Going into Antigone I was unsure of how I felt, stuck between if it would be as good as Oedipus or if it would suck compared. At the end I enjoyed the text but the overall plot was not as good as Oedipus. There was many deaths throughout the play but something was different about these casualties. Casualties is a perfect word for them because when I hear the word I think of an unimportant death or making them appear more casual. The deaths in this play weren’t nearly as tragic as the ones that took place in Oedipus, those tragedies being out of control of the characters. Within Antigone the tragedies for the most part seemed to be created by Creon and his unwillingness to listen to anyone else but himself. His inability to reason with anyone leads to Antigone forced to kill herself to avoid the carried out death of starving in cave alone for burying her brother. Once Creon realizes he has made a mistake it was too late and even his own son dies, carrying his sons body he comes upon his own wife who had killed herself. Leaving Creon alone surrounded by despair that he could have avoided.
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In the Ted talk we watched this week it discussed the fact that we don’t have as much of a choice as we thought we did. Giving us options only to set them up in a way that almost chooses for us. In talked about the reality that some things are inevitable and out of our control. Revealing to us that our own mind even may play tricks on us with visual and misconceptions but there is also cognitive versions that we are less aware about. Changing just one word or a phrase can have an impact on what we choose. The only reason this really relates to tragedy is realizing that many people can control us and we are that easily manipulated. The tragedy in this blog post was a lot different than the tragedy of Oedipus although they both reveal that some tragedies are inevitable and you must accept them.
In the book Oedipus it talked about a truly tragic story that changed literature in a way. Tragedy constantly happening throughout the book one thing after another. Starting with Oedipus being sent to death as a baby because of his prophecy. Somehow being saved my a common man he is then taken in by an adoptive family and flees as he finds out his prophecy may lead to an awful fate of killing his own father and marrying his mother. On his journey fleeing from who he thinks is his family he ends up at the town of Thebes, immediately running into a man and slaughtering him. Unaware that the man he slaughtered was the King of Thebes let alone his father he goes on to save the town and take King position. While coming to this position he married Lauis’ wife Jocasta and they have four kids. Events begin to pick up and while Oedipus is on a hunt for who killed the original king and the men with him he begins to come upon hints of who he truly is. Finally coming to the realization that he was the one who killed the beloved king and married his own mother he calls for his sword to punish Jocasta for figuring out before him and not telling him. As he opens her bedroom door, above her marriage bed, he sees Jocasta hanging. His wife and mother had killed herself after figuring out the truth. There is no one left to take the anger out on so Oedipus grabs Jocastas brooches and begins to stab his own eyes out. Finally the last Tragedy is when Oedipus two daughters/sisters come out to see their father covered in his own blood unable to see them begging for Creon to banish him and take care of his girls.
In the text “Tragedy and the Common Man”, written by Arthur Miller he compares and contrasts what tragedy in literature means now vs before. In the beginning he starts with the inevitable connection between tragedy and us, as well as connection it has to power. Overtime we have began to distance ourselves more and more from the connection we have to tragedy. We focus more on the tragedy of others to make it more enjoyable and sometimes even comedic to distract ourselves from our own tragedies. Although within reading or watching these sort of plots they discuss emotions that we can all relate to but purposely avoid. In the text he begins to explain how heroes often cause themselves a great deal of struggle by evaluating themselves and creating their own flaws. In most cases every hero has a tragic flaw that may not actually be a weakness but is perceived that way due to their unwillingness to fail. Acknowledging the fact that the only “flawless” people are those who accept their failures instead of acting on things that degrade them. Connecting tragedy strongest to the fear of being displaced and even pointing out that the common man knows this feeling the best. Reading Millers views was actually insightful in helpful in understanding the definition of tragedy. Not only did the text help explain Tragedy better it also emphasized how strong the connection is and helped me look at tragedy in a different perspective.
In this ted talk we watched a video that discussed the relationship between success and tragedy. My understanding of the video was that in order to reach success you have to be able to fail and accept failure. There is no way you can be successful in everything you do so being able to accept that will make it easier for you to feel successful in your life. If you are always getting down on yourself for not being able to do everything right you will never feel accomplished and always view yourself as a failure or a loser. When really failure is apart of life and you can fail at certain things and that doesn’t make you a loser. It was interesting how in the video he combined the two I never would have thought to do that but it is true without being able to be okay with your failure you will live a tragic life. So revealing that tragedy and success are linked in a way that most of us don’t notice. Tragedy is apart of becoming successful in a way that to be able to appreciate success you must have had low points.
I only remember a few things about tragedy from previous classes, mainly that it involves suffering. As well as most of the "tragic" stories I have read contained humor such as irony and dark humor. I believe Tragedy is an event or sequence of sad events that are almost heartbreaking. There is also multiple times of tragedy that authors can hit on.
After reading the articles about tragedy it was interesting to read that part of the definition focuses on the fact that human suffering is pleasurable to the audience. It was weird to me to read at first but the more i thought about it I realized that the definition was extremely accurate. People love a tragic story that they can relate to or that can take them away from dealing with their personal tragedies that they feel they are going through. It was also interesting reading about revenge tragedy because I didn't even connect it to Hamlet the example wikipedia used I just considered the overall story tragic but focusing in on what kinda of tragic it was and getting a clear definition really made me understand the play more than I had last year. |