Oedipus Rex Group

Question:

suzkel
suzkel
Student
College - Senior

 My question is, how and why is Oedipus Tyrannus a tragedy of self-identity?

The search for self-knowledge and origins, the recognition of areas of blindness about who we really are, the balance between one and many selves and the effort to explore the mystery of our own self-hood.

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Posted by suzkel on Wednesday May 27, 2009 at 3:07 PM and tagged with oedipus, oedipus rex, selfidentity.

Answers:

  1. tifdasplif
    tifdasplif Student
    High School - 12th Grade

    I got this off another forum, but I have this exact same question for a test in my Grade 12 English class...

    this is what I've found so far..

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    Re: Oedipus Tyrannus Help!
    05/27/09 06:23 PM Edit Reply Quote Quick Reply


    Funny you should mention this topic. I TA for an intro Greek and Roman myth class and one of the essay topics is about Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.

    The tragedy in the play is that Oedipus spent his entire life trying to avoid his fate and despite his best efforts everything he did to avoid killing his father and marrying his mother ultimately led him to do those things. Something to consider is that Oedipus did not knowingly or deliberately kill his father and marry his mother. His identity as murdered and husband, in his eyes, was distinctly separate from his identity as one who commit patricide and incest.

    If you consider the part of Teiresias (himself a blind seer) you will see that despite his blindness he is the one who sees and knows all in the play. In fact he points out that Oedipus is blind to his situation and foreshadows Jocasta's blinding herself.

    So the question is really who is Oedipus? Is he a father or a brother, is he a son or a husband, is he a son or murderer? How does his identity change throughout the play? How could the actions of those involved have changed how Oedipus self identifies? Had his biological parents not given him away, had his adoptive parents been honest with Oedipus, had Jocasta realized that the man she was to marry was young enough to be her son, how would these changes have affected the outcome and who Oedipus thought he was?

    Just some food for thought!

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    Re: Oedipus Tyrannus Help!
    05/27/09 04:29 PM Edit Reply Quote Quick Reply


    Uhhh...your professor is an [censored]. You ask to discuss the question and that's his response? Way to step up there, buddy.

    Truthfully, it sounds like you could give him anything that sounded fancy even if it made no sense whatsoever and he'd be like oooh brilliant! I'm only half kidding. Maybe just pick one angle on identity that interests you and run that to the ground...don't let the rest of the stuff confuse you. For example, if you want to explore the "self-blindness" issue in particular. Maybe do a bit of a compare/contrast with other characters in literature.

     

    this is where I found it... http://forums.weddingbells.ca/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=3800689&page=

     

    Good Luck!!

    Sources:
    http://forums.weddingbells.ca/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Numb...

    Rate answer:

    Posted by tifdasplif on Wednesday May 27, 2009 at 9:03 PM