Introduction.
The main idea of the tragedy.
Key elements of the “Oedipus the King”.
Dramatic structure as an inherent part of the composition.
Divine interference as the decisive point in the tragedy’s plot.
King Oedipus as the main character of the tragedy.
Perception of the main characters from the point of a reader.
Conclusion.
The tragedy "Oedipus the King", written by Sophocles, has laid increased emphasis on one of the most important issues of his time: the will of the gods and man's free will. Each tragedian interprets mythology in his own independent way, as it serves as a ground for the genre of tragedy.
The plot used by Sophocles in the mythical tragic drama of Oedipus essentially deals with the collision of the will of the gods as well as the humans. If Sophocles dedicates "Antigone" to human mind, then in "Oedipus the King" he raises a person to even greater heights.
In Oedipus, he describes power of nature and human desire to send a life of its own will. Oedipus is highly respected and feared as the "first of men ((Sophocles, 36), and also as someone who is "greatest in the eyes of all (Sophocles, 44). One of the key ideas of this tragedy is that a person cannot escape troubles intended by the gods, but the cause of these problems, the nature of which is manifested in actions leading to the execution of the will of the gods. The free will of man and his doom is the main contradiction in the tragedy "Oedipus the King".
Sophocles also complicates the mythological outline of the development of such things that help him to upstage the disastrous fate of his hero and make it possible to draw a mythological story in a genuine human drama, where the first place are internal psychological conflicts and problems of socio - political. In Section 5. Lines 1188-1190, Oedipus says “I count myself the son of Chance, the great goddess, giver of all good things—I'll never see myself disgraced (Sophocles).”
This is the basic and in-depth content as "Oedipus - king" and "Antigone". Experienced Jocasta gives Sophocles a wide image of the female character in all its complexity (Sophocles). All the characters of the drama contribute to development of the divine creatures. They are part of the machine, which could not be developed without them. They know nothing about the function, which is designed to them by gods; they do not know the purpose for which they are closer mechanism owning them. They see themselves as independent human beings. These people are occupied with their own affairs, their happiness; they courageously conquered by the honest fulfillment of their human duty - virtuous behavior.
The first scene of the drama gives us an image of a man on top of human greatness. The King Oedipus is on the steps of his palace. His people, kneeling, drew him their prayers, expressed through the mouth of a priest. Thebes suffered a disaster - an epidemic destroys in the bud every living thing. Oedipus previously delivered their city from the Sphinx. He now has to save the country. In the eyes of his subjects, he is the first and the best of men. He leads the magnificent retinue of his past deeds, his deeds and good deeds. Oedipus closes the scene by promising that the assassin would surely be "consumed in evil and wretchedness (Sophocles)."
The Chorus closes the play with these final lines:
“People of our country Thebes, behold this Oedipus, who knew the famous riddle and was a most powerful man, whose fortunes all the citizens watched with emulation (Sophocles,1555), how deep the sea of dire misfortune that has taken him! . and suffered nothing grievous (Sophocles).
The concluding scene of the play is very important because it depicts Oedipus as a heart-rending hero and also displays to the audiences that irrespective of how noble a man is, like Oedipus, sin or wrongdoing is a reality and everyone’s life has these aspects. This is pertinent from the following lines uttered by the Chorus:
“Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last (Sophocles, 1683-1684).” After his reversal of the opulence, Oedipus takes onus of his deeds and accepts responsibility.
Further construction of the drama is a succession of four parts, each of which strike Oedipus. This construction is so simple that the viewer immediately guesses about which direction the play will develop, and see its outcome. He sees those four steps, which makes the rock towards the tragic hero. He just cannot imagine the way God will hit the hero, as the author each time creates a situation similar to the descriptions. But he immediately picks relationship with each other, merging the following four stages, one after another, with which the action develops and moves like clockwork movement.
For Oedipus, on the contrary, everything that the viewer seems coherent, methodical implementation of the plan inscribed by God, is represented by the chain of surprises, coincidences, which, according to him, is dropping a straight way in which he either discovers the murderers of Laius, or takes away from this path. Any incidental accident throws him in a new direction. Each blow stuns him, sometimes filled with joy. He does not guard anything. This is evident from what the Chorus once says, “If ever, once in the past, you stopped some ruin launched against our walls; you hurled the flame of pain; far, far from Thebes—you gods, come now, come down once more (Sophocles, 186-189)!”
In the development of the action there are, thus, two distinct areas, for which we are watching at the same time: on the one hand, the inexorable insight ray of light in the middle of the pitch darkness, the other - the movement of groping, uncertain gait beings stumbling in the dark unseen obstacles and gradually attracted, independently from itself to the luminous flame. Both lines suddenly intersect: it's all over in an instant.
