Oedipus Rex1

A detailed Summary of Oedipus Rex1


Knowledge is a great weapon used by society for help, comfort, and most importantly advancement of the human race. Unfortunately, knowledge is often accompanied by sorrow and grief. In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex Sophocles shows how Oedipus's thirst for the knowledge of his past leads to his own demise.

Knowledge is not just given to the characters in the tragedy. Oedipus, sincerely and seriously, "must know it all, [and] see the truth at last"(1169). He also most know the percise truth, "what exactly"(1130) happened in his past. Oedipus feels that "The time has come to reveal this once for all"(1153) knowing completely the sorrow the truth may bring. He accepts that there may be grief following the truth shouting "Let it burst! Whatever will, whatever must!"(1183) knowing that the truth may be "something monstrus"(1181). Once Oedipus has been fed a morsel of truth he questions his wife, "What - give up now?, with a clue like this? Fail to solve the myste


ry of my birth? Not for the world!"(1162). Oedipus seals his own fate when he ask the chorus "Even if god had never urged you on to act, how could you leave the crime uncleansed for so long?"(293). Oedipus is not the only one to quest for knowledge. In the beginning the chorus wants to know "Whose ruthless bloody hands have done the work?"(530) and "Who is the man the voice of god denounces resounding out of the rocky gorge of Delphi?"(522). Jocasta, Oedipus's wife and mother, is also inquisitive before her moment of recognition. When a messenger from Oedipus's birth land comes to Thebes she ask, "What have you come for? Have you brought news?"(1021). We, like the characters of Oedipus Rex, are inquisitive even knowing that the truth sometimes can only bring sorrow to us and the ones we love.

Let alone the extreme physical pain Oedipus suffered he also had an "unspeakable, irreistible headwind"(1452) of "darkness ... swirling around [him]"(1451) all atrribitued to his knowledge that he was "cursed at birth, cursed in marrige, cursed in the lives [he] cut dow

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Approximate Word count = 722
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts

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