“You were given this life because you were strong enough to survive it”
- Unknown
The classical tragedy genre was first interpreted by Greek philosopher, Aristotle. Besides, the genre has continued to follow its formal structure to emphasize the elements, characteristics, and have a powerful effect of the gods on the audiences. With time changing, so does the classical tragedy to modern tragedy. This has taken the classic tragic hero and developed a modern sense of strength to appeal today’s society. However, this can negatively impact their fortuity and lead to their downfall from hamartia. This had been evident when comparing Katie, from Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks to Jocasta, from Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The novel and book’s characters
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In the book, Katie is changing her looks, and getting the house ready for when she would depart while Kevin is gone out of town. As Katie escapes the author notes that “She left the house … Tomorrow night, she knew, Kevin would walk through the house, calling for her, and he wouldn’t find her because she wasn’t there” (Sparks 202). These actions led to Katie’s undesirable consequences. Let alone, Kevin finds out Katie has been staying in Southport, North Carolina to particularly bring her back home. Likewise, Jocasta and Laius have received the prophecy that Laius was destined to be murdered by his own son and marry his mother. Jocasta emphasizes that, “As for the child, it was not yet three days old, when he cast it out (By other hands, not his) with riveted ankles To perish on the empty mountain-side. There, then, Apollo did not so contrive it … the father, For all his fears, was killed not by his son” (Sophocles 45). Based off Jocasta’s actions and decisions to send Oedipus away, she prevents the prophecy by toying with the power of the gods. Regardless of what was expected, Oedipus kills her husband and she eventually marries her son. These two women exhibit peripeteia in their own way, but Katie has proven to be stronger by determining a plan to escape away from …show more content…
During the book, Kevin is approaching Katie and the kids in the dark. He is drunk and he has a gun. Katie helps the kids get safe and far away from Kevin. When Katie confronted Kevin it is stated that “Closer, [she] thought. Almost there. She took another step forward, pushing the kids behind her. ‘Can you bring me home?’ Her voice pleaded with him, begged like Erin used to … [but] he wondered why she wasn’t scared and he wanted to pull the trigger …” (Sparks 349). Katie’s character has sacrificed her freedom by putting herself in danger for the kids. In the novel, Jocasta and Laius fear from being the victims of Oedipus’ fate and decide to give up their baby by not minding their power of authority. Sophocles explores the power of the gods upon Jocasta’s actions as he states that, “Could any mortal device be proof against the god’s prediction? Could any mortal be so presumptuous as to try to thwart it? Laius and Jocasta would so presume” (Sophocles 23). She has convinced herself that the oracles do not come true by interfering with what the gods predict. Therefore, Jocasta sacrificed any previous beliefs she had in order to decide Oedipus’ fate. Both Katie and Jocasta sacrifice everything to overcome negative events, with the exception that Katie had been stronger to survive those events with courage to be defeated or defeat
Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus can be argued that it is related loosely to Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth. This comparative and contrasting characteristics that can be seen within both plays make the reader/audience more aware of imagery, the major characters, plot, attitudes towards women, and themes that are presented from two very different standpoints. The authors Sophocles and Dove both have a specific goal in mind when writing the two plays. In this paper I will take a closer look of the two, comparing and contrasting the plays with the various elements mentioned previously.
In many works of Literature, a character comes forth as a hero, only to die because of a character trait known as a tragic flaw; Hamlet from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Okonkwo from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and Winston Smith from Orwell’s 1984 all exhibit that single trait, which leads, in one way or another, to their deaths. These three tragic heroes are both similar and different in many ways: the way they die, their tragic flaws, and what they learn. All three characters strongly exhibit the traits needed to be classified as a tragic hero.
Christopher Johnson McCandless, the main character in the book “Into the Wild,” had made a lot of friends even though he did not like people. Wayne Westerberg was one of Chris’s friends who he met in a bar. Chris also befriended a girl named Jan Burre. Another person who befriended Chris was a guy named Ronald Franz,
The authority which Oedipus and Jocasta defy is the same. Both the king and his mother defy the authority of the gods by trying to evade their edict. The edict states that a son would be born to Jocasta who would marry his mother and kill his father, as Oedipus says, “How mating with my mother I must spawn a progeny...having been my father's murderer.” (OEDIPUS, Oedipus, 44). When Jocasta hears of this, she attempts to kill the baby Oedipus, thus trying to escape the prophesy. Similarly, when Oedipus, as an unmarried adult, hears that he would kill his father, he runs away from his home town, Corinth, never to return. Oedipus and Jocasta both defy the gods' authority, which in this case comes in the form of running away from a menacing prophesy. In the end, however, Jocasta dies and Oedipus is overthrown and ruined.
