...“Symbolism in Oedipus the King” Literature is composed of various tactics in order to make the reading more interesting and compelling to the audience. One of my favorite literary elements or devices is the use of symbolism. According to Merriam - Webster, symbolism is “the use of symbols to express or represent ideas or qualities in literature” (Webster). This definition might seem elementary to most. However, symbolism can be used to bring out deeper meanings in a text or express the intangible elements by the means of visual representations. Sophocles did a marvelous job of this in the play Oedipus the King. While reading Oedipus the King, there were four instances of symbolism that stood out to me: Oedipus’ scared feet, the murder at the crossroads, the mention of blindness that is present throughout the play and lastly Oedipus himself. Each one of these examples of symbolism adds character to Sophocles’ work of literature. They help guide the tone of the text. When Oedipus was merely three days old his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta, received a prophecy from Apollo saying that one day their son would one day kill his father and intermarry in to his family with his mother. Upon hearing this news, Oedipus’ parents bound and pierced his feet. The King and Queen then sent him off to be abandoned in hopes of avoiding the dreadful prophecy. Oedipus survived the incident and was left with scars on his feet. The scars that were present on Oedipus’ feet throughout his lifetime...
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...Hamartia in Oedipus the King According to the Aristotelian characteristics of good tragedy, the tragic character should not fall due to either excessive virtue or excessive wickedness, but due to what Aristotle called hamartia. Hamartia may be interpreted as either a flaw in character or an error in judgement. Oedipus, the tragic character in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, certainly makes several such mistakes; however, the pervasive pattern of his judgemental errors seems to indicate a basic character flaw that precipitates them. Oedipus’ character flaw is ego. This is made evident in the opening lines of the prologue when he states "Here I am myself--you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus." (ll. 7-9) His conceit is the root cause of a number of related problems. Among these are recklessness, disrespect, and stubbornness. Oedipus displays an attitude of recklessness and disrespect throughout the play. When he makes his proclamation and no one confesses to the murder of Laius, Oedipus loses patience immediately and rushes into his curse. Later, he displays a short temper to Tiresias: "You, you scum of the earth . . . out with it, once and for all!," (ll. 381, 383) and "Enough! Such filth from him? Insufferable--what, still alive? Get out--faster, back where you came from--vanish!" (ll. 490-492) If an unwillingness to listen may be considered stubbornness, certainly Oedipus would take advice from no one who would tell him to drop the matter of his...
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...Professor Pierson English 104 02 March 2014 " Oedipus the King" People can be blinded to the truth. The answer to their question or solution to their problem may have been obvious the whole time. Still, they could not see the answer. They were blinded by the truth. Connections have been made between being blind and enlightened. A blind person is said to have powers to see invisible things. The blind may not have physical sight, but they have another kind of vision. In Sophocles play, "Oedips the King" there are some adverse situations relating to the ability to see things literally compared to having vision symbolically. With this repetition throughout the play it becomes one of its central themes. In the play King Oedipus started life with a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, but Oedipus was blind to the truth his whole life. The parents who raised him weren't his parents at all. His real parents were Laius and Jocasta. Jocasta who was his who was his real mother was now his wife. When Oedipus does find the truth, he loses his physical vision by blinding himself. Even when Jocasta found out the truth, she refused to accept it and commits suicide. Jocasta blindness was different from Oedipus as well as both differed from Tiresias, the blind prophet. Tiresias's blindness was of phyisical nature. Tiresias played the role...
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...“the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion.” Fate is a development of events beyonds a person’s control. These ideas are exactly what Sophocles is challenging is his play Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus Rex the protagonist Oedipus is trying to figure who killed the former king Laius, not realizing he was the killer himself. Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Throughout the play, Oedipus is torn between accepting the prophecy or choosing his own destiny. Despite his best effort, the prophecy laid out for him came true. Oedipus Rex uses symbolism to illustrate the theme that one can never escape fate. One symbol used in Oedipus Rex is the scars on his feet. It represent the suffering he has endured and will keep on enduring. In the play Oedipus finds out from a messenger that his adopted father Polybus is dead. The messenger explains how long ago he found a baby on Mount Cithaeron with its...
