"Before the Law" is a parable written by Kafka that portrays a man who wants nothing more but to enter into the Law, but the doorkeeper guarding the gate will not allow it. Kafka illustrates a tragic story about someone who knows what he wants but sits around his entire life waiting for something to happen that will allow him to get it, instead of running after his goals regardless of the obstacles in his way. At first the guard tells him that he "cannot grant admittance at the moment." So the man asks when and and the guard says possibly later. The man sits around his entire life waiting for the guard to clear it. What is interesting to me is when the guard says, "If you are so drawn to it, just try to go in despite my veto." The idea of entering the gate by going outside of the law is an option planted in the mans head, but because of what the guard says about the other guards being big " each more powerful than the last," the man becomes scared and decides it's better that he just waits it out. Finally the man is too old to live much longer and the guard says, "no one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you, I am not going to shut it." It was made for him, all he had to do was try to grab it, and instead he sat around for years waiting. He missed his chance. After discussing with the class I see how this parable relates to Antigone. It is almost reverse because in Kafka's story, the old man decided not to break the norm to get what he wants. In Sophocles play, Antigone knows she will be put to death for breaking the law but she also knows that what she wants isn't within the boundaries of the law. She wants to properly bury her brother so badly, she accepts her fate, because it would be an honorable death. Because of what Antigone did that law was changed. The tragedy about the old man is that he wasted his entire life expecting something else to happen that would allow him to meet his goals. Antigone leapt toward it, crushing everything that stood in her way.
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Sophocles creates yet another play about tragedy titled, “Antigone” only this time Creon and Antigone are the once experiencing tragedy. Sophocles portrays tragedy in a way described by Krutch this time around, with Creon experiencing horrible things due to his own pride and in the end, though it’s not rainbows and butterflies, Creon realizes how he has lived his life inadequately and releases his pride, after he tries and fails to do the noble thing. Creon proclaims that “Polyneices, I say, is to have no burial: no man is to touch him or say the least prayer for him,” and many of the townspeople disagree with this position. Antigone in particularly, can’t abide by this law because it is her brother, so she tells her sister, “But I will bury him; and if I must die, 55 I say that this crime is holy.” Creon finds out about her act of love toward her brother and bans her to a forest to be locked away until she dies. Tiresias comes to tell him what will happen if he continues being this prideful and eventually he listens but it’s too late. When analyzing this piece I see much tragedy but only relating to Krutch’s explanation of it through Creon. His pride blinded him to what the ‘gods’ really wanted. In his mind he thought that if he allowed a proper burial for the boy then many of his villagers would begin to welcome unacceptable behavior. He didn’t want to look weak, and that shined when his sons wisdom radiated throughout their entire conversation and all Creon had to say back was that they couldn’t lose to women. Creon knew Tiresias was right all the time, but it took someone else telling him that, and pushing him to do the right thing by burying the boy and releasing the girl, for him to go and do it. Of course he was too late and his son and wife both died and he had to live the fact that it was his fault. The tragedy here was that Creon’s pride caused the most important people in his life to die, but in the end, he was “saved” if you will. He learned from that experience, he is no longer the same, poisoned man that he once was. Which completed the cycle of the tragedy. Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist, discussed the truths about our decision making. How we really don't have great control over our decisions and many external factors influence the choices that we make. Whether it be wording, or other choices that don't actually benefit us that are added into the mix, we aren't fully aware of the effects other things have on our decisions. Ariely discussed different experiments performed on many people that tested their decision making ability. One experiment involved the option of choose from three different types of a product. One was 59.99 for only a single package. The second one was also a single (but different) package, but for 125, and the third was both packages for 125. Most of the students chose the third option because it makes the most sense. The experiment was performed again only the second option was eliminated and now a majority of the students chose the first package for only 59.99. This experiment has shown me that people