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Oedipus tragedy analysis
Oedipus tragedy analysis
Oedipus tragedy analysis
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This passage was not just one statement but actually an argumentative conversation between Oedipus and the sightful blind man Tiresias.The argument is significant because Oedipus insults Teiresias for living in a dark world.Teiresias rebuttals by stating how his fate is being weaved without him knowing that.What we can infer from this is that Oedipus was quite foolish and blind to seeing the truth.This affected the work as a whole quite similar towards the other passages I’ve sighted since it is tragic and intriguing.
Set ages apart, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex provide different perspectives on the topic of tragedy and what is defined as a tragic hero. Although Oedipus would be thought of as better representing the tragic hero archetype due to tradition and time period, the modern tragic hero of Oedipus Rex is more of a dismal one. Through analysis of their respective hamartias, it is exemplified that the New York businessman with his humble story proves to be more thought provoking than the King of Thebes and his melancholic tale. **By incorporating a more relatable character and plot, Arthur Miller lends help to making Willy Lowman spiral toward his own downfall while building more emotion and response from the audience than with Oedipus. When Oedipus learns of his awful actions, this invokes shock and desperation. With Willy Lowman, the audience goes for a bumpy ride until the eventual, but expected, crash. ** (NEEDS WORK)
“…they will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me!” These are the words Oedipus shouted as he blinds himself upon learning the truth of his past. It is ironic how a person blessed with perfect physical vision could in reality be blind to to matters of life and conscience. During his prime as King of Thebes, Oedipus is renowned for his lucidity and his ability to rule with a clear concept of justice and equality. The people loved him for his skill and wit, as he saved Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx. As a result, Oedipus became overly confident, and refuses to see that he may be the cause of the malady that is plaguing his kingdom. Although physically Oedipus has full use of his eyes, Sophocles uses sight to demonstrate how Oedipus is blind to the truth about his past what it might me for both him and his kingdom. Upon learning the truth, Oedipus gouges out his eyes, so he won’t have to look upon his children, or the misfortune that is his life. Once physically unable to see, Oedipus has clear vision as to his fate, and what must be done for his kingdom and his family
Within these two passages, Teiresias is explaining to Oedipus that the Prophecy admitted he killed his father. Oedipus is denying the fact that he killed his father and looking passed the problem. In the play Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, Sophocles uses rhetorical devices to explain to the readers that Teiresias may be blind, but is seeing through the lie that Oedipus is living, while striking him the truth; this is explained through imagery, metaphors, an allusion, and ethos appeal.
In the play when Oedipus asks Teiresias to reveal the murderer of King Laois, Teiresias blames Oedipus as the murderer and Oedipus denies the blame and gets angry on Teiresias. The chorus even denies the blame on Oedipus and takes Oedipus’ side. The chorus says the following lines to protect Oedipus “This is the king who solved the famous riddle, and towered up, most powerful of men. No mortal eyes but looked on him with envy, Yet in the end ruin swept over him”(Freud 988). Oedipus on the other hand who is really mad at Teiresias blames him and Creon for plotting against him. As Oedipus was blind from the start he was unaware of his origins which will cause him to trigger the unavoidable chain of events that would lead to the fulfilment of the prophecy. But he didn’t knew the fate itself was unavoidable. The irony of theme sight and blindness is produced here when Oedipus is compared to Teiresias. Oedipus who is not blind and has the capability to see with both of his eyes doesn’t finds anything wrong in killing a man, who he later discovers was King Laois and his group. He even took over the throne of Thebes and was found to be lying with his mother thinking her as his wife and having babies with her. On the other hand is Teiresias who is really blind and unable to see than...
Oedipus is very knowledgeable during the play and at some times still extremely ignorant. He doesn’t always put pieces together. When they are right in front of him. Many people in the play call him ignorant when he still believes that he is knowledgeable. Tiresias says “ All ignorant! And I refuse to link my utterance with a downfall such as yours” (19). In this quote Tiresias means that Oedipus is ignorant even though he acts like he knows everything. Oedipus does not know what Tiresias knows and that is that the curse, which stated the Oedipus would marry his mother, has come true. Tiresias can see what will happen when Oedipus finds out that Jocasta is really his mother and wants to prevent that from happening. When Tiresias does not tell Oedipus the information he seeks he gets angry. Tiresias also has another quote that goes along with knowledge verses ignorance. Tiresias states “I’m blind, you say; you mock at that! I say you see and still are blind-appallingly: Blind to your origins and to a union in your house. Yes, ask yourself where are you from. You’d never guess what hate is dormant in your home or buried with your dear ones dead, or how a mother’s and a fathers curse will one day scourge you with its double thongs and whip you staggering from the land. It shall be night where you now boast the day.” (23). This quote says a lot. First Tiresias accuses Oedipus for mocking him yet still not knowing the information that he knows. Which is the curse. He accuses Oedipus for being blind also and not knowing the truth of his origins, which are from a different mother, and then he grew up with. He doesn’t see he has married his mother. In one part of the quote it states “Yes, ask your self where are you from”. Tiresias is hinting at the fact even though Oedipus thinks he’s extremely knowledgeable he’s ignorant because he doesn’t know where he is from.