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...Honors 9/30/13 Irony in Sight Throughout Sophacles’ play Oedipus Rex, he uses sight and blindness to demonstrate irony and the hubris of Oedipus. This is marked by Oedipus’ unwillingness or inability to understand that which is clear to the audience. His hubris (extreme pride) is his tragic flaw, truly blinding him from the truth. Oedipus eventually blinds himself, and it is then that he can finally “see”. From the very beginning, Oedipus was blinded by pride. Throughout the play, it is the one greatest irony that those with physical sight are blind, yet those who cannot actually see can see the truth. With the city of Thebes dying, Creon, having been sent to do so by Oedipus, comes from Delphi and the Oracle to deliver the message that the "the pollution of this land" (Sophocles 232), the murderer, be killed to bring an end to their strife.. Oedipus shows hubris when he demands Creon talk with him publicly, so convinced is he that he can solve any problem. Oedipus Has already solved the riddle of the Sphinx, that which had thwarted so many before him; "Oedipus knew the famous riddles. He was a mighty king, he was the envy of everyone who say how lucky he'd been. Now he's struck a wave of terrible ruin" (276) The chorus wishes for Oedipus to appeal to the gods to find the killer, Oedipus asserts that "to force the gods to act against their will- no man has the power."(320) Here, at least, he seems to humble himself before at least Apollo. Oedipus calls for Tiresius, the...
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...Sophocles in Oedipus Rex (represented in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 8th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2002] 1310) not only uses quite a bit of irony. From the beginning one is faced with the tragedy in the story, the murder of King Laios. Soon we learn that his murderer is in Thebes, and until the murderer is driven out of the town, the terrible plagues will continue haunting Thebes. After hearing the story, Oedipus resolves to solve the mystery himself and says that the murderer will be exiled even if it is a member of his own family. At this point, the reader is faced with irony, which he will better understand later in the story when he finds out that not only was the murderer in Oedipus’s family, but the murderer was indeed Oedipus. Not only does Sophocles use irony, but he also gives the reader the desire to better understand his seeing and blindness elements that are used throughout his drama. Oedipus Rex is filled with many surprises and some upsets but plenty of drama, irony, and entertainment. As one reads, he feels many different emotions, such as confusion, sadness, and then simply anger. Although one may not agree that blinding himself was the best idea, Oedipus’s reasoning behind his action is not quite as complicated if looked at from a simpler point of view. At the end of the story when Oedipus goes into his wife’s bedroom, he finds her hanging from a noose. Oedipus immediately begins to sob and runs to embrace...
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...The two most prominent themes included in Sophocles’ play, Oedipus The King, that are also major themes throughout Greek tragedies are fate and sight. Fate, described as unescapable, and sight, described as blindness vs. knowledge, both are incorporated into Sophocles’ play. The main character, Oedipus, is the king of Thebes and viewed as their savior against the sphinx. Oedipus the king, is one of the best known Greek plays, in my opinion, mainly because of Oedipus’ blindness to how his actions were making his fate come true. This particular play gives insight on the Greek concepts of fate and sight with the different prophecies told by an insightful yet blind prophet, Tiresias. Through many examples in this play, fate and sight are intertwined...
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...Blindness in Oedipus the King People can be “blinded” to the truth. The answer to their question or solution to their problem may have been obvious. Yet, they could not "see" the answer. They were blinded to the truth. Associations have been made between being blind and enlightened. A blind person is said to have powers to see invisible things. They "see" into the future. The blind may not have physical sight, but they have another kind of vision. In Sophocles' King Oedipus, Teiresias, the blind prophet, presents the truth to King Oedipus and Jocasta. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth his whole life. When he does find the truth, he loses his physical vision. Because of the truth, Oedipus blinds himself. Jocasta was blind to the true identity of Oedipus. Even when she found out the truth, she refused to accept it. In this case, those who are blind ultimately do have a higher vision - the truth. Kind Oedipus started life with a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. In an attempt to avoid this fate, his parents, Laius and Jocasta, sent him into the mountains to die. However, a shepherd saved Oedipus. This shepherd gave Oedipus to Polybus and Merope. When Oedipus learned of his prophecy, he fled his home, thinking these people were his real parents. On his flight, he met Laius. He ended up killing Laius. He continued on, answered a riddle of the evil Sphinx, and ended up king of Thebes. With this kingdom, Oedipus married Jocasta. He had lived out...
