Prophecy is of uttermost importance to the Greeks. Gods are very important to Greeks and since prophecies are like the words of their gods, the Greeks take prophecies to the next level of importance and go to extreme measures to prevent bad or unwanted prophecies from happening. In example, in Oedipus you don’t find out until later that Oedipus’ mother was trying to prevent him from killing his father by ordering him to be killed, but he was never killed. Oedipus was so bewildered when the Shepherd told him that, he asked how and the Shepherd replied, “she was afraid--frightening prophecies”(l. 1296).
This impacts both Oedipus and Jocasta. After discovering the prophecy was fulfilling, Oedipus ran to find Jocasta, “the woman hanging by the neck, cradled high in a woven noose spinning, swinging back and forth”(l. 1395-1397). Oedipus then took the gold pins from Jocasta’s robe and dug them into his eye sockets, crying, “You, you’ll see no more pain I suffered, all the pain I caused”(l. 1405-1406). This completely fulfils the prophet. He has already killed his father, made love to his mother, and he was now blind. Just as the prophet said, “...your father’s curse will whip you from this land one day, their footfall treading you down in terror, darkness shrouding your eyes that now can see the light”(l. 476-479).
The quote that relates best to this part of the story is this one, by Johnny Depp. In the quote, Johnny Depp says that “you can close yours eyes to the things you don’t want to see,” which relates to how Jocasta was closing her eyes in the face of the facts that showed Oedipus was the killer. And the second part of the quote, “...but you can’t close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel” relates to how Oedipus could not deny that he was the killer and he would be willing to admit to it once he found out it truly was he who was the killer.
I love your discussion about the prophecy. Oedipus does not understand that an individual's fate/ prophecy cannot be escaped. Eventually his prophecy was going to come true no matter how hard he tried to avoid it.
ReplyDeleteProphecy plays an enormous role in the play because hearing prophecies is what drove the characters to take actions that ultimately caused the prophecies to be fulfilled. If Jocasta and Laius never abandoned Oedipus, he may not have ended up marrying his mother and murdering his father. It is ironic that as soon as Oedipus is able to see the light and the truth of what has happened, he is blinded. This is a contrast to the metaphorical blindness he had when he refused to accept the truth. This connects back to Tiresias who could see the truth from the start, but was blind.
ReplyDeleteBasically this whole play revolves around prophecy and how Oedipus tries to escape it, but his actions that would lead him to escaping it only lead him closer to it.
ReplyDeleteI like the connection to the quote. It's easy to hear and believe a prophecy when it deals with someone else, but in the case of Jocasta, one can only pretend it's not true. Just as in life we all believe bad things can never happen to us until it does.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if the prophecies in Greek mythology represent bad omens. They all seem to foreshadow the turning point of a play. In Oedipus the King, the prophecy that Teiresias gives to Oedipus foreshadows the plot and the turning points of the play. Everything seems to go downhill for Oedipus from this point forward.
ReplyDeleteProphecy is a major motif in the play. Oedipus does not want to believe the prophecy and does everything to avoid his fate. He ends up doing exactly what the prophecy stated.
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