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Comparing King Oedipus with Desire Under The Elms - Essay


                                                                     Comparing
                                                       King Oedipus, by Sophocles
                                                                          with
                                             Desire Under The Elms, by Eugene O'Neil

     The plays King Oedipus by Sophocles and Desire Under The Elms by Eugene O'Neil are both tragedies.  In these plays the main characters in each have their dreams crushed.  When the two plays are compared you find they are very similar with some major differences.

     In King Oedipus, Oedipus unknowingly kills his father, and marries his mother.  Because of this Oedipus, the King, lost his kingdom and was sent into exile.  Eben Cabot, the main character in Desire Under The Elms, unknowingly talks his father's wife, with whom he was having an affair, into killing their child.  This leads Eben to lose any chance he had of gaining ownership of his family's farm.  It also led to his and Abbie Putnam's arrest.  Abbie Putnam was Eben's father's wife and the woman Eben loved  Their arrest caused their permanent separation.

     Both of these plays are tragedies and when comparing the two of them you find many similarities.  You also find, however, many things different in the two plays  The similarities in the plays include, one losing his kingdom and the other losing his farm; one being exiled and one being jailed, which would be a more modern version of exile, and unknowingly killing his father and the other unknowingly causing the death of his son.  The differences in the plays would include that Eben knowingly had an affair with his father's wife and Oedipus unknowingly married his mother.

     The major difference I believe is that where Oedipus seemed to be just a poor victim of fate who was trying to do right things, Eben appeared to be more in control of his own fate and just with a few bad decisions, made at emotional times, he lost everything he was trying to gain for himself.

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