Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Oedipus is one of the most famous names in Greek mythology. His name has become both a psychological complex as well as a familiar joke. His story has come to be a synonym as well for the capriciousness of fate. But a truer picture of the character of Oedipus suggests that, rather than being an unwitting victim, Oedipus a clear hand in his own demise. Despite its reputation, Sophocles' play "Oedipus the King" is a tragedy of character rather than of an innocent condemned by fate. Oedipus' tragic flaw his confidence and his arrogance that he understands what is happening to himself and his city. Of course, Oedipus really understands nothing.
The play begins by Oedipus, king of Thebes talking to his "children" or citizens, bemoaning the fact that Thebes is now under a plague. (Lines 1-5, source from Literature and Ourselves) The priest tells Oedipus, "Now we pray to you. You cannot equal the gods, / your children know that, bending at your altar, / But we do rate you first of men." (Lines 38-40) It is clear that Oedipus has become accustomed, within the context of his city, to being treated, if not as a god, then in an extremely reverential fashion as the city's leader. This reverence contributes to his arrogance. Oedipus responds to the priest and his...
(Line 280) Like a god, Oedipus puts his curse upon the source of the plague, dispensing justice in a mighty fashion.
The 'back story' the play provides to the opening image is also indicative of Oedipus' arrogance as well. Oedipus' first dialogue with his brother-in-law reveals that the plague has its roots in the murder of the original King of Thebes, Laius. Oedipus reacts with horror to this news. But as the prophet Tiresias later says, "So, / you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. / You with your previous eyes, you're blind to the corruption of your life, / to the house you live in, those you live with -- who are your parents" (Lines 468-470)
It is revealed that when Oedipus became a man he consulted the oracle of Apollo, as was common when an individual came of age in ancient Greece. When the oracle told him his destiny, that he would grow up to murder his father and marry his mother, Oedipus was horrified. "Lonely and distraught," Oedipus left the people he thought to be his true parents, the Encarta Online Encyclopedia says in its retelling of the tale. ("Oedipus" Encarta Encyclopedia) But one could also more accurately state that Oedipus left home…
Later, the young man Oedipus found his way to the capital and freed Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx. He did so as a confident action, confident of his own intelligence where other men had failed and been killed by the cursed monster. As a gift, Thebes gave him the hand of Laius' widow, Jocasta. This is where the term 'Oedipus Complex' comes from, according to the Gale Online Encyclopedia of Psychology. Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) "describes a subconscious feelings in children of intense competition and even hatred toward the parent of the same sex, and feelings of romantic love toward the parent of the opposite sex. He felt that if these conflicting feelings were not successfully resolved, they would contribute to neuroses in later life. The name "Oedipus" refers to Oedipus Rex, the classic Greek play by Sophocles, which tells the story of Oedipus, who is abandoned at birth by his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta. He later comes back and, as foretold by prophecy, kills his father and marries his mother before finding out his true identity. Freud saw in the play an archetypal dynamic being played out, and so coopted the character's name for his description."
However, Freud's passive Oedipus has little to do with the active Oedipus of the text. Perhaps a better reading of Oedipus is provided by Michael Pennington, who states, "The Oedipus complex is...inappropriate to the play. Oedipus sleeps with his mother and kills his father circumstantially, proving only his political sense and a violent temperament." (Pennington 100) Pennington states that it was simply astute of Oedipus to marry Jocasta, he did not do so out of desire. Oedipus chose to free Thebes of the Sphinx out of intelligence and ambition. It takes a particular character of man to act out of anger and kill an older individual in a dispute of early Greek 'road rage.'
It also takes a particular kind of individual character to blind himself. Oedipus' stated reason
Oedipus Rex Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" is the most famous of his tragedies in which Greek dramatic irony reaches an apex (Sophocles1 pp). Aristotle was a great admirer of Sophocles, and considered Oedipus Rex to be the perfect example of tragedy (Outline pp). According to Aristotle, tragedy is an imitation of action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude, in which language is embellished with each kind of artistic ornament
Despite his love of the estate, the future is far better and far more promising than the Russia of the previous era. Another tragic feature of Ranevskaya's character that makes her uniquely 'modern' is that she knows her flaws. She admits that she squanders money, while Oedipus seems unaware of his arrogance until the very end of the play. Chekhov's subtlety as a playwright is that he knows that people
As a tragic hero therefore, Oedipus does not err because his character is somehow flawed. Instead, his inevitable fall is caused by an error of judgment: instead of accepting his own fate, he tries to find out the truth about his origin and thus begins the quest that will lead to his dramatic end. Oedipus' almost paranoid search for the truth of his birth shows him as a social nonconformist
Laius may not have been the smartest move, either. This rests on your shoulders, not mine. Oedipus: I love her! What's that got to do with anything? I can't help it if we connected at a shareholders party and sparks flew. Laius was through, and I wasn't - Jocasta likes power, what can I say? Jocasta: Are you boys arguing again? Do you have to make all the company's dirty laundry public? Honestly
In this sense, the time and setting of these two plays are less significant because each of the two addresses universal questions of fate, destiny, free will, and the meaning of life, which are as current today as they were over 2000 years ago, when Oedipus Rex was written, for instance. The Darker Face of the Earth reflects many of the themes and plot elements that also occur in the
Greeks The narrator is coy about whether or not he views Alexander as Great. He makes a lot of jokes about people want to be great and starts off the lecture with a bit about Kim Kardashian -- but it's not really a fair comparison in my estimation. Fame does not equate to greatness and one can be famous for being rich, pretty and making a sex tape (and having a