Tragedy in Oedipus the King and Doll's House

1052 Words3 Pages

Only Peace in Death

Tragedy has been apart of human history since the dawning of civilization. Man has been plunged into terrible tragedies for ages. But not until the Greeks and prominent playwrights such as Sophocles did tragedy take on into its own on the stage. Out of this rebirth of tragedy came what has been considered, even by Aristotle himself, the greatest tragedy ever written, Oedipus the King. He delves into the human psyche: bringing forth the notion of predestination, a supposition desperately believed in by humans, betraying the fatal flaws of his hero and manifesting the suffering brought upon the hero by his tragic downfall. Though it was written more than a millennium ago, its basis and structure for tragedy has held strong, showing true in the modern tragedy of A Doll’s House. Written by Henrik Ibsen, it is a more down to earth tragedy on a level and situation that almost anyone can relate to. Though the heroine of the tragedy is almost no different than Oedipus, she has a form of personal nobility and pride that leads her to actions that eventually bring about her downfall. She suffers, she feels emotion. Both Oedipus the King and A Doll’s House set forth a range of human emotions that allows the audience to connect and feel for the tragedy, given to one to reflect upon human nature.

Both ignorance and pride are closely related to the tragic hero and heroine of Oedipus the King and A Doll’s House. It is substantially the leading factor in the downfall of the characters, starting almost from the beginning of the tragedy, gradually building until the bliss, the fool’s folly, is wiped clean by a realization, a gatherance of knowledge that leads them to their suffering. Oedipus knows not of his herit...

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...ng does not end as well. Having lived during a patriarchal, she would not be able to sustain herself adequately outside of a household with a man. Her suffering would then become both extroversive and introversive. Her live would become a hell on earth as she struggled just to survive everyday, with peace only in death.

Sophocles and Ibsen were masterful playwrights that could bring forth the elements needed for a tragedy. They could play upon the wealth of human emotions, engrossing the audiences in empathy and disbelief. Their tragedies, Oedipus the King and A Doll’s House has been revered and studied because of their inclusion of the basic structure of the tragedy, as well as their display of the complexities of the human psyche. They are stories to be reflected upon, and their true value can only be acknowledged by taking a look of the world around us.

