![oedipus the king sidenotes oedipus the king sidenotes](https://fisunguner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Fernand_Khnopff_LArt-768x247.jpg)
#Oedipus the king sidenotes free
In his dispute Tiresias, he challenges Tiresias in saying, “Why - when the Sphinx who barked black songs was hounding us - why didn’t you speak up and free the city? … It took Oedipus, the know-nothing, to silence her”. Oedipus tells Kreon, “You speak shrewdly, but I’m a poor learner from someone I know is my enemy”. Oedipus hastily accuses Kreon of treachery without any sign of proof. Even in the first verses that he speaks he exclaims, “My name is Oedipus - the famous - as everyone calls me” for he defeated the Sphinx, and is known as the savior and now king of Thebes. Oedipus, in the beginning, is egotistical and self-righteous. Throughout this play, Oedipus goes through a transformation with the way that he speaks and how he views his world as his fate becomes clear. Ironically, the blind prophet, Tiresias, was the only one to see the truth in the beginning.ĭiction is the vocabulary and style of the way that the characters speak. Once Oedipus accepts the fact that he fulfilled his prophecy, he gouges out his own eyes, crying, “Eyes, now you will not, no, never see the evil I suffered, the evil I caused”. Oedipus made a conscious effort to try and dispute the claims against him even though there was so much evidence to the contrary. Eyes, seeing, vision, knowledge and the like are mentioned a plethora of times throughout this story. This, of course, fails and leaves Oedipus with foot deformities which makes him different than everyone else and also ties him to the prophecy. When Oedipus was a baby of three days old, his father bound his feet together to enhance the possibility of exposure. Another piece of symbolism is Oedipus’ name. The fact that Oedipus chose to kill him, solidifies that his choice was indeed a part of the prophecy and not an actual choice. Oedipus was faced with the choice of killing Laios, or not. Crossroads signify a decision that has to be made with each path resulting in different outcomes. In the story, Jokasta tells Oedipus that Laius was killed, “in a place called Phokis, at the junction where roads come in from Delphi and from Daulis”. The first piece of symbolism is the crossroads. Symbolism is prominent throughout this story and also provides evidence of the theme fate versus free will. This is ironic because Apollo is the one who gave the prophecy that made him nervous in the first place. After they enter the palace, Jokasta then proceeds to give a sacrifice to Apollo asking him to make Oedipus not worry. Jokasta is reminded of the prediction from Apollo that her son would kill her husband, Laios. After Oedipus confronts Kreon and a conflict takes place, Oedipus and Jokasta are discussing what happened. Unknowingly, at the end of the play, Kreon succeeds Oedipus, and Oedipus then begs Kreon, “Let me live out my life on Kithairon, the very mountain - the one I’ve made famous - that my father and mother chose for my tomb”. Oedipus exclaims, “Wealth and a king’s power, the skill that wins every time - how much envy, what malice they provoke! To rob me of power - power I didn’t ask for, but which this city thrust into my hands - my oldest friend here, loyal Kreon, worked quietly against me, aching to steal my throne”. When Oedipus calls on Tiresias to reveal what needs to be done to rid the city of the plague, Oedipus accuses him of scheming with Kreon to try and steal his kingly power. The point of this play is to follow Oedipus on his journey of discovering how his past led him to his demise. This myth was already well known at the time that Sophocles wrote this play. When the story begins, most of the readers already know that Oedipus is, in fact, the unfortunate child of Jokasta and Laios, unlike Oedipus himself who is unaware. Irony plays a significant part in this play.