Introduction
Oedipus Rex (c. 430 BC) of Sophocles is the story of the supremacy of the gods who command the fate of men, no matter their station in life. Oedipus, son of King Laios, who was abandoned by his father after having his feet nailed hearing a prophecy that he would die from his son, returns too Thebes to rule in the land which had just lost its King. He had killed an old man while on his way and manages to outwit the Sphinx with her cryptic riddles to enter the Theban walls where he is hailed King and he weds the widowed Queen Iocaste. The tragic meeting with the blind seer Teiresias upturns the scales when the latter declares him the murderer of Laios who has brought pestilence upon his land. The soul-searching that follows compounds the wounds of Oedipus and ends his euphoria forever. Four different players including himself contribute to the anagnoresis which spells the doom of Oedipus Rex.
Argument
In the play of Oedipus four role-types are found to be at work, lending distinctly to the Wounded King leitmotif. They are (1) the wounded King himself, Oedipus; (2) the rival or transgressor, real or imagined, which is fulfilled by Creon; (3) the agent delivering the cause of hurt, who is Teiresias; and (4) the subject who reveals the truth and corrects false beliefs once and for all, here, Iocaste.
Oedipus is seen as uncomfortable and defensive for some reason at the very outset. He fears that the murderer of Laios may have designs on his life too. He fears avarice all around, giving a hint of a jaundiced eye perhaps. He goes in relentless pursuit of the culprit, sending emissaries all round to locate him. Finally he is informed of Teiresias, the blind soothsayer, who is omniscient. Hearing the reluctant Teiresias speak evasively Oedipus becomes confrontational. Teiresias, who is equally short of temper, retaliates by letting out the destructive truth that Oedipus himself is the murderer he is looking for. Hiding from himself Oedipus tries to allege a conspiracy between Creon and Teiresias to snatch his throne and destroy him. Teiresias tells him his misdeeds in black and white.
OEDIPUS: My parents again! –Wait: who were my parents? TEIRESIAS: This day will give you a father and break your heart. (Sc I, 233-234)
The text used here is the translation from the classical Greek by Robert Fitzgerald and Dudley Fitts, included in the 2nd edition of The Art of Drama (1976), edited by Dietrich et al. The above extract shows that the crime and also the fate of Oedipus are more or less clear to him now and he cannot recoil further. But he is not ready to let go of Creon against whom he has a paranoid suspicion. Creon feels let down and misjudged, but he does his part dispassionately to make the deluded King see reason.
The rival cum opponent role of Creon, more imagined by Oedipus than real, is the first instance of the dawn of reason in the play. Unlike Teiresias who is cut to the quick and indignant, Creon holds a mirror to the very soul of Oedipus who has been thinking himself impeccable of conduct and infallible.
CREON: Would any sane man prefer Power, with all a king’s anxieties, To that same power and the grace of sleep? Certainly not I. (Sc II 66-69)
Creon reiterates, “If I were king, I should be a slave to policy” (Sc II 86), giving Oedipus the whiplash with feedback of his recent actions. Creon is cold, calculating and level-headed though he admits that the accusations of Oedipus cannot be borne tamely (Sc II 1-4).
Teiresias, the climacteric agent, is an instrument not only of the gods in this fatalistic play, but also the deliverance of the Thebans facing the wrath of Apollo. From the earliest fragments of the dialogue between him and Oedipus a tension is seen to develop. He excuses himself in the beginning from saying upsetting truths but when the hubris of Oedipus becomes unbearable for this devotee of Apollo he blurts out the harsh truth.
TEIRESIAS: I say you live in hideous shame with those Most dear to you. You can not see the evil. (Sc I 157-158)
The stern pronouncement of Teiresias, “I say you are the murderer whom you seek” (Sc I 153) shakes the very foundations of the King. This blind seer makes the sighted Oedipus see his own fallen self which leads him to literally blind himself in expiation.
The revelatory role of Iocaste, Oedipus’s mother unawares, now his consort, settles the question once and for all for Oedipus who is now in truth-seeking mode, way past his previous posture of defence. He admits to her even when she reveals her knowledge that he was “not sure that the blind man cannot see” (Sc II 259). He throws down his defences and listens to her intently till he confesses to “a shadowy memory” crossing his mind, hearing the manner of Laios’s death at the three forking highways. When he pesters her for the description of Laios, her reply is heartrending.
IOCASTE: He was tall, his hair just touched With white; his form not unlike your own. (Sc II 253-254)
Oedipus needs no second telling to know the preordained will of the gods. He accepts his role as a plaything of fate at the hands of the very being who brought him into the world. In this moment of truth all roles coalesce.
