Free Essays on Oedipus

Everyone has a family or at least knows a family, so everyone can relate to a story about family. â€Å"Regret, by Kate Chopin, and â€Å"My Oedipus Complex,† by Frank O’Connor, are two very different stories about the same thing – family. â€Å"Regret,† a tale about an older woman, who, never having married or had children, gets her first experience with them by taking care of her neighbor’s children for a short while, and â€Å"My Oedipus Complex,† a short story about a young boy who decides he is better suited to the affections of his mother than is his father, are two very different approaches to show the need for a complete family. The similarities between the two stories are easily appreciated. First, as I stated earlier, both of the stories are about families, and how the lack of, what most people consider, a â€Å"normal† and â€Å"complete† family causes problems. In â€Å"Regret,† Mamzelle Aurà ©lie completely lacks a family; she has never married, has never had children, and has only had one marriage proposal, which was promptly rejected. Mamzelle Aurà ©lie is not even properly a woman without a family; she much more resembles a man with her determination, man’s hat, army overcoat, and boots. Additionally, owning a farm, managing and employing people, and knowing how to use a gun are all traditionally men’s occupations (at least in the 1800’s). Certainly, she knows nothing about children and how to raise them, and that is the problem, at least on the surface. When presented with her neighbor’s children, Mamzelle Aurà ©lie doesn’t know how to care for them. In â€Å"My Oedipus Complex†, we see another incomplete family. The father is away at war, and the mother and son, Larry, are alone for long periods. Thus, the son becomes overly attached to the mother, and sees himself as her spouse. Certainly, the son becomes jealous of the father when he returns, and tries to make him leave so he again can be alone with his mother. Ho... Free Essays on Oedipus Free Essays on Oedipus â€Å"Gods can be evil sometimes.† In the play â€Å"Oedipus the King†, Sophocles defamed the gods’ reputation, and lowered their status by making them look harmful and evil. It is known that all gods should be perfect and infallible, and should represent justice and equity, but with Oedipus, the gods decided to destroy him and his family for no reason. It might be hard to believe that gods can have humanistic traits, but in fact they do. The gods, especially Apollo, are considered evil by the reader because they destroyed an innocent man’s life and his family. They destroyed Oedipus by controlling his fate, granting people the power of prophecy, telling Oedipus about his fate through the oracle of Apollo, and finally afflicting the people of Thebes with a dreadful plague. Fundamentally, by utilizing fate, prophecies, the oracle of Apollo, and the plague, the gods played a significant role in the destruction of Oedipus and his family. By controlling fate, the gods carry all the responsibility of Oedipus in killing his father and marrying his mother. They are the only ones who can control fate, and thus they are the only ones to blame for what happened to Oedipus. They could have made Oedipus’ life less miserable, but they decided to destroy his and his family’s life by this terrible fate without him committing a sin. â€Å"It was Apollo, friends, Apollo, who brought to fulfillment all my sufferings. But the hand that struck my eyes was mine and mine alone.† Oedipus blames Apollo for his two shameful crimes that caused his sufferings. On the other hand, he admits that the gods had nothing to do with his blindness, and that he’s responsible for that. Also, in the previous quote, Oedipus tries to diminish his shame by convincing his people that it is not his fault, but Apollo’s, for murdering his father and marrying his mother. The moral of this story is that human beings canâ €™t escape their fate, and thus it is not Oedipu... Free Essays on Oedipus Blindness is the downfall of the hero Oedipus in the play â€Å"â€Å"King Oedipus†Ã¢â‚¬  by Sophocles. Not only does the blindness appear physically, but also egotistically as he refuses to acknowledge the possibility of him actually being the murderer of Laius, the former King of Thebes. Coincidentally, he is also Oedipus’’s biological father. The use of light and dark in the play is strategically applied in order to better understand the emotion that lies within the characters. As blame is placed upon Oedipus for the murder of Laius, he blinds himself from the possible reality that he may be the killer. The people of Thebes are informed that there is an impending curse upon them as a result of the murder mystery of their previous king, Laius. In order to quicken the cure, Oedipus calls on Teiresias, the blind prophet to aide them. Excessive pride fuels his inability to believe the prophecy of Teiresias stating Oedipus is the killer, and that he has married his mother. â€Å"â€Å"Until I came –– I, ignorant Oedipus, came –– and stopped the riddler’’s mouth, guessing the truth by mother-wit, not bird-love.†Ã¢â‚¬  Because he continually boasts about how he has saved Thebes from the Sphinx, he believes that no one could know more than he, especially if he is the one to be accused of a crime he â€Å"â€Å"knows†Ã¢â‚¬  he didn’’t commit. In response Teiresias argues, â€Å"â€Å"You ar e please to mock my blindness. Have you eyes, and do not see your own damnation? Eyes and cannot see what company you keep.