Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and the Human Condition
Oedipus is living in a dream from which he is only just beginning to awake. In this dream, he not only believes that he is in control of his own fate but that he is in control of his own identity. He assumes that he has three virtues: wisdom, reason, and self-control. When he attempts to use these virtues, however, he discovers that he is mistaken on all three counts. His first mistake is believing that he is wise. From this wisdom he hopes to maintain control over the events around him, but true wisdom is actually surrendering to the fact that control is an illusion, a "seeming." His second mistake is believing that he is a rational man. Indeed, Oedipus has great cognitive powers. He has insight, but this insight is quickly negated when it clashes with his own anger, which ultimately drives Oedipus to fly in the face of reason. His third mistake is believing that he is his own man, self-created. He believes that this makes him completely free, but, in fact, he is deeply tied to his roots. By rejecting his parentage, he attempts to avoid his fate. The chorus claims that no "man on Earth wins more of happiness than a seeming and after that turn[s] away" (Sophocles 64).1 Oedipus turns himself away from happiness because he believes that he is already happy. In his hubris, he becomes the agent of his own destruction. He serves as the paradigm for the self-deluding and self-destructive spirit of the human condition.
Oedipus is a man of great wit and cleverness. He has solved the riddle of the Sphinx and even Teresias says: "It’s in riddle answering you are strongest" (29). But Sophocles understands that it is better to be wise than to be clever, and that the one does ...
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...one thing in terrible detail—that he has been blind all of his life. Creon says that "time is the only test of honest men, / one day is space enough to know a rogue" (37). Oedipus has been far from honest; he has been lying to himself all his life. After only one day, he sees through his own lies. The fact that Oedipus thought he was happy, that he thought he was in control for so long, counts for nothing. "Count no mortal happy," sings the chorus, "till / he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain" (76). His happiness is not real happiness. His wisdom is not real wisdom. His reason is not real reason. Even his identity is an illusion. They are part of a dream in which all men live, none the wiser, as they sleep their real lives away.
NOTES
1. Sophocles, Oedipus the King, trans. David Grene (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991).
He feels he can achieve anything. The central metaphor in this play is blindness. For the tragic hero is, in a sense, blind from the start, at least in the sense that he is not alert to the fact that the way he sees his situation may not be true, may be only a partial take on the reality of things. Oedipus is not prepared to admit that he might be wrong. Why should he?
Existentialism has spread out to numerous people across the world; it has been embraced by artist and writers as much as it has to philosophers. Jean-Paul Sartre is a well know philosopher who wrote novels, drama, and philosophical works. Sartre is a well-known existentialist philosopher. Jean Paul Sartre was born in Paris in the year 1905 and died in the year 1980; from 1924 to 1929 Jean Paul Sartre studied at Ècole Normale Supèrieure and then became a Professor of Philosophy at Le Havre in 1931. In 1932, Sartre went to study at Berlin the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Editor Christian Onof stated “Sartre early works are characterized by a movement of classic phenomenology, but his image derives from Edmund Husserl on methodology, the conception of the self and a level of interest in ethics. The points on divergence are the key points of Sartre’s existential phenomenology whose purpose was to understand human existence rather than the world as a whole” (Onof). Jean-Paul Sartre philosophical career concentrates on the construction of a philosophy of existence k...
Jahshan, C., Wynn, J. K., & Green, M. F. (2013). Relationship between auditory processing and
Boston: Pearson, 2013. 1396-1506. Print. The. Sophocles. “Oedipus the King” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) is referred to as the most popular existentialist of the twentieth century and was born out of the third force movement in psychology. The third force movement of the twentieth century consisted of a diverse collection of psychologists and philosophers that did not all share universal principles, but were all reacting to the new orientation of psychology, which differed from behaviorism in that it did not reduce psychological processes to reactions to mechanical laws of physiological events but acknowledged the mediating and active role of the mind (Brennan, 2003). Despite the diversity of the third force movement, there were commonly shared views amongst its pioneers. One of these views was the focus on personal freedom and responsibility in terms of decision making and fulfilling ones potential (Brennan, 2003). The mind was considered to be active, and dynamic and a place where an individual could express their uniquely human abilities of cognition, willing, and judgments (Brennan, 2003). There was an emphasis on the self, and an acknowledgement of the strive of humans toward individually defined personality development. Existentialism holds that an individual is free to define his or her life course through his or her choices and decisions, but individuals are responsible for the consequences of their personal choices and decisions, and therefore freedom is a burdensome source of anguish (Brennan, 2003).
Nicomachean Ethics is one of his most well known works, and discusses Aristotle’s views on the purpose of human life. It is named after his son, Nicomachus. This work probably consists of texts or notes from his lectures, and is sep...
Sophocles. Oedipus Tyrannus. Norton Critical ed. Trans. Luci Berkowitz and Theodore F. Brunner. New York: Norton, 1970.
The play "Oedipus Rex" is a very full and lively one to say the least. Everything a reader could ask for is included in this play. There is excitement, suspense, happiness, sorrow, and much more. Truth is the main theme of the play. Oedipus cannot accept the truth as it comes to him or even where it comes from. He is blinded in his own life, trying to ignore the truth of his life. Oedipus will find out that truth is rock solid. The story is mainly about a young man named Oedipus who is trying to find out more knowledge than he can handle. The story starts off by telling us that Oedipus has seen his moira, his fate, and finds out that in the future he will end up killing his father and marrying his mother. Thinking that his mother and father were Polybos and Merope, the only parents he knew, he ran away from home and went far away so he could change his fate and not end up harming his family. Oedipus will later find out that he cannot change fate because he has no control over it, only the God's can control what happens. Oedipus is a very healthy person with a strong willed mind who will never give up until he gets what he wants. Unfortunately, in this story these will not be good trait to have.
Thompson, W. F., Schellenberg, E. G., & Letnic, A. K. (2012). Fast and loud background music disrupts reading comprehension. Psychology of Music, 40(6), 700-708.
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 1902.
T. Miller, S. Chen. WW. Lee and E. Sussman, problem solving found that the best way to accomplish tasks is one at a time, when auditory distractions that share memory resources, one tends to make more mistakes when trying to multitasking. The authors problem solving discovered that the mind doesn’t totally submit unaccompanied content to uniform background sound (Fishman, Micheyl, & Steinschneider, 2012; Jones, Alford, Bridges, Tremblay, & Macken, 1999; Sussman, 2005; Sussman, Ritter, & Vaughan, 1998, 1999, p 1141).
The play is divided into three parts. This is very logical. In The first part we have the problem and the accusation of Creon. In part two we have the discovery of the truth. At the end of the play we find the truth and the consequences of it. Oedipus admits his blindness, feels ashamed and is pious.
Dowd, Will. "The Myth of the Mozart Effect." Skeptic 13.4 (2007): 21-23. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.)
Moore, B.C.J. (1997). An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing. (4th ed.) San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Aristotle, in his work The Poetics, tries to delineate the idea of a tragedy. Throughout his work Aristotle says that the hero, or at least the protagonist in a tragedy must be substantially good, almost godlike. This hero must bring upon themselves their downfall, due to their fatal flaw. If the hero is not at a high point, an audience will not care about them, and won’t notice their fall. One must fall a long way in social class in order for it to be noticed by the outside man. Oedipus perfectly exemplifies a tragedy, in relation to modern society, effectively showing how too much pride can often lead to downfall or doom.