The article we read today, "Before the Law" today is basically a metaphor for the limiting rules that affect mankind, and how we never try to get above them. The story itself is a story about a man trying to get through a door. He constantly tries to get through a door, but the man in front of the door never lets him in. The men in front of the doors ask him questions, and he can't be let in. The man even makes many sacrifices to try to bribe the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper takes the gifts, but claims "I am only taking it to keep you from thinking you have omitted anything.". The door is "The Law", which to me seems like a metaphor for the rules that limit man and keep us from doing certain things. The man sits next to the door on a stool to try to be admitted. At the end of the story, the doorkeeper tells the man as he is dying that no one else could ever be admitted there and he was going to close the gate.
To me, this entire story is a metaphor. The guards of the doors are the man's limiting beliefs, keeping him from getting through the door. On the other side of the doors, the man's aspirations and goals lie. The idea is that some goals are unreachable no matter what you try or what you sacrifice. To me this says I should aim high because I'm never going to achieve my goals. Perhaps it's part of what tragedy is in general. Behind this gate were this man's goals. Perhaps not all of them, but certain goals that can't be achieved. Goals like love that lasts forever. Love is always broken apart by death or some tragic event.
In a nutshell, this story summarizes a theory on what tragedy is. The fact that nothing can last as long as we want it to. The greatest things in the world that we want the most come with limits and costs. This is the source of tragedy that keeps our world from being completely happy and carefree. That's what it means to me anyways. I think it's really sad that this man couldn't get through the door because he spent so much time on it and made so many sacrifices. It just shows you how futile and pointless your life can be if you don't get enjoyment out of little things that don't matter in the big picture. It indirectly explains to you how important that can be for your happiness
Today in class, we read an article titled "The Burial at Thebes". The article is basically an analysis of "Antigone" and the culture in ancient Greece. The first paragraph talks about how the separation of church and state we think we have now, isn't as strong as we think it is. We have issues with our religion just like they did in ancient Greece with religious battles. They may have been more violent and uncivilized, but it's the same idea. We have battles all of the time about putting the ten commandments in certain places. We don't realize it, but things haven't changed that much. There have been many cases more extreme than that, but that is a very prominent issue.
For example, a man claimed he had the right to end his wife's life by taking her off life support. The reason he thought he had this right had to do with religion and the law; he thought it was moral and apparently lots of people in the country did too. What happened was the court ruled on the side of the woman's family, who wanted to keep her alive. Apparently the ruling was very unconstitutional, which goes to show that religion and morals are still a big deal in today's society. The highest court in our nation ruled something unconstitutional based on morals and convictions. This event tells me that our separation of church and state aren't as strong as we think they are. The constitution points them out. This just goes to show that this is a very important issue. The most powerful document in the nation points it out, and yet we still have an issue following it and keeping it out of our affairs.
This piece is very powerful to me because it speaks to how much certain things matter to us. Our core values can interfere with us in the workplace, even when we try to not let them. It makes me wonder how much of politics is affected by what happens in people's personal lives. It makes me think that maybe a lot of people's views depend on events in their upbringing. I think that tragedy occurs sometimes because people aren't willing to compromise their opinions and it can get in the way of other important things.
In AP lit class, we just finished reading the story of "Antigone", which is sort of the sequel to "Oedipus Rex". The story is about one of Oedipus' daughters who is dealing with a family issue. This story is no different in that it is certainly a tragedy as well. This story is certainly not a relief in that department. The basis of the story is that two of her brothers kill each other, and one is buried and the other isn't. In ancient Greece this is a very big showing of disrespect to someone. Antigone has a problem with this and buries her brother that wasn't buried anyway. The ruler of Thebes made this a crime punishable by death, but she did it anyways. She was also very proud of her actions, and did not try to hide it one bit. The king had her sentenced to death, and she was to be trapped in a cave with little food and left to die.
