Oedipus vs Macbeth Essay Example

– still manage to disgrace both Oedipus and Macbeth. As soon as the messenger completes his report, Macbeth calls him a “[liar] and slave” (V:v:34). Like him, Oedipus has a fit of anger and calls Tiresias “[blind,/lost] in the night, endless night that [nurses] him” (425-426). One similarity lies in the syntax, which creates a sense of dread and haste by ending one speech and beginning another’s in the same line.

Additionally, Oedipus’ first word, “[blind]”, symbolically relates to Macbeth’s first word, “[liar]”, in the sense that someone is not necessarily a liar if they do not know the truth. This revelation further develops the idea that Macbeth begins to doubt the accuracy of sight, along with the loyalty of his servants, who can easily take bribes from the opposition, Macduff. Henceforth, a new question arises: do blindness and darkness represent ignorance, or do they denote knowledge?

While Oedipus still refers to light and sight as his strong qualities, Macbeth already knows that light cannot exist without darkness, making him the wiser man of the two. Out loud, Macbeth admits that he begins “[to] doubt th’equivocation of the fiend/ [that] lies like truth” (V:v:42-43). By applying a simile, paradox, and allusion, in his statement that “lies [are] like truth”, he conveys his bitterness towards the figurative and literal darkness in which the witches predict his future.

While the witches’ first prophecies sound great to a man who desires power, their latest prediction of his downfall make Macbeth feel betrayed, in the sense that he trusted them. In the other play, Oedipus prolongs his blind rage, stating that Tiresias lives [seer] blind in

his craft” (442). The irony of his exclamation has a double meaning. On one hand, a blind seer is a complete onomatopoeia; while on the other hand, Oedipus does not realize that he may just as well be describing himself.

In contrast to this wild outburst, Macbeth is uncharacteristically calm. In order to further develop his new idea about light, Macbeth “[‘gins] to be aweary of the sun/ [and wishes] th’estate o’th’world were now undone” (V:v:48-49). Basically, the sun’s allusion to light and truth portrays Macbeth as a man who admits that he no longer wants to live in the “world” guilt which he created himself. On the contrary, Oedipus blindly claims that he, “or anyone else who sees the light” (427), cannot be hurt, figuratively speaking, by Tiresias.

If Oedipus keeps up his selfishness, he may end up harming himself rather than anyone else would. What Oedipus does not understand, is that he is subconsciously aware of Macbeth’s idea that light can be deceptive as well as enlightening. In conclusion, Macbeth and Oedipus are both as self-centered as the other, but Macbeth is the wiser man, in terms of acknowledging the graveness of his actions’ consequences. Furthermore, light can be both truthful and deceptive, depending on how balanced one’s perspective on something is.