Comparison between Creon and Antigone in Oedipus the King Essay Example for Free

Comparison between Creon and Antigone in Oedipus the King Essay In the Oedipus plays, two of the major characters include Creon, the brother in law of Oedipus and Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus. Although these two characters play different roles in the plays Oedipus the King and Antigone, they share a lot of similarities. Basically, one of the similarities that Creon and Antigone have is that the burdens that they carried throughout the plays were passed down to them by Oedipus following his downfall and exile. After Oedupis’s exile, Creon assumed the throne of Thebes and took control of the city. Although his intentions in ruling Thebes are pure, like Oedipus who refused to listen to the blind prophet when he told him that he was the one who murdered his father, Creon’s judgment was blinded when he initially refused to give proper burial rites to his enemy, Polynices, Oedipus son. As a result, Antigone, hanged herself, causing her lover Haemon, Creon’s son, to kill himself as well. Likewise, Antigone inherited the stubbornness of his father when she defied Creon’s order deny the corpse of Polynices, her brother, a proper burial. For her defiance, Creon had her thrown into a tomb, where she committed suicide through hanging. In short, both Creon and Antigone were affected by Oedipus’s tragic downfall as he apparently passed down his misfortunes to those who succeeded him and to his family members. Antigone herself said this in her conversation with her sister, in which she said â€Å"My own flesh and blood—dear sister, dear Ismene, how many griefs our father Oedipus handed down! Do you know one, I ask you, one grief that Zeus will not perfect for the two of us while we still live and breathe? There’s nothing, no pain—our lives are pain—no private shame, no public disgrace, nothing I haven’t seen in your grief and mine. † In other words, Antigone spoke as if tragedies are passed down in Oedipus’s family like they were family heirlooms. Moreover, both Creon and Antigone exemplified also suffered the same losses. Creon lost his son, Haemon, and his wife, Eurydice who both committed suicide while Antigone lost her father, Oedipus, and her two brothers, Polynices and Eteocles, who killed each other while fighting over who would rule over Thebes. In other words, both characters were left alone in their personal battles. However, while the two characters share several similarities, they also have various differences. For one, Antigone acknowledges the past tragedies as shown in the quote above and uses them as a motivation to move forward. Moreover, she is more bold and prudent than Creon as shown during their confrontation in which he asked her why she was defying him and she answered, â€Å"I didnt say yes. I can say no to anything I say vile, and I dont have to count the cost. But because you said yes, all that you can do, for all you’re crown and your trappings, and your guards—all that your can do is to have me killed. † On the other hand, Creon is a manipulative and narrow-minded person as shown in his initial refusal to believe in the blind prophet’s prediction. His personality is best shown in his description of Thebes wherein he said, â€Å"Anarchy—show me a greater crime in all the earth! She, she destroys cities, rips up houses, breaks the ranks of spearmen into headlong rout. But the ones who last it out, the great mass of them owe their lives to discipline. Therefore we must defend the men who live by law, never let some woman triumph over us. Better to fall from power, if fall we must, at the hands of a man—never be rated inferior to a woman, never. † In sum, while both characters share similarities due to their close relationship with Oedipus, they also have differences that distinguish their characters. Antigone is a realistic, decisive yet stubborn character while Creon is a person who holds himself in high esteem but later realizes he is human as well. Works Cited â€Å"Oedipus the King. † 2008. The Internet Classics Archive. 3 April 2008 http://classics. mit. edu/Sophocles/oedipus. html. â€Å"Antigone. † 2008. 2008. The Internet Classics Archive. 3 April 2008 http://classics. mit. edu/Sophocles/antigone. html.

