Literature

OEDIPUS THE KING: THE IDEAL TRAGIC PLAY By Matthew Elton copyright 2006 Matthew Elton According to Aristotle, a tragic play should make the auditory sense feel both pity and fear. The tragic play Oedipus the King, scripted by Sophocles, does just that. Sophocles uses sudden and tragic plot twists throughout the play to grip the audience and subscribe them with pity and fear. To fill the audience with pity, Sophocles develops the main character with unique characterization. In the jump of the play it becomes clear the audience that the main character, Oedipus, is a king, and a human being of great wealth and fame. Some of the first lines in the play include Oedipus declaring, Here I am myself you only know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus. Oedipus is not pictured as an evil tyrant, but as a substantially man, who wants what is best for his family and the city of Thebes, which he rules over. However, as the play progresses, a blind old man prophecies of coming doom. Oedipus then speaks with a shepard and learns how he was adopted. The parents Oedipus knew were not his real parents. As the story unfolds, the pieces of the enigma come together, and Oedipus learns that the prophecy he received long ago at the Oracle of Delphi has been fulfilled.

The prophecy stated that Oedipus would kill his father, and unite his mother. When Oedipus first learned this, he ran away from home, in a futile attempt to escape the prophecy. On his journey, he got in a fight with a man on the road, and killed him. Oedipus learns that that man was his father. Even more horrible is second part of the prophecy. Oedipus learns that he has actually married his mother, without knowing it was her. When Jocasta, Oedipuss mother and wife, learns this, she commits suicide by hanging herself. Oedipus is left in state of curse and mental insanity. Instead of putting himself out of his misery as Jocasta did, Oedipus blinds himself by stabbing his eyes. He then runs away into exile, riot The agony! I am... If you want to get a proficient essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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