FREE ESSAY ON OEDIPUS REX

OEDIPUS REX

Matt Wardell
AP Enlgish IV
2nd Period Even
September 8th, 2000
It hurts to know
Knowledge is a great weapon used by society for help, comfort, and most importantly
advancement of the human race. Unfortunately, knowledge is often accompanied by sorrow
and grief. In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex Sophocles shows how Oedipus's thirst for the
knowledge of his past leads to his own demise.
Knowledge is not just given to the characters in the tragedy. Oedipus, sincerely and
seriously, must know it all, [and] see the truth at last(1169). He also most know the
percise truth, what exactly(1130) happened in his past. Oedipus feels that The time has
come to reveal this once for all(1153) knowing completely the sorrow the truth may bring.
He accepts that there may be grief following the truth shouting Let it burst! Whatever
will, whatever must!(1183) knowing that the truth may be something monstrus(1181). Once
Oedipus has been fed a morsel of truth he questions his wife, What - give up now?, with a
clue like this? Fail to solve the mystery of my birth? Not for the world!(1162). Oedipus
seals his own fate when he ask the chorus Even if god had never urged you on to act, how
could you leave the crime uncleansed for so long?(293). Oedipus is not the only one to
quest for knowledge. In the beginning the chorus wants to know Whose ruthless bloody
hands have done the work?(530) and Who is the man the voice of god denounces resounding
out of the rocky gorge of Delphi?(522). Jocasta, Oedipus's wife and mother, is also
inquisitive before her moment of recognition. When a messenger from Oedipus's birth land
comes to Thebes she ask, What have you come for? Have you brought news?(1021). We, like
the characters of Oedipus Rex, are inquisitive even knowing that the truth sometimes can
only bring sorrow to us and the ones we love.
Almost every piece of information learned in Oedpius Rex leads to more questions or
sorrow. When Oedipus learns of the troubles his people are having he "grievs for the
city"(76) , "[weeping] through the nights"(78). At Oedipus's moment of recognition he
exclaims O god - all come true, all burst to light ... I stand revealed at last.(1308).
As a direct action of his identity and the knowledge of his wife/mother's death he 
rips off [his wife's] brooches ... lifting them high, looking strait into the points
[and] he digs them into down the sockets of his eyes yelling ' you, you'll see no more
the pain I suffered!' ... [and] over and over raising the pins, raking them down his
eyes(1411).
Let alone the extreme physical pain Oedipus suffered he also had an unspeakable,
irreistible headwind(1452) of darkness ... swirling around [him](1451) all atrribitued to
his knowledge that he was cursed at birth, cursed in marrige, cursed in the lives [he]
cut down with [his] hands(1310). As Oedipus was not the only person to inquire for
knowledge he was also not the only character to suffer from sorrow. Even the community as
a whole suffered from sorrow. After hearing about their king's great sorrow the chorus
[weeps] like a man who wails the dead and the dirge comes pouring forth will all [its]
heart! ... and now [Oedipus] bring[s] down night upon [it's] eyes(1350). When Oedipus ask
to see the herdsman who will lead to the truth Jocasta screams out "in the name of god,
if you love your own life, call of this search! My suffering is enough(1162). As the
characters in the tragedy we too suffer from the knowledge we gain from our personal urge
to know everything. 
In Oedipus Rex Sophocles has used the tragic character, Oedipus, to show us that an
acquisition of knowledge must be accompianed by sorrow. We think that we must know it
all(1168) no matter the consequence's be. Every gain of knowledge in Oedipus has a direct
consequence, such the queens moment of recognition and her killing her self. Sophocles
shows us that if we are going to advance in life and in society then we must learn to
live ith the marrige of knowledge and sorrow, which in it self is quite sorrowful.