Sophocles - Research Paper Example

It is known that he wrote around on hundred and twenty tragedies in his life. However, only seven of those writings are available in the present times (Sophocles, iv-vi). The present study makes a detailed research on the admirable tragic writer and discusses on his writings that are available and thus reflecting his excellence and talent. Sophocles: About the Man and his Writings: Sophocles had written several plays and he always used to remain present during the performances of his acts and received appreciations from his audiences.

He had been crowned for his plays for around twenty times. It was Sophocles who had introduced the concept of a third person in speaking the dialogues of the plays. This concept had greatly contributed to the industry of drama. His plays had a soft and harmonious grace accompanied by his dialogues. The people of Athens had created a monument on his account that reflected the use of bees as could be associated with the softness and harmony of his plays. An understanding of his feelings, his selection of plots for his plays, and his style could be analyzed from the plays that are available till date.

It has been observed that Sophocles presented his plays with simple and natural incidents, his emotions being gracious and inspirational, and reflecting his moral values to the public. The description of his writings revealed his power of thoughts being mirrored through his evaluations. His style of presentation involved a significant art of mastery in it. He lived his life from 497 till 406 before Christ and contributed significantly in the field of plays and drama (Sophocles, vi-xi). Writings of Sophocles: The tragedies written by Sophocles as available in the present times include Azax, Electra, Philoctetes, Antigone, Trachinle, Edipus Tyrannus, and Edipus Coloneus.

The play of Ajax involves the death of the character called Ajax as a result of disappointment resulting from not receiving an honor after Achilles’ death which instead was received by Ulysses. The story reflects disappointment, murders, and Ajax killing of own life. Other characters in the play also had significant roles to act on like Teucer who was the half-brother of Ajax. Sophocles significantly presented through this play the concerns for a master and the consequent disappointments from failure.

The characters of the play had been created with great thoughts with their names having appropriate Greek meanings and presentation (Sophocles, x-22). Electra was another play written by Sophocles that represented the death of a character named Agamemnon by his wife. Electra saved her brother from the incident and let him grow up under the care and guidance of Strophius who was the king of Phocis. Years later when the child grew up and came to know of his father’s murder, he took revenge with the assistance from his sister (Sophocles, 53).

Thus this presents a talent of Sophocles presenting another tragedy where there is pain, there is revenge and yet a tragic story to tell a tale of a lifetime. Similar to the above mentioned plays, the writer of his times successfully completed the other dramas, many of which are no more available. Of all his writings, Oedipus the King is known as one of his master piece. It contains surprising contents. The story reveals a tragedy where Oedipus kills his mother and gets married to his mother with intention to avoid circumstances he analyzed