Oedipus Rex Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Oedipus Rex - Essay Example But as it is revealed in the concluding part of the play some duties are fundamental, and even the interest of the state and its laws are subservient to it. The duty to bury the dead concerns humanity and it has nothing to do with the existing law or ruling by any authority. It is the moral duty that derives authority from the unrecorded law. The Parameters of Free Will is another theme that is part of the play. Tiresias predicts the arrest of one who is both father and brother to his own children. Oedipus reveals to Jocasta of a prophecy he came to know as a youth, that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, and Jocasta tells Oedipus of an identical prophecy given to Laius, that her son would grow up to kill his father. Oedipus and Jocasta enter into discussion about the extent to which prophecies should be relied upon at all, and when all of the prophecies come true, it appears that one of Sophocles’ aims is to defend the powers of the gods and prophets. In the play Oedipus has no other option but to fulfill the prophecy. Fate continuously overpowers him. Oedipus’s Swollen Foot is an example of symbolism in the play. Oedipus was left in the mountains with his ankles trapped together and Laius had abandoned him in that state on a desolate mountain shortly after he was born. Oedipus bears with this injury for the rest of his life and the scar is the indicator for the plight undergone by him. His injury symbolised the manner in which fate dealt with him and his movements were restricted since birth. That was Apollo’s prophecy to Laius. The Junction of Three-Roads: Jocasta mentions about the place where Laius is assassinated, where three roads intersect. This crossroad is mentioned often during the course of the play and it symbolises crucial moments of the play. Symbolically, a crossroad is the place where a decision has to be made about the path to