Oedipus The King

Equally important to the role of fate in bringing about the downfall of Oedipus is the human flaw of arrogance that clouded Oedipus’ intellect to reason. One can ultimately see this human flaw in the beginning of the play as he says “Here I am myself – you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (p 262, line 7-9). One day Oedipus heard someone say that he wasn’t his father’s son in which bothered him greatly and triggered his curiosity in whether Polybus and Merope were his biological parents. So, as a way to figure out his identity and true origins, he left to Delphi to see the Oracle. However, instead of answering Oedipus’ answer of who his true parents were, the Oracle told him of his fate that “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see – you will kill your father the one who gave you life” (p. 297, lines 873-875). Hence, his arrogance is clearly showed as he disregards the prophecy, similar to the actions of Laius and Jocasta by escaping it, as he abandons Corinth and sets forth to a place where he “would never see the shame of all those oracles come true” (p. 297, lines 879-880). His flaw of

Oedipus the King is a tragedy that displays irony throughout the play. In the play, King Laius and his wife Jocasta learn that in the prophecy their newborn son, Oedipus, will kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent the prophecy from occurring, they decide to bind and tie his ankles and then abandoned him. When Oedipus grew up, he eventually learned about this prophecy and decided to leave his parents. What he did not realize was that the parents who raised him were not his biological parents. On his voyage to Thebes, Oedipus ended up in a chariot accident

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is the story of a man who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. The story continues in the tradition of classic Greek plays, which were based upon the Greeks’ beliefs at the time. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods decided what would ultimately happen to each and every person. Since those gods destined Oedipus to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus’ life was definitely fated. However, the gods only decided where Oedipus’ life would eventually lead; they never planned the route he would take to get there. All the decisions that Oedipus made in order to fulfill his destiny, and the decisions he made after the fact, were of his own free will,

           Oedipus has spent all his life running from his fate. He has, we learn, been told that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. And he refused to accept that fate. He has spent much of his life moving around, so as to avoid his fate. It was a

There was an oracle told to Oedipus when he was younger that he would kill his father and wed his mother. Jocasta tells Oedipus that prophets are not correct all the time. She went on to tell him that she once bore a child to Laius, and Apollo told them that this child would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. At that point Oedipus was scared because of the oracle told to him when he was younger. It is ironic that Oedipus could have this much guilt placed on him in this short amount of time. He replied to her, "As I listen, my queen, my thoughts went reaching out and touched on memories that make me shudder..."(lines, 759-760). Oedipus has just reacted to what Jocasta, his wife/mother, has told him. He is terrified because he believes that he may have been the one who killed Laius. Oedipus goes on to ask Jocasta multiple questions about who, what when and where this all happened. After every answered question Oedipus reacted with more and more grief. Every question showed more and more evidence that Oedipus had been the murderer of Laius. When the messenger

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

Throughout the play, Oedipus goes to Tiresias, Jocasta, Creon, The Messenger, The Oracle, and The Shepherd for information regarding his life. Each character in one way or another refused to give him the answers he seeked to know. As Oedipus got closer to the answer, another character tried to put a stop in his journey. Oedipus continues moving forward even though people requested that he didn’t. “Oh no, listen to me, i beg you, don’t do this…..Listen to you? No more. I must know it all, see the truth at last” (Sophocles 195). His desire for the truth kept him going to continue his search to find himself, leading to his downfall. Although he had the capability to discontinue the plight, he made the independent decision to continue.

From the very beginning, what makes Oedipus ' actions in his quarrel with Teiresias and also throughout the play so dramatically compelling, is the fact that the audience knows the outcome of the story. We know Oedipus ' fate even before he does, and there is no suspense about the outcome itself, instead, the audience anxiously awaits Oedipus to reveal his fate unto himself in his desperate quest to rid his city of the terrible plague, or maybe even more so, to simply discover his own unfortunate tale. Oedipus is relentless in his pursuit of the truth, and his determination is commendable. There is nothing that compels him to act in this way, instead he freely chooses, with much zeal, to initiate the chain of events that will ultimately lead to his downfall. It is this interplay between Oedipus’ own free will and his fated eventuality that is the crux of the play, and constitutes the main dramatic power.

