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Analysis of Oedipus the king by Sophocles
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Analysis of Oedipus the king by Sophocles
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Euripides and Sophocles wrote their own versions of the Electra story.
The basic plot is as follows: Agamemnon is killed by Clytemnestra and
her lover Aegisthus after he returns from the Trojan war to reclaim his
sister-in-law Helen from the Trojans. Electra and her brother Orestes
plot to kill their mother and her lover to revenge his death. Both
authors wrote about the same plot, but the built the story very
differently. Sophocles focused on Orestes, and Euripides focused more
on the life of Electra.
In Sophocles's version, the play opens with Orestes learning his fate
from the Pythian Oracle; he must revenge his father's death unarmed and
alone. He sends his pedagogue Pylades, as a spy, to learn about the
situation in Mycenae. Electra mourns for her father's death. She is
unable to avenge her father's murders without the help of Orestes, her
brother. She is also mad about how her mother and her lover waste her
father's riches and desecrate his name. Her half-sister Chrysothemis is
no help to Electra and refuses to help in the murder of her mother and
mother's lover. Pylades arrives bearing the sad news of Orestes death.
He tells Clytemnestra that Orestes was killed in a chariot race at the
Delphian games; his body was cremated and his ashes were sent to
Mycenae. Concealing his identity, Orestes arrives and with the help of
Electra and Pylades, plots the murder of his mother and his mother's
lover. Orestes enter the palace, kills his mother and returns to
Electra. When Aegisthus arrives, Orestes kills him as well fulfilling
his destiny.
Euripides's version is much more dramatic. The play begins with
Electra's marriage to a peasant. Aegisthus had tried to kill Electra
but Clytemnestra convinced him to allow her to live. He decided to
marry her to a peasant so her children will be humbly born and pose no
threat to his throne. Orestes and Pylades arrive. Orestes says that he
has come to Apollo's shrine to pledge himself to avenge his father's
murder. Orestes, concealing his identity, talks with Electra about the
recent happenings in Mycenae. She admits that she is sad that her
brother had been taken away at such a young age and the only person that
would recognize him would be her father's old servant. She also
discusses her scorn of Aegisthus desecrating the monument over
Agamemnon's grave and his ridicule of Orestes.
mother he lived with his grandmother. His grandma took the best care of him out of
ended up dying before he reached the age of ten. He was taken care of by the oldest of his
The idea of whether abortion should be illegal or allowed is a controversial one since everyone seems to have different ideologies. Judith Thomson, who is in support of pro-choice argues in her article “A Defense of Abortion” main idea towards abortion is stating women should have the right to choose because they have the moral right to decide whether they have to hold life in their body. This idea is presented from her first analogy using the violinist who has a failing kidney and will perish if he does not have someone give him blood immediately. They take you without your permission and plug you into him. She connects this to the idea of the fetus by saying everyone has the right to life and if the fetus is considered a person then it would be wrong to kill an innocent human being, but then says that if the child is harming you then you should not wait until you are dead, he body is the home of the women so she should be allowed to defend herself against
The “tragic hero” with Sophocles and Euripides has several elements that are in common, whereas the character is essentially good, usually has some relation to royalty, however they have some type of flaw or commit some act, going against their better judgment or character, causing something tragic to happen to them or by them. I will explain different examples of the tragic hero in Sophocles and Euripides characters, but Virgil’s characterization of Aeneas I would not say is not completely accurate in comparison to the previous representations of the tragic hero, however I would say that Virgil’s depiction of the tragic hero embodies many of the traits and happenings, however evolution has altered how and for what exact reasons Aeneas is not just like the other tragic heroes of the past. In Sophocles’ Antigone I believe a notable tragic hero is Creon. He is fundamentally good as he is determined to put his kingdom before his personal feelings, but he is also flawed and for Creon his flaw is hubris. What makes him a tragic hero is that though he is doing what he believes to be ri...
The act of revenge in classical Greek plays and society is a complex issue with unavoidable consequences. In certain instances, it is a more paramount concern than familial ties. When a family member is murdered another family member is expected to seek out and administer revenge. If all parties involved are of the same blood, the revenge is eventually going to wipe out the family. Both Aeschylus, through "The Oresteia Trilogy," and Sophocles, through "Electra," attempt to show the Athenians that revenge is a just act that at times must have no limits on its reach. Orestes and his sister Electra, the children of the slain Agamemnon, struggle on how to avenge their father's death. Although unsure what course of action they must take, both brother and sister are in agreement that revenge must occur. Revenge is a crucial part of Greek plays that gives the characters a sense of honor and their actions a sense of justice.
