Eodipus Rex

An Enemy of the People and Oedipus Rex have many things that are similar as well as different. There as symbols in both plays that affect the people of the town as well as themes. There are characters with different roles in both plays that have many things in common.

Symbols appear in both plays. In An Enemy of the People, The Baths are a symbol in the town. The town depends on them. People from many other towns visit The Baths. Without The Baths the town might not be as rich as it is. Many citizens work there also. Closing the Baths or something like that would affect the town economically. The plague in Oedipus Rex is affecting all the citizens of Cadmus. Unlike in An enemy of the People, the citizens of Cadmus are trying to find out who slain Laius so they can stop the plague. They are trying to find a solution to their problem. The people in An Enemy of the People have the solution in their hands but they don’t dare do anything because they are afraid.

Two theme that appears in both plays are “ignorance” and “search for the truth”. In An Enemy of the People, Dr. Stockma

n is searching for the true purification of The Baths and finds out that they are contaminated. No one wants to believe him. The whole town goes against him and sides with the mayor. However, Dr. Stockman doesn’t give up even though no one wants to support him. He sticks up for his beliefs. The people in the town ignore the conditions of The Baths. Hovstad doesn’t want to help Dr. Stockman to tell the town that The Baths are contaminated when he finds out that fixing that problem will cost a lot of money which will be coming out of the citizens’ pockets. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is in search of his identity. After he finds out that Polybus is not his real father he goes crazy and wants to find out who his parents are. Unlike Dr. Stockman, Oedipus doesn’t do much to try to finds out who his biological parents are. He ignores clues that are given to him. The oracle tells him that he will kill his own father and marry his mother. Teiresias also tells him that he is the “accursed defiler of this land”, “ the slayer of the man whose slayer you seek”, “You have been living with your closest kin”, (84-88) and that he is his own plague. All this

Some topics in this essay:
Dr Stockman, Stockman Oedipus, Oedipus Rex, Enemy People, Plague Cadmus, Cadmus Unlike, Rex Oedipus, People Baths, Iocasta Laius, enemy people, dr stockman, Closing Baths, oedipus rex, people enemy people, dr stockman doesn’t, truth truth, citizens cadmus, people enemy, people dr, baths contaminated, stockman oedipus, people dr stockman, enemy people dr, people town, dr stockman oedipus,