How Oedipus Rex and 500 Days of Summer Utilizes Expectations vs Reality

Figuring out how our surroundings can manipulate our perceptions has been the center of consumeristic research—businesses are pouring millions to find how to leave consumers with insatiable desires. Now, whether it’s trying a new restaurant or ordering online, we’ve come to expect things to be an instantaneous dopamine rush. In fact, we’re so accustomed to perfection that imperfection leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction and depression. This constant battle between expectations and reality is so ingrained in the human psyche that we can find parallels with ancient works like Oedipus Rex and modern films such as 500 Days of Summer, both of which utilize specific visuals and dramatic irony to emphasize the tragic hero’s downfall.

How Oedipus Rex Employs Expectation vs Reality

Robyn Schneider once said, “If [a play] ends with a wedding, it's a comedy. And if it ends with a funeral, it's a tragedy.” The sudden death of Jocasta and the banishment of Oedipus make Oedipus Rex the epitome of a tragedy. Throughout the novel, it is clear that faith drives Oedipus’ life—bringing him to Laius and Thebes. Blinded by the expectation of greatness, Oedipus was determined to escape his destiny. This was made apparent when he left Polybus and Merope, who Oedipus believed to be his legitimate parents. Oedipus’ confidence in that he had escaped the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother fed into his unquenchable ego, which inevitably led to his demise.

At the beginning of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’ egotistical quality is presented after he slays the Sphinx and becomes the king of Thebes: Oedipus comes to the expectation that he has transcended the boundaries between man and god. Thinking that he had obtained god-like powers, he promises to bring an end to the cursed land: “Drive the corruption from the land, don’t harbor it any longer, past all cure, don’t nurse it in your soil—root it out!” (Sophocles). As a result of overstepping his earthly confinement, the gods forced Oedipus to confront reality. Apollo curses Thebes with a plague that could only be extinguished if Oedipus “acknowledges the reality of his limits rather than taking a hubristic delusionary path” (Dabbagh).

Oedipus’ confidence in his own potential made him lash out at those who were in support of him. Tiresias was a prophet held in high regard and served as an enlightened protector of Thebes. However, when Tiresias divulged the fact that Oedipus had already fulfilled the prophecy, Oedipus’ demeanor quickly shifted to calling Tiresias “Nothing! You scum of the earth, you'd enrage a heart of stone! You won't talk? Nothing moves you?” (Sophocles). Oedipus’ ignorance and refusal to confront the truth until he found out who killed Laius made it impossible for reality to overtake his expectations.

In order to emphasize the magnitude of Oedipus’ expectation for success, Sophocles employs dramatic irony to foreshadow the hero's eventual downfall: “Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is, a lone man unknown in his crime or one among many, let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step” (Sophocles). The irony behind this scene is that the murderer and cause of Thebes' curse was Oedipus: years before arriving at Thebes, Oedipus encountered a man on a triple crossroad and killed the man in a fit of rage. Symbols such as the triple crossroad also serve as an illusion of free will, Oedipus is given the option to take different paths, yet all the roads will bring him to Thebes. Likewise, Oedipus perceives the ability to choose as a sign that the gods are not omnipotent. Using these literary devices to capture how a lack of free will and overwhelming expectations can blind one from seeing the apparent (Fosso).

 

500 Days of Summer Expectation vs Reality Scene

500 Days of Summer demonstrates the collapse of Tom Hansen using a more drastic and noticeable approach through film editing where parallel scenes are shown with one being labeled “reality” and another “expectations.” The “reality shots” utilize a wider lens to capture more background, while the “expectations” use a closer lens to showcase the intimacy between the two characters that Tom envisions.

A deeper look into the parts where Tom enters the room and the actual dinner party shows just how different Tom’s expectations were from reality. When Summer opens the door on “expectations,” there were no guests in the background, making the audience assume that Summer had called Tom over to rekindle their relationship, while “reality” shows that multiple guests are present. In both scenes, as Tom enters Summer’s house, he nods toward the other guests. On “expectations,” a man greets him, while in “reality,” no one notices Tom, displaying the lack of warmth from the surrounding.

During the dinner portion of the shot, the expectation side presents a small dinner table with Tom and Summer flirting, while in reality, Tom is displayed as distant and cold. Separated from Summer by the other guests, Tom makes acerbic jokes like, “I guess I just figured, why make something disposable like a building when you can make something that lasts forever like a greeting card” (Fox). This line reveals the underlying bitterness Tom has for the events of the evening as well as his crumbling love for Summer. In a sense, the scene was already perpetually tainted due to Tom’s disposition.

