The Theme of Appearance and Reality in Oedipus Rex
Tragedy of Appearance
The theme of appearance and reality is so dominant in Oedipus Rex and the obsession with appearance plays such an important role in the tragedy of Oedipus that the play has been called a tragedy of appearance in human life, in which the opposite of appearance is truth or reality. The old view that considered Oedipus Rex a tragedy of fate is wrong, especially fate in the sense of freedom as opposed to freedom. It should be noted that no ode in the play sings of fate, but in a poem the main reference to appearance - the appearance of happiness. The Ode claims that none of the men can achieve more happiness. From his mere appearance, and that even such a person should fall before it. Even the appearance of happiness has won.
The battle of appearance
It is first of all from the side of appearance that we see the battle fought in Oedipus Rex. As this battle progresses we see appearance losing more and more ground. The first step in this is the institution of a divinely directed inquiry into Laius' death, which means that his appearance - that it was the work of outside robbers - is not at all trusted at the beginning of the inquiry. Oedipus is misled by an appearance - that the robbers accused of attacking Laius must have belonged to Thebes, and it is certain that Creon was behind them. "Creon, pointing the question to Creon, suspects that he could not have been pursued after the act that inevitably arose. Why not? The Sphinx. After this, for some time, to be sure, suspicion seems to be dormant. But the attention is no longer on the scene, but on the people who committed the crime, or who were responsible for it? Then suddenly, after a quarrel with the enemy and the apparently malevolent prophet, the suspicion is confirmed, the connection between Creon and Teiresia is established, and the fact that Oedipus suspects that the robbers were bribed and were behind it is confirmed. Thus the assumption of a conspiracy to kill Laius is another appearance that has a similar appearance in Sophocles that Laius's murderer could have raised a similar hand against Oedipus.
Oedipus has to worry about two appearances whose investigation becomes his life's mission, so that he can reach the truth or reality. Oedipus does not live first in illusion but in objective lies and mere appearances - the rupture of truth in the apparent structure is the result of successive intrusions at two points, the first at its periphery, the second at its center: the first question, "What is hidden before me that it is my task to bring to bear?" and then by the second question, "What am I, and what is my own true being?" At first the latter question is hidden behind the former, 'the hen walks side by side in secret concert for some distance, to merge at last. All the while the structure tries to maintain itself, and it damages its forces against the point from which the danger comes." Oedipus believes in the appearance of an unknown enemy and pronounces a sentence of corruption upon him, and also curses him. The fact of this is that he himself is inflicting both sentences. The detachment and the increasing references to himself raise the suspicion that unconsciously Oedipus knows what truth lies behind the appearance. Oedipus extends the curse and the ban to himself, arguing that the investigation will enable him to remove the contamination from himself, and also help him to confront the danger to which he is as exposed as Laius was. As one critic puts it, the play shows that man is entangled in being and appearance, and the two confront each other in every word and every deed.
Open Battle
The sticky battle between truth and appearance gives way to an open contest. We see it for the first time in the confrontation between Oedipus and Tiresias. This battle is not between truth and error, but between the reality of reality and mere appearance. "The tragic mistake is that which overcomes man. But the tragic form in which Oedipus finds himself, and which is undoubtedly a model of tragic art in its greater depth, is something that surrounds man from the beginning and makes him miserable, that is to say, what he is and wants to be, king, husband, leader, his protection is his power, all this is his protection and security. Antigone was led to what was false and merely apparent: Oedipus stands in the sphere of appearance and is thrown out of it.
Crime and Innocence
Appearance and truth also come into the picture in the discussion of Oedipus's guilt or innocence. One may note that when Oedipus refers to the death of Laius, after learning new facts from Jocasta, he describes himself as a criminal, guilty of murdering one another, although one murder was committed in self-defense. This does not mean, however, that he himself takes.
The Accusation of Being a Murderer "The god is certainly designated as the author, but not so that man may overcome God or destroy himself before God for his mistake, but so that the mutual relationship between man and god may be revealed, where in one place there is a manifestation of the divine and a human coincidence, where Oedipus says that he who laid hands on him, but he laid hands on him. Nor, in a moral sense, does it matter what he has learned about himself, whether it be of man or of the world system, it is not possible to think about it. Decide anything about crime and innocence, justice and atonement or freedom and necessity' The focus of attention Appearance and reality are two opposites between which human behavior must be bound. This series not only traps man but also when he achieves his highest desire and tries to free himself from it.