ENG 102     Introduction to Literature

Dr. Axelrod

2nd Essay

(Based on the three plays--Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone and  Anouilh's Antigone--and Dostoyevsky chapters, "The Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor")

Choose from one of the following options and write a properly structured critical analysis of aprox. 1,000 words (three typed pages).

NOTE: Either attach the paper as a Microsoft Word (.doc) document or paste it with proper margins into your email to me. I can't download WordPerfect (.wpd) or other odd formats. Sorry...

1. Oedipus was born with a terrible prophecy. If you could see your future, would you want to know it? If you knew your future--good or bad--could you change it? Find examples within the play to show how you would be similar or different from Oedipus. Consider your place in relationship to God's will, destiny or fate. How could you avoid falling victim to trying to do more than a person is meant to do? Be sure to use quotes from the plays as examples to make your points!  

NOTE: Good quotes are not long quotes. Rather, they are quotes that carry forward your thesis/theme. That is, you should avoid just picking a quote that retells the story. I don't need to read a piece of the play that tells me what happens. Pick a quote that expresses the idea you are trying to prove. Then put that quote into your own words and explain how the quote proves your point! This would be true for all the options here and for your third paper as well.

Click here for: a sample of what an answer would look like for Oedipus Option #1.

Click here for a Style Sheet which may also help you better structure and style your essay: Style Sheet.

2. Creon and The Grand Inquisitor have been criticized as too rigid, unfeeling. Do you think they are doing what he should to make people happy? Creon and The Inquisitor say people want choices made for them and they seem to crave structure. Suppose there is a crisis. Would you do what Creon or The Inquisitor do to preserve law and order in hard times or would you act differently? Be sure to use actual quotes as examples from the play to make your points!

 3. Some say that the U.S. Government keeps too many secrets--from who killed such leaders as John & Bob Kennedy or Martin Luther King, to the real reasons we have gone to war over the years and more recently in Afghanistan and Iraq. Compare Oedipus and Creon and/or The Grand Inquisitor to recent and/or present American leaders. Compare Antigone and the citizens of Thebes to yourself and American citizens. Should we trust our leaders and abide by their decisions to uphold the power-structure? Be sure to use quotes from the plays as examples to make your points!  

4. Antigone believes if a law or the authorities are wrong, she should not follow it. She feels she should commit even a terrorist act if needed to bring down an evil government. Discuss how you know when your cause is right. How would you know when to stand up for your beliefs—without simply using blind faith or “what you were told?” Would you risk punishment, criminal charges, even injury and death to stand up for your beliefs if forbidden by the government or authorities? Would you proceed the same or a different way as Antigone? Be sure to use actual quotes as examples from the play to make your points!                   

5. Discuss the Grand Inquisitor's and Creon's view of the masses (the people) and compare it to the present climate of government to argue whether they are correct in how people should be led. You may draw from other readings in the books to make your points as well. Be sure to use actual quotes as examples from the play to make your points!                          

Bonus: I have given you a link to a marvelous play by George Bernard Shaw entitled Major Barbara. If you wish to work the character of Major Barbara, or, for that matter, Andrew Undershaft, into any of the options above (or into the third paper), I would love to see the results. Just as some athletic competitions give scores based on "degree of difficulty", I would consider your showing you read and worked with this extra play a higher degree of difficulty and look favorably on your effort when issue your "score."