Lies and deceit are a well-known gray area in human morality, sometimes justifiable within the right circumstances. Some lies lead to desirable outcomes, but as the saying goes, the truth will out, and it has the potential to deal far more serious consequences than the liar could possibly predict. Deception and its consequences are key motifs in the works of Sophocles and Flannery O’Connor. While deception creates both spiritual and societal consequences in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, opposite motivations drive the deceitful characters.
The Herdsman in Oedipus the King is a relatively minor character whose lie is the catalyst for the tragic events of the play. He is tasked with leaving the injured and bound baby Oedipus in the hills to die. He knows of the prophecy, sealing the fate of the child to kill his father and lay with his mother. The Herdsman, however, “pitied it, and thought [he] could send it off to another country” to subvert the prophecy without bloodshed (Sophocles lines 1243-44). It was in taking the kind, moral action, sparing the life of a child, giving it away to a far kingdom, and lying about it, that the Herdsman sealed the cursed fate of the baby and the city of Thebes. The spiritual and societal repercussions of the lie are widespread throughout the play. The first sign of devastation is a divine curse placed upon the city to punish Oedipus for his unwitting sin. As the tragedy and layers of deception slowly come to light, the king’s once-content life is thrown into ruin, and Oedipus is left with only madness and despair. He cries out that the Herdsman who saved him did “no kindly service” and wishes that he had “died then” (1416-19). The people of Thebes also despair, for in one day, they lose both the king and the queen, in addition to the pain caused by the blight that had ravaged the city for months.
The grandmother in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is the main protagonist of the short story, though her lies are no less pivotal. Though there is no prophecy warning her and her family of their cruel fate, the grandmother is not entirely in the dark. She knows that the outlaw and felon, the Misfit, is on the run and is not above using the very idea of him for manipulation and idle gossip. This prior knowledge does not alter her actions in the slightest, and likewise, she pays no heed to the possible danger. Unlike the Herdsman’s single monumental lie, the grandmother’s lies are small, arbitrary, and numerous. She has no morals or pity, only a petty nature, pride, and self-centered enjoyment. She invents stories to manipulate her family into getting what she wants: “not telling the truth but wishing that she were” (O’Connor 502). She is hypocritically prideful, believing herself to be a lady and a good Christian woman, yet she is prejudiced and remains unaware of her own shortcomings. Her lies have many unintentional consequences. The family wrecks the car far from the beaten path because of her deceit, which puts them in the path of the misfit and ultimately leads to their deaths. These instant physical results are easy to see, but what is more profound is the spiritual consequences of the grandmother’s lies. Whereas the lies in Oedipus Rex lead to the king’s alienation from the divine, the grandmother has a moment of spiritual reckoning, where she recognizes the crazed Misfit as a fellow child of God, calling him “one of [her] own children” (O’Connor 508). In confronting death, she comes face-to-face with her pride and lets it go, as evidenced by the symbolism of her smiling face and crossed legs even in death (508).
Both the short story and the play are littered with lies and tragedy. Both the Herdsman and the grandmother have a measure of forewarning, and both create lies, which have vast, unintentional, and permanent effects. They have opposing motivations: kindness and selfishness. Nevertheless, their lies create both societal and spiritual repercussions that mirror each other. In the end, tragedy comes to all through deception, yet man never seems to learn from his mistakes.
Works Cited
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” 1953, The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 14th ed., edited by Kelly J. Mays, Norton, 2022, pp. 498–508.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. 429 BCE, Translated by David Grene. The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 14th ed., edited by Kelly J. Mays, W.W. Norton, 2022, pp. 1840-79.
Maura Allen is from Georgetown, Kentucky. She is majoring in History and Communications and plans to become an author and illustrator or possibly an editor.
Pensworth 