Characteristics Of Oedipus

It is fair to say that Oedipus had many flaws that would eventually allow him to go from being a “great” king and savior of a city, to being a looked at very shamefully and ruining the city of Thebes. Oedipus did some heroic things to get into certain positions throughout his life, but would ruin them all with his cockiness, prowess, and over eccentric pride.

Oedipus is a man of unflagging determination and perseverance, but one who must learn through the working out of a terrible prophecy that there are forces beyond any man’s conceptualization or control. Oedipus’ actions were determined before his birth, yet Oedipus’ actions are entirely determined by the Gods who control him completely. In the beginning of this tragedy, Oedipus took many actions leading to his own downfall. He tried to escape Corinth when he learned of the prophecies that were supposed to take place in his life. Instead, he

Throughout the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is faced with many problems. From the start of the play we are aware that Oedipus comes from a very messed up family line. As Lauren Silberman says, “Oedipus suffers the most grotesquely perverted family relationships imaginable”(Silberman 2). Oedipus has married his own mother after killing his father. Making Oedipus a husband and a son to Jocasta. Not only that, Oedipus also had four kids with his mother, making him a father and and a brother. When Oedipus found out what his prophecy was in the beginning of the play, he tried to avoid his fate by leaving Corinth and never returning because, he thought his parents were the king and queen. Ironically when he was leaving Corinth for good he

Oedipus The Rex was a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles first performed in 429 Bc. Oedipus was the king of Thebes and his first goal of the story was to find out who murdered Lauis. Oedipus summons an oracle who he demands to tell him who the killer is. The oracle replies that he does not wish to tell the king anything, outraged the king demands an answer. The oracle tells Oedipus that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus is outraged naturally at his apparent future and mocks the oracle for being blind, then the oracle says he is blind. Throughout the play we see that Oedipus is a great guy well loved by the people of Thebes. He is very intelligent, a natural leader but unfortunately is fatally flawed. His hamartia is that he can not simply let things go in life which ultimately leads to his own ruin and others he loves. His ruin in life comes when he has the sudden realization of what he has done. He does fulfill his prophesy of killing his father and having sexual relations with his mother without even being aware of the situation. No great person would ever want to ruin their

He told me that he went to the Herdsman that had given him away as a young child. This is where he fell to the bottom of the hierarchy. Jocasta had warned him not to find the herdsman as she had already concluded that Oedipus was he son and didn’t want him to find the proof. Oedipus with his immense hubris, thought that she was convincing him not to go because she was afraid he was of not of noble blood, so he asked him anyway. The Herdsman told Oedipus, "the child was called his child; but she within, your wife would tell you best how all this was." Oedipus asked him in shock, "She gave it to you?" The Herdsman responded, "Yes...to make away with it...They said that he should kill his parents." (Sophocles 19). At this point Oedipus was crushed by the reality he had just been told. His hubris has lead him to losing his self esteem. He told me that later Jocasta was found dead by her own hand. With this Oedipus had lost love and belonging. He informed me that now he wished that he had died so that he could have avoided the horrid prophecy altogether. Finally, Oedipus dropped to physiological needs when he told his brother-in-law Creon, "Drive me from here with all the speed you can to where I may not here a human voice." (Sophocles 22). He no longer had safety or shelter and was set out to live on his own in

Finding out who his true father is seems important for someone who has just been told he will kill his father. Nor is Oedipus particularly intelligent about the way he conducts himself. Even though he did not know that Laius and Jocasta were his parents, he still does kill a man old enough to be his father and marry a woman old enough to be his mother. One would think that a man with as disturbing a prophesy over his head as Oedipus would be very careful about who he married or killed. Blindly he pursues the truth when others warn him not to; although he has already fulfilled the prophesy, he does not know it, and if he left well enough alone, he could continue to live in blissful ignorance. But instead he stubbornly and foolishly rummages through his past until he discovers the awful truth. In this way, Jocasta 's death and his blindness are his own fault.

Oedipus’ stubbornness led to his downfall because he thought he was always correct and didn’t like listening to others. He was a static character because he was overconfident and refused to believe anyone’s opinion above his own . By not listening to anyone when the truth came out, he was hurt emotionally and physically. Oedipus was a man of power and wealth who suddenly falls.

When Oedipus was a baby, his prophecy was that he was going to end up killing his father and marrying his mother, causing both King Laius and Jocasta to be terrified, and they end up leaving baby Oedipus to die on a mountainside. “An oracle was reported to Laius once…That his doom would be death at the hands of his own son…the King had pierced the baby’s ankles And left him to die on a lonely mountainside” (185, 188-189, 193-194). But, because of his anger, Oedipus ended up making that prophecy come true; regardless of how much Jocasta and Laius tried to avoid it. “Swinging my club in this right hand I knocked him Out of his car, and he rolled on the ground. I killed him” (287-288). If Oedipus never let his anger get to him at the crossroad, he would’ve never killed his father, and his prophecy would’ve never came

Oedipus was a noble man, the hero of the city of Thebes, but no hero is without flaw. The rage within him led to fulfil the prophecy foretold about his fate. It was warned that he would kill his own father, and while on the road to Thebes he was driven off the road by a man he did not know.

“Oedipus the King” is a tragic story written by Sophocles. Oedipus is a king that is trying to escape his fate. An oracle had predicted that he was going to be the killer of his father, and was going to sleep with his mother. When he was first born, his parents attempted to kill him yet he survived and was adopted. Instead of getting away from the atrocious future that was predicted, Oedipus walks right into his fate. This Greek tragedy is about transitions. He starts off as arrogant, unknowing, and full of ego but this drastically changes as we reach the end of the play. Oedipus becomes a wise man and has accepted how life is. No matter how much power or knowledge you have there is no way of tampering with fate, instead accept and learn from it.

Oedipus only had to open his eyes and realize what the blind prophet was saying described him. Then, he wouldn’t have went down the way he did. When Oedipus finally came to realization, he figured out he had killed his father, married his mother, and also had kids with her. He was in complete shock. At the moment Oedipus found out about his real self, he says “My god it’s all true. I killed him...I made love to her...and raised a family that never should have been born. I can no longer bear to see the light” (Oedipus the King 62). With this, he stabs out his eyes in horror. Not only was Oedipus blind to the fact Jocasta and

Through history, everyone is trying to rise to the top. However, the ones at the top are not always the most suitable. This becomes evident in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, where Oedipus becomes the ruler of Thebes after defeating the Sphinx. Throughout the story, Oedipus fails to meet the characteristics of a good leader, including: humbleness, selflessness and patience.

Oedipus did not see his own life for what it was or the mere mortal that he was. He was vain in that sense, having a lot of pride in who he was and what he had done for the city, after all he was the man who outsmarted the last plague on the city, and saved the city for the citizens. This unfortunately went to his head, and made him arrogant.

There are many facets of personality of a minor character that authors may utilize to supply contrast to the main character of their work. Some of these contrasts are extremely noticeable and some are not. One such facet is with the use of a neutral character; to not only showcase the main character’s flaws, but so not to detract from the moral of the story. Creon, from the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles is used for both of these reasons. Sophocles wished to show that one cannot escape fate, yet did not want to cloud this issue with a possible coupe against his main character Oedipus. He also showed how, at times one character can act completely irrational, while one remains calm in the face of serious accusations.

Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy play written by Sophocles, and it made its first debut