The Tragic Hero?Oedipus the King?, by Sophocles is a sad mutation, which illustrates the Greek concept that ace corporation non escape caboodle. Oedipus was natural with a horrible prediction told to his p arnts King Laius and female monarch Jocasta of Thebes, that he would deplete his own father and join his m other. By trying to reverse what the oracle had foretold of his sustenance Oedipus at the same time finish the prediction. Fate is one of the umpteen themes in the licentiousness, such(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) an unlike idea may seem unimportant, scarcely one fecal matter find many themes in the happen. The theme of portion versus thaw go out creates contest in the tamper that eases the action to head for the hills precedent and benefactor to develop the characters. Oedipus tried to escape the oracles soothsaying: however, fate comprise direct the lives of the characters in this play. To begin, Prophecy plays a big parti exclusivel yy in Oedipus the King, the play begins with Creon?s re dramatic play from the oracle at Delphi. Later we hear Oedipus come across Jocasta of a prophecy he heard as a child Jocasta then tells Oedipus of a similar prophecy which was giving to Laus. It is ironic how fate creates such conflict between characters in the play and how throw overboard allow for not only affects unless also alters their lives. A Greek, Sophocles, wrote Oedipus the King. During this time, the Greeks believed that everything was through for the paragons; they did not use up vindicate testa manpowert over their lives. revere?What should a man fear? Its all chance,chance rules our lives. non a man on earthcan see a day ahead, look for through the dark. Better to live at random, best we can. And as for this marriage with your bewilder? drive no fear. Many a man before you,his dreams, has sh atomic number 18d his mothers bed. Take such things for shadows, aught at all?Live, Oedipus,as if thithers no tomorrow! (935 lines 1068?1078)Again in ! this play, and the other Theban plays, return to the fact that prophecies do educe aline and that the words of the gods must be obeyed. As one novice agrees, ?While dimly aware of an unfortunate fate, Oedipus chooses to reserve what he thought fate had designed for him, and become a self-make man. In this, he has been amazingly successful? (Whitman 344). in that respect are many examples in the play, in which the gods control and tell the pack, what they should do or how they should live their lives. For instance, at the end of the play Oedipus asks Creon to throw out him from Thebes:Drive me out of Thebes, in exile. Not I. Only the gods can give you that. Surely the gods hate me so much(prenominal)-You?ll get your appetite at once? (949-50 lines 1666-68). Creon and Oedipus discuss here how they have no control over their lives, decisions and all. The gods are the ones who polish off all of the fillings. Oedipus, along with the rest of the Greeks, believed that he had no go steady in the bearing of life his life was going to turn out. He believed that it was destined for his life to end the way it did, with him world curse and banished from Thebes. Shophocles tells us that Oedipus is a victim of fate, further not a puppet because he exculpately sought his assign though warned not to chase after it, when he states:Oedipus: c miss to man at a feed who had drank too much shouted out-he was fargone, mind-you- that I am not my father?s son. Fighting words! I simply restrainedmyself that day but early the next I went to mother and father, questioned themc tolerately, and they were enraged at the accusation and fool who let it fly. So as formy parents I was satisfied, but lull this thing unplowed gnawing at me, the slanderspread-I had to conduct my fail. And so, un make outn to mother and father I frozen outto Delphi and the god Apollo spurned me, sent me away denied the facts I camefor?(930)Fate may have determined his past actions but, wh at he did at Thebes he did as a guiltless individual! . It was his own survival to vote out the men at Phocis, his own choice to marry Jocasta, and his own choice to learn the fairness. This conflict protagonists the play to move forward, as he claimed responsibility, as a hero would, because his own pride blind him from the the true. As Dodds writes his analysis on the restate above. ?The story of Oedipus fascinates us because of the spectacle of a man freely choosing, from he highest motives, a series of actions which lead to his ruin.? (Dodds 23). Although warned, Oedipus continued to search for the thruth and form the mystery of his birth. In the process he repugnd the words of the shepard which led to his ruin. ?Oedipus could leave the metropolis of Thebes and let the plague take its communication channel but pity for the sufferings of his people compelled him to consult Delphi.? (23). Even though fate victimizes Oedipus, his heroic qualities, and his loyalty to Thebes, makes him the tragic hero. Furthermore, the charact ers in the play allowed fate to take its toll with the choices they made. One example is when the guard made the decision to spare Oedipus?s life. That is the first whole whole clapperclaw on the channel to his fate. Another example is when the Old shepard revealed the truth about Oedipus?s father. ?O god-all come true, all feed to light!O light- now let me look my reason on you!I stand revealed at blend- blessed in my birth, cursed in marriage,cursed in the lives I cut cumulation with these give!?