Sophocles Use Of Ignorance In Oedipus The King

In the play Oedipus the King written by Sophocles, ignorance is a focal point of the reading. Oedipus, the character in which the play focuses on, is an ignorant individual who is looking to find the truth about the plague in his city of Thebes, as well as finding the killer of Laius. The lack of knowledge that he possesses about these mysteries is driving him mad. Oedipus so desperately wants to find out how to stop the plague and wants to find the killer of Laius just as equally. However, after searching and finally becoming aware of his fate and becoming aware of the truth, Oedipus significantly alters his life in a way in which he cannot come back from. Ignorance is quite often seen as a negative quality to possess, but maybe ignorance is what some people need to keep themselves sane.

Oedipus causes a catharsis of emotion among the audience. They feel pity for Oedipus, who

The audience experiences a catharsis of pity and fear at the end of Oedipus the King. The audience experiences a catharsis by releasing their repressed feelings of pity and fear. Before Oedipus finally leaves, his discussion with his two daughters provides the audience with a catharsis as he states, "I weep for you...I weep when I think of the bitterness" (Sophocles lines 1598-1600). Oedipus directly tells his daughters of the repercussions of his actions. The audience experiences fear for the futures of Oedipus's daughters since having a distressing life is a feeling that is relatable. The audience realizes Oedipus's actions rob his daughters of a normal

Celebrated writer and dramatist, Sophocles, in his drama, Oedipus the King, illustrates the theme of ignorance. Ignorance is seen throughout the entire drama and controls many of Oedipus’ decisions leading to his final fate. His purpose is to convey the idea that pride and self-assuredness is not better than knowledge. Sophocles adopts a foreboding tone in order to convey to his readers that ignorance is not always bliss.

The Aristotelian Tragedy, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, shows how fast a person can take a great fall. It really shows how someone can be at their highest point one day, but the next day be at their lowest. Oedipus is a wonderful king and ruler of Thebes, but he had a terrible fate that he couldn’t even save himself from. When the city is in need of finding the murderer of the previous king, Laius, every clue he finds brings him to the conclusion that he is the murderer. Through the use motif of blindness, Sophocles creates the cathartic effect on the audience that you cannot see the truth until it hurts you.

Sophocles’ masterful work, Oedipus the King, exemplifies the significance of imagery within literature. The perpetual presence of light and dark imagery effectively strengthens the dramatic aspects of catharsis, anagnorisis and mimesis. These factors continually impose the audience to establish a personal connection with the literary work. As an individual, Oedipus possesses the unfortunate attribute of hubris; his ego ultimately causes his tragic demise and convincingly elicits catharsis, an emotional outcry from the spectators. His sight frequently sways due to his sentiments and it compels him to live ignorantly despite the calamitous truth of his origins. He profoundly disregards any indication of a secluded prophecy, one that

In the B.C., Sophocles created one of the Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus. The second Theban Play, Oedipus the King, tells the story of an ignorant King in Thebes who falls into the hands of fate because of his ignorance of those who warn him. While his ignorance is a clear “moral of the story”, knowing too much is another lesson as well. It is apparent to the audience that Oedipus unknowingly killed his father (Laius, who was the king of Thebes) just as the prophecy claimed to happen. He heard about the murder, sought for the aggressor, and encountered a blind prophet named Tiresias, who served as a lesson for knowing too much because he served as a literary foil or a foreshadow to Oedipus, the Ignorant.

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity,” said Martin Luther King, Jr, epitomizing that ignorance is the most fatal flaw any person could have. Similarly to this quote, the tragedy of Oedipus the King by Greek playwright Sophocles explains the troubling effects of ignorance as Oedipus, the king, is shown to be truly ignorant to the identity of the murderer inside his kingdom: himself. Oedipus undergoes a path of wisdom through his ignorance, which is shown to redeem his tragic character. Although many differing interpretations have been vocalized and debated over the true meaning of the play, the play is undoubtedly about the paradoxical themes of sight and blindness, truth and falsehood,

In the play Oedipus the King written by Sophocles, ignorance is a focal point of the reading. Oedipus, the character in which the play focuses on, is an ignorant individual who is looking to find the truth about the plague in his city of Thebes, as well as finding the killer of Laius. The lack of knowledge that he possesses about these mysteries is driving him mad. Oedipus so desperately wants to find out how to stop the plague and wants to find the killer of Laius just as equally. However, after searching and finally becoming aware of his fate and becoming aware of the truth, Oedipus significantly alters his life in a way in which he cannot come back from.

