Oedipus: Eternally the Hero

#9. What are your feelings towards Oedipus and Creon as the play ends?

Oedipus unknowingly committed incest and murdered his father. Oedipus was oblivious to his true parentage and therefore, you could argue, completely innocent. However, Oedipus remains the hero because he sticks to his word. He said that no matter who the murderer was, he/she would suffer the same, harsh punishment. When Oedipus learns the truth he asks/commands Creon to exile him and gauges his eyes out. As king, Oedipus could have easily denied the truth and killed anyone who opposed him but instead he punishes himself like he would have anyone else. This ends Oedipus's rule of Thebes, but it shows that Oedipus has the strength and courage to be king. Although Creon denies his plans to overthrow Oedipus and any desire to be king, his fast action after Oedipus is disgraced proves he was lying. Even though Creon may never have overtly tried to seize the throne from Oedipus, his falseness and his readiness in agreeing to exile Oedipus prove his disloyalty. This contrasts Oedipus and Creon. On the outside and through his words, Creon rivals Oedipus but through his actions Creon falls short. Oedipus's ability to follow through with his actions proves he is the eternal hero and better man in the story.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Tolstoy condemns “Ivan Ilyich’s opportunism, marriage of convenience, vanity, and limitation, and then, with astonishment, the reader finds himself beginning to like this conventional man and to be sorry when he starts to lose out to death.”

Tolstoy introduces Ilyich as a care-free, pleasure loving follower. He lives his life in a way that society dictates he should. He takes the sort of job that is appropriate to his standing, he marries because she is a "good match", and he decorates his house just like everyone else trying to appear richer than they are. And yet as this stereotypical man nears death he begins to re-evaluate his life. Ilyich attempts to figure out what went wrong in his life, why he is suffering from such a great pain now; if it is punishment for something? Ilyich struggles to think about his life objectively, however, his society's dogma has been so deeply ingrained in his mind that he cannot bring himself to admit that living any other way could possible have been better. But as Ilyich looks further back on his life, all the way back to childhood, he notices that he can remember more "good" in his childhood memories. As the memories become more recent there is less and less Ilyich remembers as good. This is when the first inkling of doubt appears in his mind; that possibly there could have been another, better way to live his life. When Ilyich begins to realize and grasp the truth, the reader begins to sympathize with this man who is finally realizing how he could improve his life on the brink of death.