Pericles Funeral Speech and Jefferson Declaration of Independence Essay Essays

Pericles Funeral Speech and Jefferson Declaration of Independence Essay Essays Pericles Funeral Speech and Jefferson Declaration of Independence Essay Essay Pericles Funeral Speech and Jefferson Declaration of Independence Essay Essay September 11. 2001. two planes crash into the World Trade Center. people plunging out Windowss to their deceases. a plane clangs into the Pentagon. highjackers overtaken by riders and crash the plane into a field in Pennsylvania. December 2003. mass Gravess uncovered in Iraq. regards of Saddam Husayn. May. 2004. a web page shows terrorists cutting off the caput of Nick Berg. August 2004. over 350 kids are executed by terrorists in a school in Russia. Democracy is being threatened by puzzling Zealots all over the universe. The United States have fought for Democracy as far back as the Revolutionary War. and both World Wars. Once once more our military is being asked to do the ultimate forfeit in the onslaught on democracy against these Zealots. Contending for democracy has been the cause of wars since the yearss of Pericles. Pericles provinces that â€Å"Our fundamental law does non seek to copy the Torahs of our neighbours ; we are an illustration to others. non impersonators of them† . During his clip there was normally one swayer that had the power over life and decease. the mass of people did non affair. In Athens this was far from the instance. Athens created its ain authorities. one that was for the people. and benefited the people. Pericles said with strong belief. â€Å"As far as public life is concerned. we live as free men† . The people of Athens had a authorities that supported them ; they were all equal in the eyes of the authorities. The metropolis of Athens stood by itself ; it needed no others to assist it. She left her gates unfastened to all and did non concern herself with excepting aliens. Her military stood entirely. Athens neer advanced into another district with Allies ; she did it entirely. He besides marvels in the fact that Athens does non populate for the fright of war. He states that they live free. but are ever ready if in danger. He even goes so far to state that his enemies are happy with a triumph over a little portion of the ground forces. Pericles praises Athens for her signifier of authorities – democracy – because it is merely in a democracy that citizens are encouraged to lend and take part in self-government. Democracy brings equality. merit brings public success. societal and economic mobility is encouraged. and the jurisprudence protects all: â€Å"We entirely see the adult male who refuses to take portion in metropolis personal businesss useless. † Pericles announces. And he gets in a excavation at Sparta by proudly proclaiming that â€Å"rather than look upon treatment as a stumbling-block in the manner of action. we think it is an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. † Pericles encourages his audience â€Å"to recognize the illustriousness of Athens† and bask everything the metropolis has to offer: â€Å"Further. we provide many ways to review the head from the loads of concern. We hold competitions and offer forfeits all the twelvemonth unit of ammunition. and the elegance of our private constitutions forms a day-to-day beginning of pleasance and helps to drive away sorrow. The magnitude of our metropolis draws the green goods of the universe into our seaport. so that to the Athenian the fruits of other states are as familiar a luxury as those of his ain. † What Pericles negotiations about in his address is about dimmed in importance by how he delivers the message. It is Pericles’ rhetoric that makes this address celebrated and the theoretical account for so many others in the class of history. Throughout his address. Pericles holds up glorification as the inducement for work forces to hotfoot to conflict for their freedom: Athens is a glorious metropolis because of the forfeits of old coevalss of work forces. and this coevals. excessively. must shoulder its load. And while contending for your state can assist convey about a triumph. it besides has the benefit of conveying you personal glorification. something Pericles believes can be gained in no other manner than by deceasing for your state: â€Å"Realize for yourself the power of Athens. and feed your eyes upon her twenty-four hours after twenty-four hours. till you become her devoted lover. Then. when all her illustriousness interruptions upon you. reflect that it was by bravery. sense of responsibility and a acute feeling of award in action that work forces were enabled to win all this. and that no personal failure in an endeavor could do them consent to strip their state of their heroism. but they laid it at her pess as the most glorious part they could offer. By this common offering of their lives made by them all. they each of them separately received that fame which neer grows old. For a burial chamber they have won non so much that grave in which their castanetss are here deposited. but that noblest of shrines wherein their glorification is laid up to be everlastingly remembered upon every juncture on which title or narrative shall fall for its memorialization. For heroes have the whole Earth for their grave. † Pericles’ address is surely persuasive. Its passion is based in world. It is a powerful to see a state mourn its war dead. In the terminal Pericles accomplishes his end to animate a metropolis in mass bereavement for its lost warriors. Woodrow Wilson was faced with a call to weaponries when in 1917 he proclaimed American entryway into World War I a campaign to do the universe â€Å"safe for democracy. † Pericles. in his funeral oration. negotiations of heroism as being really honest. He remarks that â€Å"Choosing to decease defying. instead than to populate submitting† is a bold and brave act and it deserves congratulations and glorification. He says the soldiers â€Å"fled merely from dishonour. but met danger face to face† . Abraham Lincoln was faced with a similar undertaking. The Gettysburg Address was delivered on November 19. 