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Distinguish between power and authority
What is the importance of human suffering
What is the importance of human suffering
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With its popularity equivalent to the modern day version of the tale of Snow White, the title character of the Greek tragedy of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King can turn iron-fists into timorous wimps. As an honorable king and a miracle worker, the positive attributes of Oedipus would have been worthy of taking into account had he not committed one of the greatest sins of human life – and yes, this was even worse than a verbal sin. Portrayed as the protagonist and villain, Oedipus’ situation was destined by the supreme will of the gods and any attempt to escape the evil that the gods intimidate him with would eventually fail, because his hubris towards his power and position would instigate more castigation from the gods. Although he was unaware of what was to come, Oedipus does make an attempt in escaping from a part of his destiny that would eventually occur. He is allegedly the son of Queen Merope and King Polybus of Corinth, until a man tells him that he is not his father’s son. Curiosity creeps into Oedipus’ mind, so one day he sets out for Delphi. He receives an oracle from Apollo which says that he would “couple with [his] mother” (873) and “kill [his] father” (875). Disgusted and humiliated, Oedipus abandons Corinth – “running toward some place where [he] would never see the shame of those oracles come true” (878-880). Reaching a crossroad, Oedipus kills Laius, the king of Thebes; later on in the play, he tells his wife Jocasta: “And you, his wife, I’ve touched your body with these, the hands that killed your husband cover you with blood” (908-909). “Apollo told me once – it is my fate – I must make love with my own mother, shed my father’s blood with my own hands. So for years I have given Corinth a wide berth, and it ha... ... middle of paper ... ...ously, Oedipus, having no experience and scholarly knowledge whatsoever, was the only person in that city who had the ability to solve the Sphinx’s riddle. It is certainly true when Oedipus asks, “But why, why? Wouldn’t a man of judgment say – and wouldn’t he be right – some savage power has brought this down upon my head” (917-918)? Oedipus’ life was not a question of accident and luck. At the time when the noble and most honorable men were looked upon as the wisest, fate can assay them to see if they actually possess a true cognition. Escaping from the challenge would be impossible, until the person goes through the whole ride. It all comes down to showing strength through one’s actions rather than through words. Oedipus, however, seems to have failed the test due to his curiosity of learning more about his true identity and being ignorant of his parameters.
As tragic hero Oedipus displays all of the usual canon; power, arrogance, and pride. Oedipus manifests himself in a position of confidence, which he derives from his success at solving the riddle of the Sphinx and marrying a queen.“It was you who came / and released Cadmus’ Town from the tribute / we paid to the cruel songstress…” (Sophocles, 33-35) , “CREON: Then tell me this - / are you not married to my sister?” (Sophocles, 696-697). In turn, it also enabled him to make rash decisions, such as slaying his father, without personal recompense. “I was to slay my father. And he dies, / And the grave hide...
He murders his father and marries his mother unknowingly. While it may seem to some that Oedipus was destined to carry out his fate, it is also true that Oedipus’ personality led him to his fate. It is clear to see that Oedipus is an impulsive and passionate man, which causes Oedipus to fulfill the prophecy that haunts him. He flees the kingdom of Corinthian in order to avoid his fate. Along his journey he comes to a crossroad that is blocked by a chariot, and “in a fit of anger” Oedipus kills the father he never knew (Meyer 1422).
In the play, Oedipus the King, blindness is used metaphorically and physically to characterize several personas , and the images of clarity and vision are used as symbols for knowledge and insight. Enlightenment and darkness are used in much the same manner, to demonstrate the darkness of ignorance, and the irony of vision without sight.
In the Oedipus at Colonus, there are three major themes of the play, prophecy, guilt and death. Each of them is part of how Oedipus’ life plays out. The prophecy told that he was the killer of his own father and married his mother, and how the guilt, he had for committing these acts, by gouging out his own eyes; and how after his family disowned him then wanting him to help them knowing that whoever was on Oedipus’ side would win the war. Also where Oedipus’ body should be laid to rest after his death.
Undoubtedly there has been a tremendous amount of speculation and dissection of this play by countless people throughout the ages. I can only draw my own conclusions as to what Sophocles intended the meaning of his play to be. The drama included a number of horrific and unthinkable moral and ethical dilemas, but I believe that was what made the play so interesting and that is exactly the way Sophocles intended it to be. The play was obviously meant to entertain and portray the author’s own insight. The underlying theme to the play is that no man should know his own destiny, it will become his undoing. This knowledge of things to come was presented to both Laius and Oedipus in the form of prophecies well in advance of it coming to be. The prophecies told of things that were so morally disturbing that they both aggressively did everything in their power to try and stop them from coming true. The story begins with Oedipus at the height of power as King of Thebes. His kingdom has encountered rough times and he has sent his nobleman Creon to seek help from the god Apollo to restore his land. Creon tells Oedipus that he must find the murderer of the previous King Laius and by finding this man and banishing him, his land will be restored. The murder occurred some time ago and King Oedipus sends for the seer Theiresias with his powers of prophecy to aid in the search for the murderer. Sophocles cleverly projects his feelings on wisdom and knowledge through Teirsias when he says “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise!”(23) Teirsias knows that this terrible prophecy has already been set into motion and the damage has already been done. There is really no point in telling it to Oedipus because it will only cause more harm than good. Oedipus provokes Teirsias into telling him the prophecy, “ Í tell you, king, this man, this murderer-he is here. In name he is a stranger among citizens but soon he will be shown to be a citizen true native Theban, and he’ll have no joy of the discovery: blindness for sight and beggary for riches his exchange, he shall go journeying to a foreign country tapping his way befor him with a stick.
