Oedipus Argument

Oedipus’ pride, drawn from his own heroic qualities, is one factor of his ruining. A hero characteristically prizes above all else his honor and the excellence of his life. When his honor

If there is any evil worse than the worst that a man can suffer—Oedipus has drawn it for his lot.” (p. 98)

rule of thebes: "What is it that walks on 4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet

Bill Cosby is a well-known celebrity for his works on “The Cosby Show”, “I Spy”, and his voice over works on “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” and “Little Bill”. For most of his career Cosby was known for his acting, comedy, father figure, and a friendly loveable personality. However, Cosby was recently accused of drugging and sexually assaulting over fifty women. When he was finally put on trial the judge declared a mistrial. But at the end of the day we have a man famous for his good father character revealed to be a serial rapist.

In the tragedy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles a man Tries to to help the his city, but gets caught up in a quest for his identity and suffers when he finds out the truth of his family relationships. The citizens of Thebes beg Oedipus for help referring to the plague. In comparison Oedipus previously dealt with the sphinx. Therefore Oedipus sends Creon to the oracle of Delphi to get help from Apollo. Soon Creon arrives from Delphi and reports the oracle said find the culprit of who killed Laius.

A man can only justify his actions if he regards his demeanor with deductive thinking. This man was not Oedipus mainly because he was a fu**ing douchebag. One must know who Oedipus was to understand the period in which it was written. This is my thesis statement. The Greeks contributed many things to our culture, such as olives, gyros, Lenny Kravitz, anal sex, and Oedipus. Oedipus will be remembered though out time because he suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease, and that's why he couldn't play base ball in the first Olympic games. He will always be remembered for his journeys and his love for the New York Yankees.

In terms of the human experience, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave reveals that most humans would rather know the truth and suffer rather than be fed a lie for their entire lives. This idea is reflected in Sophocles’’ Oedipus the King because Oedipus seeks the truth and suffers greatly when it is found. Plato’s four stages of awareness are necessary for the final form of the good, which is the truth, to be found. In both the Allegory of the Cave and Oedipus the King, these four stages of awareness; Imagination, Belief, Reason, and Understanding, take a vital role in explaining Oedipus’ suffering.

Sophocles’ powerful tragedy, Oedipus Rex, details the tragic fall of Oedipus, the king of Thebes. Oedipus’ false claims of certainty of knowledge and justice, as well as his rash actions based on these presumed certainties are some of the main drivers of the prophecy stating he will marry his mother and kill his father. As the scholar Bernard Knox states, “these attributes of divinity - knowledge, certainty, justice – are all qualities Oedipus thought he possessed – and that is why he is the perfect example of the inadequacy of human knowledge, certainty, and justice.” Oedipus did not consider the possibility that he was wrong, but instead denied any attempts by others to help him see the truth of the situation. This hubris, coupled with his false beliefs based on these certainties, led to his tragic downfall at the end of the play.

Tragic and foreboding are some of the many tones that overlook “Oedipus the King”. Oedipus is a hero with mostly good intentions but because of his tragic flaw of ignorance ends himself in agony. The fact

In this story the theme of Oedipus’s emotions is displayed thoroughly throughout the story, his feelings often getting to the better of him. He would often act up in a rage if he wasn’t given what he desired, or if someone talked out against him. He was ignorant, arrogant, closed minded and this was his flaw. His lesson was learned when he gouged his own eyes out

Within the play, it mentions, “'How terrible - to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees’” (359). While Oedipus is no longer blind to the past, he blinds himself with the intention of escaping reality through the refuge of the darkness he exiles himself to. He now purposely attempts to not ‘see’ the outcome of the novel’s conflict through this, but only instead remains sightless by his own cowardice. Thus, Oedipus arrives at the end of his character development by shifting from someone with clear sight (who cannot ‘see’ in a sense of knowledge) who seeks the truth to someone without it (who can ‘see’) that desires to avoid its

However, Sophocles goes astray as the pain and suffering continually accrue to an unbearable and unimaginable point demonstrating our vulnerability all too clearly. When Oedipus and Jocasta face “the blackest things / a man can do” (1543-44), Jocasta commits suicide and, as Sophocles describes with revolting imagery and vivid diction, Oedipus “rips off her brooches, the long gold pins […] looking straight up into the points” and “digs them down the sockets of his eyes, crying […] his voice like a dirge, rising, over and over / raising the pins, raking them down his eyes. / And at each stroke blood spurts from the roots, / splashing his beard, a swirl of it, nerves and clots--/ black gail of blood pulsing, gushing down” constructing a sense of empathy, causing us to cringe in visceral repulsion and vicariously endure the unbearable pain and violation Oedipus voluntarily subjects himself to, perhaps the only thing he can do in response to the truth he relentlessly pursued (1404, 1406–8, 1412-17). But as the impossible becomes a reality, our tendencies towards faith in our own “full knowledge” and avoidance of truth and humility that Sophocles aims to debase are merely reinforced and affirmed (286).

Hans Rockwell 8/26/17 Question 1 Question 1.) One of the responses people usually have about Oedipus is if he really deserved the fate that he ended up with. It’s not his fault that Jocasta and Laius tried to outsmart fate and dispose of him.

Many questions were raised against Oedipus in class argument about his character flaws, running from the fate, killing his father, marrying his mother, and insulting prophet etc. Here I would try to answer as much I can.

Sophocles Oedipus the King is a tragic play which discusses the tragic discovery of Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. The story of Oedipus was well-known to the Athenian's. Oedipus is the embodiment of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus' life and to further characterized him as a tragic man. The Sphinx posed the following riddle to all who came to obtain the rule of Thebes: “What is it that walks on 4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet and has only one voice, when it walks on most feet it is the weakest?” Oedipus correctly answered “Man” and became the king of Thebes. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus. As a child man crawls on his hands and knees this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers. Also, man is at his weakest as a small child. He depends solely on others for his nourishment and well-being. Oedipus was the child of Jocasta and King Laius who was taken to the mountain by a Shepard to be killed so the omen of the god Apollo that Laius' son would kill him and lay with Jocasta would not come true. Oedipus was the weakest of his life at this point.