A POSITION PAPER ON SOPHOCLES’ OEDIPUS REX Essay

THE KING WEARS A SHADES AS THE lie SHINES BRIGHT WHICH MAKES HIS DAYS DARKER AND DARKER EVERY SINGLE DAY(with both(prenominal)what relations to the Philippine Government and setting as a whole)A prepare PAPER ON SOPHOCLESOEDIPUS REXREGULANO, Jean Paula Bermudez2011-05787HUM 1 XOedipus Rex knowledge, which served as his gut against the cause(a)s to be the office of Thebes, is further limited to the learning on his people and his environment, excluding the information some himself cod to his silver screenness and innocence on his bear identity. In the midst of the d receivef every last(predicate) of the City of Thebes, is the entrance of a capital loss leader who go away dare to make a change, held the urban center up despite its fall, which leave behindhand do his best for his name to be progressive and be full of legacy. What is it that makes this man a magnate, the kind of office projected in the grade of Sophocles, the King who does non know some things behin d? How could he achieve his goals for his city in the future if he poop non go bum and take a look of what happened in the chivalric?The city of Thebes, the city of secrets, the city of Gods, the city full of tragical with their King are what consists the shoo-in entitles, Oedipus Rex. What made Oedipus the King of Thebes? It all started with the legend of the Sphinx, a terrible monster in the Ancient Greece, whose body is consist of a lion, with wings of an eagle, and whose head is a head of a woman which had been displace to earth by the Gods to terrorize the land of Thebes to have a penalize on the source King, Laius, who raped a prince from a nonher indexdom. All citizens of the abject city entrust be asked by the Sphinx by his riddles, a drumhead blowing riddle, and those who cannot help, allow for be sent out of the earth. This had been a continuous function until one day, a man dared to pass a gate and unseemingly, sire able to conclude the riddle of the Sph inx.This man is Oedipus. Since the Sphinx riddle was answered, that delegacy the giant get out now stop from terrorizing the city of Thebes. With that, peopleidolized Oedipus, p go offd him as if he was a God like Zeus and the other great Greek Gods, and then a bit later, he was declared as the new King of Thebes, primarily because of his knowledge and not because of having someonewho will pass the crget and position to him, which what truly happens in the Greek generation that is if we are going to put it in the current government, specifically in the Philippine Setting, is what happens with a Political Dynasty.Painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicting Oedipus after he solves the riddle of the Sphinx. The Walters Art Museum.thitherfore, his wisdom is what he used to beable to lead the city in d admitfall, to be able to be aKing, which position is always dreamt by all thecitizens because of power yearning and desire tohave a power to do all things for their own and fo r theirfamily which makes them selfish notwithstanding like what wehave in the Philippine intercourse right now, the misuseof the taxpayers money, the continuous planning ofwhite elephant projects, misallocation of budget, allcomme il faut part of the politicians pocket. But, will it unfeignedly benefit the hunting lodge if someone like Oedipus will take the lead? Let us examine much who Oedipus is and what it that will and will not is make him a good leader.FREE WILL VERSUS DETERMINISMThe idea of complimentary will will always settle down in the explicate free, freedom. Attaining freedom and the word free are extremely oversize words. This simply means that having our own free will is having our own choices and it is on us to consider much(prenominal) constraints. It is not as world-beater othersof what is best for us, for example, when choosing a dress to wear or shoes to buy. This plays a precise important role in our finale making process.Determinism is also another wo rd that is so hard to fasten because of its vagueness of use and application. In any way, determinism is what pushes andpulls us to do certain things which actually will lead us to the goal and/or whitethornbe, will add us the answer whether we are up for this or not. This is also a philosophical position, a metaphysical one, which states that for everything that happens, there are conditions such that, pass byn(p) these conditions, nothing else could happen. This describes, simply, a cause and effect relation in variables.The free will and determinism inventions in the play in one way can be projected in the part where in Oedipus leadership was carefully examined. What is really, a hidden mountnda of a man to be a King of such a place? All politicians who run for a position, saying or hiding this, have their own agendum of doing so. It would be so scripted for the people or for the mass to say that their notwithstanding reason for asking a position is to have a ameliorate avenue to serve them, provide their basic social