Oedipus Ex Machina

Oedipus the King, translated by Thomas Gould, is a very interesting and complex story. Throughout this mythical story of incest and patricide, Oedipus tries to find and expose the killer of King Laius. Little does Oedipus know, it was he who killed the former king of Thebes. In the beginning of the play, citizens of Thebes beg Oedipus to lift the plague that threatens to demolish the city. Oedipus sends his brother in law, Creon, to the oracle to learn what needs to be done.

Macbeth began to turn evil when he decides to commit regicide on King Duncan, and all he could think about was finishing him off for good, when he said, “If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well / it were done quickly” (Shakespeare 1.7.1-2). Macbeth’s mind was full of ambition to make his last prophecy of becoming King of Scotland come true, that instead of celebrating himself as Thane of Cawdor, he consumes himself with the witches and his ambitions that he became one of the nature of evil itself. Furthermore, Macbeth’s act of evil continues and became darker after he became King of Scotland. After becoming King, he went on a murdering rampage for those who got in his way of trying to strip him of his leadership, and that even meant killing his best friend Banquo and Banquo’s son Fleance. Before Banquo died, he spoke, “O, treachery!

Instead of adversity being directly presented in the play, it is created by the actions of the title character. Following a prophecy in which he becomes King of Scotland, Macbeth commits numerous atrocities, including regicide, to fulfill his supposed destiny. Adversity, when viewed as misfortune, can be applied to both the trials that Macbeth endures and the overarching theme of fate and free will. While influenced by the prophecy, Macbeth ultimately decides his own fate, and carves a path that traps both himself and other characters in a cataclysm. Before murdering Duncan, Macbeth expresses doubt about killing his king through numerous soliloquies.

This is seen in instances in the play where Dionysos plays with the mind of Pentheus, lacks compassion, does not allow his victims to repent, and ultimately divorces himself from his morality. The Bacchae begins with Dionysos presenting his business in Thebes, posing as a mortal priest of the Bacchae, “For Thebes must fully

Embedded Assessment: The Foil of Tragic Hero Creon Foils are characters that contrast with one another to highlight particular qualities of those specific characters. Tiresias, the blind prophet of Thebes, functions as a foil throughout Sophocles’s Antigone, by telling Creon he is doomed and will not be able to escape fate. In the Oedipus the King along with Antigone , Tiresias reveals unwanted truths about Creon and Oedipus. Although he is the blind prophet, his ability to “see” beyond the present, Tiresias first accuses Oedipus of killing his father in Oedipus Rex and proceeds to tell Creon in Antigone that his laws will cause more harm to his land and death to his family. However, instead of learning from Oedipus’s mistakes, Creon rejects

Oedipus the King and The Odyssey share many similarities. For instance both start out with conflict, In Oedipus the king the conflict emerges as the plague is destroying Thebes, while in The Odyssey the conflict emerges after Odysseus has finished fighting in the war and tries to return home. “I do pity you children. Don’t’ think I’m unaware. I know what need brings you: this sickness ravages all of you.

In Oedipus there are many examples of people trying to avoid their fate and failing, thus revealing Sophacles beleif on the matter. For example, when Oedipus heard the prophecy that he would murder his father and kill his mother, he left his home. Unknowingly, he left his adoptive parents home, only to fulfill the prophecy with his real mother and father. In order to further his point, Sophacles wrote more than one example in Oedipus. Another one of these examples he made was out of Jocasta and

Oedipus’s life is bombarded with challenging decisions that lead to the exposure of his few flaws that every human possesses. Sophocles uses the trilogy of plays to examine the relationship between the Gods and man, the idea of fate, and uses Oedipus as an example of harmful traits as a precaution to readers. In ancient greek culture it was believed that fate was an inevitable path that their life was going

Dodds mentions major events from the play where Oedipus chooses to keep looking for the truth, resulting in his ruin. One of the events that Dodds mentions is the first cause of the play, the plague. In this scenario Oedipus choose between leaving the ‘plague to take its course’ or to find the solution, which for the good of his Theban people chose to find the solution. Then he investigated the murder of King Laius resulting in devastating information, Oedipus destruction (224). And ultimately Dodds supports his views of Oedipus free will by stating, “The immediate cause of Oedipus’s ruin is not “Fate” of “the gods” – no oracle said that he must discover the truth – and still less does it lies in his own weakness: what causes his ruin is his own strength and courage, his loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to the truth.

Throughout the article the author clearly provides the reader with views about both sides of the play. Fosso erodes the structure of a facile interpretations of Oedipus Rex. Fosso achieves this by raising doubts about Oedipus’s actual guilt. The author shows how Oedipus could possibly be innocent because he either was a helpless pawn of gods or he did not know what he was doing. Fosso wanted his students to present proof of both sides of Oedipus’s uncovered guilt or at least uncertain guilt.

In Macbeth shakespre has used the theme of blood and death to portray the evil side. In act 2 scene 1 it says that “is dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand”. This quote tell us that Macbeth evil side is leading him to fulfil the dead of killing the king even through Duncan had named him thane of coward .This is a divine rights of king as Macbeth is trying to kill the king even through kings had the direct authority of god which back in the Jacobean times was consider to be a massive sin. The noun “dagger” presents a bloody and deathly imagery this could suggest inner conflict between Macbeth greedy sides as his loyal side. The phrase “towards my hands suggest that Macbeth could be imaging the dagger which could lead him