Foreshadowing In Oedipus

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” (Saint Bernard). There are very few individuals in this world who possess bad intentions and there are many individuals who eagerly hold good intentions. But the questions arises as to whether or not good intentions are adequate for humans to claim their actions morally correct, and if so, do they correspond to their characters, hence hereafter? The famous saying buntly answers, no, and the classic play “Oedipus Rex” demonstrates that scenario on many deep levels as Oedipus, who simply wanted to escape his fate, ended up in a situation much worse than he had intended to. In “Oedipus Rex,” Sophocles uses inciting incident, climax, and situational irony to convey that good intentions do not necessarily

For instance, upon learning about King Laius’ murder, Oedipus at once demands that Thebes must hunt down the criminal in order to cleanse the city. Oedipus witnesses, “I never saw the man myself” (Sophocles) and this foreshadows the he saw the man. His intentions are pure in the aspect that he wants to grant justice to the innocent king; however, seldom can he imagine that the man would turn out to be himself. At this point, there is an evident displacement of Oedipus’ intention of purifying the city to what he actually did (killed the king and became sinful). Shortly after this, Oedipus faces the messenger and forces him to elaborate upon the killing of King Laius, perhaps even threatens to torture him if he does not speak the truth. Once again, Oedipus is perceived as the character endeavoring to purify the city and thus, his intentions were is no manner to kill the king or harm others (which he does unintentionally). Another point of foreshadowing which epitomizes that good actions are not parallel to deserving resolutions is when Oedipus determinedly rescues the city of Thebes by solving the riddle presented by Sphinx. Although with his

Solidly exemplified by Oedipus, he goes through a series of hurdles and crosses each one of them only in hope to escape the brutality of life and reveal the brighter side, which the reader knows, ironically, is the darker side. Mary Rose Sullivan, writer of "Synge, Sophocles, and the Un-Making of Myth" analyzes, “Oedipus...with all the might of [his] reason...insist on casting light on the whole of [his] past and, that way, make clear [his] complicated present” (Sullivan). Performing the mandatory steps needed to be taken in life, first he escapes Corinth to inhibit killing his “father” and wedding his “mother,” then he kills the man where three roads meet (King Laius) in frantic to rescue Thebes, then he solves the riddle of Sphinx to rescue the city from the plague, then he marries Queen Jocasta (mother) to rule the city in an appropriate way, then he attempts to cleanse the city by hunting down the murder of the King (which turns out to be himself), and finally he blinds himself when the truths is revealed. Explicit or