Whether it be fate, destiny, the gods will, or the path a person chooses for themselves, all of these unknowns are connected and played around with in Sophocles literature. Any of these can be talked about being a main theme in all of his stories.
Jeffrey L. Buller wrote an author biography on Sophocles. Sophocles was born in Colonus within the city limits of Athens, Greece near the beginning of the fifth century b.c.e. (c. 496 b.c.e.). Colonus had its own legendary heroes, one of which was the center of “three of Sophocles' most famous tragedies”, Oedipus. According to the legend, one of the local heroes had “been an exiled Theban king who vanished mysteriously in a grove at Colonus and who continued to protect the area until Sophocles' own day”. During the fifth century, contests were held and prizes were awarded to the finest playwrights. “Sophocles was to receive the first prize approximately twenty times...often won second prize and never, say the ancient authorities, came in last”. By winning these contests, more than any other playwright of the time, he proved to build a very successful career. It is said that Sophocles learned the “art of tragedy” from Aeschylus; however, it is not sure whether Aeschylus served as a mentor, or Sophocles was self-taught using “imitation” of Aeschylus's work. Aside from his literature career, Sophocles was also “actively involved in the political and military life of the Athenians”; Sophocles served as a general in the military, and had several political offices. Critics of Sophocles say that the imitation of Aeschylus is present in the “early period of ponderous tragedies” of his work. The other two periods of his work, all three of which were defined by Sophocles himself, w...
... middle of paper ...
...April 2014.
Buller, Jeffrey L. "Sophocles." Magill’S Survey Of World Literature, Revised Edition (2009): 1-6. MagillOnLiterature Plus. Web. 15 April 2014.
Holmes, John R. "Oedipus Tyrannus." Cyclopedia Of Literary Places (2003): 1. MagillOnLiterature Plus. Web. 15 April 2014.
Lewin, Jennifer. "An overview of Oedipus Rex." Drama for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 April 2014.
"Oedipus Tyrannus." Cyclopedia Of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition (1998): 1-2. MagillOnLiterature Plus. Web. 15 April 2014.
Walton, J. Michael. "Oedipus the King: Overview." Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Lesley Henderson. 2nd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 April 2014.
Weigel, Jr., James. "Oedipus Tyrannus." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. MagillOnLiterature Plus. Web. 15 April 2014.
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
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.
Considered by Aristotle as the perfect example of tragedy, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King is an Athenian play that follows the undoing of a Theban king by the name of Oedipus. The play presents a question Oedipus himself cannot answer: is it the man’s actions or is it the gods’ decisions that control the man’s destiny? Perhaps the answer is both man and god, but it is the man’s imperfections that determine what fate the gods will give him. While there is no direct proof that gods control everything in a man, from his dreams to his choices, Oedipus still proves that no matter how renowned a man is, that man’s weaknesses will determine his success or his failure. Oedipus fits the convention of a tragic hero as he is a man of high estate who suffers
In Sophocles’ Oedipus The King, King Oedipus of Thebes is confronted. and strangely obsessed with the mystery of who killed Laios. former king of Thebes, for a great plague has overtaken the city of. Thebes because of this murder. During his quest for the truth, he begins to discover that the answer to his query is also the answer to another disturbing mystery about himself, who am I?
According to Aristotle, Oedipus in Sophocles's play, Oedipus the King, would be considered a tragic hero. Oedipus is considered a tragic hero not only because he made the mistake of killing Laius, because he ends up exiling himself from his own city. At the end of Sophocles’s play Oedipus eventually reaches an all time low. This downfall is caused by him discovering what negative things he has done to his family and to his city. This downfall was caused by Apollo, the Greek god of Prophecy. Apollo is the cause of the downfall because it is proven many times in the play that you can’t control your own destiny which ultimately means that Oedipus’s fate was already written out for him by the
Sophocles’ background influenced him to write Antigone. One important influence on the drama was the author’s life in the “golden era” of Athens during fifth century BCE. In that time, Athens was experiencing much change in all facets, and drama was a major factor in Athenian culture. In his essay “Sophocles,” Ed Downey reports that Sophocles was born at the beginning of the “golden era” in Athens and lived a long life influenced by “the artistic and cultural achievements in the ancient Greek world”. Sophocles was a wealthy and highly educated, “happy man.” As a young man, Sophocles began his playwright career, eventually becoming one of the greatest writers in history although only seven of his works are still intact (1). Similarly, the setting
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.
