Sophocles' Oedipus the King
Look up and/or reflect on the meaning of:
Tragedy: A tragedy is any event which causes great suffering and stress, such as the death of a loved one or a natural disaster. In the context of Greek literature, tragedy was the most popular form of theatre, with storytellers relying on the rhetorical technique of tragic irony to create emotionally resonant tales of lost love and territorial conquest.
Philosophy: The overall study of the human condition, reality, metaphysics, and other pursuits of higher intelligence.
Psychology: The scientific study of the human mind, including cognitive function, perception, attention, emotion and behavior.
Logic: The fundamental application of reasoning to the pursuit of within their mathematical studies, with Pythagoras and Euclid pioneering the study of angles, shapes and measurement.
Rhetoric: Used by the Greeks as the ultimate form of reasoned discourse, rhetoric describes the ability of writers and orators to persuade others to a particular viewpoint, or motivate and inspire action.
Anthropomorphism: A literary technique wherein an animal, plant, body of water, or even a mythical god, is imbued with human characteristics. Favored by the Greeks, anthropomorphism was used to integrate the pantheon of gods into stories and plays, and to allow for trees, rivers and other aspects of the natural environment to speak, fall in love, and otherwise act in a human manner,
Hubris: The excessive pride or arrogance that typically precedes the downfall of a character in Greek tragedies. Tyrant kings are often victims of…
And had Oedipus remained with the parents who raised him, the prophecy would also have been unlikely to come about. On the other hand, one might also argue that Sophocles appears to indicate that, no matter what decisions were made, free will would never have been part of it. Indeed, destiny and prophecy are so overwhelmingly strong that whatever decisions were made would have led to the final and inevitable
In this view, Oedipus's only wrong action was attempting to thwart fate, which only caused him false hope. Thus, this interpretation of the story suggests that fate is supreme, cannot be changed, and is the guiding rule of humans' life. In fact, this view even goes as far as to imply that humans do not have free will -- all is at the mercy of fate. But James Gould points
At different times, Oedipus issues contradictory self-characterizations, perhaps as a metaphor for the duality of his personality and his inability to control his passionate overreactions. Speaking of his cool logical ability in solving the riddle of the Sphinx, he says, "But I came, Oedipus who knew nothing, and I stopped her. I solved the riddle by my wit alone." Yet, in remembering the tragedy that he perpetrated on his
Mr. Kapasi and the Dases are all Indian, but in the interpreter's eyes, Mr. And Mrs. Das are foreigners because they dress and speak like Americans. Mina Das sees Kapasi not as a romantic partner, as he desires her to see him as, but as a kind of romantic confessor, who will wash her clean of her sins, much as the citizens of Thebes see their king. Eventually, when Oedipus'
Plot Map of Sophocles� Oedipus the KingPlot Map DiagramClimax: Oedipus sends for the man who survived the tragic attack in which his father was killed to see if the man killed his father or not. He also realizes that the man he thought was his father wasn�t his biological father. He, therefore, seeks answers from the man who found him. This man happens to be the man he has sent
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
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