Oedipus

Title: Oedipus Rex
Summary
It is prophesied that a king's baby boy will kill him and marry his wife. The child, Oedipus is sent to be killed by a shepherd, but he merely abandons him on the mountainside. Another royal family finds him and takes the child in. Oedipus grows up to learn of the prophecy and in an attempt to avoid it, he leaves who he believes to be his parents. On his journey he kills a king who is actually his true father, and reaches the city of Thebes, which is being terrorized by the sphinx. Oedipus correctly answers the Sphinx's riddle and saves the city. He then marries the queen (his mother) and begins having children. He later tries to who killed the city's king, not knowing it was his own doing. Consulting the prophet and shepherd he learns that he has actually fulfilled the prophecy. His wife and mother hangs herself, and Oedipus gouges his eyes out with her amulet, and dooms himself to a life of exile.

Quotes:
Fear? What should a man fear? It's all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark. Better to live at random, best we can. And as for this marriage with your mother—have no fear. Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his mother's bed. Take such things for shadows, nothing at all— Live, Oedipus, as if there's no tomorrow!

People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus. He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance, he rose to power, a man beyond all power. Who could behold his greatness without envy? Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him. Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last.

Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud,Wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.Ah me, ah me! What spasms athwart me shoot,What pangs of agonizing memory?

Though I cannot behold you, I must weep In thinking of the evil days to come,The slights and wrongs that men will put upon you.Where'er ye go to feast or festival,No merrymaking will it prove for you,But oft abashed in tears ye will return.And when ye come to marriageable years,Where's the bold wooers who will jeopardize To take unto himself such disrepute As to my children's children still must cling,For what of infamy is lacking here?

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 Who murdered Laius--that man is here.He passes for an alien in the land But soon shall prove a Theban, native born.And yet his fortune brings him little joy;For blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds,For purple robes, and leaning on his staff,To a strange land he soon shall grope his way.

Vehicles:
Poetic Justice: It is only after Oedipus has blinded himself that he may truly see.
Irony: Oedipus in all his great intelligence and wit could not put the pieces together to reveal his true identity before it is too late.
Symbolism: Light is used to represent knowledge or enlightenment, often unwanted.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: In an attempt to avoid his destiny, Oedipus actually helps to fulfill the fate that was passed on to him.

Conflicts:
Fate vs Free Will
Blindness vs True Sight (Knowledge)
Mortals vs Divine Plan

Subjects:
Fate
Knowledge
Blindness

Characters:
Oedipus
Priest
Creon
Tiresias
Jocasta
Messenger
Shepherd

Themes:
Sometimes the blind man is the only one who can see the truth.
Limits of human free will.