In the stories of Oedipus by Sophocles and Minority Report by Phillip. K. Dick, there are similarities in their superficial storylines but there are more significant differences that set them apart. In the two stories, the idea of the main character saving a city and coming into a position of authority are very similar. A more significant difference, however, is that while Oedipus didn’t know the identity of his real parents (his victims), in Minority Report John did know the identity of his real victim and was therefore able to control his future and change it. Another significant difference in the stories is that Oedipus is a tragic hero and John is more of a traditional hero. Oedipus starts off at a very exciting point in his life but then …show more content…
At the beginning of Oedipus’s story, he comes to a city called Thebes. Oedipus was very smart and had a good wit, and when he came to the city he saw that it was being terrorized by a Sphinx. The Sphinx was putting a plague on the city that was causing people to get very sick and die. When Oedipus approached the Sphinx it asked him a riddle and said that if Oedipus could solve it the plague would be removed from the city. Upon hearing this Oedipus very quickly figured out the answer and saved the city from the Plague of the Sphinx. When the city figured out that he was the one responsible for saving their city they appointed him the king. Very similarly, John saves a city from a deadly plague of murder in Minority Report. John starts off as one of the few officers of a new division called pre-crime that stops murders before they happen. So once John and his team began stopping all these murders it was as if he was stopping the plague of murder that was spreading rapidly in the city. In response to this, the city promotes him to general or head of pre-crime because of all the good he was doing, stopping all the murders. Not only do they promote him to general they also look up to him as a role model and as the face of the city. In these two stories, we see how both Oedipus and John save their cities …show more content…
One of the key differences between Oedipus and John Anderton is the extent to which they were able to affect their prophecies and change their futures. In the story of Oedipus, Oedipus didn’t know the identity of his real parents and this greatly affected his ability to prevent his prophecy from coming true. When he was grown and living in Corinth, he was told that he would kill his father and marry his mother. At the time he thought that the King and Queen of Corinth were his real parents. To prevent the prophecy from coming true, he ran away so as not to harm them. But on his travels he killed a man during a road rage type encounter and that man turned out to be his real father, King Laius (although Oedipus didn’t know it at the time). When he got to Thebes and saved it from a plague he was declared king and was wed to the queen, his real mother (again, he didn’t know it at the time). Oedipus therefore lacked the knowledge to prevent his prophecy from coming true because he didn't know who his real parents were in order to prevent it from happening. On the other hand, in the story of Minority Report, John had more of an opportunity to affect his prophecy. John was told that he was going to kill someone within 24 hours (but he had never met the person but knew his name). Upon receiving the message that he would kill someone he tried his best to
The perfect society always exist in one form or another in everyone’s minds. The only problem with this is that no one ever thinks about the negatives of these societies. Comparing and contrasting this book and movie will show us how great and how terrible these places really are. The book 1984 and the movie Minority Report, have many striking differences as well as similarities. These differences and similarities can be seen throughout the setting, main characters, and themes in both 1984 and Minority Report.
The battle of fact versus coincidence has been around since long before any of us were born. Believers argue that everything in life has brought them to their present situation while skeptics may be more reluctant to give into the notion of a predetermined fate. However, everyone questions whether or not fate might actually be true at least once in their life. At the beginning of Oedipus the King, Oedipus did not believe in fate. He thought he could escape his destiny by running away from Corinth after he discovered it was his fate to kill his father and marry his mother. Mike Church, the private detective in the movie Dead Again, is called to a catholic orphanage to assist in finding an amnesiac's family. Unknown to Oedipus and Mike, this would be the start of what both men were destined to do. Stories like Oedipus the King and Dead Again both illustrate the irony of mans struggle with predetermined fate through the eyes of a skeptic.
Oedipus is a tragic hero being that he was a king who had a high position in his community to a person who wished to be released from the city forever. Oedipus says " Cast me out as quickly as you can, away from Thebes, to a place where no one, no living human being, will cross my path" (Sophocles ll. 1697-1699). Oedipus was once a person who citizens looked to for answers to problems, and a person who had control over a whole city. To a person who wished to be banished from a new king of Thebes. The use of tragic hero in the story shows a slow slope of not only his position as king, but a man who loses his family and gains information about his real identity. Sending him to his
As Oedipus becomes king, his selfishness only grows, as does his denial. As the king, he gained the burden of Thebes whenever a problem arose. To find a way to rid his city of the plague, he sent Kreon so that he would have some answers and be able to place the blame on something or someone.
Oedipus is shown to be a well-liked and trusted king among all his townspeople. Solving the riddle of the Sphinx and saving Thebes brought him great fame and popularity. When time came to save the town from Laios’ killer, Oedipus relied much on his intellect. He searched for information about the night of the murder from Creon and Teiresias, but as he learned more details, Oedipus realized not only that he was the killer but also that he married his mother. Throughout his inquiry he believed he was doing good for his people as well as himself, but eventually it brought him shame. Oedipus was humiliated and disgusted and stated, “…kill me; or hurl me into the sea, away from men’s eyes for ever(p882, 183).'; Oedipus’ wanted to be isolated from the people of Thebes because all his respect and fame was destroyed by his fate.
The king was someone who the people of Thebes turned to when they needed help, "find us strength, rescue!" p. 161. Oedipus had set himself high social expectations after helping free Thebes "from the sphinx". Oedipus was admired as being "best of men" p. 161, and therefore socially the citizens would have expected him to help them when they needed it. Oedipus was kinder to the citizens and more open with them than was generally expected from a king, "my children" p. 162. He spoke to them directly and not through a messenger, showing the closeness between the people and their king, "Here I am myself..." p. 159.
