Themes | Oedipus
“Oedipus is what is known as a tragedy of destiny.”
Contrast between the supreme will of the Gods and the vain attempts of mankind to escape the evil that threatens them!
Guilt and Shame
Fate vs freewill
This raises a question at the heart of the play: does Oedipus have any choice in the matter?
Does he have free will—the ability to choose his own path—or is everything in life predetermined?
Sight vs blindness
Action vs reflection
In his quest for truth, Oedipus is a man of constant action:
Contrast between the supreme will of the Gods and the vain attempts of mankind to escape the evil that threatens them!
Guilt and Shame
- The play begins with a declaration from the oracle at Delphi: Thebes is suffering because the person guilty of the murder of King Laius has not been brought to justice. Oedipus sets himself the task of discovering the guilty party—so guilt, in the legal sense, is central to Oedipus Rex.
- One can argue that neither Oedipus nor Jocasta are guilty in a legal sense. They committed their acts unknowingly.
- Yet their overwhelming feelings of guilt and shame for violating two of the basic rules of civilized humanity—the taboos against incest and killing one's parents—are enough to make Jocasta commit suicide and to make Oedipus blind himself violently.
Fate vs freewill
- The ancient Greeks believed that their gods could see the future, and that certain people could access this information.
- Prophets or seers, like blind Tiresias, saw visions of things to come.
- Oracles, priests who resided at the temples of gods—such as the oracle to Apollo at Delphi—were also believed to be able to interpret the gods' visions and give prophecies to people who sought to know the future.
- The first is the prophecy received by King Laius of Thebes that he would have a son by Queen Jocasta who would grow up to kill his own father.
- The second prophecy that Oedipus received that he would kill his father and marry his mother.
- Laius, Jocasta, and Oedipus all work to prevent the prophecies from coming to pass, but their efforts to thwart the prophecies are what actually bring the prophecies to completion.
This raises a question at the heart of the play: does Oedipus have any choice in the matter?
Does he have free will—the ability to choose his own path—or is everything in life predetermined?
- Oedipus's destruction comes not from his deeds themselves but from his persistent efforts to learn the truth, through which he reveals the true nature of those terrible deeds.
- Oedipus says that his terrible deeds were fated, but that it was he alone who chose to blind himself. Here, Oedipus is arguing that while it is impossible to avoid one's fate, how you respond to your fate is a matter of free will.
Sight vs blindness
- When Oedipus publicly declares his intention to solve the mystery of King Laius's murder, he says, "I'll start again—I'll bring it all to light myself."
- Oedipus's vision and intelligence have made him a great king of Thebes—he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and revitalized the city. But he is blind to the truth about his own life.
- It takes the blind prophet, Tiresias, to point out his ignorance and to plant the first seeds of doubt in Oedipus's mind.
- When Oedipus mocks Tiresias's blindness, Tiresias predicts that Oedipus himself will soon be blind. And indeed, when Oedipus learns the full story he gouges out his eyes.
- He learns the nature of fate and the power of the gods, but at a great cost. And though he is blinded, he has learned to see something he could not see before.
Action vs reflection
In his quest for truth, Oedipus is a man of constant action:
- When the priests come to ask for his help, he has already dispatched Creon to the oracle to find out what the gods suggest.
- When the chorus suggests that he consult Tiresias, Oedipus has already sent for him.
- Oedipus decides quickly and acts quickly—traits his audience would have seen as admirable and in the best tradition of Athenian leadership.
- But Oedipus's tendency to decide and act quickly also leads him down a path to his own destruction.
- He becomes convinced that Tiresias and Creon are plotting to overthrow him, though he has no evidence to prove it.
- At several stages where he might have paused to reflect on the outcome of his action he forges onward, even threatening to torture the reluctant shepherd to make him speak.
- Discovering Jocasta, his wife and mother, dead, Oedipus quickly takes his punishment into his own hands and gauges out his eyes.