A Comparative Tragedy Study of Fatalism and Determinism: Oedipus Rex and Thunderstorm Essay

The electrical storm and Oedipus Rex, the representatives of Chinese and Greek drama, both severalize sad stories ab out incest and unexpected destiny. The deuce masterpieces reveal much about the belles-lettres patterns and philosophical tax deductions of the opposite cultures. The exploration of the 2 maps could help further understand the oneness of world literature and the calamity of dissimilar culture. This paper will compargon two famous tragic dramasOedipus Rex and The Thunderstorm to analyze the similarities and differences in hurt of the tragic musical written reportsfatalism and determinism.The process of textual analysis will be associated with the basic literature possibleness of catastrophe and philosophy. Over the centuries, Oedipus Rex, which is a famous Greek drama written by one of three antiquated Greek tragedians Sophocles, has come to be regarded as the Greek tragedy par excellence. It chronicles the composition of Oedipus, a earth who becomes the king of Thebes and was destined from birth to murder his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. The play is an example of a classic tragedy, noticeably containing an emphasis on the power of oracle on gracious destiny and how Oedipuss let flaws contri scarcelye to the tragic heros down collide with. The Thunderstorm is written by renowned Chinese playwright Cao Yu, often regarded as Chinas most important play of the 20th hundred.The mental object matter of The Thunderstorm is the complex relationships betwixt the members of two households, centering on the chuck familys mental and physical destruction as a result of incest, as perpetrated at the hands of its morally profane and corrupt patriarch. It is considered to be one of the most mature and frequent plays in contemporary China. In this paper, the theory being used and the previous athletic field of the two plays will be first presented in the literature review. In the main part of my analysis, I will compare th e two plays from the perspective of the contraction between fatalism and determinism. From the analysis of two dramas, we could consider many similarities and differences in the tragic topics. both Oedipus Rex and The Thunderstorm concern the fatalism and determinism in the tragedy themes however, they lay different nisus on the two topics. 2.BACKGROUND STUDY AND LITERATURE reassessmentOne of the most important studies of tragedy is Aristotles Poetics. Aristotle states that A tragedy, then, is an artistic imitation of an action that is serious, perform in itself, and of an adequate magnitude. (2) The magnificence of tragedy can be revealed in different aspects, and the tragic theme that considers fatalism and determinism of protagonists is one of the most important elements. The dispute between fatalism and determinism has been long lasting in the development of tragedy study. Fatalism is one of the most eternal themes of tragedy in general. It is the belief that all events are predetermined and wherefore inevitable in persons life. Determinism is the belief that all actions and events result from other actions, events, or situations, so people cannot in fact choose what to do, which is a creation of Hellenistic thought (Dodds 42).Homeric heroes own their predetermined portion of life and they must die for some predetermined reason, but it never occurs to the poet or his audience that this prevents them from being free agents. As Bernard Knox put it, the gods know the future, but they do not launch it. (122) Concerning fatalism and determinism, previous scholars have done many researches on the two plays. Martin Kallich (1966), in his article Oedipus From Man to Archetype, interprets the philosophical theme of Sophocles play as a mild agnosticism or neutral fatalism. Oedipus, he declares, behaves normally, commits an illusion in ignorance, and brings suffering upon himself. However, he fails to include the religious belief in his essay to give a full v iew of the tragic philia of Oedipus Rex.From another perspective, E. Lefvre and A. Schmitt (2007), in the article Interpretation of Oedipus Rex argues that the old and popular formula that Oedipus is guilt slightly guilty is untenable, and they propose instead that his fall results from his behaviorhis wrong behaviorbrought about by passion. However, they mainly discuss from their own understanding and fail to employ strong tragedy theory to detain their viewpoints. Foreign scholars do not conduct many researches on The Thunderstorm. Nevertheless, Chinese scholars