Living life can be both challenging and straightforward. In Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Oedipus and the prisoner in the cave are forced to believe that reality cannot be accessed for people who use only there 5 senses. Plato thinks that every human has a purpose which is to discover and travel on the path to awareness. What makes Oedipus very interesting is that in times of trouble, he discovers the truth of understanding by using Plato’s four stages of awareness, the audience can see Oedipus’s path to enlightenment which causes his downfall. This begins with imagination, advances to belief, continues to thoughts and reason and the truth understanding and awareness.
Imagination is very noticeable in the beginning of the story. We find out that Thebes has been affected by a plague. The citizens want answers. Oedipus tells them that he has sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle at Delphi to gain information about how to help Thebes. Creon later returns with a letter from the oracle himself. He says that the plague will end when the killer the of the former king of Thebes, Laius, is found and cast away. He also says that the murderer is inside the city. Oedipus then asks Creon if he has any knowledge of the murderer. Oedipus then vows to find the murderer and cast he away forever (not knowing that he is the killer). Oedipus asks for Tiresias, a blind prophet. Oedipus states “ I have sent for him twice, in fact, and have been wandering for sometime why is he not yet here.” (Knox). Oedipus then asks Tiresias what he knows about the murder. Everyone is imagining who has killed Laius. You can imagine the truth and think it is real when in fact it isn’t.
Belief is very notic...
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...e understands that he needs to leave and does so with great ease. Understanding the situation makes you think better in all situations.
What makes Oedipus very interesting is that in times of trouble, he discovers the truth of understanding by using Plato’s four stages of awareness, the audience can see Oedipus’s path to enlightenment which causes his downfall. This begins with imagination, advances to belief, continues to thoughts and reason and the truth understanding and awareness. Life can be very challenging if you don’t know the truth and try to find it out without the four steps.
Works Cited
Works Cited
Plato. Allegory of the Cave. Comp. Tom Ferderer. Mendota Heights: Saint Thomas Academy, n.d. Print.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Bernard Knox. New York: Simon, Inc, 1994. Print.
Plato. Allegory of the Cave. in The Norton Reader. Linda H. Peterson et al., eds. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.
Plato. “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1992.
In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus, the King, there are various instances where Oedipus tries to escape his destiny—enlightenment—only to discover the truth that he cannot. Similarly, in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” the prisoner travails to understand and adjust to his newly visited environment. In both works, the men first had to realize their ignorance before they could begin to acquire knowledge and true understanding of the complexities of the human condition. Specifically, in Oedipus, the King, it was Oedipus’ illusion of himself as a man unequaled in leadership whereas in “Allegory of the Cave” it was the prisoner’s initial refutations of enlightenment being shown him until he realizes its intellectual, spiritual, and social significance.
Plato’s allegory of the cave, located in Book VII of The Republic is one of the most famous allegories in which he has created. This simile touches base on a number of philosophical ideas which Plato developed over the progression of The Republic (Plato, G.M.A Grube, 1993), the most noticeable being the dividing line. The dividing line is the point between the world of ideas where we live and the world of the forms which is in the heavens. This allegory of the cave helps people understand the theory on which philosophy is based. It is also in this Book where the education of the guardians is outlined.
Plato. "Simile of a Cave." The Republic. Trans. Desmond Lee. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002: 1-9.
In the play “Oedipus Rex by Sophocles” the themes of sight and blindness are produced to develop in the readers mind that it is not the eyesight, but insight that holds the key to truth and without It no amount of knowledge can help uncover the truth. Insight can be described as the ability to see what is going to happen. Characters like Oedipus and Teiresias hold a significant role in the play and other characters like Iocaste are also important in the play.
...ly saw the world. For the first time, he understands his surroundings, and understands the world for what it really was. Even though the truth takes away his family, kingdom, pride and possessions, the truth gives him something he needs more than all of those: understanding. Sophocles shows his brilliance as a playwright by adding intelligent, terrible irony to the end of the play. The irony is that at the monumental change in Oedipus' life, when he can, for the first time, see the world with clarity, he can see nothing at all, for he blinds himself. Oedipus becomes like Tiresias, visually blind, but mentally clear. Perhaps Oedipus unintentionally takes an example from Tiresias, learning that it is far better to live one's life without sight and see the world clearly through the minds eye, than to be able to see, but have ones sight blinded by pride.
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.
Incapable of realizing the consequences of his decisions, Oedipus' pride continuously grows, further blurring his perception. The tragedy mainly resides in the intimation of a greater reality through self awareness which stands limited and possibly defeated by necessity. That even with the distraction of outside forces, the importance lies in the fact that one still claims one's self awareness. Sadly, Oedipus' self importance blurs his perception, therefore creating a life filled with more vanity. Through the Sphinx's riddle, Oedipus symbolically exhibits all three phases of life, (infancy, adulthood, and old age) leading to him striving for greatness only to be cut down, falling from prosperity to the harsh depths of misfortune.
The cave allegory does not stand alone in the Republic, for it is best understood as a successful philosophical conclusion to a trilogy of allegories. This trilogy, expressed in beautiful pictorial and poetic fas...
It is said that the truth will set you free, but in the case of Sophocles’ Oedipus, the truth drives a man to imprison himself in a world of darkness by gouging out his eyes. As he scours the city for truth, Oedipus’ ruin is ironically mentioned and foreshadowed in the narrative. With these and other devices Sophocles illuminates the king’s tragic realization and creates a firm emotional bond with the audience.
When it is suggested that Oedipus himself could be the source of the plague, his anger emerges in full force. "(Truth has strength,) but not for you (Teiresias); it has no strength for you because you are blind in mind and ears as well as in your eyes (Soph. O.T. 370-371)." The Oedipus of Senaca’s play is not nearly so rash. He seems to dread what will come from his exploration into the death of Laius, even though the condition of his city is just as terrible as that of Sophocles’. "I shudder, wondering which way fate will steer. My shaky mood could waver either way. When joys and griefs so close together lie, the mind is doubtful. How much should one see? How much is best to know? I’m dubious (Sen. Oed. 204-208)." This Oedipus even has thoughts that the plague might have something to do with him, that his rule might be the pollution that has descended upon the city (Sen. Oed. 40). It is this anxiety that Seneca wishes to bring out in his play, one of the emotions that are the downfall of man.
In book seven of ‘The Republic’, Plato presents possibly one of the most prominent metaphors in Western philosophy to date titled ‘Allegory of the Cave’.
meaning, and goes along with the twin titled allegory of Plato. The idea of a cave, in my
Plato's Theory of Forms draws parallels to The Allegory of the Cave, highlighting the concept of human beings being ignorant to true perfection. In the writing Plato uses symbols to convey a veiled meaning. The philosopher says, “The prisoners s...