Oedipus the King themes of light and dark, and sight and blindness

Of course, the essence of the figure out with take note to these themes of light and dark, sight and blindness, is the self-blinding of the protagonist when he discovers the truth of his past, and essential face his own arrogance with respect to the gods. He blinds himself beca routine he cannot bear to look upon others who would except reflect his guilt bandaging to him: "What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could vex me joy" (241).

This play ends with a great waken, nevertheless without redemption, victory, or joy. The lesson Oedipus has "seen" is too much for him to bear. He blinds himself because the "horror of darkness" (240) to which he condemns himself seems to him a better dictate than the world of sight which he does not deserve. Yet he certainly finds no stay from his guilt in the darkness in this play.

Oedipus resentments in this play primarily when he is confronted with a situation over which he has no control. His furiousness is meant to demonstrate two things: his arrogance, pride or hubris in relation to the gods; and at the same time the punishment the gods mere out to him as the result of that hubris. The gods hunch over that Oedipus is a willful man who will follow the mystery to its end, and whose rage will serve as a spark to that willfulness. The gods use his rage against him, knowing that anger will force him to never surrender in his quest for the truth which will in the end destroy him.

Memory is thusly both a tool and a context in which the beginning of awakening takes place, in which the mortals begin to recognize their mend position beneath the gods. When mortals begin to think they are unbound by moral limitations, they will find punishment from the gods. If they make it and use their memory, as does Odysseus, they will achieve wisdom and victory.

Homer. The Odyssey. in the raw York: Vintage, 1990.

Of course, victory does not issue forth in the first one-half of the poem. The poet faces the wrath of the gods for the "overweening" of his men in the first half, and finally returns home to his wife in victory in the guerrilla half (Books XIII-XXIV).

Part of the reason for the length of Odysseus' adventure is that the awakening of an individual's consciousness in recognition of one's responsibility to other serviceman beings, to society, and to the gods is a slow process.

Odysseus has come to recognize that the idea of valor is not based simply on military artistry but on maturity, wisdom, selflessness, and the belief that one's efforts acquire meaning only insofar as they advance the needs of the society. He has come to recognize these redeeming facts through overcoming tremendous obstacles in The Odyssey, but also through the tool of memory.

His rage drives him to increasingly place himself above his fellow humans, on a par with the gods. He angrily calls Thebes "my city" and Creon corrects him, "My city too, not yours alone (195). By then, however, Oedipus is as truly insane as Creon says he is, and his rage drives him even more mad.

As laid out in this epic poem, the story of Odysseus is one in which memory serves as a tool working the protagonist and his fellows toward the recognition of their rightful(prenominal) place in relationship to other human beings in society and to the gods. The first section of the work lets us know the problem of Odysseus---to return home and to take charge of the individual(prenominal) and political situation which has slipped out of hi
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