Oedipus And Theban Sins Of The Fathers
Pillai 1
Rahul Pillai
Professor Black
English 2315
9 October 2014
Sins of the Fathers: Man’s hubris vs. Fate’s intervention in the Theban plays.
The sins of the fathers in the Theban plays written by Sophocles, illustrates the conflicts between man’s actions against the power of unwritten law, the willingness to ignore the truth, the misused limits of free will, and the false notion of beating the ways of fate. The fathers, chronologically Lauis, Oedipus, and Creon all show people who acted in ways to avoid the predestined fates set up on them for their own happiness. The first father, Lauis the king of
Thebes is portrayed as a person who lets his hubris and ego attempt to rewrite his fate by not heading to the gods, letting lust control his mind and …show more content…
Instead he receives the same warning as Laius did, “you will kill your father and marry your mother.” Still believing that his foster parents in Corinth were his biological parents, Oedipus runs away from home to bypass fate and its fruits. On his way to seek refuge in Thebes, Oedipus encounters a group of men, since the road was narrow the person within the carriage hits Oedipus for being in the way.
Without thinking or being discriminant, Oedipus fights with all five men including the person within the carriage. Results are all five are dead, while one soldier escapes to tell of the story which is re told by Jocasta,
Pillai 5
“ But, see now, he,the king, was killed by foreign highway robbers at a place where three roads meet-so goes the story.” (OK 714-16)
And Oedipus recounts his past when he first arrives at the city,
“ When i was nearing the branching of the crossroads, going on foot, I was encountered by a herald and a carriage with a man in it, just as you tell me. He that led the way and the old man himself wanted to thrust me out of the road by force. I became angry and struck the coachman who was pushing
Rahul Pillai
Professor Black
English 2315
9 October 2014
Sins of the Fathers: Man’s hubris vs. Fate’s intervention in the Theban plays.
The sins of the fathers in the Theban plays written by Sophocles, illustrates the conflicts between man’s actions against the power of unwritten law, the willingness to ignore the truth, the misused limits of free will, and the false notion of beating the ways of fate. The fathers, chronologically Lauis, Oedipus, and Creon all show people who acted in ways to avoid the predestined fates set up on them for their own happiness. The first father, Lauis the king of
Thebes is portrayed as a person who lets his hubris and ego attempt to rewrite his fate by not heading to the gods, letting lust control his mind and …show more content…
Instead he receives the same warning as Laius did, “you will kill your father and marry your mother.” Still believing that his foster parents in Corinth were his biological parents, Oedipus runs away from home to bypass fate and its fruits. On his way to seek refuge in Thebes, Oedipus encounters a group of men, since the road was narrow the person within the carriage hits Oedipus for being in the way.
Without thinking or being discriminant, Oedipus fights with all five men including the person within the carriage. Results are all five are dead, while one soldier escapes to tell of the story which is re told by Jocasta,
Pillai 5
“ But, see now, he,the king, was killed by foreign highway robbers at a place where three roads meet-so goes the story.” (OK 714-16)
And Oedipus recounts his past when he first arrives at the city,
“ When i was nearing the branching of the crossroads, going on foot, I was encountered by a herald and a carriage with a man in it, just as you tell me. He that led the way and the old man himself wanted to thrust me out of the road by force. I became angry and struck the coachman who was pushing