Finish Oedipus the King by Sophocles and write/post a journal: Choose an important quote from the reading and explain why it is important.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2005

Answers

The quote I chose as one of the most important is from lines 1492- 1497:

"I'd have never come to this, my father's murderer--never been branded mother's husband, all men see me now! Now, loathed by the gods, son of the mother I defiled coupling in my father's bed, spawning lives in the loins that spawned my wretched life. What grief can crown this grief? It's mine alone, my destiny--I am Oedipus!"

This is a rather large quote, but I think it is a very important one. It is the whole idea behind what we have had to read, that there is a man who though he does nothing all that terribly wrong, it is his fate to suffer. By saying at the end "It's mine alone, my destiny--I am Oedipus!" he shows that he has accepted what he has learned to be true, and Sophocles leaves 'I am Oedipus' until the end to emphasize it; Oedipus is the man whom the Gods and/or fate have decided his destiny, one filled with suffering and punishment. I can just imagine an actor standing up on the stage and almost yelling in a loud voice "I am Oedipus"...the sound rings out throughout the audience, gives a sense of him courageously braving fate.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2005

I chose lines 1679-1685, spoken by the chorus at the very end of the story. Since it is spoken by the chorus, who are representing the town in its entirety, it shows their feelings towards their king, and how it has changed over time. It begins by telling of how he came to be king, by besting the Sphinx, and describes how much they looked up to him. It then mentions his downfall, his "black sea of terror." They loathe him then, and declare that no man will be happy until he is wiped from the earth. They state their true feelings for Oedipus and his "terrible" deeds.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

"It's all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark. Better to live at random, best we can."

Are our lives arbitrary, or do we control them? Or are they controlled by gods? Jocasta is an unbeliever. Prophecy schmophecy, and we go back to our class discussion, which I don't particularly feel like explaining.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

lines 1357-8 "i tell you neither the waters of the Danube nor the Nile can wash this palace clean."

this is an important quotation becasue it illustrates how much weird stuff has been going on. the king of the town killed his father(weid thing #1) and married his mother (weird thing #2). he then had children with is mother, now his wife(weird thing #3). Then he found out about all of this. His mom/wife proceded to hang herself (weird thing #4) and he gauged out his eyes as punishment (weird thing #5). this stary was full of unormal things and this passage really showed how bad and soap-operaish this guys life was. If you think of the size of teh Danube and Nile, and them not being able to wash somthing, you know its bad. PS - isnt there a shakespear that says somthing about 'all the niles of the world could not wash my hands of this sin' when this husband and wife just got back form murdering somthing? i think myabe richard III but i have no idea. just pointing out that the nile washing htings away is used as a metaphor in literature a lot.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

"People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus. He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance, he rose to power, a man beyond all power. Who could behold his greatness without envy? Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him. Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last." Chorus

I like this quote because it really reveals alot of truths about life, sums up the story, and leaves up with a deep impression left upon us. Poor Oedipus was a man who had everything going for him, until he tried to change fate, as his parents did, which ironically led him to his fate as it often will. It is a pity that he had to make himself go blind, but I guess that he had his reasons. Plus, now he feels really bad for his children because they won't grow up and live proper lives. The quote in general says alot about the story, and gives up a very apparent theme, "Count no man happy till he dies, free from pain at last."

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

Lines 1221-1227 are very important because these lines are when Oedipus first finds out about the shepherd. The Shepard tells him the truth and tells him that he in fact did kill his father and marry his mother, like was said in the prophecy.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

"Still the king, the master of all things? No more: here your power ends. None of your power follows you through life." (Ln. 1676-1678)

This is important because it is the end of King Oedipus's life, essentially. He had been stripped of his self-esteem, honor, family, the throne and his people, and finally his children. The quote shows how powerless he was against the workings of fate; how as much as he tried, he did everything he sacrificed so much not to do. How ruthless fate ripped everything from him he had.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

1676-1679

Creon tells Oedipus that he no longer has power in Thebes, and it shows the punishment for doing just one small thing wrong. Oedipus loses all his power and is forced to live on a mountain as a blind man.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

Lines 1069-1078

This entire page is dripping with Sophocles' irony. After discovering that Polybus is dead, Jocasta reassures Oedipus that since that particular prophesy did not come to pass, than neither will he be fated to bed his own mother. In fact, she tells him to "Take such things for shadows, nothing at all--Live, Oedipus, as if there's no tomorrow!"

Of course, in just a few hundred lines the messenger from Corinth arrives and it all goes to Hades, for Jocasta at least, as she begins to piece things together.

So, this section is representative of the underlying irony throughout the play, and the stubbornness of most of the characters; their refusal to believe the worst until they absolutely have to.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

People of Thebes, my countrymen, look on Oedipus.
He solved the famous riddle with his brilliance,
he rose to power, a man beyond all power.
Who could behold his greatness without envy?
Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him.
Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day,
count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last.
Lines 1679-1685

The whole passage is a very concise summary of the whole play. That last line is extremely chilling... Even if you live a life full of happiness, power, fame... all those good things, you may become horribly miserable and wretched some time before you die and are "free of pain at last". Yikes. Maybe I'll keep that in mind for my life.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

"Fear? What should a man fear? It's all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a manon earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark. Better to live at random, best we can. And as for this marriage with your mother-- have no fear. Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his mother's bed. Take such things for shadows, nothing at all-- Live, Oedipus, as if there's no tomorrow!"

This quote shows Jocasta's views on what all has happened. She thinks that one should just accept the negative and live at the moment. Oedipus should just forget about what has happened to him, because it has no doubt happened to someone before him in history, and because it'll ruin the rest of his life and some surrounding lives. "Not a man on earth can see a day ahead." When she says this she is telling Oedipus that stuff happens, stuff is going to happen, and no matter what you can't change it or forsee it.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

“Die, die – whoever he was that day in the wilds who cut my ankles free of the ruthless pins, he pulled me clear of death, he saved my life for this, the kindness – Curse him, kill him!” ~ Oepidus

I believe this quote is important in the process of understanding how Oedipus truly feels about the situation because he’s showing his contempt for the person who actually saved his life. This is ironic in a way because in most cases people would be quite grateful to the person who saves there life’s. This is somewhat of a suspected emotion because of the heinous mix-up of his life that he’s just found out about in the last couple hours, it seems like.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

"Now as we keep our watch and wait for the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last."

This quote comes at the end of the play. It says that no one is ever really happy until death, which, while considered awful, is when one is finally free of pain and misery. While it describes Oedipus, and how his once glorius life ended in tragedy, it applies to everyone, and shows how unhappiness and pain are facts of life, and the only true escape is death. (though that's not really the best way)

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005

I beleive that the most important lines in this reading were lines 1307-1308. "O god- all come true, all burst to light!" This is the deffinitive moment where Oedipus recognizes the truth that the prophets have revealed and he hsa been fleeing from. Although the audience knew this fact long before this, it took Oedipus until those lines to figure it out.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005

1307-1311

Oedipus realizes that his fate is real and it will soon be revealed to the world. This is important because he tried to avoid it earlier in his life, but he couln't escape it. He was cursed in birth, marriage, and the lives that he took.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005

I chose a quote from Jocasta that begins on line 1035. "Quickly, go to your master, tell him this! You propecies of the gods where are you now? This is the man that Oedipus feared for years, fled him, not to kill him - and now hes dead, quite by chance, a normal natural death, not murdered by his son." This quote offers temporary relief from the tnesion and seems to suggets that fate is sometimes wrong, but the way Jocasta mocks the gods seems to bring about Oedipus's demise as well as hers.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005