Ignorance In Sophocles Oedipus Rex

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

During his life time, Oedipus was blind to truth, at first, he did not know that Jocasta and Laius were his actual parents. He even rebelled against anyone that would not give him the reason or someone that would contradict him. After so many attempts to evade the truth, he ends up giving up about what is the actual truth. He agrees and accepts that Liaus and Jocasta were his parents, and he ended up killing his father and marrying his mother; he was the one causing hopelessness in Thebes. After he starts to realize all these truths, he decided to blind himself, and become in Teiresias same position. “ And since you have reproached me with my blindness, I say – you have your sight, and do not see what evils are about you, nor with whom, nor in what home you are dwelling.” In this quote, a theme such as blindness is shown through Teiresias’ words to Oedipus, to whom he is telling that even with his physical sight, in the inside he is blind because he is unwilling to know the truth about his life. He also tells Oedipus that since he does not see the truth about his life, he doesn’t see the anguish of his life either.

Oedipus perceives such acts as offerings for him which causes him to think he is greater than those who surround him. The townspeople pray and worship Oedipus, allowing him to consider himself their "world-renowned king" (Sophocles 10). With the belief of having such high power, Oedipus believes he can determine his own fate. This causes him to be blind of his past and oblivious to the facts. With the mindset of being higher than everyone, Oedipus' arrogance blinds him intellectually from figuring out who his real parents are. Instead of analyzing his childhood in attempt to figure out the truth, he does not question the past and sprites those who challenge him. Oedipus is aware that when he was three days old his "ankles [were] pierced and pinned/ together, gave it to be cast away/ by others on the trackless mountain side" (Sophocles 726-28). He is also aware that the oracle of Thebes declared that one day he would "slay his father and wed his mother" (Sophocles 1). However, his hubris personality prevents him from realizing that he, in fact, is Laius's son. Instead, Oedipus refer to himself as "Fortunes favorite

Oedipus intelligence could not see the truth, but the blind man, Teiresias, saw it plainly. Sophocles uses blindness as a theme in the play. Oedipus was uninformed and as a result blind to the truth about himself and his past. Yet, when Teiresias exposes the truth he is in denial. It is left to Oedipus to conquer his blindness, accept the truth, and realize fate. But instead Oedipus ridicules Terirsias blindness and accuses him of being on the side of Kreon and helping him become King. He accuses Teiresias for being paid to tell a fraudulent prophecy to him. Quickly Teiresias answers him back and tells him he is BLIND, and tells him about his past of who his actual mother and father was.

At the beginning Oedipus is characterized as a great leader. For example, he solves the riddle of the Sphinx, which is the winged female monster that terrorized the city (Sophocles 487). Here we can see how Oedipus is clever and smart. In result the people of Thebes respect him for his cleverness and reward him as King. People even look at him as being almighty when it comes to handling problems such as, when there is a plague that is killing people, animals and made women give birth to nothing. They knew he would help as long as he was aware of the situation. “We’ve come because you are the best man at handling trouble or confronting the gods” (Sophocles 487). This statement shows how people depend on him and look at him as a great leader. It also shows how he is a man of action and looks after his people as a king should. With that being said, he is told to find the killer of Laios and either banish them or kill them to stop the plague. Likewise, he did what he is commanded to do, he obeys the god and search for the killer that killed the previous king. Furthermore, he follows instruction and is concerned for himself and the people of Thebes. “My heart grieves for you, for myself, and for our city” (Sophocles 487).

At first, Oedipus appears to be a confident, valiant hero. This is especially true during the situation alluded to at the beginning of the drama, when he solves the Sphinx 's riddle. Although Oedipus is not a native Theban, he still chooses to answer the riddle of the Sphinx despite her threat of death to anyone who fails to answer correctly. Only a man like Oedipus, a man possessing tremendous self-confidence, could have such courage. When Oedipus succeeds, freeing the city from the Sphinx 's evil reign, he becomes instantly famous and known for his bravery and intelligence. A temple priest reveals the respect the Thebans have for their king when he tells Oedipus, "You freed

Oedipus rises as a hero, but eventually loses his power when he faithfully commits to terrible deeds. Jocasta, the wife and mother to Oedipus, doubts that the oracle of Apollo is genuine. Since she and her previous husband, King Laius, left Oedipus to die in the mountains, they refuse to believe the oracle. She claims that “ ..It was fate that he should die a victim at the hands of his own son, a son to be born of Laius and me. But, see now, he, the king, was killed by foreign highway robbers at a place where three roads meet” (Sophocles, 493: 791-796). Despite Jocasta and Laius’s intentions to change their fate, the prophecy remains unfeigned. The fact that Oedipus is alive even after being abandoned, is evidence that their fates are

Early on in the story, Oedipus is the proud and confident king of Thebes; he is a man that is not to be underestimated or degraded. This once undisputed fact becomes more debatable the longer the play continues, however. The conflict begins with Oedipus attempting to lift a curse that has been unleashed on the kingdom of Thebes. This curse was caused by the murder of the previous king, Laius, and the only way for it to be lifted is for the murderer to be exiled from Thebes. Oedipus works fervently to unravel the mystery behind who Laius’ killer was. However, each new discovery ends up incriminating Oedipus as the killer instead. Along the way Oedipus discovers that his supposed parents, the king and queen of Corinth, are not his true parents. This revelation pushes him to begin a new search for his biological parents, a search that eventually leads him to one of Lainus’ shepherds. It is this shepherd that reveals to King Oedipus that his mother is Jocasta, his current wife. Consequently, Oedipus falls into a fit of despair in which he stabs his own eyes out and confronts the consequences of his shameful existence. By the end of the play, Oedipus has not only lost his status as the king of Thebes, but has also been exiled from the kingdom and has become an outcast for all of society to hate. The transition Oedipus undergoes