make decisions based on other things, not just what is in front of them. When all three packages were available, although they might not have needed the third option containing both packages, they went with it because it made more sense than buying one package for 125 when you could get too for 125. When the second option is removed, it appeared that they didn't seem to have a need to get both packages, they only needed one. In relation to tragedy, maybe this had to deal with how the man chooses to overcome their drama. Maybe they decide to do it in a way that might not be the best because of over factors that influence his decisions. Joseph Krutch does a beautiful job explaining Aristotle's idea of tragedies and contradicting them with his own. He talks about nobility, and imitation and how it relates to tragedy, how it doesn't relate to tragedy and how regardless of their differences they will always be tied together because tragedy is more than a sad, depressing event. It is about faith and the strength of man to overcome the hard situations Krutch introduces the idea that there is no such thing as nobility. Who judges what truly is a nobel move? We don't know "whether or not such a thing as nobility exists in nature apart from the mind of man. " Krutch points out that to use tragedy and nobility interchangeably would "to say that tragedy is the imitation of a noble action is to be guilty of assuming, first, that art and photography are the same." This is where he introduces his idea that," If tragedy is not the imitation or even the modified representation of noble actions it is certainly a representation of actions considered as noble." As well as, "no man can conceive it unless he is capable of believing in the greatness and importance of man," which introduces the idea later expressed that Tragic writers don't have to believe in God, just the strong will and capability of man. While reading this i realized something about tragedy, that it is more than a sob story. The tragedy itself is more focused on how man moves passed whatever life throws at him. It's not about the situation that he is in. Most tragedies end happily because of the fact that the person is able to overcome their tragedy. Unlike many other genres, Tragedy is more complex because despite everything that happens within the story itself, it still has to achieve a cheerful ending without using comedy to soften the blows or distinct lines between good and evil. Though nobility and tragedy aren't the same they can't exist without one another. Regardless of what a noble act is, it's standards are obviously met in a tragedy, without the nobility of the character he wouldn't defeat his problems and the story wouldn't end happily. This would disqualify the story for being a tragedy as a whole. The two have to go together to attain the desired result, which is someone saving themselves from despair. Oedipus the King is one of the first tragic plays written. It helped birth the ideas of tragedy standards and while reading what little of the play I did, I found more than one tragedy. Whether they were meant to be interpreted as such is debatable, as their extremities are on different levels. Thebes is in disarray, "“The fruitful buds of earth are failing.” (6). The former king has been killed and according to Creon via the Oracle the only way to break the curse that is plaguing Thebes is to find and exile the person that was the one that committed this crime. Many would assume that Oedipus could defeat this villain because he defeated the sphinx. Tiresias however tries to tell him that Oedipus is intact the one who killed the king, that the king is his father, and he is sleeping with his mother. I found tragedy in two forms here. The first form wasn't something that I think Sophocles intended to be a tragedy on it's own and that is Oedipus's pride. He becomes offended when Tiresias tries accusing him of possible killing the king because of who he is and what he is done. He starts threatening those who speak against him and reminds them all of what he has done for them. This goes on for so long, that by the time Tiresias finally convinces him that he sucks as a person, he could've exiled himself and the city rid of plague. I understand it might be a hard pill to swallow but only because of how absurd the situation sounds, not because of who he is. The other tragedy is very obvious, he killed his father. Eventually he pieces together the day that it happened, where he was and realizes that he had killed someone that day, and that it did happen to be the king, his father. He then ran off with the kings wife, his mother. That's a terrible situation to be in really, I would be relatively upset if that happened to me. So again, I can understand how one would not be quick to believe this. This tragedy is a large one that was thought out to provoke an almost jaw dropping moment because of how extreme it is. Sophocles succeeded at that. In this ted talks many things are discussed regarding people's fear and place in society. As well as the idea that our ideas of success in life are not our own ideas, but influenced on us by society.
