Denial In Oedipus The King

The next stage on his of the journey to self-awareness is doubt. Oedipus demonstrates the puerile arrogance by refusing to accept the truth even as more and more proof of his inadvertent sins. He uses many common coping strategies to avoid the cruel truth of his fate. For instance, when he invites the distinguished prophet Teiresias to help him cure Thebes, he begins respectfully but quickly turns impatient and insolent when the prophet refuses to answer his questions, threatening to use his power as king to punish this disobedience, though by doing this Oedipus himself displays the same defiance toward the will of the gods being channeled through Teiresias. Eventually, Teiresias angrily reveals: “I say you are the murderer of the king/whose murderer you seek.” (Oed. 362-363) Oedipus, of course, orders him away and quickly returns to his state of denial, albeit somewhat disturbed. To dismiss the idea completely, he uses another coping strategy, blame, scapegoating

"The driver's two pronged goad, stuck me on the head. He paid with interest for his temerity; Quick s lightning, the staff in this right hand did its work; he tumbled headlong out the carriage, and every man of them there I killed." According to this quote , it shows that Oedipus is an anger impulse person because he kill all the man that hits him on the road. Moreover, in page 36"Teiresias: I do if truth has any power to save. Oedipus: It has but not for you; no, not for you, Shameless and brainless, sightless, senseless sot!" This quote shows that Oedipus gets angry at Teiresias because Teiresias said he was the killer. Which led him to fulfill his prophecy: Kill his father and marry his

Due to his arrogance and narcissism, Oedipus fails to take heed of Tiresias warning of whom Creon sent him and decided that the accusations that were being made against him are attempts to steal his throne. Likewise, Oedipus tells Tiresias when he was reluctant to tell Oedipus is Laius’ killer, “What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak!/Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the

In his excess of anger he fails to see what is blatantly placed in front of him and he ceases to use his brain or any rationale he commits acts in haste and has little to know patience for any reasoning. He strikes the man at the carriage for little or no reason which he does not know yet is his father; he has a murderous temperament. He dismisses Teiresias without ever giving him a chance to openly say what he wants too. He does not let Teiresias finish what hes saying because he gets too angry too fast with out even listening to everything with an open mind he jumps to conclusions and does not use or listen to any reasoning. When Teiresias calls him the cursed polluter of the land Oedipus immediately becomes enraged and tries to silence him at once with threats You are say it! Have you no shame at all? And do you expect to escape the consequence? (Sophocles, 35). Instead, if he had questioned Teiresias about what he meant by that statement or asked him for evidence. By having control over his anger Oedipus could have been knowledgeable to the truth sooner.

Pride is a vital facet in the multi-sided diamond1 that is human psychology. In Sophocles’(n.d.) Antigone, the famous philosopher demonstrates how the mind can be clouded so effortlessly and bear such tragic repercussions when influenced by pride. In this dismal sequel to Oedipus Rex, also written by Sophocles(n.d.), both sides of the moral battle have plenty of justification for their actions.

     Oedipus is a very honest and persistent man. From the instant in which he questions Teiresias about the murder, we see that he is very persistent in trying to find the answer. Even when Teiresias begs Oedipus to stop questioning him, Oedipus forces the truth-teller to speak the truth. He goes as far as to threaten to kill Teiresias to give him the news which would accuse Oedipus as the murderer that he seeks.

Many people believe that fate has planned out their lives and despite efforts on their part what was meant to happen, will eventually happen. This belief has been handed down over the centuries from some of the first civilizations, such as the Greeks. However, not all Greek citizens wanted destiny to take control of their lives. Some decided to choose freewill over the will of the gods. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles writes a cautionary tale meant to warn the doubters in Greek society that regardless of their beliefs in gods and prophecies, it is necessary to heed their warnings. Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius are Sophocles’ characters that prove that escaping one’s fate is not possible, as each of their predicted fates is realized despite extensive efforts to thwart them.