From the opening dialogue we sense the character of Oedipus. When confronted by his subjects praying for relief of the plague he reacts kingly and graciously, saying, “I am king, I had to come....How can I help?...Ask me anything. Anything at all.” He obviously cares for the people in his kingdom, but he goes on to say how he pities “these poor shattered people of [his].” The pity he feels is rooted not only in his love and sympathy, but his arrogance as well. Perhaps this attitude is duly deserved, for Oedipus had solved the Sphinx’s riddle, an apparently heroic feat, and was seen to be “greater than any man”, but the leader that he had become still possessed the hubristic tendencies which doomed him from the time he fled Corinth.
In Oedipus, multiple characters display an opinion or an approach to leadership that defines their idea of an ideal leader. Oedipus immediately shows his approach to leadership as the play opens as within his first few words he says, “I will help. Only a heartless man could bear to see such sorrow and not feel pity” (Oedipus 63.6). That quote immediately shows how, as a king, he empathizes with his people and genuinely cares for their well-being. While this shows Oedipus’ open hearted approach to ruling, he also shows his openness by not hiding his conversation with Creon from the
Both main characters are tragic heroes, with radically different perspectives placed on the definition of tragedy with two very different stories and backgrounds. Oedipus is of noble status, he has a demanding hubris, and is in conflict with an unknown opponent, revealed to be himself. These qualities classify Oedipus as an apotheosis of a tragic hero. Oedipus feels invincible and unparalleled, something in which that his cantankerous enthusiasm aids. This hamartia leads to his exile and pain. Meanwhile, Willy Lowman expresses unquestionable pride. His passion allows him to exert so much energy into becoming a successful businessman even though his pride and drive are very impractical. His failures of the past in his career as a businessman and father show no real foundation for motivat...
In “Oedipus The King,” Sophocles uses a variety of themes, and one of them is Oedipus’ own self-discovery. On the beginning of the play, Oedipus is considered the hero, the person who would take the city of Thebes away from the plague. However, throughout the play, Oedipus and the citizens of Thebes discover his true identity, and he no longer is considered the hero.
This shows that he is not a purely evil character because he is saving a life and looking after others besides himself. However, running from what he believes is his fate causes him to run into his real fate which leads to his downfall as a leader. On the other hand, it causes Oedipus to take the position as king of Thebes. Being leader of the city, he is forced into
Oedipus goes on with his journey not knowing about what he is going to do next. Oedipus runs into some people at a crossing on this journey and quarrels with them to there death. After this, he goes along to a city named Thebes where he outsmarted a beast that was cursing the city. He received praise and joy. While gaining the trust of all that lived there he quickly became King of Thebes. The people loved him because he was such a great leader. He was such a great king because he had a lot of love for his people and would do anything in his power to make them happy. As a result of this, Oedipus finds out that the city is in trouble unless the killer of their late king is found and punished. Little does Oedipus know that he is the killer of their late King or that the King was actually his father. Oedipus will strive for awnsers even though he has been warned not to dig to deep, for he will regret it.
Oedipus is a hero, as defined by Johnston. According to Johnston, ‘a hero is someone who confronts fate in a very personal manner and whose reaction to that encounter serves to illuminate for us our own particular condition’ (Johnston, Part 2). Oedipus definitely confronts fate in a personal manner. Among other things, he challenges the mysterious qualities of fate by pursuing the Shepherd despite warnings from Jocasta (Sophocles, 71). Oedipus follows through on confronting fate with his individual approach of uncompromising persistence and integrity (Johnston, Part 3). Even at the end of his downfall, Oedipus maintains that Kreon should banish him and that he must obey the curses he himself ordered for the murderer of King Laios (Sophocles, 89-90). Despite being so broken and publicly shamed, Oedipus still persists with his former way of interacting with fate : noble defiance (Johnston, Part 3). Although this quality itself is admirable, Oedipus takes uncompromising to the extreme, losing insight on everything else. Oedipus becomes ignorant to his surroundings, leading to his downfall (Johnston, Part 3). Oedipus’ story also challenges the fundamental belief that life should be rational and just. (Johnston, Part 3) His story illuminates that fate is arbitrarily cruel and will sometimes pick the gre...
The elements of a play are setting, irony, plot, characters, and theme, which will be discussed in the essay.
Initially, Oedipus is a confident leader who believes he is educated and knows the truth about himself and the land he presides over, Thebes. This is because he was proclaimed the most famous man alive as a result of his answering the Sphinx’s riddle to save Thebes from a tragic epidemic. However, at the beginning of the play there is another plague causing grief to the members of Thebes, and Oedipus goes so far as to say that he will stop at nothing to rid Thebes of this pollution. He states, "Each of you grieves for himself alone, while my heart must bear the strain of sorrow for all--myself and you and all our city’s people. No I am not blind to it," (p.4). Yet in essence he is blind to it because he is the indirect cause for the epidemic in Thebes. Oedipus finds out that the cause for the Epidemic is that nobody came forth as an avenger in the murder of King Laius. Oedipus then states, "I shall not cease until I bring the truth to light. Apollo has shown, and you have shown, the duty which we owe the dead," (p.5). This is ironic in that Oedipus vows to make the truth come to light so that everybody can see it, including himself. Moreover, th...