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...Symbolism in Oedipus the King Many famous literary works commonly contain symbolism which is used as a way to expand the plot and give deeper meaning to otherwise insignificant objects or concepts. One such piece, in this case a play, is Oedipus the King by the famous Greek writer Sophocles. Being a philosopher Sophocles was very good at hiding symbolism within his writing. Some of the most powerful symbols he uses, such as the crossroads at which Oedipus kills Laius and both the “true” sight and vision of the blind prophet Tiresias, as well as the scars on Oedipus’ feet, add a very complex second layer which gives each person a different reading experience and the chance to develop their own connotations. Throughout history countless poem writers, authors and even directors have used a crossroad as a metaphor to represent an important decision or turning point in a characters life. For Oedipus this life changing point came when he was confronted by 5 men at a three way crossroad “Well, Laius , so the story goes, was killed by foreign robbers at a place where three highways meet” (Sophocles 50) the author further goes on to say “ As for the son-three days after his birth Laius fastened his ankles together and had him cast away on the pathless mountains” (Sophocles 50). This shows that the crossroad may not have represented much of a decision at all but only a life changing moment. This is because not only did Oedipus kill Laius at a three way crossroad but he was left to die...
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...Context and Explicit Meaning: • Oedipus the King is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles around 430 BC. • Quote occurs after Oedipus realizes that he is in fact Theban and has fulfilled his tragic destiny. He has killed his father Laius and slept with his mother Jocasta. He rushes off to find Jocasta but finds out she has already hanged herself upon hearing the news. Oedipus reacts by blinding himself using his mother's shoulder-pins. • In the passage: Chorus asks Oedipus why he has blinded himself to which he replies that the God Apollo is the one that caused him to suffer in life. However it is him who gauged his own eyes. He does not realize the benefit of having his eye-sight anymore as nothing he sees will give him joy pleasure anymore. Implicit Meaning: • Man and the Gods: ⁃ Oedipus' first response as to why he blinded himself is "Apollo, friends, Apollo- he ordained my agonies- these, my pains on pains!". Shows that he is no longer arrogant and has accepted that Gods decide his fate. ⁃ "My pains", "my eyes", "myself", "me" are all used in the passage. Oedipus keeps using personal pronouns to show that even though he is a human he still has power over his actions. ⁃ "But the hand that struck my eyes was mine". Oedipus is again trying to show that though Gods have power to control man's destiny, however man can do something as well. • Heroism: ⁃ Political Hero: Though at his own expense, he is still is able to save Thebes from the plague...
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...Blindness and Insight In Othello the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare, Othello is blind to what is going on around him; similarly in Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex is ignorant to the fate he was tragically born into. Both Oedipus Rex and Othello commit suicide at the end of the play because they gain knowledge of what they have been blind to throughout the entire drama and cannot live with what they have done. Othello cannot live with the knowledge that he murdered his wife whom had done no harm upon him; he was tricked by Iago. Furthermore, Oedipus cannot live with himself after the truth came out that he had murdered his own father and married his mother. Both of these psychological dramas remain timeless because the motifs within them remain to exist in today’s culture. First, in Shakespeare’s “Othello the Moor of Venice," Iago wants to rid Othello and take his place. Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is the mistress of Cassio, and has been unfaithful to Othello. To convince Othello of Desdemona's infidelity, Iago steals Desdemona’s handkerchief and sets up Cassio to make it seem as if he is having an affair with Desdemona. Othello’s jealous rage blinds him to the plot going on around him and he murders Desdemona without a second thought. “But words are words; I never yet did hear that the bruised heart was pierced through the ear”, as stated in Literature quotes. After the deed was done, Iago’s wife tells Othello the truth, and he makes himself...