†Ã¢â‚¬  This is a pivotal component to the irony behind the idea of blindness throughout the play. Although Teiresias is physically blind, he is able to accept and â€Å"â€Å"see†Ã¢â‚¬  the truth, while Oedipus physically being able to see is left in the dark rejecting truth. The blindness of Oedipus leads to the darkness of Thebes also known as The City of Light. â€Å"â€Å"We cannot believe, we cannot deny; all’’s dark. We fear, but we cannot s... Free Essays on Oedipus In Sophocles,’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus introduces himself by saying â€Å"I Oedipus, whom all men call the great.† (8) Oedipus was a â€Å"great† man, but he also was cursed. He was cursed by the almighty god, Apollo, but he was too arrogant to believe the curse would be fulfilled. This story questions the everlasting mystery of â€Å"fate versus free will.† I will attempt to explain how Apollo’s curse, as well as Oedipus’ actions, ruined Oedipus’ life. Oedipus was cursed before he was born. He was cursed because Apollo thought Laius, Oedipus’ father, and his family, brought homosexuality to Greece. The curse said that Laius and his wife, Jocasta, would have a baby, and that baby would grow up and kill his father and marry his mother. When Laius and Jocasta heard this they gave Oedipus to a shepherd to leave on the top of a hill to die. The shepherd could not do this, so he gave Oedipus to another shepherd. That shepherd then gave Oedipus to the king and queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope. When Oedipus grew older, an oracle told him about the curse. Oedipus did not want anything to happen to Polybus and Merope; he thought they were his real parents, so he left Corinth. While he was walking, a carriage was coming towards him. He was too arrogant to move, so as the carriage cam towards him somebody swung a club at him. Oedipus killed the men in the carriage, but one man who fled. One of the men he killed was his birth father Laius. Oedipus knew he was destined to kill his father, but he did not think twice about killing the people inside of the carriage. His arrogance and pride got the best of him. He felt since he was a prince he did not have to move for a carriage. This is the first example of Oedipus thinking he could outwit Apollo. Oedipus continued traveling until he reached the city of Thebes. When he arrived, there was a blight on the city. Oedipus asked how the blight could be removed and someone told him a riddle h... Free Essays on Oedipus In the play Oedipus written by Sophocles, fate and the Gods are often to blame for Oedipus’ terrible tragedy. If examined closer, however, it seems that with careful, logical thinking Oedipus could have saved himself a significant amount of trouble. Throughout the play there are choices places before the characters. Choices that ultimately will make or break the future of Oedipus. It was not fate that caused the downfall of Oedipus. It was the decisions that were made out of haste or pride. In Oedipus’ past we see that even he is aware that he has choice and free will; upon learning from an oracle that he will be the murderer of his father and sleep with his mother, he flees. He had the choice to talk to his family about the prophecy, but he chose to take matters into his own hands and ran. Oedipus’ step-father could have told him the truth in the beginning, but he chose to keep the fact that Oedipus was adopted to himself. This is just the beginning of a whirlwind of bad choices made in the light of haste and pride. â€Å"I must bring what is dark to light,† (line 134) Oedipus boasts loudly after learning the cause of the city’s plague. This illustrates the pride, and arrogance that Oedipus portrays. This pride blinded him from making a sound decision. When approached by Creon, the holder of the news from the oracle, Oedipus has the choice to speak with him in private. Instead Oedipus says proudly, â€Å"Let them all hear it.† â€Å"It is for them I suffer more than for myself.† (line 97). In his rush to impress his crowd, Oedipus has Creon spill the news over the entire crowd. We see that unfortunately, Oedipus is not the only one affected by these bad choices. Along Oedipus’ path of flight from Corinth, he stumbles on to King Laios and his men. The argument over who must cross first heats into a violent battle leavi... Free Essays on Oedipus Oedipus is a prime example of a tragidy, according to Aristotle’s definition in the â€Å"poetics†. Aristotle’s Poetics is considered the first work of literary criticism in our tradition. The couple of pages in the book mainly describe tragedy from Aristotle’s point of view. He defines tragedy as being an imitation of an action that is a whole and complete in itself and of a certain magnitude. Aristotle also points out terms such as catharsis, which can be said that is the purification of one’s soul. He argues in his Poetics that catharsis is achieved through emotions of pity or fear, which is created in the audience as they witness the tragedy of a character who suffers unjustly, but is not entirely innocent. Then he moves on to describing the main elements of tragedy. Such