Symbolism In Oedipus The King

Since Oedipus is king and has had a pleasing life, his basic understanding of justice is limited, to say the least. Apart from escaping his former kingdom, Rex’s life has been tremendously serene. Therefore, Oedipus finds himself in

This essay depicts how Oedipus will show how he developed throughout the story, how he acted towards other characters, advances through the plot and how he essentially develops the theme.

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.

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.

Oedipus Rex is what is known as a tragedy of destiny, its tragic effects is said to lie in the contrast between the supreme will of the gods and the vain attempts of mankind to escape the evil that threatens them. (Knox, 1982,

"Overview: Oedipus Rex." Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens and Lynn M. Spampinato. Vol. 1.

Throughout the play we find that Oedipus, the protagonist of this Greek tragedy, is tested by life in a number of ways. To those in Athens who watched the performance of Oedipus the King, Oedipus appeared to be the embodiment of a perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong-willed. Ironically, these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. He is portrayed as a character of

Ancient Greece is a very unique and foreign place to us today but surprisingly the ancient Greeks liked theatrics as much as we do now. This love for the stage led to many great plays being written one of which was “Oedipus the King”. “Oedipus the King” written by Sophocles in 430 BC is a Greek tragedy that shows the tragic downfall of Oedipus the king of Thebes. In this play Oedipus finds out that the prophecy that he had fled from so long ago had come true as he married his mother and murdered his father. “Oedipus the King” is a brilliant allegory for man's unwinnable struggle against fate and the puzzling actions of the indifferent gods.

“Oedipus the King” is a tragic story written by Sophocles. Oedipus is a king that is trying to escape his fate. An oracle had predicted that he was going to be the killer of his father, and was going to sleep with his mother. When he was first born, his parents attempted to kill him yet he survived and was adopted. Instead of getting away from the atrocious future that was predicted, Oedipus walks right into his fate. This Greek tragedy is about transitions. He starts off as arrogant, unknowing, and full of ego but this drastically changes as we reach the end of the play. Oedipus becomes a wise man and has accepted how life is. No matter how much power or knowledge you have there is no way of tampering with fate, instead accept and learn from it.

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.

The tale of Oedipus and his prophecy has intrigued not only the citizens of Greece in the ancient times, but also people all over the world for several generations. Most notable about the play was its peculiar structure, causing the audience to think analytically about the outcomes of Oedipus’ actions and how it compares with Aristotle’s beliefs. Another way that the people have examined the drama is by looking at the paradoxes (such as the confrontation of Tiresias and Oedipus), symbols (such as the Sphinx), and morals that has affected their perceptions by the end of the play. Nonetheless, the most important aspect is how relevant the story is and how it has influenced modern ideas like that of Freud and other people of today.

“Oedipus the King” contains many characters with differing characteristics. Some of these characteristics go hand-in-hand with the two main themes in the play.Tiresias and Oedipus in the play “Oedipus the King” are conflicting characters. These two characters illustrate the contrasting the differences of blindness & sight and knowledge & ignorance, and different interpretations of these ideas. The themes blindness & sight and knowledge & ignorance are similar in how they relate to each character.

In the play Oedipus The King written by Sophocles, it is the blind man who can see the truth of Oedipus and Jocasta’s relationship and it is those that see, Oedipus and Jocasta, who are blind to the truth. When Oedipus finally sees the truth of his actions, he blinds himself in horror. The irony here is that only the blind see things clearly, while the seeing blind themselves to the reality in front of them. While believing himself to be living in the light, Oedipus is actually living in darkness. The story of Oedipus begins as a murder mystery in a village that is suffering from a plague that is threatening to destroy the village. The author continues to use prophets and messengers as well as irony to follow the main character. Sophocles uses the motif of blindness and sight, the contrasting imagery of darkness and light, along with dramatic irony to bring a huge impact to the meaning of the story. A motif is a symbol which can take on a figurative meaning. In this case the author uses blindness and sight as the motif. Imagery is used as a descriptive language. In this story the author uses light and dark as imagery. Dramatic irony is an irony that happened when the meaning of a situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters. An example of dramatic irony is shown when the old soothsayer visits the King. Oedipus did not listen to the man because he's blind, and Teiresias is full of anger tells the Oedipus that though he might be able to see he is "blind" to the truth. When Oedipus finally becomes blind at the end of the play, Oedipus realizes the truth of the soothsayer’s words. Irony is also showing that the only person that can see the truth is the blind man.

Beginning with the character of Oedipus, while the physical journey lasts the course of a day, his mental journey originates at his own birth, where his own internal passage spans all the way back to his origin. The conflict that arises from the circumstances surrounding this lead into the encompassing self-tribulation that will be the theme of his journey, with his inner shifting subconsciousness affecting the outer events of his journey. The journey’s catalyst was his decision to seek the murderer of the prior king, leading into his confrontation with the elderly seer and planting the first seeds of doubt. Going from his assuredness in addressing the people prior, we now have insight to the depths of his pride at even the slightest hint that all is not well with his identity, progressing him in having to turn his search inwardly and preparing

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.