Hilda Tan (N1581062)

CCO103 TMA

CCO103 Critical Reading

TMA Question A
Hilda Tan Su Li (N1581062)
Word Count: 1,198 words

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Question A
I believe that King Oedipus can be adapted to various context outside an Ancient
Greek setting. At first glance, the play seems to be simple story of Oedipus and his
misfortune. However, looking deeper into the story, it can be seen that Sophocles has written
the play with underlying themes/issues, values and morals.

The issues and themes are brought across to the audience through the main
characters in the play, and the various situations the characters go through. In this situations,
Sophocles expands on the emotion the character feels. By the inclusion of emotions, he
allows the audience to put themselves into the shoes of the character, creating a very relatable
experience, since it is basic for all human beings to experience emotions such as fear, anger,
and love.

In this play, Sophocles brings up issues that the people of his time has been going
through such as incest and patricide. At the same time, he also brings in issues and topics that
are universally relatable. The combination of emotions and relatable issues and themes allows
the play to transcend time and cultures, making the play applicable in a variety of contexts.

The first theme/issue brought across is the fact that all human beings are flawed.
This can be seen in two examples. The first being Oedipus murder of his father and the
second being the planned murder of Oedipus by his parents. Looking at Oedipus example,
even though Oedipus was known as a wise man, as seen when he saved Thebes from the
sphinx, a loving son, as seen when he ran away from Corinth in fear that he would hurt his
foster parents, and admired by many as a great king, he still turned out to have made several
grave mistakes. Similarly, in the second example, though a mothers love has been said to
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overrule everything else, the fact that she agreed to kill her baby in her fear for survival,
shows that fatal mistakes can still be made when one comes face to face with a crisis.

Through both examples, I believe the writer is trying to express that no matter what
a persons personality, values, morals and status are, no one is immune to making mistakes.
There is no such thing as a perfect flawless being.

This also brings me to a sub-point, which is the notion that emotions can be a
contributor to the various flaws and mistakes a human makes. This can be seen in the same
examples I talked about above. In both situations, the main motivator that leads the characters
to the decision of killing, is the emotion created by the specific situation. For Oedipuss
parents, it was fear that moved them into action of killing their baby, while for Oedipus, it
was anger of being disrespected. This creates a relatable story as these are emotions that we
all go through on a regular basis.

The second theme/issue I felt was brought across, is not to judge a person by what
you see presently. An illustration of this can be found at the end of the play, when the chorus
ends off with a short paragraph describing how one should not and cannot be judged on just a
phase of life but the entirety of the persons life. Sophocles uses the irony of Oedipuss life;
powerful, admired, envied, prosperous, though plagued by disaster in the end, to bring across
this point.

What you see on the surface may not be a true depiction and reflection of what a
person really has. And while one may have certain things currently, there is no confirmation
that these things will still exist throughout his life. In my opinion, the overall message for the
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audience is to always keep striving for the greater good, no matter what your plight is now,
because you will not know your ending till it comes.

The third theme/issue is the sense of responsibility a person feels. Whether it is

towards ones family, or for ones own action, a sense of responsibility is a characteristic that
people can relate to all over the world. In the play, this sense of responsibility is illustrated in
several ways. This first is through Oedipus love for his children and his foster parents. He
feels a sense of guilt and sadness for his daughters as they will have to pay for the grave
mistakes he made with the rest of their lives. His sense of responsibility towards them can be
seen at the end when he asks Creon to promise to take care of his daughters. Similar to his
daughters, his sense of responsibility to his foster parents also stems from the love he has for
them. As love brings about a sense of responsibility not to hurt them, Oedipus rans away to
avoid this. Finally, one can see that Oedipus also feels a sense of responsibility for his people,
as he vows to do everything in his power to relieve them from the terrible plight they are in.

The audience is once again able to resonate with this part of the story, as this
theme/issue of responsibility is an attribute that can be seen in many areas of our lives today;
whether it is a childs responsibility to their parents, the parents responsibility to their
children, or the responsibility a leader has for his followers.

The final and main message of the play is the conflict between human agency and
determinism. Through the various situations the main characters go through, there is a
struggle of whether human agency is able to triumph over fate. Oedipus story and
misfortunate highlights this tug of war between the characters taking things into their own
hands and the oracles unchanging prophecy. The idea of human agency is illustrated twice in
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the book. The first is when Oedipus parents trying to take the oracles prophecy into their
own hands by killing the baby. This is later illustrated again, when Oedipus runs away from
Corinth trying to avoid the prophecy of killing his parents.

Though the story ends with the conclusion leaning more towards fate and showing
how futile human will is in the face of fate, it provokes one to think about the issue, causing
the audience to reflect and question their own values and beliefs.

Besides the use of emotions, Sophocles also provides the chorus as a medium to
further clarify and summarize the different situations that has occurred or the foreshadowing
of what is to come. On a whole, the chorus expresses thoughts from a very neutral point of
view, though sometimes it is also used to provoke thought in the audience.

On hindsight, though the play seems like a simple tragedy, at a closer look, King
Oedipus explores human nature and the various external factors that impacts our actions.
Sophocles has cleverly brought to life various underlying themes, values and morals that
provokes thought and reflection, throughout the story. With the use of emotions and relatable
topics, this story is one that people of all ages and cultures can relate to, thus showing that
King Oedipus is a play that is able to resonate with a world beyond those of ancient
Greece.

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References
Sophocles. (1947). The Theban Plays. England: Penguin Classics.

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