РефератыИностранный языкEmEmotions Of Oedipus Rex Essay Research Paper

Emotions Of Oedipus Rex Essay Research Paper

Emotions Of Oedipus Rex Essay, Research Paper


In the play, Oedipus Rex, Sophocles carefully gives each


character their own personality, so they will react differently


to their problems as they come about. The way each character deal


with his or her feelings is what makes this play so powerful.


Through out the play we know for a fact the main character,


Oedipus Rex, had indeed killed his father in a confrontation, and


went on to marry his mother, Iocaste. As Oedipus learns this, he


goes through a great deal of emotions throughout the story,


ranging from one extreme to the other.


After Oedipus learns about his prophesy, he becomes deathly


afraid the Oracle might become true. One problem, Oedipus doesn?t


know the people he has been living with are not his birth


parents. He leaves his native place so he would not fulfill his


prophesy. On the road leading away form his supposed home he


meets King Laius, not knowing of course, King Laius is his real


father. In a sudden quarrel strikes him dead. After Oedipus


solves the riddle of the Sphinx, the city is saved. He is


rewarded with the hand of Iocaste, and becomes king of Thebes. At


this point the prophesy has been fulfilled, by the unknowing King


Oedipus. This would bring a great deal of pride to a man, and


can easily lead to arrogance, which is later seen.


Throughout the story Oedipus gets several clues, which makes


him believe the oracle came true, he later shows he is sincerely


hoping for the best from his fate. He is talking to a messenger,


and to Iocaste, about his prophesy. Iocaste?s says the following


to Oedipus:


?Why should anyone in this world be afraid,


since fate rules us and nothing can be foreseen?


A man should live only for the present day.


Have no more fear of sleeping with your mother:


How many men, in dreams, have lain with their mothers!


No reasonable man is troubled by such things.?


(Sophocles, p. 192)


This is in relation to what Freudian Freud?s psychoanalytic


theory about the Oedipus complex. Freud states:


?An Oedipus complex consists of a double set of


attitudes toward both parents: (1) An intense love and


yearning for his mother is coupled with a powerful


jealousy of and rage toward his father…The whole


Oedipal experience is so frightening that it is


thoroughly repressed, and cannot be recalled without


the aid of psychoanalytic therapy. Its effects may well


become obvious, however, as when a man marries a woman


who closely resembles his mother.?


(R.J. Corsini,Ed., p. 512)(Also page 3 of packet).


Iocaste is basically saying the same thing Freud states, almost


twenty fiv

e hundred years later. Marrying someone that


unconsciously reminds you of your mother, and actually going out


and marrying your mother is two different things, which is why


Oedipus gets so disgusted when he find out that Iocaste is not


only his wife, but also his mother.


Oedipus goes through a great deal of emotions in the next


few pages of the story, from one extreme to the other. Oedipus


goes through fear of guilt, he starts thinking, maybe he is


guilty of killing his own father. From here he learns about a


Shepherd from Choragos, the Shepherd might know more about his


childhood, and there may be hope for King Oedipus, that maybe the


prophesy is not true. After disguising the baby with the Shepherd


Oedipus cries:


?Ah God! It was true! all the prophecies! -Now,


O Light, may I look on you for the last time!


I, Oedipus,


Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his marriage damned,


Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand!?


(Sophocles, p. 198)


Oedipus is enraged about learning that the entire prophesy has


come true, and to make things worse for him, he finds out that


his mother/wife kills herself. He is so extremely disgusted with


the whole prophesy, which explains what he does next.


I would blot out from my mind what happened next!


For the King ripped from her gown the golden brooches


that were her ornament, and raised them, and plunged


them down straight into his own eyeballs, crying ?No


more, no more shall you look on the misery about me,


the horrors of my own doing! Too long have you known


the faces of those whom I should never have seen, too


long been blind to those for whom I was searching! From


this hour, go in darkness!?


… He struck at his eyes–not once, but many times.?


(Sophocles, p. 201)


What Oedipus had gone through is beyond anything an average


person ever experienced, or will ever experience. Which is why


his reaction to the situation is so drastic, permainatly blinding


himself.


When the truth is known about Oedipus?s life, Oedipus is no


longer King, Creon defiantly lets Oedipus know about it, with a


remark. At the very end of the play, Oedipus is totally fed up


with the way his life ended up, and wants to end it all. He


demands that Creon and Choragos bring him to the top of the


mountain to where he was originally placed, by his parents to


die. Oedipus wants to take his four children with him, but Creon


doesn?t allow it to happen. ?Think no longer that you are in


command here, but rather think how, when you were, you served


your own destruction.? (Sophocles, p. 207).


356


“Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles

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