How Is Oedipus Stubborn

Equally important to the role of fate in bringing about the downfall of Oedipus is the human flaw of arrogance that clouded Oedipus’ intellect to reason. One can ultimately see this human flaw in the beginning of the play as he says “Here I am myself – you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (p 262, line 7-9). One day Oedipus heard someone say that he wasn’t his father’s son in which bothered him greatly and triggered his curiosity in whether Polybus and Merope were his biological parents. So, as a way to figure out his identity and true origins, he left to Delphi to see the Oracle. However, instead of answering Oedipus’ answer of who his true parents were, the Oracle told him of his fate that “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see – you will kill your father the one who gave you life” (p. 297, lines 873-875). Hence, his arrogance is clearly showed as he disregards the prophecy, similar to the actions of Laius and Jocasta by escaping it, as he abandons Corinth and sets forth to a place where he “would never see the shame of all those oracles come true” (p. 297, lines 879-880). His flaw of

Destined to marry his mother and murder his father, Oedipus was partly guided by fate. This prophecy, as warned by the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, was absolute and would inevitably come to pass. As for free will, Oedipus’ actions, temper, impulsive nature and pride (hubris) as well as his erroneous judgment (hamartia) all

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is the story of a man who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. The story continues in the tradition of classic Greek plays, which were based upon the Greeks’ beliefs at the time. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods decided what would ultimately happen to each and every person. Since those gods destined Oedipus to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus’ life was definitely fated. However, the gods only decided where Oedipus’ life would eventually lead; they never planned the route he would take to get there. All the decisions that Oedipus made in order to fulfill his destiny, and the decisions he made after the fact, were of his own free will,

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 goes to Tiresias, Jocasta, Creon, The Messenger, The Oracle, and The Shepherd for information regarding his life. Each character in one way or another refused to give him the answers he seeked to know. As Oedipus got closer to the answer, another character tried to put a stop in his journey. Oedipus continues moving forward even though people requested that he didn’t. “Oh no, listen to me, i beg you, don’t do this…..Listen to you? No more. I must know it all, see the truth at last” (Sophocles 195). His desire for the truth kept him going to continue his search to find himself, leading to his downfall. Although he had the capability to discontinue the plight, he made the independent decision to continue.

The overall theme of Oedipus The King is free will being tainted by one’s fate. With the Gods choosing to give Oedipus the awful fate of patricide and incest, his own free will was ultimately useless, almost used as a taunting in the form of the non existent chance of him escaping his destiny. The play conveys the thought that man truly has no free will, and he is “merely a puppet in the hands of his Gods, they pull the strings that make him dance” (Dodds

While Oedipus was recalling the prophecy that made him flee his home he also talked about murdering a man and his caravan at the same exact spot where Laius was killed. On page 13 Oedipus shaken by the questionable nature of Apollo’s prophecy recalls “as I journeyed I came to the place where, as you say, this king met with his death… And then I killed them all”. Even when trying to leave his fate Oedipus only filled the role faster showing that for Sophocles fate is a fundamental governing force of the universe that can’t be bargained with or fled from because as cruel as it may seem the story for everyone and everything has already been written and it cannot be edited. This same macabre philosophy towards fate is also expressed by the character Teiresias a slave with mystical prophetic visions. After Oedipus mocks Teiresias for being blind and foolish Teiresias replies with the fate of Oedipus at the end of the story on page 7 “blindness for sight and beggary for riches his exchange, he shall go journeying to a foreign country tapping his way before him with a stick”. Of course Oedipus doesn’t believe Teiresias but this happens exactly at the end of the play because the fates of everyone have already been set in stone and Teiresias can see the truth. In these attempts to flee from fate the only thing waiting for

