Greek Theater and Black Mirror Essay

Introduction

The early Greek theatre expounded on tragic themes that still relate with the current contemporary audiences. During this time, Greek theater was something unique that developed from a mixture of modern lyric poetry, stories and religious rituals, a combination of ancient myths, the prodigy of oddly few people and the Greek adoration of hammy spectacle. As Hart (137) states, development of this theatre was related to the god Dionysus. Black Mirror series depicts the technological anxieties and possible futures. According to hill (23), if the film can be summarized in one sentence, then it tries to show that technology is exciting but the people are awful and people keep finding the worst ways they can apply it. The shows elaborate ways in which people interact with media, communications, technology and culture and how this obsessions and behaviors will lead to horrors in the future.

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At its best, its satirical and insightful message shocks even the viewer's following the endless, pummeling violence shows like walking dead and the game of thrones. The film shows some resemblance with the two plays Agamemnon and Oedipus. In both two plays, the starling's were led by their power and pride and ended up in shameful deaths and thus fulfilling the prophecy. It can, therefore, be argued that the black mirror depicts how humans are using technology today might lead to failures in the future. This essay will provide a though a comparison of the fiction Netflix series "Black Mirror" and the two Greek theatre plays, Agamemnon and Oedipus.

Tragedy

Greeks tragedies emphasize the fear of homicide and brutal death within the family. The incidences are intensively awful bringing fear. Characters are not ordinary folks, and in most cases, they are kings and queens (Siegmund 14). The society is presented with worries and bewailing events that face the main characters leaving them helpless. As stated by Aristotle, such powerful sentiments make us feels fear and pity and thus eradicate us of those emotions. This course is referred to as catharsis. Such incidences leave us mentally disturbed or feeling different after watching the scenes. In the current world, there is a dilemma of whether mass media violence causes viewers to be more violent or calmer. Majority of people accept that mass media violence often makes people more violent. Nevertheless, Greek drama dealt with emotional violence and never showed physical violence on stage (Siegmund 14). Most Greek tragedies are always family tragedies. For example, Agamemnon harks back to the child sacrifice enacts n murder of Agamemnon and proceeds further to the murder of a parent.

Agamemnon Play

Agamemnon is a series of three shows that demonstrate the endless awful costs of a secluded blood feud. The story emphasizes Clytemnestra's homicide of Agamemnon as she seeks vengeance since Agamemnon forfeited their child Iphigenia at Aulis to appease the goddess Artemis ten years ago. The goddess sends contrary winds that prevent the Greeks armed forces from cruising to Troy. However, the play presents Agamemnon as a dangerous, wicked and dislikeable character regardless of whateverAgamemnon ensured and wants to excuse Clymnestra (Hill 29). The play twitches with a guard waiting for signaling the end of the war from hill to hill. The fires are arranged by Clytemnestra and cross miles across Greece and Troy (Meineck 75). As the watchman's states, Clytemnestra is a cunning woman and treacherous too with a man's heart in her breasts.

Partially, the play is expended waiting for the appearance of Agamemnon. The argument between Clytemnestra and his husband Agamemnon's shows Clytemnestra's treachery and Agamemnon conceited pride. Clytemnestra wants her husband to stroll into the palace on a treasured blood-red tapestry and Agamemnon objects. This aspect shows excessive pride. Clytemnestra attempt to cause Agamemnon stroll upon the blood-red cloth aims at creating insolence that will, in turn, arouse the hatred and disgust of men and revenge of the Gods. However, Agamemnon capitulates to his wife and agrees to walk through the blood red tapestry in the palace, to face his death(Mayo 74). This section marks the intense part of the show where the frenzied forecast of the prophetess Cassandra outside the palace forecasting the assassination while Clytemnestra with the aid if her paramour Aegisthus organizes to kill Agamemnon within. The play ends with Agamemnon cries of death. However, there will be further killings to revenge his death does not resolve the glitches of this cursed family.

Hamartia and Catharsis

Hamlet seeks to revenge without turning back. His mind was fixed in the revenge that he could not consider forgiving Claudius. This struggle to kill him was persistent but unfortunately caught the attention of Claudius who retaliated. Hamlet had an option of forgiving Claudius, and perhaps he could be alive.

The Story of Oedipus, the King

Before Oedipus was born, he was prophesized to murder his father Luis and wed his mother, Jocasta. Luis and Jocasta acted as the king and queen of Thebes'srespectively. Jocasta decided to hand over the baby to a marshal to throw him to wild animals in the mountains. The marshal felt mercy and handed the baby to another marshal who took the child to an infertile king and queen who adopted and raised the child as their own. After attaining adulthood, Oedipus was informed about these awful stories and fled the city to avoid the prophecy from happening. On his way, he encountered again, and some men at a crossroad and the man who was in command was threatening and rude and Oedipus executed him without an understanding that he was Laius, his biological father. Thereafter, Oedipus met the Sphinx and responded correctly to his riddle, and he won the prize of weddingJocasta, Queen of Thebes.

