In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles showed his feelings of irreverence towards the Gods. He was living in a time when people were starting to turn away from the gods, and this play shows his feeling’s of agreement. Oedipus Rex also demonstrates his feelings of how the gods thoughts can change on whim, destroying the lives of nobles and those around them. This is demonstrated by his showing of how the gods being spontaneous and non caring, in how the cure of oedipus’ family traveled down many generations before finally being fulfilled by oedipus. Irreverence towards the gods is a heavily implied undertone appearing in the text.
Oedipus denies the truth and faces the consequences later on in the play. He gets furious when everyone is blaming him for killing Laius. As he is blaming others, hubris appears within his personality. Oedipus becomes blinder as hubris takes over him.
From the beginning Oedipus was destined to fulfill a terrible prophecy, but through particular events that follow the steps of the Hero’s Journey, Oedipus becomes a powerful king of Thebes, only to be destroyed by the prophecy that should have ended his life as a child. The Hero’s Journey typically leads to self-confidence and power, however; the Hero’s Journey of Oedipus leads to his tragic demise. The Hero’s Journey lays out the steps of Oedipus’s future actions, which create suspense, fear, pity, and other emotions that captivates the audience. Similar to many famous stories, Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles in 430 B.C., follows the Hero’s Journey path, which is evident in Oedipus’s departure, initiation, and return.
‘Sophocles, because he was a great artist, had something more important to do even than to make beautiful plays, namely to express as directly as his medium allowed certain tragic ideas which sprung out of a certain apprehension about human life.’ (H.D.F. Kitto) Consider the merits of this statement with reference to Sophocles’ play Antigone. Putting the words tragic ideas and apprehension about human life in the one sentence is not something we do every day, but if we look at history throughout time, dealing with inevitability of death is something we do every day of our lives and always have. Death is inevitable for every human being, some people choose to use religion as a means to deal with it, others choose living life to the full with extreme sports, and others choose a life full of doom and gloom, drugs, crime or alcohol. Regardless of how we choose to live our lives it can be said that Sophocles was just merely getting the people in Athens to think about their actions while they were on this earth, and realise, that regardless of whether you believe in the archaic gods, or a god, or the king of the city as the supreme chief, and whether you will go to heaven or hell or be reunited with your loved ones after you die, your actions will always have consequences.
Oedipus’ typical compassion is tested when his position is at risk, exposing his selfish nature. Oedipus is usually a compassionate ruler. He would communicate with his people and give them a chance to be heard. For example, Oedipus goes to his people and after hearing them speak of their sufferings, he replies, “each of you suffers in himself alone his anguish, not another’s; but my spirit groans for the city, for myself, for you” (Fritt 5). Here, Oedipus is showing his sympathy and pity for his people and that he wants to help them.
Oedipus in the play “Oedipus The King” goes through moments where fear and pity are brought into the spectator 's eyes, this is called purgation. A moment when the spectators feel pity for Oedipus is when his it said that as a kid Oedipus was sent out of Thebes and left on a mountain with his ankles tied together. Another moment where the spectators feels fear and pity is when Oedipus learn that his wife/mother has killed herself leading him to blind himself, to avoid seem anymore pain. As the play unfolds the spectators experience more fear and pity.
P.13 Oedipus questions Teiresias, curious to know what he knows. “Oh gruesomely clear it has all unraveled… I was bonded with the people I should have never killed.” P.40 Oedipus sees what he has done wrong and feels vulnerable and horror. The audience clearly sees that heroes are very human and how real their limitations. Most people would have felt that same vulnerability if the gods had made us their plaything and tormented us, writing a prophecy of our doom.
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.
Tragic playwright, Sophocles, in his play, Oedipus the King, relates the tale of the downfall of the King of Thebes, Oedipus. Sophocles’ purpose is to show his audience the eventual product of hubris. He adopts a sympathetic tone in order to convey to his audience that, although it seems unfair, it is of no matter how many virtues one possesses if one is arrogant and defies the gods. Sophocles utilizes the ongoing theme of light and darkness to enlighten moral issues and create a sense of irony and foreboding.
After thing coming to light, Oedipus feel horrified about the
Oedipus was a tragic hero he was seen as a great man and was king,but he fell to misfortune because of his disability to see past his pride and anger which led to his demise. By not being able to see past his pride and anger Oedipus was not able to to avoid his prophetic destiny. He was blinded by his pride and anger so much that it became his tragic flaw ultimately leading him to his
“What would you do if you were eight and kidnapped?” Addie Webster knows to well what she would do. Addie was only eight years old when two strangers took her from her own home. She was vanished for half her life and when she returned it was nothing like she expected. Addies life is shown threw the book Zero Day by Jan Gangsei.
So in the end, Oedipus no longer thinks of himself. Thinking of his children 's impending marriage, Oedipus begs for his children and no longer can think of himself as anything more than a creature that embodies what it means to be pathetic: “When you come to the age ripe for marriage, who will he be who will run the risk, children, to take for himself the reproaches that will be banes for my parents and offspring alike? What evil is absent? Your father slew his father; he ploughed his mother, where he himself was sown, and he sired you in the same fount where he himself was sired.
The plot is thoroughly integrated with the characterization of Oedipus, for it is he who impels the action forward in his concern for Thebes, his personal rashness, and his ignorance of his past. His flaws are a hot temper and impulsiveness, but without those traits his heroic course of self-discovery would never occur. Fate for Sophocles is not something essentially external to human beings but
Did you know that ninety-seven percent of Scientists all concur that warming trends or global warming are very likely engendered by human activity? Better yet, did you know that sixteen percent of all species known to mankind could go extinct because of MANKIND?! Global Warming is the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants. Global Warming has become one of the World’s biggest problems and many countries have been attempting to decrease the plight. Yet, Humans are the main reason for this complication, by polluting the air with numerous pollutants.
