How Is Oedipus Selfish

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, an honourable and admirable Greek king named Oedipus rules the town of Thebes. He is left in mental turmoil and decay as his unknown, corrupt and immoral past is slowly revealed during his quest to find the culprit who murdered King Laius. The newly exposed past suddenly transforms his glory and respect into shame and humiliation. After he learns about his wicked past he stabs his eyes, which lead to his blindness. During the course of the play, references to blindness and vision constantly recur, giving the reader an enhanced and more insightful look into the themes of the play. Some themes that are expressed through these references include truth and knowledge, guilt, and freewill versus

This denial causes him to make decisions that only lead to his downfall and further deterioration. He himself leads to his own downfall through his foolish beliefs. To further, Oedipus makes more destructive decisions when he summons the Sheppard to reveal who the murderer of Laius is. Oedipus says, “I must pursue this trail to the end, till I have unraveled the mystery of my birth” (Sophocles, 113), illustrating his mental deterioration considering that this obsession to deny his position as the murderer is consuming his life. Oedipus forces the Sheppard to tell the ill-fated truth and is told: “I hadn’t the heart to destroy it, master” (Sophocles, 118), demonstrating that Oedipus was the cursed baby who was sent to his death, but as fate had planned, Oedipus lived. Not only did he live, he went on to accomplish each revelation the Oracle declared he would. At the end, once the truth has been revealed, Oedipus reaches his breaking point and cannot bear the truth. His mental deterioration from discovering the truth consequently influences him into literally blinding himself, resulting in his downfall. These examples establish how Oedipus’s internal madness played the role of influencing him into believing he could alter the will of the Oracle. He displayed madness when he continuously denied the truth despite the evidence that went against his beliefs. He was blinded by madness into

“You came and by your coming saved our city, freed us from the tribute which we paid of old to the Sphinx, cruel singer”(39-41), This tells us Oedipus’ pasts and how his insight helped him become king of Thebes. “Not twice you shall say calumnies like this and stay unpunished”(417-418), Here Oedipus claims that Teiresias accusing him of the murder is wrong and impossible. Due to his ignorance, Oedipus believes that Creon and Teiresias are plotting to overthrow him from the throne. Even later in the play there is a point when he absentmindedly remarks, "Strange, hearing you just now . . . my mind wandered, my thoughts racing back and forth”(800-802), where he is maybe considering that he may actually be the murderer. Yet Oedipus does not blame himself for the plague of the city, instead he tries to place the burden onto others as he continues his investigation, blindly trusting his own superior ability while ignoring the obvious evidence that surrounds him. Continuing the metaphor of sight and blindness, Sophocles uses it to shows how Oedipus is unwilling to accept his true fate and is blinded, and ignorant to his past actions. This also brings about irony due to the fact that Oedipus was made famous in Thebes for his keen insight, by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, but is unable to clearly see his current

Oedipus intelligence could not see the truth, but the blind man, Teiresias, saw it plainly. Sophocles uses blindness as a theme in the play. Oedipus was uninformed and as a result blind to the truth about himself and his past. Yet, when Teiresias exposes the truth he is in denial. It is left to Oedipus to conquer his blindness, accept the truth, and realize fate. But instead Oedipus ridicules Terirsias blindness and accuses him of being on the side of Kreon and helping him become King. He accuses Teiresias for being paid to tell a fraudulent prophecy to him. Quickly Teiresias answers him back and tells him he is BLIND, and tells him about his past of who his actual mother and father was.

He is consumed in hubris as he disbelieved the oracles, and sealed his fate. Although he was cursed at birth for his father's misdeeds, his godlessness paired with vain pride leads him deeper into tragedy. Prophecy foretold that Oedipus would kill his father, and marry his mother. Jocasta, without belief in the gods, prays to them. She only prays to them at her own convenience. She prays to the altar of Apollo requesting that Oedipus doesn't learn the truth of the situation. Jocasta thinks that her prayer has come true. A messenger walks in, and reveals that Oedipus' dad has died. She doesn't want Oedipus to find out who his true parents are. Polybus was believed to be Oedipus' father. He was relieved to hear of Polybus' dying a natural death as a sign that the oracles are false. “PAGE 26/40 OEDIPUS...the oracles are dead-- Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus. JOCASTA “Tell me Oedipus, didn't I tell you this would happen a long time ago?” But Jocasta was just praying to those same 'powerless' gods. Despite the brief relief of his dead father, he refused to visit his mother. He feared the other half of the prophecy, for he was scared of scorn from the Gods. He constantly questions if it can be true, and wavers on the line of deception and truth. Oedipus lives in deception. He lives in constant sorrow and unease, for he is sacrilegious and hypocritical. “PAGE 26/40 OEDIPUS If only my mother

Oedipus Rex is a play about the way we blind ourselves to painful truths that we can’t bear to see. Physical sight and blindness are used throughout the play, often ironically, as a metaphor for mental sight and blindness. The play ends with the hero Oedipus literally blinding himself to avoid seeing the result of his terrible fate. But as the play demonstrates, Oedipus, the man who killed his father and impregnated his mother, has been blind all along, and is partly responsible for his own blindness.

He believes that he is above even the gods. He is oblivious to all the things people tell him. If he doesn’t want to hear it, he will not listen. When Teiresias tells Oedipus that he is the killer of King Laius, he does not believe it.

At the beginning of this story Oedipus is working on trying to help the people of his kingdom. The kingdom is being plagued by drought, sickness, and death. Oedipus is very loyal to his subjects he wants to do what is right for each and everyone of them. “His anguish, not another’s; but my spirit

Oedipus acted like he knew he was right about not being the murderer of King Laius. Finally, Oedipus gains the knowledge from the old man about the death of Laius. As a result of this, Oedipus begins to realize that he was the one who killed King Laius. This causes him to feel that it was planned for this to happen, “Woe! Woe it all plain indeed!

In spite of his previous attitude, as the story goes on, Oedipus begins to hear the truth for its entirety to gain more knowledge about his past. He starts opening his ears and asking about Laius, out of fear that he was his killer, asking questions such as “Where did this thing happen?” (807), and “When? How long ago?” (811) referring to Laius’ murder. Then, when asked by Jocasta why he is suddenly so

Oedipus then blinds himself because the loss of sight is worse than the loss of

Irony throughout the play emphasizes certain weaknesses in Oedipus's character such as hubris and stubbornness. These traits enable Oedipus to refuse the advice of his peers. For example. earlier in the play, Oedipus states to the people of Thebes that those who know the identity of Laius's murderer should tell him everything. Yet when Tiresias tells him the truth, he refuses Tiresias's advice and eventually the advice of others throughout the play. Although Oedipus's determination to pursue the truth can be seen as admirable, the refusal to listen to such advice, especially from

My belief first started when Laius and Jocasta believed the Oracle’s words. They tried to kill their son so that this prophecy wouldn’t come true. This was a choice. Most people disagree because they believe that the Oracle Delphi determined Oedipus’s fate. I believe that Delphi’s prediction came true because of the influence her words had on Oedipus. The words frightened him, causing him to run from his home, the only home he had ever known. If Oedipus hadn’t been influenced by Delphi’s words, he never would have left Corinth. Oedipus had a choice about whether or not to leave Corinth and he chose to leave. His choice to leave turned into his choice to kill Laius.

Originally, Oedipus is blinded to the truth because of his selfishness and ignorance in order to preserve his throne as king. As a matter of fact, Oedipus thought Creon was plotting against his him, he states