During the Ancient Grecian time periods, tragedy meant death because one defied against an outer prophecy. Modern day tragedy was simply realism, the unspoken way of life. In Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Ibsen's A Doll's House, the main characters - Nora and Oedipus, are both constructed to illustrate flaws in society and how naive people are. Ibsen and Sophocles both developed tragedy into a central idea that all people surreptitiously understand. Nora and Oedipus make incompetent decisions that assist in discovering their fundamental nature as tragic heroes and provoke sorrow and pity among the audience.
The novel, Shelter by Harlan Coben is a book regarding a boy discovering a mystery that was hidden from him. The protagonist of this book is a teenager named Mickey Bolitare. Mickey witnesses his father’s death so he is now living with his uncle Myron. His life falls apart, but then he encounters Ashley. Ashley is a new student in school like him, and he soon forms feelings for her. Ashley was the reason why his life was bearable; until she disappears without a trace. He would not take the chance of letting anyone else leave him because he's lost too much already. On his search for Ashley he meets the Bat Lady ( a old elder woman who everyone fears) who tells him his father is in fact still alive. Mickey refused to believe this because he witnessed his father die in a car crash they had. This information influenced him to break into her house and he discovers a symbol that remains symbolic throughout the novel. The symbol was a butterfly which connects to his missing friend Ashley and his
Jocasta’s and Laius’ fate all depends of Oedipus. The story begins with the Oracle giving them horrible news. It tells them that they will have a child, Oedipus, but when he grows up, the boy will in turn kill Laius and then it says that the boy will sleep with Jocasta after Laius dies. Both of the parents are in distress over this news, so when the little boy is born they tell a servant to put him on a mountain and leave him there to die. Years pass by and the King and Queen keep thinking that they are safe; however when Laius is on a crossroad on his way to speak to the Oracle Oedipus, his son, comes along. Lai...
I think Jocasta has some blame because she angered the gods and even after the gods told her that if she had a kid, he would kill his dad and sleep with his mother but she still had a baby.After blowing the chance of changing the prophecy for Oedipus, she still could have saved him if she were to see the baby be killed so she makes sure that the baby was dead. Jocasta could have also realized the prophecy was coming true as soon her husband Laius was dead. Over all Jocasta should have feared and listened to the gods in the first place like every other Greek citizen.
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.
Tragic heroes cause intense empathetic reaction, developing an inevitable story of anguish and triumph. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is such a hero. He has many good, even heroic qualities; however, his deep flaws ultimately cause his undoing and terrible punishment. Although he comes across as a royal being who is basically good, he has flaws that ultimately cannot be controlled and devastate his life. As the readers watch his development and the development of the interwoven themes in the play, we ourselves suffer upon seeing and hearing the ironies of his relationships and motivations. Tragic heroes are relatable and saddening, and the pure idea of their being can draw deep emotion that lasts through civilizations and generations. Oedipus Rex is an iconic example of a tragic story with a tragic main character.
Jocasta’s compliance to the demands of the men around her is revealed through her constant role as a nurturing mother, one who provides emotional connections, but cannot make decisions. This role spans throughout the entire prophecy, throughout her entire life, and throughout her roles as Oedipus’ mother and then his wife. With the arrival of the prophecy that her and Laios’ son is destined to kill his own father and marry his own mother, Jocasta had to leave her child to essentially die in order to evade the prophecy. A mother’s first instinct is typically to protect her child at all costs; however, Jocasta goes against this by actually putting her child in danger in order to protect her husband. This instance proves that the husband seems to be the main focus. Every action seems to be to p...
If nothing else, this essay has proven the synthesis of Aristotelian and unconventional tragic elements, through the use of the tragic hero, the three unities and the support of a cathartic response from the audience. Also though, with disregard to many Aristotelian rules, to create perhaps not a dramatic success by Aristotle?s ideals, but undoubtedly an effective and challenging text which is Medea.
Oedipus’ mother and wife, Jocasta, went through her share of trials. When she was wife to Oedipus’ father, King Laius, Jocasta conceived a baby boy whom she was forced to give up to death. After receiving a prophecy that his son would kill him and take his throne, King Laius convinces Jocasta that their son is a great threat. He then orders that the baby boy be...
Sophocles’ Oedipus is the tragedy of tragedies. An honorable king is deceived and manipulated by the gods to the point of his ruination. In the face of ugly consequences Oedipus pursues the truth for the good of his city, finally exiling himself to restore order. Sophocles establishes emotional attachment between the king and the audience, holding them in captivated sympathy as Oedipus draws near his catastrophic discovery. Oedipus draws the audience into a world between a rock and a hard place, where sacrifice must be made for the greater good.
Oedipus discovers that the child of king Laius, and queen Jocasta was sent away to die as a child. As he seeks for the reason for this child being sent away he stumbles upon the fact that the child was prophesized to kill his father and he would lay with his mother. From this he became suspicious that the child may be him. He realized that while he had been considered a hero at the same time he had been doing what the oracle told him he would do.