32 pages • 1 hour read
SenecaOedipus
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 60A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Seeing and Blindness
The motif of seeing and blindness recurs throughout the play to illustrate a character’s access to knowledge. Oedipus’s ignorance surrounding his role in the prophecy and the suffering of the city often leads to Oedipus as being described as blind. Despite his physical blindness, the prophet Tiresias sees the truth. During Tiresias’s sacrifice, many of the signs describe blindness in connection to Oedipus. Oedipus’s self-selected punishment for his metaphorical blindness is to physically blind himself, representing his failure to see the truth.
The Plague
The plague functions as a symbol of Oedipus’s sin. Oedipus makes this connection at the beginning of the play, describing how fate uses the plague to punish him for an unknown sin, as no one could “expect sin like [his] to receive / A healthy realm” (I.35-36). As he is a king, the plague is a particularly effective punishment because it makes him appear to be a bad king, bringing ruin to his people. In addition, the plague only affects the common people and leaves Oedipus and the ruling class unaffected, illustrating how the common people often suffer because of the choices of those in power. The chorus emphasizes this idea at the end of Act I, describing their suffering in great detail.
At the resolution of the play, Oedipus is aware of the connection between his sin and the plague. He describes how he leaves and “drag[s] away” (VI.1058) the plague so that those “half-alive” (VI.1053) can heal. Seneca ends the play with Oedipus finally taking responsibility and accepting his fate, which allows the city to recover from the plague.
Thebes
Throughout the play, the city of Thebes is closely aligned with Oedipus, functioning as a symbol of his inner state. The sickness infecting the city parallels the sickness in Oedipus’s soul. The initial description of the city mirrors Oedipus’s mental state: the “foul mist” of ignorance blocks the “rising light” of knowledge (I.1), blinding him. Oedipus begins the play anxious about an unknown sin in his past, which is compared to the physical suffering of the common people, as outlined in the chorus’s first speech. The knowledge Oedipus seeks is not only something that can reassure Oedipus himself, but is also “the cure for our city’s health” (III.516). In the end, the fate of Thebes and Oedipus diverge—only by leaving Thebes can Oedipus save it.
Related Titles
By Seneca
