Attempting to Cheat Fate :: essays research papers

Would it ever seem rea watchwordable for a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature to be associated with a king who murders his father and procreates with his pose? It is possible because of one quotation by the 1921 Nobel Prize Literature winner Anatole France, that he is connected to the notorious king Oedipus from Sophocles famous play, Oedipus Rex. It is only human disposition to think wisely and make for inanely (Anatole France) best exemplifies the theme in Sophocles Oedipus Rex fate thunder mugnot be cheated nor altered. It is human to try and change fate, which is a foolish act because it is impossible to do. This can be seen in many aspects of the play including the context and characters of the story and the hubris of the royal family Jocasta, Lauis and Oedipus. Within each of these components many different literary devices can be used to further explain how the theme of the story relates to the quote by Anatole France. A prime example can be seen in the second Epis ode where Oedipus confesses everything to Jocasta from the prophecy to the incident when he killed a man similar to Lauis description. The parts of his monologue that best illustrate changing fate and being foolish are when Oedipus says, And so unknown to mother and father I set out for Delphihe the oracle flashed before my eyes a future great with pain, alarmI can hear him cry, You are fated to couple with your motheryou will kill your father, the man who gave you life I heard all that and ranNow, Jocasta, I will tell you all. Making my way toward this triple crossroad I began to see a herald, then a brace of colts drawing a wagon, and mount on the bencha man, just as youve described himI strike him in anger I killed them all- every mothers son This exemplifies the statement that trying to change fate is foolish because in attempting to avoid his awful destiny, he kills his own father. One might argue that this is not a well thought out example because Oedipus had no idea that o ne of the men he killed on the crossroads was his father. On the other hand, Oedipus did not suck to kill anyone he let his anger control him. This in turn always leads a person to tragedy. Descriptive diction is used to enhance the consequence because in ancient Greek theatre, imagination was the only outlet for visual depictions of the most gruesome of scenes.