Parables, or, stories that teach, are very useful in getting lessons across in a way that is easy to understand and easy to relate to. In this parable, and many in general, some of the characters or situations are examples of symbolism or can be taken as an example of a metaphor. In this parable, a man goes to request access to the law and the gatekeeper says "the law is something that should be accessible to everyone and anyone". The man was challenged by the gatekeeper to try and get to the law. The man eventually grows old and never gains access to the law. Right before he dies, the gatekeeper tells the man that the entrance to the law was made just for him and since he was dying, the entrance to the law would close. I believe what the parable is trying to get across is that it can be seen the same as people trying to change how laws are in the world. You can try many times to make changes but not many people are successful in getting the changes they are wishing to see. The parable says, "These are difficulties the man from the country has not expected". This proves that when people try to challenge a law or make a change, there are a lot of things that stand in their way in order to do that. Things they might not have been expecting. The man tries to give his possessions to the gatekeeper in order to bribe him to give him access to the law. The man thought that if he gave items to the gatekeeper, it may cause the gatekeeper to slip up and let the man go past the gate. Bribery can also be symbolizing the corruption of the government and how people try to bribe them to get themselves ahead without having to deal with obstacles in the world. This relates to Antigone because she is faced with the law in the sense that she is not able to bury her brother. She stands up against it, walks right past the law, and buries him anyway. She is faced with many challenges when she is caught but, eventually the law is changed and Kreon changes his mind. This is an example of when a law was successfully changed although there were many obstacles to overcome to get to that point.
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Antigone is a continuation of the tragedy Oedipus and boy, is it filled with tragedy. What's happening is Antigone and Ismene, Oedipus's daughters, are alive and their brothers, Etokles and Polyneses, have just died in battle. Etokles got a proper burial because he was fighting in favor of the king. Polyneses who was not, was left out in the open to be food for the vultures and no one was to bury him or they would be stoned. As Antigone stated “Kreon has proclaimed that his body will stay unburied; no mourners, no tomb, no tears, a tasty meal for vultures”. Antigone took it upon herself to bury her brother and she got caught. A first example of tragedy that directly stood out to me was when Kreon found out his niece, who was supposed to marry his son, was the one who buried Polyneses. He wanted her killed because "those were the rules". Of course, his son, Haimon, was saddened by this and the messenger and Ismene tried to convince Kreon not to have her killed. Eventually he did change his mind and said “I’ve changed my mind, I did it and I’ll undo it. Life, I’m afraid, is best spent maintaining these established laws, for these are moored safe and steady”. Although, he realized he was already too late and Antigone had already hung herself. When Haimon found out, he killed himself as well. Euridice, Haimon's mother and Kreon's wofe, also killed herself when she found out her son had died. The messeger stated “Kreon has shown there is no greater evil than men’s failure to consult and to consider”. If he would have listened to others opinions and ideas before making his decision, he would have saved many lives. Having the power to make decisions might be what we think separates us from everyone else and makes us unique. But the decisions we make are not our own, they are based off of our surroundings and the people around us. Environmental factors and listening to our peers around us alters our decisions and how we feel about certain things. Our decisions aren't based solely off ourselves. We often take other's thoughts and opinions into consideration. Immediately, when I listened to the TED talk, I thought of Oedipus Rex and the decisions in this play that were made and how that related to what Dan Ariely was saying. Ariely specifically said "intuition fools us even after we are shown reality" which directly correlates to this example. In the play, Oedipus and Jocasta make many decisions and try to do things in order to change their prophecy and make sure it didn't come true. No matter what decisions they made, the prophecy ended up coming true. The reason they made these decisions in the first place to avoid the prophecy was because they didn't want the people around them to look down on them and they wanted to be seen as "normal". In the TED talk, Ariely talks about how we don't choose our own destiny, it is already determined and Oedipus Rex kind of proves that. While reading this, I think we were all able to understand that tragedy is not always a bad thing and is not always something that people should feel bad about. It is simply an experience and a reality. Tragedy is just a feeling and it must reach its own happy ending in its own way. It is up to us, the reader, to determine the feeling it gives us. A quote that really stood out to me was "tragedy is essentially an expression, not of despair, but of the triumph over despair and of confidence in the value of human life". I believe this is basically saying that tragedy is the feeling you get when conquering something and feeling that you are worth something after making a significant accomplishment. This quote proves that tragedy does not only mean a sad feeling or an upset feeling. Tragedy can be connected to confidence, accomplishment and self worth. Another thing that I believe really proves this point is "Love, Honor, and Glory are not words but, reality". Love, honor, and glory in these stories are