1863. at Gettysburg. Pennsylvania. during dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Lincoln’s address is more low than Pericles. but merely as passionate. He is careful in non adverting either side of the war ; he merely speaks of the state as a whole. â€Å"Now we are engaged in a great civil war. proving whether the state. or any state so conceived and so dedicated can long digest. We are met on a great battleground of that war. We have come to give a part of that field as the concluding resting-place for those who here gave their lives that this state might populate. † Lincoln pays testimonial to non merely the Union ground forces. but the Confederate as good. by stating â€Å"The brave work forces. life and dead. who struggled here. have consecrated it. far above our hapless power to add or take away. † There are obvious analogues between Pericles’ and Lincoln’s addresss. They both set out to carry through the same thing merely in different ways. Another celebrated author and bookman with a similar position of Athenian society. Sophocles. take to voice his sentiment through dramatist. Specifically in his two great calamities Oedipus the King and Antigone. Pericles and Sophocles. although coming from different terminals of the spectrum ( the aforementioned oratory or rhetoric and the latter fictional ) . both consider the person and the province in their plants and come to similar decisions with some exclusions. Pericles expresses his positions in his â€Å"Funeral Oration† . where he boasts of the great qualities of Athens. its citizens and soldiers. Sophocles injects his ideas and thoughts into his two chef-doeuvres. Oedipus the King and Antigone. In the undermentioned paper. I will compare the men’s thoughts and positions on the topic of the person and the province. In peculiar. their ideas on the importance of military excellence. award. bravery. and positions on adult females. Both work forces considered trueness in conflict and engagement in public affairs really of import. Harmonizing to Pericles. military accomplishments and awards make up for anything incorrect one does as a citizen ( for illustration. declining to take portion in metropolis personal businesss ) . The Greeks evidently looked upon excellence in the military really extremely. of all our neighbours. we entirely consider the adult male who refuses to take portion in metropolis personal businesss as useless†¦ . For there is justness in the claim that staunchness in his nation’s conflicts provides a cloak to cover a man’s other imperfectnesss ; the good action smudges out the bad. and his virtue as a citizen more than outweighs his m istakes as an person ( Pericles 58-59. 60 ) . Sophocles expresses similar positions on the affair in his drama Antigone. Creon negotiations of trueness to the province as holding arrant importance: As I see it. whoever assumes the undertaking. the amazing undertaking of puting the city’s class. and refuses to follow the soundest policies but fearing person. maintain his lips locked tight. he’s utterly worthless†¦ . But whoever proves his trueness to the province – I’ll award that adult male in decease every bit good as life ( Antigone 48-49 ) . Creon backs up his words with actions. He goes on to speak of Eteocles and Polynices. the two boies of Oedipus: Eteocles will be given a proper entombment. since he went down contending for Thebes. being loyal to his metropolis ; Polynices. on the other manus. committed lese majesty and went against everything Creon stands for and believes in. therefore â€Å"he must be left unburied. his cadaver carrion for the birds and Canis familiariss to rupture. an lewdness for the citizens to lay eyes on! These are my rules. Never at my custodies will the treasonist be honored above the patriot† ( Antigone 49 ) . As examined. nationalism was held really extremely by the Greeks. as seen in Pericles’s oration and Sophocles’s plays we once more come across an intersection in both statesmen’s thoughts. this clip on the topic of bravery. Pericles. in his funeral oration. negotiations of heroism as being really honest. He remarks that â€Å"Choosing to decease defying. i nstead than to populate submitting† ( Pericles 60 ) is a bold and brave act and it deserves congratulations and glorification. He says the soldiers â€Å"fled merely from dishonour. but met danger face to face† ( Pericles 60 ) . Make these features bring anyone we know to mind? The reply is yes. and two people come to mind: Antigone and Oedipus. Sophocles’s diacetylmorphine ( Antigone ) is the ultimate illustration of the topic Pericles discusses. True. Antigone was non a soldier. but she went against her uncle’s beliefs and bids. and did what was right harmonizing to the Gods. In burying her brother and so denoting her actions to the universe. she â€Å"fled merely from dishonour. but met danger face to face. † Antigone questioned Creon and proudly stated she was the wrongdoer. and did non repent her actions. Oedipus. alternatively of giving in to destine. combat it for every bit long as he could until destine eventually all in him. Although it seems that Sophocles Hagiographas parallel Pericles positions on women’s lower status. certain extracts provide a footing that Sop hocles’ positions contradict those presented in the Funeral Oration. Pericles provinces. â€Å"if I must state anything on the topic of female excellence†¦ . Great will be your glorification in non falling short of your natural character ; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the work forces whether for good or for bad† ( Pericles 61-62 ) . In an extract from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. it is seen that Oedipus gives great weight to Jocasta’s sentiment. Oedipus compares narratives with Jocasta on the decease of the male monarch. He listens to Jocasta’s side of the narrative. non seting her in a low-level place or looking at her as inferior ( Oedipus the King 23 ) . In Summation. Pericles and Sophocles ( although coming from different terminals of the spectrum ) both consider the person and the province in their plants and come to similar decisions with some exclusions on the different facets of the relationship. They both praise trueness. engagement in province personal businesss. and honest decease. To observe. in my research I found more look of Sophocles’s positions which correlate with Pericles’s in Antigone and non so much in Oedipus the King. All three of three of the pieces were written in times when the definition of freedom. independency. democracy were still new and non good defined in their several societies. But still in each piece the message is similar and really clear. That message is that it is necessary and good for people to give themselves for their beliefs and the good of their society.