Conquering the Texas Frontier :: essays research papers

Conquering the Texas Frontier When looking at the vast lands of Texas after the Civil War, many different people came to the lands in search for new opportunities and new wealth. Many were lured by the large area that Texas occupied for they wanted to become ranchers and cattle herders, of which there was great need for due to the large population of cows and horses. In this essay there are three different people with three different goals in the adventures on the frontier lands of Texas in its earliest days. Here we have a woman's story as she travels from Austin to Fort Davis as we see the first impressions of West Texas. Secondly, there is a very young African American who is trying his hand at being a horse rancher, which he learned from his father. Lastly we have a Mexican cowboy who tries to fight his way at being a ranch hand of a large ranching outfit. Emily K. Andrews, wife of Col. George Andrews of Fort Davis, starts her journey in mid summer around the Austin area. She travels with others as they make their way East. Through her journal entries to her father, we can see that this was no easy trip. She seems to be used to a solid roof over her head, as well as a non-dirt floor. She tells that on many occasions of the threat of Indians, and how ruthless they are, keeping her distance and even sleeping "with one eye open" while in the camps along the way. Being a woman out on the frontier she does not seemed to be scared yet comes off as being rather brave and very smart. Her descriptions of the land and the towns they encountered along the way are very precise and if it had been possible for other females to read would have set their minds at ease. In her journal she talks about how inviting the other frontier people are and how reassuring that is to help keep her mind off the ever threatening Indian attacks. On the other hand there were people trying to settle and make a living for themselves, especially after the freeing of all the slaves. Will Crittenden is one of those people. He was born in Texas after his father moved here from Alabama. Will had been taught about being a horse rancher at the age of 5 from his father and now at the age of 15 was ready to go out on his own.

DBQ-The Witch Craze

Identify and analyze at least three major reasons for the persecution of individuals as witches in Europe from the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. From the Middle Ages until the 1700s, a fevered witch craze was spread throughout Europe. These witches were isolated, persecuted and when found, tortured and consequently killed. With most of the population concentrated in southeastern Europe, over 100,000 witches were tried.It was believed that these individuals practiced black magic and were associated with the Devil, but a single fact becomes clear when studying the witch craze and that is that there is a certain type of individual that was singled out as a witch. The majority of of accused witches were female(Witchcraft Statistics, doc 2) and mostly over 50 years old(Witchcraft Statistics doc 3). The witch craze concentrated on elderly women who more often than not were from a low social class (Witchcraft Statistics, doc 1. ).A combination of religious beliefs, socia l prejudices and cultural precepts helped heighten the already rampant witch persecution throughout Europe. The witch craze spread throughout the common-people of Europe, this due to a strong support to the persecution of witches advertised by influential religious leaders. Although Europe was in a state of religious turmoil due to the warfare between Catholic and Protestant faiths, Catholics and Protestants alike contributed to the spread of the witch craze. Martin Luther preached that â€Å"sorcerers or witches are the Devil’s whores who steal milk†¦torture babies in their cradles†¦ † (Religious Opinions, doc 3). John Calvin, another influential religious leader said â€Å"†¦ We are therefore taught by these examples that we have to wage war against an infinite number of enemies†¦ †(Religious Opinions, doc 4). Pope Innocent VII, issued â€Å"The Witch Bull† in 1484 where he stated it was the peoples duty to get rid of witches and he gave inquisitors the right to â€Å"exercise their office of inquisition and to proceed to the correction, imprisonment and punishment† of witches(Religious Opinions, doc 4).The strong religious belief that witches were instruments of the Devil and that it was society’s duty to eliminate them, along with the confusion and anger that was brought about by the Catholic-Protestant conflict was a contributing factor to the persecution and killing of many witches. While the preachings of influential leaders against the witches was a main factor of this witch craze, the fact that witches were women was an important factor within the faith.For centuries women within the Catholic church were seen as inferior to men and more susceptible to sin. Both the Protestant and Catholic leaders believed that women, specially elderly women were and easy pray for the devil’s deeds. â€Å"The Hammer of Witches† a witch-hunting manual created by Dominican monks they stated that women are more likely to be witches because they are more â€Å"credulous, impressionable and passionate†(Religious Opinions, doc 1).Once again due to the longstanding discrimination against women within the Catholic faith, the monks were probably heavily influenced by their faith which led them to speak so badly of women. The social prejudices held by European society about women made it easier for the persecutors to pinpoint them as lesser, crazy and most of all guilty. The belief that women, specially elder women were weak and inferior is an important factor to understand why they became the target group for witchcraft charges.The thought that elderly women were impure and more corrupt was spread by the lawmakers that made links between the physical body and witchcraft. A legal conference that took place in 1618 announced that â€Å"The bodies of aged persons are impure, which when they[become diseased with] malice† are used by the Devil to carry out his evil deeds( Scientific Opinions, doc1). This shows a clear societal prejudice against old people, specifically older women, but not everyone agreed there was a link between age and corruption.Belgian physician Johan Wier, while still showing disdain towards women and asserting their inferiority with their â€Å"melancholic nature and small brains†, concludes that although women were prone to depression the causes of their diseases were hardly supernatural(Scientific Opinions, doc2). Although not all society was convinced about the existence of witches, the fear and prejudice against older women was a contributing factor to the persecution of this specific group.The last, and probably greatest factor, that contributed to the fever of witchcraft was the fact that the European culture was characterized by strongly superstitious beliefs. The belief that witches could control men and do a variety of spells, is derived from the belief in the supernatural that most of the European population ha d. Thomas Ady, as describing the feelings of an English householder explains that â€Å"†¦ he cryeth out of some poor innocent neighbor that he or she hath bewitched him(Testimony of Accused Witches and Eyewitnesses, doc3).The testimony of a licensed midwife at Dillingen, Germany confessed her â€Å"witchcraft† and admitted that â€Å"she often had a good roast or an innocent child,†¦ kill young infants at birth† (Testimony of Accused Witches and Eyewitnesses, doc1). The report of Churchwardens in Gloucestershire England, reported that â€Å"†¦ Alice Prabury in our parish that useth herself suspiciously in the likelihood of a witch, taking upon her not only to help Christian people of diseases†¦ †(Testimony of Accused Witches and Eyewitnesses, doc4).All of these documents have in common the belief in evil women guided by the devil to preform witchcraft and unexplainable and horrible deeds such as eating young children, or bewitching young me n. The fact that these happenings were not only attributed to the supernatural, but where held as completely true, show the superstitious beliefs that so many held during the witch craze. These accusations were so serious that even those who were not guilty of anything ended up making delusional confessions in the midsts of torture.The beliefs were held as such truth that these innocent individuals would most likely by the end of their torture end up believing what they were charged with. â€Å"Some call me witch†¦ this they enforce upon me; and in part Make me to credit it†, cites the poem â€Å"The Witch of Edmonton†(Testimony of Accused Witches and Eyewitnesses, doc5). â€Å"Innocent have I come into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I die† wrote Johannes Junios to his daughter, clearly showing that many of these accusations were completely false(Testimony of Accused Witches and Eyewitnesses, doc 7).The combination of social prejudices , religious beliefs and cultural precepts helped spark the fire of a European witch craze that lasted over a century and claimed thousands of lives. The main target of this witchcraft were poor elderly women who were easy to dispose of due to years of hatred, superstition and discrimination. The European witch craze is a frightening example of how easily mankind is corrupted by hatred and prejudice and is lead to leave behind any sense of compassion, decency and rational thinking.While modern day â€Å"witch hunts† have been left for the movies and books to recreate, a great deal of prejudice still exists in the society we live in. The targeting of certain â€Å"weaker† groups by a â€Å"stronger† majority sadly remains a part of 21st century society. The reality of human society is that hardly anyone is willing to go through the excruciating process of admitting they are wrong, or realizing that things like gender, age, skin-color or religion are not to be used as an excuse to harm others.

