Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Roles of women throughout history
Ancient greek values
Roles of women throughout history
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Contemporary Analysis of Ethics, Virtues and Moral Dilemmas in Greek Plays
The Greek Plays including ‘Antigone,' ‘Oedipus Rex’ and ‘Libation Bearers’ (Orestia) are generally viewed and praised as works of fine literature, written by renounced playwrights during the 5th century. The plays themselves are ample with hamartia, catharsis, irony and enriched faculties of composition. Notwithstanding its great value in literature, the Greek plays possess a unique, different dimension that is not often brought to light. The plays hold lavish significance in justice, ethics and morality. These plays articulate on these aspects by questioning the readers in forms of moral dilemmas installed in the platys. These plays prompt us with questions of strong perplexity that still intrigue and ignite debates even with our advanced contemporary political justice, and better established sense of ethics and morality. Moral dilemmas that we, as individuals, are left to ponder, and compelled to weigh our own virtues against laws, social norms and justice. Thus, not only did the Greek playwrights bestow alluring masterpieces of plays, in hindsight, they also prompted all of us with morally conflicting questions that arose alongside their development of democracy. Likewise, the life in democratic societies is rife with countless political disputes over right and wrong, justice and injustice, which are all explicitly manifested in the plays ‘Antigone,'’Oedipus Rex’ and Libation Bearers’. This essay will introduce one moral dilemma from each of the three plays and contemplate on the justice of each of the circumstances. Moreover, this essay does not aspire to present an ‘absolute’ justice to all these moral dilemmas, and to provide jurisdiction, yet, inst...
... middle of paper ...
...s of incest? Can one’s ignorance of his actions be the basis for his innocence?
In our democratic societies, rife with vice and disputes over justice, there might have already been similar cases as those of our plays. Perhaps, one had already committed matricide under external pressure(a gun to his/her head, or a beloved one), perhaps one breached the fence of law, in order to achieve goodness(ran a red light to get to his/her dying mother) or even perhaps, someone had unknowingly committed incest with his mother who had been separated at birth. With all these morally perplexing question, how then, can we reason our way through the contested terrain of justice and injustice, equity and inequity? As the Greek plays have provided us, is to encounter with a hard moral dilemma. To start with an opinion, or a conviction about justice just like the Greek playwrights did.
In Sophocles’ Antigone, written in 442 B.C., we find one of the earliest examples of civil disobedience. The play emphasizes the right of the individual to reject his government’s infringement on his freedom to perform a personal obligation and highlights the struggle that one faces in doing so. More importantly, it shows how such actions help further the cause of democracy. It strengthens the belief that each individual’s opinion is important in a democracy and makes a difference. Eventually, we see Creon realize his mistake – his stubbornness – which teaches him that he should have room for more than one opinion.
During the time period of The Republic, the problems and challenges that each community was faced with were all dealt with in a different way. In the world today, a lot of people care about themselves. For many people, the word justice can mean many different things, but because some only look out for themselves, many of these people do not think about everyone else’s role in the world of society. The struggle for justice is still demonstrated in contemporary culture today. One particular concept from Plato’s The Republic, which relates to contemporary culture is this concept of justice. In the beginning of The Republic, Socrates listeners, Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus, ask Socrates whether justice is stronger than injustice, and
In Sophocles' most famous Theban play consisting of two parts, "Oedipus the King" and "Antigone", both parts are necessary in understanding some of the things that happened around them, and what type of man had raised Antigone. She is the main character in the play of “Antigone”.
Aeschylus, was a master dramatist - he liked to portray conflict between persons, human or divine, or between principles.1 His trilogy of plays, the Oresteia, develops many conflicts that must be resolved during the action of the Eumenides, the concluding play of the trilogy. The central theme of the Oresteia is justice (dike) and in dealing with questions of justice, Aeschylus at every stage involves the gods.2 The Oresteia's climactic conflict in the Eumenides revolves around justice and the gods - opposing conceptions of justice and conflicting classes of gods. This essay will describe and discuss these conflicts and, more importantly, the manner in which they are resolved so that the play, and indeed the entire trilogy, might reach a satisfactory conclusion.
