Oedipus Rex (Dover Thrift Editions)

Rating:
Summary: Critique
Review: Oedipus Rex was a good play about Greek Theatre. It was really hard to read, so you had to go over it more than once to understand it fully. It did a good job of showing how fate could control your life and how it is impossible to overcome it. The Greek people believed that fate dictated what you were going to do in life and not even the gods could control it. The play was kind of slow getting to the point, but the basic idea was good.
Sophocles' main purpose in writing this play was to get the point across that you cannot run from your problems. They will eventually find you out. When Jocasta and Laius found out from an oracle that their son Oedipus would kill his father and Mary his mother they wanted to keep it from happening. They decided to pin Oedipus' ankles together and leave him to die on a mountain. The reason they did this was because they believed that fate could not be changed. Because of fate someone gave Oedipus up for adoption. So no matter what Oedipus' parents did, things would always turn out the same way. Later Oedipus killed some people in his way not knowing that one of them was his father. He then became King and married Jocasta without knowing that she was his mother.
I have learned from Oedipus Rex that the truth will find you out whether you want it to or not. Do not do something wrong in the first place because it might not only hurt you but in the end hurt people around you as well. Oedipus wanted to find out the truth of Laius' slayer. When he started to find out information that was against him he wanted to avoid it, but finally it caught up with him. I also learned you should not judge people by their appearance. People that have disabilities are not always unintelligent; some of them are actually pretty smart. Something really interesting is that Oedipus was making fun of a blind man named Tiresias who knew everything. In the end though, when Oedipus found out the truth he blinded himself. Also his wife/mother killed herself. It turned out that Tiresias was actually right and Oedipus was not. The person who could not see knew more than Oedipus who could see.
I have also learned a lesson about losing your temper and not thinking carefully about what you are going to do. If Oedipus had not gotten angry at the travelers he encountered, he would not have killed his father. Because of this he would not have married his mother. His lack of control led from bad to worse.
According to Sophocles you cannot run from your problems. Therefore you should try to do what is right. If you run from your problems, they will keep on getting worse and worse until it is too late. Don't make the same mistake that happened in Oedipus Rex. It is better to confront your problems and resolve them. If you look for the truth you will eventually find it.



Rating:
Summary: Oedipus Rex
Review: Overall, Oedipus Rex was a good book. The plot was interesting and kept me guessing. However, some parts were difficult to understand and that made it hard to keep reading. Sometimes one of the characters would just keep rambling on, and I lost interest. But, all the irony keep the book good. In class we learned about two different types of irony; situational irony and dramatic irony. This book has good examples of both. The fact that Teiresias is blind but can see the future is ironic. The best example would be Oedipus saying that whoever killed King Laius would be killed; when actually it was Oedipus who killed King Laius.
Everyone tried to run from their fate. They tried to, and thought they accomplished changing their destiny. Appollo, the god of Truth, foretold what would happen, and both King Laius and Oedipus tried to alter this. King Laius was told he would die by the hand of his son, so he left his son to die. Oedipus was told he would kill his father, so he left who he thought was his father. But their fate remained the same. Oedipus Rex is a book worth reading even thought parts of it are a little boring.

