"Now I've exposed my guilt, horrendous guilt, could I train a level glance on you, my countrymen? No, if I could just block off my ears, the springs of hearing, I would stop at nothing---I'd wall up my own loathsome body like a prison, blind to the sound of life, not just the sigght. Oblivion---what a blessing... for the mind to dwell a world away from pain This is a very significant passage as it makes the readers to pity Oedipus and truly reflects Oedipus as a tragic figure. The first part of the passage shows how Oedipus, ashamed of his crime, is losing all his power, yet still clinging on to it. Perhaps more important, the passage prompts the readers to pity Oedipus. Oedipus started of by describing his “guilt” as “horrendous”.
From the term “horrendous”, he believes that his crime of killing Laius is horrible. When he thinks that he has commited a very horrible crime, he thinks that he doesn’t deserve to “train a level glance” on his citizens. He is very ashamed of doing the crime, as he can’t even look at his citizens in the same “level”. Remember that Oedipus was the revered king of Thebes, and now he can’t even be in the same “level” as his citizens. This big downfall of “level” infers a big drop of power too. Therefore, Oedipus is losing all his power as a king. Yet, he still calls the people of Thebes his “countrymen”. Only a king calls people by the term “countrymen”. The only reason Oedipus, standing in a king’s place and calling people his “countrymen”, is because he misses being the king, having the power. Oedipus is still clinging on to the position of king, of his power. Seeing Oedipus jumping from the king to the criminal and clinging on to his nonexistent power pathetically, readers would pity Oedipus The second part of the passage shows Oedipus’ tremendous agony and his remorse of being stubborn to know the truth. More importantly, the passage truly represents him as a tragic figure. Now,Oedipus wants to become “blind to the sound of life", he is obviously in a lot of pain and agonized that he even wants to become “blind” to “sound of life”. Here, blind doesn't mean physical blindness,as Oedipus was already blinded. As he wants to be “blind” to life, this blindness most likely means ignorance, mental blindness, to “the sound of life”. He wants to be ignorant again. Then, as he described "oblivion" as a "blessing", this description reinforced the idea of being ignorant. Oblivion is a state of being forgotten. Therefore, being oblivion is basically not knowing about the truth-----thus being ignorant. He keeps on reflecting back to the time when he was ignorant about the truth. He regrets the choice of knowing the truth now.He truly thinks that it is better to be ignorant instead of knowing the truth. Therefore he is implying that he made a mistake of digging too deep. His misfortune was brought by him being too desperate to know the truth-----an error that can be fixed. That is also the definition of a tragic figure. Oedipus is indeed a tragic figure.
take the boy out and kill him when he was still a child. The kind old shepard
The audience knows the truth of Oedipus' fate, yet he still seeks to find it. This search creates an overwhelming sense of anxiety in the reader as Oedipus marches unknowingly towards his
In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, the reader finds Oedipus as an overzealous king, but one that cares deeply for the people who are under his rule. After solving the mystery of the Sphinx and under the belief that he has escaped the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother, Oedipus’ self-confidence goes into over drive. His compassion, for the pain and suffering his people are under, causes him to pronounce a curse on the murderer of Laius. Unknown to the king, he is condemning himself for the crime he committed years ago.
Throughout the tragedy “Sophocles: The Oedipus Cycle” translated by Fitzgerald and Fitts made up of three plays known as “Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone”. Oedipus was given a fate since before his own physical beginning that was extremely cruel of the gods. Through trying to evade this prophecy given to him it subsequently lead to the completion of it. Son of the god Dionysus, and biological son of Laius, Oedipus is not only a victim, but also a hero. It is patently shown that Oedipus follows what is called “The Hero’s Journey”.
Thesis: The completion and substance of Oedipus Rex allows Oedipus to live grief-stricken throughout his successful search for justice.
