William Shakespeare s Oedipus Tyrannus - 1531 Words

Oedipus Tyrannus is a play written by Sophocles, and it deals with the interactions between divine justice/fate and human control in the events that take place for Oedipus. He is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta but he was given away as an infant due to news of a horrid oracle that would destroy the kingdom and his parents. Apollo’s oracle shows that Oedipus’s destiny and life as a whole was already predetermined before he was born and that Oedipus has no choice that would affect those events. However the entire play is about the choices Oedipus is making, the investigation that brings him down is his own and the curse under which he falls is the one he utters from his own mouth. Oedipus goes from a prideful, arrogant and heroic king to a condemned humble man due to his tragic fate at the end of the play. Oedipus may not be happy towards the end of the play as opposed to the beginning but he reaches a point in which he is content. Oedipus is less free at the begi nning of the play as compared to the end because he is tied down by the miasma and hubris that surround him after he killed his father. In the end of the play Oedipus finally has full knowledge of who he is, and he blinds himself in a rage of penitence, accepting total responsibility, by saying his actions as well as the god’s fate are responsible for what he did, and he is determined to take the punishment of exile as well. Oedipus’s character has changed drastically from the beginning of the play to the end.Show MoreRelatedThe Oedipus Complex ( Oedipus )1666 Words   |  7 Pageswith the Oedipus complex, which is when a boy has an attachment to the mother, which in turns results in aggressive and envious feelings toward the father and these feelings are largely repressed. The Oedipus complex comes from Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus but has largely been associated with Hamlet as well, since he and his mother Gertrude, have an extremely complicated relationship (Oedipus Complex). Hamlet is the predecessor of modern psychological thought because Freud came after Shakespeare. In the