To what extent is Oedipus responsible for his own fate in the play? Be prepared to discuss at least two examples from the text which lead you to believe he is or is not responsible.
- In the play, Oedipus is mildly responsible for his own fate, because of his pride mostly. He is such a great leader who wouldn’t even consider himself to have killed King Laius. When Tiresias is telling Oedipus that he was the killer, Oedipus denies it and says, “Blind, lost in the night, endless night that nursed you! You can’t hurt me or anyone else who sees the light - you can never touch me”(181). He is saying that he is too good of a person to even have done such a thing. Also Oedipus is also not responsible for his fate because of his predetermined path in life. This was bound to happen because of what the oracle said to his parents, “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see- you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!”(205).
How good a king is Oedipus? In what ways does he excel as a leader? In what ways does he fall short?
- Oedipus is a great king who is very smart, confident, and powerful. He excels at being a detective and listener of the people. Some ways he falls short is his over-confidence. When he was accused he was sure that it wasn’t him and was going to arrest anyone who thought it was him.
Since Oedipus is considered the quintessential tragic hero, then what would you argue is his tragic mistake? In other words, what in his own character/personality or what wrong-headed action does he take which leads him to his ultimate downfall? Choose a particular flaw or action and explain its relation to his disgrace and exile.
- Oedipus tragic mistake was that he had too much pride and confidence therefore making him never think of himself that killed Laius. Instead, he accused everybody else who accused him, so he could point fingers. In his mind there was no way it was him who did it. Anger was also something that led to his downfall. He would get angry quick and jump to conclusions without thinking first about the situation at hand and that got people very irritated.
If we agree that Oedipus the King is about the role of fate and humans’ inability to escape destiny, in what ways does Minority Report, and the character of John Anderton in particular, support or refute Oedipus’ notion of destiny? Think of two scenes that support your position.
- In Minority Report, it refutes Oedipus notion of destiny. In some scenes it shows John Anderton stopping someones horrible fate from happening. In Oedipus they basically say that you can’t escape your destiny, and in Minority Report they can. Another way they refute it is by altering how someone dies, like when the director kills someone when someone else should have.
The eyes are often associated not just with the act of seeing but also of revealing oneself to others. In the film, explain the different ways that eyes or the act of seeing are used for: 1. The Precogs, 2. John Anderton, 3. The culture of the world of the film.
- The Precogs use their eyes to see what is about to happen. They can see into the future and see into someone elses future experiences. Like when one of the precogs touched John and told him all about his future.
- John Anderton at one point goes under eye replacing surgery and has to not rely on his eyes for once. For most of the film he had to use his eyes to get into the lab, watch videos of his son and survive. So for a couple hours that all got taken away and he had to try to rely on other things to carry on.
- People use their eyes to see every aspect of a film and absorb information going on in every scene.
The story upon which the movie is based was written in the 1950's. The movie came out in 2002 but is set in 2054. How much of the events/the attitudes of the movie do you see in contemporary American culture? Where will be in 44 years? Speculate on the direction in which our country is headed. What future contingencies are we preparing for? To what extent does our attempt to prepare for certain future events determine our own fate?
- A lot of the technology is already in American culture, and we are such a fast paced moving country that in 44 years I don’t doubt that many of our buildings and cars will look like that. For the future I feel like our main focus will be military and crime.
