Our perception of what is real and truthful can be very different from reality. While our basic perception of reality is manipulated by our senses, could other anomalies be in play? Could some unknown power predetermine our future and put invisible forces to work guiding us to our destiny? If you consider the age of humankind, by some estimates at about 1.7 million years old, our understanding of the Universe in which we travel through is still in its infancy. It has only been a minuscule 500 years or 18 generations, since humanity discovered the basic shape of the planet we live upon. As enlightenment slowly dissolves our ignorance, humanity begins to distinguish between reality and the fallacies that had influenced our lives. I suspect there are amazing discoveries awaiting us, and they will surely help us in our efforts to realize the truth. Will the day ever come where our mental capacity will be at a point where we can look into another man’s eyes and be cognizant of his truthfulness or become self-aware enough about the world we live in to overcome a predetermined destiny? Perhaps one day we will, but until then we can depend upon playwrights to use the literary devise of uncertain visions to challenge our reasoning and provoke our imaginations. The uncertain vision used by Sophocles’ in the tragedy “Oedipus the King”, was created through a prophecy foretelling of Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother. When King Laius is told of the prophecy, he orders his wife Jocasta to kill their son Oedipus. Queen Jocasta orders a servant to carry out the task, and as was the common practice of that time, the servant left the baby in the wilderness, to die alone. A Shepard finds him and takes him to the city of Corinth, where King Polybus decides to raise him as his own son. When Oedipus is older, he learns of the prophecy and thinking that King
Jocasta explains that an oracle called for her husband's death to be at the hand of his own son. Seeing that thieves evidently killed the king, Oedipus as the new king began trying to find the culprits. The chorus and Jocasta all recall that Laius was killed by thieves where three paths cross. With this in mind, there was no reason to believe that the oracle was right. It was long ago the oracle said that Laius and Jocasta's child would end up killing his father and marrying his own mother. Laius then decided their child should be brought up to the mountain that separated the two cities. He ordered a servant to go to the top if this mountain and leave the baby there to die. Obeying the king, the servant did so. At the top of the mountain, a shepherd said that the King and Queen of Corinth could take the abandoned child and raise it as if it was their own. The child grew up with the belief that he was raised by his biological parents. Away from his biological parents, Oedipus never learned the truth about his past. This has a serious effect on Oedipus’s decision making as he thinks that he is going to kill the two persons who have raised him when he hea...
Sophocles’s Oedipus is one of the most well-known and influential fictional figure in the history of literature primarily because of the fact that Oedipus symbolizes many things – as a hero, as a son, as a leader and as an example of the conflicting issues affecting morality. This particular hero is the center of the story. It’s about a boy who was thrown to the woods and was expected to meet his end there in the hopes that his death would render a prophecy unfulfilled. He would later find himself crossing paths once again with his true biological father whom he kills without knowing the true identity of the person he slew, thus, making the first prophecy a reality. When he later married his own biological mother upon his entry in his place
“The Illusionist” is a short story by Steven Millhauser, which was adapted into a movie directed by Neil Burger in 2008 which both take place in Vienna. The short story’s plot revolves around Eisenheim and his relationship between himself and the state, which is still featured in the movie. Eisenheim’s illusions also cause him a bit of trouble; in the short story the cause of trouble is an illusion, which produces two spirits by the name of Rosa, Elis, and a boy who appears to be no older than eight. In the movie adaptation, the final straw that causes the Crown Prince to finally pursue persecution of Eisenheim is the illusion that again, produces a spirit, which turns out to be his dead fiancée. Because of Inspector Uhl’s growing obsession of Eisenheim, throughout the movie and the short story, it further ignites the blur between what is the reality and what is his illusion. Uhl’s obsession over Eisenheim and his illusions helps blur the reality around him.
Although he was unaware of what was to come, Oedipus does make an attempt in escaping from a part of his destiny that would eventually occur. He is allegedly the son of Queen Merope and King Polybus of Corinth, until a man tells him that he is not his father’s son. Curiosity creeps into Oedipus’ mind, so one day he sets out for Delphi. He receives an oracle from Apollo which says that he would “couple with [his] mother” (873) and “kill [his] father” (875). Disgusted and humiliated, Oedipus abandons Corinth – “running toward some place where [he] would never see the shame of those oracles come true” (878-880). Reaching a crossroad, Oedipus kills Laius, the king of Thebes; later on in the play, he tells his wife Jocasta: “And you, his wife, I’ve touched your body with these, the hands that killed your husband cover you with blood” (908-909). “Apollo told me once – it is my fate – I must make love with my own mother, shed my father’s blood with my own hands. So for years I have given Corinth a wide berth, and it ha...
Ironically, he initially became a King by solving a riddle and now he is trying to solve another to try and maintain his image and control his destiny. “Human happiness is built on an illusion” (Dodds 27). This quote is a good connection to the role of Oedipus, because while attempting to keep the Kingdom under control and keep his image unharmed, he is left in the dark by ignoring the signs. The irony of ignoring the past continues when “Creon brings the information that there will be no relief until the murderer of Laius is expelled from the city… [And] the murder mystery slowly becomes a quest for Oedipus ' identity” (Derrida). Building upon the investigation, Oedipus grows a keen interest for who he truly is. Is there any truth to the prophecies that which he and Jocasta have seemingly forgot about? At this point, it seems as though Oedipus must finally face his fear and discover the truth that he has been avoiding for so long. The only way for Oedipus to find out the lies he has been living is to seek for the only witness of his father’s murder, a shepherd. Only until Oedipus threatens to kill the shepherd does he tell the truth and reveal the tragic events which have been avoided for so long. In this moment before certainty of the past is brought to light, the relationship between self-control and self-image is linked and soon to be changed
The main plot of Oedipus was well known to the Ancient Greeks before it was even written by Sophocles. When Oedipus was born, King Laius and Queen Jocasta received a prophecy about their son (Oedipus Rex 49). It was claimed that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. To try to prevent this prophecy they gave their son to shepherd to do away with him. However the shepherd did not have the heart to kill the young child and gave him away to a traveler from a distant land (Oedipus Rex 49).
