Truth is always there, one just has to look for it. “My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me… It has only strengthened me.” - Deborah Tindle. Learning from the past has one of the most important skills mankind has ever learnt because if they didn’t they would keep making the same mistakes as they wouldn’t know what the right thing to do is. The idea of learning from our mistakes is literally in our blood in the form on natural selection. This skill of adapting has become very significant in the twentieth century as the world around us changes everyday, and to compete in this competitive world one has to change to survive. This great teachings of the past don’t just come in form of experiments and calculations, they can also be learnt from the plays and books people left behind. One great example of this tool would be the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. This play has many complex ideas and …show more content…
The reader has seen many situations where Oedipus had to suffer due to his hubris, however, he was not the only one suffering as his hubris brought agony to the whole city in the shape of the deadly plague. The people had to suffer so much that the people, who once worshipped Apollo as their everything, started saying things like “Nowhere Apollo’s golden glory now [and] / the gods go down” (996-97). Through this excerpt Sophocles indirectly showed the influence of the king on his people because if their king didn’t act hubristically, then the plague would have never hit the city and the people of Thebes would have never questioned the god. This leads the reader back to the theme as ignorance in Oedipus has spread within his kingdom, which is blinding the Thebans from seeing the truth as Apollo has already said that the plague was due to the doings someone from Thebes, yet the people blame god for the
“It is the truth that sustains me.” (2. 341)This is a quote from Teiresias, one of the characters in Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus Rex. The quote has an alternate importance and significance for each of the distinctive characters in the tragedy. As for Oedipus, it would be inverse.
The field is freshly raked, the sun is blaring in, the game is beginning, but before she is ready, the ball is hit. With the spot light on her, she quickly stumbles over her feet and misses the ball. “Stupid rock” she mumbles under her breath. Her parents protect her with words like “good job” then she proceeds to smile. Ignorance is bliss, for some.
In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles displays a tragedy in which a righteous man is plagued by his hubris, leading to his inevitable downfall. To cleanse himself from his torment, Oedipus is left with no other choice than to painfully rip out the sinful eyes that deceived him. The act of Oedipus gouging out his eyes reveals Sophocles’ didactic purpose: one's physical eyes can be blind towards the truth. When a vicious plague hits Thebes, Oedipus begins to display signs of pride blinding him from the right course of action.
In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the concept of sight and blindness is shown countless times throughout the play. In Oedipus Rex there is both literal blindness and figurative blindness. This play has a character who is blind, which is an example of literal blindness and a character who can see visually but unable to perceive the truth. The concepts of sight and blindness has a major role in Oedipus Rex. It lets the reader know that sight is not only based on what you see, but also based on one’s perspective, that the blind may see more than someone who is not blind, and that sometimes being able to see may not be a blessing but a curse. These are some of the roles of sight within Oedipus Rex.
Oedipus exhibits great leadership qualities at the beginning and end of the play. Oedipus is strong at leading by accepting the first challenge of trying to solve the city 's plague. Oedipus is not a strong leader in the middle of the play because he focuses only on himself and his destiny. At the end of the play oedipus redeems himself as king.
Oedipus is at his prime during the beginning of the play because he absent in the knowledge of his past. As the plot progresses, Oedipus becomes driven by curiosity and increasingly agitated as more information regarding his mysterious past is uncovered. Consequently, Oedipus’ realizes that he alone is the source for the defilement in Thebes and cannot emotionally handle the consequences in a productive manner. It is proven that knowledge has the ability to remove the sense of blissful ignorance and replace the void with mental
The tragic hero must have a flaw or error of judgment which can come in the from of justice or vengeance. As seen in Creon and Oedipus' story that the justice they serve is immortal and wicked. The hero must also experience a setback of fortune brought forth because of the hero's inaccuracy in discernment. The realization or recognition that the setback was brought by the hero's own actions. Excessive Pride is the most common of tragic hero's flaws which bring forward the remaining of the part the predicaments.
