“AS FLIES TO WANTON BOYS ARE WE TO THE GODS, THEY KILL US FOR THEIR SPORT” (ENGLISH AND LINGUISTIC PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
“AS FLIES TO WANTON BOYS ARE WE TO THE GODS, THEY KILL US FOR THEIR SPORT” (
Yes. Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on earth, there is none so helpless as man. Aristotle defines tragedy “As the imitation of an action that is serious having a great magnitude; complete in itself embellish with all the artistic ornaments aroused by pity and fear for the purpose of catharsis”
The Greek tragedy is all about the supremacy of the gods. The common struggle man face is the question of who or what as power and control over his life. Does man has total control of his future, or is there a higher being at work that takes human life into their hands?
Aeschylus made it clear that older ideas of justice lead to unending internal conflict and thus he presents the conception of a divine justice that will result in unmixed good. The old gods’ ethical values, but they are at the same time opposite also. Hence, they come in conflict and destroy each other in their mutual conflict yielding to a new conception of divine justice. In Agamemnon and cheophori, the tragic conflict is presented skillfully and in Eumenides, the conflict is resolved.
The Greek tragedy is seen as “the concrete embodiment of the conflict between primitive social forces and a new social order”.
Tragedy presents mainly two kinds of conflict-outward and inward. The outward conflicts lie between a persons and a force beyond that person. This outer conflict is the most primitive of all type of tragic conflict and is mainly found in Greek tragedy. In Greek tragedies, the hero fights unequal battles with fate or destiny which drives them on to their doom.
In The Greek tragedies, the conflict is described more profoundly in terms of external conflict. The tragic vision presented is man in conflict with their forces greater than himself. The other forces operating in these plays are described as Fate, Destiny, Chance and Necessity. Orestes, Medea, Oedipus, all of them suffer from a mental agony and it is the form of their struggle to resist that they emerge as tragic characters.
”as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport”. (king lear: act 4, scene1, page 2).This proclamation by the old king who has just realized that everything he once held dear-territory and power –has been stripped from him by his own flesh and blood- daughters Regan and Goneril- The gods kill people for fun, because to them we are like the bugs are to the boys. It means our mindless predisposition to inflict pain and suffering on whatever falls into our clutches, and to our fate to be receivers of the same at the hands of mere passing chance.In other words, the gods play around with us as cruelly as schoolboys pull wings off of flies.
“as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport”
This very line also suggests a pessimistic note and a deterministic philosophy. Here, man is seen as a passive character but his role is questioned. Glouchester is of the opinion that the gods are unjust and cruel. They take delight in inflicting pains upon mortals. He finds the wicked prospering and the virtuous suffering. So, in his bitterness of heart he thinks that gods are unjust and malicious and that they inflict suffering upon mortals in sheer sport. On the other hand, Edgar expresses the idea of gods being just and kind. He says:
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us.