With his great knowledge and accomplishment establishing him as a man of insight and honor he is crowned King of Thebes. Oedipus, unwilling to hear or see truth, smites a blind man in the midst of his own ignorance and denial to reality. Teiresias, a blind prophet, is stood before Oedipus to reveal his visions about the identity of the murderer. “PAGE 11/40 TEIRESIAS thou hast not spared To twit me with my blindness--thou hast eyes, Yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen, Nor where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate. Dost know thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not, And all unwitting art a double foe...” Teiresias reveals Oedipus' fate to him. He reveals that Oedipus doesn't know who his true parents are, and is living a doubly bad fate. Oedipus becomes engaged and accusatory of Teiresias at the thought of someone threatening his preconceived reality. “PAGE 10/40 OEDIPUS There is strength where there is truth, but not in you Oedipus. You don't possess this quality, for you are blind in your ears, mind, and eyes.” Oedipus even goes as far as to suggest that Teiresias murdered King Laius. “PAGE 10/40 OEDIPUS Thou methinks thou art he, I think that you are he who planned this crime, and he who even committed it too..” Oedipus, self righteous and pompous, believes that he can do no wrong. His ego is so big that he tears down and slanders

Oedipus thinks his human powers can match anything put in front of him. He forces other characters to tell him things, which again creates his tragic ending. (O790) Oedipus by not knowing his identity seems to create his own tragedy. Throughout the entire play, he is blind to everything people are telling him. (O320) He continues to badger Teiresias to answer things that Oedipus does not believe is true. If he

plague of Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex." Emerging Infectious Diseases, 18(1): pp. 153-157. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3310127/. [Accessed on 24 September 2012].

Oedipus the King is a story about the king of Thebes, Oedipus. When he was young his parents were given an awful fate that Oedipus would bed his mother and kill his father. Oedipus was meant to be killed but given mercy and was able to leave. He grew with adopted parents and saved the city of Thebes. Only find out that his fate was sealed and that the horrible destiny had come true.

At the beginning, Oedipus is ignorant and is constantly avoids and ignores the truth in order to protect his reputation. Oedipus’ unwillingness to open his ears to the truth develops when Tiresias reveals that he killed Laius and one of his responses is, “Your words are nothing-- / futile” (416-417). Although Oedipus begged to hear Tiresias’ words, he was not willing to pay attention or open his eyes to the unfortunate idea. Oedipus pushes aside the words Tiresias says, refusing to believe that he could be the one who killed Laius, the one who must be cursed. Later, Tiresias brings up Oedipus’ ignorance saying “you’re blind to the corruption of your life” (471), and telling him a few lines later that “No man will ever / be rooted from the earth as brutally as you” (488-489). Oedipus was put in his place and blatantly told that he is ignorant but his rise to knowledge will also bring his demise. Sophocles foreshadowed using Tiresias in that way, but Oedipus was so into avoiding any confrontation with the truth at the beginning that he would respond calling Tiresias’ visions “absurdities” (494). Therefore, even though the truth has been revealed to him, Oedipus still chooses to remain blind to the truth in order to remain good in the eyes of his people.

In most literature, light is comparable to truth and darkness to ignorance. However in the story of Oedipus, this common knowledge is turned on its head. The plagued townspeople seek knowledge in King Oedipus even though he is the most ignorant of all. Unbeknownst to him, he has killed his father and slept with his mother, horrible crimes that are actually causing the plague. Sophocles contrasts knowledge with blindness and ignorance with sight through imagery to explicate the relation of ignorance and knowledge.

Over the extensive history of the theatre arts, most of the many plays and productions fall into unique categories in regards to structure. The two most simplest of the structural categories are climactic and episodic. A climactic structure, or alternatively known as an intensive structure, contains a play in which all components are restricted as the main conflict in the story commences late into the play and only a little time passes until the story occurs. Everything is restricted to a few components. There are not as many characters, scenery change and very limited amounts of action. climactic structures focuses heavily on the climax in contrast to other structures. One notable example of a climactic performance is Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The story of Oedipus is that of tragedy and despair as Oedipus and his family are unable to escape the fate that Oedipus has had since birth. The exposition and starting action (in this case, the events that led up to him to being king of Thebes) occur before the play and is only ever talked about. The play only takes place in the castle and has only four primary characters. Ultimately, Oedipus Rex only takes place within a day and primarily focuses on the realization and aftermath of the story of Oedipus and his sins, or the climax. All these components that define a climactic structure of production are found in the aforementioned play by Sophocles, strengthening what a climactic structure is and the vast potential a climactic play

However, pride is not the only characteristic, which contributes to their tragic end.  For Oedipus, there exists his temper, his unrelenting pursuit of the truth and his suspicion.  His temper is exhibited in the argument between Teiresias and himself, where Teiresias states the truth and Oedipus replies, "Do you think you can say such things with impunity?"(p.36) and later calls Teiresias a, "Shameless and brainless, sightless, senseless sot!"(p.36).  His suspicion was also shown in this exchange where he says, "Creon! Was this trick his, then, if not yours?"(p.36).  Lastly his unrelenting pursuit of the truth is demonstrated when he believes he is the murderer and that Polybus was not his