¶ … 1960s Italian film Oedipus Rex and the 2010 film Black Swan how each has familiar neuroses and self-mutilations that affect the main characters. In Oedipus Rex, obviously, there is Oedipus who is the only son born to the Queen of Thebes, who gets kidnapped by the order of his own father, and is rescued by the King of Corinth, where he grows into a handsome young man. In Black Swan, there is Nina who has just won the coveted role of the Swan Queen in the up-and-coming ballet Swan Lake, who is grappling with herself to occupy both sides of the Swan Queen as the Black Swan, and the White Swan. In each film, there are characters who contribute to the neuroses, and sometimes even the self-mutilations, that the characters go through, surround the main characters. For example, in Oedipus Rex, he faces opposition from his father at a young age, who is inexplicably jealous...
When Oedipus survives from that in childhood and is adopted by another royal family, he decides as a young adult to seek advice from a priestess of Apollo for an explanation of a recurring dream. It is here that he receives a shocking prophecy that influences Oedipus greatly in his actions and mental illness for the rest of the film. For Nina in Black Swan, her main opposition is herself and her fears of letting go into order to embody completely the Black Swan, but she also faces the difficult task of letting go of the unhealthy relationship she has with her mother. Although many of Nina's neuroses are located within her mind, and the audience is never sure if what she sees is real or imaginary, the Director of the company she works for puts tremendous pressure on her to live the role,…
Oedipus Rex Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" is the most famous of his tragedies in which Greek dramatic irony reaches an apex (Sophocles1 pp). Aristotle was a great admirer of Sophocles, and considered Oedipus Rex to be the perfect example of tragedy (Outline pp). According to Aristotle, tragedy is an imitation of action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude, in which language is embellished with each kind of artistic ornament
Thus, his thirst for knowledge prompts the tragedy to a certain degree. His wife and mother at the same time attempts to dissuade him from the further pursuit of truth, hinting in a very interesting phrase that such 'fantasies' as the wedlock to one's mother is a constant appearance in dreams and should simply be ignored: "This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou. / How oft it chances
It is this lead character's outrage that drives the plot, rather than any journey of self-discovery or some fateful intervention. This is seen when Antigone declares her defiance of the king: "I will bury him myself. / and if death comes, so be it. / There'll be glory in it. / ... The gods will be proud of me." Rather than placing the importance of the gods first, Antigone
His nephew turned against his own country and he got what he deserved. but, in king Creon's view, death is not enough. He believes in setting an example and uses the occasion as an opportunity to make a point and warn all those who dared to defy their country of the fate that was expecting them, too. In this case, King Creon is wrong, because he will eventually pay
His physical loss of sight is penance for the lack of insight he had at the start of the play. He has exchanged physical sight for mental insight into the truth. 4. Rhetorically, Oedipus uses the diction of a king at the beginning of a play. He plays the role of one in power, and of a person in full control of and with confidence in himself. When his people
Q: There is a good deal in the play about seeing and blindness. What purpose does this serve? How is Oedipus contrasted with Teiresias? How does Oedipus at the beginning of the play contrast with the Oedipus at the end? Why is his blinding himself dramatically appropriate? A: The physical conditions of sight and blindness in the play serve symbolic functions, particularly as these conditions manifest themselves in Oedipus himself. Oedipus
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