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Oedipus The King -Take Home Test (essay) |
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“The three basic elements of Greek tragedy are a sense of destiny, inevitability of events and the quest for justice.” Now, “destiny” is a “succession of events in life considered as something beyond the control of man.”, meaning that no matter how hard a person tries to fight his or her destiny it will manage to find a way to fulfill itself. An “inevitability of events” is simply a series of occurrences that are bound to happen due to fate or destiny, as for the “quest for justice” it can be seen in two ways : first, as a way to repent for one’s sins and the second way could be seen as a quest, or journey to find the evildoer or sinner and bring them, as well as their crimes to the light.
Destiny, is a path set before every-living being on the planet. Destiny can be hidden from us, meaning that the person will have no idea of what awaits them in the futuree. Destiny can also be told to us by some very skilled Seer (a person who claims they can see the events of the future). In the play, Oedipus is told of his destiny in where he is to kill his father and marry his mother, we are told of this oracle at the beginning of the play. It can be argued that man has control over his destiny ex: If a person is told how their life is to be played out then they can make a choice to follow that path or to try and avoid it. What if Oedipus had stayed in Cyprus with his ‘parents’ Polybus and Merope? Would the prophecy still somehow have taken place? It’s impossible to tell due to the fact that Sophocles is the only one who knows what could of happened to Oedipus, even on that point, Sophocles himself could have no idea as to what he would of had Oedipus do under different circumstances. The answer to this question is left to those who imagine the story from that aspect. Destiny is like a poisonous snake, if it isn’t bothered, if it isn’t defied or tested, then it will stay calm and things will happen as they should, but on the other hand, if the snake is tried it will attack and cause the prophecy to happen in a more brutal fashion.
Onto “the inevitability of events”. Now, this tragic element is so closely tied into destiny that it is often mistaken. Using examples from the play it will be easier to identify which element is which. While Oedipus stays in Cyprus, he is given an oracle telling him that he is to “kill his father and marry his mother”. This is “destiny”, it is a spiritual element that is later acted upon. When Oedipus runs from Cyprus to avoid the oracle he found his way to a forked road where a man was blocking his way to Thebes. Little did he know that this man was Laius, King of Thebes as well as his biological father, this was his first step into completing the oracle. A short squabble later takes place and Oedipus ends up killing Laius. The action of killing him falls under this category of “inevitability of events” because he did the action of running away and the action of killing Laius at the forked road.
“Quest for justice”, there are many ways to describe this statement, however there is probably only one explanation that will relate the most to “Oedipus the king”. Firstly, what is a quest? A short pilgrimage with a stop sign at the end? A fairytale with a happy ending? Well it could be in some cases but in this play, Oedipus’ quest represents a way to repent for the sins he afflicted upon both of his parents, his children, as well as the kingdom of Thebes. Oedipus’ quest begins when he demands banishment from Creon and leaves his children as well as Thebes. During banishment, he is to find a way to repent for his sins, no matter what he has to do to cleanse both his body and his soul of evil.
In any good Greek tragedy you will find these three elements: “destiny”, “inevitability of events” and a “quest for justice”. They might be told in a different way depending on the story as well as the author but, they are necessary to keep a tragic story going, it’s like the beginning, the middle, and the end of a story, they are all necessary to keep the story together and functioning. “Destiny” would represent the beginning of the story due to the fact that, the character, in this case Oedipus, find out what will happen to them and their surroundings. This leaves way to the middle of the story which is also related to the "inevitability of events". Once the character discovers what is to become of them they will usually take certain steps, certain actions, into making sure that whatever oracle they are told will not come true (If it is a bad one of course). The end of the play relates to a quest for justice. At the end of most Greek tragedies, the character is usually found alone, dead, or on the road to find a way to cleanse themselves of sin. All this is to say that the “the three basic elements of Greek tragedy” are necessary in any good play written in the time to keep the play and it’s characters working together and functioning as one.
Copyrights: Tara Kikuta
 Tara Kikuta · Thu Oct 12, 2006 @ 09:28pm · 1 Comments |
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