Oedipus orders to bring an old blind man who is the soothsayer Teiresias, in order to facilitate clarification of the circumstances of the murder of Laius. At this instance, Teiresias says, “I go, but first will tell thee why I came. Thy frown I dread not, for thou canst not harm me. Hear then: this man whom thou hast sought to arrest. With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch (Sophocles).”
Teiresias knows everything, as despite being blind, he is a visionary. He knows who is guilty of the murder of Laius, he even knows that Oedipus is the son of Laius. Teiresias says, "Who murdered Laius--that man is here. He passes for an alien in the land. But soon shall prove a Theban, native born (Sophocles).” Despite knowing the truth about the killer of Laius, Teiresias is unable to tell the same because no one would trust him if he says it was Oedipus, their king who killed Laius. Thus, he retreats before the storm, which would cause the disclosure of the truth. He refuses to answer, and this failure is quite natural (Sophocles).
Naturally, this refusal angers Oedipus. He angrily accuses that Creon and Teiresias are involved in a conspiracy against the throne, and he says "Creon, the soul of trust, my loyal friend from the start steals against me so hungry to overthrow me he sets this wizard on me, this scheming quack, this fortune-teller peddling lies, eyes peeled for his own profit--seer blind in his craft! (Sophocles)" Oedipus suddenly feels that his investigation leads to the goal, and his wrath falls on Teiresias and the stubborn silence which is blocking his path, as Teiresias refuses to give him the necessary evidence, because he has certainly participated in the conspiracy.
Reading this tragedy, a person may have several reactions to the events that unfold around the main characters. The first of these is the outrage. After all, here is a man caught in the devil's trap. It is an honorable man. Trap adjusted gods, whom he reveres; God caused him to commit the crime imputed to him as he is accused. For readers immediately clear that Oedipus is innocent, because all rigged god. Of course, you might think that the original fault lies on the Oedipus’ father, since the prediction obtained Liam, was a clear prohibition to have a son. Because of this, the paternity becomes an act of disobedience to the gods for it.
Oedipus can actually be seen as a victim of both his fate as well as his own actions. Such complexity is evidence to the prodigy of Sophocles and also his greatness in the way the play has been constructed. While on one hand, the fate of Oedipus could not be evaded, he tries his level best by the help of the maximum freedom he had at his disposal to replace his fate with an alternative outcome. However, the same does not help him in any way as he becomes the instrument of his fate. On the other hand though, a little extent of the usage of his freedom gets him to being victimized by himself. This can be understood from the statements of Creon, who goes on to say that "who seeks shall find; who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."
On the other hand, it is intemperate character of Oedipus was the cause of the murder of an old man on the road. It was enough for Oedipus to be pushed by the driver to lost control over himself, hit an old man and killed him. Oedipus is able to feel deeply. For him, suffering because of the crime, is much worse than death or any punishment. He is to blame the parents; it means himself and Jocasta, for being guilty with respect to their children born in a sinful marriage. For this wine, though involuntary, King Oedipus punishes himself severely. Using the brooches of Jocasta, Oedipus gouges out his eyes, while he screams, "You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind! (Sophocles)"
In his works, Sophocles seeks to hold the idea of the unity of society and the State, to defend such a state, which would be no tyranny of the king who would exercise the closest relationship with the people. The image of such a king he sees in Oedipus. These ideas were at odds with the time of Sophocles, because it fights against the forces of violating polis connection. The growth of monetary relations decomposed state, adversely affect the preservation of the old foundations. Spread greed, bribery. Not by chance, the king Oedipus throws Teiresias unjust accusations of self-interest. Oedipus blames Tiresias of being incapable of identifying the truth, as it is evident from the following statements made by him:
“There is [strength in truth], but not for you. You don't have this, since you are blind in your ears and mind and eyes (Sophocles, 390-91). Recognizing the divine predestination, against which man is powerless, Sophocles in the situation when person separate from the team showed a person in a free striving to evade predestined, to fight with it.
Staying true to the main lines of the Homeric myth, Sophocles puts his finest psychological development, and, keeping details of fatal Laius’s destiny and his offspring, making his work is not a tragedy of fate but genuine human drama with deep conflicts between Oedipus and Creon, Oedipus and Teiresias, with a full picture of the truth of life experiences of actors. Observing the rules of construction of a Greek tragedy, Sophocles uses this building so that all the events unfold naturally and truthfully. “Oedipus the King” is a tragedy, which although recognizes man's dependence on the will of the gods, at the same time proclaims the idea of spiritual freedom of man, which he takes with courage in the midst of the blows of fate.
Works Cited
Sophocles, Stephen Berg, Diskin Clay. Oedipus the King. USA: Oxford University Press, 1988.
