Two Stories About Two Kings Essay Example

will and fate exemplifies the individual’s inability to change the future. From the beginning of the play, Oedipus’ greed for power is seen in his paranoid state of mind. His assumption that the murderer would want to assassinate him, too, represents his anxiety of a jeopardized throne. As king, he is taking early action to make sure his reign is secure and that he maintains rule over Thebes. Oedipus does not want a murderer to take away the power he has. As the story continues, Oedipus gets the notion that Kreon, his own brother-in-law, is plotting against him. Despite his own beliefs, this is false and instead another result of his state of paranoia. The two get into an argument as one throws accusations and the other creates a defense.

This shows Oedipus’ desire to maintain his reign, picking at any suspicious schemes that may be plotted against him. In both cases, Oedipus takes action to assure his own position of power because he does not want to lose it from his grasp. Both false notions are a way for Sophocles to show the main character as an insecure king who questions all possible enemies that want his power. The bigger struggle, however, lies within the idea of free will against fate. As a character in a Greek play, Oedipus is subject to the gods’ will and fate. As the story unravels, readers discover Oedipus has been trying to overcome the power of fate by taking actions that may drive him away from the future that was supposed to happen. For example, when the oracle in Corinth tells him that he is going to kill his

father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus moves away to avoid it. Nevertheless, fate, having the upper hand in the struggle, already has incorporated that to allow the foretelling to come true.

Oedipus, no matter how hard he tries, is unable to free himself from fate’s grip. His actions that were supposed to stray from the oracle’s prophecy, led him right to his fate. In this play, the main character is defeated in his struggle over the will of the gods. Sophocles uses this idea of man’s desire to overpower fate to drive his story. It shows that humans cannot escape what is set for them in the future, their actions being a key part of that inevitable fate. Oedipus, at the end, is shown as a king who received what was told would happen to him. Like the character, fate will also determine our own futures. Sophocles uses Oedipus’ struggle for power over man and fate to portray Oedipus’ own nature and convey a significant idea of the ancient Greeks that still exists today. Human desire for power is still a part of society today. People still struggle with the idea of fate and power over another man, Oedipus’ most evident struggles in the play.

On the other hand, Odysseus is a hard worker Odysseus leads by example, he does not ask his men to labour for him; rather, he asks more of himself and is totally committed to the task; a feat that makes him a good leader. He is the central focus in a timeless story that traces his attempts to get back home after being in captivity for a long time. His journey

is challenging and he has to work his way through. He teams up with monsters, mortals as well as gods in rival versus alliance quests. During this era, the victories to the wars and battles that Odysseus and his men faced were determined by the decision of the gods rather than individual abilities of the heroes. Secondly, Odysseus is crafty and homer is most interested in his cleverness to demonstrate Odysseus’s whole roundedness as a character. It is a feature for great leaders and kings. Odysseus exhibits a great sense of bravery and his physical as well as mental strength way above other men.

His physical strength is emulated in the final climatic scenes when he gets rid of his wife’s suitors; more than one hundred men and that is a great achievement for one man. Mentally, his prowess is showcased in the instance where he convinced Polyphemos that “Nobody” was his name such that when he pierced the eye of the monster, it was known that nobody was at fault for killing the monster (Homer 192). That way, Odysseus enabled his pardon as well as those of his men. However, we realize that Odysseus is full of pride and when it develops into arrogance, it cogs his ability to make better judgments. That characteristic is responsible for failure of great leaders in their quests. He is proud of his elevated position in the society and among his men.Odysseus is a practical definition of a fearless leader and honorable hero. As aforementioned, Odysseus has a tight grip on the elevated position that the society had entrusted him with.

He strengthens the position by revenges quests and we

realize that he has to fight because he can and not because he has to. Although he is a hero, he prefers the use of strategy as opposed to heroics. Homer presents Odysseus as an intelligent character due to the success of the many hurdles he faced. Thus leaders ought to be intelligent to bring meaningful impact to their people. Oedipus exemplifies the fate that befalls leaders as a consequence of their actions. He must face it all by himself and prove the seer’s prophesy wrong which he failed. The two characters have been portrayed as transgressing beyond their expected roles and social norms. Odysseus attacked and blinded a man while Oedipus constantly accuses people and shows his unkind side to a blind man. More often, Oedipus downplays good advice and fails to listen to the blind seer.

Even though both men killed, they avoided retribution because they are heroes in their contexts. The transgressions of the two epic heroes are absolved and the readers of mythical literature should get acquainted with the way things unfold in the novels. Heroes are excused for their deeds however detrimental they may be. It is conceived that they make those mistakes in their quest to fulfil their destinies as foretold by fate. The context of rule of the two kings presented challenges that required the kings to exercise different styles to solve the challenges. Oedipus’s challenge is more prided while Odysseus is crafty and hardworking making him a successful king to his people at the time. In his book, Sophocles clearly portrays how struggle for power by man stills exists today. He uses Oedipus to exemplify the unlimited human

desire for power that is still evident in the current society.

Odysseus and Oedipus are mythical kings widely represented in the western literature. Their characters differ due to a range of similarities and differences that they present. For instance, their leadership abilities impact their states in different ways and determine their ultimate success or failure of their rule. For instance, the most significant link between the two epic is that there are conflicts encountered in the narratives whereby the protagonists in the conflicts are the two Greek heroes. For instance, Odysseus was in captivity in close to twenty years by the Calypso which is a conflict that initiates the story. Then we learn that he seeks to flee the place he had been held captive for his home.

Similarly, Oedipus was involved in a conflict in that he was brought up away from his real parents and in attempt to free from those he thought to be the real parents, he ends up killing his real father and marrying his mother. It is a fate he was attempting to avoid but ended up fulfilling it instead. Oedipus is of great importance to his people; he is responsible for the welfare of the people and must ensure they are secure and healthy. His conflict was directly involved in the city’s decline and he was determined to free the people from suffering. He realized that it is his faults that led to the suffering of the people and thus takes full responsibility. All along we realise that both heroes act decisively and their decisions are well received by their subjects.

Works cited

1. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. R. Fagles.  New York: Penguin Group,
   

1996.  Print.