Oedipus Essay

The Story of Oedipus is a tragic narrative of the life of a king whose life gets turned upside down when a hidden truth guarded by a prophecy comes out. I believe that it is not Oedipus Rex who is at fault in the story. I feel that destiny had pushed them to the ends that they all met. Throughout the play there were instances where I could see that fault could have fallen on the shoulders of Oedipus but to many times the incidences occurred that skewed my vision of what seemed to be accidental turned into destiny. Oedipus had pride above any man because he was praised for defeating the sphinx and an outstanding King of Thebes, for this allowed fate take over and destiny to preside him in his fate.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is more than just a plain tragedy. This play is a suspense thriller, where every character involved with Oedipus learned that fate is determined only by the gods. In this specific play, Apollo was deciding god that predicted the fate of every person in the city of Thebes. This book represents a symbol of the lives of many, showing that you can not run away from fate because it decision that will forever remain. It was written in the honor of, the god of theater, Dionysos. Also, for the annual festival where playwrights competed for prizes. It was a major public occasion, with immense attendance expected.

Oedipus is not responsible for his own destiny because Jocasta and Laius are his birthers, he had no decision in being born. Jocasta and Laius didn’t believe the warning the Oracle gave them so they took every warning with a grain of salt. They ended up having Oedipus, against the Oracle's advice who is essentially a medium for the Gods. The Gods took this as a personal insult and made an example out of Oedipus, to show people what happens when they disobey them and try to run from their fate.

In my opinion Oedipus was truly doomed from the beginning. He tried his hardest to avoid the prophecy he was given at birth but to no avail. Many people tried to change the course of Oedipus’s future and even went as far as holding back damaging information. Peoples attempts to change Oedipus’s fate went as far back as the day he was born. His own biological parents tried to have their infant son killed to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. Oedipus himself tried everything possible to escape his fate. He left his home and took on a new identity to insure his safe future. However, no amount of distance he traveled or amount of precautions he took, fate conquered all and the prophecy was

It is wise to be careful of what you look for, because you might not like what you find. This would have been excellent advice for the main character in Sophocles drama, Oedipus the King. However, the drama was written as a result of Sophocles life and the influence of the humanistic culture in which he lived. Throughout Sophocles life, he gained military knowledge as the son of a wealthy armor manufacturer and received an excellent Greek education with emphasis on Homeric poetry (textbook). Furthermore, Sophocles was very involved in politics and served as a treasurer, a general, and inevitably as a member in a group for policy formation (textbook). Although Sophocles was deeply enmeshed with the political world of his time, his true calling in life was his writing of Greek tragedy, during the Golden Age movement of 477 B.C. to 431 B.C. (Berkhofer). Unsurprisingly, it is his portrayal of the Greek culture that has led to Sophocles unofficial title of the embodiment of Greek Spirit (Whitman, 4). Now, Sophocles’ Greek culture was humanistic and focused on the achievements of individuals, primarily their moral and psychological difficulties within the human experience. Although, philosophy and religion are a part of humanism, Sophocles demonstrated the political and social characteristics of ancient Greek humanism in his drama, Oedipus the Kings (Menning). Therefore, one can understand the life and humanistic culture of Sophocles through the illustration of the

He was blind to the fact that he was fulfilling the prophecy until it was revealed to him. Everything Oedipus did was manifestations of fate. His belief in oracles and gods later on made him fearful of his fate, although he didn’t believed in gods before realizing his uncontrollable fate. In ancient Greece, gods played important roles and no human could challenge them. Fate was uncontrollable and man’s predestined actions also becomes part of their fate. Oedipus pride and free will couldn’t help him to avoid the prophecy. “My birth all sprung revealed from those it never should, myself entwined with those I never could And I the killer of those I never would” (pg.). After killing his father he started to realize the prophecy has become true and fate is unavoidable.

Oedipus responded quickly into taking the responsibility for finding the murder of King Laius death. After knowing the horrible truth, one can say that Oedipus could be a victim of the gods fate since he was left abandoned at a mountain by his own parents. Although, the prophecy never said he needed to know the truth, only that he would kill his father and marry his mother which he did without knowing till the end. Fate overtly plays a role in this outcome, condemning Oedipus as soon as he was born. Thus although Oedipus’s ultimate search for justice is in one way successful, the ramifications of his pursuit for justice lie at the mercy of fate, not human

Oedipus is a victim of fate and a victim of his own actions. Oedipus fate cannot be overcome he knows that his actions are not by choice, but by the actions of gods. If the shepherd had killed Oedipus like he was told Oedipus wouldn't be in the situation he is in. Now that Oedipus is faced with the true he can't even see what's in front of him. "What good were eyes to me?

