Common Themes In Oedipus The King

In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, the element of fate versus freewill shows up frequently all through the play. It is foreseen to Oedipus' parents, Jocasta and Laius, that their child would grow up to slaughter his father and wed his mother. Jocasta and Laius endeavor to dispose of their child, however, fate triumphs. Oedipus' fate all through the play has been chosen by the fate which adds to his annihilation. Various societies and cultures all through history have embraced similar perspectives, accepting a fate or destiny for their lives. Such points of view are very common is Greek myths who had confidence in "the three Fates" — goddesses who controlled the lives of individuals and the world in general. Clotho the youngest spins the thread of human life. She decides who will be born and when. Lachesis, a matron, measures the thread deciding a person’s lot in life. She is shown with a measuring stick, a scroll, a book, or a globe that represents the horoscope. Atropos, the oldest, choses the mechanism of death and ends the life of each mortal by cutting their thread. She is usually portrayed with a cutting instrument, a scroll, a wax tablet, a sundial, or a pair of scales. Even in modern day, some Christian philosophies incorporate destiny as fate. Many Jews acknowledge that their God has an arrangement for their people and nation.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles’ is intertwined with many powerful themes and messages, establishing what real vision and real sight are. Sophocles’ play also demonstrates that sometimes in life we have to experience great loss in order to rediscover our true selves. In Oedipus’s quest for truth, lack of self-control, ignorance and tragic self-discovery prevail. Physical vision does not necessarily guarantee insight, nor impart truth. Intertwined with dramatic and cosmic irony, all of these elements contribute to the major theme of blindness and sight, depicting wisdom

When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.

The plot of Oedipus the King, a Greek Tragedy written by Sophocles, revolves around several prophecies. A plague has stricken Thebes, and Oedipus discovers that the plague will only end when the murder of King Laius has been caught. Additionally, another prophecy states that the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta would kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus vows to the citizens of Thebes that he will find the murderer, but as the plot develops, Oedipus comes to the realization that he himself was the murderer that he had been seeking. There are several scenes in Oedipus the King that incorporate violence, and these violent scenes are a critical aspect of the play because they contribute to the development of the plot; the use of violence, whether verbal or physical, also enhances our understanding of the characters’ personalities and/or emotions.

Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, stresses the idea of who is blind and who can see by demonstrating that one cannot simply just run away from their mistakes and issues. As the story unfolds, each character makes several attempts to hide from the truth. Though the foul truths may seem to be masked within the darkness, they are eventually brought into the light, shining over the devious lies placed before it. Nevertheless, the real question lies within whether or not the person receiving the truth can endure it. By coping with the truth, one sees, but by denying it, one stays blind. One way or another, however, problems arise, secrets come out, and chaos ensues because one cannot stay blinded from the truth forever.

Now Oedipus is forced to see the facts, about who he thinks is his father and his mother. For a example, "To the children with whom he lives now he will be Brother and father the very same; to her who bore him, son and husband the very same. Who came to his fathers bed, wet with his father's blood". (240-243) The truth is as clear as a crystal ball. He is forced to realize, "Wisdom changes hands among the wise".

Oedipus steps out of the royal palace of Thebes and is greeted by a procession of priests, who are in turn surrounded by the impoverished and sorrowful citizens of Thebes. The citizens carry branches wrapped in wool, which they offer to the gods as gifts. Thebes has been struck by a plague, the citizens are dying, and no one knows how to put an end to it. Oedipus asks a priest why the citizens have gathered around the palace. The priest responds that the city is dying and asks the king to save Thebes. Oedipus replies that he sees and understands the terrible fate of Thebes, and that no one is more sorrowful than he. He has sent Creon, his brother-in-law and fellow ruler, to the Delphic oracle to find out how to stop the plague. Just then, Creon

Sophocles used symbolism throughout Oedipus the King to better explain the meaning behind the story to his audience. Throughout this tale, vision is used to symbolize ignorance and enlightenment. Oedipus is constantly searching for a way to avoid his prophecy. This opens him up into a world of things he never even knew he was blind to. Oedipus lives his life blind and “seeing” the solution to the riddle of the Sphinx only reveals that he truly is ignorant.