not just words to make the story seem happier or "less tragic", but they are what the characters are really going through and true feelings that they are feeling. Just because something bad happens on the outside, it's the inward victory that really matters. The example Joseph Krutch used was that although Juliet died, she had shown how great love could be and what a beautiful thing it truly was. In the play Oedipus Rex, a man is cursed with a prophecy that he will kill his father, marry his mother and have children with her. The woman he marries, Jocasta, has the prophecy that her son will kill her husband, she will marry and have kids with him. I bet you can see where this is going. Oedipus was looked very highly upon in the City of Thebes and was the only one who had ever solved the Sphinx's riddle, making him very, very wise. Some might think he would be wise enough to make sure his prophecy would not come true. There are many instances of tragedy throughout the play. “Happiness means ending life without being crushed by pain” is a quote that really stood out to me. When Jocasta found out that her prophecy came true, she killed herself by hanging because of the embarrassment she felt. Oedipus felt like he would never be able to see anything that would make up for what he has done so he stabbed his eyes out with the needle of Jocasta's brooch. The people in the city had judged him in a good way based on the riddle he solved earlier but it seems as though they judged his morals too early and they didn't know what to think of it. Something else that I found very interesting was “May fate find me accompanied by purity in word and deed”. This is because Oedipus thinks that maybe if the prophecy were to come, it wouldn't come true because he has stayed true and pure. I just think that it's interesting how hard everyone has tried to make sure that the prophecies don't come true, because of how devastating it would be, but it still did end up coming true. There were a lot of really good points made throughout this TED talk. He begins by talking about how we are surrounded by snobs and that is the cause for a lot of our suffering and anxiety. The position you hold or if you are higher up, people will look at you differently and that's why they will like you. The thing is that people need to stop caring so much about what other people think and stop caring so much about the material goods. Although, for most people, it is not the material goods they are going after but the rewards. We are told that we can do anything but in reality, that is impossible. This is where low self esteem comes from because you get it in your head that you can do anything and when you can't, you start to feel bad and useless. In the merit society, failure is a lot more crushing. It leads to people believing that their failures or wrong doings are deserved, which is awful. It seems that we will never be in place where we are graded based on what we are truly worth. We learned that all tragedy is is an art form that traces how people fail and explains why. It is important to realize that, in tragedy, characters are not losers, but have lost. Our ideas of success should be our own, not what society thinks they are. Throughout this piece, it is known about the part heroes play in tragedy and also how the other characters contribute. A part that stood out to me was "I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-- his sense of personal dignity". I thought this was important because we know the person is ready to do anything, include take his own life, in order to make sure everything turns out right. It comforts us to know that there is someone in control and that hopefully everything will be okay. I think as the character is fighting for what they believe in, they feel even more heroic because they are not only saving people but they are making themselves look good. Another key thing that stood out to me was "the tragic right is a condition of life, a condition in which the human personality is able to flower and realize itself". I believe this is talking about how even though something tragic may happen, it will evoke a certain feeling within you that will make you look at the situation differently. Tragedy is a condition that will help shape who you are and how you handle certain things. Overall, the heroes in a story are able to let out a certain emotion in the audience along with making themselves feel better and prove that they are there for the right reasons. Tragedy is very powerful in the fact that it can completely shape who a person is and how they act. Sometimes, experiencing people's struggles, sadness or pain can bring sort of a pleasurable feeling or a type of entertainment. This would be considered a type of drama called tragedy. Tragedy is the type of drama caused by loss, pain, or human suffering. The word "tragedy" has been used to describe different phenomena at different times. It is an important part of developing different cultures, negotiation, struggle, and change (Tragedy, Wikipedia). There are different types of tragedy that explain why characters act certain ways throughout a story. Tragedy of the Commons is when people act how they want according to what they want to do, instead of like everyone else. “However, the term is presently used when describing a problem where all individuals have equal and open access to a resource.” (Tragedy of the Commons, Wikipedia). Revenge tragedy is when the protagonist is seeking revenge for a made up or a real injury. “Most scholars argue that the revenge tragedies of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries stemmed from Roman Tragedies” (Revenge tragedy, Wikipedia). Tragedy is also something that all people can relate to because we can learn a lot from the characters struggles. Seeing how they handle their tragedy can give the audience a different outlook. In this way, the characters are able to teach valuable lessons such as, how to deal with certain situations. |
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