A Simple Me, Daring For Ultimatums

Monday, March 30, 2009

2 nouns & 2 adjectives- what would i say?

In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, the 2 nouns and 2 adjectives are very important to describe Oedipus’s characteristics. The 2 nouns are wisdom and fool, and the 2 adjectives are wise and foolish. The characterization of Oedipus has many changes based on these 2 nouns and 2 adjectives in the play.

Having wisdom means Oedipus has the knowledge of no other men had except Teiresias. He knows well about the plaque that exists and suffers the Thebans. He thinks of solutions for the plaque as he wants the Thebans to live without sufferings.
Being wise is what Oedipus has done in his actions. He does great things on people and the people like him. When the Thebans come to him regarding the plaque, he is wise to cast out the plaque by promising this to them, “Then once more I must bring what is dark to light…but for my own sake, to be rid of evil.”-line 134 & 140.

However, Oedipus is a fool because the promise of getting rid of the plaque with a request of getting more information of why the plaque exists from Teiresias has jeopardized his status as the King of Thebes. The plaque envelops the Thebans because of his past actions he had done to King Laios. Because of his sinful action, he has to give his status away to Creon, his brother in-law and an uncle to him. He gets back to Kithairon where he was before to grieve and to die alone with his sin.

Another adjective, foolish, is Oedipus has brought harms to himself and his people as well. His killing to King Laios has led to the plaque and to the lost of his kingship in Thebes. He cannot solve the plaque and he has lost his king status when he finds out that he is the cause of King Laios’s death and the player of the 3 oracles.

I think these nouns and adjectives are the skill of how to recognize Oedipus’ characteristics. The detection of these on Oedipus will help me to understand his characteristics as a king of four faces. As for me, king is still a human. Commoners are still human. To measure our status is just through knowledge, undeniably wealth and achievement in lifetime. However, we are just mere humans. And, being human means you are not perfect but try to reach perfections. And for not being perfect, we will have mistakes. And for reaching perfections, we do have mistakes. Because of having mistakes in every way we do, we should start to accept who we are and try to improve ourselves. In the meantime, we should not show disrespects and give underestimate remarks to those who have stumbled before reaching their goal.

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