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Oedipus the king tragedy analysis
Oedipus the king tragedy analysis
Oedipus the king tragedy analysis
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The world of Euripides' tragedies was one that espoused ancient ideas of religion. The belief in ancient legends that formed subject material for the tragic drama had passed. The crowd that attended the theater at this time did so as a sort of religious celebration.
It was under these circumstances that Euripides had to bury what might have been his true beliefs, and instead replace them with ideas that would relate to his audience. This did not mean that Euripides had to forgo his beliefs entirely. Rather, this meant that Euripides had to include his own interpretations of these ancient beliefs in a way that was not outwardly corrupt or blasphemous. By exploiting the human dimension of understanding beliefs, Euripides was able to insert in his tragedies the ideas of satire that would allow the audience to think, but not overtly counter their established beliefs.
The brand of satire used by Euripides can be defined as exposing contradictions and problems. This type of satire is not obligated to solve the contradictions and problems, but rather to just expose them. For the most part, the playwright Aristophanes is best known for this use of satire, but this type of satire, as used by Aristophanes, was mostly political. This can be seen in Aristophanes play The Knights, where there was a direct personal attack on the then powerful Cleon. Alfred Bales suggests in Drama: Its History, Literature, and Influence on Civilization”, that this is an example of the most “scathing and vigorous satires in literature” (Bales 59).
It is also important to note that according to Dana Ferrin Sutton in the book Ancient Comedies: The War of Generations, the ancient Greeks of Euripides time had no word for satire. The terms that were mostly associ...
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... chooses to just expose them as they are,and for the most part, leave the audience to answer the questions he presents. This form of exposition and rhetorical questioning can only be seen as satire.
Works Cited
Bates, Alfred. The Drama; Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization. Vol. 2. London: Smart and Stanley, 1903. Print.
Euripides. “Helen.” Classics.mit.edu. Trans. Edward P. Coleridge. Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics, 1994. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
Euripides. "Heracles.” Classics.mit.edu. Trans. Edward P. Coleridge. Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics, 1994. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Euripides. “Ion.” Sacred-texts.com. Trans. Robert Potter. Internet Sacred Text Archives, 2010. Web. 21 Nov. 2013
Euripides. Medea. Trans. John Davie. London: Penguin, 1996. Print.
Sutton, Dana Ferrin. Ancient Comedy: The War of the Generations. New York: Twayne, 1993. Print.
Aristophanes denounces the importance of the gods' influence on the actions of mortals. In the usual tragedy, the gods play an extremely important role towards the actions of the mortal characters. Through fear of the alternative and examples of the past, Athenians carried out their everyday lives under the guidance of the gods' wishes. Aristophanes challenges the audience, and Greek culture as a whole, by offering a different view on the answers and directions of life, than that of the gods. He denounces the parables and explanations to answers in life that involve the gods. Instead he explains that such things as the aerial whirlwind, and especially the clouds, are the reasoning behind all of natures actions. On the surface these comments were seen as a mockery and very humorous. Underlying this humor is a scary truth, most likely ignored by the congregations witnessing this play. How many times has a character in a tragedy been so willing to contradict the gods? Dominant characters like Creon and Prometheus have blatantly disobeyed the gods. The alternative explanations serve a hidden truth in the hearts of many of the Athenian people. This truth is always again repressed by the end of each play, tragedy or comedy; because their was too great of a fear to upset the higher beings.
Euripides is a keen witness to the human character and the father of the psychological theater. His plays were modern at the time compared to others because of the way he focused on the personal lives and motives of his characters, in a manner that was unfamiliar to Greek audiences. His plays have often been seen, in simple terms, bad because critics have been unable to comprehend his visions. The ideas and concepts that Euripides developed were not accepted until after his death.
The ancient Greeks were fond believers of Fate. Fate, defined according to Webster’s, is “the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as the do.” The Greeks take on Fate was slightly modified. They believed that the gods determined Fate: “…fate, to which in a mysterious way the gods themselves were subject, was an impersonal force decreeing ultimate things only, and unconcerned with day by day affairs.” It was thought that these gods worked in subtle ways; this accounts for character flaws (called harmatia in Greek). Ancient Greeks thought the gods would alter a person’s character, in order for that person to suffer (or gain from) the appropriate outcome. Such was the case in Oedipus’s story.
Euripides had two disastrous marriages to unfaithful wives (Monogan). Thus, his general descriptions of destructive women, as in Medea and Phaedra, could be attributed to this. In the specific case of Medea, where there is a clear theme of adultery, there is a projection of his wives onto Jason and himself onto Medea. However, rather than writing a play about a male protagonist who had unfaithful wives, like a literal project of his life would be, Euripides inverts the gender roles in Medea. This could be due to the subordinate nature of women during the time, so the fact that his wives were the ones who were unfaithful to him was emasculating to a point of a figurative castration of Euripides. Thus, he describes Jason as unfaithful to Medea, but in reality, he is describing his now feminine self interacting with the unfaithful man that is actually a reflection of his
To begin to understand what Euripides was doing, it is best to understand the medium of his art: the Greek theater. Theater was a competitive art among playwrights, with several competitions throughout the year, the greatest of which was at the Dionysian festivals in the spring. Greek drama, tragedy in particular, had little in common with modern acting productions. There was little or no suspense as to the outcome of the play; most all were based on Homeric tales from The Iliad and The Odyssey. The skill, therefore, was not in creating a fascinating plot, but in the subtle changes the playwright could incorporate to increase the dramatic effect. Changing the reasons for conflicts, dialogue, order of events, and sometimes even the outcome of the play were all ways to do this. With all these devices available to the fifth century playwright, what made Euripides so special that he was almost exclusiv...