needs, to return anchor to them what they do for their nation as part of the nationbuilding, to offer his life as to bring progress and unite the people of a specific land. though there are really some whose objective is this, but I wonder if they are placed in position right now.Oedipus is rose-cheeked enough to be able to be the King of the City of Thebes, but, how about his tragic reversal of fortune as the story starts to end? Is it attributed to his own conduct? Or will it much reflect on his fate, which means that what happened is merely because it was planned, that is it was really meant to happen, and that it was not caused by the conduct of Oedipus?In an hearing point of view, what happened towards the end is mainly because of his conduct. The decease of Laius is really a big issue and as the one who overtook the position of the King who passed away, Oedipus was expected to give him the justice he deserves. He called on a ll of the people who may give him the answer of who is the man behind the death of the cause King and to somehow diminish the vagueness of the casing, but then, after hearing those that were express by the concerned people, Oedipus did not count what they have just said.Instead, he go on searching for the truth, but since it all comes back to him, that he is the murdered of the former king, he chose to disagree. If at the head start place, he accepted what his people said and searched for more details, the play might have ended in a less tragic moment. If, on the other hand, he did not gave his city asomewhat like an information black out of what is contingency to Laius case, it might have ended in a better way.In Oedipus point of view, as the play ends, he still chose not to believe on the words of his people which says that it was he who is the man behind the death of the king of Thebes who passed away, used his innocence of what he is, and made it to the point that everythi ng was situated by fate, first, him, being fortunate enough to be able to answer the riddle and be the King of the city, to have his people listen to him and such. Since he reflects every happening to fateboth the fortunes he received and the unneeded unfortunate until nowts that comes to life, what happened to him is governed and not related to his conduct as a leader and as a person as well.Oedipus can have avoided the tragic ending if he chose to lay down in his peoples words regarding the death of Laius. But what Sophocles did, is he chose to give his reader a somewhat heart attack, that as the play progresses, Oedipus kept all the information in him only, because he does not want anybody recognize him as a murderer especially because he is in a position, and itwas an extreme disconcert for him and to his family as well to be called as one, and because the one that is under investigation is the death of a big man in politics too, the former King of Thebes, Laius.Mans behavior in the world should be governed by free will. This is what it should be. But due to many constraints brought by the society, it becomes more governed by determinism as time passes by. What brings about determinism as the one which is trusty in governing peoples behavior?The social class. The concept of discrimination. The image of religion. The colonization and existence of imperialism. These are some circumstanceors which makes mans behavior be determined. Others have to be slave and others have to be masters. Others have to be the politicians in the Philippine government, while others have to be part of the marginalized, oppressed and powerless. Inequality, it is.INNOCENCE VERSUS GUILT artlessness is mainly due to lack of information. This causes lots of vagueness to things which happens to be difficult to understand. It affects peoples determination making and this is detrimental in coming up with something that is relevant, rational and critical. Guilt, on the other hand, is what people feel after doing something which brought something that is bad or is not advantageous to the other. It is more of a kind of reflection people commonly does after a sin has been committed. This makes a people better, because as he feels guilty, he becomes more prone in the realization of what he has through with(p) and that he should not do it again or any more so as not to affect or hurt his and the other peoples life in any way.Fig. 2 Oedipus and his wife. Oedipus Killed his begin and marry his mother.One of the moral question of Sophocles Oedipus Rex is that is He (Oedipus) should really be accountable for the death of Laius and for marrying his own mother? Is he innocent or if not, what makes sense?Some scholarly articles, says answers a firm no on the question of whether Oedipus was innocent on the crimes he did. Oedipus was ignorant of the true spirit of his actions and is therefore morally blameless. (Carel, 2000) The rationale behind this is that, he cannot be held liable because the true identity of his mother whom he married and his father who is the former king of