In many books, Journal, magazines and Drama’s, Medicine is used in literature we see that the term “Medicine,” which means the science and practice of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease is being used as the meaning of illness in the life of the person going through it. However, in the play, “The Cure of Troy,” by Seamus Heaney serves as an essential way for diagnosis the purpose of illness that is practiced throughout the play, as its focus is on the patient rather than the disease. In the 20th century, we can find out that,” Francis Peabody in 1927, a narrative view of medical specialty does not neglect the biomedical sciences , instead it adds to that scientific view a privileged case in the care of the patient …show more content…
Also, during this time Philoctetes says, ‘[You are] afflicted by my cries and by my evil smell’(vv. 86-7). We see that the author Heaney is using this speech as a way of describing the pain and discomfort of the snake bite on Philoctetes foot. During the twentieth century, a snakebite probably lead to a bacterial infection, most likely Staphylococcus aureus,” which spreads to form a abscess, occasionally of the os calcis as in this case, which destroys the blood supply to the bone” ( Oxford, 2015). We can find out that this had probably been why his foot did not heal completely. In the short play “A Cure at Troy,” we also see another aspect of how illness was used throughout the play in the character Sophacles’ and his tragedy a form of physical illness pain he Lee …show more content…
Philoctetes bows that he had interplay between illness and the art of healing of his foot.
According to David B. Moore, in his study of Sophocles,”Philoctetes as an ancient work ‘ripe for rediscovery in the pot modern era for chronic illness (Morris,1992 .299), insists that the play is primarily a tragedy of pain, stressing that its significance lies in to reflect on the meaning and experience of illness from a bow (Morris, 1992). However, this shows us that the bow also had a part in the illness being used in the play, as this object was used as s symbolic means of helping in the healing process of the illness from the snake bite that Philocetes had on his foot. In the play we see that the author was writing about this bow and illness by Philocetes saying: This bow gave me the food my stomach craved, by shooting birds as they passed overhead (330). In the twentieth century a bow was also used as a means to use as survival against any animals that may have been out in the wild. Another path that the bow was used in the twentieth century is that it was used as a means to help during physical illness that would
The improvement of medicine over the course of the human successes gave great convenience to the people of today. Science has cured and prevented many illnesses from occurring and is on its way to cure some of the most dreadful and harmful illnesses. As the world modernizes due to the industrialization, so does the ways of medicine. Some cures are approached by chance, some, through intense, scientific measures.
... the truth about his flawed and corrupt past which forces him to feel responsible for his actions, so he blinds himself fleeing from power, knowledge and blame. This play is very multifaceted because the entire plot can be interpreted in different ways, especially regarding the theology of fate or freewill, which changes the audience’s interpretation of Oedipus and the overall themes. Sophocles is able to convey the universal message of the human condition because it exposes that even though we may have an advantage through wealth and prosperity, in the end every person is limited in their comprehension of worldly knowledge and that every human is liable to error. The idea of knowledge and its burdens is shown by Sophocles through the medium of imagery, which helps develop and illustrate the themes of the play efficiently, creating a deep appreciation of the text.
This internal conflict is a result of the mistakes a physician makes, and the ability to move on from it is regarded as almost unreachable. For example, in the essay, “When Doctors Make Mistakes”, Gawande is standing over his patient Louise Williams, viewing her “lips blue, her throat swollen, bloody, and suddenly closed passage” (73). The imagery of the patient’s lifeless body gives a larger meaning to the doctor’s daily preoccupations. Gawande’s use of morbid language helps the reader identify that death is, unfortunately, a facet of a physician’s career. However, Gawande does not leave the reader to ponder of what emotions went through him after witnessing the loss of his patient. He writes, “Perhaps a backup suction device should always be at hand, and better light more easily available. Perhaps the institutions could have trained me better for such crises” (“When Doctors Make Mistakes” 73). The repetition of “perhaps” only epitomizes the inability to move on from making a mistake. However, this repetitive language also demonstrates the ends a doctor will meet to save a patient’s life (73). Therefore, it is not the doctor, but medicine itself that can be seen as the gateway from life to death or vice versa. Although the limitations of medicine can allow for the death of a patient to occur, a doctor will still experience emotional turmoil after losing someone he was trying to
For countless years there has always been an urgent need for doctors. Different methods would be used to cure people from their sicknesses. However, life is given by God and it is he who can take it away. Doctors play the role of saving lives, but in the end, they are powerless because nature has to take its course leaving humanity at its limits. In Vincent Lams novel “Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures”, Lam challenges the myth that doctors are omnipotent by contending that “medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability”. Using Fitzgerald as a focal point, Lam debunks the myth that doctors are omnipotent through situations of medical failure, having a loss of power and control and by inhabiting deadly diseases. By showings his mistakes, Lam proves that Fitz is not perfect and God like.
