Sophocles

A detailed Summary of Sophocles

In 495 B.C. there was a child born about a mile outside of Athens. This child was to be named Sophocles. He was a boy whose father was a wealthy merchant. He now had the opportunity to enjoy all of life's greatest expectations in the Greek empire. Being that he was from a wealthy family, he had the chance to study all of the arts. By the time Sophocles reached his late teens, he was already known for his charm and elegance and was honored by being chosen to lead a challenging group of young men at a celebration of the victory of Salamis. When Sophocles reached the late twenties, he was ready to compete in the City Dionysia, which is a celebration held every year at the theater of Dionysus in which new plays are presented all of the time. This was to show how successful Sophocles was in his acting career. During his first competition, Sophocles had the honor of competing against the great Aeschylus himself and defeated him taking first place. There would be many more plays to follow this accomplishment and Sophocles would walk home with nothing less than a second place.

Sophocles, noted as being a talented actor, performed in many of his own plays. In one of his plays called, "The Woman Washing Clothes," he performed a

Of all Sophocles's plays, only seven have really survived in their entirety. The seven plays are as follow: "Ajax" (451 to 444 B.C.), "Antigone" (after 441 B.C.), "Maidens of Trochis" (after 441 B.C.), "Oedipus the King" (430 to 415 B.C.), "Electra" (430 to 415 B.C.), "Philoctetes" (409 B.C.), and "Oedipus at Colonus" (produced posthumously in 401 B.C.). Also preserved is a large fragment of the "Investigators." Of these seven plays, there are three that are generally considered to be the greatest plays and they are, "Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus." These three were to be portrayed as masterpieces. Antigone, an outstanding lyrical drama, develops a main Sophoclean theme, dealing with the pain and suffering caused when an individual, persistently despises the dictates of godly will or temporal authority, or refusing to yield to destiny and circumstance, instead obeys some inner compulsion that leads to agonizing disclosure and, ultimately to a mysterious clearance of that person's behavior and life. Oedipus the King is appropriately famed for its flawless construction, its dramatic power, and its effective dramatic irony. This tragedy of fate explores the depths of modern psycho-analysis as Oedipus unintentionally kills his father and marries hi

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Approximate Word count = 863
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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Sophocles

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