elements are: plot, character, language, thought, spectacle, and melody. Then he classifies these in three parts, the media, the manner and the objects. The language and melody constitute the â€Å"media†, in which they effect the imitation. Then there is the spectacle, which is the â€Å"manner†, and the remaining three, the plot, character and thought are the â€Å"objects† that are imitated. Aristotle considers the plot to be the most important of these elements. He describes the plot as not being a unity revolving around one man. Instead, he states that many things happen to one man, which may not always go together, to form a unity. At the same time, he says that among the actions that a character performs there are many that may be irrelevant to one another, but yet they form a unified action. Aristotle continues depicting the plot categorizing it in two manners: simple and complex. In a simple plot, a change of fortune takes place without a reversal or recognition. In contrast, in a complex plot, the change of fortune involves recognition or a reversal or both. To understand these ideas better he defines reversal and rec... Free Essays on Oedipus According to Greek mythology, the Sphinx, a creature that is part woman, part bird, and part lion, caused famine and disease in Thebes that could be ended only when someone solved her riddle. Oedipus traveled to Thebes and answered the riddle correctly. The citizens of Thebes consider him a hero because he restored harmony to their kingdom. Sophocles alludes to the riddle of the Sphinx several times in his play, Oedipus Rex. Since the riddle is a metaphor for Oedipus' life, it is ironic that he was able to answer the question. His revelation of the riddle of the Sphinx further supports the perspective of Oedipus as the archetypal tragic man. The sphinx asks, "What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?" Oedipus correctly answers "man", saving Thebes from the terrible drought and disease brought about by the horrible creature. The different times of day mentioned in the question actually represent different stages in life. In the morning, or childhood, humans crawl on their hands and knees. In the afternoon, or adulthood, humans walk on their own two feet, and at night, which represents old age, many humans rely on the aid of a walking stick, which represents a third leg. When the reader interprets the symbolism of the riddle, it becomes a metaphor for Oedipus' life. Like every human, he begins life as a baby, crawling on his hand and knees. As he grows older, he walks on two feet, becoming an independent man, and ruler of Thebes. In his old age, Oedipus must rely on a walking stick because he is blind. Like all huma... Free Essays on Oedipus Sophocles’ Oedipus, the King is a great representation of Greek tragedy and of the human experience. Within it, he explores the intricacies of human thinking and communication along with its ability to change as more information and knowledge is acquired. His primary focus as the story begins and progresses is the growth of Oedipus from an unintelligible and unenlightened mentality to its antithesis. Because the story was one familiar to most of its viewers in its time, there are certain things that they are expected to already know. Among them is the background to the legend. Most generally it was that it was prophesied that Laios and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes, would give birth to a child who would grow up to murder his father and marry his mother. And, fearing the dreadful prophecy, that the parents nailed their first son's feet together (thus the name Oedipus, which means â€Å"swollen-foot†) and left him to die on a lonely moun-tainside outside the city. Moreover, that he was found by a wandering shepherd who took him to the nearby city of Corinth where he was adopted by the childless King Polybos and Queen Merope who raised him as a son and prince in the royal household. Then, when he was a young adult and first heard the prophecy, that he assumed that it applied to Polybos and Merope, the only parents he had ever known, and had fled Corinth and wandered aroun d Greece where he met a group of travelers and killed an old man who, unknown to him, was his real father, King Laios. Then, when he arrived at Thebes, he met the Sphinx, a monster who guarded the gates of the city and correctly answered its riddle and was rewarded with the title of king of Thebes and was given the hand of the re-cently widowed queen, Jocasta. The true horror in his life begins here because he has four children with her, An-tigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polyneices and fulfills the prophecy. The story begins after some time after Oedipus has taken ... Free Essays on Oedipus Whether or not Oedipus’ downfall should be attributed to his own free will or that of the gods can only be established by the reference point it is to be analyzed from. In the time of Dionysus and the day for which Sophocles wrote this tragedy one would have to assume Oedipus’s downfall was most likely meant to be attributed to the will of the gods. However, one must take into account the reference point of our modern thinking and knowledge of analytics and philosophy. From this vantage point it should only be reasonable that Oedipus’s downfall could be that of his own free will. There are many instances within the text of the play itself that give way to this analysis. The play starts off with King Oedipus talking with the people of his kingdom who have come to seek his help with the plague that has fallen upon them. The priest who has been chosen to speak for the group asks of Oedipus, â€Å"†¦O mighty King, we turn to you: Find us our safety, find us a remedy†¦Noblest of men restore life to your city!