The Tragic Tragedy Of Oedipus ' Oedipus The King '

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.

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

Considered one of the greatest dramas of all time, Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King follows the tragic life of Oedipus, king of Thebes. Considered a Satyr play, the Oedipus trilogy is perhaps the most famous of Sophocles’ plays. Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy that was first performed somewhere around 429 BC in Athens, Greece. Originally, the Greeks referred to the play as simply “Oedipus,” as that was what Aristotle referred to it as in the Poetics. Perhaps what makes this play so memorable, is Sophocles’ uses of the tragic hero as the main theme. Sophocles uses characterization and conflict to portray Oedipus as an Aristotelian tragic hero.

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.

Although Oedipus was not literally blind, he was ignorant and figuratively blind to the truth about who was the real murderer of King Laius. “Oedipus Rex” was a Greek play performed around 429 B.C. and was written by Sophocles. The ignorance of the main character, Oedipus, led to a dramatic ending in the book. He gained knowledge and this is what made him come to the realization that he was blind to the truth. This play shows the readers how blindness vs truth correlates with ignorance vs knowledge because blindness prohibited

Throughout the play, Oedipus the King, Sophocles refers to site and blindness to relate attitudes and knowledge of the past. The irony of sight in this play can be marked by Oedipus’ inability to realize that which is evident to the reader. His extreme pride is his tragic flaw. It blinds him from the truth.

Eyes, crossroads, and Oedipus’ ankles are symbols revealed to the reader throughout the story. Eyes are a very important symbol in the story, they indicate knowledge. In the story the character Tiresias is a wise, blind prophet that can ‘see’ the truth, while Oedipus can visually see but is ‘blind’ to the truth. Tiresias says to Oedipus, “So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this, with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life...”(468-471). The crossroads (which is the place Oedipus killed his father, King Laius) symbolizes Oedipus’ choices and paths he can take. The choices he makes seals his fate, “Making my way toward this triple crossroad… a man just as you described him… and the old man himself were about to thrust me off the road...the driver, I strike him in anger...with one blow of the staff… I knock him out… I killed them all-every mother’s son!”(884-894). Oedipus hot temperedness causes him to go down a painful, mortifying path, which caused his terrible fate to occur. The name Oedipus means swollen ankles, which was given to him because of his childhood ankle injury. It became a symbol of Oedipus' ignorance and a scar of his destined fate.

As Aristotle has posed, tragedy is formulaic and imitative, composed of distinct parts that inspire pity or fear which ultimately culminate into a depressingly satisfying ending. Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King in particular, incorporates Aristotelian characteristics as detailed in the Poetics. Through its manner, the play presents a singular yet complex plot and, an imperfect main character dealing with the consequences of his actions. Given the various rules to tragic aspects, Oedipus the King embodies the elements of a perfect tragedy holistically.

Sophocles's Oedipus Rex is probably the most famous tragedy ever written. Sophocles's tragedy represents a monumental theatrical and interpretative challenge. Oedipus Rex is the story of a King of Thebes upon whom a hereditary curse is placed and who therefore has to suffer the tragic consequences of fate (tragic flaws or hamartia). In the play, Oedipus is the tragic hero. Even though fate victimizes Oedipus, he is a tragic figure since his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his fidelity to the truth ruin him.

Fate chose him to kill his dad, marry his mom, and discover it all in Oedipus Rex, Sophocles’ tragedy. Oedipus was so determined to save Thebes from the plague bestowed on them by Apollo. But little did he know that he was the source of it all. His constant reversal of fortune, neutrality, and suffering make him the perfect example of a classic Greek tragic hero.

Oediupus’ tragic flaw is his ambition, his enthusiasm to know the full truth regardless of the consequences. This trait is exemplified near the end of the play when Oedipus urges the shepherd to reveal the full truth of his birth, even though he knows the truth may cause him misery, “And I’m at the edge of hearing horrors, yes, but I must hear!” (230). In this passage, Oedipus is insistent on having the full truth of his birth revealed to him, even though he suspects the terrible nature of it. Oedipus has the option to stop the shepherd, to tell him to say no more, to avoid hearing the horrors he suspects, but he willingly chooses to seek out the truth. His ambition is a tragic flaw because he chooses to hear the truth despite knowing that

In the play Oedipus Rex, Sophocles develops the theme that fate is fixed by use of references to the tragic hero’s blindness to the truth and light and darkness. For example, Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is his wife son and his father's killer when he states “I say that you are Laius's murderer- he whom you seek” and even though Oedipus had tried to escape the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother this occurs. This demonstrates Oedipus blindness to that of the truth because he tried so hard to run away from this fate when the truth comes to light he becomes blind to the truth . Also, the play uses irony when the soothsayer is blind but can see the light and Oedipus can see but is blind to the truth .Ultimately,

Following the victories of the Greeks invading the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C. and Salamis in 480 B.C., Athens experienced a period of social optimism and period expansion during the first half of the fifth century B.C. The second half of the fifth century B.C. was also very successful in that Athenians tremendously developed culturally and intellectually. This was the era of Sophocles and a period where everything and anything seemed possible through man effort and reason. Sophocles wrote a trilogy of tragedies, which contained of 3 Theban plays. Oedipus Rex, the first play in the trilogy, was written during a period of political instability and plague. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, many themes such as the quest for identity, the nature of innocence and guilt, and the abuse of power are portrayed and are pivotal for the play to build up to the tragic ending.

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.

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