Through Oedipus the King, (430 B.C) by using foreshadowing, Sophocles successfully hints at the prophecys coming true as well
Quan Nguyen (863 not including header, title, and works cited)
Professor Juncker
English 1B
8 December 2010
Blindness
“Oedipus the King” (430 B.C) is one of the most famous dramas of Sophocles, which is about Oedipus who is miserably fated to kill his father and get married with his mother when he grows up. The dreadful prophecy ends up coming true regardless of his and the parents’ effort of staying away from the cruel and terrified destiny. Through “Oedipus the King,” (430 B.C) by using foreshadowing, Sophocles successfully hints at the prophecy’s coming true as well as Oedipus’s blinding himself, which are two main important points throughout the whole play; thus, a significant view is underscored as well which is fate is inescapable no matter how hard people try to avoid it.
First, Sophocles uses foreshadowing to convey that the prophecy about Oedipus’s fate will come true no matter what happens. Through Tiresias’ mysterious words which anger Oedipus, Sophocles skillfully implies that the prophecy ends up coming true regardless of Oedipus and his parents’ effort of avoiding it. For instance, when Tiresias finally reveals to Oedipus, “You are the curse, the corruption of the land!” (Sophocles 401) after being forced by the king to tell who the person killing Laius is. Moreover, it is vital the scene when he angrily tells Oedipus, “That day you learn the truth about your marriage, the wedding-march that sang you into halls, the lusty voyage home to the fatal harbor!” (482-484), and also “This day will bring your birth and your destruction” (499). It clearly foreshadows for us readers that the prophecy will end up coming true and becoming a big shock to everybody who are relevant. If Oedipus did not eagerly want to figure out who murdered Laius as well as ask the blind prophet Tiresias to come and force him to tell the truth with his harsh words, he would not have tried his best to prove that what Tiresias said was totally nonsense and ended up realizing the prophecy’s coming true. In addition, through the conversation between Oedipus and Jocasta, his wife as well as his mother also hints at Oedipus’s revelation of the dreadful prophecy fulfillment. For instance, when Jocasta says, “The heralds no sooner reported Laius dead than you appeared and they hailed you king of Thebes;” (812-813) plus, when Oedipus keeps asking. “Laius – how did he look? Describe him” (816) and she answers, “[…] his build… wasn’t far from yours,” (818) they are foreshadowing for the fact that Laius is Oedipus’s father and he is also the one Oedipus has killed. All in all, by using the blind prophet’s strong comment and foreshadowing from Oedipus and Jocatta’s conversation about Laius, Sophocles hints to readers that the prophecy already comes true before the main characters realize it themselves.
