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5 paragraph essay analyzing the character of odyssey
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Justice in Oedipus the King
After reading Oedipus the King, one may think that in this story, there was no
justice, and nobody could avoid their fate. King Laius and Queen Jocasta,
fearing the prophecy of the Delphic oracle, had the young Oedipus left on Mount
Cithaeron to die, but the father dies and the son marries the mother anyway.
Oedipus, seemingly a good person, also tries to avoid the second prophecy, only
to fulfill the first. But even through all this, I have done some research and
feel that there was justice in Oedipus, The King, and their fate wasn't
completely sealed.
First, the murder of King Laius. Laius seemed to die a unwarranted death,
but he was not necessarily in complete innocence, for he had done some malicious
things earlier in his life, such as the attempted murder of his son, Oedipus,
and the kidnapping and rape of Chrysippus, a young man Laius fell in love with
before Jocasta. And Oedipus wasn't as guilty under ancient Greek law as he is
under our modern laws. It was every Greek's duty to harm his/her enemies, and
as far as Oedipus knew, King Laius was an enemy.
Queen Jocasta wasn't exactly guiltless, either. The great Queen had also
tried with King Laius to kill their son, and had no respect for the prophecies
of Apollo: "A prophet? Listen to me and learn some peace of mind: no skill in
the world, nothing human can penetrate the future." She was also the other half
of a mother-son marriage. Greek law considered the act, not the motive -
meaning that even though she nor Oedipus knew they were related, they committed
the crime.
Finally, Oedipus's guilt. In some ways, Oedipus was the most guilty of
them all. Consider his 'hubris'. He regarded himself as almost a god, assuming
that since he alone had solved the sphinx's riddle, he was the one of the gods'
favorites. He was very quick to judge, and judged on the most flimsy of
evidence. He calls on Tiresias to tell him what he should do, and when he
doesn't like what he hears, Oedipus says, "Your words are nothing - futile", and
Characters will not stop searching for the truth until they discover it. Oedipus, the strong and powerful leader of Thebes is determined to end the plague and find out who killed Laius. In search of the truth Oedipus asks, “Does any man among you know who killed Laius son of Labdacus?” (Roche 14). Oedipus is eager to find out who
Another example of Oedipus’ presumptuous temperament is when he immediately assumes that Creon is trying to take his power from him. Creon sends Tiresias to Oedipus to help him solve the crime of the plague, and when Tiresias reveals that Oedipus must die in order to save the people of Thebes, Oedipus assumes Creon is trying to take his throne. Creon even tells Oedipus, “…if you think crude, mindless stubbornness such a gift, you’ve lost your sense of balance” (Meyer 1438). Oedipus’ impulsive nature leads him to discovering the truth and reveals that he has indeed fulfilled the prophecy he was running from.
Though calling Teiresias’ news as foolish deceit. Oedipus later learns that the murder of King Laios had been foretold. to be at the hands of his lost son, which he exiled and sentenced to. death when his son was still a baby. Knowing that the same prophecy was told to him by Apollo, Oedipus now knows that he is implicated in.
'So, Pentheus listen to me. Do not mistake the rule of force for true power. Men are not shaped by force. Nor should you boast of wisdom, when everyone but you can see how sick your thoughts are. Instead, welcome this God to Thebes. Exalt him with wine, garland your head and join the Bacchic revels'(19).
If Oedipus had not been so determined to escape and prevent the prophecy, he would not have fulfilled it. Possibly, he was doomed to fulfill the prophecy because he believed he could avoid it. Nevertheless, his fate was sealed by his actions of pride and determination. His pride of conquering the Sphinx led him to the marriage of Jocasta, his mother. When avenging Jocasta’s previous husband, and his true father, King Laius’ death, he was blinded by his pride to the concept that perhaps he was the murderer. Not knowing the truth, he cursed himself to an “evil death-in-life of misery”. Of course at that time, Oedipus failed to realize his connections to Jocasta and Laius, but recognition of the truth would bring him to his eventual suffrage.