† (Oedipus the King Prologue 43-46). Oedipus knows it is his obligation as king to help his people so he ensures them he has already sent Creon his brother-in-law to the Oracle at Delphi to seek out the remedy of the plague. Creon returns to tell Oedipus that Apollo has commanded he take revenge on whoever killed the former King Laios. As any good king should Oedipus promises, â€Å"You shall see how I stand by you, as I should, To avenge the city and the city’s god†¦By avenging the murdered king†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Oedipus the King Prologue 138-143). With the knowledge of the back story in mind this promise is obviously full of peripity and the first of the instances where Oedipus by his own free will leads himself to his eventual downfall. After the people of the land yield no clues to the identity of the murder Oedipus sends for the blind clairvoyant Teiresias, hoping he can shed some light on th... Free Essays on Oedipus Prophecies â€Å"Who is the man denounced by the prophetic voice from Delphi’s cliffs-the man whose blood-stained hands committed a nameless crime? Now is the time for him to run, faster than storm-swift horses. In full armor Apollo son of Zeus leaps upon him, with the fire of the lightning. And in the murderer’s track follow dreadful unfailing spirits of vengeance. The word of Apollo has blazed out from snowy Parnassus for all to see. Track down the unknown murderer by every means. He roams under cover of the wild forest, among caves and rocks, like a wild bull, wretched, cut off from mankind, his feet in pain. He turns his back on the prophecies delivered at the world’s center, but they, alive forever, hover round him. The wise prophet’s words have brought me terror and confusion. I cannot agree with him, nor speak against him. I do not know what to say. I waver in hope and fear; I cannot see forward or back. What cause for quarrel was there between Oedipus and L aius? I never heard of one in time past; I know of none now.(31-32)† The chorus is asking whoever killed Laius should leave before being found and killed as it says here â€Å"Now is the time for him to run, faster than storm-swift horses. In full armor Apollo son of Zeus leaps upon him, with the fire of the lightning. And in the murderer’s track follow dreadful unfailing spirits of vengeance.†(pg.31-32 chorus: line 4-8) Here it says that Zeus and Apollo will punish the murderer , so the murderer better run away from the gods. The chorus also says the murderer is hiding somewhere and Apollo made sure we know that he wants us to find him by any means necessary , as it says here â€Å"The Apollo has blazed out from snowy Parnassus for all to see. Track down the unknown murderer by every means. He roams under cover of the wild forest, among caves and rocks, like a wild bull, wretched, cut off from mankind, his feet in pain.†(pg. 31-32 chor... Free Essays on Oedipus Everyone has a family or at least knows a family, so everyone can relate to a story about family. â€Å"Regret, by Kate Chopin, and â€Å"My Oedipus Complex,† by Frank O’Connor, are two very different stories about the same thing – family. â€Å"Regret,† a tale about an older woman, who, never having married or had children, gets her first experience with them by taking care of her neighbor’s children for a short while, and â€Å"My Oedipus Complex,† a short story about a young boy who decides he is better suited to the affections of his mother than is his father, are two very different approaches to show the need for a complete family. The similarities between the two stories are easily appreciated. First, as I stated earlier, both of the stories are about families, and how the lack of, what most people consider, a â€Å"normal† and â€Å"complete† family causes problems. In â€Å"Regret,† Mamzelle Aurà ©lie completely lacks a family; she has never married, has never had children, and has only had one marriage proposal, which was promptly rejected. Mamzelle Aurà ©lie is not even properly a woman without a family; she much more resembles a man with her determination, man’s hat, army overcoat, and boots. Additionally, owning a farm, managing and employing people, and knowing how to use a gun are all traditionally men’s occupations (at least in the 1800’s). Certainly, she knows nothing about children and how to raise them, and that is the problem, at least on the surface. When presented with her neighbor’s children, Mamzelle Aurà ©lie doesn’t know how to care for them. In â€Å"My Oedipus Complex†, we see another incomplete family. The father is away at war, and the mother and son, Larry, are alone for long periods. Thus, the son becomes overly attached to the mother, and sees himself as her spouse. Certainly, the son becomes jealous of the father when he returns, and tries to make him leave so he again can be alone with his