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Literary analysis essay
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Literary analysis full essay
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Outline
1. Introduction
2. Plot of the play
3. i. Analysis of the play and the life of Oedipus ii. The affectivity of the play
4. Conclusion
Oedipus Rex
The play starts at the doors of the king’s palace with some beggars at the door steps and the priest gathering branches of olives for wreath. Oedipus, who is the king of the place, asks them why they are grieving and praying all the time. People who had come to the palace wanted to have a word with the king concerning the things that were happening in the palace (Foster 35). The king, on the other hand, promises them that he will help them in whatever they want. In addition, citizens of this land had found themselves in a number of calamities; the reasons as to why the
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In this case, he is shown to have attracted a curse since at young age; he was blinded to sacred laws of hospitality. The king Lauis and Queen of Thebes decides to kill the infant Oedipus; but the person sent to kill hesitates to do so. Other than killing him, the servant sent takes him to the mountain to die out of exposure (Brown 254). Instead of dying out of exposure, he is rescued by a shepherd who takes him to Corinth and he is raised as a childless king. Having the knowledge of the fact that he is not the biological son of Polypus, he attempts to get full information of his biological father. The prophet does not consider telling him that he is destined to be married to his mother and kill his father with his …show more content…
People are blinded from seeing that the prophecies of the oracles will surely come to be and from the fact that it could be the source of the plagues that had befallen Thebes.
In another scene of the play, the proclaimed king of the land decides to search for the murderer of the king. He is warned by the blinded priest that he should abandon the search but he insists on carrying it out. He is committed to ensuring that the murderer is brought to book. At this scene, he is blinded to realizing that he is the one who committed the murder (Brown 254). He then asserts that the priest is one of the accomplices who could have colluded to kill the king. He then orders for the elimination of the priest and ensures that he continues to fight to know who killed the
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: a Lively and Entertaining Guide to
In conclusion, the brilliant novel “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C. Foster is a fantastic novel that helps grasp the basic ideas and structure that makes up a work of literature. Foster’s laid-back attitude made a major contribution to the great tone of the novel, and made it easier to understand. Many connections were included in the novel, along with some great quotes. After reading this novel, I have a better idea of what to look for when reading a novel.
In the play, Oedipus the King, blindness is used metaphorically and physically to characterize several personas , and the images of clarity and vision are used as symbols for knowledge and insight. Enlightenment and darkness are used in much the same manner, to demonstrate the darkness of ignorance, and the irony of vision without sight.
Undoubtedly there has been a tremendous amount of speculation and dissection of this play by countless people throughout the ages. I can only draw my own conclusions as to what Sophocles intended the meaning of his play to be. The drama included a number of horrific and unthinkable moral and ethical dilemas, but I believe that was what made the play so interesting and that is exactly the way Sophocles intended it to be. The play was obviously meant to entertain and portray the author’s own insight. The underlying theme to the play is that no man should know his own destiny, it will become his undoing. This knowledge of things to come was presented to both Laius and Oedipus in the form of prophecies well in advance of it coming to be. The prophecies told of things that were so morally disturbing that they both aggressively did everything in their power to try and stop them from coming true. The story begins with Oedipus at the height of power as King of Thebes. His kingdom has encountered rough times and he has sent his nobleman Creon to seek help from the god Apollo to restore his land. Creon tells Oedipus that he must find the murderer of the previous King Laius and by finding this man and banishing him, his land will be restored. The murder occurred some time ago and King Oedipus sends for the seer Theiresias with his powers of prophecy to aid in the search for the murderer. Sophocles cleverly projects his feelings on wisdom and knowledge through Teirsias when he says “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise!”(23) Teirsias knows that this terrible prophecy has already been set into motion and the damage has already been done. There is really no point in telling it to Oedipus because it will only cause more harm than good. Oedipus provokes Teirsias into telling him the prophecy, “ Í tell you, king, this man, this murderer-he is here. In name he is a stranger among citizens but soon he will be shown to be a citizen true native Theban, and he’ll have no joy of the discovery: blindness for sight and beggary for riches his exchange, he shall go journeying to a foreign country tapping his way befor him with a stick.
