Oedipus Rex Research Paper

As oedipus entered her bedroom he found her body. Oedipus removed the bejewelled golden brooches from Jocasta's shoulders and plunged them deep into the sockets of his eyes .He was in agony , just the pain but the loss of his wife and mother. He then goes to creon and asks him to exile him and for him to take care of his daughters. The choices that these characters made affected the story by having chain reactions .Not just the people in the play make terrible decisions that result in terrible consequences ,people in real life do the same thing ,like people that steal end up in jail

They continue to fight until Jocasta emerges. They explain the nature of their argument to Jocasta, who begs Oedipus to believe Creon. The Chorus also begs Oedipus to be flexible, and Oedipus reluctantly concedes and allows Creon to continue. Jocasta asks Oedipus why he is so upset and he explains to her what Teiresias prophesied. Jocasta consoles him by telling him that there is no truth in soothsaying, and she has proof. She tells that an oracle told Laius that his own son would kill him, so as a preventative he and Jocasta gave their infant son to a shepherd, to leave out on a hillside to die with its feet

In this case, Oedipus has a certain prophecy that he needs to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Doing so, he can break the curse on Thebes and he will not be shamed upon for being a king and letting his city fall. Oedipus was trying to avoid the absurd prophecy by leaving his adopted parents and living a life on his own. But, on his journey, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus believed they were strangers until Creon explained everything. The love of his life Jocasta, was revealed to be his birth mother. He had fulfilled his prophecy without intention. Jocasta could not take the stressful humiliation and life she had just taken on, so she committed suicide. When Jocasta's death occurred, Oedipus was filled with sorrow and decided he couldn't dare show go out in the world knowing what he just did. So Oedipus unpinned the golden brooches from the robe Jocasta was hanging in, and stabbed his eyes repeatedly while pleading “they will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me! Dark eyes, now in the days to come look on forbidden faces, do not recognize those who those you long for.” On page 516 lines 192-196, this shows his unhappy fate from the hardships in life.

While Oedipus and Teiresias are quarrelling, Oedipus says, “You’re nothing but a nuisance here, and one I can do without” (Sophocles 26). Clearly Oedipus is not thinking straight and knows that Teiresias is correct. However, Oedipus is failing to recognize that he is making a fool of himself instead of just accepting the fact that Teiresias says that Oedipus is the murderer of his father King Laius. Oedipus’s pride continues to cause him to not accept the truth, which is another flaw of his until he learns to accept the truth. When Oedipus learns that the details of Laius’s death match up with details of an encounter he had with an older man he starts telling his backstory. Oedipus was talking with Jocasta, his wife and mother and tells her the entirety of where he came from. Oedipus was so caught up in his story that he claims, “I killed him. I killed them all,” (Sophocles 45). This release of emotions allowed Oedipus to finally recognize and accept the truth that he is the one who killed King Laius. Oedipus demonstrates catharsis in

Oedipus devotes himself to finding and prosecution of Laius’s murderer. Oedipus questions a variety of reluctant citizens, including a blind prophet named Teiresias. The blind prophet tells Oedipus that Oedipus was the murderer of Laius himself. This information really troubles Oedipus, but his wife Jocasta tells him to disregard what the prophet has said, “they’ve been wrong before.” As an example, she shares a story with Oedipus about how she and King Laius bore a son who was predicted to murder Laius and sleep with her. Jocasta and Laius had the child executed; therefore that prophecy didn't come true.

Tragedies are defined by their morose plotlines, and Oedipus Rex is no exception. Throughout the course of the play, Oedipus’s world crumbles around him. At the most climactic moment, Oedipus learns that his family tried to kill him as a baby, he murdered his own father, and he has been sleeping with his biological mother, which fulfilled one of the many prophecies in the present in the play. After learning about this, Oedipus proceeds to stab his eyes out when he finds his wife/mother hanging. This plotline follows the traditional guidelines of a tragedy, wherein a powerful and influential protagonist is reduced to ruins via the hands of fate.