mother. Ho... Free Essays on Oedipus Lecture #2 - Oedipus the King A. Background: Play written between 441-427 B.C.; Greek theatre as an outgrowth of religious celebrations; competition; sets of four plays performed together, a trilogy of tragedies followed by a comedy (usually); (distinction between tragedy and comedy (Aristophanes)); Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides; many others lost; only partial records of these three. B. Much of what we know about how the Greeks themselves thought of tragedy derived from Aristotle. Speech in verse (metre, rhythm, music); scenery; masks; spectacle. Read definition from poetics (1). C. Catharsis (pity and fear) - "expurgation" vs. "establishment of equilibrium." D. Achievement of catharsis through plot, not through effects or characters. Tragedy is about the fortune or misfortune which human beings achieve or suffer (through action or happening at least). Reversals and recognitions (surprising, unpredictable events) key in producing pity and fear. Yet the plot must be complex yet tight, the events, including the reversals, a necessary result of other events - not just arbitrary buffeting at the hands of fortune. Oedipus the King is Aristotle's paradigm of a tragedy which works this way. E. Examples from the text: 1) Oedipus brought to Thebes (and to kill his father, marry his mother) by his attempt to avoid these eventualities. 2) Jocasta's attempt to put his mind at rest about killing his father - "don't believe seers, e.g. they were wrong about Laius being killed by his son" - the very thing that starts Oedipus on the suspicion that he is guilty. 3) Messenger's attempt to calm him re marrying mother - "not real parents" -catapults him closer to the realisation. Notion of irony - verbal ("I know the name, I never met the man") and actional (above). Many of the audience would have known the story all along. (But not all - see Aristotle.) ... Free Essays on Oedipus Whether or not Oedipus’ downfall should be attributed to his own free will or that of the gods can only be established by the reference point it is to be analyzed from. In the time of Dionysus and the day for which Sophocles wrote this tragedy one would have to assume Oedipus’s downfall was most likely meant to be attributed to the will of the gods. However, one must take into account the reference point of our modern thinking and knowledge of analytics and philosophy. From this vantage point it should only be reasonable that Oedipus’s downfall could be that of his own free will. There are many instances within the text of the play itself that give way to this analysis. The play starts off with King Oedipus talking with the people of his kingdom who have come to seek his help with the plague that has fallen upon them. The priest who has been chosen to speak for the group asks of Oedipus, â€Å"†¦O mighty King, we turn to you: Find us our safety, find us a remedy†¦Noblest of men restore life to your city!† (Oedipus the King Prologue 43-46). Oedipus knows it is his obligation as king to help his people so he ensures them he has already sent Creon his brother-in-law to the Oracle at Delphi to seek out the remedy of the plague. Creon returns to tell Oedipus that Apollo has commanded he take revenge on whoever killed the former King Laios. As any good king should Oedipus promises, â€Å"You shall see how I stand by you, as I should, To avenge the city and the city’s god†¦By avenging the murdered king†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Oedipus the King Prologue 138-143). With the knowledge of the back story in mind this promise is obviously full of peripity and the first of the instances where Oedipus by his own free will leads himself to his eventual downfall. After the people of the land yield no clues to the identity of the murder Oedipus sends for the blind clairvoyant Teiresias, hoping he can shed some light on th... Free Essays on Oedipus Oedipus was a great man, and the devotion to his people proves this. For instance, when the city is overwhelmed by plague, Oedipus answers the call of his people and searches for the reason. â€Å"I know that you are deathly sick; and yet, Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I† (p 1257). Only to find the only way to save his city is by finding the killer of king Laios, an answer that Oedipus comes to find out he does not want to know. Teiresias, a blind man that is very wise tells Oedipus that he is the killer. â€Å"I say that you are the murderer whom you seek†(p 1264). As King, Oedipus could have paid no mind to such accusations. Instead, he upholds his honor by searching deeper for the truth. As a result of Oedipus’ search for the truth, he is faced with another problem. What if he really is the killer? Oedipus was told by Creon that the murderer of Laios would be â€Å"exiled† from the city! This meant that if it was him, this judgement would be placed upon him as well. Oedipus shows great courage in wanting to know the truth, no matter what it is. Many other leaders, past and present have been known to cover up such truths. We still do not know the true killer of John F. Kennedy because of the American government.... Free Essays on Oedipus The Guilt of Oedipus When reading Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King, many controversial