Реферат: Oedipus The King Analysis Essay Research Paper

Oedipus The King Analysis Essay, Research Paper

Sophocles ?Oedipus the King? is a tragic play which discusses the tragic

discovery of Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. The

story of Oedipus was well known to the athenian?s. Oedipus is the embodiement

of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed.

Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery.

Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles

used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus? life

and to futher characterized him as a tragic man. The Sphinx posed the following

riddle to all who came to obtain the rule of thebes: ?What is it that walks on

4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet and has only one voice, when it walks on most feet

it is the weakest?? Oedipus correctly answered ?Man? and became the king

of Thebes. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus. As a child man

crawls on his hands and knees this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers.

Also man is at his weakest as a small child. He depends solely on others for his

nourishment and well being. Oedipus was the child of Jocasta and King Laius who

was taken to the mountain by a shepard to be killed so the omen of the god

apollo that Laius? son would kill him and lay with Jocasta would not come

true. Oedipus was the weakest of his life at this point. If it has not been for

the shepard spairing his life and giving him to Polybus to raise as his own

Oedipus would have died. Man walks on 2 feet when he has matured. This is a

metaphor for Oedipus when he reaches adulthood and leaves Corinth to escape the

oracle. Oedipus meets up with a band of travelers and in a rage kills them.

Inadvertently Oedipus has killed his own father. Oedipus then answers the riddle

of the sphinx and becomes king of Thebes. By becoming king of Thebes he marries

Jocasta the Queen of thebes and his own mother. Many years later after bearing

children with Jocasta a plague kills many of the inhabitants of Thebes. Oedipus

is told by the gods to find the killer of Laius. He is very dilligent in the

inquiriy and finally comes to the horrible truth that he himself is the

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