Oedipus is so cocky and arrogant that he knew before he even attempted to solve the puzzle that he would be able to complete it. This sense of over-self confidence is seen throughout the entire work, its extremely obvious. Even though it looks like Oedipus is doing all of these great and heroic things for the good of the city,
Many times humans do things that contradict another thing they do. An example of this is one thing may be good but also bad at the same time. A person who has done this more then once is Oedipus in the writer Sophocles plays. Sophocles uses imagery like light verses darkness, knowledge verses ignorance and sight verses blindness.
Aristotle defined a tragic story as the adventure of a good man who reaches his ultimate downfall because he pushed his greatest quality too far. Sophocles advocates the definition in the tragic play Oedipus Rex. He develops the play with the great polarities of fame and shame, sight and blindness, and ignorance and insight to show Oedipus’ experiences in search for knowledge about his identity. Through his search, Oedipus pushes his quest for truth too far and ultimately reaches his doom. Oedipus’ reliance on his intellect is his greatest strength and ultimate downfall.
For our makeup assignment, we have the task of writing our opinion on the statement, “Circumstances are beyond the control of man; but his conduct is in his own power.” This means that a man cannot control what happens around him but he can can control the actions of which he takes to get through whatever life throws at him. Oedipus did very well with the circumstances he was given until he found out the news of his relationship with his mother. To stand by this quote by Benjamin Disraeli, Oedipus had no control over the circumstances that he would then discover. While, he did not have control over these events, Oedipus had the choice to react to his now biological mothers’ confession.
Through the character of Oedipus, Sophocles shows the futility and consequences of defying the divine order. Oedipus served Thebes as a great ruler, loved by his subjects; but it is his one tragic flaw, hubris, which dooms his existence, regardless of the character attributes that make him such a beloved king.
Throughout the play, Oedipus is faced with the truth and fails to acknowledge it. He is first told by the drunk at the party, but he dismisses it as just something said by an ignorant drunk. He then visits the oracle and is told his fate determined by the gods and believes he can escape it by fleeing to Thebes. On his way he carries out the first part of the fate by killing his father. He then makes it to Thebes and marries Jocasta, unknowingly fulfilling the fate. Teiresias finally tells Oedipus the horrible truth, but Oedipus calls him a liar and fails to recognize the truth again. When Oedipus finally figures that what the oracle, drunk, and Teiresias was all true, he cannot handle it and blinds himself while Jocasta kills herself.
Oedipus is a hero, as defined by Johnston. According to Johnston, ‘a hero is someone who confronts fate in a very personal manner and whose reaction to that encounter serves to illuminate for us our own particular condition’ (Johnston, Part 2). Oedipus definitely confronts fate in a personal manner. Among other things, he challenges the mysterious qualities of fate by pursuing the Shepherd despite warnings from Jocasta (Sophocles, 71). Oedipus follows through on confronting fate with his individual approach of uncompromising persistence and integrity (Johnston, Part 3). Even at the end of his downfall, Oedipus maintains that Kreon should banish him and that he must obey the curses he himself ordered for the murderer of King Laios (Sophocles, 89-90). Despite being so broken and publicly shamed, Oedipus still persists with his former way of interacting with fate : noble defiance (Johnston, Part 3). Although this quality itself is admirable, Oedipus takes uncompromising to the extreme, losing insight on everything else. Oedipus becomes ignorant to his surroundings, leading to his downfall (Johnston, Part 3). Oedipus’ story also challenges the fundamental belief that life should be rational and just. (Johnston, Part 3) His story illuminates that fate is arbitrarily cruel and will sometimes pick the gre...
Since Oedipus grew up in the kingdom of Corinth to some extend he was safe from his prophecy. Oedipus’ downfall can be attributed to many different things, but Oedipus own tragic flaws lead him to the path where he fulfilled his prophecy. Oedipus arrogance and pride made sure that he couldn’t have the help that he need it to understand the truth. Oedipus curiosity and willingness to don’t find the whole truth led him to the path of ignorance that was responsible for his departure from Corinth. The pride that Oedipus felt for solving the sphinx riddle and been the King of Thebes was the last nail in the coffin that led to his downfall, if Oedipus had listened to what the people that were trying to help him had to said, Oedipus could have been able to prevent his
The play starts at the doors of the king’s palace with some beggars at the door steps and the priest gathering branches of olives for wreath. Oedipus, who is the king of the place, asks them why they are grieving and praying all the time. People who had come to the palace wanted to have a word with the king concerning the things that were happening in the palace (Foster 35). The king, on the other hand, promises them that he will help them in whatever they want. In addition, citizens of this land had found themselves in a number of calamities; the reasons as to why the land had plunged into plagues was as a result of Oedipus having killed his father and ended up marrying his mother. This play is taken as an indication of human blindness; this is shown by Oedipus’ not taking into consideration the fact that what he has done could be the reasons as to why there is a plague in the land.
Oedipus had good intentions for his people and tries to save the city when death is at its doorstep even admitting that they mean more to him that is own life “I grieve for these, my people far more that I fear for my own life”(106-106). His determination to seek the truth and care for his people not only makes him an admirable man but respectable king. His quest for truth no matter