King Oedipus: The Play” In the play ” King Oedipus” the author Sophocles uses a chorus to deliver Odes to the audience. Odes are lyrical poems so basically he told the play throughout lyrical poems. Because he uses odes, it gives the play a dramatic taste. Through the use of the chorus he gives the audience a view of the horendous masacre that has happened to Oedipus in which as a result led him to destroy his own family. Each ode has dark and light imagery.
In this essay the author’s usage of imagery and metaphor will be discussed. On line 139, the chorus says ” In Thebes city of light, rom the pythion house of gold, the gracious voice of heaven is heard, with fear my heart is riven, fear of what shall be told” (pg. 20). This ode symbolizes that thebes city of light is not so bright after all, there is obviously something dark that is being hidden and shall be told. There is fear of what that secret holds, but no one yet has said a word.
This ode is using both light and darkness, thebes known as the city of light is being terrorized with fear, but still, the gracious voices of heaven are being heard. Oedipus is going through a Journey that he himself does not know what he exactly is doing or the truth behind any of it. Oedipus was told by an oracle that he is destined to slay his biological father and marry his mother, not knowing that he is adopted, he travels away to his birth land Thebes.
On his way to Thebes he slays a man who had been provoking a quarrel. He then resumes to his traveling, he has arrived to the land of Thebes, there he aproaches a sphinx who had been terrorizing thebes. A sphinx has a body of a lion and the head of a man/woman who has been described by the chorus as a ” she devil” (line 1106). There is a riddle to this sphinx that you must answer correctly in order for the sphinx to not kill you. If you answer correctly to its riddle, the sphinx will then indeed destroy its self.
Oedipus had been the only brave intelligent mind that answered the riddle correctly causing the sphinx to finally destroy on its own, everyone in Thebes sees oedipus now as a hero and have given him throne of their land, and the hand of their beloved widowed queen Jocasta, they then start creating a family and have beautiful children. This shows imagery of light, darkness and blindness, Oedipus not knowing that he is adopted is metaphorically his symbol of blindness because he is blinded by truth that his hildhood holds that he yet has no recognition of.
His symbol of light is when he is given throne of Thebes because now he is considered a hero and is adored by Thebian’s. Although he had moment of goodness light, he was given the hand of his own mother which has a double meaning, to Oedipus this is light because she is indeed a beautiful queen, but to the audience this is obvious darkness because we all know the incest truth. After Oedipus is awarded, Thebes is still not at rest, they must find the killer of their old King Laius (ex husband of Jocasta) and give him his punishment, due to this, Oedipus goes in search of the truth.
Line 414, Chrous; ” he was said to been killed by travelers on the road” this was the only rumor going around about the murder(pg. 24). Teiresias a blind prophet was brought to Thebes to give Oedipus understanding of the past, Chorus: line 248, ” To the lord Phoebus the reasearch”. When Teiresias arrives Oedipus beg’s Teiresias for answers to the murder of King Laius. Teiresias finally spills out the truth and Oedipus is confused and after a while he puts all the missing pieces toghether and he is left shocked.
With this happening, dark imagery is being used once again, Oedipus’s discovery has ulled him into a dark place that he is struggling to get out of, this metaphor means that when Oedipus discovered that he is the murderer of his father he fell into recognizion because he changed from ignorant to a recognizing that Lau’s had been his father. When dear Jocasta is told the truth she cannot handle the news that Oedipus has brung upon them, Jocasta line 968; ” O lost dammed! this is my last and only word to you for ever! ” she says to Oedipus (pg. 42).
Followed by her last words of hatred darkness she is found by her son/husband Oedipus hung in her roomJocasta had comited suicide. On line 1106, the chorus says ” Once he had drowned the she- devil, the claw – foot lady, he was our bastion agaisnt disaster, our honoured King; all Thebes was proud of the majesty of his name”, this line shows that Oedipus had been adorned because he had been the saviour of Thebes but now he has brung tears upon them, Oedipus is no longer a leader to Thebian’s, Chorus line 1127;” Already we have wept enough for the things we have known, the things we have seen.
What else will your story add? ” (pg. 46). Thebes question’s Oedipus and all they have now is anger and disapointment towards him. In taking action of this Oedipus punishes himself for the sins he has made, he takes the pins that are on the gown of his mother’s dead body and stabs both his eyes continuesly while gooshing blood covers his face, line 1218, Chorus: ” Such suffering must needs be borne twice; once in the body and once in the soul”, with this line the chorus interprets that now Oedipus has been hurt twice; once when he found out the horrifying news and twice when he he hurt himself phisicly.
Metaphorically Oedipus had been blind all along, he was not aware of any of his soroundings, he wasnt even aware that he had killed is own father, and when Teiresias the blind prophet was giving him answers to his reasearch it took him a while to realize the truth , he was being ignorant trying to fgure out his way out of the truth, now he is blinded phisically by the punishment that he has given himself.
At the begining Oedipus was introduced with dark imagery as he was told that he was destined to commit incest, disgusting, terrorizing sins. Futher then he was given a slight pinch of light imagery when he was pronounced saviour and king of thebes, he then falls back to darkness when he was given the hand of the queen because she turned out to be his mother.
