Oedipus the King: Unrealistic or Realistic Essay -- Oedipus the King

Oedipus Rex Unrealistic or Realistic Lets explore the traces of realsim and its contrary in Sophocles calamity, Oedipus Rex. The first obvious question is How can this drama possibly be considered realistic since it relies so heavily on predetermination and wad in the life of the pro dogonist, Oedipus? As Jocasta recounts to Oedipus An oracle Once came to Laius (I will not say Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from His ministers) declaring he was doomed To blend in by the hand of his own son, A child that should be born(p) to him by me. Charles Segal in Oedipus Tyrannus has a solid rebuttal to what appears foreordination The issues of destiny, predetermination, and foreknowledge are raised as problems, not as dogma. How ofttimes control do we have over the shape of our lives? How much of what happens to us is due to heredity, to accidents, to sheer luck. . . . These are the questions that the play raises, and it raises them as questions. It shows us custod y and women who are both powerful and helpless, often at the same moment. Oedipus embodies the gentleman condition. . . . (75-76). If this critic is correct that Oedipus embodies the human condition as it really is, past he is totally representative of reality, and not unrealistic as it energy appear on first reading. Victor Ehrenberg in Sophoclean Rulers Oedipus analyzes the protagonist of the tragedy and finds a balanced, realistic type who possesses the qualities of a king, including the human, realistic desire for more Oedipus is a good king, a father of his people, an honest and great ruler, tour at the same time an outstanding intellect. . . . He even shares the thro... ...Sophoclean Rulers Oedipus. In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. OBrien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. England Penguin Books, 1972. Segal, Charles. Oedipus Tyrannus Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New York Twayne Publishers, 1993. Sophocles In Literature of the western sandwich World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi Bowra, C. M. Sophocles Use of Mythology. In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1997.