Antigone, Star Wars, and the Good Life - 1559 Words

Sophocles’s play Antigone promotes a good life that, through careful analysis, is very similar to the Stoic theory of the good life. Antigone is a story about the members of the ancient Theban aristocracy vying for control of themselves and others; however, in its core it contains an exploration of the good life, that is trying to investigate what values will allow one to get what they want out of life. A group of philosophers, also of Greek origin, produced a theory of this topic; this group of thinkers is called the Stoics. Concerning the good life they had two main values, from which they believe a good life can originate. The first of the two is finding happiness from inner resources, or trying not to depend on things around you such as wealth or adventure to give you a sense of happiness. The second facet is that of not worrying about things that are out of your control, as there is no use. Antigone brings to stage these topics, and shows characters who either live accor ding to them, and exit with a good life, and others who deny these, and end the play living in a bad life. Therefore the play shows through example, that Stoic values will lead to a positive way of living, and living against the values will lead to you not getting everything out of life. The two main characters in this tragedy are Creon, the king of Thebes, and uncle of the other character Antigone, the daughter of the last king of the same city Thebes. Creon does not live according to the values ofShow MoreRelatedSt. Augustine Of Hippo1280 Words   |  6 PagesPeople are weird. A lot of this is because there are so many, 7.4 billion Homo Sapiens cram themselves onto a damp rock swinging around a star and hurtling through the galaxy. On this rock we are born, grow up, thrive, grow old, and die. In general, this cycle of life has been consistent throughout history. Because of how common this cycle is, it has been subject to repeated attempts at improvement by philosophers and prophe ts of all time periods around the globe. One of the most important of theseRead MoreFire, Furor and Internal War Essay1193 Words   |  5 Pagesfor Aeneas exemplifies the internal turmoil that afflicts individuals when they are deprived of the love that they crave so ardently. Virgil accomplishes this through the incorporation of the symbol of fire and through the platonic metaphor of the war between reason and appetite in his work. Virgil uses the dual nature of fire to depict the change in the disposition of Dido’s relationship with Aeneas. Fire is a common literary symbol for the erotic and passionate attribute of love yet; it canRead MoreEnter Antigone and Ismene from the Palace10899 Words   |  44 PagesAntigone Enter ANTIGONE and Ismene from the palace. ANTIGONE: Ismene, my dear sister through common blood, do you know of any evil from Oedipus Zeus will not perform on us who still live? For I have seen nothing—nothing painful, nothing mad or shameful or dishonorable—(5) that is not among your or my sorrows. And now what do they say? The general has just put an edict over the whole city. Have you heard it? Or have you avoided learning how our friends suffer the fate of foes?(10) Read MoreRay Bradbury s Fahrenheit 4514443 Words   |  18 Pagesexploits these people for his amusement; so that he could have game to hunt. Chapter 5 – Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before? Intertextuality is the interrelationship of different texts and works of literature and how each text is shaped by another. A good example of how texts are created from the ideas and events of other texts is Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. The two fall in love, but cannot be together because of their feuding families. The ideas of love at first sight and forbidden loveRead MoreTragic Hero1598 Words   |  7 Pagesthe hero is of noble birth and is more admirable than ordinary men. He cannot, however, be morally perfect because the best plots arise when his downfall is the inevitable consequence of some defect in character (or tragic flaw).The spectacle of a good man dragged to destruction by a single error arouses in the audience both pity and fear, leading to the catharsis, a psychological state through which those emotions are purged; the audience leaves the theater relieved, or even exalted, rather thanRead More The tragic in Antony and Cleopatra Essay3706 Words   |  15 Pagesles faire dà ©tester. (Racine, 1667, Premià ¨re Prà ©face dAndromaque) Aristote, who is very far from asking us to create perfect heroes, on the contrary wants tragic characters, the ones whose unhappiness is the theme of the tragedy, to be neither all good nor all wicked. (...) They must consequently have an imperfect goodness, that is a virtue that is capable of weakness, and fall into distress because of some sin which would make people feel sorry for them and not hate them. This view is exemplified