Following the revelation that the murderer of the late king is at their midst, Oedipus devotes his time to expose the murderer. To do this, Oedipus asks to hear from Teiresias, a blind prophet, who tells Oedipus that he is the murderer that he speaks of. Next, a string of irony ensues as Oedipus, a sighted person, is shown to be blind and ignorant to what Teiresias says. Teiresias’ profound knowledge and perception is in stark contrast to the ignorance and apathy from Oedipus. Oedipus is described to not believe Teiresias’ prophecies, instead believing that Creon, Oedipus’ uncle/brother-in-law, told Teiresias to blame the murder on Oedipus in order to obtain the throne.

Sophocles is one of the three tragedians whose works have been recovered, including the three Theban plays. Antigone and Oedipus the King are two of the three Theban plays, written in the fifth century. In Oedipus the King, when Oedipus asks Tiresias, the oracle how he can rid the plague in Thebes, the oracle says that once the killer of the previous king, Laius, is exiled the plague will be cured. Oedipus is on a journey to find himself, the killer. In Antigone, despite Tiresias’ warning, Creon, the king of Thebes, denies Antigone’s brother, Polyneices, a burial.

All throughout Oedipus the King, Sophocles has Oedipus on an unknown journey from ignorance to knowledge. Oedipus believes that he has nothing to do with the murder of King Laius even though the truth is laid out in front of him multiple times. As the story goes on, Oedipus begins to become more open-minded to new information that has an unknown cost. Therefore, through the journey to recognition, the once great and powerful Oedipus, can cause his own demise. Sophocles demonstrates that ignorance will blind one from the truth and knowledge will open one's eyes.

King Oedipus’ problem is that he is too arrogant. His arrogance is what causes him to be “blind”. Not knowing he was the killer of Laius made him blind. He was also blind to the fact that Jocasta, his wife, who actually his mom, and Laius was his dad. Although people kept dropping hints to him, but his ignorance and his overbearing attitude didn’t allow him to see the truth. For instance, a blind prophet named Tiresias tried to point out to Oedipus who the killer was, hoping he’d catch on. While having a conversation about the killer with the seer Tiresias, Oedipus states, “All right King, you mock my blindness…You think you know your parents, but you are blind to the fact that you are their worst enemy!” (Oedipus the King 46). Even though the blind prophet basically told him everything, his arrogance got in his way. Therefore, Oedipus is torn when he finds out about his parents.

Life is full of deeply intertwined relationships of multiple concepts. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King addresses one of the best known relationships, ignorance and bliss. However, the relationship is most easily recognized in the common saying “ignorance is bliss” that Sophocles disproves on several levels. Throughout the plot of this tragedy, the characters are met with multiple instances where it would seem that ignorance was peaceful, but in all actuality, they could have prevented their tremendous downfalls with prior knowledge. Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius are all presented with the opportunities to change their fates but in their short opportune windows, they do not possess the full extent of knowledge available. Fate was only allowed to work in the absence of knowledge.

Initially, Oedipus remains in a state of ignorance throughout the establishment of the tragedy by virtue of his strong characteristics that include pride, ego, and obliviousness. In the drama, Oedipus speaks about what would happen if the killer was a royal member of Thebes. The play reads, “If by any chance / he proves to be an inmate of our house, / here at my hearth, with my full knowledge, / may the curse i just called down strike me” (284-287). Oedipus placed a cure throughout the distinguished city of Thebes in hopes to lead it back to its once former glory. This shows his ignorance in view of the fact that he is the one who killed the former King Laius, which means Oedipus cursed himself. His ego of trying to be the savior once again put Oedipus in a terrible position for the continuation of his life. Furthermore, Oedipus sent for a prophet to help discover who the mysterious

Ignorance can blind an individual from the truth. Plays were of great importance in early Greek culture. Plays were the main source of entertainment, and one of the most exceptional examples is Oedipus the King written by Sophocles. The drama is tremendously uplifted by the character development and the excellent structure Sophocles has put forward. Interactions between characters and each character’s motivations generate brilliant themes throughout the play. Sophocles uses a technique called recognition, which illustrates a character’s turn from ignorance to the truth. The play is about the city of Thebes which is racked by a plague and a crisis that is quickly wiping humans from the earth. The great king of Thebes is Oedipus who must dispose of the problem very quickly. He welcomes information from the god Apollo, who says Oedipus must punish the killer of the former king, Laius. In one of the instances where Oedipus tries to find the killer, he encounters Tiresias, who is a physically blind man but can see everything because he is a prophet of Apollo. Tiresias possesses the information but declines to cooperate with Oedipus. After a series of verbal insults, the audience is left in awe when Tiresias puts the blame on Oedipus. Similarly to Oedipus the King, dialogue “Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato also in the early Greek times, shows that ignorance can lead an individual to be blind from the truth. Sophocles magnificently develops a question of “Who sees and who is blind”. Also in Oedipus the King, Sophocles exhibits how selflessness and ignorance can blind a person from the truth, but eventually has to go through recognition which can cause great agony.