As the camera transitions to the final scene of the shot, “expectations” unveils the character’s intimacy and the reality side exhibits Tom pouring alcohol. When the true reason why Summer invited Tom over was revealed, the expectation slowly wanes, disclosing Summers's engagement to another man. This scene also acts as a way for the audience to understand how the entire film was told through the perspective of an unreliable narrator. Tom is a hopeless romantic that was trying to force a relationship that was clearly not meant to be lasting, yet he continued to project his own views of a soul mate onto Summer. From Tom’s perspective, he only sees the relationship through a rose-colored lens, unable to notice the red flags.

Comparing and Contrasting Oedipus Rex and 500 Days of Summer

In both Oedipus Rex and 500 Days of Summer, audience expectations must be accounted for since they drive the plot of the story. Namely, original viewers of Oedipus Rex knew the fate of Oedipus beforehand, making it easier for the audience to sympathize with Oedipus since they were predisposed to his downfall On the contrary, 500 Days of Summer starts off with the narrator stating, “this is not a love story.” This prelude toys with the unfamiliar audience’s emotions, making them wonder how this movie isn’t a romance if the two characters loved each other, or if the two’s relationship was merely a facade based on false expectations. Therefore, understanding how the audience’s expectations are manipulated by the story can offer more insight into the character’s expectations vs reality. 

Another important similarity that Oedipus Rex and 500 Days of Summer share is that there is a character who serves as the voice of reason for the protagonist. In 500 Days of Summer, Tom’s little sister, Rachel, plays this role: she tells Tom that the relationship was not as wonderful as he perceived it, so he should overcome his heartbreak. Rachel’s advice and presence are similar to Creon's from Oedipus Rex, who is Oedipus’ uncle and brother-in-law. In the play, Creon continued to stay by Oedipus’ side, despite being accused of betraying Oedipus for the throne. Even when it became clear that Oedipus was the cause of the curse, Creon was sympathetic and only banished Oedipus. In both stories, the voice of reason acts as the guild for the tragic hero to escape their unreasonable expectations of reality.

 
The close affinity between the way Oedipus Rex and 500 Days of Summer approach the theme of Expectation vs. Reality, despite their debut being lapsed by over two millennials, showcases the ubiquity of this idea. Through these two stories, one can see how their neverending expectation can be mirrored through the failure of Oedipus and Tom, cautioning the audience from being engulfed by disappointment.

Works Cited

Dabbagh, Tara. "Illusion and Reality in Oedipus the King and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" ResearchGate, Journal of Garmian University, Mar. 2021, www.researchgate.net/publication/350072533_Illusion_and_Reality_in_Oedipus_the_King_and_Who's_Afraid_of_Virginia_Woolf. Accessed 8 Jan. 2023.

Fosso, Kurt. "Oedipus crux: reasonable doubt in Oedipus the King." College Literature, vol. 39, no. 3, summer 2012, pp. 26+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A298752185/ITOF?u=lom_troyhs&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=08484ff9. Accessed 8 Jan. 2023.

Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a Watermark production; director of photography, Eric Steelberg ; produced by Jessica Tuchinsky, Mark Waters, Mason Novick, Steven J. Wolfe; written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; directed by Marc Webb. (500) Days of Summer. Beverly Hills, Calif.:20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2009.

Honeycutt, Kirk. "500 days of Summer.'" Hollywood Reporter, vol. 408, no. 11, 20 Jan. 2009, p. 9. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A192851998/ITOF?u=lom_troyhs&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a129bcad. Accessed 8 Jan. 2023.

Kousoulis, Antonis A., et al. "The plague of Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles's Oedipus Rex." Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2012, pp. 153+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A277344818/ITOF?u=lom_troyhs&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8e09ba58. Accessed 8 Jan. 2023.

Nayak, Arpit. "COMEDY Expectation Over the Reality of Relationships in '500 Days of Summer.'" The Movie Buff, 24 May 2020, www.themoviebuff.net/2020/05/expectation-over-the-reality-of-relationships-in-500-days-of-summer/. Accessed 8 Jan. 2023.

Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. [Place of publication not identified], Folkways Records, 1960