Rating:
Summary: Oedipus Wrecks
Review: Sophocles' Oedipus Rex was a part of a trilogy of plays he wrote around one family. This play was the middle of the three, and it revolved around one man, Oedipus, the king of Thebes. Oedipus had a prophecy that said he would marry his mother after he killed his father, so after he was born to Laius, king of Thebes, and Jocasta, his queen, he was abandoned in the countryside to die with a spike through his ankles. But he was found by a farmer, and given to a ruling family in Corinth. After he got to be of age, and heard the prophecy, he ran away to avoid the curse, hoping that by getting away from his family, he could keep from bringing them harm. He traveled until he got to the "place where three roads meet", where he crossed paths with a party of travelers. There was a scuffle, and he killed them all, save one, including an older man. He continued on until he met up with the Sphinx, a creature who had been terrorizing Thebes for some time. He defeated it by answering its riddle, and the people of Thebes were so glad that they made him king, since there old king had just recently been reported to have been killed by a band of robbers. All is well, and he rules there until everything starts dying. Come to find out that it is because Apollo is cursing the city-state because of Oedipus' unknown sin of killing his father, who was the old man at the crossing, and sleeping with his mother. Tiresias, a blind prophet, reveals the truth to Oedipus, who doesn't want to hear it. The play revolves mostly around the pride of Oedipus, who refuses to listen to any of his advisors, his wife/mother Jocasta, or his brother-in-law/uncle Creon. In the end, once all is revealed, Jocasta kills herself, and this agony causes Oedipus to stab out his eyes. The play ends with Oedipus leaving the city-state with Creon in power.
Sophocles' main purpose in writing this play was to address two main issues. The first was the issue of hubris, or pride, and how it can cloud your view of things. This can be shown by the actions of Oedipus, who was counseled by not only Creon and Jocasta, but also by Tiresias, the blind seer. Tiresias tries to warn Oedipus that the reason for all the trouble in Thebes is his own sin, but Oedipus ignores him, and brashly proclaims that the man who killed Laius must be killed. Tiresias even comments on the irony of his being blind but able to see the truth, but Oedipus' ignorance of it though he has his sight. Oedipus' sin and inability to bring himself to listen to those who are more knowledgeable than he are what bring him to even accusing his own brother-in-law of trying to take the throne from. He becomes paranoid and distrustful, and is eventually driven to the brink of insanity. He becomes desperate to find the truth of what is really happening, even though he begins to realize that the truth will destroy him, and maybe all those around him as well.
While I read this play, another, perhaps more subtle twist that Sophocles threw in there became apparent to me. Throughout the play, both Jocasta and Oedipus are shown to be trying to escape their fate, their destiny, by their own human actions and endeavors. But in the end, they find that all their attempts, all their efforts to change their future, were in vain. The prophecy that was given at Oedipus' birth comes true, and there is nothing that they can do to stop it. I thought that this was an interesting commentary by Sophocles on our role as humans compared to fate. It seems that Sophocles felt that no matter what we do, our destiny is set in place, and is unchangeable, no matter what course of action we take. I'm not sure if I agree with that, but it seemed to be a sentiment that he felt needed to be conveyed to his original audience, the Greeks. He obviously felt that the gods they worshipped were in control of fate and destiny, totally, and that humans should just resign themselves to whatever was to happen to them.
Personally, I enjoyed reading this play. It was a good storyline, with several good points, and even could be found to spark some interesting discussions questioning fate. I found myself growing because of this book, not physically, but spiritually, because I was forced to question: are we in control? Does our fate rest in our own hands? Or are we controlled by some cosmic, impersonal force that doesn't care about us? As a Christian, I found this question very interesting, and I would recommend everyone who reads this book to consider it as I did.


Rating:
Summary: Fate or Choice
Review: The book Oedipus Rex is a very complex play. I enjoyed it, but it is quite difficult to understand because its Greek theater, which has a different context of the language. The time period is in Greece and the play itself takes place in Thebes. It has a very intricate plot that intertwines with the culture and religion of Greek history. Because of this, it makes the play more difficult to understand if you aren't familiar with Greek culture. I personally thought it was interesting and very challenging to try to understand because of how everything fits together and serves the same purpose.
I think Sophocles's purpose for writing Oedipus Rex was two points. One reason is in the age of the Greeks, at that time, the people struggled with the idea of fate or human choice. Because of the controversy that was aroused many of the plays were written to show an opinion of whether the gods chose the way for the people or if there was such thing as human decisions. The other reason I believe this play was written was to show the faultiness in pride, which was looked down on in Greek culture.
In the play there is a man Oedipus who is King of Thebes, Greece. When Oedipus was a child a prophecy was foretold that he would kill his father and marry his mother. In fear of this coming true his mother and father send him away to die, but their plan was overcome and somehow he survives. He is then adopted but scared for his "parents" life he runs away and later becomes king of Thebes. Throughout the whole play there is always the controversy of whether Oedipus beat the gods and their foretold fate or did Oedipus just run away for a while but the prophecy would be fulfilled no matter what measures Oedipus took to thwart the gods.
Also Oedipus is shown as a prideful man, which was not something good in Greek times. At one point in the play Oedipus is told to seek advice so he might find out what has happened to his father, whom he himself is supposed to have killed. When it is mentioned to Oedipus to find help, Oedipus becomes angry and resentful that he should go and ask someone of lower class for advice. He also shows pride because when the prophecy was foretold about him it also stated that when Oedipus did kill his father that there would be great suffering. The play opens up to find that Thebes is in a famine. Knowing this, Oedipus had not done anything to search out the reason or cause to this famine. He sat there as king, not seeming to care if the people were starving. This pride affects many people besides himself, but his decisions affected the whole city of Thebes and people he cared about personally.
I have learned from this play that the choices you make are going to affect more people then yourself. The day-to-day choices that Oedipus made affected his mother, father and the whole city of Thebes. I can learn to make my decisions carefully and to remember the people around me and to think of how the things that I do might influence. I also have learned that I should not let my pride get in the way of what I do. It is important no tot be proud because it shows people you think of others before yourself.
Oedipus shows how pride can get in the way of the people you love and can hurt them deeply without you really realizing it until you already have. I have learned that life is going to be full of different experiences but you should be humble and look at it with excitement and high expectations.