Who Is Oedipus Rex: A Symbolic Path To Truth?
Oedipus Rex: A Symbolic Path to Truth
In the ironic and tragic play Oedipus Rex, the titular character (Oedipus) goes on a journey to discover who he really is. The story starts with the King Lauis abandoning his son Oedipus because the prophet said Oedipus would murder his father and marry his mother. As the story goes on Oedipus finds a sphinx and solves the sphinx’s riddle which kills it. Oedipus is immediately named King of Thebes. As the story comes to an end he starts to ask the question, who am I? Causing him to go on a journey to discover himself. The author Sophocles really did a great job by making this play tragic, ironic, and symbolic which really grasps the concept of the theme. In this play a significant symbol that reoccurs …show more content…
throughout the drama, is blindness which illuminates Sophocles’ theme that we all have an innate need for the truth. Oedipus although is “greatest in the eyes of all” is metaphorically blind to see everything that has and that is continuing to happen around him. In the opening scene mainly every line from each character has a reoccurring word, “see”. This word is ironic because although he says he “sees”, he is unaware of all the things that is happening around him. Oedipus is acting in total ignorance as he normally does. In the Rise in Action Oedipus is convinced and ignorant that the person making accusations to overthrow him is the one and only Creon.
He feels like Creon told Tiresias to make these accusations. He goes to Tiresias and starts mocking him about being blind and also by telling him that he is a false prophet. When Oedipus is leaving Tiresias after telling him about the accusations Tiresias tries warning him that he is the blind one and he has no idea what is coming his way. However, Oedipus, a man of action, describes blindness as an inability to see. So he is not worried at all because after all what is there to be worried about? He knows he is not blind. But what Oedipus did not realize was that Tiresias, the seer, describes blindness as an inability to see the truth. In calling Tiresias a false prophet, Oedipus shows his willingness to fight against any prophecy he disagrees …show more content…
with. One day, at a banquet, he heard gossip that the king and queen were not really his parents.
To learn the truth he went to the oracle at Delphi, where he received a prophecy that he would sleep with his mother and kill his father. Terrified, Oedipus never returned to Corinth in order to ensure that the prophecy would not come true. As he wandered, he one day reached the place where Jocasta says King Laius was killed. There he had an incident with a group of men who pushed him off the road and tried to kill him. He defended himself, and ended up killing them. However, he not realizing it one of those men was the one and only King Lauis. Oedipus reveals the second major prophecy of the Oedipus story. The first prophecy, given to Laius and Jocasta, mentions only that the son would kill the father. But, prophecy given to Oedipus brings up another horrific incident: incest. When he realizes that he may have killed Laius, Oedipus worries that the punishment of exile that he promised for Laius's killer will fall on his own head. That would be bad enough—by his own decree, he would be banished. But because he still thinks he out smarted the prophecy by leaving Corinth, however, he doesn't realize that the gods will punish him as
well. As the final scene comes Oedipus goes and visits the messenger to find out more about himself. The messenger tells Oedipus that he (the messenger) came upon a baby on the side of Mount Cithaeron, near Thebes
MESSENGER: I found you in the woody glens of Cithaeron.
OEDIPUS: Why were you traveling in that place?
MESSENGER: At that time I had the care of mountain flocks.
OEDIPUS: Why, you were a shepherd, a nomad for hire?
MESSENGE And also at that time, my child, your savior. (1048-1053) The messenger also brings up his ankles, which causes Oedipus to actually believe him. However, when Oedipus asks for more details about who his parents were, the messenger says he doesn't know, but was given the baby by another shepherd who was a servant of Laius, which was Polybus. The detail about the pinned ankles links Oedipus to the baby who Jocasta and Laius tried to kill. Oedipus's swollen ankles are marks of his fate. Yet Oedipus, who solved the riddle of the Sphinx, still can't see it. His search for the truth has actually blinded him to the truth.
In the ironic and tragic play Oedipus Rex, the titular character (Oedipus) goes on a journey to discover who he really is. The story starts with the King Lauis abandoning his son Oedipus because the prophet said Oedipus would murder his father and marry his mother. As the story goes on Oedipus finds a sphinx and solves the sphinx’s riddle which kills it. Oedipus is immediately named King of Thebes. As the story comes to an end he starts to ask the question, who am I? Causing him to go on a journey to discover himself. The author Sophocles really did a great job by making this play tragic, ironic, and symbolic which really grasps the concept of the theme. In this play a significant symbol that reoccurs …show more content…
throughout the drama, is blindness which illuminates Sophocles’ theme that we all have an innate need for the truth. Oedipus although is “greatest in the eyes of all” is metaphorically blind to see everything that has and that is continuing to happen around him. In the opening scene mainly every line from each character has a reoccurring word, “see”. This word is ironic because although he says he “sees”, he is unaware of all the things that is happening around him. Oedipus is acting in total ignorance as he normally does. In the Rise in Action Oedipus is convinced and ignorant that the person making accusations to overthrow him is the one and only Creon.
He feels like Creon told Tiresias to make these accusations. He goes to Tiresias and starts mocking him about being blind and also by telling him that he is a false prophet. When Oedipus is leaving Tiresias after telling him about the accusations Tiresias tries warning him that he is the blind one and he has no idea what is coming his way. However, Oedipus, a man of action, describes blindness as an inability to see. So he is not worried at all because after all what is there to be worried about? He knows he is not blind. But what Oedipus did not realize was that Tiresias, the seer, describes blindness as an inability to see the truth. In calling Tiresias a false prophet, Oedipus shows his willingness to fight against any prophecy he disagrees …show more content…
with. One day, at a banquet, he heard gossip that the king and queen were not really his parents.
To learn the truth he went to the oracle at Delphi, where he received a prophecy that he would sleep with his mother and kill his father. Terrified, Oedipus never returned to Corinth in order to ensure that the prophecy would not come true. As he wandered, he one day reached the place where Jocasta says King Laius was killed. There he had an incident with a group of men who pushed him off the road and tried to kill him. He defended himself, and ended up killing them. However, he not realizing it one of those men was the one and only King Lauis. Oedipus reveals the second major prophecy of the Oedipus story. The first prophecy, given to Laius and Jocasta, mentions only that the son would kill the father. But, prophecy given to Oedipus brings up another horrific incident: incest. When he realizes that he may have killed Laius, Oedipus worries that the punishment of exile that he promised for Laius's killer will fall on his own head. That would be bad enough—by his own decree, he would be banished. But because he still thinks he out smarted the prophecy by leaving Corinth, however, he doesn't realize that the gods will punish him as
well. As the final scene comes Oedipus goes and visits the messenger to find out more about himself. The messenger tells Oedipus that he (the messenger) came upon a baby on the side of Mount Cithaeron, near Thebes
MESSENGER: I found you in the woody glens of Cithaeron.
OEDIPUS: Why were you traveling in that place?
MESSENGER: At that time I had the care of mountain flocks.
OEDIPUS: Why, you were a shepherd, a nomad for hire?
MESSENGE And also at that time, my child, your savior. (1048-1053) The messenger also brings up his ankles, which causes Oedipus to actually believe him. However, when Oedipus asks for more details about who his parents were, the messenger says he doesn't know, but was given the baby by another shepherd who was a servant of Laius, which was Polybus. The detail about the pinned ankles links Oedipus to the baby who Jocasta and Laius tried to kill. Oedipus's swollen ankles are marks of his fate. Yet Oedipus, who solved the riddle of the Sphinx, still can't see it. His search for the truth has actually blinded him to the truth.