At first this parable made no sense, as parables can often be confusing until their meaning is explained. Once explained however, parables can be extremely useful in teaching and helping to understand something through a simple metaphor.The parable was used to make it more relatable, personifying the law prevents people from getting defensive and it allows it to apply to more things. This parable was called "Before the Law" and describes a man who approaches a gate. This gate is before the law and is protected by a gatekeeper. The man thinks he is unable to be admitted at the time because that's what the gatekeeper tells him. The gatekeeper even prods him to enter by saying "If you are so drawn to it, just try to go in despite my veto." He encourages him to take that step, but he immediately follows that invitation with a warning. " But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the least of the doorkeepers. From hall to hall there is one doorkeeper after another,each more powerful than the last." This fear holds the man back until the day he dies. Moments before he dies, the doorkeeper tells him that this gate was only meant for him and now it was being shut. At first I didn't get it because it didn't make sense to me that breaking the law would be encouraged. I am a rule follower for the most part. I've occasionally broken the trespassing law exploring with friends but that is the extent of my illegal activities. So I didn't get why this was suggesting us to break the law. Schoenborn then explained to us that just like Antigone, the law is not always right. Sometimes our authorities get it wrong and it is our job to call them out on that and keep them accountable. If we feel as though a law violates our morals then we have every right to step up to that gate a pass through. And yes, the more you fight for your cause, the bigger and scarier the doorkeeper will get. But, when we allow fear to hold us back we miss out on the greatness we have in store for our lives. If you don't at least try then nothing will change. The tragedy of the man is that he spends his entire life trying to get through the gate and never succeeds. The law is made just for him because he got to decide if its right and if it wasn't then he gets to decide if he wants to pass through it. You don't always have to die for change but be willing to.
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In Sophocles' play about Antigone, it begins with her two brothers fighting for the throne and they both end up dying. Her uncle Creon becomes the new ruler of Thebes and chooses to bury one brother but not the other. Antigone decides to defy her uncles decree and goes to bury her brother. Creon is angry and punishes her despite the pleas of his son Haemon who is betrothed to her. She stands on the moral motivation behind her actions and that she was following the gods orders yet is being punished. Creon is wrongfully sentencing her to death and all the city knows it. When he finally realizes that he was wrong it is too late. "No greater evil than men’s failure to consult and to consider" Creon was too prideful and angry to listen to anyone else. He had his mind made up and because he failed to immediately heed the advice of his son, Tiresias and Antigone, tragedy followed. He was punished with the death of Antigone, his son Harmon and lastly his wife. The order he valued so much was upheld but he lost respect and his loved ones, as well as the favor of the gods. The silver lining was his new knowledge. He was punished but through his punishment he learned to listen to others and not just rely solely on his own judgement. In Dan Ariely's Ted Talk he talks about the illusion of free will. He says that we are so influenced by our environment that we never truly make our own decisions. He demonstrates this with visual illusions to illustrate rationality. He states that we are so good at vision yet it fails us many times, so how many more mistakes do we make when performing something we aren't as good at. He demonstrated again with a cognitive illusion using organ donation tendencies. The difference between these countries was the wording on the paperwork! One was and opt-in "check the box below if you want to participate in the organ donor program" vs. opt-out " check the box below if you don't want to participate in the organ donor program". The illusion of making a decision. When faced with difficult decisions we go with what was chosen for us. I know that to be very true in my own life. If I don't feel like really analyzing something because it's something small and in order to make a rational decision it would require a lot of time pondering and researching, I just go with the majority or the selected decision. We naturally "choose" the default. This connects to tragedy and Oedipus' fate. Oedipus didn't have control over his actions or decisions even though he thought he did. He was making the decision to go away from his parents but in fact he was heading towards his real parents. We think we are making choices in order to avoid certain tragedies, yet these "good decisions" that we rationally made lead us to hardships. Of all the things I've learned about tragedy this article made the most sense to me. It helped me to understand the purpose of tragedies and why we study them so much and why they are so highly praised. Joseph Krutch proposes a new look at tragedy. He challenges Aristotle's thinking that tragedy is the imitation of noble actions and newer critics who state tragedy as a modified representation of noble actions. "We accept gladly the outward defeats which it describes for the sake of the inward victories which it reveals." He completely changed how I viewed tragedy. Tragedy is no longer solely depressing although it certainly has sad components the main emphasis is on the hope. Death is a part of life but how the characters die and handle death is the important part. From the surface level it is extremely depressing, lots of death or betrayal but when you dig deeper and look at the internal victory you realize that tragedy isn't so bad. Oedipus Rex's tragic story backs the idea that your fate is sealed, you can't change it even if you try. In fact, in his attempt to avoid killing his father and marrying his mother he ends up fulfilling the prophecy and doing both unknowingly. In his unrelenting quest to discover who the killer of Lauis was, he realizes that the killer is himself and Lauis was his biological father, making his wife Jocasta, his mother. This new information devastates both of them causing Jocasta to kill herself and Oedipus to gauge out his eyes claiming "“What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy.”" Oedipus very strongly believed that he was undeserving of anything but blindness. The theme of being blind is prevalent throughout the whole poem. The tragedy of Oedipus was his disillusion of free will and deciding his own fate. He was destined to commit these atrocities yet his failure to accept this and fight for his own story made the fulfillment all the more bitter. Oedipus was once a highly envied and revered king who thought himself above misfortune, he didn't dare believe Teresias or Creon until the truth was undeniable and his tragic fate confirmed.
Alain de Botto encourages his listeners to decide how they determine success. He outlines why there is so much stress of success. How our world, that only worships mankind, has ruled that if you've faced failure you are a loser, not an unfortunate. He points out that "You would not call Hamlet a loser." which shows the shift we have when reading tragedy from how we view others. Hamlet literally lost everything if you look at it from a materialistic standpoint, yet he gained perspective. Our society places much emphasis on a beautiful wife, a successful, admirable career, riches and a long healthy life. If you held these up against Hamlet he certainly would be a loser, but you don't do that with literature or tragedy. Why? Because we are fully intune with their feelings and thoughts. In the real world we are consumed with ourselves and lack empathy. Arthur Miller argues in his article Tragedy and the Common Man that tragedy is not above us or below us ordinary people. He claims that in fact tragedy is fit for anyone since all of mankind, rich to poor, enjoy tragedies the most of all the genres. No matter the rank of the character, they always have a flaw which allows readers to connect and through their trial the grow. "But for a moment everything is in suspension, nothing is accepted, and in 'this stretching and tearing apart of the cosmos, in the very action of so doing, the character gains "size."' the tragic stature which is spuriously attached to the royal or the highborn in our minds." The character's name and reputation is on the line. No matter how much or how little that name may mean to others. It is dependent on how willing that man is to fight for his name. In his fight for it, tragedy lies. That's where you see the character being stretched and human nature being challenged. The character is faced with adversity but he becomes greater as a result, and that applies to everyone.
Tragedy comes in many forms. There is tragedy of the commons and revenge tragedy, and these can mean different things to the reader. Tragedy authors each have a different take on how they approach their stories and it often correlates with their culture. "Tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change". (Tragedy, Wikipedia) The stories the author's choose to tell and the development of their characters reveal how they feel about human nature. Tragedies show what the author sees as the worst side of human nature. "Tragedy is characterised by seriousness and involves a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune". (Commons, Wikipedia) The author may choose the conflict to be over a love interest, a squabble over money or an attack on pride. They amplify humans evil characteristics and put them in the spotlight. |
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