Laius

Oedipus the King is a play of tragedy written by Sophocles. Aristotle says that tragedy is “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude.” A tragedy is meant to evoke both pity and fear unto the reader or audience. An example of this would be when Oedipus gouges out his eyes; you feel pity for him and also afraid. Aristotle wrote that tragedy should afflict a mostly good character who makes a big mistake. For instance, if the character is bad and makes a big…

The Truth Shall Set You Free In such a day and age where exists ideas like “alternative facts” and “fake news”, the search for the truth can be troublesome. The media is often skewed in delivering accurate accounts of events because its motives are influenced by ratings. Even messages in everyday conversation can change as it is passed from one person to the next. Therefore, the responsibility of knowledge and truth lies within those that seek it. In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King: Prologue,…

One may say that Oedipus is a victim of fate, because the audience often sympathize with Oedipus at the end of the play, because throughout the play he is portray as a great man, and it is clear at the play’s opening that the citizens of thebes loves and respects him. It’s true that Oedipus unknowingly killed his father and marry his mother, which is why we feel sorry for him and feel, and that he doesn’t deserve the suffering he experiences at the end of the play. However, Oedipus is in…

My Dear Oedipus, you are the love of my life. From the moment I laid eyes on you I knew that we were bound to each other in some way. These past years, we have done so much in both of our lives. We began a family, built a relationship, ruled Thebes with another, and more. In your eyes, it is anything a Son, Husband and a Father could ever hope for in life. Something dark and twisted has been culmulating since I bore you, has now come to light. I remember the day when we met each other You…

Reading any piece of literature of any genre can be enjoyable and beneficial to everyone because individuals who read context of any sort can use what they read to relate it to society and to their own lives including their cultures, backgrounds, and personalities. Reader response criticism is a literacy theory that concentrates on the reader as well as his/her experience that can be relatable to the story they read. People can use general or specific details from a story such as the events,…

to the quotation Oedipus feels like his sight betrayed him and he would better off without it, so he blinds himself. The betrayal brought on by his sight is caused by signs that he should’ve seen coming that pointed to Jocasta being his mother and Laius being his father. If he didn’t have he would not have to witness the horrors he has committed which are the murder of his father and the relationship with his mother .Another instance of the symbol of Oedipus’ blindness is when Oedipus speaks to…

In the Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is a renowned and prosperous character. He is the ruler of a powerful kingdom and is revered very highly in the minds of his people (36). In this play we see the character of Oedipus fall from greatness to experience a catastrophe. Through the characterization of Oedipus, revealed through characters’ words and Oedipus’ actions, we see that he is a character who experiences a downfall due to the tragic flaw of hubris. Until his confrontation with…

Throughout the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the novella Chronical of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, the theme of chance and fate is shown to be an important element in many of the events that unfold within the stories. “The Lottery” shows a distinct focus on chance, while Chronical of a Death Foretold and Oedipus Rex focus on fate. There are differences shown to arise in the literature through these two concepts, however there…

Are people truly responsible for their actions? This controversy has puzzled humanity throughout the ages. Over the course of history people have pondered about the legitimacy regarding the influence of divine power over the magnitude of how much freewill we truly have in making moral decisions. The ancient Greeks acknowledged the role of fate as a reality that was transcendent, shaping and determining our human lives. They perceived fate to be the will of the gods - an unstoppable reality that…

brother, doomed in your marriage—your marriage murders mine, your dying drags me down to death alive!” (Sophocles, ll. 956-958). It is her father’s sins in marriage that makes it that she is unable to marry and because of his mistakes, as the house of Laius seems to have been doomed from the beginning. Though Antigone blames her father for her fate even though the reader knows that, at the…