Oedipus the King
The setting is Thebes around the fifth century. The inciting incident right away turns up with the plague that now afflicts the citizens, whom King Oedipus calls the "new blood of ancient Cadmus." Cadmus was the founder of the mythological Thebes. These citizens crowd at the king's palace for his action on the feared plague, and as was the custom at the time, the king has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to consult with the Oracle (or diviner/fortune-teller) at Delphi (Sophocles c 430 C) for advice and he tells this to the people. Creon returns to relay the Oracle's message to Oedipus that the plague will end only if the murderer of the former king of Thebes, Lauis, is caught and driven out. The message also says that the murderer is still in Thebes. King Lauis was killed by thieves while on the way to consult an oracle…...

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Bibliography

Drama Performed vs. Drama Read, controversy # 4, 1998. http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/controversy_4fgg.htm

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Sparknotes LLC, 2003. http://www.sparknotes/lit/Oedipus

Oedipus
Fate and Destiny

The ideas of fate and destiny were a consuming topic for the Greeks. Their pantheistic understanding of heaven included gods who toyed with humans for their own covert pleasures. The Greeks built a society which sought to understand the nature of men. Were men free, or did the god's ultimately hold their finger on the pulse of the universe, directing even the most insignificant actions according to some unseen plan? ocrates, Aristotle, Plato... each of these men wrestled with finding a purpose in the randomness of life. Through the concentric events of Oedipus the King, ophocles created his own understanding regarding the subject of fate. Although free, ophocles believed that we were not ultimately the masters of our own ships.

From the first lines of the play Oedipus the King, the playwright foreshadows the theme. Oedipus's seer Creon enters the king's court and discusses the oracle which he had…...

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Sources

Sophocles. OEDIPUS THE KING. Translation by F. Storr.

Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd., London. 1912

Despite his love of the estate, the future is far better and far more promising than the Russia of the previous era.
Another tragic feature of Ranevskaya's character that makes her uniquely 'modern' is that she knows her flaws. She admits that she squanders money, while Oedipus seems unaware of his arrogance until the very end of the play. Chekhov's subtlety as a playwright is that he knows that people can do the wrong thing, 'know' that they are doing wrong, and still act against their best interests in a foolish fashion. Hence, unlike the ancient Greek tragedy of circumstance, Chekov's play is a tragedy of character. The people around Ranevskaya, including her daughter as well as Lopakhin, seem powerless to stop the woman in her path to folly, but Ranevskaya also seems powerless to stop herself, even though she is an apparently intelligent, if prodigal woman.

One recent review of…...

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Works Cited

Brantley, Ben. "All alone in a crowded country home." The New York Times. January 16, 2009.

[February 5, 2011]  http://theater.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/theater/reviews/16orch.html

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). hen 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). hile Tiresias is obviously taking a jab at the dramatic irony created by Oedipus' ignorance, he is also hinting at the fact that anybody can say whatever they want and call it prophecy. This scene effectively dismantles the logical fallacy of mere assertion (upon which most declarations of supernatural existence depend), because Oedipus attempts to simply assert his own innocence and Tiresias' guilt while Tiresias is comfortable in the knowledge that he is right, and feels safe "of there be a…...

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Works Cited

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. London: Macmillian and Co, 1885. Print.

It is worth noting that in this scene Oedipus also engages in an appeal to force, which is another logical fallacy, and fits quite naturally with his hubris and self-righteousness.

This is because they are not learning from the lessons of the past and they do not see things for what they really are. hen this takes place, there is a possibility that they are open to more problems through failing to understand and address critical issues. Oedipus is used to show this sense of arrogance and contempt for the truth. (Sophocles) ("The Oedipus Plays")
Evidence of this can be seen with comments from the source titled The Oedipus Plays (2012) which says, "Oedipus can hear the story of Jocasta binding her child's ankles and not think of his own swollen feet. hile the information in these speeches is largely intended to make the audience painfully aware of the tragic irony, it also emphasizes just how desperately Oedipus and Jocasta do not want to speak the obvious truth: they look at the circumstances and details of everyday life and pretend…...

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Works Cited

"The Oedipus Plays." Spark Notes, 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2013

Ramfos, Stelious. Fate and Ambiguity. Boston: Somerset Hall Press, 2005. Print.

