ipl-logo

Comparing Ignorance In 'Oedipus Rex And 1984'

1964 Words8 Pages

The search for the truth verses the comfort of ignorance is a common theme in literature. Two works that really show this are the tragic play, Oedipus Rex by sophocles and the george orwell novel, 1984. Both of these novels

The novel begins on a bright cold day in mid-April, From there on a world is presented that is permeated by fear and hate with such slogans as hate week, war is peace,Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is truth.. The society they live in has nothing like our first amendment. Everything is censored by the Ministry of truth. It is even a crime to keep a diary and Winston Smith's life is endangered by doing so. Ironically Winston is employed by the ministry of truth, and his job is to constantly rewrite history or destroy it. …show more content…

The Ensemble detects that something terrible is going to happen and join Jocasta's cry in asking the secret to be left uncertain. Oedipus' men lead in an old shepherd, who is reluctant to answer Oedipus' inquiries. Be that as it may, at long last he reveals to Oedipus reality. He did in reality give the ambassador an infant kid, and that infant kid was Laius' child - a similar child that Jocasta and Laius left on a slope to pass on account of the prophet's …show more content…

A delegate uncovers that he got a sword and scanned for Jocasta with the plan to murder her. After entering her chamber, in any case, he finds that she has hanged herself. He takes the gold ornaments from her dress and gouges his eyes out. He seems in front of an audience once more, blood gushing from his currently daze eyes. He shouts out that he, who has seen and done such abominable things, should never observe again. He asks the Melody to slaughter him. Creon enters, having heard the whole story, and asks Oedipus to come inside, where he won't be seen. Oedipus beseeches him to give him a chance to leave the city, and Creon discloses to him that he should counsel Apollo first. Oedipus discloses to him that expulsion was the discipline he pronounced for Laius' executioner, and Creon concurs with him. Before he leaves always, in any case, Oedipus requests to see his girls and asks Creon to deal with them. Oedipus is then driven away, while Creon and the young ladies backpedal in the royal residence. The Chorale, alone, mourns Oedipus' lamentable destiny and his bound

Show More
Related
170 Words | 1 Pages

He goes as far as to order Creon’s death: “No, I want you dead” (697). Oedipus refuses to listen to others and acts impulsively. This behavior continues when the shepherd refuses to answer his questions. Oedipus immediately threatens torture: “So, you won’t talk

Read More
1900 Words | 8 Pages

Once the prophet Teiresias began helping Creon, Oedipus accused him of being untruthful. The last prophecy Teiresias gives is that “He will be blind, although he now can see.550 He will be a poor, although he now is rich. He will set off for a foreign country,groping the ground before him with a stick”(Sophocles, Oedipus). Unbenoiscent to Oedipus, this prophecy was towards him, thus it was inevitable. After finding out that Oedipus was her son, Jocasta, Oedipus's wife hangs herself.

Read More
509 Words | 3 Pages

Therefore, he will have to punish himself as he promised the people of the town. When Oedipus learns that he is the one who killed Laius, he is angry and unaccepting. He turns to blame the person closest to him, Creon, but, Tiresias says, “Creon is not your enemy. You are your own” (Episode 1).

Read More
614 Words | 3 Pages

After Oedipus realizes that he fulfilled his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother, Oedipus declares,”I have been saved for something great and terrible, something strange. Well let destiny come and take me on its way”(323). Then Oedipus gouges out his own eyes so that he cannot look upon his parents in the underworld, his children, or the city he once ruled. He then asks Creon to return him to the place he should have died as a young child, the mountain. The statement reveals that Oedipus fulfilled his fate and that Oedipus truly believes destiny set him on the path of destruction.

