Oedipus Rex
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- Category: English: Novels
- Date Submitted: 01/15/2013 05:16 AM
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Pat Rutledge
AP Literature
Mrs. Akers
8-21-2011
Oedipus Rex
Everyone who has parents has probably at one point or another been lied to by their parents. It doesn't mean that they're bad people; It just means that they wish to not tell us horrible truths before we're old enough to handle them, such as when my mom didn't really go very in-depth about the details of the 9-11 attacks.
And then there are truths which are too terrible to face, so terrible that others will do everything to stop you from facing them, such as the truths which Oedipus discovers.
Throughout the book, you constantly get the impression that everybody except for Oedipus knows the truth, and nobody really wants Oedipus to know the truth:
OEDIPUS: What, you do know, and will not speak? Your mind
Is to betray us, and destroy the city?
TIRESIAS: I will not bring remorse upon myself
And upon you. Why do you search these matters?
Vain! Vain! I will not tell you. (Rex, 12-13)
OEDIPUS: Nay, it cannot be
Thant having such a clue I should refuse
To solve the mystery of my parentage!
JOCASTA: For Heaven's sake, if you care for your own life,
Don't seek it! I am sick, and that's enough! (Rex, 38)
OLD MAN: Don't, master, for God's sake, don't ask me more!
OEDIPUS: You are a dead man, if I speak again! (Rex, 41)
Obviously, everybody doesn't want the king to know what he's done to his parents, for they believe that he will react in the worst possible way to it. And they're right, of course - As the old saying goes, curiosity blinded the king. Or, something like that.
Speaking of blindness - Oedipus's eventual actions could be a symbol of the fact that he was blind throughout most of his life - Blind to truth for most of the book, and then blind of sight afterwards. Basically, when he saw, he became blind. Actually, blindness does pop up a great deal in the book - Tiresias is also blind, yet he's one of the first to know the truth. In fact, at times it seems like...
AP Literature
Mrs. Akers
8-21-2011
Oedipus Rex
Everyone who has parents has probably at one point or another been lied to by their parents. It doesn't mean that they're bad people; It just means that they wish to not tell us horrible truths before we're old enough to handle them, such as when my mom didn't really go very in-depth about the details of the 9-11 attacks.
And then there are truths which are too terrible to face, so terrible that others will do everything to stop you from facing them, such as the truths which Oedipus discovers.
Throughout the book, you constantly get the impression that everybody except for Oedipus knows the truth, and nobody really wants Oedipus to know the truth:
OEDIPUS: What, you do know, and will not speak? Your mind
Is to betray us, and destroy the city?
TIRESIAS: I will not bring remorse upon myself
And upon you. Why do you search these matters?
Vain! Vain! I will not tell you. (Rex, 12-13)
OEDIPUS: Nay, it cannot be
Thant having such a clue I should refuse
To solve the mystery of my parentage!
JOCASTA: For Heaven's sake, if you care for your own life,
Don't seek it! I am sick, and that's enough! (Rex, 38)
OLD MAN: Don't, master, for God's sake, don't ask me more!
OEDIPUS: You are a dead man, if I speak again! (Rex, 41)
Obviously, everybody doesn't want the king to know what he's done to his parents, for they believe that he will react in the worst possible way to it. And they're right, of course - As the old saying goes, curiosity blinded the king. Or, something like that.
Speaking of blindness - Oedipus's eventual actions could be a symbol of the fact that he was blind throughout most of his life - Blind to truth for most of the book, and then blind of sight afterwards. Basically, when he saw, he became blind. Actually, blindness does pop up a great deal in the book - Tiresias is also blind, yet he's one of the first to know the truth. In fact, at times it seems like...