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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that examines both plays. In both Oedipus the King and Antigone, the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles addresses issues of social responsibility. In both tragedies, the protagonists exhibit socially responsible behavior. Oedipus, as a good ruler, diligently searches for the reasons why the gods are displeased with his city and his people, and accepts his own judgement of banishment when the search leads back to himself. Antigone, likewise, never shirks from her cultural duty to provide burial rites for her brother, even when it means her death. However, in contrasting and comparing the behavior of these two characters, Antigone may be judged as the more responsible as she realizes from the beginning of the play that her actions will mean her death, while Oedipus remains ignorant of his situation until the climax of the tragedy. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khoares.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
a good ruler, diligently searches for the reasons why the gods are displeased with his city and his people, and accepts his own judgement of banishment when the search leads
back to himself. Antigone, likewise, never shirks from her cultural duty to provide burial rites for her brother, even when it means her death. However, in contrasting and comparing the
behavior of these two characters, Antigone may be judged as the more responsible as she realizes from the beginning of the play that her actions will mean her death, while
Oedipus remains ignorant of his situation until the climax of the tragedy. As Oedipus the King opens, Sophocles has Oedipus entering and demonstrates through the question that he asks
that he is a conscientious ruler concerned about the state of his people, "Why sit ye here, my children,/...Uplifting in your hands the suppliants boughs" (Oedipus, lines 1-3). In order
to discern why the gods no longer listen to the prayers of his citizens and why his realm is plagued, Oedipus begins to investigate events the death of the citys
previous ruler, Laius. The narrative of the play is well known and concerns how Oedipus father, Laius, the previous ruler of Thebes tried to avoid his prophesized fate by having
his infant son, Oedipus, die from exposure on a mountainside. The baby Oedipus was subsequently found and raised by the rulers of another city and he remained ignorant of his
true identity. Oedipus, also trying to avoid his prophesized fate, avoids returning to his adopted home and, so implements his dire destiny of killing his father and marrying his mother.
However, at the beginning of the play, Oedipus is ignorant of his true identity and proclaims that whoever killed Laius will be found, punished and banished from the city
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