Oedipus Rex, a play written by Sophocles, has a truly in depth meaning. Sophocles did not only write the play just for entertainment puposes, but there was a value lesson behind the story. The lesson, in which, shares its simliarties and differences to “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato. The understanding of the two texts can give people in modern times a great insight of the ancient Greek world-view based on the nature of knowledge, fate, and sight.
To begin with, in Oedipus Rex, there were various moments when Oedipus attempted to avoid or escape his destiny just to come to a realization that he simply cannot. In comparison to “Allegory of the Cave”, the released prisoner engages with ordeal to understand and adapt to his new environment. In both stories, the men first had to realize their ignorance before they could begin to obtain a better knowledge and true understanding of the difficulties of the human state. The two literatures presents moments before they have recieved greater knowledge to when they eventually had a better unerstanding, or so, englightment.
In Oedipus Rex, not only does he accuses Creon for being the “murderer” but also when Creon is supposedly “scheming to steal [his] crown and power” (Sophocles 189). Oedipus does not realize that he is not the man who has figured everything out. However, in the turn of the events, he discovers that he does not know more than he believes he does. His discovery gained him knowledge on the truth, in which was also his tragic downfall, caushing him to pierce his eyes out with Jocasta’s brooches in result to making him blind.
Similar to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the prisoner was so used to recognizing “reality nothing but the shadows of those artificial objects” (Plato 225). Since the prisoner was used to the darkness, when he was released, he engages with reality and pain of humanity. In Oedipus Rex and “Allegory of the Cave”, both Oedipus and the prisoner had to fight their own internal battles in order to gain knowledge.
