Oedipus Tyrannus Monologue Essay Paper Example For Students

Oedipus Tyrannus Monologue Essay Paper A monologue from the play by Sophocles NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Greek Dramas. Ed. Bernadotte Perrin. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1904. OEDIPUS: I am the son of Polybus, who reigns At Corinth, and the Dorian Merope His queen; there long I held the foremost rank, Honoured and happy, when a strange event (For strange it was, though little meriting The deep concern I felt) alarmed me much: A drunken reveller at a feast proclaimed That I was only the supposed son Or Corinth\s king. Scarce could I bear that day The vile reproach. The next, I sought my parents And asked of them the truth; they too, enraged, Resented much the base indignity. I liked their tender warmth, but still I felt A secret anguish, and, unknown to them, Sought out the Pythian oracle. In vain. Touching my parents nothing could I learn; But dreadful were the miseries it denounced Against me. \Twas my fate, Apollo said, To wed my mother, to produce a race Accursed and abhorred; and last, to slay My father who begat me. Sad decree! Lest I should e\er fulfil the dire prediction, Instant I fled from Corinth, by the stars Guiding my hapless journey to the place Where thou report\st this wretched king was slain. But I will tell thee the whole truth. At length I came to where the three ways meet, when, lo! A herald, with another man like him Whom thou describ\st, and in a chariot, met me. Both strove with violence to drive me back; Enraged, I struck the charioteer, when straight, As I advanced, the old man saw, and twice Smote me o\ th\ head, but dearly soon repaid The insult on me; from his chariot rolled Prone on the earth, beneath my staff he fell, And instantly expired! Th\ attendant train All shared his fate. If this unhappy stranger And Laius be the same, lives there a wretch So cursed, so hateful to the gods as I am? Nor citizen nor alien must receive, Or converse, or communion hold with me, But drive me forth with infamy and shame. The dreadful curse pronounced with my own lips Shall soon o\ertake me. I have stained the bed Of him whom I had murdered; am I then Aught but pollution? If I fly from hence, The bed of incest meets me, and I go To slay my father Polybus, the best, The tenderest parent. This must be the work Of some malignant power. Ye righteous gods! Let me not see that day, but rest in death, Rather than suffer such calamity.