Throughout the play, Oedipus constantly urges Creon, Jocasta, Tiresias, the messenger, and the shepherd for information of his beginnings. For example, when Tiresias revealed his fate, he lost his temper and insulted Tiresias. “You cannot cloud in words what you are/ An enemy, a bitter and cunning...” (38). Oedipus did not want to believe in his fate and ordered Tiresias to leave. Tiresias points out that Oedipus’s obstinacy and pride will bring upon his downfall. “But, as you /Shall learn, what was your pride must be your ruin” (35). Another example when Oedipus lashed out was when he killed Laius and the men around him. “I became angry /And struck the coachman” (53). Oedipus was born with his own stubbornness, a quality that the gods gave

IGNORANCE IS (NOT) BLISS King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes had a new born son who was found to have a horrible fate; He was to kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent this, they bound his ankles and left him in the mountainside to die. However, he was rescued by a Shepherd, who gifted him to the royal family of Corinth who were unable to have children. They raised him as their own and never told him of his true origins.

When thinking of who is responsible for the tragedy of Oedipus, I tend to lean towards fate. Since the beginning, it was Oedipus' fate to kill his father and marry his mother. He spent most of his life attempting to avoid this, but all of his actions simply brought him closer to his fate. Fate knew Oedipus' end from the beginning and the oracles were always right in what they predicted for him. I think the gods are so nasty to Oedipus because he tried to avoid his prophecy by leaving his believed parents. I believe Oedipus has free will, but no matter what he chose to do, his fate would have remained the same at the end.

Throughout Oedipus the King, Oedipus seemed to believe that he could overcome the prophecy given to him by Apollo. However, the ending of the play suggests that Oedipus never had a chance to change his destiny; he was simply predestined by the gods to live out a life that would end with incredible physical and emotional trauma. This idea is supported by the fact that all of the major decisions made by characters within the play to try and avoid the prophecy all failed and ultimately helped fulfill the prophecy. Meanwhile, his personality flaws seemed to only hasten his demise. In the play, Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, Oedipus did not have a chance to live out a normal life, but instead was destined from birth to experience a painful life

Hubris in the Worst of Times Not all prophecies in Greeks mythos came to pass, proving that it is possible to evade these "fates". The story of Oedipus is not like that. Oedipus falls right in the hands of the Fates when he makes the selfish choices he does. The king is too proud to find fault in himself, too ignorant to listen, and too selfish to think of anyone but himself. There were ways to avoid this, but he never did the right thing.

Imagine you were told that you killed your own father, and married and had children with your mother; the thought of that is just sickening, but this catastrophe is exactly what happened to Oedipus in “Oedipus the King”. This Greek tragedy shows how unfavorable irony can be, and how it can lead to your own demise. Oedipus has one tragic flaw that leads to his ultimate downfall, and it is his reckless anger. His anger causes his downfall by leading him to kill his father, which leads to the other events that occur in the story. His anger also causes his downfall because it led to his prophecy to come true; the one that his parents wanted to avoid in the first place.

Oedipus attempts to be the master of his own fate because the fate that he is given is so atrocious that he does not willingly want to fulfill it. Throughout the play, Oedipus is actively running away from the

Oedipus’ destiny or fate had little to do with his downfall. The prophet told Oedipus that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, but the prophet never mentioned Oedipus murdering Laius on the highway, or solving the Sphinx’s riddle, or accepting and taking advantage of his kingship. Oedipus blinding himself was an example of free will, “for he removed from…[Jocasta’s] garment the golden brooches which she was wearing…” by choice “…and struck the sockets of his own eyes..” blinding himself Free will and hubris, according to the ancient Greeks, were separate from unavoidable fate. Oedipus’s fate was to kill his father and marry his mother. However, everything else, including fleeing Corinth, solving the Sphinx’s riddle, and finally pursuing the truth about his life, was by his own free will, a direct result of his ego and pride. Oedipus Rex is a story about the dangers of pride and arrogance, one teaching about the importance of humility and tolerance, and one stressing about the control of hubris, a potentially perilous quality that destroyed Oedipus’s vision and his life.