“This is a terrible sight for men to see! I never found a worse! 1490 Poor wretch, what madness came upon you! What evil spirit leaped upon your life to your ill-luck—a leap beyond man’s strength! Indeed I pity you, but I cannot look at you, though there’s much I want to ask 1495 and much to learn and much to see. I shudder at the sight of you.”
I interpreted this quote as religious karmic payback. Combining the dynamic between Oedipus and Jocasta and Oedipus and Laius, all the morally questionable actions that happened throughout the play make it so that the life choices he made came back to bite him in the ass. In line 1493, “ill-luck” is very important to how like dominoes action after action is karmic. In exchange for these poor actions, they had to give up something to balance it out. For Oedipus, his father’s killing being unintentional makes everything more impactful. Even in lines 1493 through 1496, the chorus can’t look at him but are intrigued at how he got to this point. I think it’s a double meaning one for his sins and the other for his appearance with the gouged-out eyes, doing so with Jocasta’s own dress pins. He is a tragic hero, being the King of Thebes and having many flaws. Overall, the quotes from the chorus shame Oedipus not only for his crimes of incest and murder but also for his attempt to escape the reality he created, gouging his eyes out in shame and disgust at his own actions.
2 thoughts on “Shaniyah Chisolm Discussion 6”
Shaniyah, we’re trying to avoid SPOILER information here. We are reading the first ten pages of the play, and quotes should be from this section so as not to ruin the suspense for those who may be unfamiliar with the work.
Oh okay, my apologies.