Oedipus The King And Minority Report English Literature Essay
“ Oedipus the King ” is one of the many great calamities written in the fifth century ( King Oedipus, pg 5 ) . It is a narrative of the great King of Thebes who is besieged by a pestilence ; which he thinks is a expletive placed on his kingdom because of the slaying of the old male monarch, King Laius. His pride and haughtiness leads him to seek out the liquidators of Laius in order to convey them to justness and raise the expletive. In a similar narrative John Anderton, the caput of a particular constabulary force called PreCrime set in 2050, is put to the undertaking of happening a adult male whom he has been prophesied to slay in 36 hours. In both of these narratives the supporters are covering with prophesies that they will slay person in their hereafters.
“ King Oedipus ” by Robert J. Milch is about a male monarch who saved a metropolis, Thebes, from a pestilence and ceded to the throne from a asleep male monarch named Laius and married his widow who was their Queen ( King, 25 ) . Oedipus had fled his ain land to avoid a prognostication that he would slay his male parent and get married his female parent ( 20 ) . The narrative is about his picks of free will to avoid the destiny of the prognostication and how sightlessness to the truth caused him to convey it approximately. Tiresias is a unsighted prophesier who tries to state the truth to Oedipus but his pride and haughtiness blind him from it. The truth turns out that Oedipus killed Laius his existent male parent and married his widow, his existent female parent
( 26, 27 ) . The narrative is about how Oedipus learns the eventual truth in malice of his attempts to avoid the prognostication and how his obstinate sightlessness hid the facts till the prognostication came true. In the article written by Brian Sutton ; “ Sophocles ‘ Oedipus the King and Stephen Spielberg ‘s Minority Report ” is about a well-thought-of police officer, John Anderton, in Washington D.C. who heads a particular unit called PreCrime. They use visionaries called preCogs to foretell when person will perpetrate a slaying and gaining control these people before the offense is made. He sees a preCog vision ; before the constabulary do, that shows him slaying a adult male. He must travel on the tally to turn out that he will non make it. Agatha, the most powerful of the preCogs, ends up adhering with the police officer and helps him detect the truths behind that prognostication and exposes some truths that he was blind to ( 194 ) .
The first comparing is Sophocles ‘ usage of sightlessness as a symbol to demo how Oedipus at foremost did non see the truth about who murdered Laius. In Oedipus ‘ young person an Prophet of Apollo gave him the prognostication that he would kill his male parent and would get married his female parent, and so they would bear kids. In order to forestall this atrocious anticipation he left his place in Corinth go forthing who he thought were his parents and traveled to Thebes where the prognostication unfolds ( King, 20 ) . This same symbolism is connected to John Anderton who saw the vision that the preCogs saw. There were three preCogs and Agatha was the most powerful. This vision predicted that John would slay a adult male named Leo Crow in 36 hours. He goes on the tally from his ain equals in order to happen this adult male and turn out that he will non slay him. Oedipus does non see the prognostication blossoming around him and John Anderton does non see the truth about the events blossoming around his probe. Both work forces in two different narratives can see all that happens around them but neglect to see the truth about the slayings. It is their journeys that conveying into the light the existent truth. Thus the comparing of sight poetries blindness how we sometimes miss the large image because we are excessively concerned about the little material.
Another interesting construct is how the two supporters gain insight into the anticipations as foreseen by their ain prognostications. Tiresias tries to do Oedipus understand that there are fortunes he is incognizant of and should non prosecute this hunt for Laius ‘ liquidators. Oedipus does non or will non look at the truth and wo n’t listen to Tiresias and moves of all time closer to the fatal completion of the prognostication. In “ Oedipus Tyrannus ” James Weigel writes that “ Sophocles believed that destiny is non basically external of worlds but besides surpassing. Peoples can give in to their destinies or they can exert pick that can command their destinies ” ( 4 ) . Agatha, the strongest preCog attempts to steer Anderton toward the truth but he does non understand her significances and because of this makes determinations that cause events that lead him closer to the anticipation that he will in fact slaying Leo Crow. While the two supporters make free will picks to avoid their prognostications coming to visible radiation, they continue to gyrate in toward that fatal minute of truth. The unsighted prophesier and the preCog are both instrumental in the out semen of the two heroes.
Free will is a preference for both supporters. Both believe in their causes. Oedipus believes that happening the liquidator or liquidators of Laius will expose the truth, assist his people, and increase his illustriousness. He does non recognize that detecting the truth will expose him as the liquidator of Laius and at the same clip do the prognostication true ( King, 33 ) . John Anderton does non believe he would slay anyone but the power of the preCogs has him rattled. Even so he is hell set to prosecute his quest to expose this adult male named Leo Crow whom he finally ends up killing. In both narratives the supporters believe and attempt to do picks that will forestall the prognostications from coming to fruition but alternatively do events that make them true.
Although there are similarities to the predicaments of the two supporters their narratives are different. Oedipus does non cognize who murdered Laius but the audience does, it is him. He is slow to recognize this truth which has a traumatic realisation for him. It is so that he eventually realizes that everything he did taking up to the truth, and all his attempts in the yesteryear to avoid the prognostication, were the causes of it. John Anderton knows from the beginning who is the liquidator. Besides, harmonizing to the prognostication, it is him. However, the prognostication was secretively contrived. While he is seeking to undo this anticipation he is unsighted to the underlying ground as to why the prognostication has been made. With all his picks to prosecute this way, he is incognizant that it was all a complex set-up. Person had manipulated the preCogs through a punctilious set of events that caused the prognostication. Each pick of free will leads him of all time closer to Leo Crow. Upon the realisation of the truth, it destroys about everything he has had faith in about the Pre-Crime plan.
Oedipus and Tiresias clash when Tiresias is given audience to Oedipus. Because Oedipus is being pig-headedly blind to Tiresias ‘ warning he chooses non give Oedipus the truth about how Laius was murdered and cholers Oedipus greatly. Because of this Tiresias makes another prognostication that Oedipus, upon happening the truth, will be doomed to blindness himself. Oedipus ‘ pride and tantrums of fury blind him farther. In “ Oedipus Tyrannus ” , James Weigel wrote, “ Each clip [ person ] attempts to soothe him with information, the information serves to curse him more exhaustively ” ( 5 ) . John Anderton must physically blind himself to mask his individuality and further his quest to happen Leo Crow. He ends up adhering with Agatha who is non unsighted and she ends up assisting John but non in a manner he foresees the existent truth begins to blossom and in the terminal John sees something that upsets the apple cart wholly. Although the two heroes end up understanding what they did non see in the beginning, they find out in two wholly different ways.
Oedipus learns to his day of reckoning that he in fact did kill his male parent and married his female parent. Although non knowing he sees the act as atrocious and upon seeing the visible radiation, for which he had been excessively unsighted to see, he gouges his eyes and blinds himself. In contrast, John ‘s sightlessness ends up being the instrument to exposing the truth and in the procedure the world behind the PreCrime plan comes to light. It is interesting that both work forces in two wholly different and separate universes followed similar waies. Both managed to carry through a fatal prognostication even though they believed they were doing their ain picks. In the terminal what they did non, or could non, see came into the visible radiation. All the events in both prognostications came true but for two wholly different grounds, and in both narratives, their determination to utilize their free will and alter the prognostications led to the fulfilment of them.