In beginning his lengthy phenomenology for identifying the pathway in which Geist will realize itself as Absolute Knowledge, Hegel begins at what many considered the most basic source of all epistemological claims: sensual apprehension or Sense-Certainty. Though the skeptical tradition took this realm as a jumping-off point for making defensible epistemological claims, Hegel sees in the sensual a type of knowledge so general and abstract as to be entirely vacuous. Focusing on the principle that anything known in the Scientific sense must be communicable, through language or its approximations, Hegel shows that whatever the sensual purports to know is inherently incommunicable and therefore cannot represent true knowledge.
“…they will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me!” These are the words Oedipus shouted as he blinds himself upon learning the truth of his past. It is ironic how a person blessed with perfect physical vision could in reality be blind to to matters of life and conscience. During his prime as King of Thebes, Oedipus is renowned for his lucidity and his ability to rule with a clear concept of justice and equality. The people loved him for his skill and wit, as he saved Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx. As a result, Oedipus became overly confident, and refuses to see that he may be the cause of the malady that is plaguing his kingdom. Although physically Oedipus has full use of his eyes, Sophocles uses sight to demonstrate how Oedipus is blind to the truth about his past what it might me for both him and his kingdom. Upon learning the truth, Oedipus gouges out his eyes, so he won’t have to look upon his children, or the misfortune that is his life. Once physically unable to see, Oedipus has clear vision as to his fate, and what must be done for his kingdom and his family
Abercrombie states that the human brain plays an active role in shaping the information presented to us, based on one’s past experiences. Kahneman claims that the human mind uses two systems of thinking, System 1 and System 2, where System 2 is more active and effortful than System 1. I attempt to illustrate how Abercrombie and Kahneman's ideal concepts of the perception of reality are applicable to real situations, by referring to the following three readings: Jung’s “The Personal and the Collective Unconscious,” Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” and Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The three readings relate to Abercrombie and Kahneman, considering the overlapping concepts of reality, that words and metaphors structure our understanding of what is real, reality can be altered from different perspectives, and that ignorance can actually be bliss.
In the beginning of the play, Oedipus has perfect physical vision. However, he is blind and ignorant to the truth about himself and his past. He desperately wants to know, to see, but he cannot. Oedipus' blindness which must be considered is that many times throughout the course of the action he is warned not to pursue the matter any further, for fear that the truth could be damaging to him as the prophesies would suggests. The events are made all the more tragic at the point where he thinks he can 'see' when he at last realizes that he is in fact the murderer of Laius, and yet he is still blind to the final horrible truth. To make the situation worst Jocasta his wife advises Oedipus not to pursue the matter further: "Stop-in the name of god, ….call off this search!" Jocasta has seen the truth but Oedipus is only worried in she finds out he was not of noble birth.
Sophocles introduces a prophet, a seer, Teiresias, into the play. Teiresias is a wise, old man who has supernatural powers to interpret the past and predict the future. Ironically, Teiresias is physically blind, but can “see” the truth about Oedipus. Oedipus has trouble imagining that his father life was taken at his hands. It signifies that Oedipus as a man is ignorant to the true appearance of things - this blind man can "see" the truth about Oedipus, yet Oedipus, in all of his physical perfection, cannot.
Oedipus discovers that the child of king Laius, and queen Jocasta was sent away to die as a child. As he seeks for the reason for this child being sent away he stumbles upon the fact that the child was prophesized to kill his father and he would lay with his mother. From this he became suspicious that the child may be him. He realized that while he had been considered a hero at the same time he had been doing what the oracle told him he would do.
Oedipus is the main character in the play Oedipus the King. Oedipus is thought of as a tragic figure because he was doomed from birth. Tiresias, an old blind prophet, told Oedipus' parents about Oedipus' fate. He told them that Oedipus would kill his father and sleep with his mother. So, his parents decided to have him killed, only it did not happen that way. He was passed off by two shepherds and finally to the King and Queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope to raise him as their own. Oedipus finds his way back to Thebes and on the way kills his father, but Oedipus did not know that one of the men he killed was his real father. This is the beginning of the prophecy coming true. In short Oedipus obtains the throne, Marries his mother and has kids with her. Oedipus' fate has come together without him even realizing what is going on. Eventually he is told what has happened and asks to be banished by his uncle/brother-in-law Creon. The tragedy in Oedipus' life began with his birth and the realization by his parents that his whole life was doomed.
When Oedipus was born he was taken to an Oracle, this was custom for the rich. The Oracle was to tell his fate. The Oracle said that when Oedipus grows up he will marry his mother and he would also kill his father, "... Why, Loxias declared that I should one day marry my own mother, And with my own hands shed my father's bool. Wherefore Corinth I have kept away far, for long years; and prosperd; none the less it is most sweet to see one's parents' face..."(p36 ln1-6). When his parents herd this they gave Oedipus to a man and he was to get rid of the baby by leaving it in the forest, but an servant of Polybus, the king of Corinth, finds the baby and brings him to the king. The king falls in love with the baby and takes him in as one of his own.
The human race is discovering something new everyday about the connotation of our visions according to The Encyclopedia Americana :