Irony Oedipus Rex

Page 2 of 5 - About 49 Essays
  • Premium Essay

    Oedipus Tragic Flaw

    It's hard to acknowledge Oedipus tragic flaw I will explain who explain who or what is responsible for his downfall. Basically the theme of the book is “the desire to avoid the truth” basically the truth about his history. He's the son the prophecy foretold the one who would kill his father and marry his mother. Unfortunately, oedipuss desire to avoid the truth only puts off the inevitable and the tragic irony is that even as the facts are piling up against him, Oedipus can't seem to make even the

    Words: 659 - Pages: 3

  • Free Essay

    Themes on Oedipus Rex

    On the surface, Oedipus Rex seems to be the story of a man who is caught in the awful trap of fate. Although this is true, Sophocles uses this story as a vessel for the discussion of the themes of the nature of humans and reality. One thing that is displayed by the journey of Oedipus is that there are many elements of fate that one can not run from. Sophocles also discusses how to determine the nature and worth of a person. Through the vessel of this narrative, everyone is challenged to look

    Words: 607 - Pages: 3

  • Premium Essay

    Oedipus The King

    Oedipus Rex, a classical tragic play portrays how the protagonist, Oedipus is outrun by fate alongside depicting the classical and historical setting of that era. It is a drama of self-discovery of a man on whom a hereditary curse is placed and thus has to suffer its tragic consequences. It depicts how a tragic hero, due to wrong judgment error has inevitably led to his destruction. The dramatic irony of the audience being a part of Oedipus’s secret leads one to assume that this play would inevitably

    Words: 1452 - Pages: 6

  • Premium Essay

    Oedipus

    Assignment 1 Extract 4 (Sophocles, Oedipus the King) In Greek Tragedy the medium, as in all forms of poetry is language, to convey a story through an imitation of an action, or as Aristotle defines in S.H. Butcher’s translation of Poetics “Tragedy is a mimesis of a praxis.” (Jones, 2000). This translates to an imitation/ representation of an action. Oedipus the King is structured into five episodes with a prologue to begin, each scene is introduced by the

    Words: 913 - Pages: 4

  • Premium Essay

    Oedipus Rex

    Widely considered one of the best Greek tragedies, Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles tells of the misfortune of a great man who tried to fight a terrible fate, ultimately bringing down misfortune and sorrow upon them. King Oedipus, ruler of Thebes, the protagonist and tragic hero of the play, hears of a terrible prophecy condemning him to slay his own father and bed his mother, leading him to run far away from the place he considered his home. However, as many Greek playwrights, Sophocles underscored the

    Words: 731 - Pages: 3

  • Premium Essay

    I Don't Know

    Sophocles' Oedipus is a perfect fit to Aristotle's Ideal Tragic Hero. Oedipus follows all of the rules, with a hamartia, an anagnorisis, and a peripeteia. The audience is introduced to the hamartia, or tragic flaw, of Oedipus early in the play. Oedipus believes he can dodge the oracle given to him at Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother. By leaving the city of Corinth and heading to Thebes, Oedipus thinks that he can outsmart the will that the gods have for him. However, the audience

    Words: 3052 - Pages: 13

  • Premium Essay

    Philosophy

    Hamartia in Oedipus the King According to the Aristotelian characteristics of good tragedy, the tragic character should not fall due to either excessive virtue or excessive wickedness, but due to what Aristotle called hamartia. Hamartia may be interpreted as either a flaw in character or an error in judgement. Oedipus, the tragic character in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, certainly makes several such mistakes; however, the pervasive pattern of his judgemental errors seems to indicate a basic character

    Words: 4487 - Pages: 18

  • Premium Essay

    Hero to Zero

    and losing is similar to what Oedipus from Sophocles’s Oedipus the King and Othello from Shakespeare’s Othello the Moor must think after they have lost everything they once had even though they didn’t have to. Oedipus the King, born royal, runs away from his prophecy to Thebes, his new land, where he completes what the prophecy had in mind. Othello the Moor, a general, questions his wife, Desdemona, after an evil man manipulates his mind. Though both authors use irony and a tragic hero to move their

    Words: 1569 - Pages: 7

  • Premium Essay

    Oedipus Rex

    English 12 Humanities Honors 9/30/13 Irony in Sight Throughout Sophacles’ play Oedipus Rex, he uses sight and blindness to demonstrate irony and the hubris of Oedipus. This is marked by Oedipus’ unwillingness or inability to understand that which is clear to the audience. His hubris (extreme pride) is his tragic flaw, truly blinding him from the truth. Oedipus eventually blinds himself, and it is then that he can finally “see”. From the very beginning, Oedipus was blinded by pride. Throughout the

    Words: 1485 - Pages: 6

  • Premium Essay

    Oedipus The King

    The Greek play called Oedipus Rex is a very interesting and tragic play. It has a main tragic hero. It has dramatic irony which is when the audience know what the characters do not. It has a role of a man that sees into the future called a oracle. In this play there are many turns and flips. In the beginning there was a king who had a baby boy and he was told by an oracle that his son would kill him in the future so out of fear this king stabbed his baby boy in the ankle so he could not walk. He

    Words: 379 - Pages: 2

Page   1 2 3 4 5