In his published lecture concerning Aristophanes' plays, Cedric H. Whitman discusses what he considers as the general template of all of Aristophanes' main characters: the comic hero. Whitman defines a comic hero as possessing great individualism, a good deal of poneros, meaning wickedness, and striking a balance of eiron and alazon, which translates into being a mixture of an ironical buffoon, who makes fun of himself for his own amusement, and an imposter, who disguises his true identity or feelings. He sees the comic hero as one who is extremely self-motivated and self-centered: "whatever is heroic is individualistic, and tends toward excess, or at least extremes. It asserts its self primarily . . ." Whitman also declares that poneros is necessary in the character of the comic hero, that this person is villainous, manipulative, and very convincing. The comic hero is shameless in expressing his desires, and he has no shame in pursuing them by any means necessary, whether such acts would be considered right or wrong. Whitman also recognizes the mixture of eiron--ironical buffoonery--and alazon--being an imposter--in the comic hero of Aristophanes' plays. "The mere buffoon, says Aristotle, makes fun for the sake of getting a laugh for others; the ironical man makes fun for his own amusement, which is more worthy of a free man.
In the play "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, the author presents us with several instances of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. Dramatic irony plays an important part in "Oedipus the King", because it is used to describe Oedipus' character as arrogant and blind toward the truth. The audience is expected to understand Oedipus' history well before he does. In the first three episodes, Oedipus uses a lot of dramatic irony in his speeches.
The play was considered comic by the ancient Athenians because of its rhyming lyricism, its song and dance, its bawdy puns, but most of all because the notion and methods of female empowerment conceived in the play were perfectly ridiculous. Yet, as is the case in a number of Aristophanes’ plays, he has presented an intricate vision of genuine human crisis. In true, comic form Aristophanes superficially resolves the play’s conflicts celebrating the absurdity of dramatic communication. It is these loose threads that are most rife with tragedy for modern reader. By exploring an ancient perspective on female domesticity, male political and military power, rape, and efforts to maintain the integrity of the female body, we can liberate our modern dialogue.
In Euripides’ play The Bacchae, the ideals that were the foundation of Greek culture were called into question. Until early 400B.C.E. Athens was a society founded upon rational thinking, individuals acting for the good of the populace, and the “ideal” society. This is what scholars commonly refer to as the Hellenic age of Greek culture. As Athens is besieged by Sparta, however, the citizens find themselves questioning the ideals that they had previously lived their lives by. Euripides’ play The Bacchae shows the underlying shift in ideology of the Greek people from Hellenic (or classical), to Hellenistic; the god character Dionysus will be the example that points to the shifting Greek ideology.
*Although Medea is arguably the most intelligent character in Euripides’s piece, shown in her dialogue with Creon, she has become ridiculed, and viewed as barbarous and less desirable following her separation from Jason. She is no longer a wife to a Greek man. She is simply an outsider, and a burden on a prosperous
Anne Carson’s preface to Grief Lessons: Four plays by Euripides explains that readers and viewers read and watch tragedies because it helps contain and release rage and grief. In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus undergoes a tragic flaw and after 2,400 years, it is still considered a classic in Greek literature.
The time period of Greek theater’s popularity was a very influential time in our world’s history. Without knowing what Greek theater was all about, how can someone expect to truly understand a tragic play and the history it comes with? The history behind the character of Oedipus, in the play Oedipus the King, is very complicated. His intricate past dealing with prophecies, family members, and murder is the main focus of the story. There are many characteristics that complete Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero; these being the presence of hamartia and peripeteia, a sense of self-awareness, the audience’s pity for the character, and the hero is of noble birth.
Satire is a literary manner built on wit and humor with a critical attitude directed to human institutions and humanity. A successful satiric play will show certain truths about society and then try to improve upon them. Satire is meant to be constructive rather than destructive. Aristophanes uses satire in Lysistrata to convey many different themes such as war and peace, the struggles of power and class, and the life and death issues that are seen in war. Satire is successfully used and seen in Lysistrata by stereotyping women in general and then the different classes of women as well. Double entendres are seen throughout the play to help add humor to the play. Sex is used as humorous tool but only to covey a deeper theme that consists of war and peace and also of life and death.
"Theater in Ancient Greece." Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World, Third Edition. Facts On File, 2015. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Web. 10 Nov. 2015. Although many cultures in the modern day have their own preferences in way to perform theater, tragedy and comedy was started by the Greek. The Greek mainly perform stories considered to be myth. The most common plays were comedies and tragedies. According to Sacks “Shakespeare (ca. 1600 CE) wrote tragedies and comedies because those were playwriting 's two principal forms, inherited from the Greeks.” Tragedies were portrayed as the problems that occurred with the heroes. Tragedy theater was known as the symbol of hubris or arrogant. Most times the hero would be facing his death due to the disappointment of the Gods, because of his own actions. Comedy was to be taken as a joke at all times. Mimics and Art were also use as comedy. These performances didn’t require as many characters unlike tragedy theater. Sakes stated “Ancient Greek theater was a form of poetry, with all dialogue being spoken or sung in verse. Theater was also mass culture, intended for an audience that included several social classes, and it thrived in democracies such as Athens (although it is unclear whether women, even female citizens, were allowed to attend).” With both types of theater women parts were played by men. It is said and undetermined whether females were able to view the theater performances. Both tragedy and comedy
Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. Gerald F. Else. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1967. Dorsch, T. R., trans. and ed. Aristotle Horace Longinus: Classical Literary Criticism. New York: Penguin, 1965. Ley, Graham. The Ancient Greek Theater. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991. Reinhold, Meyer. Classical Drama, Greek and Roman. New York: Barrons, 1959.