Critical Review Of Oedipus Rex Essay

Critical Review of Oedipus Rex

Sophocles Oedipus is a highly regarded play which has survived many years in the world of literature. A tragic play should make the audience feel both pity and fear. The tragic play Oedipus does just that. Sophocles uses sudden and tragic plot twists throughout the play to grip the audience and fill them with pity and fear.

To fill the audience with pity, Sophocles develops the main character with unique characterization. In the beginning of the play it becomes clear the audience that the main character, Oedipus, is a king, and a man of great wealth and fame. Some of the first lines in the play include Oedipus declaring, Here I am myself- you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus. Oedipus is not portrayed as an evil tyrant, but as a good man, who wants what is best for his family and the people of Thebes, of whom he rules over. However, as the play progresses, Tiresias the blind prophet predicts the future full of coming doom. Oedipus then speaks with the shepherd, who was supposed to murder Oedipus as a young infant but instead delivers him to a man from Corinth, and learns how he was adopted by the King and Queen of Corinth. The parents Oedipus knew were not his real parents. As the story unfolds, the pieces of this enigmatic puzzle all fall into place and come together, and Oedipus learns that the prophecy he received long ago at the Oracle of Delphi has been fulfilled. He runs away to avoid marrying his mother and murdering his father. Little does he know, Polybus and Merope, his adoptive parents, have absolutely nothing to do with the prophecy. He then gets in a fight with an elderly man on the road, and kills him and his party. He later learns that this was actually his father. He then goes to Thebes and solves the riddle of the Sphinx. The Theban people reward him with the royal crown of Thebes and the queens hand in marriage. Oedipus and Jocasta both find out, and Jocasta hangs herself. After witnessing this, Oedipus blinds himself by gouging out his eyes with pins from Jocastas dress. He then exiles himself to Mt. Cithaeron to live in darkness.

The way the story quickly and abruptly changes from happiness to complete and utter despair is very shocking and greatly disturbing, because of the way it involves an extreme amount of the most tragic and saddening events imaginable in a mans life. The reader must observe in horror as the truth is found out and such terrible events happen before their eyes. Oedipus experiences an extreme reversal of fortune. He is the unfortunate victim of fate, a good, kind man that looses everything he holds dear to himself. The reader, or audience, can easily feel a great amount of pity for Oedipus when it is seen how his life is constantly plagued by the prophecy predicted and his inescapable fate. Fate, in this case is Oedipuss mortal enemy, as it is what he completely wants to avoid, and yet he ends up fulfilling his destiny and is unable to escape fate in the final scene where everything falls apart. This is what makes Oedipus such an excellent tragic play. It incorporates poetics, and has a tragic hero that has the typical tragic flaw which is so common among Greek literature of that time period, which ultimately brings Oedipus into darkness, both literally and figuratively.

Also, the inclusion of irony makes for a much more tragic story. The fact that the audience, or reader, knows about the prophecy of Oedipus provides the play with a great amount of dramatic irony. This is displayed also by how Oedipus runs away to avoid fulfilling the prophecy of the Oracle, and yet he ends up completing the prophecy anyway. If he had not journeyed away from Corinth in the first place, the prophecy would have been left unfulfilled. Sophocles also incorporates the theme of blindness and sight in his composition of Oedipus. When Oedipus has his sight, he is a prideful, strong, yet ignorant individual. Later on when Oedipus learns the truth of his past, he stabs his eyes out. Sight, in this case, is a symbol of ignorance and pride, as Oedipus refuses to accept what Tiresias says as the truth. When he becomes blind, he is found to be humble, and wise, as if the action of removing his eyes has brought him great wisdom and humility. Tiresias, being blind, has the ability to tell the future, and is considered to be a revered prophet, who can see the future.