Oedipus The King Symbolism Essay

Symbolism in Oedipus the King
Does the fear of one’s fate sometimes cost one a lot more? Fate is about choices that one picks that will set their destiny. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, it becomes obvious of what is to come of Oedipus’ future. The play takes place in 430 B.C. in the city of Thebes. There was a plague in the city that had all the people sitting near death’s door. Oedipus, who is the king of the city, wants to find out the problem and how to solve it. He will send out his brother-in-law, Creon, to speak with Apollo about the plague. When returning to the King, Creon tells Oedipus the King that whoever must of killed Laius, who was the former king, must be brought to justice in order to lift the plague. Oedipus will then
It becomes evident that there are symbols that lead Oedipus to discover who he really is. Symbols are objects, colors, or characters that are used to represent concepts and abstract ideas. Oedipus the King was represented by many symbols such as sight verse blindness, Oedipus’ “swollen foot,” and the three-way crossroads. If Oedipus was not blinded by the truth, would he had seen his fate?
Oedipus the King was represented by many symbols such as sight verse blindness. Throughout the play, it was a consent battle between sight and blindness. The words “sight,” “blind,” “eyes,” “vision,” and “see” were used numerous of times throughout the play. The sense of having knowledge is very symbolic to the play. Knowledge had to do with both sight and blindness (Howe 129). The prophet Teiresia, who was actually blind, could see right through the past, the present, and the future of Oedipus’s life. Oedipus’s eyes were completely fine, yet he was completely blinded by the truth itself. His fate was already endangered and he just could not get himself to believe the truth (Schroeter 187). Towards the end of the play, Oedipus will finally see the light of his fate. This will set Oedipus into an angry, rave state of mind. Oedipus will then blind himself by stabbing his own eyes
Jocasta, Oedipus’s wife, said at the place of the murder there were three roads that met. Little did Oedipus know that the three-way crossroads would help determine his fate (Lesser 180). At the beginning, readers learn of the dreadful prophecy. The prophecy said Oedipus would kill his father. Long before the Oedipus had become king, Oedipus had killed a man at the three-way crossroad. Oedipus had thought the man be one of a band of thieves (Lesser 181). As the play goes on, readers will see that the three-way crossroads are bought up a few times. Crossroads are usually symbols of choices that lead to decisions that can affect the rest of one‘s life. Decisions can have important consequences with different choices that can still happen and be mad. The three-way crossroads are symbols in Oedipus the King’s past. This would be the moment where Oedipus and Laius would be reunited. Oedipus is very unaware that at that dim moment he would be making a decision for his own fate. The three-way crossroads symbolizes decision and choices of one’s fate. The paths are not just roads but the outcomes of varies decisions. The decision on what path to take is up to the person in the crossroads. Picking a positive path is up to the person and would remain a mystery until one embarks on that journey. At that point in Oedipus’s life, he had a choice on what path to pick. He could have went on the path that led to his destiny