What is the definition of "to see"? I can see you over there. I see what you mean. As someone is watching a movie, they get frightened at the sight and quickly cover their eyes. As people, we are sometimes unable to uncover the real truth. Sometimes the blind can see better than other people who actually have the sight. Oedipus fails to see the truth but Teiresias could see it very clearly. He knows Oedipus was blind and left him. "You call me unfeeling. If you could only see the nature of your own feelings," says Teiresias (page119). This is a motif in the book. Oedipus has been ignorant in his lifetime. When Teiresias reveals the truth to him, he doesn't believe him. "I say that you are the murderer whom you seek," says Teiresias (page119). He also believes that Teiresias was with Kreon, and he was trying to get rid of him. He is very quick to judge people. Oedipus is disrespectful through the whole story. He talked with rage, when he was speaking to Teiresias and Kreon. "Am I to bear this from him? Out of this place! Out of my sight," yells Oedipus to Teiresias (page120). "No, not exile. It is your death I want, so that the entire world may see what treason means," says Oedipus to Kreon. Those were his negative qualities. Oedipus is also known for his intelligence. He solved the riddle of the sphinx and married Iokaste who was impressed. He goes around trying to achieve knowledge. Oedipus was a caring person to his people. As the ruler, he speaks directly to them and actually solves their problems as if they were his own. "Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I.
"How dreadful knowledge of truth can be when there is no help in truth! I knew this well but did not act on it; else I should not have come" (Line 101). Tiresias admits his grief to Oedipus and tells him that it is his job to tell the truth. Although Oedipus cannot see past reality, Tiresias, who is literally blind, sees the truth in Oedipus’s life. "But I say you, with both eyes, are blind: you cannot see the wretchedness of your life..." (196). As Oedipus argues with Tiresias, he says in return, “You blame my temper but you do not see your own that lives within you; it is me you chide” (369-72).
This shows his compassion and determination for the city, and that the people of Thebes believe in him to save the city. As the story moves on, his short temper is revealed. Tiresias won’t tell him the truth so Oedipus taunts in for being blind showing Oedipus true colors. Oedipus believes that Tiresias knows more than he is saying; Oedipus is using him as a witness to the murder and looking for clues to solve the crime. “For the love of god, don’t turn away, not if you know something.
Oedipus was filled with hubris, and this angered the gods. He believed he was more than a man. These beliefs caused him to ignore the limits he had in being a man. Oedipus needed to look at Teiresias as a window to his future. Oedipus believed that he could take on the Sphinx and rid Thebes of the plague. The plague was the god’s example of the fault of human condition.
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles suggests that the impact of seeing the truth is harmful rather than enlightening. Whenever Oedipus strives to discover more to strengthen Thebes’ perspective of him, it leads him closer to his fate as determined by prophesy. Tiresias stands as a model in the play for the individual who is able to see the meaning beyond plot of events although his is blind, and Oedipus represents the oblivious arrogant individual who is never content because they need to be the unsurpassed individual. In the play, Sophocles illustrates the downside of a personality like Oedipus who desires to see the truth by ending the play with the brutality of gouging out his own eyes. Ultimately, the play reinforces that seeing the truth is harmful and being content with what you have, without greedily striving for more, can help avoid fate and a related deposition.
Sophocles introduces a prophet, a seer, Teiresias, into the play. Teiresias is a wise, old man who has supernatural powers to interpret the past and predict the future. Ironically, Teiresias is physically blind, but can “see” the truth about Oedipus. Oedipus has trouble imagining that his father life was taken at his hands. It signifies that Oedipus as a man is ignorant to the true appearance of things - this blind man can "see" the truth about Oedipus, yet Oedipus, in all of his physical perfection, cannot.
...er of Oedipus. Teiresias gives insight into the ill fate that awaits Oedipus. Foreshadowing is the main theme of this scene, which sets the tone for the rest of "Oedipus Rex." The dramatic elements of the interaction between Teiresias and Oedipus, the setting, allusion, as well as the unpredictable outcome, leave the reader absorbed in the content of the play. The reader eagerly anticipates the fate and struggle of Oedipus, as he journeys towards the awareness that will consume him.
The Athenian audience probably did not obsess with the unfairness of it all. Since the audience would have been well aware of the story and its details, the draw, and the entertainment would have been seeing the storyís lessons portrayed in a way that emphasized human failings, particularly the illusions that we hold concerning our mastery of affairs. Oedipus himself is described as "masterful," yet watching his story, which we know so well, we find it dripping with irony at the kingís every proud utterance. In his argument with Teiresias, Oedipus accuses the seer of being "blind in mind and ears as well as in your eyes." Teiresias responds that Oedipus is but a "Öpoor wretch to taunt me with the very insults which every one soon will heap upon yourself."
Here is a story where Oedipus the King, who has accomplished great things in his life, discovers that the gods were only playing with him. He has everything a man of that time could want; he is king of Thebes, he has a wonderful wife and children, and great fame through out the lands. He has lived a good life, but in the end everything is taken from him.
Oedipus and Tiresias, characters of Sophocles' play "Oedipus Tyrannus," are propelled to their individual destinies by their peculiar relationships with truth. Paranoid and quick to anger Oedipus, is markedly different from the confident and self-assured Tiresias. In the dialogue between the two men, Oedipus rapidly progresses from praise of Tiresias as a champion and protector of Thebes in line 304, to blatantly accusing the blind prophet of betraying the city in line 331, to angrily insulting him in line 334. Rather than be intimidated by the protagonist's title and temperament, Tiresias draws strength from what he knows is true and is able to stand his ground.