Philoctetes, the bowman, is a most haunting and ambiguous character of Sophocles. He represents the pain which the world subjects all creative people to. Keeping his simplicity and innocence in a world of confusion and lies ends up being his greatest challenge. Through intense character portrayal, Sophocles presents the story of Philoctetes in a way so that the reader can empathizes and truly understand the pain of Philoctetes.
A play is meant to entertain. A play that amuses the audience is considered a comedy, and a play that saddens is classified as a tragedy. Sophocles wrote tragedies about ordinary people and their interaction with fate. All of Sophocles’ major characters posses a heroic flaw. A heroic flaw is a trait that brings both good and bad events upon the character (Magill 3). Sophocles’ use of heroic flaws, the irony between a prophecy and a characters attempt to avoid it, his definition of what makes someone great, and his view of laws are the reasons why his plays are still read almost two thousand years after they were written.
In the Renaissance, some aspects of medicine and doctors were still in a Dark Age. Outbreaks of disease were common, doctors were poor, medicine was primitive and many times doctors would kill a patient with a severe treatment for a minor disease! But, there were other sections where medicine and the use of medications improved greatly. This paper is written to illustrate the "light and dark" sides of medicine in the Renaissance.
Today doctors can treat this disease with minimal efforts, however, during the 14th century very few weren’t sure on how this disease actually spread and therefore didn’t know how to treat it. Physicians used to practice crude and unorthodox techniqu...
Medicine men utilize the use of herbs, ceremony, song, stories and prayer to treat each person individually. Medicine men’s healing beliefs advocates a personalized treatment plan for each individual’s unique health problems. Consequently The medicine man is unswervingly devoted to his calling for his entire life, both publicly and privately. Frequently he fasted and his thoughts would reflect upon the supernatural. Publicly his duties were numerous and onerous; dedicated children to the Great Spirit, carried out the setting up of the chief, conferred military honors on the warrior, held leadership positions for war, enforced orders, appointed officers for the buffalo hunts, and when planting the maize he decided on the time to plant.
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.
In modern medicine when an ailment arises it can be quickly diagnosed, attributed to a precise bacteria, virus, or body system, and treated with medication, surgery or therapy. During the time before rational medical thought, this streamlined system of treatment was unheard of, and all complaints were attributed to the will of the multitude of commonly worshiped Greek gods (Greek Medicine 1). It was during the period of Greek rationalism that a perceptible change in thought was manifested in the attitudes towards treating disease. Ancient Greece is often associated with its many brilliant philosophers, and these great thinkers were some of the first innovators to make major developments in astrology, physics, math and even medicine. Among these academics was Hippocrates, one of the first e...
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
There are always some heroic characters in literature since they give reader and audience hope and courage. Fighting for justice, saving the innocent and fearing no danger are among the many traits of heroes. However, heroes are not always flawless. Some faults will eventually lead to their downfalls. The term for this description is known as tragic hero. Troy, a fifty-three-years old garbage man, from the book Fences by August Wilson, is not a typical tragic hero because most of the tragic heroes are noble born like Oedipus from the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Nevertheless, Troy is a heroic character because he assumes responsibility to his family, and fights for equality between blacks and whites. Although he lives in low social status, his sense of duty, honesty and braveness makes him a hero. The major flaw Troy possesses is obstinacy: he refuses to take others’ advice, causing his son Cory turning against him and his wife Rose growing apart from him. The breakdown of his family makes his life a tragedy.
The ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women ofGreek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).
Sophocles takes a highly respected and wealthy man and by the end of the play he has been stripped down