Read More
330 Words | 2 Pages

It is here where Creon, the new ruler of his homeland, tracks him down and attempts to force him to come home. For Oedipus has become holy and the place in which he shall die will be blessed. Oedipus denies his former ally and with help wards him off. After a tough confrontation with one of his sons, Oedipus finally dies in

Read More
446 Words | 2 Pages

After this threat, the Shepard confesses that the baby was from the house of Laius, confirming that Laius is Oedipus 's father. If Oedipus hadn 't been so determined to find the killer, he would have never discovered this information, and wouldn 't have ever his mutilated himself. Oedipus 's hamartia of ambition is the precise reason of why he is a

Read More
1820 Words | 8 Pages

At the end of the play, Oedipus realizes that he is a disgraced man and the true evil in the city. He gouges out his eyes and begs to be lead out of the city. He says to Creon, “never let my father’s city be condemned to have me living here while I still live” (Sophocles 70). This shows that he truly does care for his city and does not want his people to suffer for his crimes. He consoles them by saying, “this disease infects no one but me” (Sophocles 69).

Read More
1273 Words | 6 Pages

Creon did not want to rashly banish Oedipus from the land. He was going to await an answer from the god. However, Oedipus was not satisfied with that answer. Despite Creon’s desire to wait for a response, Oedipus felt convinced that he deserved banishment from the kingdom at once. Oedipus believed he deserved to suffer for everything he did and only sought to torture himself rather than appease the gods.

Read More
444 Words | 2 Pages

After his accusations, Oedipus mocked Teiresias for his blindness, and told him to leave the palace as Oedipus had grown tired of him. Oedipus’s imperfect nature stopped him from learning the truth from Teiresias before it was too late, and lead to great loss at the end of the play. Throughout the story of Oedipus the King, the imperfectly noble nature of Oedipus is displayed for all to learn from. His temperamental and overzealous nature made him argumentative and combative when Teiresias tried to tell him the truth about the murder, causing Oedipus to accuse his good friend Creon of being a usurper.

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

Jocasta is afraid that the truth might actually be true, she doesn't want him to continue but he is arrogant and doesn't stop. In the end of the play, knowledge causes Oedipus to fall into ruin. Oedipus knowledge didn't help him where he most needed it, even though he defeated the sphinx and saved thebes anything can go into ruin like that. The truth come out maybe something Oedipus would have better off not knowing?

Read More
857 Words | 4 Pages

Meanwhile, Jocasta has too realized the truth and ended her life in a state of shock. Seeing her dead, Oedipus stabbed his own eyes out, angry and ashamed of himself for being wed to his own mother. Oedipus, humiliated with what he has done, believes he needs to leave Thebes and his children, asking Creon to take care of his daughters. Oedipus knows they will be disgraced because of

Read More
547 Words | 3 Pages

Oedipus becomes more desperate trying to find the person who murdered Laius. Still claiming that Creon said the he was Laius’ murderer just created more stress for Oedipus and now Jocasta his wife. Oedipus becoming so desperate, he started abusing justice,the citizens said “Even the unjust word has a strong bite. ”(15) Soon a Herald from Corinth and a retired Shepherd arrived.

Read More
752 Words | 4 Pages

Oedipus is content with elevating his social image through more violent acts. This is evident as Creon is threatened to be killed: “ No, not exile. It is your death I want,/ So that all the world may see what treason means” (II. 102-103). The whole family including his wife/mother and father all defy the gods who they “worship” this act along with their rather guilt filled lives results in the tragic fate each of them meets.

Read More
393 Words | 2 Pages

The conversations between Oedipus and Creon displays Oedipus’s tragic flaw. His overall tragic flaw is his curiosity. “For whom, if he did not meet with you, did he say that the death of Laius was my work?” This was asked by Oedipus to Creon. He is making a mistake by asking this.

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

It is a terrible, agonizing moment, even in description, but in the depths of his pain Oedipus is magnificent. He does not submit passively to his woe or plead that he committed his foul acts in ignorance, though he could be justified in doing so. He blinds himself in a rage of penitence, accepting total responsibility for what he did and determined to take the punishment of exile as well. As piteous as he appears in the final scene with Creon, there is more public spirit and more strength in his fierce grief and his resolution of exile than in any other tragic hero in the history of the theater. Oedipus unravels his life to its utmost limits of agony and finds there an unsurpassed grandeur of

Read More

More about Comparing Ignorance In 'Oedipus Rex And 1984'

Related Topics

Open Document