The thing I found most interesting in this play was that there was more than one voice of reason. Antigone was borderline because she didn't care about the repercussions of what she did, but she was doing the right thing. The chorus leader, the wise man, and the king's son all tried to talk him out of killing Antigone. It was rather ridiculous for her to be killed because she gave her brother a proper burial. There were many people trying to talk him out of it which made it interesting for me. It shows you how strongly emotions can affect your actions. The story ends up with the king deciding not to kill Antigone, but he's too late because she ends her own life, his son ending his own life, his wife ending her life, and he is left alone. He now prays for death.
This is basically what happens and it is definitely tragic. I felt like it was really ridiculous and very unlikely to happen, but that doesn't make it any less tragic. Having people read it during class was cool because it aids your retention. When two sense are being stimulated your retention is much greater.
One thing this story has going for it is that it matches well with a famous philosopher's beliefs. The stories of Antigone and Oedipus are ideal works of tragedy in the eyes of Aristotle. He thinks they are the quintessences of the element of tragedy.
I thought it was hard to relate to the story because a lot of the topics in it are outdated and people these days don't really experience them. The plot structure was solid and there was definitely some good rhetoric, but overall I just didn't have a great connection with it.
"Tragedy arises then when, as in Periclean Greece or Elizabethan England, a people fully aware of the calamities of life is nevertheless serenely confident of the greatness of man, whose mighty passions and supreme fortitude are revealed when one of these calamities overtakes him." This is the most important quote for me because it explains to us when the most important event of this entire unit occurs. Without context on when tragedy occurs, we would be missing a key element on a subject we are trying to fully understand. In order to fully understand something, you need to be able to understand when it occurs.
The quote really makes a lot of sense. Basically the quote is describing a perfect storm for tragedy or more than one to occur. When man becomes confident of the greatness and "mighty passions" form. This is generally when you are eligible to be exposed to tragedy. When you love something or someone, losing it becomes tragic. Falling in love is a mighty passion, and losing that person becomes tragic. This gives you a hint, the key to avoiding tragedy in your life is never loving anything or anyone.
This tells you that avoiding tragedy is very difficult. If you want to go your whole life no loving your family and never finding a significant other, then I guess you can do it, but I'm not sure I've ever met anyone that wants to live like that. I guess this just tells me that tragedy is the result of the pursuit of or possession of good things in life. I don't mean money or cars, but actually valuable things that you can't drive or spend.
This piece changes my mindset a little bit. I think from now on I'm going to spend my time preparing for tragedy, rather than trying to prevent it. I think it's more important to give myself a better ability to handle it rather than trying to prevent it, because as I see in this piece, it is very difficult to avoid and I don't think I'll be able to consistently do that. Rather than remaining indecisive on an issue, I'm going to make my decision and brace myself for the consquences.
Today in class, we watched a Ted Talk on how our minds work and our options. We don't always know what we want between two options until a third option is presented. I can't really think of a way to relate this to tragedy. I guess it's that we don't always have control.
We also got our poem of the week this week, and it is entitled "Barbie Doll". It has to do with a girl who is on the butt end of a joke in her childhood and is never able to get past it. She has self esteem issues because she thinks she has a big nose and fat legs. Someone told her she has a big nose and fat legs, and now that's all she can focus on. She can't think of anything other than her body image.
To me, this relates well to tragedy because sometimes tragedy can occur because of unimportant details. People can end their own lives because of what others think of their unimportant details. We can get so hung up on what other people think that we may not be able to focus on what we think. This is one of the biggest obstacles in life, but it is also so common.
I guess suicide is the result of being presented a third option. The first two options are deal with it or end your life, then throw in fight back. Perhaps that sounds unappealing and they choose the second option. I don't know if that makes any sense but I thought I would try to relate them.
I also think it goes back to having too many expectations. A large part of tragedy is the idea that man is limited and can't do everything he wants. This girl wanted to please everyone and couldn't. She tried but to no avail. Man has limits, and they cannot be exceeded without tragedy. I think she tried too hard to protect her dignity.