Oedipus The King Sophocles' Play Oedipus The Term Paper

PAGES
2
WORDS
687
Cite

Oedipus the King Sophocles' play Oedipus the King is filled with irony; in fact, irony makes the play's narrative so compelling. Oedipus vows to end the plague that besieged the people of Thebes but fails to realize that to end it, he must essentially oust himself from power. He vehemently curses the murderer in a passionate speech to the chorus at the beginning of the play without realizing that he delivers the curses upon himself. Oedipus unwittingly hunts for himself; unaware that he killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus claims to find and exile the murderer even if "If in my house, I knowing it, he dwells," (265). At times, Oedipus seems so close to uttering the truth or unknowingly does speak the truth that the audience is gripped by suspense and frustration. For example, when Oedipus is first confronted with the news that for the plague to stop Laius' murderer must be found, he immediately swells with pride and thus utters statements that are saturated with dramatic...

...

For example, he states, "Not for the sake of friends, or near or far, / But for mine own, will I dispel this curse; / For he that slew him, whosoe'er he be, / Will wish, perchance, with such a blow to smite / Me also. Helping him, I help myself," (143-147). When Oedipus says "helping him, I help myself," he has no idea how close to the truth he is. Moreover, when he notes that whoever killed Laius might eventually come after him, he presages his own self-destruction at the end of the play.
Interestingly, Oedipus was crowned King precisely because he proved his mental prowess to the people of Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx. However, he can't fathom the simpler mystery of who killed Laius, even in spite of possessing overwhelming evidence that it was he. Creon utters an ironic message regarding the import of the Sphinx's riddle: "The Sphinx, with her dark riddle, bade us look / At nearer facts, and leave the dim obscure," (136-7). The Sphinx's…

Sources Used in Documents:

Works Cited

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans E.H. Plumptre. Harvard Classics. Vol. VIII, Part 5. Ed. Charles W. Eliot. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909-14; Bartleby.com, 2001. Retrieved 10 May 2004. http://www.bartleby.com/8/5/.


Cite this Document:

"Oedipus The King Sophocles' Play Oedipus The" (2004, May 10) Retrieved April 25, 2024, from
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/oedipus-the-king-sophocles-play-oedipus-170077

"Oedipus The King Sophocles' Play Oedipus The" 10 May 2004. Web.25 April. 2024. <
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/oedipus-the-king-sophocles-play-oedipus-170077>

"Oedipus The King Sophocles' Play Oedipus The", 10 May 2004, Accessed.25 April. 2024,
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/oedipus-the-king-sophocles-play-oedipus-170077

Related Documents

However, the play goes even further than these hints in demonstrating the irrelevance of any supernatural force to the story's action when Tiresias mocks Oedipus for suggesting that the blind seer is the source of the plague (Sophocles 27). When Oedipus accuses Tiresias of a being "a conspirator" to Laius' murder due to his reluctance to tell what he knows, Tiresias responds by asking "Sooth sayest thou?" (Sophocles 26-27). While

Oedipus the King the Play
PAGES 2 WORDS 627

Oedipus Rex Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex is the third play in a trilogy telling the extended story of a Greek ruling family. The ability to see things as they really are is a recurring issue for Oedipus, who eventually becomes King. To emphasize Oedipus' ability to see things only as he wanted to see them, Sophocles used the metaphor of vision vs. blindness throughout the play. Interpreting the concept of vision literally,

Oedipus also chose not to ask questions regarding his past, although this might be ascribed to the fact that he did not know to ask in the first place. It was his choice to leave his adopted family to escape the prophesy that he knows about. The adopted family however choose even at this point not to inform Oedipus of the true nature of his fate. Another choice that Oedipus

Oedipus: Self-Made Disaster In Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus takes fate into his own hands and demonstrates the power of the human will. Oedipus illustrates how we may not always be in control of our destinies, regardless of our efforts. The play is ironic in this sense because Oedipus already had the best "fate" any man in his position could hope for with a beautiful loving wife and a community that

Sophocles plays "Antigone," and "Oedipus Rex." COMPARING THE SCENES Teiresias is the blind prophet of Apollo. He appears in both plays to warn the characters of some danger, or teach them what they need to learn, through the seeings of Apollo. He is the messenger of Apollo, bringing his words to the "mortals." He does not want to deliver his message at first, but Oedipus eggs him on, and he says, "Teiresias:

Ismene would later be pardoned, but Antigone's decision to include her sister in the plot denotes further criminality on Antigone's part. In any case, the crime that Antigone commits is relatively minor: she is not harming anyone and is actually following the law of custom, tradition, and religion, a law which Antigone places before any law of the mundane world. Ironically, her suicide can be interpreted as a further violation