Living life can be both challenging and straightforward. In Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Oedipus and the prisoner in the cave are forced to believe that reality cannot be accessed for people who use only there 5 senses. Plato thinks that every human has a purpose which is to discover and travel on the path to awareness. What makes Oedipus very interesting is that in times of trouble, he discovers the truth of understanding by using Plato’s four stages of awareness, the audience can see Oedipus’s path to enlightenment which causes his downfall. This begins with imagination, advances to belief, continues to thoughts and reason and the truth understanding and awareness.
Imagination is very noticeable in the beginning of the story. We find out that Thebes has been affected by a plague. The citizens want answers. Oedipus tells them that he has sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle at Delphi to gain information about how to help Thebes. Creon later returns with a letter from the oracle himself. He says that the plague will end when the killer the of the former king of Thebes, Laius, is found and cast away. He also says that the murderer is inside the city. Oedipus then asks Creon if he has any knowledge of the murderer. Oedipus then vows to find the murderer and cast he away forever (not knowing that he is the killer). Oedipus asks for Tiresias, a blind prophet. Oedipus states “ I have sent for him twice, in fact, and have been wandering for sometime why is he not yet here.” (Knox). Oedipus then asks Tiresias what he knows about the murder. Everyone is imagining who has killed Laius. You can imagine the truth and think it is real when in fact it isn’t.
Belief is very notic...
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...e understands that he needs to leave and does so with great ease. Understanding the situation makes you think better in all situations.
What makes Oedipus very interesting is that in times of trouble, he discovers the truth of understanding by using Plato’s four stages of awareness, the audience can see Oedipus’s path to enlightenment which causes his downfall. This begins with imagination, advances to belief, continues to thoughts and reason and the truth understanding and awareness. Life can be very challenging if you don’t know the truth and try to find it out without the four steps.
Works Cited
Works Cited
Plato. Allegory of the Cave. Comp. Tom Ferderer. Mendota Heights: Saint Thomas Academy, n.d. Print.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Bernard Knox. New York: Simon, Inc, 1994. Print.
In the play “Oedipus Rex by Sophocles” the themes of sight and blindness are produced to develop in the readers mind that it is not the eyesight, but insight that holds the key to truth and without It no amount of knowledge can help uncover the truth. Insight can be described as the ability to see what is going to happen. Characters like Oedipus and Teiresias hold a significant role in the play and other characters like Iocaste are also important in the play.
In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus, the King, there are various instances where Oedipus tries to escape his destiny—enlightenment—only to discover the truth that he cannot. Similarly, in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” the prisoner travails to understand and adjust to his newly visited environment. In both works, the men first had to realize their ignorance before they could begin to acquire knowledge and true understanding of the complexities of the human condition. Specifically, in Oedipus, the King, it was Oedipus’ illusion of himself as a man unequaled in leadership whereas in “Allegory of the Cave” it was the prisoner’s initial refutations of enlightenment being shown him until he realizes its intellectual, spiritual, and social significance.
Plato’s allegory of the cave, located in Book VII of The Republic is one of the most famous allegories in which he has created. This simile touches base on a number of philosophical ideas which Plato developed over the progression of The Republic (Plato, G.M.A Grube, 1993), the most noticeable being the dividing line. The dividing line is the point between the world of ideas where we live and the world of the forms which is in the heavens. This allegory of the cave helps people understand the theory on which philosophy is based. It is also in this Book where the education of the guardians is outlined.
Trying to solve the mystery of who killed the previous King, Oedipus does not look at the facts around him. As a prophet, Teiresias explains to Oedipus that he is at fault for the death of Laius but Oedipus does not accept this as true, he embraces the darkness and his view of the truth. Teiresias goes further to convince Oedipus of his fault by saying, “Your clear eyes flooded with darkness. That day will come.” Oedipus has placed himself in a world that is suitable as the truth for him. He is not prepared for change or the opinions of others although he is directly seeking the answer to who killed Laius. This connects to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” because Oedipus is very similar to the prisoners. He is set in his way and the light of knowledge does not immediately impact him. Teiresias bluntly says to Oedipus, “You have eyes to see with, but you do not see yourself” (Sophocles, 42). He pushes and pushes Oedipus to understand that he killed Laius but with no luck. Once Oedipus learns more about how Laius was killed and figures out that he killed a man that way he goes into the light. His reality has now changed just as it did for the prisoner who was released from the cave. But for Oedipus, facing the truth is something he is not able to do with ease. Teiresias says to Oedipus that “wisdom is a curse when [it] does nothing for the man who has it” (37).