...on. I believe that abortion is not always morally impermissible as we will never be able to achieve an absolute, neutral perspective of whether abortion is wrong or right. In extreme cases where the pregnancy interferes with the mother’s life such as life threatening situations, it is permissible to abort the pregnancy. It is not abortion as a whole that is ‘wrong’. Instead, it is the society’s attitude towards it. Individuals who use abortion, as a tool of convenience or choice is not morally permissible, as the fetus should be considered to have a right to life.
The play's plot, in a nutshell, develops like this. After solving the riddle of the Sphynx, who had kept Thebes under a curse of some kind, Oedipus is invited to become king of the city. He marries Jocasta, the widow of the previous king, and they have two children. When the play begins, Thebes is again under some sort of curse, and Oedipus tries to find out its cause so that he can rescue the city. He is told that the cause of the curse is that the murderer of the previous king is still in the city and has gone unpunished. In the process of searching for the murderer, Oedipus discovers that it is he, himself, who is responsible and that he is actually the son of Jocasta and her previous husband. Horrified by his sins of incest and murder, Oedipus claws out his eyes. Jocasta commits suicide because she is so disgraced.
Theoretically, Edna’s need to fulfill her personal desires is the cause of her demise. Edna chooses to associate and be enamored with Robert. In doing so, Edna begins to step farther and farther away from her family and sees their needs less clearly. Bonnie St. Andrews views Edna’s actions as, “one woman’s rebellion against convention” (28). In essence, her desires turn into a greed that blinds her from seeing anyone except herself.
Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ The Bacchae are indubitably plays of antitheses and conflicts, and this condition is personified in the manifestation of their characters, each completely opposed to the other. Both tragedians reveal tensions between two permanent and irreconcilable moral codes; divine law represented by Antigone and Dionysus and human law represented by Creon and Pentheus. The central purpose is evidently the association of law which has its consent in political authority and the law which has its consent in the private conscience, the association of obligations imposed on human beings as citizens and members of state, and the obligations imposed on them in the home as members of families. Both these laws presenting themselves in their most crucial form are in direct collision. Sophocles and Euripides include a great deal of controversial material, once the reader realizes the inquiries behind their work. Inquiries that pertain to the very fabric of life, that still make up the garments of society today.
Medea's first public statement, a sort of "protest speech," is one of the best parts of the play and demonstrates a complex, at times even contradictory, representation of gender. Medea's calm and reasoning tone, especially after her following out bursts of despair and hatred, provides the first display of her ability to gather herself together in the middle of crisis and pursue her hidden agenda with a great determination. This split in her personality is to a certain degree gender bias. The lack of emotional restraint is "typical" of women, and the strong attention to moral action is a common trait of heroes. Medea actually uses both of these traits so that her wild emotions fuel her ideals, thus producing a character that fails to fit into a clear mold.
The article A Defense of Abortion written by Judith Thomson and the article Why Abortion is Immoral by Don Marquis deal with the arguments of whether abortion is moral, immoral, justified or not. The author Don Marquis wants to prove that abortion is immoral without taking into consideration extreme cases, while Thomson says that abortion is justified in some cases. The latter supports her arguments by saying that abortion is justified in cases such as rape and when the mother’s life, which is the most important here, is in danger. On the other hand, Marquis says that abortion can’t be justified, because abortion is killing a person who might have a future, without much reference to any other cases that might lead to abortion.
His mother and father had been killed at sea, and the only people he had
Haydn is an Austrian composer who worked under patronage of the Esterházy court. Haydn composed over a hundred symphonies through his entire career. He is especially popular for the twelve symphonies in 1790s in England. Known as the London Symphonies or Salomon Symphonies. Haydn’s symphonies and his quartets are the spiritual birthplace of Beethoven’s style.
demonstrate her obedience to her father. In the beginning of the play, Ophelia tells her
This paper aims to study two significant playwrights, Sophocles and Euripides, and compare their respective attitudes by examining their plays in respect to plot and character structures. To achieve this goal, the paper is organized into two main sections. In the first section, we provide a brief biography of both Sophocles and Euripides. The second and last section includes summaries of Sophocles’ Electra and Euripides’ Electra which were based on same essentials and give an opportunity to observe the differences of the playwrights. This section also includes the comparisons that are made by our observations about the plays.