Pride Leading to the Protagonists Downfall - Essay Example

World Literature Essay English A1 SL To what extent does pride lead to the protagonists downfall in Sophocles Oedipus the King and Anouilh’s Antigone Name: Teacher: Candidate’s number: Word Count: 1471 To what extent does "pride" lead to the protagonists downfall in Sophocles Oedipus the King and Anouilhs Antigone The idea of excessive pride plays a monumental role in Greek tragedy. Pride in itself, can be seen as a positive attribute, but when it is expressed in arrogance and defiance of fate and the gods, it becomes a fatal flaw that leads to their downfall. Aristotle stated "the tragic hero falls into bad fortune because of some flaw in his character of the kind found in men of high reputation and good fortune such as Oedipus." Here, he is telling us that Oedipus has a flaw that, because of his high station, causes his demise. In this essay I will argue how both Oedipus from Oedipus the King by Sophocles and the character’s daughter Antigone from Antigone by Jean Anouilh are each protagonists driven by the passion of pride and how this largely contributes to their own downfall. The opening actions of both tragedies illustrate this pride. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is approached by plague-stricken masses asking help from him. When he sees his people gathered around him like a god, his response to them is “What means this reek of incense everywhere, / From others, and am hither come, myself, / I Oedipus, your world-renowned king”1. Although the people of Oedipus’ day did turn to their kings to cure all societal ills, Oedipus here is taking on the persona of a god. His pride in his role is evident in the words he speaks. His last line, referring to himself as the “world-renowned king” helps to underscore that streak of pride. It is also obvious, with a touch of foreshadowing, that he is not secure in his position by his tendency to repeat his greatness. Personal experience has shown when people insist on being known by their title, they are not overly secure about its authority. Antigone, on the other hand, enters the scene in a rage after learning that the new king, Creon, has forbidden to allow one of her brothers to be buried. She decides to go against the king’s orders, arguing that burying the dead is the right thing to do. Her pride in family makes it impossible for her to drop the issue. It is clear she’s outraged that the king would tell her what to do when she is talking to her sister at the very beginning of the play: “That’s what people say the noble Creon / has announced to you and me – I mean to me”2 . The repetition of “I mean to me” indicates she cannot believe someone else would tell her what to do, showing excessive pride in her own judgment. As her sister reminds her, women do not have any power in their culture, but Antigone does not listen. In the end, it doesn’t matter if her ideas were founded on trying to please the gods; she is put to death for having too much pride, especially for a woman, and for going against the law of the state. This behavior would have shocked many of the French audiences at the time as it was written in the grip of the Second World War when women also didn’t hold any power or authority. Like Antigone, Oedipus personality clearly reflects pride and a determination to force things to go his way throughout his play. The people of Oedipus’ day placed great emphasis on the predictions of the oracles, so when he heard the prediction that he was to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus was determined to avoid fate and left his homeland in Corinth for the further realm of Thebes. When he solved the riddle of the Sphinx there, his pride rose to a new level since he then becomes the king of Thebes and marries Jocosta, the widowed queen of Thebes, never thinking twice about the people he killed in battle on his journey. He knows he has outwitted fate because the two have several children together and the kingdom prospers. However, in promising to find the murderer who has caused the plague, Oedipus shows that his pride has become so great he feels a mere announcement will be all it takes to bring the murderer to justice: “Well, I will start afresh and once again / Make dark things clear”3 . He seems to think he is better than all men and even the gods in that he will be able to find this person who has evaded capture for so long. When the blind prophet Teresias, a highly respected counselor, indicates that Oedipus was the murderer of King Laius, Oedipus pride prevents him from believing it. However, that same pride urges him to continue solving the riddles of his own parentage. It is easy to see the irony that if Oedipus had not been so determined to escape and prevent the prophecy, he would have not fulfilled it by accident. In response to his sudden realization, Oedipus stabbed out his eyes with broaches and walked away from Thebes forever, thereby sealing his doom through further prideful actions. We can see the same prideful emotions blinding Antigone to the consequences of her actions as she fights for her brother’s final dignity. Antigones pride lies in her stubborn denial of any advice. She does not obey the law of King Creon that no one can bury Polynicis body and covers her brother with dirt. She justifies this action on a strong religious belief, but this act cant be seen as Antigones first act of rebellion and pride. We know from the nurse that Antigone is stubborn, self willed and proud. Even though she never behaved like the other girls, the nurse immediately assumes Antigone has taken another lover as the only culturally valid explanation for why she was out. Antigone lies about her actions, demonstrating how she is no stranger to deceit. She knows her plan can be stopped and is too prideful to allow anyone to interfere. In this respect, she seems to be an extension of her father, Oedipus. This is illustrated when the chorus observes “It’s clear enough / the spirit in this girl is passionate— / her father was the same. She has no sense / of compromise in times of trouble”4 when Antigone is being questioned after being caught red-handed. In acting on her beliefs, she openly defied Creon and proudly admits that she is a traitor when she is caught: “I did not think / anything which you proclaimed strong enough / to let a mortal override the gods”5 she says spitefully to the king in response to why she disobeyed his law. She is so sure she is right in what she’s doing that she risks administering the last rites during the light of day. Creon finally tells her that her father has polluted her with stubbornness and pride, but Antigone responds that she would rather die than lead a fake life. It is this pride of being the great hero that goads Antigone to further anger the king by taunting him with the idea that the only people who agree with him are the people who are afraid of the consequences. This questioning session in which Antigone refuses any avenues of escape foreshadows the end of the play when Antigone is so pride-struck regarding the nobility of her action that she doesn’t wait for the death sentenced to her by entombment, but commits suicide instead. A close look at each of these protagonists shows us that although they are both shown as tragic figures, it is the underlying principle of excessive pride that brings them to a point of no return. For Oedipus, he cannot accept that he might be the murderer he is seeking even though he could trace his own footsteps to the murder that dooms him. At the same time, it is impossible for him to accept the defeat of not having found the murderer as he has promised his people he will do. Finally, when it becomes clear that he is the murderer, his pride prevents him from facing his people, so he stabs out his eyes and walks away from Thebes. For Antigone, her pride of family and duty will not allow her to leave her brother exposed on the hillside where he fell. Even when given the option to retract what she has done in order to spare her own life, Antigone is too prideful to allow her actions to be negated and further works to anger the king. When she is finally sealed inside the cave as her death curse, she has no patience to wait and see if the king might change his mind. Instead, she proudly closes that option and hangs herself. It is essentially this fatal flaw of undue pride that gets the better of each of these characters and ultimately leads to their tragic downfall. Bibliography Anouilhs, Jean. Antigone. London: Methuen Publishing, Ltd., 2001. Sophocles. Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra. Oxford World’s Classics. Ed. Edith Hall. Oxford University Press, 1998. Read More