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...Sophocles' Oedipus is a perfect fit to Aristotle's Ideal Tragic Hero. Oedipus follows all of the rules, with a hamartia, an anagnorisis, and a peripeteia. The audience is introduced to the hamartia, or tragic flaw, of Oedipus early in the play. Oedipus believes he can dodge the oracle given to him at Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother. By leaving the city of Corinth and heading to Thebes, Oedipus thinks that he can outsmart the will that the gods have for him. However, the audience knows that one cannot run away from an oracle. The oracle will come true no matter what is done. Therefore, the hamartia of Oedipus is his belief that he can evade his oracle. Oedipus' anagnorisis, recognition, later comes when he is told that it was he who killed the former King Lauis and that he is, in fact, now married to his own mother. The city of Thebes had been searching for King Lauis' murderer in order to drive him out of Thebes to save the city from the plague. With this anagnorisis Oedipus is finally led to his peripeteia, or downfall. First of all, Oedipus is put to shame in front of his entire city because of his incestuous act of marrying his mother. But, more importantly, he realizes that he had not successfully avoided the oracle. In order to try to save himself he blinds himself. If he is not able to see the truth with his own eyes, he should not be able to enjoy the gift of sight. http://personal.monm.edu/ysample/aristotle.htm Oedipus follows ten of the points...
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...composed of 3 plays all written by Sophocles a Greek tragedian. He was born in 496 BC, and became one the most prominent public figure of his time: elected treasurer and general and grew into one influential writer of Ancient Greece. These plays were all written at different dates and it took him about 4 decades to complete them: Antigone (441 BC), Oedipus Tyrannus (430 BC) and Oedipus at Colonus (401 BC). They all tragedies they were performed in front of thousands of people, all male; they relate the story of King Oedipus and his descendants in Thebes: Oedipus after freeing the city of the sphinx’s curse became a Hero and a King but fall by his past. Murderer of his own father Laius, he then married his mother unknowingly and had four children out his union. The two sons let the crown to their uncle Creon being underage but had a change of mind later on and failed to come with an agreement on who will become the king; this failure was deadly to both, letting the throne to their uncle. However, their death wasn’t created an ongoing problem between Creon and Antigone their sister. A problem which led to her death and resulting to Haemon and Eurydice deaths as well. Throughout these plays, several themes are evoked....
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...In his Poetics, Aristotle outlined the ingredients necessary for a good tragedy, and he based his formula on what he considered to be the perfect tragedy, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. According to Aristotle, a tragedy must be an imitation of life in the form of a serious story that is complete in itself. A good tragedy will evoke pity and fear in its viewers, causing the viewers to experience a feeling of catharsis. Catharsis, in Greek, means "purgation" or "purification"; running through the gamut of these strong emotions will leave viewers feeling elated, in the same way we often claim that "a good cry" will make one feel better. Aristotle also outlined the characteristics of a good tragic hero. He must be "better than we are," a man who is superior to the average man in some way. In Oedipus's case, he is superior not only because of social standing, but also because he is smart ? he is the only person who could solve the Sphinx's riddle. At the same time, a tragic hero must evoke both pity and fear, and Aristotle claims that the best way to do this is if he is imperfect. A character with a mixture of good and evil is more compelling that a character who is merely good. And Oedipus is definitely not perfect; although a clever man, he is blind to the truth and refuses to believe Teiresias's warnings. Although he is a good father, he unwittingly fathered children in incest. A tragic hero suffers because of his hamartia, a Greek word that is often translated as "tragic flaw"...
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...November 2011 In the dictionary, blindness is defined as unable to see; lacking the sense of sight; but the second definition of blindness is defined as, unwilling or unable to perceive or understand. As read in the play, blindness is seen as a central theme. Not speaking of only physical blindness, but blindness as to understanding what’s in front of Oedipus. His flaws and the exposure of the truth bring about his downfall. Since he is of high rank, he believes things he wants to believe. In the play titled, “Oedipus the King,” by Sophocles, he uses physical blindness and mental blindness to show Oedipus' status as an unfortunate hero. While Oedipus is trying to find Laius’ murderer, Creon comes to him with news from Apollo. Creon says that Apollo wants them to clearly “drive the corruption from the land (620)…” With that, Oedipus sends for the blind prophet by the name of Tiresias who “… sees with the eyes of Lord Apollo…” to help him find the killer (625). When Tiresias tells Oedipus “[he is] the murderer that [he] hunt[s] (627), Oedipus still does not understand even though Tiresias has told him in three different ways. He cannot see himself as someone that would murder a king and bring a plague to the city. He thinks of himself as the one who came to Thebes’ rescue and drove the plague away. In addition, Oedipus knows that Tiresias cannot be wrong, because he is a psychic; he has no incentive to lie. Furthermore, when Tiresias tells Oedipus that “[He is] the curse, the corruption...
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