Analysis Of Oedipus Rex

In conclusion, Oedipus’ fate had been predetermined, and he had no control over the situation he was set on. In fact, the only dilemma Rex could actually control was the way he responded to injustice. Although he, sadly, blinded himself in a quite brutal way, his reasoning for this and the words he uttered displayed how he was a great

Oedipus is a very ignorant character. The play reveals that he killed his father and slept with his mother. To make matters worse, he has no idea that he has done either of these things. As the play progresses, hints of Oedipus’s wrongdoings pop up sporadically, yet he does not catch on until the end. Other characters realize what is going on before Oedipus does. It is Oedipus’s ignorance that prolongs his search for King Laius’s killer and his realization of his

Although Oedipus’s fate was already determined, he is not just a mere puppet of the gods, meaning he can control his own life. Before full knowledge of his unintentional incest, he tries to flee town in order to avoid marrying his mother. By doing this he is taking matters

Talk about road rage! Oedipus is pushed out the way by a wagon, and he retaliates by killing almost everyone in the wagon, including his father! Sure, Oedipus was destined to kill his father anyway, but the manner in which he did so gives an insight into his demeanor. Oedipus could have killed his father in any number of ways, but to do so in a fit of rage set off by so seemingly trivial of an event is just not rational. Murder may not have been as big of a deal at that time, but if Oedipus had tried that in today’s world, he would have either been executed or have been spending the rest of his life in a mental institution. This incident goes to show that Oedipus is a very rash and impulsive man, and this carries over into his administration and decision-making.

“Oedipus Rex” was a Greek Tragedy written by Sophocles in the fifth century BC. It was the first of a trilogy of plays surrounding the life of Oedipus. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays approximately 100 years before Aristotle even defined a tragedy and the tragic hero. Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy is “… an imitation of an action of high importance, complete and of some amplitude; in language enhanced by distinct and varying beauties; acted not narrated; by means of pity and fear effecting its purgation of these emotions” (Kennedy and Gioa 2010). According to Aristotle there were six elements to a tragedy: the plot, the character, the

Oedipus sin of incest was bedding and having children with his mother. The sin was not ever said clearly by either Jocasta or Oedipus. Instead when Jocasta realizes what she had done she begged Oedipus that, “in the name of God, if you care at all for your own life, you must not go on with this. I cannot bear it anymore” (Sophocles 24). Oedipus sees what he had done a later shouting, “O God! O no! I see it now! All clear! . . . Sin! Sin in my birth! Sin in my marriage! Sin in Blood” (Sophocles 27). When they both saw what they had done they could not believe it all they could do was just see what they had not been seen before.

The play Oedipus the King, serves as a warning to society that you do have control over your life to a certain measure, but Oedipus’ experiences are caused by his unknowing background on his life, his temperament, and the certain situations

Oedipus Rex is a story that can be interpreted on many different levels of thinking. The ancient tale has existed for centuries and has been subjected to countless forms of analysis. What is it that makes Oedipus the King such a fascinating story? Is it the suspense of a developing mystery that captivates the audience? Or perhaps the wonderful feeling the readers get after vicariously experiencing the horror Oedipus feels? And if not that, could it be that the reader is intrigued at Sophocles' description of one man's disbelief in the gods? Whichever way one looks at it, Oedipus Tyrannus was, and remains, one of the "most highly admired plays of all time" (Wood, et al, 163).

The famed tragedian Sophocles is known for his unique ideas and intellect. Sophocles carefully utilizes of all of his intelligence and creative ability in order to make use of illuminating moments throughout the play which allow his audience to draw conclusions about free will, fate, knowledge, and power throughout perhaps his most iconic play, Oedipus Rex. the main character Oedipus experiences an illuminating moment when he gouges his eyes out at the discovery of the truth about his actions. This illumination is expressed in order to express Sophocles’ idea that fate overpowers free will.

Oedipus was cursed, indirectly, due to the sins of his father Laius after a crime he committed; the cursed stated that his unborn son would kill him. Laius was blinded and possessed by the curse since he immediately demonstrated selfishness, as well as a lack of affection and love for his newborn son. This is because he “commanded that the child be killed. He pierced the three-day-old infant’s ankles and gave him to a shepherd, with orders to expose him on Mount Cithaeron, outside Thebes” (Sophocles 28). Even before Oedipus was born, his fate will be filled sealed with tragedy; it was indeed inevitable to prevent.

    The myth of Oedipus’s incest and parricide has been retold many different times. The basic story line has remained the same. Oedipus leaves Corinth to try to escape a fate of incest and parricide. After he leaving the city, he ends up saving Thebes from the Sphinx, becoming king of the city and in the process fulfilling the prophecy. The character of Oedipus changes in each play to help support a different meaning to the entire myth. Cocteau’s The Infernal Machine and Sophocles’s Oedipus the King are both centered on the myth, yet their themes are different. By changing Oedipus’s personality, motive, relationship with Jocasta, his mother and wife, and his character

In the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus unknowingly murders his father and marries his mother. When Oedipus discovers this he is disgusted with himself and decides to go into exile. The Misanthrope is a play about the self-exile of the main character Alceste. Challenged in court, he refuses to take back the criticism of a sonnet written by a powerful nobleman. Alceste and Oedipus are both convicted by their knowledge of the truth. Although, the United States grants asylum to more refuges than any other country, there is one man who has decided to self-exile.

Oedipus Rex is, at its very core, a story about a young man’s vain attempts to change his fate. Orphaned at a young age because of a prophecy, Oedipus finds himself in a neighbouring kingdom, Corinth, in Greece. In the play, Oedipus learns of the prophecy that says he will kill his father and marry his mother. Upon hearing this, he leaves his foster parents Polybos and Merope, whom he believes are his real parents, in order to defy this fate.

Sophocles Oedipus the King is a tragic play which discusses the tragic discovery of Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. The story of Oedipus was well-known to the Athenian's. Oedipus is the embodiment of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus' life and to further characterized him as a tragic man. The Sphinx posed the following riddle to all who came to obtain the rule of Thebes: “What is it that walks on 4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet and has only one voice, when it walks on most feet it is the weakest?” Oedipus correctly answered “Man” and became the king of Thebes. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus. As a child man crawls on his hands and knees this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers. Also, man is at his weakest as a small child. He depends solely on others for his nourishment and well-being. Oedipus was the child of Jocasta and King Laius who was taken to the mountain by a Shepard to be killed so the omen of the god Apollo that Laius' son would kill him and lay with Jocasta would not come true. Oedipus was the weakest of his life at this point.

The most crucial point in the play “Oedipus the king” was the fact that Oedipus was completely unaware that he killed his own father. He had a mission to find out who was his father’s killer. Effectively the more Oedipus was motivated and with his excessive confidence in knowing the truth of who killed his father, the play began to unravel and starts to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle that Oedipus was known for figuring out. The more he pushed in finding who his father killer was the more he was towards his reality of terror. The place where three roads meet was the place where Laius was killed and the place where Oedipus, himself had killed a man. He thought his father was a man named Polypus, the king of Corinth yet a man had shouted out at a banquet that he was not his father’s son. He was given a apprehension of “a future great with pain, terror, disaster…You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children