The show demonstrates Thebes devastated by plaque sent by Apollo since Oedipus was the contamination in the town. King Oedipus has to seek a solution to stop the plaque. Oedipus is very eager to know the truth and acts very violent and hostile to anyone interferes with his search like Tiresias who distinguishes the truth but hides it from him. However, the irony in this show is that Oedipus is the cause of pollution and the plague in this city after murdering his father and mother. Oedipus finally learns the truth, and this destroys his life as the king of Thebes. He blinds himself at the end of the play and leaves Thebes and wanders in the backwoods, understanding that his whole life was expended accomplishing his pre-determined fate.

Black Mirror

Black Mirror is a British science fiction compilationTV series that inspects the contemporary culture regarding the impacts of the unanticipated new technologies. Incidents are established in a standalone tone displaying the near future. Black mirror was enthused by senior anthropology like the twilight zone that was capable of dealing with current themes without fright of suppression. However, broker focused on the anthropology approach by developing new stories, settings, characters, and actors for every episode were new since this was the primary key element for The Twilight Zone. During the twilight times, the play used contemporary issues that were often controversial like racism but putting them in fictional settings(Hill 29). However, Brooker utilized the same commentary issues on modern issues by emphasizing on humankind's dependency on technology. Brooker stated that if the technology was a medicine, and it does feel like medicine, then what are the side effects? The series, therefore, draws its idea from the delight and discomfort.

The story makes much use of eye implants as well as the use of mobile phones. Due to advancement in technology, the author tries his level best to ensure that the ratings are made well, and no biases are said to have been applied in the awarding ceremony. As we all know, everyone wants to be the best in every competition and would, therefore, wish to impress thus this a good thing as neutrality will be achieved. Similarly, a human is to error, and hence judgments by people could attract some form of criticism and so advocating for technology is the best approach for the film.

We find out that Lacie is voted by her friend Alice Eva as the best participant. Her ratings are incredibly high that is 4.3 which help her a lot as she is made to be the maid of honor for her friend's wedding. This makes very happy and excited for the higher price too. She aims to reach the rating of 4.5 for her to feel at peace as she has no significant competitors at the time. The good awards given for the rating make her so enthusiastic and thus aiming for the more significant price. Popularity also comes alongside the good gifts she would get, and this is her main aim. There is nothing good like going noticed in every street of America not because she is a great musician or something but for her excellent work and effort.

With the high rating of 4.2, Lacie has the greatest dream of delivering a speech at Naomi's wedding. She does her best to ensure all goes well for her as she might get more points thus resulting in an increase in her current ratings. However, things go sour for her as she finds herself in bitter disagreement with Ryan over their issues. She resolves to go to the airport alone to take a flight and spend the night at the rehearsal dinner. This fails to happen well for her as she opts to go on her own after Ryan let her down thus she misses her ride and therefore with the intense anger gets involved with the passersby in the wrong way. She runs into them causing a disagreement because she spills their coffee. With all these misfortunes, her ratings get down to a figure lower than 4.2. This frustrates her as she had aimed to get them higher to a value of at least 4.5 or more.

For sure, human beings were born with the vigor and thus always find the extra energy to pick up their pieces and move on. Unlike animals that easily give up, men have the power, and the deep conviction to fight and the winning spirit is evident in the things they undertake. The unfortunate, sour and teary happening attracts another when she is called by Naomi and told not to grace the ceremony as she had planned. She claims that her current lower ratings would lower the dignity of the party. For sure this does not go well for the go-getter. Human beings dare always to give a word of advice to their fellow men. Even though she had lost almost everything that she had wished for, she still fights on to see whether moving forward she will get tables turning for her good. She meets a female truck driver who recounts for her how she had good ratings until the event when she lost her husband and thus felt like all her dreams were shattered (Wilson, Anna, and Stefano De Paoli, 78). This gives Lacie some strength to move on, and thus she opens her mind not only to focus on ratings as they are not the only thing important in life.

What Makes Something Sci-FI

Sci-fi is a shortened term for science fiction referring to a field of speculative fiction that stereotypically deals with visionary concepts like progressive science and technology. Scientific fiction discovers the possible consequences of scientific and other revolutions and has been referred to as literature of ideas. The scientific fictions relate to principles of science and comprise of theories of science. However, the theories ventures into the genre of fantasy and should not be completely unbelievable (Hill 29). The plot generates situations that are both different from those of our present day and past and comprises of a human element explaining how future discoveries will impact our lives. The fiction sets are always set in future, in a different world or space or a different dimension or universe.

Sci-Fi History

Sci-fi began in the time in which my...