Surely this is not well, when all our thoughts should be, how to discharge the gods command. ’ In the ply Oedipus Rex, it is impossible to turn away from the power of the gods. They are in control of life, destiny and fate. Queen Jocasta discovers that there is no way to thwart a prophecy, no matter how horrible it is.
Young Oedipus tried to run away from fate but actually ran right into it and as King Oedipus; he believed that the god’s power could be questioned. But as much as they tried, the control of the gods was unavoidable.
Jocasta and Laius believed they had escaped the date imposed on their baby by the gods. Being told that their son would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother, they immedia
...tely knew that they didn’t want to live that life. So after believing that their new baby had died, chained to a mountain side, they assumed that they had over powered the gods and that the gods didn’t have control over everyone. “There, then, Apollo did not contrive it”.
However the baby hadn’t died and many years later came back to Thebes as a man, having killed his father (king) on the way.
He killer then married his mother, Jocasta and by the time the truth came out Jocasta knew that no man could fight with the god’s power. “I know I am right. I am warning you for your good” Although Laius died before he discovered the truth of the gods power, he and Jocasta are an example of how no matter what you do the gods have
the reins of life. Jocasta demonstrates this attitude when she says “chance rules our lives” this showing us that she didn’t believe in the gods power. Oedipus believed that by running away, the control of the gods would not follow.
He had discovered his prophecy of how he was to kill his father and marry his mother.
And not wanting to live with those who he could hurt, he ran as far away as he could leaving his fake parents behind, but at the time he thought that they were his real parents. However the gods had other plans, sending Oedipus right on the path to his destiny. “Can it be any but some monstrous god of evil that has sent this down upon me? ” Oedipus did in fact kill his real father Laius, on the road to Thebes where his real mother and future wife were. The mother and future wife turned out to be the same person, like the prophecy predicted but this was unknown to Oedipus until the very end.
The gods were a powerhouse and Oedipus as much as he tried. As much as he fought to wrong the prophecy, he didn’t have the control of the gods. “What demon of destiny with swift assault out striding has ridden you down? “ Even though Young Oedipus believed he had escaped fate, the gods proved they were in charge. King Oedipus is willing to obey the gods yet doesn’t believe that they control anything. When the City of Thebes is in commotion and all is going wrong, he asks for the gods help. The Gods tell him that the murderer of
Laius is in the city and is polluting it and must be killed or banished for the city to be restored.
To this Oedipus sends for the prophet, a spokesperson for the gods; the man whom “lies the incarnate truth”. Oedipus is relaxant to listen further after Teriesias, the prophet, names him the murderer. Teiresias’s tells him that he will leave the city blind as a beggar. That he will fall from power and be banished from the city wi9th the greatest miseries in him.
“Stick in hand, groping his way to a land of exile”. The gods once again proved to Oedipus that all of Teiresias’s words became true; Oedipus believed that he can answer prayers and his hubristic attitude challenges the gods.
He is an archetype for all the characters in the story and no man can bring the gods power down as Oedipus learns it is real an impossibility. Queen Jocasta, Young Oedipus and king Oedipus all learn that there is no escaping the gods’ control in the play Oedipus Rex. You can run and reassure yourself by saying that fate wont happened but once the gods hand down prophecies and densities’; there is nothing you can do. As the play shows strange things may be possible but escaping from the gods control is not one of them.
- Acceptance essays
- Age Of Enlightenment essays
- Child Observation essays
- Confucianism essays
- Conscience essays
- Critical Reflection essays
- Destiny essays
- Determinism essays
- Empiricism essays
- Environmentalism essays
- Epistemology essays
- Ethics essays
- Ethos essays
- Existence essays
- Existentialism essays
- Fate essays
- Free Will essays
- Functionalism essays
- Future essays
- Good And Evil essays
- Human Nature essays
- Individualism essays
- Meaning Of Life essays
- Metaphysics essays
- Natural Law essays
- Personal Philosophy essays
- Philosophers essays
- Philosophy Of Life essays
- Political Philosophy essays
- Pragmatism essays
- Reality essays
- Relativism essays
- Teaching Philosophy essays
- Time essays
- Transcendentalism essays
- Truth essays
- Utilitarianism essays
- A Doll's House essays
- A Midsummer Night's Dream essays
- A raisin in the sun essays
- A Streetcar Named Desire essays
- An Inspector Calls essays
- Death of a salesman essays
- Everyman essays
- Fences essays
- Hamlet essays
- Hedda Gabler essays
- Iago essays
- King Lear essays
- Macbeth essays