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.

Oedipus the King
At the beginning of Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus clearly sees it as his purpose in life to be the best leader he can. In his mind, this meant to be as close to his people as possible, especially when the play opens and the land being in trouble. This is clear in what he says to those who come to him with the problem of their suffering. Oedipus assures then that nobody suffers more than himself as king, because, while each citizen carries only his or her own suffering, Oedipus suffers not only for himself, but for all the others in his land as well.

As such, Oedipus also considers it his duty to do what he can to relieve the suffering of his people, which is why he sends Creon to the Delphi oracle for divine advice about how to remedy the situation. When Creon returns…...

As a result, he flees from Corinth, where Polybus and Merope, are in order for the prophecy not to be fulfilled.
The statement "truth has made me strong" is partially false, because while the main character believed that his life was exactly as he made it, it was actually shaped by his fate. A chain of events had lead to the forming of Oedipus as a strong and wise man. Most of the actions performed by Oedipus across his life had contradicted with the Oracle's prophecy.

The circumstances that Oedipus found himself in when he murdered his real father, Laius, had come as a result of the lies that he had been told. If Polybus and Merope hadn't had lied to him, telling him that they were his real parents, Oedipus wouldn't have came across Laius.

Apollo instructs Creon that the only way for the plague to leave the citizens of Thebes…...

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Works cited:

1. Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex."

2. Taplin Oliver, "Greek tragedy in action," Taylor & Francis, 1978

Oliver Taplin, "Greek tragedy in action," Taylor & Francis, 1978

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 conclusion.

Indeed the way in which the characters make use of their free will indicate that their very personalities contribute to the fulfillment of the prophecy: Oedipus' tendency towards the truth balanced with the opposite urge to hide from the deeper reality, in concomitance with Jocasta's deliberate blindness, lead inevitably towards the tragic conclusion of the play.

Source

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Online version: http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html

At lines 651-690, Creon argues that he has no desire to usurp Oedipus as king because he, Jocasta, and…...

At this point, no room is left for Oedipus's self-defense. He has dissolved from proud, father-like king to delusional denying maniac to an irrational, sorrowful self-abuser. At Colonus, the reader is given another glimpse into Oedipus's evolving character. Now, he is resigned to his fate, hating the fact that he must often retell his story. Still, he regains some of his pride, insisting his mistakes were not his fault. In addition, Oedipus at Colonus has undertaken almost solely his role as a family man. Here, he is aided by his two daughters, whom he loves, and refuses to take part in the battle between his sons. Knowing that the place of his death will be blessed, Oedipus rationally and calmly chooses to die in the land of his friend Theseus.
Oedipus's character development from proud, father king to resigned, dying old man tells the story of one who was wronged…...

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Works Cited

Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." nd. The Internet Classics. 28 October 2008. MIT.  http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html

Oedipus, however, does show a great deal of arrogance as a character in the actual play, no matter how much the reader or viewer may feel pity and horror at his fate. Sophocles deliberately chooses to show first Oedipus, not as an innocent, abandoned baby with an injured foot, which is the first sight a reader might have of Oedipus and is the beginning of the actual myth. Instead, the ancient Greek playwright shows Oedipus first to the audience as an arrogant king. Oedipus says that he will discover the reason for Thebes' plague, just as he set it free from the Sphinx. He shows tremendous confidence in his own intelligence. And then Oedipus curses himself, and curses the murderer of the former king -- his own father whom he killed in a quarrel by the roadside. Oedipus' action of murder towards an apparently poor stranger, which he dismisses as…...

Oedipus does not show unusual arrogance, no more so than his father did when he abandoned his child to cheat death. Oedipus leaves his natural parents out of a desire to protect them, as any son possessing filial pity should do, in the eyes of the Greeks.
However, in contrast to the Christian economy of good and evil, where good is rewarded and evil is punished by God, in ancient Greece: "The gods frequently interfere physically and psychically in human affairs (bringing on, for example, madness, illnesses, unusual acts of courage or folly, natural disasters, untimely death, and so on), but there is nothing consistent about these interactions, and they may or may not take place, no matter how many times the human beings offer sacrifices or prayers" (Johnson, 2007). Fate in "Oedipus Rex" is arbitrary, and Oedipus' terrible punishment has nothing to do with his uniquely terrible status as…...