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 ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women of Greek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).
Sophocles, a Greek author and philosopher, created a magnificent work of literature, Oedipus Rex. Oedipus Rex describes the legendary tales that King Oedipus of Thebes took in order to confirm that his biological parents were King Polybus of Corinth and his wife Merope. This tragedy of fate explores the depths of modern psychoanalysis as Oedipus unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother in an attempt to avoid the very prophecy he ultimately fulfills. The play was created by Sophocles, an intellectual philosopher that was born in 495 B.C. about a mile northwest of Athens. Sophocles has become one of the most prominent playwrights of the golden age. He was a son of a wealthy merchant, therefore, he enjoyed all the benefits of a thriving Greek empire. As an accomplished actor, Sophocles performed in many of his own plays, such as Oedipus Rex. The famous Sophocles is known as one of the greatest innovators of the theatre. The Theatre of Dionysus is where the greatest playwrights performed their infamous tales, it was a major open-air theatre build in Athens, the theatre was dedicated to the god of wine and fertility, it hosted the City Dionysia festival. The Theatre of Dionysus is where Oedipus Rex is first acknowledged to the world. Oedipus Rex embodies the nature of life and society in ancient Greece.
Tiresias, from “Oedipus the King” by the Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, is a blind prophet and whilst he is only on the stage for a little time he plays a major role by what he does and what he represents. Tiresias enters the play after being summoned by Oedipus to tell him of the murderer of Laius, the recent King. Tiresias for the sake of Oedipus does not tell him the truth at the start saying that “what will come will come. Even if I shroud it all in silence”. In is conversation, Sophocles, uses Tiresias as a turning point in the plot as it is the beginning of Oedipus’ downfall. As well as that Sophocles uses Tiresias to represent many of the key ideas in the play. Tiresias represents the idea of fate and how
Murray, Robert D. Jr. ?Sophocles? Moral Themes.? In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997.
Although Incendies (2010), filmed by Denis Villeneuve, is the rewrite of Sophocles’ play, Oedipus The King, these two stories have their own variations in them. Both of their narratives are surrounding with the same concept: nobody could escape from their family’s history, which it has some tragedy outcomes and violence as the characters’ journey begin. Each character from Oedipus Tyrannus and Incendies responds differently obtaining knowledge about their past, and the closure of these two stories are completely diverse.
Oedipus is living in a dream from which he is only just beginning to awake. In this dream, he not only believes that he is in control of his own fate but that he is in control of his own identity. He assumes that he has three virtues: wisdom, reason, and self-control. When he attempts to use these virtues, however, he discovers that he is mistaken on all three counts. His first mistake is believing that he is wise. From this wisdom he hopes to maintain control over the events around him, but true wisdom is actually surrendering to the fact that control is an illusion, a "seeming." His second mistake is believing that he is a rational man. Indeed, Oedipus has great cognitive powers. He has insight, but this insight is quickly negated when it clashes with his own anger, which ultimately drives Oedipus to fly in the face of reason. His third mistake is believing that he is his own man, self-created. He believes that this makes him completely free, but, in fact, he is deeply tied to his roots. By rejecting his parentage, he attempts to avoid his fate. The chorus claims that no "man on Earth wins more of happiness than a seeming and after that turn[s] away" (Sophocles 64).1 Oedipus turns himself away from happiness because he believes that he is already happy. In his hubris, he becomes the agent of his own destruction. He serves as the paradigm for the self-deluding and self-destructive spirit of the human condition.
Relationship between past, present and future is a repeated theme in modern drama. Life is one circle. The past life of the dead has an impact on the life of people. The philosophy of Sophocles is that the dead control and affect our life.