ignorance
English 2 Pre-Ap / period-3
10-19-2013
Ignorance is Not Bliss
Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, premiered in 429 B.C.E., tackles the idea of fate, and how too great of a desire to change fate will result in the opposite of what you want to happen. I believe that this play was created to argue against the idea that your fate can be changed. I also believe that you can’t change your fate but I am convinced that you will never know your fate until after it happens. The story of Oedipus was carried orally until Sophocles, he was the first person to write the play down on paper. Sophocles didn’t really have a choice when dealing with how dramatic irony affected the audience because at that time everyone knew Oedipus's story. The entire play was bursting through the seems with dramatic irony. The overall meaning of the work as a whole is that ignorance is not bliss, ignorance can lead to bad things, and the dramatic irony within the play highlights the fact the Oedipus was ignorant. The fact that the audience already knows what’s going to happen to Oedipus highlights, or emphasizes his ignorance. Oedipus is pretty much given all the facts and information about his situation but he still refuses to believe the truth “And if I myself should prove myself to have him in my halls an intimate,” (15). Because the audience already has knowledge of Oedipus’s story and what will happen to him, he appears obviously more ignorant than if the audience didn’t know his story. I believe Oedipus is extremely ignorant; mainly because he was told his fate, so he had an idea of what would happen to him. He then killed several men and married a widowed woman, “Well then are you married to my sister?”
“ I am, Why should I deny it?” (32), whose spouse died around the same time as when Oedipus killed the men in the street. Also, Oedipus looked a lot like his wife’s murdered spouse. I feel that the play as a whole is dramatically ironic, the intended audience knows the story of Oedipus
10-19-2013
Ignorance is Not Bliss
Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, premiered in 429 B.C.E., tackles the idea of fate, and how too great of a desire to change fate will result in the opposite of what you want to happen. I believe that this play was created to argue against the idea that your fate can be changed. I also believe that you can’t change your fate but I am convinced that you will never know your fate until after it happens. The story of Oedipus was carried orally until Sophocles, he was the first person to write the play down on paper. Sophocles didn’t really have a choice when dealing with how dramatic irony affected the audience because at that time everyone knew Oedipus's story. The entire play was bursting through the seems with dramatic irony. The overall meaning of the work as a whole is that ignorance is not bliss, ignorance can lead to bad things, and the dramatic irony within the play highlights the fact the Oedipus was ignorant. The fact that the audience already knows what’s going to happen to Oedipus highlights, or emphasizes his ignorance. Oedipus is pretty much given all the facts and information about his situation but he still refuses to believe the truth “And if I myself should prove myself to have him in my halls an intimate,” (15). Because the audience already has knowledge of Oedipus’s story and what will happen to him, he appears obviously more ignorant than if the audience didn’t know his story. I believe Oedipus is extremely ignorant; mainly because he was told his fate, so he had an idea of what would happen to him. He then killed several men and married a widowed woman, “Well then are you married to my sister?”
“ I am, Why should I deny it?” (32), whose spouse died around the same time as when Oedipus killed the men in the street. Also, Oedipus looked a lot like his wife’s murdered spouse. I feel that the play as a whole is dramatically ironic, the intended audience knows the story of Oedipus