Antigone And Oedipus Essay

Antigone and Oedipus Rex are two plays written by the famous Greek playwright, Sophocles. Oedipus Rex is about a man who unknowingly fulfills the prophecy of killing his father, marrying his own mother, and having children with her, he seeks out this killer only to find out it’s him, resulting in him blinding himself, being exiled, and having his wife and mother kill herself. In Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus decides to bury her brother despite Creon’s statement that anyone who does will die, this causes a domino effect in which Antigone kills herself in her prison, which causes Haemon to kill himself, which then causes Haemon's mother and Creon’s wife to kill herself. Both were unique in their own right, but there is no doubt that the two plays have many
Oedipus Rex and Antigone, while being two different stories, share many similarities. One of the major similarities between the two plays is their tone, that being tragedy, and another similarity, although not as clear, is their endings which both involve suicide and loss, Oedipus Rex with Jocasta killing herself, and Antigone with Haemon, Antigone, and Eurydice killing themselves. This common theme, added with the underlying and not so underlying themes of incest in Antigone and Oedipus respectively, leads one to wonder what Greek life was like at the time. Of course, that is not the end of the similarities, there are also many returning characters in Antigone from Oedipus Rex, not to mention the same setting of Thebes, such as Creon, Oedipus’ children, and Teiresias, which makes sense given where Oedipus Rex left off. Along with these returning characters are some returning character roles, with Creon filling Oedipus’ role of being the ignorant, stubborn, and ill tempered king, Tiresias as the blind seer that no one will lend an ear to, the messengers, Antigone sharing her father’s pride, Haemon filling in Creon’s role as the voice of reason, and Jocasta as the wife who kills herself. In fact, both