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In the works, Oedipus and As I Lay Dying, we can look at the many themes that tie both of these pieces of literature together. We could look at the theme of how there needs to be a balance when dealing with difficult situations; there can t be different extremes that inhibit dealing with the problem. For example, Darl, in As I Lay Dying, seems to be in everyone s business, while Cash seems to remain mostly in the background. Jewel is in the middle, maintaining the balance. To the people with the opposite extremes, bad things happen to them.
With Jewel, he ends up okay in the end. Similar situations happen in Oedipus, too. But in this essay, I m going to deal with the theme of human agency. Human agency, the ability to choose what you do, plays a big role in the texts because it investigates the role of human agency in the face of potentially uncontrollable outside forces, including society, fate, and / or God. In this essay, I m going to explain the extent the individuals in Oedipus and As I Lay Dying control his or her destiny, and the factors that complicate their attempt to do so. In the book, Oedipus, King Oedipus feels as if he can do anything he wants.
He feels he can conquer fate by running away from it. The underlying theme here is fate is more powerful than free will. On such strong bases of fate, free will doesn t even exist. You can t run away from fate when it is there wherever you go. That seems to be the theme. In the very beginning of the story, before we hear from the oracle, there is already a foreshadowing of Oedipus s impending doom.
He himself states to the people of Thebes, ... we I know that yeAre smitten, one and all, with taint of plague Feels as I feel it. Each his burden bears, His own and not another s; but my heart Mourns for the state, for you, and for myself (Sophocles pg. 7). This statement is almost eerie when looking back on it.
By itself, it seems as if he knows that he is ill fated. The same basic prophecy of Oedipus is proven in other characters as well. No matter how many times a specific character tried to play off fate and try to get rid of the problem it stayed exactly the same. Oedipus was told by Teiresias that in his later years he would be the killer of his own father, and would marry his own mother.
In his attempt to avoid this situation, he left both of his parents and moved to a far away to Thebes. Once he was there he married a woman that he thought positive was not his mother, because his mother was the woman that he had left back in Corinth. Also, being so far from his hometown, there was no chance that he could kill his father whom he had also left behind. Oedipus thought he was safe, but he was not. He found out the oracle was true and poked out his eyes in shame.
By acting out on his own human agency, he ended up with impending doom. Oedipus is not the only one that tries to escape the curse. Jocasta also tried to escape the curse. She knew about it before Oedipus himself knew.
She first hears the prophecy just days after Oedipus is born and can t stand to live with him any more. She sends him off to be killed, thinking that she had stopped the prophecy from happening and she doesn t worry anymore. Jocasta doesn t know the whole truth though. She does not know that the shepard actually disobeyed her. The shepherd, in which she gave the baby to, disobeyed her and didn t kill Oedipus.
Instead, in pity, he sent the baby away far enough that he thought the foretelling would not be in effect. Again this did not stop fate. Once Oedipus found out that the people he thought were his parents were not his blood-related parents, Jocasta found out what had actually happened. Ah, by the Gods, if that thou values life. Inquire no more. My misery is enough (Sophocles 35).
These were a few of her last words. Fate took her life. Creon had his own bout with human agency, but it wasn t as dramatic as both Jocasta s and Oedipus s. He remained the balance between the two extremes, who were Jocasta and Oedipus. Not so, if thou would st reason with thyself, As I will reason. First reflect on this; Supposes thou that one would rather choose To reign with fears that sleep untroubled sleep, His power being equal?
I, for one, prize less (Sophocles 22) In this passage, he remains cool and calm after Oedipus has berated and blamed him for killing Laius; he was actually telling Oedipus to calm down when dealing the issue of who killed Laius. In the end, Creon came out the winner, while Jocasta and Oedipus both died. Creon even gets what he wanted which was control of the kingdom. He did all this by not acting out on his own free will.
In the book As I Lay Dying, every member of the family is to a degree responsible for what goes wrong in their lives. But no one is more responsible for screwing up his or her lives more than Anse. Anse s laziness and selfishness are the underlying factors to every disaster in the book. At twenty-two Anse becomes sick from working in the sun and after that he refuses to work claiming he will die if he ever breaks a sweat again.
Anse becomes lazy, and turns Addie into a baby factory in order to have children to do all the work. Anse is begrudging of everything. Even the cost of a doctor for his dying wife seems money better spent on false teeth to him. I never sent for you, Anse says, I take you to witness I never sent for you (Faulkner 37).
he repeats trying to avoid a doctor s fee. Anse seems to be the only one in the book who gets his way; he uses any means necessary. If it means hurting and manipulating his family and other people, he doesn t care. By fulfilling Addie s promise to be buried in Jefferson, on the outside he seems like he s doing a good deed for his wife; on the inside he has an ulterior motive.
Anse plays to perfection the role of the grief-stricken widower (Bleikasten 84) while secretly thinking only of getting another wife and false teeth in Jefferson. But now I can get them new teeth. That will be a comfort. It will. All he cares about is getting new teeth put in, not burying his wife.
With money he has begrudged, stolen, and talked his way out of paying, he finally buys some new teeth and a new wife for the price of a graphophone (phonograph). He did all this by acting out on his own human agency. Addie seems to be in the exact opposite situation as Anse, she doesn t get anything she wants in the deal. She gets into situations she doesn t want to be in, like her teaching job.
She thinks children are selfish, little creatures. And when I would have to look at them day after day, each with his and her secret and selfish thought, and blood strange to each other and blood strange to mine... I would hate my father for ever planted me (Faulkner 170). Later on in the book she does feel like she has everything she wants when she has Cash. She has someone to bond with, take care of, and focus her attention on. It is only ruined when she has Darl, in which she blames Anse for, since giving love to both Darl and Cash together was too much energy.
In another situation, Addie believes she s found love with the Reverend Whitfield, but that also falters when Whitfield can t continue the relationship. The only good that comes of the relationship is Jewel, Addie s third son. Jewel reminds Addie of the love and belonging she felt with Whitfield. Addie is and feels trapped in her life and relationship; Anse by far has more freedom than she does.
She is so trapped she can t act out her free will, she basically has no free will. She didn t want to be stuck in the position she was in; she wanted to live a full life in which she would share a bond with someone. She felt so hopeless and trapped Cora stated, Not like Addie dying alone, hiding her pride and here broken heart. Glad to go.
Lying there with her head propped (Faulkner 23). In conclusion, these main characters in As I Lay Dying and Oedipus have faced difficult situations in their lives. By using human agency-free will-they dealt with their situations like any other person would deal with them. They used it in different ways, in which either harmed them or help them.
Anse basically did what ever he wanted and in the end got whatever he wanted. Whether if it was by stealing, manipulating, or begrudging the people he loved, he completely got everything he wanted. On the other hand, Addie basically had no free will; she was trapped in the life she didn t want to have. She felt so hopeless in her life that people in the book said she willed herself to die. Oedipus acted on his own free will, and it got him in big trouble. He found his wife was really his mother and his kids were his brothers and sisters.
In the end he died of shame and dishonor. Jocasta did absolutely the opposite. She encouraged Oedipus not to be so set on finding the truth. In the end, her ignorance helps bring her doom. 338
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