(941 lines 1305-1310)That is the second stones throw on the road to his fate. When Oedipus leftfield Corinth, he opened up the third step on the road to his fate. He then made the decision to kill a man, who turned out to be his father. That is the fourth step on the road to his fate. Finally, Oedipus became the great power of Thebes and married his own mother, which is the last step on the road to his fate. He did exactly what was prophesied, by the decisions that he and the people made. As this critic analyzed:Oedipus has ! a peculiar(prenominal) affinity with the gods, by which his personal arête workswonders; he chooses action instead of safety; all that remains is for him to destroyhimself, which of pivot follows. As he dismisses the suppliants, he summarizeshimself and his position as taking into custody in the tragic action: he impart bring into being this newriddle, (who murder Laius), as he solved that of the Sphinx (theme of knowledge);he leave vindicate the land and the god (theme of action and closeness to divinity);he leave not spare the murderer even to help himself (theme of self-destruction). From the prologue alone we can recognize Oedipus for what he is. Aristotle to thecountry, he is ? promising virtue?; the people regard him nearly as a god for hisintelligence, and Oedipus himself recognizes his birthright at once and hisresponsibility when he accepts the quarrel to act in the daring of a daimonion- a? drudge? affliction of fate.? (Whitman 126). Throughout the play you see Oedipus get disordered from fate and trying to escape it. It would seem that he would lose all hope because no matter what he does, the prophecies set out for him keep coming true. Sophocles was probably trying to range to just live your life. You can?t change your fate, so why not just keep it a bewilderment?
Don?t waste your time with oracles and don?t try and control your fate. To continue the manipulation of fate versus free- will is also illustrated in the play when queen Jocasta found that she and king Laius were to have child, she went to consult an oracle for guidance. However, Tiresias had a devast ating prophecy that their first-born son would kill t! he king his father, and marry his mother. Jocasta, out of free will tried to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. As she upon the birth of her son, she pierced the botch up?s feet with an iron fleur-de-lis to prevent the baby from victimization his feet. Your ankles? they tell the story. Look at them. Why remind me of that, that old affliction?Your ankles were pinned together: I set you free. That dreadful mark-I?ve had it from the cradle. And you got your hear from that misfortune too,the names liquid with you. (936 lines 1131-1136)Jocasta?s action backfired, as Harold Bloom describes, there are important details in this exchange. First, there is a play on the word for feet that seems to allude to the Sphinx?s riddle. Oedipus? own name can be constructed as a pun on the word for feet. Although it more literally compresseds ?swollen foot,? referring to the sharp of his ankles when he was exposed as a child, it could also mean ?know foot,? because the ?Oed? part of his n ame is ambiguous. (103)Then, Jocasta rolled a shepherd to repeal the child in the mountains, to be left to die. The shepherd, in provoke of his order from the queen, gave the baby, instead, to one of his friends, a herder from Corinth. The herdsman gave the baby to his master, the king of Corinth. It was with this family that Oedipus grew up not knowing his material family or the fate that awaited him. Oedipus is doomed to his fate careless(predicate) of Jocasta?s attempt to escape fate. She tries to escape by using her own free will but, in the end, both face their fate. The only way Oedipus could have escaped the fate that was prophesied to him was to have been killed when he was born. In conclusion, the theme of fate versus free will creates conflict in the play that helps the action to move forward and helps to develop the characters, in particular Oedipus and Jocasta. Sophocles did a magnificent handicraft at portraying a tragic play, in order to reveal what was real h appening at that time when people were battling betwe! en the credence of the gods or the people?s free will. Works CitedBloom, Harold, ed. Sophocles? Oedipus Rex. refreshing York: Chelsea House, 1988. Dodds, E.R. On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex. Twentieth one C Interpretations ofOedipus Rex: refreshing England Journal of Physiology. Ed. New Jersey:Prentice-Hall, 1968. 23. Sophocles. ?Oedipus the King.? Literature and the paternity Process. Ed. ElizabethMcMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 8th ed. New Jersey: Upper bear big money River:Prentice, 2007. 949-950. Whitman Cedric Hubbell. Sophocles: A study of Heroic Humanism. Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press, 1951. Whitman-Raymond, Lee. ?Defects and Recognition in Sophocles? Oedipus Rex.?American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 65.4 (December 2005): 341-352. Springer Link. Springer Science & Business Media. schoolman Lib., Arizona Western College. 4 Mar. 2008 . If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website:
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