Macbeth And Oedipus example essay topic

Oedipus was very similar to Macbeth because both of them were confronted and destroyed by a set of circumstances; Oedipus by fate and Macbeth by the witches and their prophecies. Oedipus the king was given the throne of Thebes because he answered the riddle of the Sphinx. Macbeth did not make the position of king at first, but was promoted to the title of Thane of Candor, which is still very high. Macbeth and Oedipus were told by prophesies, the witches in the case of Macbeth and the oracle in the case of Oedipus, that they would do something to make themselves king. In Oedipus' case he did not know it at the time but it was a leading cause to him taking the throne. Oedipus was told that he would eventually kill his father and marry his mother.

What's ironic about this is that Oedipus feared this so much that he tried his hardest to avoid this so-called "fate". Oedipus would later realize that all his efforts to prevent the prophecy from fulfilling itself were basically pointless; in fact it brought what was ironically prophesied to come true and fulfill itself. People frequently do not realize the significance of their own action when they " re in the process of doing that action. It is only at a later time that they realize how important that particular action was to their lives. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus knew that he was destined to kill his own father. His efforts to prevent this part of the prophecy, however, did not stop the event from occurring.

Oedipus would later kill a man whom Oedipus had never seen before and could not identify. Oedipus would later discover that the man he killed was his father and that the prophecy was coming true. He learned that killing the old man, while it seemed insignificant at the time, was far more significant than he had realized. Iocaste and Oedipus both choose to ignore Apollo's oracle; this decision, to attempt to escape fate, sets off a chain of events that leads to the defeat of these characters. We can only wonder how their lives may have differed if not for these fatal decisions? Oedipus has his own opinion on the theory of soothsayers, prophets, and their prophecies of fate.

"The god dismissed my question without reply; he spoke of other things. Some were clear, full of wretchedness, dreadful, unbearable: As, that I should lie with my own mother, breed children from whom all men would turn their eyes; and that I should be my fathers murderer. I heard all of this and fled. And from that day Corinth to me was only in the stars descending in that quarter of the sky, as I wandered farther and farther on my way to a land where I should never see the evil sung by the oracle... (Oedipus Rex, 41) Even when Teiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer of King Laios. Oedipus stands true to his belief of prophecies by saying, "Who taught you shamelessness?

It is not in your craft" (Oedipus Rex, 18) Although Oedipus is saying that Teiresias is not telling the truth, he thinks that Creon put Teiresias up to say such an unbelievable thing. He is not saying that he does not believe the prophecy. This shows great reverence to the gods in my opinion, to listen to the soothsayers and prophets, and heed their word even though he could not avoid his fate. Uncontrollable fate is a fact in the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. No matter what King Laios, Queen Iocaste, or Oedipus did to try and change their fate, seemed to make it easier for their fate to become a reality. Although the views on the validity of the oracles prophecies differ between Oedipus and Queen Iocaste, I don't think it really matters because there is nothing they can do about their fate anyway.

Macbeth visualized himself as a forceful, powerful ruler who begins the trilogy in absolute control of the situation. As the story progresses, however, Macbeth's power and pride are broken down because he made it his destiny. As for Oedipus, he was a pitiful man who has been crushed by the avenging gods and fate. He seems to be a wiser, soberer man, rising majestically above his misfortunes. Macbeth messed with his own destiny by holding an untrue position as thane.

The impression he left was a cynical man with no dignity as a human. His tragic death was cause by his eager schemes and redundant murder scenes. His death was inevitable and if the story wasn't going to end his life with tragedy it will be seen that the fall of Macbeth is very different from that of Oedipus. Macbeth's downfall is due to his own personal decisions while the downfall of Oedipus is due to fate and the will of the gods. In Greek tragedy, plot was always emphasized over character; everyone wore masks. These masks would seem to mask a person's character.

This would make the character seem more universal. The mask-wearing protagonist lacks individual personality and character. This makes catharsis more relevant because the protagonist is not as individual but more universal; they could be anyone. Macbeth is an individual person; he has no mask.

This makes catharsis seem more irrelevant because Macbeth is more of an individual than Greek protagonists and therefore the audience doesn't feel that Macbeth is a representation of humanity and themselves. Macbeth was a little interested in what the witches were saying. But Macbeth wasn't actually considering killing the king or devising a plan to. Just like anyone else he was curious how it would all become. If he wanted to kill Duncan he would of engineered his own plan to do so. After not wanting to kill the king you should take into consideration how his wife treats him after he decides not to kill Duncan.

Lady Macbeth ridicules him and his manhood by saying, "what beast wasn't then... ". in lines 47 to 59 on page 33. She made must of made him feel ashamed and pathetic to be spoken down to by his wife. With a wife as obsessed about being queen as lady Macbeth, you would think that Macbeth would not want to let down the woman he loves by not attempting to become the king. For a man that never showed remorse or never regretted a thing he did, it would be easy not to show sympathy towards him. But Macbeth did show remorse and did regret some of his actions. For after he killed the king he showed his remorse in lines 60-66 on page 47.

And he did show remorse by when he said, "She should have died hereafter"; lines 17-27 on page 147. Macbeth just couldn't fight all of the temptations he had to face. He did say no to them in the beginning, but after having to picture himself as king, seeing people hail him, and having his wife insult him he gave in. Both men thought that they could overcome fate by running away or relying on themselves to avoid their fate, but as we can see both of their actions brought them closer to what they had been avoiding their whole lives.

Faith can sometimes be an illusion to blind us from reality. Macbeth and Oedipus did not have faith, strong enough in themselves they could have never overcome their prophesied fate.