AP Open Response, Oedipus Rex
514 Words | 2 Pages
Insuring the portrayal of his theme, Sophocles targets the tension of his tragic play, Oedipus Rex, through the growth of the main character, Oedipus, rather than the mystery. Utilizing literary devices such as dramatic irony, soliloquies, and foreshadowing, Sophocles reveals to the audience the conclusion to the mystery of Oedipus before the hero has solved it himself; forcing the audience’s attention towards character growth of the hero, over the actual development of the mystery.
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Oedipus Comparison Essay
1105 Words | 3 Pages
Set ages apart, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex provide different perspectives on the topic of tragedy and what is defined as a tragic hero. Although Oedipus would be thought of as better representing the tragic hero archetype due to tradition and time period, the modern tragic hero of Oedipus Rex is more of a dismal one. Through analysis of their respective hamartias, it is exemplified that the New York businessman with his humble story proves to be more thought provoking than the King of Thebes and his melancholic tale. **By incorporating a more relatable character and plot, Arthur Miller lends help to making Willy Lowman spiral toward his own downfall while building more emotion and response from the audience than with Oedipus. When Oedipus learns of his awful actions, this invokes shock and desperation.
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Nora Helme: Transgression towards Realization
1158 Words | 3 Pages
A modern play that demonstrates the transgression of a woman from the conflict she experience is in “The Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen wrote this particular work while living in Italy, which became a cornerstone in ‘realism’. It also brings ...
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Tragedy in Oedipus the King and Doll's House
664 Words | 2 Pages
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.
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Compare Oedipus And Willy Loman
1607 Words | 4 Pages
The tradition of the tragedy, the renowned form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis, has principally become a discontinued art. Plays that evoke the sense of tragedy-the creations of Sophocles, Euripides, and William Shakespeare-have not been recreated often, nor recently due to its complex nature. The complexity of the tragedy is due to the plot being the soul of the play, while the character is only secondary. While the soul of the play is the plot, according to Aristotle, the tragic hero is still immensely important because of the need to have a medium of suffering, who tries to reverse his situation once he discovers an important fact, and the sudden downturn in the hero’s fortunes. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is the modern tragedy of a common man named Willy Loman, who, like Oedipus from Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, exhibits some qualities of a tragic hero. However, the character Willy Loman should not be considered a full-on tragic hero because, he although bears a comparable tragic flaw in his willingness to sacrifice everything to maintain his own personal dignity, he is unlike a true tragic hero, like Oedipus, because he was in full control of his fate where Oedipus was not.
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Pride in Oedipus and Othello
1742 Words | 4 Pages
Pride caused the death of 2 innocent people in Othello; however, Oedipus becoming blind and having to live with the mistakes he made is a fate worse than death. A tragic flaw seen in both characters is the amount of pride each one possesses. Both men had the opportunity to be ordinary and to be able to get by, yet that was not good enough for either of them. Oedipus and Othello felt they could achieve more than what was put in front of them and in the process of becoming great men; they unfortunately meet their end. It is proven through Oedipus and Othello that pride is not a bad thing when it is used appropriately; however, too much pride can ruin not just one life, but also the many lives that are surrounded by that one life. By putting too much emphasis on their lives, Othello and Oedipus are responsible for their own demise.
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Oedipus the King: The Tragic Flaws Of Oedipus
1052 Words | 3 Pages
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.
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Jocasta as the Victim of Oedipus the King
1028 Words | 3 Pages
The play Oedipus the King by Sophocles has often been described as the story of a “tragic hero.” This story is indeed tragic; however, Oedipus is not the only character stricken by tragedy. Equally stricken may be the character of Jocasta. She, as well as Oedipus, suffers many tragedies throughout the story. Shifting the story to a different perspective quite possibly may increase how we view it. The point is not to denounce Oedipus’ role as a tragic hero, but to denounce his role as the only tragic character.
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Self-Discovery and the Pursuit of Truth in Sophocles' Oedipus
1141 Words | 3 Pages
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.
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The Psychology of King Oedipus
1027 Words | 3 Pages
... self-awareness, ignorance, doubt, and awareness. The pain of loss and discovery that Oedipus must overcome eventually shape him into a more mature, humble, and humane character. This psychological journey from arrogant blindness to self-awareness and understanding models the journey each of us struggle with while trying to come to terms with the realities of our world an ourselves. Humans, of course, have not changed. When explaining the concept of Oedipal complexes, Sigmund Freud himself boldly stated, "The dream of having sexual intercourse with one's mother was as common then as it is today." And pride, just as much as delusions and desires, is a part of human nature we all must learn to manage so it does not blind us. Thus, the play Oedipus Rex still reveals some of the deepest psychological truths about human existence, over 2,000 years and civilizations later.
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Oedipus Rex: The Search for Truth
2217 Words | 5 Pages
Oedipus was willing to die to uncover the truth. Closure was needed for Oedipus the individual and Oedipus the king. Despite this need for closure, Oedipus remained blind to the clues in his path, plainly dismissing the ideas of other characters. Oedipus’ passion for knowledge was at least as strong as his blindness to the clues in his path. This blindness can be attributed to his pride. This pride gradually developed from h...
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Oedipus Rex Dramatic Irony Analysis
645 Words | 2 Pages
“What followed; snatching from her dress gold pins Wherewith she was adorned, he lifted them, And smote the nerves of his own eyeballs; saying Something like this, they should see no more” (45). As such, Oedipus becomes the full focus of irony, as he now knows the truth, while wishing that he never knew it. Oedipus could not see the truth when he had his sight. As such, Oedipus went on a search to cure his ignorance, while Tiresias was fully aware of the truth (12). However, searching for the truth reveals that Oedipus is the problem, and it was hidden in plain sight. Lastly, Oedipus’ life comes to full circle as he now accepts the role of one who knows, while wishing he doesn’t know. A question to investigate is how Oedipus’ character changes throughout the play, which is revealed by changes in his
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Analysis Of Oedipus The King
2093 Words | 5 Pages
Through Oedipus’ mistakes, the audience grows cautious of their own traits of hubris and its negative effects in their lives. Light versus darkness is a major theme of the play, which is compared through the ability to see and being blind. Having able eyes does not mean one can see the truth, nor does being blind mean one is oblivious to the truth. The importance of being honest is crucial to the equilibrium and peace of the world, as other characters besides Oedipus, such as Jocasta, and King Laius, would have avoided fatal ends if they said the truth. The characters’ mortal fates are the last, but strongest reminders of the impact hubris on human
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Who Was Responsible For Oedipus's Downfall
529 Words | 2 Pages
at the beginning Oedipus is so full of pride that he cannot see the obvious. He rages against the truth, for example, the truth as symbolized by Tiresias. But, eventually, he sees what is almost impossible to see, because it is so hideous. The Oedipus tragic flaw was pride by showing how he was better than the gods and feels he is capable of controlling his own destiny without the gods help. Oedipus suffers shame and loss because of the pride within his heart, Oedipus pride turned to shame due to his murder of his father and his relationship with his mother Jocasta. In addition losing things that are most valuable to him. Oedipus further learns from his experiences that pride is destructive
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Oedipus The King Tragedy Analysis
1733 Words | 4 Pages
Greek Drama had three main categories The Comedy, Satyr Plays, and The Tragedy. The most popular of the three is The Tragedy, its themes are often such as loss of love, complex relationships between men and the gods, and corruption of power. These dramas taught the people of the city the difference between good and bad behavior and the ramifications of going against the gods. According to Aristotle, the perfect tragedy consisted of the downfall of the hero through a great misunderstanding, causing suffering and awareness for the protagonist meanwhile making the audience feel pity and fear. The prominent writer who Aristotle based his perfect tragedy theory was Sophocles, his drama Oedipus the King had all the elements of a perfect tragedy.
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Tragedy in Oedipus the King and Doll's House

AP Open Response, Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Comparison Essay

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