Aristotle describes the play entitled Oedipus the King as the greatest tragedy ever written because it tackles murder, incest, abandonment and lies. This play is written long before the birth of Jesus Christ the Messiah. It is about how a man, whom the protagonist Oedipus portrays, can ultimately live his life with worldly things and earthly sins. The Sphinx riddle at the entrance of Thebes says “What is it that goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at midday, and three feet in the evening? ” which Oedipus answer, of course, was “a man.
” The riddle literary is telling us that nobody could change the fate of a man. In relation to Oedipus life, believing that the fulfillment of prophecy will be done, King Laius and Queen Jocasta sends their only son Oedipus to a place they do not know to get rid Oedipus kill his father King Laius and marry his Queen Mother Jocasta. Unaware about the fact that these people are his biological parents, he did exactly what the prophecy has foreseen. Oedipus literally blinds himself after knowing this tragic truth just before his exile as he promised to the people that he will exile the murderer of King Laius.
Believe to be Everyman as an original Flemish morality play in circa 1490’s, the English translation is written during 16th century. Everyman is the protagonist and is created by the author making the audience identify themselves as the lead role who lives his life with different characteristics a man should possess to live in the world. The story starts as God called Death to tell Everyman that after a long journey Everyman could be, there is no way out that in the end, Everyman will meet Death and accounts his kind of living before God afterwards.
It is best described in the excerpt written as follows: ‘The story saith,-Man, in the beginning, Look well, and take good heed to the ending, Be you never so gay! Ye think sin in the beginning full sweet, Which in the end causeth thy soul to weep, When the body lieth in clay. ’ In Oedipus the King, the moral value could be learning through the bad experiences and dispositions of Oedipus that push him fulfill the prophecy. This is what also the Everyman play is tying to tell us.
Although there is really fate and luck that lies in each and every one of us, it is still the kind of living in this world that drives us on the way to destiny. We humans will be judged before God by our doings while here on Earth. This is what these two morality plays are trying to impose us certain lessons to be able to apply it in our daily lives. Atlanta, Georgia caters more than 80% Christian divided in different sects and religion. However, whichever sects we belong, we are the same God-fearing people who tends to believe in morality issue, penance, purification of the soul, and of course, destiny.
That is why we have a motivation to live a clean living, trying not to harm each and every one because we all want to achieve to have a clean and good soul that we will be presenting before God when we die.
R E F E R E N C E S
Halsall, P. (1998). Medieval Source: Everyman, 15th Century. Retrieved April 29, 2007, from Internet Medieval Source Book. Web site: http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/basis/everyman. html Oedipus the King. Retrieved April 30, 2007, from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web site: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Oedipus_the_King