As Oedipus and Jocasta discuss the likelihood of Oedipus being this horrid killer they are lost in a sea of ugly truths, but hold on to one glimmer of hope. It has been said that Laius was killed by a group of strangers. Yes, Oedipus has killed a man at a location similar to the description of the place where Laius was killed, however, he traveled alone so that does not fit the bill. At this moment, that is the only hope they are clinging to in order to clear Oedipus’ name. He and Jocasta try their hardest to proceed with everyday life as if everything is fine. Sadly, this ignorance to the truth did not keep the rest from discovering the undeniable evidence of what actually happened the night Laius was killed. The story begins drawing to an end with Jocasta committing suicide because she is so

The tragedy of Oedipus Rex exemplifies the corruption of the higher classes and the differing values of the Athenian society. The play represents the enduring themes of the flawed nature of humanity as well as the limits of free will. Oedipus, the new king sought to prevent the disturbing prophecy from occurring, in the processes accidently fulfilling the inevitable; murdering his father and marrying his mother. Through the twisting plot of the play emerged with themes that defined the era, the beliefs and ideas of the Athenians are shown in the ideas of corruption, knowledge, and fate.

Continuously, the play begins when Oedipus asks the people the reason of why they are kneeling down. The people respond to him that it is because they are praying because they are ill and there are a lot of illnesses in the kingdom. They told him that the reason of why there are illnesses is because if the person that killed the previous king Laius. This shows us how Oedipus worries and cares for his people and wants them to share their worries with him. This shows us a very kind and loving side of him. Oedipus starts to investigate who the person that killed king Laius is. He decides to call for Tiresias, a blind prophet, so that he can tell Oedipus who the killer of king Laius is. Teiresias is very hesitant whether to tell Oedipus or not. Finally, Tiresias decides to tell him that he is actually the person that

In the beginning of the play, Oedipus chooses to remain in ignorance due to his yearning to save his people, which are juxtaposed with his desire to protect his own pride. During one of Oedipus’ speeches to find the culprit of Laius’ murder, he proclaims,

Oedipus says, “… if any one of you knows who murdered Laius, the son of Labdacus, I order him to reveal the whole truth to me. Nothing to fear, even if he must denounce himself, let him speak up and so escape the brunt of the charge — he will suffer no unbearable punishment, nothing worst than exile, totally unharmed (Sophocles l. 245-261). While continuing on reading the play, we find out that the Oedipus is the killer of Laius. The verbal irony here is that Oedipus is cursing himself into exile. Oedipus continues his speech by saying, “So I will fight for him as if he were my father, stop at nothing, search the world to lay my hands on the man who shed his blood, the son of Labdacus descended of Polydorus, Cadmus of old and Agenor, founder of the line: their power and mine are one” (Sophocles l. 301-306).

Oedipus is a king of many flaws that can lead the audience to be incredibly fearful and feel pity for him from his actions. One of the play’s themes is blindness in not only a literal sense, but in a metaphorical one as well. The king is unaware or even blind to some key moments in this book until right before they happen. One of the biggest being the revelation that Jocasta is Oedipus’s mom. Leading to commit suicide towards the end of the play.

He rips off his dead mother and wife’s brooches and “digs them down the sockets of his eyes, crying… ‘you’ll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused… Blind from his hour on!’” Oedipus gouges his eyes out to compliment the symbolic blindness he had before, and then demands Creon to “drive me out of Thebes, in exile.” This shows that Oedipus cares more about his conscience’s condition than his body’s. He also does this because he’s ashamed of his eyes since they couldn’t see the truth when all the facts were perfectly lined up in front of him. Oedipus concludes that he deserves to suffer for all of the pain he caused for his family and the people. By sabotaging himself, Oedipus feels that some justice has been

With this being an ongoing cycle for Oedipus, this leads him to the point where he cannot stop probing for the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This leads us to the section of the play where Oedipus finds his mother/wife hanging above their bed, because of the overwhelming sensation of guilt he decides to gouge his eyes out with the pins Jocasta had on. “He ripped out the golden pins with which her clothes were fastened, raised them high above his head, and speared the pupils of his eyes. ‘You will not see,’ he said. ‘The horrors i have suffered and done. Be dark forever now-- eyes that saw those you should never have seen, and failed to recognize those you longed to see.”

Oedipus tries to end up pushing the idea of him possibly being the murderer of Laius out of the way