Oedipus Rex By Sophocles I (c. 496 – 406 B.C.) Essay, Research Paper
It would be hard to find a play that has
been more universally praised than Oedipus Rex (”King Oedipus”). Aristotle
considered it the model tragedy, and that opinion has been widely held
to the present day. No drama before or since has managed to so successfully
combine a rapid, compelling plot, superb characterization, and elegant
poetry into such a tight bundle.
The tragedy of Oedipus Rex is not so much
that Oedipus commits two horrible crimes; after all, he was fated to do
so, and committed them unknowingly. It is, rather, that he, like his doomed
parents before him, ran headlong into the destiny he was trying to defy,
and then compounded his evils by his imperious refusal to believe the prophet’s
declaration of his guilt. Pride was his downfall. The Greeks had a distinct
word for this: “Hubris,” a heroically foolish defiance; the feeling that
one is beyond the reaches of authority or convention.
Oedipus Rex is notable for its use of dramatic
irony: everybody in the audience knows from the start that Oedipus himself
is the guilty party he seeks out for punishment. The viewers’ enjoyment
comes as they see and hear the facts accumulate, bit by bit, until it
dawns on Oedipus that he is his father’s murderer. The irony is heightened
by blind Teiresias’ many tauntings and the chorus’ musical references to
“seeing the light” Oedipus, though his physical eyes can see, is blind
to the truth; and when he finally does come to see the truth, ironically,
he blinds himself.
The first and final – and most tragic and
triumphant – irony, however, lies in the implicit acknowledgment that the
very quality of Hubris (Oedipus’ arrogance in defying cosmic and priestly
authority, fate and prophecy) is the same quality that enabled him to earlier
confront and defeat the Sphinx and to save an oppressed city. Oedipus,
then, is a hero who pits his pride against both gods and fate in the mold
of Prometheus (whose downfall was caused by his sharing the gift of fire
with man) and another heroine, Cassandra, who was cursed with the blessing
of prophecy. And indeed, most Greek dramas carry this theme of human paradox.
Perhaps the symbolism of the Sphinx, who
haunts the background of Oedipus Rex with her simple yet terrible riddle,
says all that is necessary: The true enigma of the universe lies not in
any exotic intergalactic phenomenon; the greatest mystery begins and ends
with man.