Oedipus And Culture Essay

Tustykbayeva Aisulu

Language, Experience, Culture

05/09/2016

Purge and Prophecy

Sophocles’ play Oedipus is the most striking exemplar of classic drama that has endured thousands of years of reading and analyzing. It begins with an issue for the king Oedipus of Thebes to resolve. The problem is that there is a curse on the city and to lift it he is required to find the murderer of the previous king of Thebes – Laius. Oedipus, being an intelligent man and revealing traits of a great leader is utterly concerned with the whole situation and takes necessary steps to investigate the murder and find the murderer. Eventually, by the end of the play the characters and an audience assume that it is Oedipus himself, who killed Laius, who turned out to

Moreover, Creon proceeds with the God’s decree: “let someone punish with force this dead man’s murderers” (125-126). Here it is clear that the voice of the divine in the play – Oracle is talking about murderers of the king in plural. Furthermore, throughout the play the number remains plural according to the account of the only witness. For example later in the same scene Creon says: “this man said the robbers they encountered were many and the hands that did the murder were many; it was no man’s single power.” (147-149). Again, the number is established to be plural. So, there is no factual evidence in the play of Oedipus’ committing the crime. However, the question remains how it is possible that a man, who appears to be so reasonable in his investigation misses out on such an important

Aristotle talks extensively on this play in his Poetics, explaining how the dramatic machinery of the plot triggers great pity and fear in the audience. Through experiencing these emotions the audience is emotionally purified and reaches the state of catharsis in the tragedy, in which according to the prophecy he is destined to sleep with his mother and kill his father even before Oedipus was born. And the play is an illustration of how each of his actions brings him closer to his fate no matter what he does, which makes him defenseless against the divine providence and also a perfect tragic hero. (Aristotle, 57) For this dramatic structure to work so it would induce catharsis it is necessary for the end to be fulfilling, “the end is everywhere the chief thing”(27) states Aristotle. Moreover, within the play, the pollution should be removed and the city should be saved, which means that somebody should be found guilty at the end. So, Oedipus’ guilt is necessary for both the audience and the