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Free Oedipus the King Essays: The Archetypal Tragic Man
According to Greek mythology, the Sphinx, a creature that is part woman, part bird, and part lion, caused famine and disease in Thebes that could be ended only when someone solved her riddle. Oedipus traveled to Thebes and answered the riddle correctly. The citizens of Thebes consider him a hero because he restored harmony to their kingdom. Sophocles alludes to the riddle of the Sphinx several times in his play, Oedipus Rex. Since the riddle is a metaphor for Oedipus' life, it is ironic that he was able to answer the question. His revelation of the riddle of the Sphinx further supports the perspective of Oedipus as the archetypal tragic man.
The sphinx asks, "What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?" Oedipus correctly answers "man", saving Thebes from the terrible drought and disease brought about by the horrible creature. The different times of day mentioned in the question actually represent different stages in life. In the morning, or childhood, humans crawl on ...
At one time in our lives there is a moment that we may think of ourselves as better than someone or something else. There may also be a point when making a decision leads to a great error in judgment. In the play Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, both of these characteristics can be seen in the main character. These characteristics are known as tragic flaws. These flaws are known as hubris meaning excess pride, leading to overconfidence, and hamartia meaning errors and weakness in judgment. Both of these characteristics are the main reason of destruction and downfall in mankind and the tragic hero in this play. The tragic hero is unable to escape his misfortune that is destined to happen. There are many more tragic flaws other than these two that also contribute to the falling of the hero. The destruction and downfall can be seen as fate. Even though the hero chooses his own actions, the resulting consequences that come about are ones that are unable to be changed. As seen, no one is able to outrun his or her own fate.
Oedipus as the Hero Archetype. The character Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus the King follows a literary pattern known as the hero archetype. The hero archetype is a pattern involved in transformation and redemption. Manifested in three stages called the quest, the initiation, and the sacrifice, Oedipus is transformed from the redeemer of the city to the cause of its downfall.
Matthews, Robert Guy. "Steel Industry Cuts Back as Prices Fall." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 06 July 2010. Web. 07 July 2010. .
Often times when one hears the word “change” in any aspect of life, they are often, put off, and intimidated by the word itself and the intended implication. This is a normal and understandable reaction for anyone engaging in any type of change. In terms of organizational change, this type of behavior often seen as, but is not limited to pushback, resistance, lack in productivity, turnover, drop in overall customer service, etc by team members. Thus, as organizational leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that any change management implemented is smooth and has lasting benefits; by considering the impact on the organization as a whole and most importantly, the impact it will have on the team members within the
Oedipus is widely known for being the man that killed his father and married his mother. After Oedipus finds out about what he has done he proceeds to jab both of his eyes out and remains blind for the rest of his life. By Oedipus doing this it means that his fate that was told to his parents at the beginning of the story had come true. With Oedipus jabbing his eyes out, this made it clear that this was a tragedy. Oedipus is the perfect fit of being a tragic hero. First of all by being born into royalty and throughout his life he held a royal persona. Also he makes some choices that leads him to his own destruction. For example, with him already marrying his mother and his mother had already had several of his kids their was nothing that he could do when he found out that his wife was also his mother. In the story as he went back to confront his mother/wife, she had already hung herself. As for being a hero, he done many heroic things throughout his life. For example, when he arrived at the city where he met his mother and father, there
Oedipus was a great man. He saved Thebes from the Sphinx. The Sphinx was a terrible creature who stood outside the gates of Thebes asking anyone who come to go through gates a riddle. If the riddle is unanswered or answered wrongly, the Sphinx would kill them. Oedipus saved the city of Thebes by solving the Sphinx riddle, which led to the Sphinx killing itself. Oedipus was a great hero to the city of Thebes. He was their great savior so they gave him their queen and kingdom. Oedipus downfall was very tragic and shocked a lot of people that such a great hero could fall so low.
"Monopolies and Combinations in Restraint of Trade." U.S. Code Collection. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print. 28 Mar. 2014.
The emergence of the steel industry occurred in the late 19th Century when the cities of the United States were growing at a dramatic rate. This time period was devoted to the expansion of many industries, including the steel industry. Numerous immigrants were also arriving in America from all over the world at this time. The new industrial expansion and its accompanying population growth thoroughly changed America as it contributed to its urbanization. The beginning of America’s steel industry commenced when Andrew Carnegie was given the seemingly impossible task of constructing a bridge to cross the Mississippi River. The steel industry, even though having many flaws, was the most prominent in America’s development and significantly contributed to it’s urbanization. The steel industry greatly advanced America’s urbanization through its expansion of railroads which led to a wider exportation of goods and impacted vertical integration, other industries,
(Morford, Lenardon, and Sham 420-421). King Polybus and Queen Merope raised the child as their own and named him Oedipus, meaning “swellfoot”, because of the way he was found with the spike through his ankles. (Morford, Lenardon, and Sham 421). When Oedipus became a young man, he found out that he was not the natural born child of the King and Queen so he searched for his destiny. Oedipus discovered the truth from the oracle, whom his real parents were and was advised to avoid his birth land. In agreement, Oedipus traveled to Thebes and on his journey he crossed paths with his birth father, where they fought and Oedipus killed him and filled the prophesy told by the oracle. (Morford, Lenardon, and Sham 421). Oedipus continued his journey to Thebes and came across the city pursued by a flying monster, (the Sphinx, meaning “strangler”) that the goddess Hera had sent upon the city of Thebes. (Morford, Lenardon, and
This paper will first discuss the development of the steel industry. Next, it will examine steel, and in the impact it had on the transportation industry. Finally, it will discuss systematic management practices of this time and how they gave birth to the scientific approach that is still in use today.
Knox, Bernard. "Chapter 1/ Hero." Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles' Tragic Hero and His Time. New Haven: Yale UP, 1998. 3-52. Print.
Sophocles is perhaps one of the greatest tragedians ever. Sophocles said that a man should never consider himself fortunate unless he can look back on his life and remember that life without pain. For Oedipus Rex, looking back is impossible to do without pain. This pain stems from his prideful life. Oedipus is aware that he alone is responsible for his actions. Oedipus freely chooses to pursue and accept his own life's destruction. Even though fate victimizes Oedipus, he is a tragic figure since his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his fidelity to the truth ruin him.
The level of per capita consumption of steel is treated as an important index of the level of socioeconomic development and living standards of the people in any country. It is a product of a large and technologically complex industry having strong forward and backward linkages in terms of material flows and income generation. All major industrial economies are characterized by the existence of a strong steel industry and the growth of many of these economies has been largely shaped by the strength of their steel industries in their initial stages of development. The world steel production has been increasing from year to year and has already crossed one billion tons. The rapid increase has been led by China accounting for more than 45%of world steel production. China is not only the largest producer of steel (627 million tons) it is also the largest consumer of steel (576 million tons) followed by the United States and
Though we may not know where the future is leading us, we know from the thousands of years of technological research that our ancestors have left to us that steel has not only been a major part in the development of the modern world but steel will also continue to play a crucial part in helping our modern world encounter and overcome the challenges that we will inevitably face in the future. Our standard of living today relies majorly on the invisible use of steel and we continue to benefit from the technology and advancements that steel provides.
Oedipus the King is an excellent example of Aristotle's theory of tragedy. The play has the perfect Aristotelian tragic plot consisting of paripeteia, anagnorisis and catastrophe; it has the perfect tragic character that suffers from happiness to misery due to hamartia (tragic flaw) and the play evokes pity and fear that produces the tragic effect, catharsis (a purging of emotion).