The Themes in Oedipus Rex Essays -- Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex

The Themes in Oedipus Rex Sophocles tragedy, Oedipus Rex, contains iodin main theme, which this essay will consider. The theme is the general doctrine or belief implicit in the drama, which the author seeks to make persuasive to the subscriber (Abrams 170). In Sophocles object lesson Themes Robert D. Murray Jr. cites a critic who is strictly martinet in the interpretation of the theme of Oedipus Rex Let C. M. Bowra speak for the moralists The central psyche of a Sophoclean tragedy is that through suffering a man learns to be modest before the gods. . . . When the characters argon finally forced to see the truth, we drive in that the gods have prevailed and that men must accept their own insignificance. In short, for Bowra, the middle of each play of Sophocles is a message urging humility and pietism (45). Van Nortwick, seemingly in support of Bowra, describes Oedipus tragic flaw as something equivalent to the lack of modesty before the gods which Bowra refers to As ruler, he is a novice to Thebes and its citizens, and like a father he will transmit care of his children. We see already the supreme self-confidence and ease of ascendence in Oedipus, who can address not only other battalions children as his own, but also be a father to men older than he is. But beyond even this in that respect is, in the sretched posture of the citizens, the hint of prostration before a deity. We are clinging to your altars, says the priest. . . . That he also exudes a godlike control condition in the eyeball of his subjects only strengthens the heroic portrait. . . .(21-22). The godlike mastery to which Van Nortwick refers is the same mastery which Creon in his final lines designates as the cause of the... ...of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. OBrien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Jevons, Frank B. In Sophoclean Tragedy, Humans Create Their Own Fate. In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1997. Murray, Robert D. Jr. Sophocles Moral Themes. In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1997. Sophocles In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. no pag. http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed& character reference=0&id=SopOedi Van Nortwick, Thomas. Oedipus The Meaning of a Masculine Life. Norman, OK University of okay Press, 1998.