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Works Cited

Johnson, Ian. "Fate, Freedom, and the Tragic Experience: An Introductory Lecture on Sophocles's 'Oedipus the King.'" Lecture last revised in August 2004. 5 May 2007. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/oedipus.htm

Johnson, Ian. "Some Preliminary Observations on Classical Greek Literature."

Lecture last revised in Feb 2006. 5 May 2007. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/clas101/observations.htm

Pontikis, Nick. "King Oedipus." The Myth Man. 1988. 5 May 2007.  http://thanasis.com/oedipus.htm

Abner is angry at his society, perhaps because it has categorized him as a second-class citizen. For this reason, he hurts those who have wronged him, in addition to his family. This anger is expressed by his words in the judge's chambers. hen told to go, Abner says, "I aim to. I don't figure to stay in a country among people who..." His inability to articulate his anger suggests that the reason for his refusal to accept society and his inability to be accepted by it is important, too large even to speak. Unlike Oedipus, however, who shows contrition and dismay when he realizes what he has done to Thebes, Abner responds with barn burning. He takes out his anger on society by trying to destroy it, more specifically by trying to destroy the material possessions that separated him from society.
Thus, both Oedipus the King and Abner Snopes are…...

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Works Cited

Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." RajuAbju. 2005. 28 January 2008. http://www.rajuabju.com/literature/barnburning.htm

Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." The Online Classics Library. n.d. 28 January 2008.  http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html

Oedipus the King
Sophocles' play Oedipus the King is filled with irony; in fact, irony makes the play's narrative so compelling. Oedipus vows to end the plague that besieged the people of Thebes but fails to realize that to end it, he must essentially oust himself from power. He vehemently curses the murderer in a passionate speech to the chorus at the beginning of the play without realizing that he delivers the curses upon himself. Oedipus unwittingly hunts for himself; unaware that he killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus claims to find and exile the murderer even if "If in my house, I knowing it, he dwells," (265). At times, Oedipus seems so close to uttering the truth or unknowingly does speak the truth that the audience is gripped by suspense and frustration. For example, when Oedipus is first confronted with the news that for the plague to stop…...

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Works Cited

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans E.H. Plumptre. Harvard Classics. Vol. VIII, Part 5. Ed. Charles W. Eliot. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909-14; Bartleby.com, 2001. Retrieved 10 May 2004.  http://www.bartleby.com/8/5/ .

In Oedipus this may be defined as the powerlessness of human beings against preordained fate. Diction refers to the expression of meaning through words. Stylistic elements of tragedy for example may include a character's use of metaphor. Oedipus does this very eloquently throughout the play and particularly during the climax, at the end of which he blinds himself. He uses this act as a self-punishment for his foolishness, which in itself might be construed a kind of blindness, throughout the play. Through his blind pursuit of a truth he could not fully fathom, Oedipus arrives at the tragedy that he helped fate to bring over him.
Aristotle's fifth important element of tragedy is song, or melody. In Sophocles' play, this occurs in the form of the chorus. The chorus forms part of the events in the play. It serves not only as a narrator of events, but also as a…...

Teiresias, as a blind prophet, represented the Fate of Oedipus, who was 'blinded' by his inability to accept his fate; the prophet also symbolized the literal 'blindness' of Oedipus at the end of the novel. As the blind prophet, Teiresias' knowledge about Oedipus' real identity prompted him to allude only, and not directly identify, to Oedipus the identity of Laius' murderer: "Thou art the man / Thou the accursed polluter of this land... thou art the murderer of the man / hose murderer thou pursuest." Sophocles' use of the words "polluter," "murderer," and "pursuest" reflects the role Oedipus plays, which includes being the murdered of Laius, 'usurpation' of the title of King of Thebes, and as the persecutor of Laius' killer (himself).

Paradox is also present in the dialogue, particularly when Oedipus informed the Chorus and the prophet of his intentions to bring to justice Laius' death: "One course alone could…...

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Works Cited

Roberts, E. And H. Jacobs. (1998). Literature: an introduction to reading and writing. (5th ed.). NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Sophocles. E-text of "Oedipus Rex." Translated by F. Storr. Available at: http://eserver.org/drama/sophocles/oedipus-trilogy.txt.