What can the post-modern world learn from a long-dead playwright and his tragic hero? Well, themes are generated by the human mind, not just by experts either. Readers and audiences of the play can take away many poignant (powerful, important) ideas. Here are a few that I have generated and reflected upon.
First off, there are the children of Oedipus, which are not themes until you think about what they represent. The children - Antigone, Ismene, Polyneices, and Eteocles - are pariahs (despised outcasts) through no fault of their own. They were the offspring of Jocasta and Oedipus, who are mother and son. Disgusting, right? And people might frown upon teaching such a play to high schoolers, but you have to look past the symbol to realize an important idea.
Oedipus had no idea that the woman he ended up marrying was his mother. He simply accepted the offer to become king after the Theban people granted it to him for saving them from the terrifying Sphinx. Jocasta had no idea that this man was her child since she assumed that her son had died long ago. Therefore, unknowingly, unconsciously, they created a terrible brood of children, who became abhorred by all.
So, what is the theme? It is actually quite a common and famous theme: The sins of the parents are visited upon their children. What we do today will impact our children, their children and beyond. Famously, the Iroquois Nation, a Native American culture, used to make sure that all of their councils made decisions for their people only after considering how those decisions would impact the seventh generation. Modern westerners, in general, do not think that far ahead. The result? Well, one or two generations after Einstein's revelations became new science and new technology, we had to worry about what to do with nuclear waste and how to prepare for possible nuclear holocaust. Now, Einstein and many of his fellow scientists were not trying to bring about our extinction, just as Oedipus had not intended to have children who were also his brothers and sisters. When we go forward blindly without considering how our current actions will impact our children, they will often have to pay the price for our blindness. American slavery is another important example. It was a four hundred year tradition that ended violently with the Civil War (no, that was not truly the end, but it was a major step). Initially, slavery was used because of economic reasons (which of course does not validate that decision). However, after a few hundred years, it was simply a system that was passed down, generation to generation. It only stopped when a few brave generations stepped forward and said, "No more!" Below is the slide we used in class:
A second important theme regards the balance between pride and humility. Oedipus shared a fatal flaw, a hamartia, with his father Laius - hubris. In fact, their pride had much to do with the tragedies that befell Thebes. When they met at the triple crossroads, neither would move off the path to let the other get by. This led to Oedipus killing his own father and validating the first part of the Oracle's prophecies. In Judeo-Christian theology, pride (synonymous with hubris) is considered so problematic that it is called one of the Seven Deadly Sins. In fact, it was hubris that led Lucifer, God's most powerful angel, to challenge God's power. It was also hubris that led Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In our own lives, how many of our conflicts are started for no other reason than because the parties involved are too prideful to concede, to give in? Often, politics become less about what is best for a country and degenerate into two parties deciding they do not want to give in because compromise feels like losing, therefore hurting pride. Hubris can cause us to lose sight of what is good because ego gets in the way. Oedipus showed this when he started to chastise the great seer, Tiresias. Though Oedipus knew Tiresias was old, wise and had long been trusted, when Tiresias spoke the truth, Oedipus' hubris caused him to declare the blind prophet a traitor. One way this famous theme is frequently stated is that "Pride comes before the fall," which means that hubris has a way of destroying a person, a society, and perhaps even a species, if they are not careful. Below is the slide we used in class:
Lastly, the fact that Oedipus is considered to be a hero throws some people, because he killed his father and made babies with his mother. Yes, his pride led him to killing his father, and his blindness led him to marrying his mother, but when the chips were down, he followed through on his promise to rid Thebes of the terrible plague that befell it. At the beginning of the play, he promised his people that he would do everything in his power to end the plague, and he wavered when Tiresias said he was the cause, but in the end, Oedipus kept going, even after he knew it meant disaster for him and for his family. People warned him to stop as he went forward, but as a man of action, he knew that the truth, however horrible, must come out. In the end, it did, and the consequences were dire for the Oedipus clan, but the plague was lifted, Thebes was healed and the curse of the House of Cadmus was ended by the parent who did not want the curse to go to further generations. In Sophocles' play Oedipus at Colonus, the blind and disgraced Oedipus was finally given on honorable burial because he had admitted his sins and atoned for them. One definition of honor is to do the right thing for no other reason than because it is the right thing to do, not for personal gain or notoriety. Thus, Oedipus became such an honorable hero. Though he had little to gain personally, he did the right thing. The theme then? The world depends upon "go-to" people, those who will act honorably for the sake of all. Consider that Martin Luther King, Jr. was told by his friends to stop going forward with his message of civil rights for all. Though it would have been in his interest to do so, he kept going and died for the cause. If he had not, where might we be today? Below is the slide we used in class:
As I said earlier, themes are generated by readers and audiences, not just by experts, but these are three themes I hope you will remember from Oedipus Rex.
No comments:
Post a Comment