Oedipus Rex By Sophocles I ( c. 496 & # 8211 ; 406 B.C. ) Essay, Research Paper

It would be difficult to happen a drama that has

been more universally praised than Oedipus Rex ( & # 8221 ; King Oedipus & # 8221 ; ) . Aristotle

considered it the theoretical account calamity, and that sentiment has been widely held

to the present twenty-four hours. No play before or since has managed to so successfully

unite a rapid, compelling secret plan, brilliant word picture, and elegant

poesy into such a tight package.

The calamity of Oedipus Rex is non so much

that Oedipus commits two atrocious offenses ; after all, he was fated to make

so, and committed them unwittingly. It is, instead, that he, like his lost

parents before him, ran headfirst into the fate he was seeking to withstand,

and so compounded his immoralities by his disdainful refusal to believe the prophesier & # 8217 ; s

declaration of his guilt. Pride was his ruin. The Greeks had a distinguishable

word for this: & # 8220 ; Hubris, & # 8221 ; a heroically foolish rebelliousness ; the feeling that

one is beyond the ranges of authorization or convention.

Oedipus Rex is noteworthy for its usage of dramatic

sarcasm: everybody in the audience knows from the start that Oedipus himself

is the guilty party he seeks out for penalty. The viewers & # 8217 ; enjoyment

comes as they see and hear the facts accumulate, spot by spot, until it

all of a sudden

mornings on Oedipus that he is his male parent & # 8217 ; s liquidator. The sarcasm is heightened

by blind Teiresias & # 8217 ; many twits and the chorus & # 8217 ; musical mentions to

& # 8220 ; seeing the light & # 8221 ; Oedipus, though his physical eyes can see, is unsighted

to the truth ; and when he eventually does come to see the truth, ironically,

he blinds himself.

The first and concluding & # 8211 ; and most tragic and

triumphant & # 8211 ; sarcasm, nevertheless, lies in the inexplicit recognition that the

really quality of Hubris ( Oedipus & # 8217 ; haughtiness in withstanding cosmic and priestly

authorization, destiny and prognostication ) is the same quality that enabled him to earlier

confront and get the better of the Sphinx and to salvage an laden metropolis. Oedipus,

so, is a hero who pits his pride against both Gods and destiny in the cast

of Prometheus ( whose ruin was caused by his sharing the gift of fire

with adult male ) and another heroine, Cassandra, who was cursed with the approval

of prognostication. And so, most Grecian play carry this subject of human paradox.

Possibly the symbolism of the Sphinx, who

hangouts the background of Oedipus Rex with her simple yet awful conundrum,

says all that is necessary: The true mystery of the existence lies non in

any alien intergalactic phenomenon ; the greatest enigma Begins and terminals

with adult male.