Seeking Truth In Sophocles 'Oedipus The King'

A man goes to the doctors for an ordinary physical; after several tests were performed the doctors want to share some tragic information with the man. One of the tests diagnosed the man with a disease that will result in him dying. The man’s first reaction is that he wants to know how much longer he has to live. The question is does one really want to put a timer on the amount of time they have left? In this society there are many people who seek the truth to matters that can have tremendous effect on their lives. The theme of seeking truth is one that is presented in the movie Oedipus Rex by Pier Paolo Pasolini which is based on Sophocles’ play Oedipus Tyrannus. The movie and play identifies the role of a man struggle with fate and seeking

In the Introductory Lectures on Psycho- analysis Freud states, “You all know the Greek legend of King Oedipus, who was destined by fate to kill his father and take his mother to wife, who did everything possible to escape the oracle’s decree and punished himself by blinding when he learned that he had none the less unwittingly committed both these crimes. (410)” In the movie, after Oedipus is concludes the fact that he has killed his father King Laius on the road from Delphi and that he was married his mother, Queen Jocasta. Oedipus becomes an emotional wreck and does not want to accept that even after he run from his fate, it enforced it. If Oedipus had not gone to the oracles to gain understanding of his confusing dream and remained with his adoptive parents his fate might not have been forced upon him. Jocasta tries to comfort Oedipus by telling him not to believe in what the oracles have to say because one determines their own fate. The only way to refute his fate would be by the castration complex, which would eliminate the problem as its source. Another refute would be the ideology that Freud presents that every woman is your mother and every man is your father therefore Oedipus should have maintained that mentally that would have prevented the oracle from happening. As scenario such as the one presented

According to Freud, humans have animalistic instincts that enforce the Oedipus complex therefore fulfilling a desire. In Oedipus’s desperate escape from Thebes he goes in opposite direction to Crito where the town is trying to evacuate from the Sphinx. The person who gets rid of the Sphinx will become the widowed queen’s husband. The wish- fulfillment to become the queen’s husband who would evidently be an older woman is fulfilled. Freud relates wish-fulfillment dreams to have a connection with daily activities that translate into one’s dream. Oedipus’s escape from his resulted in him being motherless creating the desire to have a mother present in his life could have been the factor of his will to kill off the Sphinx. This is another example of his ego, killing the Sphinx would have given him immediate status in Crito and provides him with a high position of