Thebes was suffering and Oedipus, as a king, was responsible of solving the problem to save his people from the burden they were carrying. Theiresias, the prophet, is then called to help solve the problem. The solution is given to Oedipus. Theiresias says the truth to Oedipus about his life, but he is malcontent of it and continue in his blindness, "I say that you have
In ancient Greek literature, diseases and afflictions often play key roles within the story. In Sophocles 's tragedy Oedipus Rex, the presence and recurrence of afflictions are central elements to the plot. Oedipus and his city both possess conditions that determine the outcome of the play. The motif of ailments, like the plague and blindness, highlight the hubris and failures of Oedipus to demonstrate his reliance on the gods.
Critic Northrop Frye claims that tragic heroes “seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them… Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” A perfect example of this assertion would be King Oedipus in the classical tragic play “Oedipus Rex,” written by Sophocles, where Oedipus, himself, becomes the victim of his doomed fate. As someone who was born and raised of royal blood, he becomes too proud and ignorant, believing that he was too powerful for his fate. Using the metaphor “great trees [are] more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass,” Frye compares the heroic but unfortunate Oedipus to the great trees as they both are apt to experience victimization of tragic situations
Brilliantly conceived and written, Oedipus Rex is a drama of self-discovery. Achieved by amazing compression and force by limiting the dramatic action to the day on which Oedipus learns the truth of his birth and his destiny is quite the thriller. The fact that the audience knows the dark secret that Oedipus unwittingly slew his true father and married his mother does nothing to destroy the suspense. Oedipus’s search for the truth has all the tautness of a detective tale, and yet because audiences already know the truth they are aware of all the ironies in which Oedipus is enmeshed. That knowledge enables them to fear the final revelation at the same time that they pity the man whose past is gradually and relentlessly uncovered to him.
Oedipus Rex Henry Rollins once stated, “Weakness is what brings ignorance, cruelty, and pride, all these things that will keep a society chained to the ground, one foot nailed to the floor.” In Sophocles play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, weakness is his fate. Throughout the play, Oedipus is trying to outrun his fate because he feels the gods are subordinate to his powerful figure. Oedipus is seen as a god throughout Thebes because he defeated the mighty Sphinx, who was once haunting over the city. After defeating the Sphinx, Oedipus took over as king by killing his father and coupling his mother as his hubris blinded him from reality.
In Ancient Greek mythology, fate is the focal point of many plays and is significant in establishing the catharsis that Greek tragedies provide for the audience. The playwrights use the catharsis to allude to the general theme that people cannot escape their fate, and using symbolism is an effective way to emphasize the theme. Sophocles, the Ancient Greek playwright of Oedipus Rex, uses the symbolism of blindness to develop the play’s theme and teach the audience a lesson about fate. Sophocles uses blindness to symbolize to ability to see truth and accept fate.
Human beings have been baffled by existential questions and conflicts throughout history, and we humans attempt to answer these questions and reconcile these conflicts through various cultural depictions of gods and goddesses, religion, and spirituality. Homer’s The Odyssey and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King provide two interesting examples of how Ancient Greeks sought to define meaning in life, establish and enforce morality, justify social hierarchies, explain powerful forces, and especially to explore the age-old question of whether our lives are tied to fate or whether we exercise free will. In The Odyssey, Homer writes of numerous gods and goddesses, intimately known by his hero Odysseus and his Ancient Greek audience. The gods and goddesses
The Freedom of Oedipus is the Freedom of Thebes: Why Oedipus Cannot be Free Until the Truth is Exposed In Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, the theme of human fate versus free will is explored in the age-old tale of the king of Thebes who inadvertently murdered his father and married his mother. The play opens with Oedipus, a strong man and compassionate leader whom the audience can easily admire. By the closing of the play, a journey of self-discovery has lead Oedipus to his fall from kingship and exile from the city he loves, as well as the suicide of his wife and his self-blinding.