Literary devices have been used in many narratives, often to convey a point or to make an idea coherent. Some examples of these devices may be similes, metaphors and foreshadowing. Oedipus the King is a play translated by Sophocles that has influenced society at an extensive scale. It uses literary devices to portray various concepts and notions. Two literary devices that are prevalent throughout the play are forms of irony and motifs.

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is about a disastrous hero who made very poor decisions which led to his death and the discovery of the truth. It brought on the end of his daily life. It changed his life completely and brought on the destruction of his life when he was finally opened to the truth. Throughout Oedipus Rex, the theme of sight and blindness that Sophocles depicts through this story are dramatic moments, ignorance and his refusal to see the truth.

The famed tragedian Sophocles is known for his unique ideas and intellect. Sophocles carefully utilizes of all of his intelligence and creative ability in order to make use of illuminating moments throughout the play which allow his audience to draw conclusions about free will, fate, knowledge, and power throughout perhaps his most iconic play, Oedipus Rex. the main character Oedipus experiences an illuminating moment when he gouges his eyes out at the discovery of the truth about his actions. This illumination is expressed in order to express Sophocles’ idea that fate overpowers free will.

Fate is defined as a predetermined event that cannot be changed by mortals. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is marked by his fate, and he does not realize it until it is too late. Oedipus learns of his fate when he calls for Teiresias, the blind man who can read and interpret the prophecies. After being provoked by Oedipus, Teiresias angrily reveals that Oedipus is destined to kill his own father and marrying his own mother, while eventually gouging out his eyes. However, Oedipus does not fear his fate; he believes that he is invincible to these prophecies. How does one go about escaping fate? Does one have any control over these predetermined events? Oedipus is a man in pursuit of answers, and the idea of his prophecy coming to fruition does not sit well with him. He does not even fully understand fate and how it is going to affect him until he experiences it. Nevertheless, Oedipus understands that free will does exist and is seen throughout the text implementing his own actions into his everyday life. The idea of fate is flawed, and is used by Oedipus and people of today’s society as a scapegoat for one to hide behind their own poor decisions.

The theme studied in this topic is the comparison of the tragic heroes within the following books. Nino Ricci’s Lives of the Saints, Sophocles “Oedipus the King” and William Shakespeare's “Julius Caesar” all share a common theme of the tragic hero. In text the following characters will be examined as the tragic heroes; Cristina, Vittorio’s mother, Oedipus, king of Thebes and Brutus, politician. Accordingly, the tragic heroes hamartia is the leading cause to their suffering, as well the suffering they caused for their families and the impact they had left on society. Despite facing tragedy themselves, the tragic heroes cause disaster for their families and society as a whole.

In the Greek tragedy, we see that Jocasta state that it is natural for human being to dream about sleeping with their mothers. She is right in the sense that we gain a sort of attraction and love for our parents. These natural feelings has come to be known as either the Oedipus or Electra complexes. There is a common command against incest that is both needed and jus due to the fact that it is morally wrong and disgusting. The command against incest is needed because it keeps citizens and most of all the kingdom morally in check. For someone to take their mother or father to bed and wed them is viewed in most societies as disgusting and unjust. This is portrayed in the play with the curse on the kingdom and Oedipus having no knowledge of his incestuios actions, however Jocosta knew what was going and viewed the situation as inevitable due to the wrath of the gods.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is more than just a basic tragedy. It contains a complete combination of all the features of a tragedy. I find Sophocles' King Oedipus interesting. Not because of the whole incest thing, the killing of the father, and the sleeping with the mother. I am still too naive to appreciate the significance of that. I find Sophocles' King Oedipus fascinating because as I read it with attention, I realized how amazingly hard it was to write. Even though it’s a Greek tragedy and the reading is a little hard to understand. But, once someone gets inside the story line, its captivates one’s attention. I admit I enjoy less the content of the play than Sophocles' writing skill. When to retell a well-known story, one has to make the story enough convincing without relying on the end of the story. one must dislocate the point of the story from its end to rest. By doing that the story will not lose its appeal. One has to be a creator. So, you have to twist the whole story in such an irresistible way that it is compelling despite the fact that the outcome of the story is known. How do Sophocles solve this problem? By making King Oedipus the central character and unintentionally the architect of his own downfall. The strengths that once lead him to solve the riddle later served as his own destruction. To make a story more appropriate to the stage, which is dealing with flashbacks, forward-moving energy of the story must accommodate with the backward references that