Oedipus Character Analysis

“Angry people are not always wise.” (Austen) Anger, “a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility”,(Dictionary.com) is a feeling which can ruin a day, a friendship, a family and even more. Like in most novels, in Oedipus Rex there are many people who make Oedipus’ anger rise, this anger is like a double-edged sword. The double-edged sword. swinging that anger around can hurt not just the person you're angry with but yourself. His anger not only hurts Creon, Laius, and Tiresias but himself. The cruel story of Oedipus rex and his quick-rising anger shows that anger can derive from a person's ignorance, their arrogance and it can harm not just the person it’s is aimed for, but the angry person and everybody in the relationship.

As the play continues, we start to see a shift in Oedipus’s personality. This was due to the conclusion he makes based on the conversation him and the prophet Tiresias has. It mentions how Kreon, Oedipus brother-in-law, is plotting against him. “So? You come here? You have the nerve to face me in my own house? When you’re exposed as its master’s murderer? Caught trying to steal my kinship?” (Sophocles 500). Now, Oedipus is arrogant, he blames Kreon based off of the conclusion he jumps too. He gets discouraged from his role as a leader, he is irrational, angry and hot tempered, whereas, in the beginning,

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

Oedipus the king’s main conflict is based around Greek mythology in that from the time Oedipus is born it is prophesied by the Gods that he is going to kill his father and marry his mother. Sophocles uses a lot of dramatic irony in order to develop the conflict for the spectators, such as when Oedipus says to Tiresias “You’ve lost your power, stone-blind,stone-deaf-senses,eyes blind as stone”(Sophocles 423-424). Oedipus says this because he refuses to believe that the prophecy that Tiresias is telling is true meanwhile the audience is already aware that Tiresias is telling the truth. The main conflict and theme of this story is between Oedipus and himself because he cannot trust anyone except for himself and in the end, it leads to his own demise. Oedipus can be seen as a dynamic character because at the beginning he is very prideful and at the end, he can be considered fearful of what fate has brought to him.

“Oh my children, the new blood of ancient Thebes, why are you here?” said Oedipus when addressing his people during his first appearance (1-2). Flamboyant, yes, well in Oedipus the King, the main character Oedipus is a boastful and pompous character faced with troublesome pasts and future predicaments. In actuality, he is king of Thebes and the rightful ruler, but when a plague strikes he is quickly led into a misfortune of events that ultimately leads him to dig his eyes out in attempt to relieve him from the truth he discovers. It then becomes a revelation to distinguish the characteristic fault which leads Oedipus through such tragedy. Only to become apparent, Oedipus’s excessive pride is the main culprit behind his tragic ending. In

The altercation reveals a deep flaw in his character: his pride was greater than his self-control. Regardless of the reason for his attack, Oedipus benefitted from the gain of internal power which intensified his pride. Not knowing that he had murdered King Laius, he continued on his journey to Thebes where he became the king. When a blight destroyed the city’s welfare Oedipus was told that the key to ending the plague was to find Laius’s murderer. Oedipus proclaimed, “I’ll start again-I’ll bring it all to light myself...to turn our attention back to the murdered man. Now you have me to fight for you, you’ll see: I am the land’s avenger by all rights, and Apollo’s champion too” (Lines 150-155). The statement showed that he equated his strength with that of the gods’ and that he was the only one besides Apollo that can bring justice to the king’s death. “You pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers,” is another example of Oedipus demonstrating his arrogance and pride, telling the people who are suffering that he has the powers to ameliorate their problems (Lines 245-255). His hubris had him convinced that he did not need to rely on the help of the greater beings, so when the failures of the city and his life crumpled to pieces, Oedipus witnessed the demise of his

Oedipus was a man of rapid, impulsive actions and an unlimited awareness of the things going on around him. These qualities made him an excellent king who valued his subject’s needs. But, later on in the play I saw that his habit of acting quickly and irrationally had a hazardous side to it. He has shown that he behaves impulsively, for example when he had told the story of himself killing the band of travelers who had attempted to shove him off of the three way crossroads. Oedipus is overly confidant. This confidence comes from when he had saved Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx and had basically become the king overnight. Oedipus’s speediness and self-confidence weaves its way through to the very end of Oedipus the King, he is continuously in motion, trying and failing to keep up a pace with his fate, even if fate is well beyond his reach. He seems to have begun to accept this and appears to accept that his life is actually out of

