Creon states that he is not interested in being king as he is contented with his present position of wealth and power. The final example of verbal irony in Oedipus is when Oedipus ridicules Tiresias for his blindness but Oedipus is also a sightless, witless and senseless man to the truth of his own actions. The situational irony in Oedipus Rex is something a little harder to spot when first reading this play. The first example of situational irony is not in the play but it is an event that is talked about throughout; Oedipus killing his father, Laius without knowing that it is his father. Another example is the plague striking the city as punishment for incest.
This action causes him to lose everyone that he loves. He even refuses to listen to the wise words of the blind prophet who tells him, "a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong. The only crime is pride"( Line 35). His arrogance leads him to believe that he is the only one with wisdom and his love for power causes him to choose what will keep him in power over what is right. Arrogance is a vise that people deal with on a daily basis.
Mini King Lear essay Thankless Children Throughout the tragic play King Lear, written by William Shakespeare, it can constantly be seen that although both King Lear and Gloucester’s weak characteristics in the beginning of the play have an influence on their suffering and tragedy, it can clearly be seen that it is the “thankless children” and the desire for power of Goneril, Regan and Edmund that ultimately contributes to their fathers downfall. The weak characteristics of both King Lear and Gloucester can clearly been seen in the first Act of the play. Gloucester, an ally of King Lear, is embarrassed of his illegitimate son, Edmund, and is inappropriate in constantly using derogatory terms to refer to his son. King Lear on the other hand, through greed, forces his daughters to declare their love for him through words, before he “divests” his rule, kingdom and all his possessions to them. “Which of you shall we say doth love us most” Act 1, Scene 1, Line 52.
Attempting to change the prophecy proved to be in vain, for obvious reasons. By attempting to change their fate, Oedipus and his parents had attempted to escape from the gods, only to find eternal damnation lurking below. The gods above controlled each and every person’s fate, it was impossible to
While that may have been the final contribution to his death, his tragic flaw is what is shown throughout the play. This flaw can be plainly stated as Romeo being far too impulsive. He seems to be driven by the idea of fate, and does not thoroughly think about his decisions. His character in the play thinks of life and love as such a quick thing, as if he is thinking to himself that if he doesn’t go with his instincts, his life will not be decent or respectable. When truthfully, these instincts are the origin of his dire choices, resulting in the end of his life.
Caesar tells Artemidorus, “What touches us ourself shall be last served” (JC. 3.1.7). Caesar is so arrogant that he doesn’t even have the decency to accept help when it is handed to him. Caesar doesn’t realize that his hubris is going to kill him. His hubris is his tragic flaw, and the conspirators don’t like.
In selecting the frailty of illusion over the constancy of reality, the protagonists meet their inevitable disaster. From the start of Sophocles’ tragic play, Oedipus takes many actions and makes many choices leading to his own downfall. Oedipus selects to disregard numerous warnings, involving truth of his life and family background. Teiresias supplies Oedipus with everything he has to know about regarding his fate by stating, “I say you live in hideous shame with those Most dear to you. You cannot see the evil” (Sophocles 149).
Pia Brinkschulte February 20, 2012 ELA 30S Mr. Grynol Othello In Shakespeare’s Othello, the main antagonists Iago, starts off from being simply jealous, to turning revengeful and obsessive, making perversive decisions for his need of power and control. Critic A.C. Bradley suggests that this longing to satisfy power is Iago’s main motivation and driving force for his acts and behaviour throughout the play. The chief reason for Iago’s vindictiveness is that Othello chose Cassio over Iago to make him his Lieutenant. Iago feels rejected and despised, he is very bitter towards Othello who downgraded his service and experience in favour of the arithmetic skills that Cassio has. Because Iago’s career path is blocked by a mere lack of paper qualification he first begins to start developing feelings of revenge on Cassio who stole his job.
Grade 11 IB English | Work In Translation Essay “Oedipus Rex” | Oedipus’ adamant and presumptuous character pushes himself to make the wrong choices, making him responsible for fulfilling his own fate. | | Kevin Jang | 1/22/2013 | In Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, many questions arise on the topic of fate and freewill. In the play, fate and freewill are portrayed as two contrasting ideas, yet one would likely not exist without the other. Tiresias, a blind soothsayer, has given Oedipus a horrible fate, and Oedipus does everything in his power to make certain that his prophecy does not come true. Little does the reader know, Oedipus’ adamant and presumptuous character pushes himself to make the wrong choices, making him responsible for fulfilling his own fate.
Othello, despite his noble characteristics and valiant conduct, is shown to have weaknesses vulnerable to Iago’s hidden agenda. Othello’s noble traits of being easily influenced leads into his own downfall, a De Casibus tragedy. Othello being the tragic hero who’s mental condition decays into their own downfall due to outside forces, in Othello’s case jealousy and hate which have sprouted