Lael Pagano. Professor Crews. Eng 205: Literature Of The

“Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” says the writer C.S lewis. Indeed this is evident in Sophocles’ Oedipus The King. The rather disturbing events that takes place during the play. The pride of Oedipus, the tragic hero of the play, sets off a chain reaction of events that could have been avoided if Oedipus kept his pride in check. However, he can not and his ego inflates to the point his persona can only be described as a mental disorder. Through analyzing Oedipus’ behaviour and his interactions with the other characters in the play, it can be concluded that he suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

“Well then! Alright! I will leave nothing unsaid in my wrath. And I say to you then, old man, that in my mind I have you as one of those who has helped in Laius’ murder! Yes, old man! You have worked with them. Perhaps even you, yourself, have committed the deed! Indeed, if you had eyes that could see I would have said you did the deed all alone!” (Sophocles 346-350). When engaging with the blind prophet, Oedipus attempts to pry the truth out of Tiresias by accusing him, Tiresias of the murder. He thinks that if he starts making accusations towards Tiresias, he will in turn tell the truth so that people don’t start hearing this rumor.

When Oedipus hears that he is the killer, his pride is wounded for he cannot accept the truth. His judgment is so blurred that he also begins to view Creon as a traitor for using Tiresias. Creon’s words sum up Oedipus’s rage when he said, “Oedipus, your husband, he’s bent on a choice of punishments for me, banishment from the fatherland or death” (715-717). Jocasta is even surprised with Oedipus’s unusual character, as she said, “For the love of God, Oedipus, tell me too, what is it? Why this rage? You’re so unbending” (767-769). The reason why Oedipus pride is so wounded can be because his negative experiences with the Gods. As a baby, he was condemned to death, yet he survived and learned the horrible truth of his prophecy. In attempt to escape that life, he lost belief in the word of the gods because he refused that the prophecies should come true. This struggle between God and Oedipus only tears his moral beliefs as he has to be stone cold to survive his tribulations. This meant giving no consideration against people who presently posed a great threat to him.

Bernard Knox states that Oedipus’ fall was due the claim that, “[T]hese attributes of divinity – knowledge, certainty, justice – are all qualities Oedipus thought he possessed – and that is why he was the perfect example of the inadequacy of human knowledge, certainty, and justice.” In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus believed that he possessed certainty of knowledge and justice due to his hubris, which led to his downfall. Oedipus’ tragic downfall came about from his false certainty of knowledge, his incautious judgement and actions, and delusion of self-justice. He curses the killer of Laius, not knowing that it was himself. Due to Oedipus’ eventual discovery of the truth, he is cursed at the end of the play.

Oedipus doesn’t realize the personal consequences his hunt for the murderer will have for him, and his loyalty to the truth is based on his ignorance. His pride, ignorance and unrelenting quest for the truth ultimately contributed to his destruction. An example is when Oedipus was told [after threatening Tiresias], that he was responsible for the murder of Laius. He became enraged and called the old oracle a liar. However, Oedipus thought he could outsmart the gods, but in fact, his every action moved him closer to the prophesy becoming a reality. Upon discovery of the truth of his birth from the herdsman, Oedipus cries, “O god all come true, all burst to light!/O light now let me look my last on you!/I stand revealed at last cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands”. (631). Oedipus knew that his fate had indeed come to pass and feels cursed by it. Oedipus was guilt, of killing his father and marrying his mother. He punishes himself for the sins he committed by gouging out his eyes. The true sin is when he attempts to raise himself to the level of the gods by trying to escape his fate. Oedipus is accepting the full burden of his acts and knows that he must be punished for his sins. Therefore, this last act of gouging out his eyes was the result of Oedipus’ free will and his tragic fate came about because every sin must

In the beginning of the play Oedipus meets Laios on a road. Both were driving chariots and neither would yield the right of way. Laios attempts to kill Oedipus’ horses but Oedipus reacts fast killing Laios attendants and his own father, Laios. Oedipus went to Thebes to help and destroy a monster and bless their town. Because of his heroic act, Thebes recalls him again to help and find the murderer who killed their king Laios and punish the man. Oedipus goes and does everything he can to get evidence and find the man who killed Laios the king: “Is this your prayer? It may be answered. Come, Listen to me, act as the crisis demands… Until now I was a stranger to this tale, As I had been a stranger to the crime. Could I track the murderer without a clue?” (Sophocles 1. 1. 204 - 209). Teiresias, a chorus of Theban, elders tells Oedipus he is the murder who killed his father and also mentions he married his own mother along with having children. Oedipus finds all of that to believe and what Oedipus does is find more people to tell him the truth. Jocaste, wife and mother of Oedipus, tells him through the play to not believe such a thing. In Act three Scene five, Shepherd the man, who took Oedipus to Corinth city’s reveals to him that everything is true. Oedipus makes the decision to gouge his eyes out making himself blind to not see the whole catastrophe. He begs Creon to send him away from Theban

One moment, Oedipus is brimming with hope; the next, he’s sure that he is the killer of his father, King Laius. Every time Oedipus thinks that it can’t possibly be him, evidence proves otherwise. His wife, Jocasta, attempts to prove his innocence but “lets out part of the dire secret by her allusion to the ‘triple crossroads’” (Haigh). By attempting to assist Oedipus, she

Oedipus Rex Ambiguity guilt/shame Kayla Moore L101 Dr. Patrick J. Daly Spring 2015 Oedipus Rex, a loyal leader of the Thebes and a loyal husband to his wife, Jocasta. Troubled by the unfortunate realization of the terrible truth as to who killed King Laius. Oedipus being a loyal and trusted King of Thebes, goes through and tries to find the killer but as the truth unfolds, we begin to see ambiguity within the killer as whether it was guilt or shame. The killer can view this event as guilty because of the insult from a stranger or as shameful because of the fact that the murdered man was the King of Thebes and the biological father of the murderer.

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

He lives his entire young life blindly, without knowing his true identity, until he kills his father, marries his mother, and is finally exposed to the truth. (Sophocles 1208). Oedipus has lived his whole life blindly, abusing his power and those around him. Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky stated that “a man’s way to recovery is not complete without suffering.”

In scene I of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is confronted with the truth prophesied to him by Tiresias. Tiresias's prophesy was that Oedipus is the murderer he has been seeking. Oedipus's initial reaction to this accusation was that of disbelief, then anger as Tiresias continued his accusations. Kreon told Oedipus that the murderers of

First, Oedipus understands that injustice is put on his kingdom. innocent people who did not harm or have any part in the murder of the King are being punished. “For you, for loyal Thebans, and for all who find my actions right, I pray the favor of justice, and of all the immortal gods"(Sophocles 15). Oedipus knows that this curse is not fair and he is determined to find the murderer. “Apollo, when we sent to him, sent us back word

I killed them all. Ah! If Laius is this unknown man, there’s no one in this world so doomed as I” (Sophocles, 45). This evidence manifests Oedipus’ act of greatness, as he does not attempt to conceal his crime or hesitate to find out more about the incident. Oedipus does not think about hiding the truth or deny killing the king, even when Jocasta pleads for him to stop investigating the incident.

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.

A touch of selfishness is revealed in the above passage, a not-unexpected accompaniment of “godlike mastery.” Oedipus, in his public proclamation regarding punishment for the killer of King Laius, shows more lenient treatment toward the guilty party if he confesses his crime…