Othello

Sophocles' Oedipus is a highly regarded play which has survived many years in the world of literature. A tragic play should make the audience feel both pity and fear. The tragic play Oedipus does just that. Sophocles uses sudden and tragic plot twists throughout the play to grip the audience and fill them with pity and fear.

To fill the audience with pity, Sophocles develops the main character with unique characterization. In the beginning of the play it becomes clear the audience that the main character, Oedipus, is a king, and a man of great wealth and fame. Some of the first lines in the play include Oedipus declaring, “Here I am myself- you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus.” Oedipus is not portrayed as an evil tyrant, but as a good man, who wants what is best for his family and the people of Thebes, of whom he rules over. However, as the play progresses, Tiresias the blind prophet predicts the future full of coming doom. Oedipus then speaks with the shepherd, who was supposed to murder Oedipus as a young infant but instead delivers him to a man from Corinth, and learns how he was adopted by the King and Queen of Corinth. The parents Oedipus knew were not his real parents. As the story unfolds, the pieces of this enigmatic puzzle all fall into place and come together, and Oedipus learns that the prophecy he received long ago at the Oracle of Delphi has been fulfilled. He runs away to avoid marrying his mother and murdering his father. Little does he know, Polybus and Merope, his adoptive parents, have absolutely nothing to do with the prophecy.

He then gets in a fight with an elderly man on the road, and kills him and his ...