Biography Of Giovanni Boccaccio s Magnum Opus The...

â€Å"There made its appearance that deadly pestilence, which, whether disseminated by the influences of the celestial bodies, or sent upon us mortals by God in His just wrath by way of retribution for our iniquities, had its origin some years before in the East, whence, after destroying an innumerable multitude of living beings, it had propagated itself without respite from place to place, and so, calamitously, had spread abroad into the Westâ€Å". These are the lines from Giovanni Boccaccio s magnum opus The Decameron , which consists of various tales narrated by seven young women and three young men seeking refuge in a secluded villa outside Florence to escape from one of the greatest catastrophies in human history. The Black Death . Miniature of the Decameron by Taddeo Crivelli from Ferrara (1467) INTRODUCTION: The most memorable example of what has been advanced, is afforded by agreat peatilence of fourteenth century, which desolated Asia, Europe and Africa and of which the people yet preserve the remembrance in gloomy traditions. It was an oriental plague marked by inflamatory boils and tumors of glands such as break out in no other febrile disease. On account of these inflammatory boils and from black spots, indicator of a putrid decomposition, which appeared upon the skin, it was called in Germany and northern kingdoms of Europe, the Black Death and in Italy, la Mortelaga Grande , the Great Mortality. The Black Death was one of the most devastating