Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Enslaved by Fate in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In five pages this paper compares how each play explores the theme of being enslaved by fate. Five sources are listed in the bibliography.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGdarkoed.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
associated with destiny or how a particular event or course of events affects the future. Sophocles pondered the origin of and consequences of fate in his reworking of the
Oedipus myth entitled Oedipus the King (also often referred to as Oedipus Rex). Sophocles audiences were already familiar with the story of the King of Thebes who discovers that
he killed his biological father and that his Queen, Jocasta - with whom he fathered four children - is his birth mother. However, Sophocles used the play to thematically
consider whether fate was an external construct (i.e., that the sequence of events that befell Oedipus were initiated by the gods) or if Oedipus enslaved himself to his tragic destiny.
Acclaimed poet Rita Dove decided to reinvent the Oedipus myth by adapting it to nineteenth century plantation society in her 1994 play The Darker Face of the Earth, which
allowed her to apply the concept of fate to the then-accepted Southern cultural practice of slavery. Oedipus loved the power and prestige of being King of Thebes.
Arriving from his hometown of Corinth, Oedipus was an outsider of no status. However, after solving the riddle of the Sphinx and marrying the widowed Jocasta, he inherited not
only a throne but also hoped in so doing he would also earn the social acceptability he craved. He relied confidently upon his intellect, which he believed made him
the master of his own fate: "I, who came by chance, I, knowing nothing, put the Sphinx to flight, Thanks to my wit" (Sophocles 61). When a devastating plague
began killing his subjects, Oedipus decided to uncover the mystery of this parasite - which he determined would be revealing the identity of the individual who killed his predecessor King
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