Thebes, tragically, at that time, is different than his knowledge. Meaning, these two personas are strangers to him in the first place.But then, how can an intelligent man, holding accountable for knowing some information regarding his lineage, fail to understand the meaning of his actions towards the end of the play? In an audience point of view, Oedipus case of being innocent should no bimestrial be laid under the table. He is not innocent rather, he keeps his record on his own. As the story progresses, there is his secret that will soon be in the mouth of the public. It will all grind down to him, being regarded as an intelligent man who was able to answer the riddle of the Sphinx which happened to be the turning point ofthe citizens of Thebes that later gave rise to the resolve of Oedipus as the new King who will take over the term of the old man who died in the cros sroad.Therefore, if he will be regarded as innocent, then the justice for the death of Laius will not be attained, it will forever be a mystery or a case unsolved but is set aside, and it will also be practical to have more cases as such to come, which will make the city more in trouble instead of bringing the light back to them. Therefore, the daughter of Janet Napoles is then innocent for using the fund for the masses for her own stuff because she does not know that her mother is a thief, where in it is not possible for her not to ask her mom of where there billions came from or up to now realize what her mom does and how come she (Janet) was able to generate speed of lights and hundreds of thousands per day.Another raw thing, it is.This scenario significantly explains the importance of knowledge, a full and not partial and dyed knowledge, a relevant one. Having a full knowledge on something is very important in a way that it can help himself and even other people when they e ncounter problems, in such way, looking and formulating solutions will never be that hard. In the story of Oedipus Rex, it is possible for him to avoid the occurrence of what had happened in the end if he just evaluatedvery carefully all the things the people who are knowledgeable of what happened. But it happened to be not. It is because he just contained the information that he was able to gather from the people and rejected the fact that it may be really possible to be him who is the man behind the death of the former King of Thebes. In a more clearer perspective, he already had all the resources but then, he just disregarded everything and move to make his own process in giving the justice that should be obtained by the killed King.SIGHT VERSUS INSIGHTDarkness and light. The darkness in the play may be reflected in Oedipus blindness, literally and figuratively. Figuratively in a way that he is blinded from his own identity that he did not even know that he was the one who kille d his King before his term, that his king happened to be his ownfather, that he married a women on the age twice as he, that he did not know that it happened to be his mother. There are lots of revelations happened in the play and that made it as tragic as how Sophocles wanted it to be.This inconsistent argument brings confusion to whether Oedipus should really be held accountable for killing his father and marrying his mother. There is a point that is mentioned in earlier paragraphs that he lacked knowledge that is why, there is a mere fortuity that it is really not his intention to render the crimes that had been raised against her towards the end of the play.On the other hand, light signifies the latterpart of the play where in, slowly, every individualthing turns to be a much clearer that it is in theearlier part. It is when the vagueness of the storystarted to diminish, having a brighter view ofprediction of what will happen next. In the end, itis really true that no secret c an be kept forever.Oedipus is and then a very intelligent king, that as hereceived the province of being the KingFig. 3 Blind Oedipus embraces Antigone and Ismeneof Thebes whose primarily goal is to raise the city out of the downfall left by the former king who is killed. But then, there is really no perfect creature in the real world, though people might say that this is only a product of Sophocles wide imagination. Oedipus Rex knowledge is limited like the resources of the species in the world. It is only limited to the information on his environment, not with the information of his lineage, which set him blind from his identity that even his behavior have no a hundred percent hold that it was governed by free will or determinism.BIBLIOGRAPHY(2010,09) Oedipus Rex Innocence vs Guilt. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 09, 2010, from http//www.Studymode.com/essays/Oedipus-Rex-Innocence-Vs-Guilt409245.htmlCarrel, Havi Hannah. 2000. Secrets and Lies What Oedipus Really Knew. Orani Culture, Cr eation and Critique. France.Rueda, Edward. (n.d).Oedipus Family Circus. Texts for Craig Whites Literature Courses. University of Houston Clear Lake.