Pedestal In Oedipus Rex

Throughout the story of Oedipus, Sophocles uses many metaphors and a great deal of Dramatic irony, so we figured such a dramatic character needed a good deal of symbols in his Body Biography. First, Oedipus is standing on a pedestal. This pedestal represents the pedestal Oedipus had placed himself on based on how high he thought his intelligence and bravery were. The Pedestal has started to crack under his feet to represent that pedestal he placed himself on start to disintegrate as he found out all of the dark secrets that surround him; throwing him off the pedestal and onto the hard ground (representing the truth). In his heart, he has himself to represent his pride. He also has Jocasta and his family (including Thebes) representing his love …show more content…
One such quote from the beginning is “I am the land’s Avenger by all rights, and Apollo’s champion too” (Sophocles 268). This quote shows how he thinks he is so smart and only he can save the people of Thebes. We placed this quote close to Oedipus’s pedestal to represent his pride when he said this. Once Oedipus is found out to have murdered Laius, he is miserable, and remains loyal. This can be seen in the quote “I am the man no alien, no citizen, welcomes to is house, law forbids it- not a word to me in public” (Sophocles 297). He is fulfilling his promise to exile the murderer, and though it pains him; he must exile himself. We placed this quote near his arm to represent his actions in reaction to the news of his actions. Later on in the play Oedipus realizes that the prophecy has come true, and that he is a murderer and an incestuous adulterer so was plunged into misery. This quote shows his misery “Kill me hurl me into the sea where you can never look again” (Sophocles 321). This quote shows that he is done with all the misery he is suffering and wants to end it all. We placed this quote by his head because he gouges his eyes out so he no longer has to see any more misery in the world. Now that he knows the truth he is physically blinded. These quotes show how Oedipus feels through what he is …show more content…
For example, for Oedipus’s hair, we used purple because purple is both the color of pride and royalty. Oedipus had always been royal and one of his greatest flaws was Hubris, which is excessive pride. For his heart and eyes, we used red to symbolize passion and love in his heart and blood in his eyes. The things in his heart are the things he loves and cares for, which is why they are surrounded by red. The red around his eyes is for not only his blood from stabbing his eyes out, but for his fathers shed blood. The last color we used was black for the outline to represent fear and misery and dead. Oedipus had always been followed by misery (that is the theme) so we made that his outline to show how it is always following him. The colors we used, along with the quotes and the symbols make up a fairly thorough representation of Oedipus as a