topics are presented throughout the entire piece. The major controversy in this play is whether or not Oedipus is responsible for his fate. After carefully examining this play, Oedipus is clearly not to blame for his tragic fate because the Gods had already predetermined his fate before the play even begins. Other reasons that he is not to blame are that his parents sent him to be killed as a young child and the shepherds did not kill him as they were ordered to. Throughout this paper, these arguments, along with excerpts from the play, will be used to defend Oedipus’ honor. The first point, and probably the most important one, is that before the play even begins, Oedipus’ fate is predetermined from the Gods. Apollo is the God that made the prophecy that eventually would come true. The prophecy made is clearly explained by Oedipus, towards the middle of the play: Apollo told me once- it is my fate- I must make love with my own mother, shed my father’s blood with my own hands. (1090-1092) This prophecy condemned Oedipus from his birth. This prophecy comes true and Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother. Oedipus is not to blame because he is under the assumption that Polybus, The King of Corinth, and Merope are his real birth parents. However, Laius, King of Thebes and killed by Oedipus, and Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife, are his real parents. Oedipus knows of the prophecy and he desperately tries not to let it come true and having the knowledge of who is real parents were, might have saved him from his agonistic fate. A second point showing Oedipus is not to blame is the fact that his real parents, Laius and Jocasta, sent him to be killed on the mountains of Cithaeron. Knowledgeable of Apollo’s prophecy, Laius and Jocasta desperately try to avoid it from coming true. They pin Oedipus’ ankles together and sen... Free Essays on Oedipus What Was Oedipus’s Crime? Oedipus, ruler of Thebes, murdered his father and married his mother. Such acts are almost always deemed unnatural and criminal; they are not tolerated within traditional society. A person who has committed these illegal acts of murder and incest would be considered a criminal, yet Sophocles’s character, Oedipus, is not guilty of either crime. Prior to the birth of Oedipus, a prophecy was spoken over Laius and his wife Jocasta. They were told that their son would one day be his father’s killer and would then marry his mother. In fear, King Laius and Queen Jocasta sent the baby Oedipus off with a slave to be killed. He was never killed, but rather was given to a childless king and queen which lovingly raised him. Oedipus was never factually told about his lineage. Later in his life, Oedipus was confronted by several unknown men while traveling. Upon confrontation, Oedipus killed all but one of the men in self defense. Unknowingly, Oedipus had begun to fulfill the prophecy for one of the men had been his birth father, Laius. While still traveling, Oedipus had come to the city of Thebes. There, he saved the city from the wrath of the Sphinx by solving her riddle. Seen as a savior by the citizens of Thebes, Oedipus was made king and subsequently, the husband of Jocasta. Oedipus and his wife-mother ruled together and had four children while never knowing of the true relationship between each other. As the tragedy comes to a close, the truth is revealed to Oedipus concerning his lineage and unnatural actions. Although the truth had been spoken to him about these matters previously, Oedipus had chosen not to believe and understandably so. True revelation comes to Oedipus through the same slave that had been ordered to kill him as a baby. Since Oedipus had no knowledge of his birth parents, he cannot be accused of knowingly fulfilling the prophecy. He had no understanding of Laius as his birth father upo...

Allude and Elude

Allude and Elude Allude and Elude Allude and Elude By Maeve Maddox . . . as you move forward in this new world of social networking remember that each network has a specific purpose  as Reid has eluded to in the video. This comment on a business blog refers to a conversation between Charlie Rose and Reid Hoffman, founder of the business networking site Linkedin. There are two problems with the writer’s use of the word â€Å"eluded† in this context. 1. The writer was reaching for the word alluded. 2. The word alluded is no more appropriate here than the word eluded. In current usage elude means â€Å"to escape from something.† The criminal has eluded the police for three years. Elude can also mean â€Å"to get away from† in the sense of escaping ones memory. His name continues to elude me. Allude is often used where the word refer or mention or describe would be the better choice. The word allude means â€Å"to make an indirect reference to something.† The speaker mentioned no names, but he alluded to the last governor by talking about â€Å"a helmet of hair.† In the interview referred to in the above quotation, Hoffman is not being indirect. He describes the purpose of each social network under discussion. His remarks are specific and not indirect. For that reason the word allude is not appropriate either. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Great Similes from Literature to Inspire You30 Baseball IdiomsThrew and Through