throughout the play, Oedipus is faced with the truth and fails to acknowledge it. He is first told by the drunk at the party, but he dismisses it as just something said by an ignorant drunk. He then visits the oracle and is told his fate determined by the gods and believes he can escape it by fleeing to Thebes. On his way he carries out the first part of the fate by killing his father. He then makes it to Thebes and marries Jocasta, unknowingly fulfilling the fate. Teiresias finally tells Oedipus the horrible truth, but Oedipus calls him a liar and fails to recognize the truth again. When Oedipus finally figures that what the oracle, drunk, and Teiresias was all true, he cannot handle it and blinds himself while Jocasta kills herself.
When Oedipus was born he was taken to an Oracle, this was custom for the rich. The Oracle was to tell his fate. The Oracle said that when Oedipus grows up he will marry his mother and he would also kill his father, "... Why, Loxias declared that I should one day marry my own mother, And with my own hands shed my father's bool. Wherefore Corinth I have kept away far, for long years; and prosperd; none the less it is most sweet to see one's parents' face..."(p36 ln1-6). When his parents herd this they gave Oedipus to a man and he was to get rid of the baby by leaving it in the forest, but an servant of Polybus, the king of Corinth, finds the baby and brings him to the king. The king falls in love with the baby and takes him in as one of his own.
Brittnne Bennett Bennett 1Mrs. BardEnglish Honors25 January 2014The cursed journey of Oedipus By conducting a thorough reading of Sophocles play Oedipus the king, one will easily view Oedipus as caring, getting ahead of himself, and seemingly on a personal journey. In the process of this journey you come to, and understanding that there is more to this apologue than it appears. Due to the fact that, Oedipus goes through a life changing journey; Between his biological family, people who he considered his family, and himself. The decision that he chooses to make will either bring him peace or misery. The story commences with a toxic plague tormenting the city of Thebes. The Priest approaches Oedipus his king, and begs him to help cease this curse. Being a considerate and understanding king who loves his people Oedipus was already one step ahead. At that point Oedipus had sent his brother-in-law Creon to talk to the god Apollo, to grasp and understand as to why this was happening to his people. In return, Creon had suggested to Oedipus that he talks to Tiresias, "The man who sees most eye to eye with Lord Apollo." (Will 17) In doing so, it doesn't end well as Oedipus felt betrayed by his brother-in-law; for sending a false prophet. Leading him to accuse Creon of wanting to steal the throne. As this predicament rises the chorus leader state's that " Quick decisions are not the safest." (Will 35)
Victor’s loneliness leaves him devoid of purpose and determination, a shell of a human whose essence has been entirely obliterated. Even so, if Victor had not created this unnecessary monster, his family and friends would not have been strangled by his creation. By creating this wretched being, Victor fabricates his own downfall and forces his own seclusion in Frankenstein.
He created a life, and then spontaneously he quickly decided to run away from his creation. Victor’s actions after creating what he created were really irresponsible, and did not correctly took care of the circumstance’s he put himself in. The creation was never actually evil, but he felt abandoned by what could had been called his father. Frankenstein, the monster, was only a seeker for companionship. He strongly desired to feel loved, rather than abandoned. Society’s evil behavior toward the monster is what altered the monster’s conduct and followed to how he acted.
Before the twentieth century plays were mainly written as either a tragedy or comedy. In a tragic play the tragic hero will often do something that will eventually destroy him. In the book Oedipus the King, Oedipus is the tragic hero. In this tragic play the main character, which is portrayed as Oedipus, will do a good deed that will in turn make him a hero. This hero will reach his height of pride in the story, and in the end the action, which he had committed earlier, will return and destroy this man who was once called a hero.
While the monster gains a feeling of hatred and a desire for revenge after he is abandoned and treated pitifully, Frankenstein continuing reinforces the suffering of his creation, and likewise the suffering of himself. Frankenstein is completely to blame for the misery that he endures. Victor creates a being only for his own fulfillment, and afterwards abandons the great responsibility that he bears for it. To make it worse, Frankenstein intentionally ruins the monster 's happiness and gives him the same horrendous treatment that the rest of mankind gives the monster. Victor 's selfish actions cost him his family, bring him to the brink of insanity, and make a terrible creature out of a loving and compassionate being. Victor Frankenstein is a true
In fact, Oedipus is doomed to kill his father, marry his mother and finally to be blind. It was his destiny or fate; he has nothing to do with this end or to prevent it. It was his fate which was manipulating him; drive him from Cornith to kill his father and then to Thebes to marry his mother. His destiny made him "his wife's son, his mother husband." By the hands of fate, he turned to be the most hated man in Thebes and "the man whose life is hell for others and for himself."