In ancient Greece fate was very strongly believed in. Fate is defined as something that unavoidably falls upon a person. Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, is old Grecian literature that really makes the reader think about whether there really is such a thing called fate or free will. In Oedipus the King an unfortunate man, named Oedipus, is given a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Despite Oedipus’s tries to make sure his prophecy does not come true.
Because he was blind to the prophecy, he blinds himself to remember everything he had done. His fate would have been execution, but by punishing himself, he makes other believe that he is punished. In addition to Oedipus avoiding his fate he is a coward in terms of his actions. He tells Creon to exile him far away because he is too afraid to deal with all that has happed. When he says “Drive me out of this country as quickly as may be to a place where no human voice can ever greet me.” (Ln.
Oedipus was similar to Macbeth because both Oedipus and Macbeth were confronted and destroyed by a set of circumstances, Oedipus by fate and Macbeth by the witches and their prophecies. Oedipus the king is given the throne of Thebes because he answered the riddle of the sphinx correctly. Oedipus unknowingly killed the king of Thebes and took his place and ruler. When he was young, Oedipus received a prophecy that he would eventually kill his father and marry his mother. Sickened by this prophecy, Oedipus ran away from home to prevent these horrid events from occurring.
Trying to become a king in general can be extremely difficult, and it can be even more challenging to gain the respect of your people if it was your brother that you received the crown from. The fear of seeming like a weak and passive king to the people made Creon make many wrong decisions that eventually cost Antigone and his family their lives. The first mistake that Creon made was making such a bold promise to kill whoever buried the body of Antigone’s brother. He made this promise in order to try and instill fear into his people and in turn insure their respect. After finding out who it was that laid the body to rest, he had no choice but to fulfill his promise of killing them to show his people that his first official act as king was a non-compromising one.
In this play, Oedipus unknowingly fulfilled a prophecy saying that he would kill his father and marry his mother, which also brought disaster on his city and triggered his downfall. Whereas Macbeth, was an Elizabethan play written by William Shakespeare and depicted the tragic hero, Macbeth. Throughout the play, Macbeth is also subjected to prophecies told to him by three ruthless witches. He, different from Oedipus, willingly fulfills his prophecies to obtain the power the witches foresee him earning. There are many similarities between Oedipus and Macbeth.
The one problem in doing this will be the fact that her uncle the king has created a law stating if any one was to bury polyneses they will be stoned to death. Antigone did so any way but the only one who got punished to the full extent was creon. So after taking in all this information the real tragic hero in antigon can only be creon. Creaon
Oedipus Self-realization Essay The events in “Oedipus the King”, written by Sophocles is about the self-realization concept of fate. Fate is a major role in Oedipus’ downfall. Oedipus is a victim of own fate; he was at fault for his actions. He was destined from birth to marry his mother and murder his father. This prophecy as warned by the oracle of Apollo at Delphi would inevitably come to pass, no matter what Oedipus could have done to avoid these circumstances it would happen.
After Macbeth had heard this he didn’t believe the witches but when he got to the base the King (Duncan) announced that since the last Thane was a traitor he will be killed and because of Macbeth’s brave acts in the war he is the new Thane of Cawdor. The prophecies had suddenly started to fall in place and Macbeth didn’t believe this was all happening. Now he couldn’t wait till the throne became his and had day dreams to sabotage the throne by killing Duncan and the rightful owner of the throne according to him. Suddenly Macbeth’s ambition was to become the king of Scotland at any cost. Lady Macbeth starts taking interest in the witches prophecies and forces Macbeth to kill Duncan.
Antigone knows that Creon knows what she has done and states, “I gave myself to death, long ago, so I might serve the dead.” Her brother not being buried changes the relationship she has with her uncle because her uncle now wants her to suffer and to e tormented for something she thought was right. Anti gone dies because she kills herself in a cave she can’t escape from. She hung herself and the first person to realize she was dead is Creon’s son Haemon. Haemon was devastated and wanted to kill the person responsible and he felt that there wasn’t a force on the planet that could stop him. Creon is told by Tiresias that if he doesn’t change the way he is bad things are going to happen.
Jocasta and Laius sent Oedipus away as a child because of a prophecy that he would kill Laius. He was saved and given to Merope and Polybus. Oedipus always thought they were his real parents until he was told of the prophecy. He then set out to find his real parents. On the journey, he kills Laius.