Blindness And Vision In Oedipus The King

Appearance can be misleading, the obvious things we see are not always how things are in real. In Oedipus the King, Sophocle exposes the trick of nature which is "what we see is not what is intended to be" and which turned to be a situational irony in the play, Oedipus the king. Blindness is not only apply to people who are blind. We have people who have sight but are blind when it comes to the knowledge of the truth, including the truth hidden behind their whole life. This is the case for Oedipus.

In the tragedy Oedipus Rex written by Sophocles, King Oedipus was destined to a tragic fate. He was prophesied to kill his father, King Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. Throughout the story, many symbols reveal hidden meanings related to the ignorance Oedipus displays towards his fate. Sophocles uses Oedipus Rex to convey that ignorance cannot alter fate. The symbols of light versus dark and sight versus blindness help to reinforce this theme.

In tragic plays, the unlikely hero will do something that will kill the character. Oedipus, the main character of the play, is a king with ideal tragic hero traits in his personality, but his downfall is due to flaws in his moral decisions. That makes the reader have the tragic hero feeling at the end of the play when all the good of Oedipus is muddled in his fight against his evilness. Oedipus’ parents had to throw him away the day he was born, because it was foretold that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He was pitied by the shepherd who was supposed to leave him in the mountains of Cithaeron.

With his father just being murdered by his uncle Claudius and Polonius banning the relationship between him and Ophelia, the only thought running through Hamlet’s mind was anger and revenge. The acts of violence throughout the play comes in three different forms; murder, suicide, and combat. Polonius is unexpectedly murdered, Ophelia goes mad and commits suicide, and Hamlet provokes a battle with Laertes that ends poorly for both men. All three of these violent acts can be traced back to clouded judgements, indecisiveness, anger, revenge, and heartbreak. Shakespeare created such acts of violence to keep the readers on their toes and informed, but also to invoke questions.

Sophocles provides an excerpt from Teiresias stating, “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that 's wise! This I knew well, but had forgotten it, else I would not have come here” (Teiresias, 342-345). The pursuit of wisdom or knowledge is driven by curiosity and Teiresias expresses that wisdom brings no good to man. The urge of curiosity is so strong that even Tiresias, a prophet that can see everything, forgets about the “no profit” disadvantage that comes along with the pursuit of knowledge that is caused by

One specific example of situational irony occurs when the town of Thebes is suffering through a terrible plague (25-34). Oedipus sends his wife’s brother, Kreon, to Delphi to ask Apollo how to end the plague (71-75). When he arrives, he announces that the murderer of Laius must be exiled or killed before the plague will go away (104-111). Oedipus is insistent on finding the killer and freeing Thebes from the plague. He states, “Then once more I must bring what is dark to light.

Shakespeare seems to stress his independence of the medieval idea of tragedy and shows in the true Renaissance spirit that man is an architect of his fate and not a victim of the blind goddess fortune. (Frnaham, 1963:18). In Act, I scene I its seem the blindness begins in Lear 's selfishness makes him blind to see the reality of his daughters, he is unaware of the fear and hatred that Goneril and Regan have for him as a consequence of his preference for Cordelia. His physician and consultant Kent gives him the following advice: "see better, Lear: "see better, Lear"(I.I.14). In addition, Kent implies that Lear is blind -"blind" to the fact that Cordelia is the loyal daughter while Goneril and Regan are the evil spawn.

Brutus’s Depiction as a Tragic Hero According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is “a person who must evoke in the audience a sense of pity and fear” (Wikipedia, “Tragic Hero”). Aristotle gives strict rules regarding the characteristics that are essential to a tragic hero. This is why Brutus, the protagonist from Julius Caesar published, is given traits of a tragic hero by the illustrious playwright Shakespeare. Julius Caesar is a tragic Shakespearean play that is published in the 16th century Julius Caesar tells about how Brutus joins a conspiracy to kill his best friend, precipitates a civil war, and commits suicide. This essay will examine, explain, and justify Brutus’s depiction as a tragic hero.

Athenian tragedian Sophocles expands upon this concept in his play Oedipus the King—a tale of a fated king in his relentless pursuit of truth eventually learning that he had killed his father and married his mother. At the play’s conclusion, Oedipus gouges his eyes and banishes himself from his land. In this quest for truth, Oedipus leads himself to many revelations, all of which cannot be described

When Odysseus asks to share Irus’ begging turf, he refuses and threatens Odysseus. Odysseus then breaks his jaw, not wanting to kill him with one blow. This negative presentation of hospitality does not works and Irus’ favor because it ends up causing him harm. If Irus had shared his turf with Odysseus, he would not have a broken jaw. These examples show that the abuse to someone’s hospitality or refusing to give it will almost always end up in a harmful