Lyric Essay
As individuals, we would like to believe that we have an appreciable degree of control over our environment and that we can determine and change our environment with hard work and moral virtue. If we accept the fact that anything that happens is caused by another event chronologically upstream from it, eventually all of our actions can be causally tied to factors outside of our control, and thus we have no free will and are not responsible for our actions. We are stranded on a great junk lacking oars borne on the river of time. On the other hand, an absolute belief in free will invalidates an individual’s circumstances in moral judgements, as it is assumed that no external factors may affect their judgement and they are ultimately completely responsible for their actions. This conflict between determinism and free will has sustained itself throughout human history in the form of philosophy, theology, classical physics, ethics, and recently, quantum physics. Although our scientific understanding currently lacks conclusive evidence to conclusively determine or disprove the existence of free will, the anxiety that we are stuck on that ship that we cannot steer pervades our subconscious. This theme of the primal fear of loss of control is one that nearly universally evokes the “pity and fear” (p. 1421) of the audience for the tragic hero is the reason that the story of Oedipus has earned the fascination of over a millennium’s worth of scholars and is reflected in contemporary narratives..
Oedipus’ fear of being usurped by Creon and losing control of Thebes propels the plot forward as he inexorably approaches the truth about himself. His fear is repeatedly mentioned, by both himself and other characters, indicating that it is a significant motivator for his actions. When Oedipus confronts Creon, Creon directly states that Oedipus chooses to “rule and live in anxiety” (l. 655). Fear leads Oedipus to claim that Creon was using Tiresias to undermine his rule, which Oedipus has no evidence for. His irrational, but ultimately correct assumption that he had “called down a dreadful curse upon” (l.820) upon himself further establishes the fact that Oedipus’s fear causes him to ask Jocasta further questions about Laius that eventually lead to his downfall. Oedipus literally states, “I’m afraid” (l. 843) before summoning the shepherd, which further highlights his fear's importance. Ironically, Oedipus' fear was the original impetus that caused him to fulfill his destiny, as he encounters Laius after he leaves Corinth due to the fear that is "gnawing at" (l. 866) him. If he did not particularly fear fulfilling his destiny, he probably would have stayed in Corinth and wouldn't have encountered Laius or Jocasta. Sophocles implicitly acknowledges that Oedipus' personality is a major cause of his downfall, as one of the chorus's lines is: "natures like yours are hardest on themselves." (l. 748) Based on the play's emphasis on Oedipus' fear, "nature" could refer to Oedipus' paranoid and irrational temperament as a cause of his downfall that is often overshadowed by destiny.
The archetype of fear of the loss of control leading ironically to the actual loss of control is present throughout history as well as literature beyond Oedipus, demonstrating its basis in reality. In Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov utilizes Humbert Humbert’s fear of losing control of Lolita to demonstrate Humbert’s psychological decline and could be seen as a contributing factor to Dolores’ final escape. Despite Humbert's fear that Dolores will engage in "sex play" (Nabokov 84) with boys her age, his fear of helplessness is futile. Humbert dedicates a large amount of mental effort to searching for Clare Quilty, as he believes that “The necessity of being constantly on the lookout for his little mustache and open shirt or for his baldish pate and broad shoulders led me to a profound study of all cars on the road” (Nabokov 273) will satisfy his fear of losing Lolita. Humbert admits after this event that he is “losing [his] mind” (Nabokov 274), and his psychological instability leads him to abuse her further until she finally escapes.
The Battle of Philippi is a historical example of this theme. Brutus and Cassius' legions were defeated by the future Emperor Augustus and Mark Antony despite holding a strong defensive position due to fear. Historian Adrian Goldsworthy remarks in his biography of Augustus that "as rumour spread that their possessions were lost, the cohorts began to waver and retreat." (Goldsworthy 134). Philippi mirrors the structure of Oedipus in that both stories involve an entity, in this case, an army's fear of helplessness leading to the worst possible outcome - as they were Roman legionaries, their camp would have held all of their property and the treasury that contained most of their future salary. The Roman army's collective action demonstrates the "fear for the man like ourselves" (Meyer 1502), a trait of Aristotelian tragedy, is satisfied as an army of over 100,000 is fairly representative of humanity at large. The Chapman University Survey on American Fears found that the most common fears are of circumstances that are outside of an individual's control such as climate change, corrupt government officials, and deaths of friends and relatives. Although other fears on the list, such as lacking money for future expenses could be described as a matter of individual responsibility, fundamentally, most people fear an inability to influence their environment, which increases Oedipus' impact because this fear is one that we subconsciously empathize with.
This video is a good summary of the Battle of Philippi.
Science journalist David Goleman describes fear as having "special prominence" and more important to our evolutionary survival than "perhaps...any other emotion." In a society that promotes individual responsibility, the fears of its members are often directed towards losing control over their environment and suffering the consequences. This fear that drove Oedipus to discover that he has fulfilled his destiny and blind himself, accompanied a pedophile's psychological decline as he fled from a largely illusory pursuer, and decided the fate of the Roman Republic is a basis of the story of Oedipus' enduring legacy.
Comments
Post a Comment