Alexis Alicia DeWitt 15 October 2012 Cuevas 6 Oedipus Rex Literary Analysis Ignorance is Bliss: Why Ruin it? Sophocles once said, “Ignorant men don’t know what good they hold in their hands until they’ve flung it away.” All through history many hard working people fall due to ignorance. Oedipus Rex, a play written by Sophocles, is about a man born with a cursed life. Oedipus, the main character, was born with a wretched, lugubrious fate such as; marrying his mother and slaughtering his father. Oedipus’ parents, Jocasta and Laius, sent Oedipus to die because of his fate.
The oracle stated, “By exile or death, blood for blood, it was murder that brought the plague on the city.” (Sophocles 207). The prophecy states that the city is plague-ridden due to and unsolved murder of King Laius, and that the only way to get rid of the sickness is to discover who the murderer is. When King Laius was murdered, no one in the city had time to think about who the murderer was because the Sphinx was threatening to destroy the city. This is when Oedipus appears and solves the Sphinx’s
Oedipus tells them as their ruler he is also troubled and has already taken steps to try to fix this problem by sending Creon to Apollo’s shrine to see what the gods recommended they do. Creon returns to tell Oedipus that the god, Apollo, said there was bad blood in Thebes and until that has been removed the plague will remain in Thebes. 2. The bad blood is the person that killed Laius, the former king. When Oedipus asks why this case was not investigated the people respond that they were too busy trying to solve the sphinx’s riddle.
When Creon learns that Antigone has buried her brother, he becomes furious and sentences Antigone to death despite his son’s and Antigone’s fiancé pleading, as well as a warning from the prophet. But as the prophet for-told, the gods are on Antigone’s side and for Creon’s crime he loses his only son, Haemon and his wife. The begging of the play, Antigone has her sister, Isemen outside the city gates. Antigone is trying to get Ismene to help her bury their brother, Polyncies. But Ismene refuses to help her sister, fearing the death penalty installed by Creon.
The most disgraceful thing is that he is a man of god and he committed all of these horrendous sins! Friar Lawrence took the first step in triggering the passage which led to the tragedy. The first step was that he married Romeo and Juliet, this was the most foolish thing he did. He knew it was not right yet he still did it, “wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast”. This just tells us that he knows what he is doing is wrong because he says himself we shouldn’t rush.
One of Oedipus’ last speeches in “Oedipus the King” is particularly telling regarding this point. Oedipus is speaking of the major events of the play, which have already taken place. He has blinded himself because he has inadvertently killed his father and had an affair with his own mother. He speaks to characters on stage, but is also speaking, as is the usual form in Greek tragedies, in soliloquy. He says: “Do not counsel me any more.
In the beginning of the play Ajax claims, “...My name is Ajax:/ agony is its meaning. And my fortunes/ are cause indeed for agony of wailing cause” (Ajax, 24) He believes that he burdens the people around him by continuing to live. He finds justice in taking his own life because so much of his society already holds so much animosity towards him. Not long after Ajax’ slaughtering took place, Tecmessa says to the Chorus, “He is freshly miserable. It is a painful thing/ to look at your own trouble and know/ that you yourself and no one else has made it” (Ajax, 17.)
In his own hands is the guilt of; the death of his wife, his children being cast from their home, and the eventual blinding of himself. It is ultimately Oedipus's hubris that is his fatal flaw. Despite overwhelming evidence, Oedipus decided to make decisions that any rational thinking person would not have. This raises the question; namely, did Oedipus really never consider the possibility that Lauis was his father and Jocasta his mother?The play relies on the Greeks' knowledge of the myth of Oedipus. This is true because otherwise Sophocles' use of dramatic irony would be fruitless.
Then, they return to their hometown and leave behind them nothing but dead people… or so they thought. A little girl, Anthea survives, and later she follows them in Rufford, where she settles with her husband like nothing happened in Webb’s Ford. But in the inside, Anthea carries the guilt of her murdered family and she won’t find peace until the Patriots are all punished. She plans her death and he asks William Quaid, the only Patriot she trusts, to rape her and kill her. In a letter, she accuses three of them to have raped and killed her.
Though saddened by his father’s untimely death, Prince Hamlet also expresses clear disgust for his mother, Gertrude, for marrying his uncle, Claudius, only a few months after his own father’s death. He is appalled that his mother would have such haste and “most wicked speed to post/ with such dexterity to incestuous sheets” (I.ii.161-162) with Claudius, for whom Hamlet is not particularly fond of. Hamlet scorns his mother, and in a general sense all women, when he says, “Frailty, thy name is woman!”(I.ii.150) He believes that even “a beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourned longer” (I.ii.154-155). Despite his suicidal tendencies, Hamlet insists that he must remain silent on the matter and hold his tongue. The third soliloquy takes place in Act II, Scene II, after the departure of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.