In Plato’s The Republic, we, the readers, are presented with two characters that have opposing views on a simple, yet elusive question: what is justice? In this paper, I will explain Thrasymachus’ definition of justice, as well as Socrates’s rebuttals and differences in opinion. In addition, I will comment on the different arguments made by both Socrates and Thrasymachus, and offer critical commentary and examples to illustrate my agreement or disagreement with the particular argument at hand.
Though Socrates has been unjustly incarcerated, he refuses to escape due to his implied agreement with the Athenian legal system. This paper serves to argue that Socrates’ line of reasoning to Crito does not properly address actions committed under an unjust legal system.
When placed in a situation out of one’s control, the individual freedom of choice is apprehended, often leading to cognitive dissonance followed by a resolution in which an ultimate decision is made based on a consolidation of personal ethics. However, such resolutions are not achieved easily. In both William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet and Aeschylus’ classical trilogy The Oresteia, the progression of human morality is examined through the protagonists, who are subjected to psychological conflict as they struggle to consolidate their own sense of morality in their pursuits of vengeance.
When a person is accused of a crime they are either found innocent or guilty. This is the basic idea of justice and it is what many feel needs to happen if someone has done something controversial. In the play The Oresteia by Aeschylus, the story of Clytemnestra guilt or innocents is questioned. She does many things that people are not too happy with and those controversial actions throughout the story, mainly in the first part Agamemnon get her into the trouble. As we explore the case that builds against her innocents by exploring the killings of Agamemnon and Cassandra and the boastful expression about the killings.
Out of the confrontation with Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus, Socrates emerges as a reflective individual searching for the rational foundation of morality and human excellence. The views presented by the three men are invalid and limited as they present a biased understanding of justice and require a re-examination of the terminology. The nature in which the faulty arguments are presented, leave the reader longing to search for the rational foundations of morality and human virtue.
Within two classical works of philosophical literature, notions of justice are presented plainly. Plato’s The Republic and Sophocles’ Antigone both address elements of death, tyranny and immorality, morality, and societal roles. These topics are important elements when addressing justice, whether in the societal representation or personal representation.
Throughout reading this play, the audience must make the hard decision between whether or not they believe Brutus’ motives were justifiable, or if Caesar was the victim of a cruel, heinous crime. This opens up the question, is murder ever justifiable? Linda Fudge, a resident of Irvington, New Jersey, was cornered and raped in a dark alley in the summer of 2002. The assailant was brought to justice, but Linda got the shocking news she was pregnant. Only 23 years old, single and afraid of having a child, Linda made the hard decision to have an abortion.
The idea of justice and equality within a culture is one of extreme importance. Not only is criminal justice important to a society, but moral equality is essential to the welfare of a civilization as well. William Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, centers on the theme of justice, or rather injustice, in the world. The foolish King Lear must navigate through a society in which the only way there can ever be justice is when humans behave justly toward each other, which very rarely happens. King Lear takes place in a world where “justice is anything but constant, and fortitude, prudence, and temperance are called into question” (Graham n.pag.). Without the help of any divine force, the existentialist characters in William Shakespeare's King
The play "A view from the Bridge" by Arthur Miller shows the tragic demise of its protagonist "Eddie Carbone" and towards his demise we are presented with two different yet similar concepts; justice and the law. Although the two words usually stand side by side, "A view from the Bridge" shows how they are sometimes not synonymous with one another through: a belief in communal law or community values, the American system of justice and the analogy of settling for half.
The noble characters, Oedipus and Willy rely on things of substantial value in their lives, but then unfortunately fail, further deepening their harmatia. In Arthur Millers’ essay “Tragedy and the Common Man,” he does not believe that just nobility and power over others is inadequate to just judge a select few:
Sophocles’ tragic play, “Oedipus the King”, or “Oedipus Rex” as it’s known by its Latin name, is the Athenian drama that revolves around the events which lead to the demise of Oedipus Rex. The King Oedipus is forced down a preordained path that throws his entire world into a spiral of tragic providence, in this trilogy of a Theban play. Sophocles assigns the tragic hero to a downfall with the impossibility of changing the written fate; perhaps the views of today’s society would feel sympathy for the predicament that Oedipus is forced into, however, the publics of ancient Greece would accept that the path laid before them was a creation of the Gods. “Oedipus the King” reflects the ancient Greek credence in the belief that a person can do nothing to avoid their destiny, an idea that contrasts with what society believes today.