Free Essays on Blinding Fate - Oedipus The King

Blinding Fate Oedipus, King of Thebes, is bounded by fate and blinded by his ignorance. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is doomed to fall, predestined by fortune. By the play’s end, the King of Thebes fulfills the oracle. This sentiment is supported by several examples throughout the tragedy, all of which are beyond the control of the poor King. His fall from grace is to occur regardless of his character or any outside intervention. Despite Oedipus’s physical ability to see, he is blinded to the truth because of his arrogance and character traits. This juxtaposes the prophet Tiresias, who is inherently blind but sees not only the truth but beyond, outside the realm of the present. The King jeers Tiresias for his blindness when he has to force him to proclaim his revelation against his will. Oedipus is so blinded by his own self-assertion that he does not even see the significance of his name, serving as an ironic clue to his past. The prophecy that Oedipus would murd er his father and marry his mother seems completely irrational to the King because of his naivity. In an ironic twist, Oedipus becomes more like Tiresias in the end, physically blinded himself but finally grasping the truth. Oedipus still lacks Tiresias’s ability of foresight. As the tragedy opens, Oedipus’s city Thebes, is ridden with plague. Many are dying and the people, represented as the Chorus, are in a somewhat alarmed state. The King holds true to his character and addresses the problem head on. He sends Creon, his brother-in-law and uncle, to the prophet Delphi to gain insight on how to end the plague. Unknown to Oedipus, his biological father Laius received the prophecy that his son would kill him and marry his wife, from the same oracle. In witness of the Chorus, Creon returns and at the King’s bidding delivers his message in the presence of the public. â€Å"As a measure of his own greatness, he will resolve Thebes’s distress, and he wil... Free Essays on Blinding Fate - Oedipus The King Free Essays on Blinding Fate - Oedipus The King Blinding Fate Oedipus, King of Thebes, is bounded by fate and blinded by his ignorance. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is doomed to fall, predestined by fortune. By the play’s end, the King of Thebes fulfills the oracle. This sentiment is supported by several examples throughout the tragedy, all of which are beyond the control of the poor King. His fall from grace is to occur regardless of his character or any outside intervention. Despite Oedipus’s physical ability to see, he is blinded to the truth because of his arrogance and character traits. This juxtaposes the prophet Tiresias, who is inherently blind but sees not only the truth but beyond, outside the realm of the present. The King jeers Tiresias for his blindness when he has to force him to proclaim his revelation against his will. Oedipus is so blinded by his own self-assertion that he does not even see the significance of his name, serving as an ironic clue to his past. The prophecy that Oedipus would murd er his father and marry his mother seems completely irrational to the King because of his naivity. In an ironic twist, Oedipus becomes more like Tiresias in the end, physically blinded himself but finally grasping the truth. Oedipus still lacks Tiresias’s ability of foresight. As the tragedy opens, Oedipus’s city Thebes, is ridden with plague. Many are dying and the people, represented as the Chorus, are in a somewhat alarmed state. The King holds true to his character and addresses the problem head on. He sends Creon, his brother-in-law and uncle, to the prophet Delphi to gain insight on how to end the plague. Unknown to Oedipus, his biological father Laius received the prophecy that his son would kill him and marry his wife, from the same oracle. In witness of the Chorus, Creon returns and at the King’s bidding delivers his message in the presence of the public. â€Å"As a measure of his own greatness, he will resolve Thebes’s distress, and he wil...

Solar Winds and Lightning Strikes

Solar Winds and Lightning Strikes When you go outdoors for play or work, it probably never occurs to you that the lovely yellow Sun that heats and warms our planet is also responsible for a whole raft of other actions that affect us and our planet. Its true - and without the Sun we wouldnt have the beauty of the northern and southern lights, or - as it turns out - some of the lightning strikes that come during thunderstorms. Lightning strikes?   Really? Lets take a look at how that might be a solar effect. The Sun-Earth Connection The Sun is a somewhat active star. It regularly sends out giant outbursts called solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The material from these events rides out from the Sun on the solar wind, which is a constant stream of energetic particles called electrons and protons. When those charged particles get to Earth, some interesting things can happen.   First, they encounter Earths magnetic field, which protects the surface and lower atmosphere from the solar wind by deflecting the energetic particles around the planet. Those particles DO interact with the topmost layers of the atmosphere, often creating northern and southern lights. If the solar storm is strong enough, our technology can be affected - telecommunications, GPS satellites, and electrical grids - can be disrupted or even shut down.   What About the Lightning? When these charged particles   have enough energy to penetrate down into the cloud-forming regions of the Earths atmosphere, they can affect our weather.  Scientists found evidence that some lightning strikes on Earth may well be triggered by energetic particles from the Sun that reach our planet via the solar wind. They measured significant increases in lightning rates across Europe (for example) that occurred for up to 40 days after the arrival of particles carried by high-speed solar winds.   Nobodys quite sure how this works, but scientists are working to understand the interactions. Their data show that electrical properties of the air are somehow changed as the incoming charged particles collide with the atmosphere. Can Solar Activity Help Weather Prediction? If you could predict an increase in lightning strikes by using solar wind streams, that would be a real boon to weather forecasters. Since the solar wind can be tracked by spacecraft, having advance knowledge of solar wind storms would give weather forecasters a significant  chance to warn people about upcoming thunder and lightning storms and their severity. It turns out that astronomers have long known that cosmic rays, which are tiny high-speed particles from across the universe have been thought to play a part in severe weather on Earth. The ongoing studies of charged particles and lightning shows that lower-energy particles created by our own Sun also affect lightning. This is related to a phenomenon called space weather which is defined as geomagnetic disturbances caused by solar activity.   It can affect us here on Earth and in near-Earth space.  This new edition of the Sun-Earth connection, lets astronomers and weather forecasters learn more about both space weather and Earth weather. How Did Scientists Figure This Out? The record lightning strikes over Europe was compared with data from NASAs Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft, which lies between the Sun and the Earth and measures the characteristics of solar winds. It is one of NASAs workhorse space weather and solar activity observatories. After the arrival of the  solar wind at the Earth, the researchers showed there was an average of 422 lightning strikes across the UK in the following 40 days, compared to an average of 321 lightning strikes in the 40 days before the solar winds arrival. They noted that the rate of lightning strikes peaked between 12 and 18 days after the arrival of the solar wind. Long-term studies of the connection between the Suns activity and Earthly thunderstorms should give scientists useful tools not just for understanding the Sun, but also to help predict storms here at home.