Symbol Of Wisdom Through Literature

Symbol of wisdom through literature

Introduction

Literature is one of the most glorious arts that exist. Among them we have one of its origins, a guy that is based until today of numerous modern literary works, as well as ancient. We are talking nothing more and nothing less than the Greek tragedy. The Greek tragedy centralizes the protagonist or hero, destroying it as the work progresses, until a catastrophic outcome has. It is to this genre to which Oedipus Rey belongs, written by the great Greek writer Sophocles.

Developing

Throughout this tragedy it is possible to observe how blindness becomes a key part of the work. In the work of Oedipus Rey, it is present as a central theme, psychological blindness as a symbol of pride and wisdom, since Oedipus represents stubbornness by not wanting to see the truth, while wisdom, which is a gift from the gods, which is a gift from the gods , which will conflict in the course of the plot. The above will be checked through the external conflict facing the characters.

Each of the aforementioned characters wants to have the reason for the facts. And, in addition, with the internal characterization of each of these characters, they naturally collide their personalities, causing an even bigger conflict. The blindness is present as pride and wisdom in the protagonist of the story, Oedipus, when they mention it on numerous occasions at the beginning of the tragedy, which was what was actually going to happen.

But he with his pride and stubbornness, develops psychological blindness.

This caused it to invent more conflicts that would be the ones that would subsequently give continuity to the work. On the other hand, the gift that the gods gave to Tiresias, the wisdom, is what puts in conflict to Oedipus because he discredited all the wisdom and knowledge that he had tiresias saying that these were lies. All of the above demonstrated in the following appointment: “Tiresias: really? I warn you, then, that attenating the edict that you have published, from this day you will not direct the word. Neither these nor me, because it is you the culprit that mancillas this land." 

(Sophocles) The internal characterization of Tiresias and Oedipus also plays an important role within the conflict they had, driven by the wisdom of the seer. The characterization of the characters within any type of work is of the utmost importance because it gives us a little more context and makes us closer to the characters and their ways of being. Oedipus’ character and temperament were very strong, and it could also be said that sometimes he became challenging.

This was the way she interacted with various characters, waiting to intimidate. On the other hand, Tiresias was an helpless, blind, but with abundant wisdom, his character was calm and always sure, something that bothered Oedipus by being accustomed to always being the dominant in a conversation, after all, he was The most powerful man of Thebes. This created a clash of personalities. The characters and temperaments led us to the conflict climb very quickly.

An Oedipus hatred was built, and he took actions against the old man. As seen in the following appointment: “Oedipus: Do you think you will continue with your offenses without receiving punishment? Tiresias: Yes, if the truth has any power.”(Sophocles) The blindness is the most important symbol of Oedipus Rey, since, if this was not present a large part of the conflict that makes this tragedy, one of the most important ever written, would probably have been forgotten in ancient Greece.

conclusion

This work was one of the most relevant, perhaps it would have been destroyed by the Romans without any effort to keep it. Without blindness, the work would simply not work and we would have a work without any conflict to follow. In general, not only in Oedipus Rey, the symbols within a successful work make her stand out from the other pile, causing them to go down in history and be remembered forever, as Oedipus Rey, written more than two thousand years ago.

References

Bibliography:

Sophocles. Oedipus King Antigone. Mexico City: Castillo.

Hugo Hiriart. Greek tragedy. February 11, 2018, from Libres.