Short Essay # 1
Week4
February 12, 2017
Antigone is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. It deals with Antigone’s burial of her brother Polyneices in defiance of the laws of Creon and the state, and the tragic repercussions of her act of civil disobedience. Antigone defies the law, buries her brother, and is caught.
Oedipus had a curse on him that he didn't know about.Yet Oedipus is stubbornly blind to the truth about himself. King Laius, like most kings, wanted a boy. Not wanting the prophecy to come true, he sends the baby to be abandoned on some mountain. On his way he encounters a traveling caravan. Both claim right of way on the path. Oedipus finds out Jocasta is actually his mother. Forcing him to …show more content…
“ I hate the murders who killed my father. O, can this be justice, ( pg 128 ).” Oedipus finds out that he has murdered Laius, who was his father, and that he married his mother. The plot goes on to describe how he came about doing such horrific things. At first, Oedipus seems to be the villain, but it can't be so, because he did not know that he was adopted, and that the person he killed was his father. of course, he didn't know that he is marrying his mother either. A prophet named Teiresias enters next and Oedipus asks him for help discover who has killed Laius. However, the prophet is extremely reluctant to speak and begs Oedipus to let him go without saying what he knows. He then gives him some disturbing news, that Oedipus is the person whom he seeks and who killed Laius. Oedipus does not want to listen and calls the prophet a liar and a traitor, even saying that Creon, who sent him, was the designer in a plot against him to gain the throne. The prophet warns Oedipus that even if he doesn't want to hear the truth, it does not make it any less truth that he speaks. Several characters are willing to sacrifice themselves to save Thebes from destruction or for what they believe is right and just. Creon, for example, is ready to die in order to save the city. Teiresias offers to have himself killed when Oedipus suspects him of betraying the trust of