Oedipus Rex Paper - Grade: A PDF

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This is a paper on the Play, Oedipus Rex....

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Latavia Eccles Prof. Idoye THTR 1020-07 14 September 2020

Oedipus The King Play Critique This play tells the story of a man who killed his father and took his place as king. In the beginning of the play, Oedipus is curious as to why the citizens of Thebes are surrounded outside his palace. He is then informed by one of the priests that Thebes has been struck by a plague, citizens are dying, and they are asking him to save the city. Oedipus sends his brother-in-law Creon to the Delphic Oracle to get information on how to stop the plague. Creon returns, and Oedipus wants to know what he has learned during his visit to the oracle. Creon offers to tell him the news in private, but Oedipus insists that the citizens hear as well. Creon then goes on to tell him about the murder of Laius, who ruled Thebes before Oedipus did. It was believed that in order to end the plague, he had to be driven out. On their way to seek information from an oracle, Laius and his travelers were killed by thieves. All except one. Oedipus is confused as to why the citizens of Thebes have made no efforts to find the murderers, after which Creon reminds him that they were more concerned with the curse of the Sphinx. After hearing this, Oedipus comes to the conclusion that he will solve the mystery of Laius’s murder himself. As the King of Thebes, Oedipus promises to not only stop the plague and end his people’s suffering, but to make sure Laius’s murderer is punished too. This is more of a dramatic irony because although Oedipus is merely seen as a puppet of fate at times, the emphasis on the irony makes it seem as if he is bringing the suffering upon himself willingly. An example of this is when Oedipus proudly announces that the bed which once belonged to the former king, is now his. He also claims that if Laius had not been murdered, then marriage would have created a blood bond between them. Although the chorus is going to call to the gods to save Thebes, Oedipus comes and assumes the role of a god. At this moment, we see his menacing

pride, which justifies his eventual downfall. Another aspect of irony that I noticed in play was in Oedipus’s character itself. Early in the play, he sees that Thebes is suffering and promises to end the suffering of his people while simultaneously solving the mystery of the murder of the formal king. People admire him for his compassion, sense of justness, patience, and his ability to act promptly. He possesses all of the qualities that people seek in a good leader. He was their ideal citizen. The irony of this situation is magnified when Oedipus is later on exposed as the cause of the plague, which led to his exile from Thebes. The play is a dramatic tragedy with multiple aspects of irony. When King Laius found out that his son was destined to kill him and marry his mother, he sent them off to be killed. Later in the play, he discovers that his son was still alive. His son Oedipus ends up killing him as already planned and assumes the role as king. Although Laius was killed by more than one person at the place where three roads meet, Oedipus was worried that he was the murderer of his father. He then comes to the conclusion that he must mate with his mother. Another thing that was ironic about this situation, was that the shepherd who witnessed the incident was the same shepherd who was sent to kill Oedipus in the first place. When Oedipus’s mom finds out the truth, she hangs herself. Oedipus then gouges his eyes out and requests to be sent away. One thing I really admired about the play was how Sophocles uses a representation of literal and metaphorical blindness with Oedipus. He represents literal blindness when Oedipus physically gouges his eyes out. He represents metaphorical blindness when Oedipus is willingly blind of the relationship between his past and present situation. I feel that Sophocles was very creative with portraying this. Also, Sophocles did an amazing job with magnifying the irony in his play. This made it easier for me to identify any masked irony, or irony that I normally would not have understood or noticed. A puppet of fate can be what someone’s actions are, or what God has planned for them. Fate is typically determined beyond one’s control. Throughout the play, Oedipus faced many situations that led to his own suffering. He could have prevented himself from being turned into a puppet of fate. An example of this is the kingdom’s plague. It was as if Oedipus believed that the plague would just suddenly go away. Had he possessed good mental vision, he would have made an effort to save his kingdom, rather than only thinking about himself. Oedipus allowed himself to become a puppet of fate because he willingly chose to

be blind to his situation. He proved by deliberately blinding himself, that he had no desire to be aware of his surroundings. Overall, I was very pleased with the play. Personally, I am a huge fan of Greek mythology and things of that nature, so i actually enjoyed reading the play. I am glad that I was able to read something different for a change. It was kind of refreshing because out of all fourteen years that I have attended school, I have never read anything like it. Typically, I am given short stories or novels, and then I write a brief summary of them. I love to read, and reading this play helped me to open up and learn something new, language wise. I enjoyed the play not only for entertainment purposes, but it enlightened me on topics and concepts that I usually lack knowledge on. Before I read the play. I was familiar with irony, but to a certain extent. The play utilized more advanced aspects of irony which was difficult to understand at first, but later, helped me to get a more in-depth understanding. To me, the play wasn’t boring and it was really captivating to the audience. The characters were interesting and kept my attention throughout the play. There wasn’t one point in the play where I felt like I wanted to stop reading. I also learned something from reading the play that could relate to real life situations. I’ve heard the line, “what is meant to be, will find its way” often growing up. The play somewhat relates to this because it portrayed the same idea. When Laius sent Oedipus to be killed because of his fear of the shepherd’s prophecy, the shepherd spared Oedipus, who ended up killing Laius anyway. Because it was Laius’s fate to die and have his place taken by his son, it had to happen. This just goes to show that if something is meant to happen, then it will happen. This relates to real life because people often try to escape their problems out of fear of facing them. Although it may appear to be easier to do so, being able to escape fate is not something that most people can do because it will only catch up to you in the end. On the contrary, like Oedipus, some people have the ability to decide if they will become a puppet of fate or not. This could also be a valuable life lesson because I am also a strong believer that you can determine your own destiny if you really have your heart set on it. Aside from the lessons that I have learned from reading the play, I liked it a lot and I definitely look forward to reading something like it in the future. Reading the play allowed me to discover something about myself that I didn’t know. I actually would prefer reading a play over a book some days. This is something that I would also recommend to others....