In “Steinbeck's Cannery Row: The Gospel According to John,” Charles L. Etheridge Jr. explains his formalist viewpoint on how Steinbeck’s biblical allusions in Cannery Row helped establish his theology. Etheridge references Steinbeck’s use of the biblical theme of light in the first section of the novel and how Steinbeck’s “objective narration” (Etheridge 2) presents itself in Cannery Row. Steinbeck also presents a straightforward biblical allusion through rendition of the Lord being in nature and balancing life. Likewise, Etheridge mentions how Steinbeck uses the tide pool in Cannery Row as a microcosm of the real world and as a metaphor for life creating other life.
Since Oedipus was not aware of who his biological parents were, he was not truly guilty of killing his father and sleeping with his mother. The Greeks strongly believed in a person’s fate. They believed that no matter what a person does, there is no escaping his or her fate. Although Oedipus technically committed the crimes of killing his father and sleeping with his mother, he is not guilty of these because he unknowingly did these
Claim #3: Even though Oedipus was ignorant of his crimes of patricide, he is still guilty of them because if anyone else killed his father, the gods would still unleash a plague if it went unsolved. Citation: “Oedipus: If I had eyes, I do not know how I could bear the sight of my father, when I came to the house of Death, or my mother: for I have sinned against them both.”
1. In Oedipus Rex, the audience already knows that Oedipus killed his father, the king. Oedipus himself is still trying to figure out who killed the king of Thebes but he doesn’t know that he is the one who killed the king until the very end of the play. We as an audience already know the prophecy foretells that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. An ironic quote is “Then hear, I’ll not be proved a murderer.
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!”
Oedipus’s selfishness leads to many conflicts that end up to his downfall in the story, many of the conflicts being him not admitting to things people say to him. One of the things he doesn’t admit to at the end of the story is that the murder of King Laius, or his father, is his fault. He instead blames the gods for all the problems that he caused. He also doesn’t admit the claims that Teiresias makes earlier in the book, and instead just says he is “making a fool of himself,” and that he is a “wicked old man.”
The accusations are not proven yet so Oedipus does not yet know this is a mistake. Oedipus clearly lays out the sins of his life after stabbing himself in the eyes. He screams ¨Oedipus who lay in that loathsome bed, made love there in that bed, his father’s and mother’s bed, the bed where he was born.¨(Oedipus: Page 86 line 1770) in anguish, with blood streaming from his eyes. This displays Oedipus doing bad things with good intentions because he slept with his mother without knowing it was incest. He was just trying to further the royal bloodline but then he accidentally slept with his
However, they do not ensure the death of their son by murdering him themselves. Although the intent was to kill Oedipus, Jokasta and Laius are attempting to avoid the natural inclination to feel guilty for the direct death of their son. Similarly, the shepherd’s decision to give Oedipus a second chance at life demonstrates a human inability to show violence towards something innocent, such as a young child. Furthermore, Oedipus’ denial upon learning that the death of the king was his own doing, demonstrates human ignorance. As human beings it is often hard to be told we are wrong or that the decisions we have made in life have led to severe consequences.
Background Information: In Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, Oedipus was told that he would kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. However, Oedipus doesn’t believe that he killed Laius but was blind to the truth for him accept it which led to his demise. 3.Thesis Statement:
‘Dracula’ is a modern play adapted, by Liz Lochhead, from the classic horror novel written by Bram Stoker. The play is set during the Victorian era and develops the key themes that were prevalent during this era such as sexual hypocrisy. Lochhead’s unusual approach places much more significance on the female characters, in particular, Mina and Lucy and puts much less significance on the more well-known and traditional main characters such as Dracula and Van Helsing. The power dynamics of the Victorian era conditioned men to be strong and women to be weak, innocent and fragile. As women had to be innocent and expressing sexual desires was seen as a form of corruption that made you guilty, women’s rational and natural desires were silenced and
His lack of knowledge generates a moral ambiguity with respect to his actions. If ignorance serves as a moral excuse, Oedipus may be free of blame. However, ignorance towards his life only renders him morally blameless in regards to his incestuous act, not Laius’ murder. Despite his fate, it is Oedipus’ hubris which causes him to murder the men at the place where three roads meet. Oedipus confesses, stating “it was the driver that trust me aside and him
Oedipus guilty of the act committed because, it was wrong for hi to commit such crime. There is no way some can be ignorant to killing especially ones own
His lack of sight creates the fact that bad things happen when blind to the truth. Oedipus rex was adopted, and he was blind to that. He did not realize he was adopted. He killed his biological father, not knowing it his father and he will not admit that he killed his father .Oedipus promises not to harm the man that comes forward, or is known to have killed Laios.
In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus, king of Thebes, is guilty of murdering the late king Laïos, despite the fact that he did not know he was his father. Oedipus was under a prophecy that said he would kill his father and sleep with his mother. Both came true, and he payed the price for it. He was banished from Thebes. Many have wondered if he really deserved this fate.
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