From the very beginning of Oedipus, one can see that the main character of Oedipus is very sure about who he is and where he has come from. One of the most important motifs of the story is the idea of metaphorical blindness, and how Oedipus claims that everyone else around him is blind, and he is the only one that can see. However, what Oedipus soon finds out is that he has no idea who he is, and that all along he has been blind himself. Sophocles makes Oedipus suffer because of the fact that he actually has no idea who he is, and almost avoids figuring it out. It takes a defining moment for it to dawn on Oedipus that he is not who he thought he was.
Plato. "Simile of a Cave." The Republic. Trans. Desmond Lee. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002: 1-9.
The greatest realization faced by a character is that of Oedipus who for many years has come to terms with his situation. The Prophet Apollo’s predictions that he will kill his father and have sex with his mother. The course of his life is shaped by this prophecy. What Oedipus has been told from the beginning of his life shaped his thinking, this also allows the reader to grasp that this myth is relevant to their lives. The physical actions of Oedipus are the results of a man with high principles and probing intelligence. The story can be separated into points where Oedipus gathers more information about himself. The “ignorance” that Oedipus faces is the foundation he was brought up by. He has believed that he lived with his birth mother and father and therefore when he learns of Apollo’s prophecy he leaves home so that it cannot come true. Slowly as the story progresses Oedipus discovers bits and pieces of his true-life story, as Oedipus learns that he killed Laius by the story of the shepherd. He continues on his journey to discovering the truth. When he pieces together what he has done he cannot face himself. The chorus best shows his true emotions
The cave allegory does not stand alone in the Republic, for it is best understood as a successful philosophical conclusion to a trilogy of allegories. This trilogy, expressed in beautiful pictorial and poetic fas...
Plato. “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1992.
meaning, and goes along with the twin titled allegory of Plato. The idea of a cave, in my
Plato. Allegory of the Cave. in The Norton Reader. Linda H. Peterson et al., eds. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.
...ly saw the world. For the first time, he understands his surroundings, and understands the world for what it really was. Even though the truth takes away his family, kingdom, pride and possessions, the truth gives him something he needs more than all of those: understanding. Sophocles shows his brilliance as a playwright by adding intelligent, terrible irony to the end of the play. The irony is that at the monumental change in Oedipus' life, when he can, for the first time, see the world with clarity, he can see nothing at all, for he blinds himself. Oedipus becomes like Tiresias, visually blind, but mentally clear. Perhaps Oedipus unintentionally takes an example from Tiresias, learning that it is far better to live one's life without sight and see the world clearly through the minds eye, than to be able to see, but have ones sight blinded by pride.
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles suggests that the impact of seeing the truth is harmful rather than enlightening. Whenever Oedipus strives to discover more to strengthen Thebes’ perspective of him, it leads him closer to his fate as determined by prophesy. Tiresias stands as a model in the play for the individual who is able to see the meaning beyond plot of events although his is blind, and Oedipus represents the oblivious arrogant individual who is never content because they need to be the unsurpassed individual. In the play, Sophocles illustrates the downside of a personality like Oedipus who desires to see the truth by ending the play with the brutality of gouging out his own eyes. Ultimately, the play reinforces that seeing the truth is harmful and being content with what you have, without greedily striving for more, can help avoid fate and a related deposition.
Incapable of realizing the consequences of his decisions, Oedipus' pride continuously grows, further blurring his perception. The tragedy mainly resides in the intimation of a greater reality through self awareness which stands limited and possibly defeated by necessity. That even with the distraction of outside forces, the importance lies in the fact that one still claims one's self awareness. Sadly, Oedipus' self importance blurs his perception, therefore creating a life filled with more vanity. Through the Sphinx's riddle, Oedipus symbolically exhibits all three phases of life, (infancy, adulthood, and old age) leading to him striving for greatness only to be cut down, falling from prosperity to the harsh depths of misfortune.
Plato's Theory of Forms draws parallels to The Allegory of the Cave, highlighting the concept of human beings being ignorant to true perfection. In the writing Plato uses symbols to convey a veiled meaning. The philosopher says, “The prisoners s...