Oedipus the King is an ancient drama set in Athens and written by Sophocles. The drama explores the events that take place in a kingdom called Thebes. The major character in this book is King Oedipus, who succeed King Laius. When a plague strikes Thebes, the people of Thebes ask King Oedipus to save them from them from the sufferings brought by the plague. At this time, Creon, who was the brother-in-law to King Oedipus, returns after visiting the oracle of Apollo and says that the plague that was experienced was a punishment for the death of King Laius since he was murdered (Sophocles 2). After Creon’s revelation that the people of Thebes needed to identify the murderer and punish them before the plague could go away. The events that follow reveal to us that King Oedipus had, in fact, killed his father, Laius, who h succeeded, and also married his mother, Jocasta, who was King Laius’ wife. As the events further unfold, King Oedipus realizes that he was just a man with a horrible fate hence the incredible majestic leader of Thebes becomes dejected.
Oedipus, as displayed in the drama, comes out as a person who could act swiftly to save a situation and through these, he is a good leader who would tell from, his mental insights, what the people of Thebes needed. When a plague strikes and his people cry and mourn for their King to save them at the beginning of the play, we see that King Oedipus had anticipated that as a King. Such a demand would come from his subjects, and he had acted very first by sending Creon to the oracle of Apollo to seek advice. However, as we realize, sometimes being swift would result into one making rash decisions without really considering the possible outcomes of such decision (Charters & Samuel 14). King Oedipus had killed a group of travelers who had tried to shove him off at a crossroad. This rash decision had seen him kill his father hence showing that being swift would sometimes be detrimental.
Through this trait of King Oedipus, Sophocles is trying to communicate to us the need to act with moderation. Even if someone has some special abilities that they seem to think is desirable and would always be required, moderation is of utmost importance for there are negative results that might come from good traits, characters or abilities too. Yes it’s good to act swiftly as a leader, but it’s also necessary to appreciate that a positive swift action is plausible and will be appreciated. On the other hand, acting swiftly only to get negative results will be considered rush decisions and one will be criticized of such as a leader because expectations are so high, and no one wants a leader who can make rash decisions which produce negative impacts (Charters & Samuel 14).
At the beginning of the drama, Oedipus is shown as a proud man with various capabilities. He saved his people of Thebes from a misfortune (curse) of Sphinx (Sophocles 3). His might is also demonstrated by the fact that he became a celebrity overnight, becoming a King. His pride is evidently shown by how good he speaks of himself, “you all know me and the world knows my fame.” However as fate would have it, Oedipus would become a tragic hero, at the end of the play, the famous name of Oedipus became a cursed name, people do not want to hear the famous name of their previously good leaders anymore. Through this trait of Oedipus, we learn that pride comes before a fall, we might not really see where our fall might really come from, but still, we as human beings must appreciate that the world is not all about positive outcomes (Zachrisson 326). However, Sophocles tries to teach us that there are certain things that are just out of human control, even to those who have exemplary resources and capabilities. We see Oedipus moves from grace to grass, no matter the resources and capabilities he has as a king, he simply cannot reverse the trend or rather fate that his life has taken. Towards the end of the play, Oedipus has accepted this fact and despite the negative reaction that he gets from his people, he settles to seek peace.
Oedipus is also shown as a very intelligent character; he is able to solve the riddle of a creature that walks on four in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening. However, his pride and ego make him fail on various things as a King. Through this trait of Oedipus, the writer tries to portray that for a leader, humility is important as it can earn one favor from people (Zachrisson 324). Although Oedipus was intelligent and also possessed a lot of abilities that made him be respected, it is his pride that made people disrespect him most during his fall as a King. However, had he maintained humility, he would have had some shred of sympathy from his subjects.
Through the character Oedipus, Sophocles reminds us of the need to always remember the past. That we always should remember history and learn from it, lest we do the same mistakes we had done in the past. Despite the fact that King Oedipus had received a lot of help from Tiresias, who was a seer, the King does not seem to have learnt that Tiresias is important in helping him and the whole of Thebes understand the future. When Tiresias reveals to Oedipus that he was responsible for King Laius death and in fact was in an intimate relationship with a relative of his, Oedipus despises the old man (Sophocles 16). On another instance, Oedipus also seems to have forgotten the incident of three-crossroad. He has forgotten how his encounter with Laius ended up. But it’s as a result of his failing to learn from the past that King Oedipus is seen to make mistakes (Zachrisson 316). In contrast to her father, Antigone is able to remember the past and learn from it. Antigone is portrayed as a facsimile of her father character wise, she is swift and shows defiance too as she plans not to heed a direction from Creon, which required her not to bury Polynices. However, Antigone is shown as having some abilities to remember her past learn from it.
Antigone’s ability to remember and learn from her past has made her a very confident and dangerous since her past was a bad one involving a bad fate that her family had been associated with. Antigone then becomes very dangerous as she feels that after all, come what may, she has nothing to lose. As she responds to the death threat of being killed for burying Polynices, Antigone says that she lie by the one she loved. This shows that she was willing to stand by what she believed in and defended her position despite the consequences. Through this character, Sophocles tries to tell us that a person’s character is likely to be shaped by their past experiences, and such experiences can either impact on us negatively or positively (Zachrisson 318). Although Antigone had a bad experience, she developed some strong characters that helped her become both dangerous and confident at the same time.
Through this play, Sophocles conveys various massages to the reader. These messages, however, are not direct and require some literary analysis. Ann Charters and Samuel provide some insights on how to analyze and interpreted the play. Zachrisson also provide an analysis of the same book especially considering the major themes and how the characters in the book are used to develop such themes i.e. power of the unwritten laws, pride, limitations of free will amongst many others.
References
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Read How You Want. com, 2008.
Zachrisson, Anders. "Oedipus the king: Quest for self‐knowledge–denial of reality. Sophocles’ vision of man and psychoanalytic concept formation." The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 94.2 (2013): 313-331.
Charters, Ann, and Samuel Charters. Literature and Its Writers: A Compact Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed. N.p.: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. Print.