"Most people make strict correlations between who we are and our social position in the hierarchy of society." In this Ted talks the speaker gives an example of us choosing who we want to talk to based on their job. For example If I am at a party talking to someone and I ask them what they do for a living and they respond with, "doctor" I may be more inclined to stay and talk to them because they seem more important than someone who replies with, "librarian." This is not something that we should be proud of, there are ample opportunities that can be missed by blowing being off based on their income. We are more apt to envy people that we can relate to, "If you cant relate to someone, you cant envy them." This proves to be true everyday as people support and promote celebrities without being envious. We might wish they were them but we can accept that we aren't and move on. I would be more inclined to envy someone who is a high school student like me, with good health. The speaks claims that envy is the most dominate feeling in humans and we can often drive off of that. With meritocracy, envy is a motivator to make sure you get to the top, because if you don't, you are deemed a failure. Since we fear the failure and judgment of others it is hard to take risks in life. This is a scary thing to have happen today because nobody knows anyone else's true value of life. I do not know why you were created or what you were created to do. You may have been put here to teach, which is an honorable job that doesn't pay nearly enough. I shouldn't judge you based on your choice to work a job with a low income because it is what you enjoy doing. A lot of ridicule can come in to play and the idea that someone may not pursue their passion because of what others think of it is a tragedy. Think of all the children that could've been touched by your ideas and thoughts that will never been heard because others decided it wasn't good enough. Arthur Miller creates an image for his readers that points out the idea that tragedy is depicted as something only people of great stature can endure. Also promoting the idea that tragedy cannot occur if there isn't a way to be heroic and get out of the situation. Miller claims that this biggest fear is losing a place in society, and that fear is instilled the deepest in the common man. With the idea that "the tragic mode is...fit only for the very highly placed" everyday people could think about their situations and question them. This often happens in todays society with social media. For example, when Britney Spears shaved her head, represented her losing her stability and "sense of personal dignity." This event covered the news and tabloids, shocking the mass majority. Everyone assumed that because of the drastic decision she made, her life was falling a part. Now when things go wrong it is not uncommon for many people to say they have reached the same place as Britney, a point to where they could shave their head because their life is so terrible. Something had to happen to a person of high stature to plant that idea in people who are considered "common" or average, minds. Another idea Miller presents is that the "underlying fear of being... torn away from our chosen image of what and who are we in this world." This reigns true today, the big idea of life is finding out what we will do with our lives. We set standards for ourselves and the fear of never meeting our expectations of who we want to be drive us. It would be tragic to finally make it to where you want to be in life, and then you lose everything. Due to the fear of that happening, we keep pushing on to prevent that. Miller says, "it is the common man who knows this fear best," because a common man has created a situation for himself that isn't of the elite but is between both extremes. Due to the rising belief that "our miseries are born and bred in our minds," the tragedy isn't real because it doesn't provide an out, or a place where you can step in a change the fate. It's all in your mind, so it really isn't a tragedy at all. Miller feels that this could be a reason for the lack of tragedy today. Tragedy has impacted everyone's life in some way. The idea was born and projected through classic plays and Greek philosophical opinions. According to wikipedia, Tragedy is drama derived from human suffering that creates pleasure. Usually the tragedy in the plays had a big impact on the life of the main character, causing pleasure to the audiences. Sophocles wrote many plays that "relate[d] to the tale of the mythological Oedipus." This character was part of multiple "tragedies." In this situation one tragedy he encountered was that "[He] killed his father and married his mother without knowledge that they were his parents." This is a pretty large scale tragedy in my opinion. This is something that doesn't happen everyday, so it would definitely create a reaction from the audience, causing them to feel something. If it was pleasure it probably derived from the interest they had in the situation. Another play written by Sophocles was "Ajax," about a "proud hero of the Trojan War," who endures "treachery and eventually suicide." This is a tragic event, that would also provoke a response from the audience. I would imagine that tragedy was able to be connected to dramatic, awful events because it is more interesting and entertaining to watch on a stage than someone with a perfect life. I would be more inclined to listen to someone tell their story of pain and anguish, than someone talk about their perfect life. "tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions" which is true today, when we see a movie that involves death and illness, we are able to understand that it is separate from a children's movie about kindness and happiness. We can distinguish between a movie that is supposed to install fear, from one that should make it's audience feel sadness. Tragedy has played a large role in these different genres. |
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