Oedipus, the King and Allegory of the Cave - Comparative Analysis Essa

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.

It is said that the truth will set you free, but in the case of Sophocles’ Oedipus, the truth drives a man to imprison himself in a world of darkness by gouging out his eyes. As he scours the city for truth, Oedipus’ ruin is ironically mentioned and foreshadowed in the narrative. With these and other devices Sophocles illuminates the king’s tragic realization and creates a firm emotional bond with the audience.

“ From the beginning people like this have never managed, whether on their own or with the help by others, to see anything besides the shadows that are projected on the wall opposite them by the glow of the fire.”( Plato 1) Those who were kept in the cave had their own perception which became their reality, when in fact it was an illusion of reality. As a society they conducted a protocol that shaped their beliefs on society. In both literary works, each character undergoes the process of a comprehension of a certain veracity. They are introduced as ignorant to a greater truth. In Oedipus’ case, his lack of knowledge, causes his city to suffer as well, while the prisoners rely on opinion based senses to predict their reality which deprives them from any pure logic.

In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus is ignorant to many things, for example, what his and his parents’ identities were and, therefore, he acts without full knowledge. His ignorance makes him act irrationally and without regard to his behavior. As the plot moves along, he becomes aware of those unknown details from before and meets his downfall. Likewise, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave also shows that ignorance can lead to blindness and ultimately to disaster. The main characters have grown up in a cave of darkness as prisoners and have only seen the shadows of the real world. One of the prisoners is released and gets to see the world for the first time. He does not understand the outside world because he had been in dark for so long and tries to tell the others about the outside world in the cave and they try to kill him. In Oedipus the King and Allegory of the Cave, the idea that ignorance leads to blindness from the truth is clear. When that truth is revealed, the character(s) who come to realization are struck by unfortunate consequences.

An example of Oedipus’s firm decision to find the truth can be seen when he chose to ignore

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!“

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.

In Oedipus the King, Sophocles uses his protagonist, Oedipus, to explore his pursuit of knowledge, which leads to his tragic destruction. Oedipus is a favorable king who is determined to end the curse that has been brought upon the city because the murderer of his predecessor, Laius, still lies in the city. Ironically, Oedipus delivers the curse to the city because he murdered his father, Laius. Oedipus’s desire to gain knowledge and bring the murderer of Laius to justice, results in his downfall, which causes the people around him to be greatly affected as well.

Hamlet and Oedipus the King had analogous plots that could be described as Allegory of the Cave. There is a gathering of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from things passing in front of a fire behind them. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. Then one of the prisoner is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, for he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners (Stephen). At first, both of Hamlet and Oedipus had known nothing about the truth, which was like living chained to the wall of a cave. They all were the men of high birth that Hamlet was the prince of Denmark while Oedipus was the son of Laius king of Thebes. However, the two people suffered unfortunate incident. Classic tragic formula not only

As society advances, bountiful situations have occurred that could be examined in multiple point of views. There are countless dilemmas of all sorts of fields such as religion, biodiversity, mythology, and inequality. These certain readings focus on a more mythological creature called a cyclops. Jacob Jordaens defines these individuals appearance to be sophisticated and compassionate, with fragments of civility displayed through bits and pieces. Whereas Homer establishes an animal that is corrupted, foolish, with the craving for slaughter and barbarity. While the art piece “Odysseus in the Cave” exhibits the cyclops as civilized and humble, The Cyclops renders them to be savages with an inhuman attitude.

Oedipus the King is an enduring tale that has survived for thousands of years, and its ideas only seem to grow more sage as time goes on. Sophocles artfully delineates a story of constant juxtaposition; he tells the reader that the characters possess free will, but simultaneously shows us that it never mattered. This stark contrast is what generates the tragic irony in this Theban masterpiece. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles shows us that our own free will guides us to our ultimate predetermined fate by utilising irony and juxtaposition.

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.

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.

"Oedipus the King" is a tragic play showing a shift from the belief of fate to freedom of choice. Therefore, Oedipus the king is a great example of those who run from fate ends up fulfilling their fate

Oedipus the King, a greek tragedy, is the story of a man's struggle against his fate.