Since Oedipus had no knowledge of his birth parents, he cannot be accused of knowingly fulfilling the prophecy. He had no understanding of Laius as his birth father upon killing him. One might say that Oedipus is then guilty of murder regardless, but if he had killed in self defense, that cannot be true. Likewise, if Oedipus had no understanding of Jocasta as his birth mother, then he cannot be guilty of incest. Neither can he be guilty of defiling Laius’s marriage bed, as he did not know that Jocasta was the wife of the man he had murdered.
Oedipus is guilty because, despite knowing the prophecy that he will commit parricide and incest, he yet kills an elderly gentleman and sleeps with an elderly women. The choice was his, and this accounts for his guilt.
WorldCom, US second largest telecommunication company in the United States behind AT&T, was founded in 1983. The company starts their business under the name “Long Distance Discount Services” (LDDS), providing long distance telecommunication services. The company was profitable from the start. In 1985, Bernie Ebbers became the company’s CEO. The company changes its name to WorldCom in 1995. During the 1990’s, the company starts to grow through series of successful acquisition and merger. However, during the late 1999, the company’s performance begins to decline due to heightened competition and reduced demand for telecommunication services.
Some of the stakeholders are the stockholders, which they care about making a profit. In my opinion, some ethical issues are the stockholders most of the times only care about making a profit.
that he would not succumb to death from a man born of a woman. How he
This paper is designed to define a problem that currently exists at Global Communications, a telecommunications company and to develop a solution, along with alternate solutions that could be used to solve the problem. Always when making business decisions for a major corporation there are opportunities in the foreseen end-state goals, as well as challenges that occur that all have to be evaluated in determining the final decision. Throughout this paper the reader will be given some background information, along with the expected opportunities and hindering challenges that all will affect Global Communications and the underlying goals that is being worked towards. Global Communications stock was being traded at $28 per share just three years ago. Presently, the company has experienced a major depreciation in stock (Global Communications, pg. 1). The number one reason behind this is the competition that currently exists. All markets have been moving in on the same business, including local, long-distance and international (Global Communications, pg. 1). On the contrary, cable companies have come into the picture putting a halt on all profits being made from each market. Global Communication had to come up with a plan to solve the issue of losing stock value. This new plan, however; has not only given GC many opportunities, but there are also challenges at hand, and not all employees, including the union workers will be happy with the overall solution that the company has made (Global Communications, pg. 6)
To destroy Oedipus, the gods granted the power of prophecy to oracles that delivered these prophecies to Laius and Jocasta. As a result, they kill their child to get rid of him and his terrible prophecies. Unfortunately, these prophecies came true because Oedipus didn’t know his real parents. If he had known his real parents, he wouldn’t have killed his father and married his mother.
Global Communications is a telecommunications company that has been for over 25 years. The company is a part of a growing and competitive industry. Due to the competition, Global Communications stock has declined and company officials need to come up with a plan to increase profits or file bankruptcy or close its doors for good.
Sophocles demonstrates in the play Oedipus the King that a human being, not a God, ultimately determines destiny. That is, people get what they deserve. In this play, one poorly-made judgment results in tragic and inescapable density. Oedipus fights and kills Laius without knowing Laius is his father. Then, Oedipus's pitiless murdering causes several subsequent tragedies such as the incestuous marriage of Oedipus gets into the flight with Laius. However, Oedipus's characteristics after Laius's death imply that Oedipus could avoid the fight as well as the murder of his father, but did not. Ultimately, Oedipus gets what he deserves due to his own characteristics that lead him to murder Laius: impatience, delusion, and arrogance.
The term that describes the big picture for what happened to Global Communication, is lack of planning. It was quite shocking that the senior management team was discussing the “challenges” in a meeting a day before announcing the new strategy. Unfortunately, avoidable mistakes led to the fact that GC struggled in their negotiation with the union to discuss the impact of their decisions.