Even though fate played a significant part in Oedipus’ actions it was him who made the decision the ultimately led to his departure. Once Oedipus heard that he was destined to marry his mother and kill his own father he chose to flee Corinth forever knowing that his father and mother were the king and the queen. Thinking about made me think that he may have been better off staying in Corinth. There was not one time during the entire play where the oracle says that if Oedipus left Corinth that he would be able to free himself from his fate. Instead of staying and making sure it did not happen he took matters into his own hands and fled his home land. When coming in contact with the men he did not have to kill them, that was his own choice. Oedipus told the story of the gruesome

Fate didn’t only affect their lives, it also influenced many great literature written during that time period. However, as philosophy and science advanced, people started to doubt fate and started asking if it was possible to guide your own life, and that was when ‘freewill’ was first introduced. Since then, fate versus free will has consistently been one of the most controversial themes in literature. It can be found in stories such as Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, The Odyssey by Homer, and many more works of some of the most prestigious writers throughout time. This theme can be found throughout the play, specifically with Oedipus and Jocasta. Before everything took place, Laius and Jocasta ordered a slave to take their newborn son into the wild and slaughter him to avoid a prophecy they had been told. But it turns out, their son was never killed, instead, he was given to a king of Corinth to be raised as his own. This then brings up the question of fate and free will, would anything ever have happened if Oedipus hadn’t been sent off by his parents or was it Oedipus’s fate to have killed his father and marry his mother regardless of whether or not his parents sent him away? As for Oedipus himself, he was terrified when he heard the same prophecy told to his parents years ago when he was young, resulting in him running away from his kingdom and going in the direction of his actual parents.

Jocasta and Laius never actually made sure that Oedipus was killed. Oedipus references this at the end of the play: "If I'd died then, I'd never have dragged myself, my loved ones through such hell" (Sophocles)

Could Oedipus be a victim of fate or is he responsible for his own tragedy? In the play "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, the author displays the Greek's belief of fate controlling a man’s life despite of a man’s free will. Man was free to choose and was extremely held responsible for their own actions. Throughout Oedipus the King, the idea of fate and free will plays an important role in Oedipus' downfall. Although Oedipus was a victim of fate, he was not guided by it at all. When Oedipus was born, he was intended to marry his mother and to murder his father in the future as a prophecy warned by the oracle of Apollo.

I have always been one to want to understand they why behind any fact. It seems to be somewhere between curiosity and skepticism. I tell myself its not simply a lack of trust but a desire to better understand the world around me but either way it does lead me to ask questions and look for holes in ideas that are presented to me.

According to Aristotle, the driving force behind tragic works lies not in the development of characters but in the formulation of a specific plot structure. Aristotle believed that the purpose of all art is to imitate life and that human beings live their lives through events and actions. He argues that characters serve to advance the events of the plotline and that the characters themselves are not central. Aristotle's opinions on tragedy were largely constructed around Sophocles' Oedipus the King, which Aristotle called "the perfect tragedy." Considered by many to be one of the greatest plays of all time, Oedipus the King tells how Oedipus, the king of Thebes, comes to realize that he unknowingly killed his father and married

Plagues are beyond man’s control; therefore, they believed that someone with higher power created tragedies, human suffering, trials, and tribulations due to man’s sinful acts or to test the nature of man. Oedipus Rex downfall according to the play is by the god called Apollo. According to Opina states, In Roman Mythology, Apollo, was the arch-god of medicine and healing light, truth, archery and the bringer of death dealing plague” (Opina, n.d., slide 19). The plague fell on Thebes after the actions of Jocasta and Laius. Also after the actions of Oedipus killing a person on a road to Thebes. The presence of an oracle which is the communicator between man and the gods make the audience believe that all the terrible things happen to Oedipus was from his own actions not the gods. Oedipus, who cursed from the time he was born; therefore, the gods may have cursed him, but it was his chose to commit murder and all the other decisions that made the oracle prophetic words happened. The curse started with his father, King Laius of Thebes who learned from an oracle that the hand of his own son killed him, and so ordered his wife Jocasta to kill the Oedipus. There actions set off a chain of events that cause the tragedy.