Portrayal of society in Oedipus the king Essay

commonwealth and society have been signifi poopt principles in every cultivatedization. We gain strength through it, stay on top because of it and argon a sm totally-arm of it. In Sophocles time people were of great importance for the Greeks, it was the time of the geological formation of democracy, the country was governed for and by the people. Antig star was written in France during the Ger soldiery occupation and contains judicatureal messages to the people.This essay tends to investigate how society is portrayed in Sophocles Oedipus the faggot and dung bee Anouilhs Antigone, and briefly how and for what purpose this is done. The portrayal of society depicts the society in the lean, and how that reflects the contemporary society of the author.One way of portraying society in Oedipus the King is through the chorus. In this play the chorus is a meeting of Theban people who express their ideas and thoughts, and pray to the Gods. By doing this they show how the Theban peo ple react to what happens during the play. In the chorus first appearance we externalise them praying to the gods describing the horrors of the plague. The people of Thebes are suffering and they turn to Zeus, Apollo, Athena and Artemis for deliverance. This shows their strong credit in and devotion to the deities.The second time the chorus appears it is confused almost Tiresias accusations. In spite of their labelion of the omniscience of the Gods, they decide to stay loyal to their fairy and not believe the prophecy until they see proof. This shows great loyalty to the powerfulness as does the finishing sentence Never will I convict my king, never in my heart.(l. 572)At the end of the ode the chorus is open to two possibilites, that of the deities being wrong and of Oedipus having killed his father. This is although they believe in them and respect them deeply. This demonstrates their open-mindedness and openness to overbold ideas.Sophocles contemporaneous Athenian society is in any case twined into the story. Oedipus character reflects that of the Athenian people. Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox writes1 The poets language re generates him to the audience not as a figure of the cryptical past but as one fully contemporary in fact he is easily recognizable as an epitome of the Athenian character as they themselves conceived it and as their enemies saw it too.One trait afterward another in the character of Sophocles Oedipus corresponds to Athenian qualities praised by Pericles in his Funeral spoken communication or denounced by the Corinthians in their attack on Athenian imperialism at the jump on in Sparta before the war.He goes on to explain that these characteristics are being a man of swift and vigorous action, having experience as a result of constant action especially in nautical warfare, courage, swiftness and rationality in action and decision, intelligence, adaptability to circumstances, and his dedication to the interests and needs of the city. Knox concludes with Oedipus the King is a dramatic embodiment of the creative vigor and understanding cheek of the fifth-century Athenian spirit.The preoccupations of the Athenians are also reflected in the play. During the fifth century B.C. when Sophocles wrote the play great changes were taking place in Athens. The old respect and worry given to the deities were eroding as the result of the intellectual, social and scientific progress of the time.About this Knox writes The figure1 of Oedipus represents not save the techniques of the transition from savagery to civilization and the political achievements of the newly settled society but also the temper and methods of the fifth-century intellectual revolution. His speeches are full of words, phrases and attitudes that link him with the enlightenment of Sophocles own Athens.This change in society is reflected when Oedipus ridicules and offends Tiresias who represents prophecy and spiritual power. In fact Sophocles expresse s his conservative ideas by setting up the double irony of the blind man who can see the truth and the future and the seeing man who is blind to his past, present and even to his own identity. As the story goes on we see the gallant man who rejected the prophetic power descend to total chagrin and destruction.Knox puts it this way The catastrophe of the tragic hero thus becomes the catastrophe of fifth-century man all his furious energy and intellectual daring drive him on to this terrible discovery of his fundamental ignorance he is not the measure of all thingsAnouilh wrote a new version of Antigone during World War II. His writing indeed contained political messages against the Vichy government. Most of the depiction of society happens through Creon and not the chorus. They are not Anouilhs opinions but rather what he thought the Germans and the Vichy governments view of people. By conveying this to the people he could instigate them to join the resistance.As opposed to Oedi pus who loves and sustentations for his people, Creon does not respect or care round the people he governs. He refers to them as the featherheaded rabble I govern and says that if they are to understand whats what, that stench has got to fill the township for a month Clearly he doesnt think often of their intelligence. He has only taken the position because he thought it would be cowardly not to and he thinks the country is on the brink of destruction.As he himself explains to Antigone he thought Someone had to agree to captain the ship. She had sprung a hundred leaks she was loaded to the water-line with crime, ignorance, poverty. The wheel was swinging with the move. The crew refused to work and were looting the cargo. The officers were building a raft, ready to slip overboard and desert the ship. The mast was splitting, the wind was howling, the sails were beginning to rip. Every man-jack on board was about to drown and only because the only thing they thought of was their own skins and their cheap little day-after-day traffic.In these few lines Creon has called people criminal, ignorant, poor, thieves, lazy, quitters and egocentric. He is also giving a very dark picture of the country when he came in charge. He is implying that the government before him, be it Oedipus ca employ a plague and Eteocles and Polynices civil war or Frances third republics ill to deal with the depression, has destroyed the country and he is the one making amendments and restoring order.He describes people as hypocritical and makes them look stupid when describing Eteocles funeral. He sarchastically explains how schoolchildren emptied their savings-boxes to debase wreathes for him. Old men, orating in quavering, hypocritical voices and every temple priest was present with an appropriate show of sorrow and solemnity in his stupid face. This also shows that he has no respect for religion or peoples beliefs, earlier he also uses phrases like flummery about spectral burial, priestly abracadabra, jibber-jabber and dreary bureaucrats.At one point Antigone exclaims Animals, eh, Creon What a king you could be if only men were animals. This can be Anouilh using Antigones voice to say that not all people are animals, but docile and obedient people are.In general one can say that society is portrayed as better in Oedipus the King than in Antigone. Sophocles describes society as loyal, pious, open-minded and Oedipus and the Athenians as active, rational, courageous, intelligent, experienced, reliable at adapting to new circumstances and compassionate. The only portrayal of society in Antigone, which is through Creon, describes it as criminal, hypocritical, stupid, lazy, self-centred and ignorant. That does not necessarily say anything about the people, but to a greater extent about the ruler himself. The writers describe two straight generations of the Theban people, but through them write to and about people more than 2000 years apart.1 Introduction to Oed ipus the King in The Three Theban plays, Penguin Classics. Notes by Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox.