The Stages of Fear In Oedipus Rex

Dr. Green

Stages of Fear

• Confidence• Fear– Alarm– Relief– Panic– Despair

Confidence

• Basis of confidence in– Knowledge

• He thought he Knew who his parents were• He thought he knew he had escaped the predictions of the

Delphi oracle

– Skills• Had solved the riddle of the sphinx

– Resources• Had the help of Creon and Apollo

– Power• Was the ruler of Thebes

Aristotle On Fear

• Fear– expectation that something destructive, i.e.,

something causing great pain, will happen to person in the near future

Aquinas On Fear• Fear is

– a painful feeling arising from– a future evil– that difficult

• irresistible--impossible or difficult to avoid• surpasses the power of him that fears• repelled only with difficulty• greatness of the danger vs. weakness of the person• certain contraction

– Physiologically– Psychologically

Aquinas

• Two types of fear– corruptive evil causes natural fear• Fear for one’s existence• Economic conditions are a significant source of fear

because one’s existence depends upon one’s livelihood

– painful evil causes learned fears• arise as desires arise through experience

Alarm

• Alarm is a painful feeling caused when one first becomes conscious of the possibility of harm from imminent danger – It is an awakening to danger

Alarm

• Knowledge– He claims to be a stranger to the crime– He vows to maintain the cause of the god and the

murdered man– Pursue the matter as though he was my father– Hypothesis formed• Teiresias did it• Others are plotting against him

Alarm

• Resources at his disposal– Augury

• Skills– “My mother wit, untaught of auguries, solved the

riddle of the Sphinx”– He is good at solving riddles

• Power– Will bring all the power of the state to the solution

of the problem

Alarm

• Teiresias sets off the alarm– All are lacking in knowledge.– He accuses Oedipus of murder and incest.– He claims that Oedipus is ignorant of his lineage.

Alarm

• Alarm is further reinforced by Teiresias’ riddles– The murderer is both native and alien– Oedipus will had his birthday and go to his

grave– Oedipus can see but is blind– Oedipus is rich and poor– Oedipus is brother and father to his children– Oedipus is son and husband to his wife– Oedipus is assassin and replacement of father

Alarm

• The Chorus—set the stage for the Relief Stage– Wonders whether the charges well founded.– Neither the present nor the future is clear.– Proved himself good as gold with Sphinx

Relief

• Alleviation, ease, or deliverance through the removal of pain, distress, oppression, etc.

• A feeling of cheerfulness or optimism that follows the removal of anxiety, pain, or distress: – “I breathed a sigh of relief .”

• Deliverance from or alleviation of anxiety, pain, distress, etc

Relief in Episode 2

• Relief arises when a threat is gone• Oedipus thought Creon was a threat to him• Creon argues that the charges are baseless

– A secure repose is preferred to ruling– He has never had any desire for throne– Oedipus should check by seeking a prophecy at Delphi– Oedipus should investigate to see if there is indeed Teiresias is

plotting against him• Jocasta supports Creon's innocence• The Chorus supports Creon's innocence

Panic

• Jocasta tells Oedipus about the Delphic predictions for Laius• Jocasta tells Oedipus that Laius was killed where three roads

meet• Oedipus’s panic:

– What memories, what wild tumult of the soul Came o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!

• Jocasta describes Laius, and the description matches the man Oedipus killed

• Jocasta describes Laius’ retinue and mode of travel, and these match the what was present when Oedipus killed a man

Panic

• Oedipus demands that the surviving slave appear before him

• What is at issue – Oedipus’ parentage is in question– The truthfulness of the Delphic oracle which said

Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother– Oedipus killed someone in a cart similar to the one

described by Jocasta where the three roads meet

Panic

• The only ray of hope arises from the fact that it is unclear whether there were many robbers, as the survivor claimed, or only one.

Aquinas Hope

• Hope– approach toward– something good– in the future– arduous and difficult to obtain, so an element of

uncertainty– possible to obtain

False Hope

• Messenger tells Oedipus that Polybus is dead• Oedipus declares that the oracles are dead• This turns out to be false hope because Polybus

is not his father• Oedipus came to Corinth from a shepherd on

Mt Cithaeron• The only hope now is that he is “base born.”

Despair

• Despair– Consternation– Dismay– Hopelessness– Fatalism

Aquinas Despair

• Despair– is the opposite of hope– Is the withdrawal from– something good– in the future– that is impossible to obtain

Despair

• Oedipus learns that the child from the shepherd’s field is son of Laius

• Oedipus is the child from the field• All hope is gone

“I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed, A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!”

Despair• Jocasta has withdrawn from life, finding it impossible to live with the

disgrace• Oedipus has withdrawn from the world by blinding himself

– He will no longer see• His daughters• His city• The statues of the gods

– He asks to be put to death– Will be exiled from Thebes

• His daughters have been deprived of social existence and will die unwed and barren. They have been deprived of the goods of living in society.