Are The Similarities Between Oedipus Rex And The Darker Face Of The Earth

Are we really in control of our own lives? Are we truly writing each new page of our lives through our independent actions, or are we simply acting out what is prewritten? The idea of a supernatural hand guiding us through our lives in a predetermined manner is both terrifying and intriguing. Both Sophocles and Rita Dove explore kismet through Oedipus Rex and The Darker Face of the Earth, respectively. Oedipus Rex, written in 429 BC, is just one example of human beings’ long-held fascination with predestination. The Fates—Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos—were Ancient Greek gods who essentially decided the duration of a person’s life. Even powerful Gods bowed down to the Fates, as they were seen as omnipotent. Dove’s 1994 play The Darker Face of

As stated before, there is a robust amount of foreshadowing in the play. Dramatic irony surrounding Augustus also aids to the suspense and comedic relief. While singing outside with the other slaves, Augustus gazes up at Amalia, who is singing, “sometimes I feel like a motherless child” (Dove 60). This moment occurred right before their romance became more passionate and before Augustus killed Hector. Secondly, the environmental disaster was seen as a warning from the gods that Oedipus was in the wrong and Thebes being ruled immorally. Similarly, after Augustus kills his father, the first step of the fulfillment of the Oedipal prophecy, a doctor tells Amalia that “this cold spell—it’ll kill the last of the crops” (Dove 78). Environmental disasters such as famines or droughts have historically been used to convey an unnatural situation that is against divine will. Additionally, similarly to how Oedipus continued to bear a permanent physical scar due to his transportation away from his birth parents, Augustus also has scars on his side. Oedipus, which means swollen foot in Greek, was named due to his injured feet resulting from his ankles being bound together after birth. Augustus also has scars that he’s “had … since birth” (Dove 82). These were due to riding spurs being put into the basket he was in when

In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus gouges his eyes out, blinding himself, and Jocasta hangs herself out of shame. In an almost identical scene, Amalia realizes that Augustus is her son and painstakingly tells him the truth. He is informed that he is “Hector’s child” and that “his own mother gave… [him] away” (Dove 100). Amalia stabs herself and dies. Other enslaved people fill the room, excited that their uprising will be successful with the mistress of the plantation now killed. Everyone chants “freedom, freedom, freedom” as Augustus is morose over the reality of his mother and father (Dove 102). He sadly says that “I had the sun and the moon once. And the stars with their cool gaze. Now it’s dark” (Dove 101). It is interesting that Rita Dove chose to diverge from Oedipus Rex’s ending. Instead of choosing to write the protagonist as harming himself, she chooses to highlight instead the severity of Augustus’s emotional anguish. The alignment of the other enslaved people successfully staging an uprising in congruence with Augustus’s realization of his fulfillment of the Oedipal prophecy highlights Dove’s message on freedom and fate’s inescapability. Even after Amalia and Louis had, similarly to Jocasta and Laius, sent their child far away, he still found a way back to them. Augustus had craved parental affection but unknowingly sabotaged any chance of truly having it by killing his father and