Tragedy; it’s inevitable. In life, everyone is bound to experience a rough time. These rough times and flaws are what test a hero and build character. Someone experiencing hard times transforms an average person and his mistakes into something remarkable and heroic. What characteristics make a him a tragic hero rather than just an ordinary person? A hero is a person who is admired for courageous acts, noble qualities and outstanding achievements. Despite possessing the same qualities as an ordinary hero, a tragic hero, who is born a noble birth and usually male, has a fatal flaw that ultimately leads to his ruin. The hero 's flaws can range vastly. Tragically, however, the flaws possessed with eventually ruin the person 's reputation and also
In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is depicted as a morally ambiguous character; neither purely evil or purely good. Oedipus runs from his fate initially to prevent himself from pursuing what he believed was his fate; however, he is lead straight towards his real fate. He kills his biological father as he is headed to Thebes, where he takes the throne. Once he has taken the throne, he begins to try and save his city from the plague by looking for the murder of king Laius. However, what he does not know is that the prophet has told him who has slew the king; therefore, he presents his ignorance as a leader. Not only does his ignorance create the flawed character inside himself, but it also causes him to run from his fate. The significance of Oedipus being a morally ambiguous character is that he cannot run from his fate
...are evoked but against the divinely spun destiny and pity is felt for Oedipus, their play-thing, with no more power to change his life than to change his past.
Oedipus, by Sophocles, was written around 441 B.C. Sophocles’ story is considered a Greek tragedy. Aeschylus is the person who coined the term, but “it was Sophocles who brought it to perfection” (Struck). Oedipus is one of the most famous classical dramas, and it is because of Aristotle the story reached that status. Aristotle stated his opinions in his book Poetics, which made it popular (Thorburne 384). In the story, Oedipus displays hubris when he defies the gods and runs away from his true fate which leads to his downfall.
This essay will illustrate the types of characters depicted in Sophocles’ tragic drama, Oedipus Rex, whether static or dynamic, flat or round, and whether protrayed through the showing or telling technique.
Oedipus’ epiphany is truthful in his current state, but his decision in failing to recognize his sin before his realization ultimately makes his epiphany invalid, and its sole purpose is to only assist him in receiving sympathy from the citizens of Thebes. Sophocles uses the phrase “this evil is mine” to suggest how Oedipus has matured through the course of his life, taking responsibility for his own sinful actions and behaviors. Certainly, Oedipus is filled with regret, and Sophocles even uses repetition on the word “guilt” to symbolize how this emotion has devoured his entire life into despair, where “sorrow” and “guilt” intertwine by force. Truly, as Sophocles comments, the ramification of making a sinful decision prompts an act of retribution from the gods in deciding the miserable fate of an individual through his rebellion towards evil against the supernatural. Thus, in the tale of Oedipus and his jinxed fate, Sophocles expresses Oedipus’ prideful attitude that is rooted towards hubris and the overconfidence it buys to illustrate the vicious cycle of the sinful decisions we make and the sudden awareness of how our own tragic flaw would lead us into impending trouble and overwhelming
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 develops a very persistent nature throughout the course of the play. We are first introduced to this persistent nature when Tiresias, a prophet of the God Apollo, warns Oedipus and advises against the investigation into the murder of King Laius. Oedipus’ determination and habitual persistence causes him to disagree with what Tiresias has said, he wants to bring Laius’ murderer to justice and to end the plague that had befallen Thebes. Oedipus states, “By all the Gods, do not deny us what you know. We ask you, all of us, on bended knees.”
Oedipus is depicted as a “marionette in the hands of a daemonic power”(pg150), but like all tragic hero’s he fights and struggles against fate even when the odds are against him. His most tragic flaw is his morality, as he struggles between the good and the evil of his life. The good is that he was pitied by the Shepard who saved him from death as a baby. The evil is his fate, where he is to kill his father and marry his mother. His hubris or excessive pride and self-righteousness are the lead causes to his downfall. Oedipus is a tragic hero who suffers the consequences of his immoral actions, and must learn from these mistakes. This Aristotelian theory of tragedy exists today, as an example of what happens when men and women that fall from high positions politically and socially.
Irony used from beginning to end and with each statement made by Oedipus about finding the killer of Laius. Although the audience is familiar with the story they are fully invested in Oedipus. Because Sophocles uses irony in his play it makes the audience empathize with the protagonist. Oedipus becomes human, a tangible character that experiences the same emotions as everyday people. The thing that makes Oedipus even more human is that he is a victim of a fate assigned to him before he was born. He unknowingly carries out the prophecy destined for him which leads to the discovery that he was abandoned at birth by his biological parents; with this discovery a sense of his identity is taken from him. A character so arrogant normally does not receive empathy from the audience, however, he is still very much an innocent fragile human being punished for his father’s defiance. Sophocles used irony to bring a new twist to a familiar story. The use of irony keeps the audience ahead of the protagonist yet still eagerly awaiting his reaction to the obstacles before him; even though they know his fate the audience wants to see how he deals with his unfortunate