have looked deeply into this drama. Both Xin Xianxi (1981) and Wang Linlin (2009) argue that Cao Yu is strongly influenced by the traditional Greek tragedy and Christianity religious belief so that the play has mystical fancy of fate, which adds to the impressiveness of the play. However, they fail to take the accessible background into account when analyzing the tragic spirit of The Thunderstorm.Wan downfallg (2010) classifies the tragic spirit of The Thunderstorm into three different categories the tragedy of love, fate and reputation and all the tree aspects of the play make it an intense plot and dramatic artistic effect. Also, he doesnt consider the social background, which is important part of the play. From the above, we could see that the two plays are well studied by western and eastern scholars. Yet, not so many researchers discuss the similarities and differences between this specific two plays or even the Greek and Chinese drama in general. 3. ANALYSIS OF TRAGIC THEMES FATALISM AND DETERMINISMThe conflicts between fatalism and determinism are amply presented in the two plays, which can also be called the god-made tragedy and human-made tragedy. However, the two holds different proportion of two elementsOedipus Rex putting more emphasis on fate, while The Thunderstorm underlining the importance of human factors. 3.1 Analysis on Oedipus Rex3.1.1 The Voice of FateOedipus Rex has been almost universally regarded as the classic example of the tragedy of fate. Sir Maurice Bowras idea that the gods force on Oedipus the knowledge of what he has done strongly supports the idea of fatalism (390).Through his priests at Delphi, Apollo told Laius that he would be killed by his own son, and later told Oedipus that he would kill his father and marry his mother. At the beginning of the play Apollo tells Creon that Thebes will be saved from the plague only when the murderer of Laius is found and expelled. Although everyone in this play attempt to do something to avert the realization of the oracle, in the end, everything comes true. Its power was based on a widespread, indeed in early times universal belief in the efficacy of divine prophecy. Sophocles himself also believes in this point Unless these prophecies all come truefor all mankind to point toward in wonderThey are dying, the old oracles sent to Laius,Now our masters strike them off the rolls.Nowhere Apollos golden doughnut nowThe gods, the gods go down. (Sophocles 989-97)When chose as the subject of his story about a man who tried to avoid the fulfillment of a prophecy of Apollo, Oedipus believes he had succeeded and casts scorn on all the oracles, only to find out that he had fulfilled that prophecy long ago. The voice of destiny in the play is the oracle of Apollo and Oedipus, to some extent, is the innocent victim of a doom which he cannot avoid. 3.1.2 Hamartia and LoyaltyTo the rationalist critics of the eighteenth century and still more to the firm believers in human progress of the nineteenth, this aspect of the play was a diachronic curiosity, to be discounted in Oedipus Rex, although the fate is God-made to a great degree, it must be clarified that he has his own free will and he is not mere a puppet in the hands of the gods who escape the strings that make him dance.This is a crucial idea of further development of determinism, on which we could give two varied explanationshamarti a and loyalty. The single Greek word, hamartia, lays the emphasis upon the want of insight within a man. The human frailty which is said to bring sufferings beyond the ordinary lot of men is represented in edition by blindness of heart. The conception in the Poetics of an ideal tragic person with his imperfect insight, square-toed for tragedy, can be constructed in the personality of Oedipus (39). He turns upon a certain blindness of impulse, which at space is recognized the man himselfwhereupon he puts out his own eyes.On the other hand, Oedipus loyalty to truth and to Thebes leads him to seek the truth tirelessly. Even though Creon, Jocasta, and the prophet try to stop him all the way, Oedipus, who is struggling in the interest of truth, insists on reading the last riddle, the riddle of his own life. The immediate cause of Oedipus ruin is not salutary Fateno oracle said that he must discover the truthand still less does it lie in his own weakness sometimes it is suggested that Oedipus would not have avoided his misery by having been a better man, but he could have remained prosperous and happy if he had been a less unassailable man. What cause his ruin are his own strength and courage, his loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to truth. 