Murderers In Oedipus The King

“The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight with no vision”. This quote by American author Helen Keller perfectly captures the main characters journey in the play Oedipus the king by Sophocles. In this play the reader finds out that to see the truth one does not have

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

Thank you for your attention, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, on this very important case. The defendant, Oedipus, has been falsely accused with patricide and incest. Oedipus was completely unaware of the fact that Laius and Jocasta were his parents, so can we really say that he had committed patricide and incest with intention.

Sometimes humans are incapable of making the right judgment or judge before we have our fact’s. This kind of judgment can do the damage we cannot reverse. In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is one of the prime examples of judging them without knowing facts. 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.

In the book Oedipus the King by Sophocles, there are many controversies on whether Oedipus is guilty of his actions or innocent. Oedipus is a guilty man and his action proved so in the play. Oedipus should be held liable for his crimes of patricide (killing his father) and marrying

Odysseus had been gone for 20 years, and he wanted his family to be one again, so to do this he had to act in a violent way. When Odysseus had finished testing all the suitors and everyone else, it left one final step so that he could become a family again, he had to kill the suitors.

Oedipus the King is a tragedy revolving around a murder, the murder of the previous king Laius. The chorus in the play represents the voice of the society, the elders of the Thebes men. They help provide a broader understanding of the play as it unfolds, by evaluating the characters and the themes as well as the sequences of the tragedy. As part of the play they also portray their religious knowledge as they call upon the Gods and Goddesses for guidance. The commentary by the chorus helps the audience follow the development of the play. At the beginning the chorus supports the ideas of Oedipus and comments on his greatness “It was said he was killed by certain wayfarers” Oedipus the King (294-95) the chorus in this scene supports Oedipus’s thoughts of the murderer. As well as supporting Oedipus they begin to give him different ideas on discovering the murderer, “I know that what

It can be assume that violence is one of the main themes in Greek literatures. It is portray in different forms through executions, suicides, murders, and self-mutilation. Although violence is mainly intertwine together with wars in Greek literature and is shown in a positive light, it can be tie in with punishment and suffering. Violence is necessary because it helps to explain the characters’ situations and problems through their defiance of the authority of the gods or the king in Sophocles’ plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone. Oedipus and Jocasta have try to escape their prophecy in which they are blinded by the truth of their situations and in order to resolve them Oedipus physically blinds himself and Jocasta commits suicide. Antigone

Kayla Williams Theatre 1110 Professor Burgess 21 September 2014 Sophocles - Oedipus The King Oedipus the King contains many different characters. The main character and protagonist is Oedipus who is also the king of Thebes. Oedipus has a wife, Jocasta, who is also his mother and Creon’s sister whom is Oedipus’s brother-in-law. Antigone and Ismene are Oedipus’s and Jocasta’s daughters which also means they are Oedipus’s sister. There is also Tiresias who is the blind soothsayer of Thebes. Oddly, the antagonist is not a person, it is actually Oedipus’ own fate. Oedipus struggles with his fate throughout the play in many ways. For example, when he is told that he is going to kill his father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus moves away to avoid

Often the past will present answers to questions about the future as well as questions of the now, and in Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’ past plays an integral role in his pursuit of righting the wrongs that are affecting him in the present. In the play, Oedipus must identify who has killed Laius in order to exile them to solve the qualms of his people, and in a dialogue with Jocasta, who happens to be his wife as well as his mother, she reveals to him details of the death of Laius that seem far too familiar for his comfort (Sophocles 27). This revelation of information acts as a catalyst that forces Oedipus to make the connection between his past and what Jocasta is telling him. This realization that he may have been responsible for Laius’ death exposes him to the weight of the pursuit of justice sometimes hold for humans. Through this dialogue, Oedipus comes to fear that he is the culprit of the scandal that is plaguing the situation, thus putting him in the position of a criminal who will face the due punishment for the crime. This internal conflict that Oedipus experiences creates and

misfortune, it is revealed first through dramatic irony that Oedipus himself is the murderer. Once

In Oedipus The King by Sophocles, Oedipus, the great king of Thebes, suffers a reversal of fortune when he attempts to change his fate. Oedipus is prophesied to kill his father and to marry his mother so he leaves Corinth to come to Thebes so this prophecy does not come true. As Thebes is being countered by a plague, Oedipus is trying everything he can to help the citizens. Throughout the play, Oedipus seeks knowledge about the plague later leading to his downfall. Oedipus is seen as a hero to his city due to his contributions, but he soon has a tragic ending when he seeks for knowledge.

The theme of sight and blindness is undoubtedly important to notice while reading Oedipus the King. The number of times the words “see” or “blind” are in the play make it make it undeniably obvious that they are significant. The theme is developed throughout the dialogue, through characters such as Tiresias and Oedipus, and also directly in the irony of the play. It is important in a play about the truth because almost every character was “blind” to the truth. All of the characters, except one, can physically see, but mentally cannot see the truth.

Charles could see Erik giving up as sharply as he felt it, the small spark that he’d come to label in his own mind as ‘life force’ dwindling to an ember and extinguishing. He was stepping forward before he could stop himself, blooding rushing in his ears against time as he spoke. “Dēsístite!“