Oedipus Rex Paper

Christaine Butin

Ms. French

English 2H-F

10 December 2015

The Truth

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants

on.” (Medawar) Winston Churchill stated this. In Oedipus the King, there were lies that had to be elucidated. This is where the truth came into play. It had to be told in order for a plot to be resolved. The truth is essential in order to make situations less dramatic and clarify everything. Knowing too much can be a bad thing. Sophocles is trying to convey that the truth is an omen since it ruined two characters in the story. It depends on how people take the truth. This can either be taken bad or seen at another angle. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, some characters took the truth to the next level. Both of them took their lives since according to Sophocles, the truth kills and hurts. This all could have been avoided at the origin of the problem. All events could have turned out differently, if the truth was told.

In Oedipus the King, there were many lies that could have been clarified by the truth

without causing controversies. When people know so much, they are impelled to tell everyone. When Oedipus found many clues, he dragged people into it. For example, the scene where the two messengers imply the truth of where Jocasta realizes that Oedipus is her son. The information is necessary for getting the truth out, but Jocasta took it harshly by brutally hanging herself. By this action, Oedipus blinded himself. This action exposes a deep dark secret, in which the citizens in Thebes finds out. It’s better to expose a secret to a select few that can be trusted. In this case though, everyone knows because of a character’s actions. Instead of this happening, the shepherds could have told Jocasta personally. This deep secret also caused labels. In the beginning, Oedipus was labeled as the king who saved Thebes from the Sphinx. But at the end of the play, Oedipus is known as the person who killed his father and married his mother.

Even though the truth can be taken many different ways, Sophocles’ definition of truth

is different from many others. He thinks the truth makes situations worst and has a negative effect on people. In the scene with Tiresias and Oedipus, Sophocles avoided the truth by having this argument, which catalyzed the plot. The arguments between Tiresias and Oedipus and argument, in which Oedipus physically squeezed the truth out of the other shepherd was circumlocution. This was all distraction from finding answers to the real plot; finding the murderer who is himself. The truth is powerful enough to do bad things or good things. All people need to do is view the truth in a different angle. The truth in this case didn’t resolve the problem. The conflict was resolved, but was in an interesting way by Oedipus binding himself. He thought that this would make everything better, but it didn’t.