In the first Act of Oedipus The King, Tiresias, a blind prophet, is arguing with Oedipus. Oedipus the king of Thebes calls for Tiresias in order to find an answer to the death of Laius, but Tiresias denies to tell the prophecy of Laius death, sparking an argument with Oedipus. Although Teiresias is aware of the prophecy of Oedipus, he decides not to tell him but warn him that he is the one who's blind to his own acts of dishonor. I found it ironic that a visually impaired man is calling someone who can see perfectly, “blind”, but the word “blind” in this case has a more figurative meaning rather than its literal definition. The word connotes to ignorance, although Oedipus can see just fine his ignorance blocks his ability to see the truth.

Oedipus Rex is a tragic play written by Sophocles. It’s about King Oedipus who unwittingly fulfilled a prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother. Oedipus didn’t want to listen to the truth when people told him about the prophecy. He was being ignorant. The various symbols throughout Oedipus Rex help to illustrate the theme that ignorance is any person’s downfall but sight will aid one in his or her life.

The famed tragedian Sophocles is known for his unique ideas and intellect. Sophocles carefully utilizes of all of his intelligence and creative ability in order to make use of illuminating moments throughout the play which allow his audience to draw conclusions about free will, fate, knowledge, and power throughout perhaps his most iconic play, Oedipus Rex. the main character Oedipus experiences an illuminating moment when he gouges his eyes out at the discovery of the truth about his actions. This illumination is expressed in order to express Sophocles’ idea that fate overpowers free will.

Life is full of deeply intertwined relationships of multiple concepts. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King addresses one of the best known relationships, ignorance and bliss. However, the relationship is most easily recognized in the common saying “ignorance is bliss” that Sophocles disproves on several levels. Throughout the plot of this tragedy, the characters are met with multiple instances where it would seem that ignorance was peaceful, but in all actuality, they could have prevented their tremendous downfalls with prior knowledge. Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius are all presented with the opportunities to change their fates but in their short opportune windows, they do not possess the full extent of knowledge available. Fate was only allowed to work in the absence of knowledge.

Oedipus initiates his downfall as the character curses the murderer of Laius, which exemplifies not only dramatic irony due to the audience’s prior knowledge of the hero's guilt but also Oedipus’ tragic flaw, ignorance (Sophocles 271). Sophocles providing Oedipus with these imperfections establishes him as a tragic hero, by allowing the audience to relate to this haughty king who fate dealt an ill life. Consequential to the audience anticipating the repercussions of this self inflicted curse from the beginning of the play, throughout the story this increasing of tension elicits pity for his circumstances and terror for the hero’s inevitable fall. Despite the negative emotions that arise as the spectators view this tale, the plot’s absurdity allows the onlookers to achieve catharsis through separating themselves from the fictional life of Oedipus, and in doing experience and purge these emotions without personal

exercising his free choice by making bad decisions . Oedipus certainly meets these portrayals of a tragic hero. The dialect of tragedy consists of two circles: one is a relative point and the other is impacted and the effect on its audience. Sophocles and Aristotle’s achieve that task with absolute clearness. The modern reader, coming to the classic drama not entirely to the enjoyment, will not always surrender himself to the emotional effect. He is apt to worry about Greek ‘fatalism’ and the justice of the downfall of Oedipus, and, finding no satisfactory solution for these intellectual difficulties, loses half the pleasure that the drama was intended to produce . In dramatizing stories, there will dependably blends of passionate sentiments, suspense, and fervor to discover what’s