Many times humans do things that contradict another thing they do. An example of this is one thing may be good but also bad at the same time. A person who has done this more then once is Oedipus in the writer Sophocles plays. Sophocles uses imagery like light verses darkness, knowledge verses ignorance and sight verses blindness.
The beginning of the play opens up with the dilemma of the plague as explained before. Creon, Oedipus's brother in-law (which turns out to be his uncle), comes from the oracle with the advice to end the plague. He explains the previous leader, Laius, had been murdered, and they haven't found the murderer. More importantly, was the way Oedipus handled the situation. He
The play "Oedipus Rex" is a very full and lively one to say the least. Everything a reader could ask for is included in this play. There is excitement, suspense, happiness, sorrow, and much more. Truth is the main theme of the play. Oedipus cannot accept the truth as it comes to him or even where it comes from. He is blinded in his own life, trying to ignore the truth of his life. Oedipus will find out that truth is rock solid. The story is mainly about a young man named Oedipus who is trying to find out more knowledge than he can handle. The story starts off by telling us that Oedipus has seen his moira, his fate, and finds out that in the future he will end up killing his father and marrying his mother. Thinking that his mother and father were Polybos and Merope, the only parents he knew, he ran away from home and went far away so he could change his fate and not end up harming his family. Oedipus will later find out that he cannot change fate because he has no control over it, only the God's can control what happens. Oedipus is a very healthy person with a strong willed mind who will never give up until he gets what he wants. Unfortunately, in this story these will not be good trait to have.
Aristotle defined a tragic story as the adventure of a good man who reaches his ultimate downfall because he pushed his greatest quality too far. Sophocles advocates the definition in the tragic play Oedipus Rex. He develops the play with the great polarities of fame and shame, sight and blindness, and ignorance and insight to show Oedipus’ experiences in search for knowledge about his identity. Through his search, Oedipus pushes his quest for truth too far and ultimately reaches his doom. Oedipus’ reliance on his intellect is his greatest strength and ultimate downfall.
the play, Oedipus is faced with the truth and fails to acknowledge it. He is first told by the drunk at the party, but he dismisses it as just something said by an ignorant drunk. He then visits the oracle and is told his fate determined by the gods and believes he can escape it by fleeing to Thebes. On his way, he carries out the first part of the fate by killing his father. He then makes it to Thebes and marries Jocasta, unknowingly fulfilling the fate.
...eye’s blindness – and he consistently lived his life in connection with his views on freedom. He strived, even while he worried about class struggles, to be an “authentic man,” the ultimately free man of his early plays.
Even though Oedipus is a hero, we should not admire him, as the intentions for his actions are self-centered. This distinction is necessary to help us better understand the difference between being a hero, and a hero worth of admiration. It is important to know that somebody’s admiration must ultimately stem from the intentions of their actions rather than the results of their actions alone, so we can act accordingly in the future.
At the beginning of the play, Oedipus and the priest are having a conversation. Oedipus is the king of the land Thebes. In this conversation, the priest tells Oedipus that the people are dying due to a plague going around the town. The priest begs Oedipus to save all the people, so then Oedipus orders his brother-in-law, Creon to see how to stop the plague. Creon comes to the scene and tells Oedipus that he has to tell him important news. Creon asks Oedipus if he wants to tell him the news in front of all of the people. Oedipus answers with a yes, so then Creon tells him that the murderer of Laius (the king of Thebes before Oedipus) is from the city. Creon tells Oedipus that king Laius and his travellers were on their way to consult an oracle
Sophocles?s play, ?Oedipus the King? is one of the most well known of the Greek tragedies. The play?s interesting plot, along with the incredible way it is written are only two of the many reasons why two thousand years later, it is still being read and viewed. For those who are not familiar with the story of ?Oedipus the King?, it is written about the results of a curse put on King Oedipus which claims that he will murder his father and marry his mother. After reading or viewing this play, it is apparent that there are a few different themes, though the one which will be discussed in this essay is the theme of blindness. The theme of blindness is shown through the blind prophet, through Oedipus?s blindness in realizing the truth, and finally through Oedipus stabbing his own eyes to the point of blindness.
As the story goes on the audience figures out that Oedipus may have killed his father. This is brought up many times in the play by the
the play Thebes is suffering from a plague which leaves its fields and women barren. Oedipus,