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Symbolism of blindness and seeing in Oedipus Rex
Character analysis of Oedipus
Symbolism of blindness and seeing in Oedipus Rex
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Oedipus was cursed when he was a baby and found out his destiny when the god Apollo showed him a vision saying “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see- you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!” (Sophocles 873-875) However, Oedipus did not know that the ones who found him and raised him as his son were not his parents. After the prophecy, Oedipus decided to run away to try to change his fate even though it was already set to kill his father and sleep with his mother, unfortunately he couldn’t do anything about it. “Its mine alone, my destiny-I am Oedipus!”
Imagine being told your future fate without knowing if it’s true, when it will happen, or even if you can prevent it. One king, Oedipus, in particular, was living that very reality. His fate was uncovered early on by a prophecy, so he lived life trying to run from that fate. Yet, he unknowingly lived that very life later on. He led a life of incest, committed a heinous crime, and was burdened with suffering after the acts were revealed.
Oedipus Rex essay Final draft Oedipus certainly deserved his fate. Oedipus and his actions are clearly disrespect to the gods , he faces the fate he deserves. He was doing things that would eventually lead up to the unfortunate event of his death , he was even warned by the great and wise Teiresias , but he being himself was to stubborn and did not listen. All the things Teiresias said would happen became the truth. He killed his father, married his mother, yet he tempted his fate , he deserved everything that came his way .
FINAL COPY In the play Oedipus Rex, a prophecy about the main character, Oedipus, says that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother, which causes his parents to attempt to kill him as a baby. However, Oedipus survives, and he and his parents end up fulfilling the prophecy even when they were actively trying to stop it. Oedipus makes morally wrong decisions and indirectly causes the plague when he gives in to his anger, but makes morally correct decisions when he tries to help the people of Thebes cure the plague. This supports Sophocles' theme that all actions have consequences, regardless of if these consequences come immediately or in the future.
Niya Kebreab King Oedipus: Moral Ambiguity In the play King Oedipus, Sophocles depicts Oedipus’ inevitable downfall, which represents man’s struggle between free will and fate. In an attempt to use the audience’s knowledge to his advantage, Sophocles opens the play seventeen years after Oedipus murders his father, Laius and marries his mother, Jocasta. The sequence in which the story unravels reveals the strong psychological focus towards Oedipus’ character. In search of his identity, Oedipus’ enigmatic quality and moral ambiguity compels readers to question whether his ignorance renders him morally blameless.
And later, married Jocasta - Laius' widow thus, his mother. Throughout the play, Oedipus wanted to have control over everything that was going on, and over everyone involved with him and his family. He started as the most powerful character in the play and ended up being the weakest one due to his need and urge to control even the unpredictable and to know the answer and reason for everything. It all turned into what's called rationality vs. fate because by wanting to find out who killed Laius (rationality) - to make sure that the prophecy wasn't true(fate) - Oedipus was fighting fate but the more he and Jocasta, his mom/wife, kept running away from it, the faster they brought it to themselves. Therefore,
When Teiresias refuses to name the murderer, however, we see the other side of Oedipus, a hot-tempered man who cannot bear to be denied what he wants. He taunts Teiresias with his blindness and makes irrational accusations against both Teiresias and Creon. Later, when the old servant also tries to avoid answering Oedipus' questions, Oedipus threatens him with torture. "Oedipus went so far as to accuse him of keeping silence because he himself taken part in the murder"(Hamilton271).Thats when Oedipus tells Jocasta that, on his way to Thebes, he killed a man who struck at him in the road. So it's clear what his tragic flaw is, and his impulsive,violent temper can even be seen as an
But, “The god dismissed my question without reply;/He spoke of other things…/As, that I should lie with my mother… /And that I should be my father’s murderer” (page 42), Oedipus went on to say. So now it’s clear that Oedipus knew exactly what the prophecy was and that there was a risk that any random person could be his father, yet he killed a stranger soon after that! This was Oedipus’s choice, and a terrible one at that. Creon states this towards the end of the book when Oedipus tries to make commands again after being disgraced. “Think no
(705). The prophecy can't be real. Oedipus is excited that his dad is dead. This is ironic because he's adopted. [[, fate is to blame because Oedipus could not stop him from killing his
When one considers that Oedipus’ actions involving his actual parents were unwitting it is easy to see that he is in fact innocent of a true crime and in classical scholar E. R. Dodds’ essay “On Misunderstanding the ‘Oedipus Rex’” he concludes that Oedipus is fundamentally innocent and states “I hope I have now disposed of the moralizing interpretation, which has been rightly abandoned by the great majority of contemporary scholars. To mention only recent works in English, the books of Whitman, Waldock, Letters, Ehrenberg, Knox, and Kirkwood, however much they differ on other points, all agree about the essential moral innocence of Oedipus.” and while details of these other scholars would take too long to explain in a simple essay it is agreeable that the thought of Oedipus’ misfortune being in punishment for unwittingly fulfilling his prophecy is false. However, the consideration that his misfortune is a result of his indifference is indeed a viable explanation and allows for the concept of Oedipus’ life being rectified if only he had listened to his
¨For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo¨. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a story of two lovers who take their life all because of a misunderstanding. However, who is to blame for their tragic demise? The parents who made the two lovers feel like outcasts must be to blame. The Capulets forced Juliet to marry Paris, the constant fighting made them want to keep the marriage secret, and made Romeo and Juliet to scared to say anything.
In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet fall in love despite their familie’s feud. we all know their love ended with agony, but who is truly to blame for their death? They themselves, or the others around their grave? I believe that the blame of their deaths should be put onto the parents. Parents have always had a impact on their children.
Oedipus’s selfishness and temper eventually lead to his downfall. Oedipus selfishness made everyone else mad at him for him not believing them. He kept digging and digging himself into a deeper hole. This eventually made his punishment at the end worse for him. He also could not handle the truth so this made him disrespect the gods.
Ultimately, it is also in fate of Oedipus to kill his father as firstly, the first part of the revelation was followed through making it a requirement for the second segment to be
The famous play “Oedipus The King” written by Sophocles a Greek Tragedian is a perfect example of predestinarianism, the belief that whatever is to happen is already fixed and cannot be avoided. This is very strongly supported by the story as multiple prophecies stated that Laius would be killed by his own son, and Oedipus will marry his own mother. Each one of these prophecies led to each others fulfillments. When Oedipus was born the oracle of Delphi prophesied that the child born to King Laius and Jocasta will kill his own father and will marry his mother. In an attempt to fight fate King Lais decides that to protect himself he must kill their own son in an attempt to defy date.
