Understanding Fate in Oedipus Tyrannos - 1196 Words

The Greeks were one of the most powerful empires of early civilizations with the well documented conquest, legends, gods, etc. One of their most significant things left of their empire, is their theatrical style, none bigger than Tragedy. The Greek Tragedy was their basis of Drama and is still studied today. Their view of the world and life could be personified in the plays and by the personages. It is the case in the play Oedipus Tyrannos. The play, written by Sophocles, represents the typical Greek view of the world with all the values that the Greeks wanted to show. This play is probably the best example to represent the typical tragic hero, in that case Oedipus. The dominant theme that Sophocles wanted to demonstrate in the play was†¦show more content†¦Oedipus taught that he had escaped his fate from what he knew, by going away from his adopted family but, that action led him to accomplish his fate that was killing his father and sleeping with his mother and have childr en with her. He killed his father, king Laios, in an argument in a road closes to Thebes for passage rights, solved the riddle of the sphinx and became the king, slept with his mother and had children with her and finally on hearing the truth, removes his sight as a sign of dishonour to him, his family and to the Gods. This shows that fate is something that was beyond human power and that is not possible to chance or avoid it. One definition that can explain why the characters in Greek tragedy were doomed to accomplish their fate would be the fact that both the characters and mankind in the plays lacked both free will and reflective actions that led them to have a fatal fate (Kierkegaard, 1944). It is also the human side that led Oedipus to his fate. The goodness of his actions of trying to get away from what he taught was his real father and mother in order for them to live and escape his fate. For example, Oedipus is taught to be arrogant but, his arrogance can be interpreted by r efusing to hear or see or even admit what he has done to try to escape his fate but, eventually, it turned on him in the bad way because his fate still managed to claim his superiority over humans. Another great example of his goodness is the simple fact of him wantingShow MoreRelatedOedipus As A Tragic Hero1724 Words   |  7 PagesIn the story of Oedipus, Oedipus is considered a â€Å"Tragic Hero† because of the tragic fate and effect that he had upon his life. My definition of a tragedy is a great loss that has a unhappy ending to which concluded me to state that Oedipus falls under that category. Throughout the book, Oedipus is leading himself to his own destruction when trying to find the killer of the late King Laios. So when a journal article I found published by The John Hopkins University Press stated that a â€Å"tragic heroRead MoreMorality in Oedipus Rex Essay1785 Words   |  8 Pagesthe time of the ancient Greeks Sophocles’ play Oedipus Tyrannus is see n as the quintessential model of Greek Tragedy. This is due to the intricate questions of morality that are masterfully woven into the literature and the fact that â€Å"perhaps no classical Greek play that has stimulated as much critical discussion† (Harris and Platzner Classical Mythology: Images and Insights, p.648). One of the dominant arguments the tragedy generates is whether Oedipus is responsible for the abhorrent crimes of patricideRead MoreScripting Stage Space in Oedipus the King and Hamlet2416 Words   |  10 Pagespeople have long been studying and teaching plays as if they were meant to be read rather than performed. A central part of a plays meaning is the way it was originally designed to work on stage. William Shakespeares Hamlet and Sophocles Oedipus the King have long been included on academic lists for scholarly study as literary texts. As someone who has studied both texts in just the manner Hornby mentions, I would suggest that what is lost when a scholar treats a play text as literature isRead MoreEssay on Analysis of Penelope as Moral Agent in Homer’s Odyssey3049 Words   |  13 Pagesthis essay that I could find is the ignorance of a few facts that could possibly be construed as being in opposition to her findings. Since I am not familiar with and have not read any of the outside texts to which Foley refers (Aristotles Oedipus Tyrannos, Poetics, Politics, and Ethics, the Hippocratic medical texts, and the feminist theory of Carol Gilligan), I can only assume that her interpretations of these texts are correct. In any case, she uses Aristotle and Hippocrates in order to develop