Portrayal of society in Oedipus the king Essay

People and company have been significant principles in every civilization. We dupe power done it, stay on top because of it and are a part of it. In Sophocles conviction state were of enceinte importance for the Greeks, it was the time of the establishment of democracy, the country was governed for and by the people. Antigone was written in France during the German occupation and contains political messages to the people.This es allege tends to investigate how society is portrayed in Sophocles Oedipus the magnate and Jean Anouilhs Antigone, and briefly how and for what purpose this is done. The portrayal of society depicts the society in the play, and how that reflects the contemporary society of the author.One vogue of portraying society in Oedipus the King is through the chorus. In this play the chorus is a classify of Theban people who express their ideas and thoughts, and pray to the Gods. By doing this they show how the Theban people react to what happens during the pla y. In the chorus first appearance we see them praying to the gods describing the horrors of the chivvy. The people of Thebes are suffering and they turn to Zeus, Apollo, Athena and Artemis for deliverance. This shows their strengthened faith in and devotion to the deities.The second time the chorus appears it is confused about Tiresias accusations. In arouse of their conviction of the omniscience of the Gods, they decide to stay loyal to their king and non believe the prophecy until they see proof. This shows great loyalty to the king as does the finishing sentence Never will I convict my king, neer in my heart.(l. 572)At the end of the ode the chorus is open to both possibilites, that of the deities cosmos wrong and of Oedipus having killed his father. This is although they believe in them and view them deeply. This demonstrates their open-mindedness and openness to new 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 saves him to the audience not as a figure of the mystical past but as one fully contemporary in fact he is easily recognizable as an prototype of the Athenian character as they themselves conceived it and as their enemies saw it too.One trait after another in the character of Sophocles Oedipus corresponds to Athenian qualities praised by Pericles in his Funeral Speech or denounced by the Corinthians in their attack on Athenian imperialism at the progress in Sparta before the war.He goes on to explain that these characteristics are being a man of swift and vigorous implement, having experience as a result of constant action especially in naval 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 intellectual daring of the fifth-century Athenian spirit.The preoccupations of the Athenians are in like manner 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 attention 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 simply 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 expresses his conservative ideas by setting up the double mockery of the bli nd 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 proud man who rejected the precursory power descend to total humiliation and destruction.Knox puts it this way The misfortune 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 husking of his fundamental ignorance he is not the measure of all thingsAnouilh wrote a new version of Antigone during World contend II. His writing therefore 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 transport this to the people he could motivate them to join the resistance.As opposed to Oedipus who loves and thrills for his people, Creon does not respect or care about the people he governs. He refers to them as the featherheaded rabble I govern and says that if they are to represent whats what, that stench has got to fill the town for a month Clearly he doesnt mobilize much 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 tot up 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 wind. The crew refused to work and were looting the cargo. The officers were building a raft, ready to slip over posting 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 thes e few lines Creon has called people criminal, ignorant, poor, thieves, lazy, quitters and egocentric. He is also giving a very dark come across of the country when he came in charge. He is implying that the government before him, be it Oedipus causing a plague and Eteocles and Polynices civil war or Frances third republics failure to deal with the depression, has washed-up the country and he is the one making amendments and restoring order.He describes people as hypocritical and makes them look jerky when describing Eteocles funeral. He sarchastically explains how schoolchildren emptied their savings-boxes to buy wreathes for him. Old men, orating in quavering, hypocritical voices and every temple priest was present with an fascinate show of sorrow and solemnity in his stupid face. This also shows that he has no respect for holiness or peoples beliefs, earlier he also uses phrases like flummery about spectral burial, priestly abracadabra, jibber-jabber and dreary bureaucrats.A t 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, good 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 more about the rule himself. The writers describe two successive generations of the Theban people, but through them write to and about people more than 2000 years apart.1 Introduction to Oedipus the King in The Three Theban plays, Penguin Classics. Notes by Bernard Ma cGregor Walke Knox.