"Oedipus the Ruler" is one of the many great tragedies written in the 5th century (Ruler Oedipus, pg 5). It is a story of the great King of Thebes who is besieged with a plague; which he believes is a curse placed on his realm due to murder of the prior king, Ruler Laius. His satisfaction and arrogance leads him to search out the murderers of Laius to be able to bring them to justice and lift the curse. In an identical tale John Anderton, the top of a special police called PreCrime occur 2050, is put to the duty of finding a man whom he has been prophesied to murder in 36 time. In both of these reports the protagonists are coping with prophesies that they will murder someone in their futures.
"King Oedipus" by Robert J. Milch is about a king who saved a city, Thebes, from a plague and ceded to the throne from a deceased ruler known as Laius and wedded his widow who was simply their Queen (King, 25). Oedipus possessed fled his own land to avoid a prophecy that he would murder his dad and marry his mother (20). The story is about his choices of free will to enough time fate of the prophecy and how blindness to the truth caused him to take it about. Tiresias is a blind prophet who tries to be honest to Oedipus but his satisfaction and arrogance blind him from it. The reality works out that Oedipus wiped out Laius his real father and committed his widow, his real mother
(26, 27). The storyplot is about how precisely Oedipus learns the eventual fact regardless of his initiatives to avoid the prophecy and how his stubborn blindness hid the reality till the prophecy came up true. In the article compiled by Brian Sutton; "Sophocles' Oedipus the Ruler and Stephen Spielberg's Minority Report" is about a well known policeman, John Anderton, in Washington D. C. who minds a special product called PreCrime. They use seers called preCogs to anticipate when someone will commit a murder and get these people before the crime is manufactured. He sees a preCog vision; before the police force do, that presents him murdering a man. He must go on the run to prove that he'll not take action. Agatha, the most powerful of the preCogs, ends up bonding with the policeman and helps him discover the truths behind that prophecy and exposes some truths that he was blind to (194).
The first assessment is Sophocles' use of blindness as symbolic to show how Oedipus initially did not start to see the truth about who murdered Laius. In Oedipus' young ones an Oracle of Apollo gave him the prophecy that he would kill his daddy and would marry his mother, and they would carry children. In order to prevent this horrible prediction he remaining his home in Corinth leaving who he thought were his parents and traveled to Thebes where in fact the prophecy unfolds (Ruler, 20). This same symbolism is connected to John Anderton who noticed the eye-sight that the preCogs found. There were three preCogs and Agatha was the most effective. This vision predicted that John would murder a man known as Leo Crow in 36 hours. He goes on the run from his own peers and discover this man and confirm that he will not murder him. Oedipus does not start to see the prophecy unfolding around him and John Anderton does not see the truth about the situations unfolding around his research. Both men in two different reports can see all that occurs around them but neglect to see the truth about the murders. It is their journeys that bring in to the light the real real truth. Thus the comparability of vision verses blindness how exactly we sometimes miss the big picture because we have been too concerned about the small stuff.
Another interesting strategy is how the two protagonists gain information into the predictions as foreseen by their own prophecies. Tiresias will try to make Oedipus understand that there are circumstances he is unaware of and really should not follow this search for Laius' murderers. Oedipus will not or won't look at the fact and won't pay attention to Tiresias and steps ever closer to the fateful completion of the prophecy. In "Oedipus Tyrannus" Adam Weigel creates that "Sophocles thought that destiny is not essentially exterior of humans but also transcendent. People can provide directly into their fates or they can exercise choice that can control their fates" (4). Agatha, the strongest preCog tries to guide Anderton toward the reality but he will not understand her meanings and due to this makes decisions that cause incidents that lead him nearer to the prediction that he will in fact murder Leo Crow. While the two protagonists make free will choices to avoid their prophecies approaching to light, they continue to spiral in toward that fateful point in time of fact. The blind prophet and the preCog are both instrumental in the away come of both heroes.
Free will is a penchant for both protagonists. Both believe in their causes. Oedipus believes that locating the murderer or murderers of Laius will expose the reality, help his people, and increase his greatness. He does not realize that discovering the truth will expose him as the murderer of Laius and at the same time make the prophecy true (Ruler, 33). John Anderton does not believe he would murder anyone but the power of the preCogs has him rattled. However he is hell bent to pursue his goal to expose this man named Leo Crow whom he eventually eventually ends up eradicating. In both reviews the protagonists imagine and try to make choices that will prevent the prophecies from arriving to fruition but instead cause occurrences that make them true.
Although there are similarities to the plights of the two protagonists their stories will vary. Oedipus will not know who murdered Laius however the audience will, it is him. He is slow to understand this truth that includes a distressing realization for him. It really is then that he finally realizes that everything he does before the truth, and everything his efforts in the past to prevent the prophecy, were the causes of it. John Anderton recognizes right from the start who is the murderer. Also, according to the prophecy, it is him. However, the prophecy was secretively contrived. While he is aiming to undo this prediction he is blind to the main reason as to why the prophecy has been made. With all his choices to go after this path, he's unaware that it was all a complicated set-up. Someone possessed manipulated the preCogs by way of a meticulous group of events that brought on the prophecy. Each choice of free will leads him ever nearer to Leo Crow. Upon the realization of the truth, it destroys almost everything he has already established beliefs in about the Pre-Crime program.
Oedipus and Tiresias clash when Tiresias is given audience to Oedipus. Because Oedipus is being stubbornly blind to Tiresias' warning he chooses not give Oedipus the reality about how exactly Laius was murdered and angers Oedipus greatly. Because of this Tiresias makes another prophecy that Oedipus, after finding the fact, will be doomed to blindness himself. Oedipus' delight and works with of rage blind him further. In "Oedipus Tyrannus", Wayne Weigel composed, "Each time [someone] attempts to comfort him with information, the info acts to damn him more extensively" (5). John Anderton must physically blind himself to disguise his personality and further his quest to find Leo Crow. He eventually ends up bonding with Agatha who's not blind and she ends up helping John but not in ways he foresees the real truth begins to unfold and in the end John recognizes something that upsets the apple cart completely. Although the two heroes end up understanding what they didn't see initially, they find out in two very different ways.
Oedipus learns to his doom that he in reality did eliminate his dad and married his mother. Although not intentional he views the become horrible and after seeing the light, that he previously been too blind to see, he gouges his eyes and shades himself. On the other hand, John's blindness ends up being the tool to exposing the reality and in the process the truth behind the PreCrime program comes to light. It is interesting that both men in two completely different and individual worlds implemented similar paths. Both managed to match a fateful prophecy even though they thought they were making their own options. In the long run what they didn't, or cannot, see arrived to the light. All of the occasions in both prophecies came up true but for two totally different reasons, and in both stories, their decision to make use of their free will and change the prophecies resulted in the fulfillment of these.