Moreover, Oedipus’ anger is controlling his words and actions; and in his rage he accuses Teiresias of having a “hand [i]n plotting” (Sophocles 35) against him. His anger is causing him to insult and offend the one person who knows the truth. In doing this Oedipus remains ignorant about his past and does not learn the truth until it is too late and tragic events have already occurred. Additionally, the blame for the harsh and accusatory words of Teiresias is being put on Creon. Oedipus in his anger goes as far as to accuse Creon of being a “[p]roved plotter against [his] life” (Sophocles 40).

King Oedipus lives high above the citizens of Thebes until he sought out to find the murderer of Laius learning the blinding truth the prophecy brings. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles exemplifies Oedipus’s blindness of the life he has in the play showing the effect it has on Thebes. His blindness to the truth and becoming physically blind emphasizes that some knowledge can ruin your whole life Oedipus brought suffering to many people of Thebes on his quest to find the murderer of Laius. Oedipus has a bad temper and hurts the people who he loves most because of his temper which is seen throughout the play. Right away in the play Oedipus’ anger is shown when he states, “I have such fury in me” (390).

Humbleness is a trait that Oedipus lacks. Oedipus does not possess an ounce of humility in him and is very unaware of his surroundings, causing him to make scenes. This is displayed in the play when Tiresias says to Oedipus, “You yourself are the pollution of this country” (Sophocles 19). Tiresias is hinting at the fact that Oedipus is the actual killer of the King. Shortly after this has been said, Oedipus bursts into rage, claiming that Tiresias and Creon were conspiring to overthrow him. By making a scene, he is admitting that he cannot be humble and shows his arrogant side. If Oedipus would have continued to rule, he would be a king without any subjects since he would distance himself from those closest to him.

Oedipus becomes a victim of the unforseen consequences of his own actions. The actions are fueled by his own pride and his arrogance to think he can avoid Apollo's prophecy, and pride turned to anger in being pushed off the road when he feels the other driver should be giving way to his own great self (Ancient Greek road rage!). He may have been doomed since before birth by Apollo's curse on his family, but Oedipus opes up and also creates his own problems. In believing he can avoid Apollo's prophecy, he showed us that he thinks he has outsmarted the gods, that he is greater than the gods. This, then, is the ultimate hubris and his ultimate

Oedipus’s anger highlights one of his tragic flaws. Oedipus first outburst of anger was when he killed his father, reminiscing, “I became angry and struck the coachman, and then I killed them all” (Sophocles 880 – 8). Oedipus’s anger continued throughout the play, especially when others inform him about his fate. When Teiresias accuses Oedipus of killing his father, Oedipus lashes out, saying “And who has taught you truth? Not your profession surely!” (Sophocles 388-389). This response is an attack on Teiresias and the principle of prophecies, as Oedipus exclaims Teirsias’s profession has not taught him truth. Oedipus angrily placed blame on his closest friend for his doomful fate, Creon, blaming, “No, certainly; kill you, not banish you” (Sophocles 687). Oedipus’s impulsive and extravagant anger make his angry characteristic all the more harmful. Oedipus’s anger eventually turned on himself, as he blinds himself in reaction to his foolishness and ignorance.

There are many facets of personality of a minor character that authors may utilize to supply contrast to the main character of their work. Some of these contrasts are extremely noticeable and some are not. One such facet is with the use of a neutral character; to not only showcase the main character’s flaws, but so not to detract from the moral of the story. Creon, from the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles is used for both of these reasons. Sophocles wished to show that one cannot escape fate, yet did not want to cloud this issue with a possible coupe against his main character Oedipus. He also showed how, at times one character can act completely irrational, while one remains calm in the face of serious accusations.

When contemplating the character of Oedipus in Oedipus Tyrannus, it would be easy to dismiss him as merely a tragic character with only a cursory glance. One must dig deeply into Oedipus to fully understand him as a man. Aristotle understood this when used Oedipus as his example of a tragic hero. It is through deep analysis that one fully grasps that while Oedipus is a tragic character, he is also heroic in his being and his actions.

Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy play written by Sophocles, and it made its first debut