3. 2. Analysis on The Thunderstorm3.2.1 Destiny or CoincidencesSimilarly, in traditional Chinese literature, destiny, which often translated into Tian , also has a deep implication in the formation of tragedy. Famous critic Li Jiangwu said, This play has the most potent but unperceivable powerdestiny, which we feel all the time. (48) And Cao Yu writes in the preface of The Thunderstorm, I am a spiritually forgetful man, but I invited my audiences to be god of my play to look sympathetically on those moving creatures on the stage, to look how they argue with each other blindly, how they helplessly struggle in the battle of love. (2) Two families destinies fall into tragedy because of some unexpected coincidences. If Sifeng does not go to the Zhous family to work as a servant or if Lu Dahai does not come to visit Zhou Puyuan, or if any compass point in the play changes, the full-length story may not happen. The fate plays an important part in the development of the plot and contributes much to the tragic effect. 3.2.2 Social TragedyAlthough there is the fate that works in the play, what the characters have done is the main pusher of the plot. Cao Yu also states that this play is not about retribution or karma (3). While, in The Thunderstorm, the determinism presents in a different direction. Zhou Pin cannot endure the suppression of his father, but he does not show it and bear it inside. He feels repent and wants to get out of the secret relationship with his stepmother, but he only chooses to escape the reality, so that he falls in love with Sifeng, which is also a person that he cannot love. Similar as Oedipus, what he tries to avoid finally leads him to destruction. From what the play presents, Z hou Pin is more like a coward escaping the tragic results of his life. His evasion contributes to the tragic ending. Zhou Fanyi, who is also a tragic character in the play, marries Zhou Puyuan, but she is not able to feel love until she loses her heart to Zhou Pin.What is more tragic is that Zhou Pin cannot love her exclusivelyheartedly either. She mistakenly put the happiness of her whole life to a person that cannot company and care for her aboveboard. Her tragedy is the social tragedy, at which time womens social status is low and they do not have the ability to pursue their felicities on their own. Fanyis personal flaws and the social environment lead to the tragedy of herself. While writing this play, Cao Yu underlines the social background, in swan to further reveal the social problems, which offer people no freedom of choice. Thats why everyones wrong choice results in the destruction of the whole family. 5. ConclusionDifferent from the previous study, as we could examine f rom the analysis, this paper regards the tragedy as a combination of fatalism and determinism. What is similar between Oedipus Rex and The Thunderstorm is that they both stress the necessity the factor of destiny in the plot of a tragedy. Destiny is a universal theme of all tragedies in the history and all around the world. What is different about the two plays is that the determinism is presented in translucent way. Oedipus Rex embeds the tragic elements into the tragic flaws of Oedipus.Through building the downfall of Oedipus as a hero but passably ignorant person, readers may feel more regret and grieved. While in The Thunderstorm, the social background, in which the story was carried on and which people who are unable to avoid and revolt, contributes more to the happening of tragedy. This difference shows the different concerns in Chinese and western culture Chinese literature works tend to focus on the social problems through revealing the personal life, while the western lit erature puts the emphasis on the image of the whole person. (Word Counting 2190 words)Works CitedAristotle. Poetics. Trans. Lane Cooper. New York Cornell University Press, 1947. Print. Bowra, Maurice. Dance, Drama, and the Spoken Word The Royal Society Philosophical minutes of the Royal Society of London 251.772, (1966) 390. ProQuest. Web. 15 may 2013. Cao Yu. The Thunderstorm. Beijing Peoples Literature produce House, 1994. Print. Dodds, E.R. On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex.Cambridge University Press Greece & Rome, Second Series13.1 (1966) 42. Jstor. Web. 26 April 2012. E. Lefvre and A. Schmitt. Interpretation of Oedipus RexDie Suche nach der Schuld. Sophokles Oedipus Rex, Aristoteles Poetik und das Tragdienverstndnis der Neuzeit The Classical Review 57.1(2007)18-20. Jstor. 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