Comparing Free Will In 'Oedipus Rex And Everyday Life'
Daniela Abbruzzese
Lewis Clayton
SOSC2560A: Ideology and Everyday Life
Wednesday, 27 November 2012
Fate, Morality and Free Will within Literature
Tracing back to the primordial era, several ancient plays used the notions of morality, free will and fate. In several literary pieces there is an issue between the human preconception to fully assent fate and the natural desire to control destiny. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocle and Hamlet by William Shakespeare, it is shown that the matters of fate and free will always create a struggle for the individual’s control over his life. The main characters of both plays, Oedipus and Hamlet, are put into similar situations they can’t escape but it is ultimately their actions that led to different …show more content…
According to Kant, the ancient Greek philosophy was divided into three fields: logic, physics and ethics. In the ethics of ancient Greece, an individual’s inner and external life was shaped by his hereditary social status. This could be exemplified by the principle of the civil democracy, a moral principle in the power of the Gods and public perception of hierarchy, which are represented when the community is undergoing social disorders. Another fundamental aspect of Oedipus’ ancient Greek society was it’s superstitious as well as religious nature. The standard agreements would intend to build a meaning interconnected to fate. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play took place in Denmark. In this Danish society, people were like puppets. For example, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Both their characters did what they were told to do by one of higher power, King Claudius. Their characters portray the languid and ignorant minds of society that just follow the social standard and the bourgeois class. To add to this, there was a unethical lifestyle in the bourgeois society that just like in Oedipus Rex, held a sense of superstition by promoting the idea of fate. Above all, Hamlet struggles to live between opposing society’s expectations because he acknowledges that he is in a “blinded” society but as an individual he has a “free thought” of his own. As for Oedipus, in the play, he fails to win the battle in order to gain control of his life and so he has to relinquish to his destiny. Afterwards, he gains the freedom to live past his agony and to decease in harmony. It these plays, both tragic heroes lived in societies that go by the “herd”. Both characters Hamlet and Oedipus were continuously struggling with their civilization. In such sheltered societies full of conspiracies, ethics and expectations freedom is not really
Lewis Clayton
SOSC2560A: Ideology and Everyday Life
Wednesday, 27 November 2012
Fate, Morality and Free Will within Literature
Tracing back to the primordial era, several ancient plays used the notions of morality, free will and fate. In several literary pieces there is an issue between the human preconception to fully assent fate and the natural desire to control destiny. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocle and Hamlet by William Shakespeare, it is shown that the matters of fate and free will always create a struggle for the individual’s control over his life. The main characters of both plays, Oedipus and Hamlet, are put into similar situations they can’t escape but it is ultimately their actions that led to different …show more content…
According to Kant, the ancient Greek philosophy was divided into three fields: logic, physics and ethics. In the ethics of ancient Greece, an individual’s inner and external life was shaped by his hereditary social status. This could be exemplified by the principle of the civil democracy, a moral principle in the power of the Gods and public perception of hierarchy, which are represented when the community is undergoing social disorders. Another fundamental aspect of Oedipus’ ancient Greek society was it’s superstitious as well as religious nature. The standard agreements would intend to build a meaning interconnected to fate. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play took place in Denmark. In this Danish society, people were like puppets. For example, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Both their characters did what they were told to do by one of higher power, King Claudius. Their characters portray the languid and ignorant minds of society that just follow the social standard and the bourgeois class. To add to this, there was a unethical lifestyle in the bourgeois society that just like in Oedipus Rex, held a sense of superstition by promoting the idea of fate. Above all, Hamlet struggles to live between opposing society’s expectations because he acknowledges that he is in a “blinded” society but as an individual he has a “free thought” of his own. As for Oedipus, in the play, he fails to win the battle in order to gain control of his life and so he has to relinquish to his destiny. Afterwards, he gains the freedom to live past his agony and to decease in harmony. It these plays, both tragic heroes lived in societies that go by the “herd”. Both characters Hamlet and Oedipus were continuously struggling with their civilization. In such sheltered societies full of conspiracies, ethics and expectations freedom is not really