Comparing the Oedipus of Sophocles and Senaca :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing the Oedipus of Sophocles and Senaca The myth of Oedipus is one of a bit brought down by forces aligning against him. Over the years, different playwrights have taken his character in various fashions. In Sophocles Oedipus the King, Oedipus is a man who is contrivance to the path on which his questions take him and exemplifies the typical tyrannical leader in ancient times in Senacas Oedipus, it is the fear of his questions that give Oedipus a greater depth of character, a depth he must cut through if he is to survive his ordeal. Sophocles creates a character of extreme wrath and vehemence to deal with the base of the blight on the city. He curses stunned the sea wolf of King Laius, the killer who has brought the blight. Upon the murderer I invoke this curse whether he is one man and all unknown or one of more may he wear out if life in tribulation and doom If with my knowledge he lives at my hearth I petition that I myself feel my curse. On you I lay my char ge to effect all of this for me, for the God, and for this land of our destroyed and blighted, by the God forsaken (Soph. O.T. 245-254). When it is suggested that Oedipus himself could be the source of the plague, his anger emerges in full force. (Truth has medium,) but not for you (Teiresias) it has no strength for you because you are blind in mind and ears as well as in your eyes (Soph. O.T. 370-371). The Oedipus of Senacas play is not nearly so rash. He seems to dread what will come from his exploration into the death of Laius, point though the condition of his city is just as terrible as that of Sophocles. I shudder, wondering which way fate will steer. My shaky sense of humor could waver either way. When joys and griefs so close together lie, the mind is doubtful. How more than should one see? How much is best to know? Im dubious (Sen. Oed. 204-208). This Oedipus even has thoughts that the plague might have something to do with him, that his find oneself might be the poll ution that has descended upon the city (Sen. Oed. 40). It is this anxiety that Seneca wishes to bring out in his play, one of the emotions that are the downfall of man.