Term Paper on "Oedipus Rex the Oracles Had Prophesied"
Term Paper 3 pages (1123 words) Sources: 0 Style: MLA
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Oedipus RexThe oracles had prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Is Oedipus therefore made to do these things? Is the play premised on the notion that Oedipus is bound or free- the puppet of fate or the creator of his own fate? Or some of each?
Oedipus' actions throughout the play oscillate around the tension between fate and free will. Both Oedipus and his birth parents for example attempt to escape the prophesy. As a baby, Oedipus is left in the hills to die in order to ensure that he never fulfills the prophesy. This is a choice made by the free will of his mother. Oedipus is however saved and raised by a different family. This event is beyond the control of free will, and is therefore the work of fate. However, his mother chooses not to verify that he has in fact died and simply assumes that he no longer lives. That Oedipus survives is therefore not only the result of fate, but also of free will. This combination of fate and free will also follows Oedipus throughout the play.
Oedipus chooses to flee his fate by leaving his parental home. This is an act of free will. However, it is dramatically ironic that by this very attempt to flee, he fulfills the prophesy. Therefore, while he chooses freely to leave his home, he does so without knowing that the people who raised him are not in fact his parents. They however have chosen not to tell him the story of his abandonment and survival as an infant. If they had, they might have averted the disaster. What his adoptive parents choose to do is beyond Oedipus' control, and can therefore be viewed as fate from his point-of-view - there was nothing that he could do tha
download full paper ⤓
It is interesting to note that Oedipus refuses to be a victim of his fate. Instead of letting events rule him, he continually attempts to rule not only in his capacity as king, but also in terms of what he personally believes to be right. Despite the continuous warnings from the prophet Teiresias and the Chorus, Oedipus relentlessly searches for the truth until he finds it. He does so fearlessly, but pays the price in the end. In this, Teiresias' words appear unintentionally prophetic: "Alas, alas! How dreadful it can be / to have wisdom when it brings no benefit / to the man possessing it (l. 374-376). And indeed Oedipus loses all his benefits once he gains insight into the truth. Nonetheless, right up to the end, he makes conscious choices according to what he believes to be right. At the end of the play, Oedipus recognizes that the prophesy he tried so desperately to avoid has been fulfilled by his own actions. Believing that he deserves punishment for this, and unable to bear the truth, Oedipus chooses to blind himself. This act of free will crowns the intertwinement of fate and free will throughout the play. While the play therefore indicates that Oedipus would have fulfilled the prophesy regardless of what he chooses to do, it is also true that Oedipus chooses how he acts in response to the fate that… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Oedipus Rex the Oracles Had Prophesied" Assignment:
“The paper is supposed to answer 2 Questions out of our text book in question answer form, involving themes from Oedipus Rex "Rex Exodos" . The questions should be typed out as following
Q: This is where the question goes?
A: The following should be 2-3 Paragraphs PER question.
These are the two questions.
1. Q:The oracles had prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Is Oedipus therefore made to do these things? Is the play premised on the notion that Oedipus is bound or free- the puppet of fate or the creator of his own fate? Or some of each?
A: Please answer all parts to this question as THOROUGHLY as possible.
2. There is a good deal in the play about seeing and blindness. What purpose does this serve? How is Oediups contrasted with Teiresias? How does Oedipus at the beginning of the play contrast with the Oedipus at the end? Why is his blinding himself dramatically appropriate?
PLEASE remember to type out each question, as typed above, with a "Q:" at the beginning of the quesiton followed by the answer, beginning with a "A:". The paper needs to have 5-7 Paragraphs between the two questions, AND needs to have 2 short quotes (1-3 lines) and one long quote (5-8 lines) with MLA citation but NO bibliography is necessary. Thank you very much and feel free to email me if you have any questions or call me at 205-249-2880.
How to Reference "Oedipus Rex the Oracles Had Prophesied" Term Paper in a Bibliography
“Oedipus Rex the Oracles Had Prophesied.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2007, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/oedipus-rex-oracles/3040. Accessed 28 Sep 2024.
Related Term Papers:
21st Century Oedipus: A Blind Ex-King Term Paper
21st Century Oedipus: A Blind Ex-King or a Besotted Four-Year-Old?
The name "Oedipus" (originally a King of ancient Thebes who was both blessed and cursed in his lifetime) has existed… read more
Term Paper 4 pages (1420 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Psychology / Behavior / Psychiatry
Sophocles Oedipus Research Paper
Oedipus the Tragic Hero
Oedipus, the Tragic Hero
Oedipus is a morally good and virtuous person, who suffers great misfortune which he does not appear to deserve, evoking the pity… read more
Research Paper 6 pages (1614 words) Sources: 11 Topic: World History
Oedipus Tyrannos in English Essay
Oedipus Tyrannos
In English, the title of Sophocles play chronicling the rise and fall of Oedipus is rendered as Oedipus the King, but this translation loses some of the interesting… read more
Essay 4 pages (1461 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Literature / Poetry
Oedipus and a View From a Bridge Term Paper
Tragic hero was characterized as such by Aristotle, who examined the plays he knew and developed theories that became more prescriptive than descriptive as later playwrights saw his ideas as… read more
Term Paper 5 pages (1424 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA Topic: Family / Dating / Marriage
Sophocles I By David Grene Term Paper
Sophocles I: Questions
Sophocles' royal protagonists of Creon and Oedipus both embody the principle that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The position of kingship mimics that of a god, in the… read more
Term Paper 4 pages (1272 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Religion / God / Theology
Sat, Sep 28, 2024
If you don't see the paper you need, we will write it for you!
We can write a new, 100% unique paper!