Summary of Plays Essays

Summary of Plays Essays Summary of Plays Essay Summary of Plays Essay â€Å"Oedipus the King† by Sophocles tells a story of Oedipus, the rule of Thebes. Sophocles reveals the question of the universal scope: who rules the destiny – the God or a person himself. Looking for an answer on that eternal question the main hero Oedipus has left his native town and practically has doomed himself to a certain death. He was foretold by the Gods to kill his own father and to get married with his own mother. When Oedipus appeared for the first time it was obvious he was a man of compassion and sympathy.   The play began in the open and Oedipus was on stage during the whole play.   Even when he wasn’t visible or was in the palace, he still remained in the centre of the servants’ talks. When he appeared for the last time, his face, his mask and eyes were bloody. Only in the last moment – in the moment of mental discernment he understood how fool he had been. And in the result he put out his eyes. Thereby he expressed the main id ea of the tragedy: it is the God who rules the destiny and the person is only an instrument. â€Å"The Darker Face of the Earth† by Rita Dove is a recounting of Sophocles’s â€Å"Oedipus the King†. The author tells a story of white and black Americans who are bound together not simply because of common land they share, but also due to passion and blood. The action takes place in South Caroline in1820-1840s. The main character, Amalia, is a white plantation owner and she gives birth to slave’s child. Thus, she is forced to leave child for adoption because her husband threats her. In many years a handsome man, Augustus, is brought to Amalia’a plantation and she decided to seduce him. Later she finds that Augustus is her son. Then Augustus realizes that he had sexual relations with his own mothers and has nothing to do but to kill his father as Oedipus, though he doesn’t kill his mother because she kills herself in order to save her son. In such a way the author shows the fateful love-hate triangle aimed at dehumanizing slavery institut ion.   Dove shows a cruel patricide and suicidal matricide, though the blinding of Augustus is considered only symbolic. Dove, Rito. (2000). The Darker Face of the Earth. USA: Story Line Press, 2000. Bagg, Robert (translt.). Oedipus the King. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1982.