Conclusion of Argument
The four role-types lay bare the theme of fatalism which is the hallmark of ancient Greek tragedy. The ego-bruises of Oedipus that stem from overweening vanity become his undoing along with his fatal one-track mind that forecloses all options. The net result is a catastrophe revealed for Oedipus but averted for Thebes. The roles with their individual persona rank the three entities in the order of precedence: king, nation and the gods.
The Illusionist
Critiquing a movie like The Illusionist (2006) is a real challenge, metaphorical aspects apart. The story of the film written by Steve Millhauser and directed by Neil Burger is the story of life success of a remarkable conjurer who has learnt the uniqueconjuring art of turning adversity to advantage; he has his revenge on a formidable and sinister adversary, wins his high-born lady love and eventually rids his country of a monstrous Crown Prince. Being a movie on stage illusion, the movie itself being a illusion, it may be called a meta-illusion, in just the same way as one talks of meta-fiction or meta-drama. The story of Eisenheim, born Eduard Abramovich, who succeeds in transforming illusion into a god-like command over truth and reality is no simple daydream. It evolves through many planned phases in its execution.
The first phase of this magical voyage revolves round the childhood and teenage of Eisenheim in the Austrian city of Vienna at the turn of the century. This youngster who is forbidden from meeting Sophie von Teschen, his genteel lover, leaves for the larger world in quest of a wholesome education in necromancy. When he returns to Vienna, accomplished and a master, he meets his lover at a show when he buttonholes her as a volunteer. He hears from her the sad story of her oppressive engagement to the Crown Prince, Leopold, a tyrant at home and elsewhere. Eisenheim humiliates Leopold at a private show which antagonises him and endangers the safety of Sophie. The rest is where the second turning point of the story begins.
Now Sophie is emboldened to break her engagement with Leopold, who is besides plotting against his own father, the Emperor. Eisenheim knows the entire plan of the villain. When Leopold hears of Sophie’s intention he chases her into the stables at Mayerling with his sword visibly enough to spectators. Later her body is seen dead. Eisenheim is in a slough of despond and remains depressed and scarce. After an interval of absence he returns to the magic scene. He performs at his own theatre which is furtively visited by Leopold. The latter is scandalized when Eisenheim conjures the spirit of Sophie which reports that her murderer is in the theatre. Leopold has him arrested but the latter confesses that it was all an illusion and gets released with a caveat. But he continues to perform, under the very nose of Inspector Uhl who is employed by Leopold to hound the heels of Eisenheim on promise of a reward when he becomes King. When Uhl enters the stage to arrest Eisenheim with his dozen officers, Eisenheim appears incorporeal and baffles Uhl. The next change in the story is pivoted around Uhl.
Uhl wonders whether all he saw till then was a fact or fantasy engineered by the illusionist. He also has serious apprehensions about the sacrilegious and traitorous conduct of Leopold towards his blood father. He accosts Leopold with evidence of Sophie’s death by showing a jewel from Leopold’s sword and Sophie’s locket. The enraged Leopold aims his revolver at him but is overcome by the arrival of officers who have been lying in wait hearing of Leopold’s treachery from Uhl. Leopold shoots himself to save himself from a worse fate. Uhl sees through the clever collaboration of Eisenheim and Sophie to bring about the illusions that rid the world of a colossal villain. The very death of Sophie is a necromantic fiction. Thus Uhl, whose role is removing the delusions of the Viennese public about the lovers and expose the real culprit in his investigative capacity, becomes a magic aficionado. But even Uhl is an underling compared to Eisenheim in his handling of truth and is but the tool turned mouthpiece. The story is seen as a series of flashbacks through the persona of Uhl.
Meta-Illusion Hailed
As a meta-illusion the movie questions the very artifice of films because, in the words of Roger Ebert, “the photographic medium is discontinuous and subject to post-production manipulation beyond those that can be created before a live audience.” When the movie itself is a hailed illusion, it tacitly acknowledges the timeless human weakness for sublimated illusions. The success of Eisenheim, in one phrase, is his holding reality in the clasp of a mighty illusion.
Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. Review of “The Illusionist.” Accessed 16 July 2016 at https://www.rogerebert.com/revies/the-illusioinst-2006 Web
Fitzgerald, Robert and Fitts, Dudley, Trans. “Oedipus Rex,” The Art of Drama, Ed. R. F. Dietrich, W. E. Carpenter and Kevin Kerrane. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976. Print.
The Illusionist downloaded from https://www.yifymovies.re/movie/the-illusionist-2006-720p/- Web