Finding out who his true father is seems important for someone who has just been told he will kill his father. Nor is Oedipus particularly intelligent about the way he conducts himself. Even though he did not know that Laius and Jocasta were his parents, he still does kill a man old enough to be his father and marry a woman old enough to be his mother. One would think that a man with as disturbing a prophesy over his head as Oedipus would be very careful about who he married or killed. Blindly he pursues the truth when others warn him not to; although he has already fulfilled the prophesy, he does not know it, and if he left well enough alone, he could continue to live in blissful ignorance. But instead he stubbornly and foolishly rummages through his past until he discovers the awful truth. In this way, Jocasta 's death and his blindness are his own fault.

Oedipus Rex is a form of literature that teaches life’s simplest lessons that people have trouble accepting today; the truth will always find its way out. Oedipus was just an ordinary man, raised by who he thought were his real parents, was strong and clever, saved the city of Thebes from the Sphinx and became the king. Though Oedipus might’ve seemed like a hero at first, accusations were made against him about the murder of King Lauis and that’s where everything unraveled. No matter how hesitant and neglective he was discovering the truth, it all started making sense to him. Oedipus had no idea he married his own mother and had kids with her as well. However, Jocasta thought she could outsmart the prophecy by sending Oedipus to his death, as a baby, but the messenger and the Shepherd saved him and Oedipus’s destiny had yet to come true. This proves that one cannot stop something from happening, and cannot hide from the truth

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is about Oedipus, a man doomed by his fate. Like most tragedies, “Oedipus the King” contains a tragic hero, a heroic figure unable to escape his/her own doom. This tragic hero usually has a hamartia or a tragic flaw which causes his/hers’ downfall. The tragic flaw that Sophocles gives Oedipus is hubris (exaggerated pride or self-confidence), which is what caused Oedipus to walk right into the fate he sought to escape.

Oedipus was informed by an oracle that he would be the one to murder his father and marry his mother. It is important to know that Oedipus is a descendant of the first King of Thebes and because of this several of his relatives have met tragic deaths by taking unwarranted actions into their own hands. Before Oedipus was born his father Laius was told by the same oracle not to have any children by his wife Jocasta which he did anyway. This was not a situation that originated with Oedipus; it seems that this type of fate is destined to be intertwined in this family’s bloodline.

When demanded the answer as to who the murderer was,Tiresias told Oedipus that he, was the “defiler of this land,”(30).Essentially, Tiresias was telling Oedipus that he was the unclean that needed to be driven out of the land. Angered, outraged, and confused, Oedipus could not accept this truth of hearing he was the murderer, and further insulted the blind prophet.Similarly, Oedipus’s pride falsely led him to think that he could escape his fate that he was told about in the prophecy. While in Corinth, Oedipus went to a shrine of Apollo, where he was told a prophecy in which he would marry his mother, have unnatural children, and murder his father. “The oracle of Phoebus Apollo said that I/ Must kill my father, lie with my mother. /This drove me out of Corinth. I regret nothing - /I have married happily, raised a family, known the sweetness of power” (61). Oedipus believed that since he escaped his “parents” from Corinth, he escaped his fate and was free of murdering his father and marrying his mother. Because he did not believe in oracles nor know Laius was his father, he was certain at this point that he indeed was not king Laius’s murderer, despite Tiresias’s words. As the tragedy unfolded, it showed further evidence that he had fulfilled the prophecy. Oedipus’s pride, which was once seen as favorable to him, destroyed him in the end.

In Oedipus the king, Oedipus was a very powerful figure in the play; he was born the son of Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. When they heard the Apollo’s prophecy which was foretold that Oedipus will

In Oedipus the king, he was a very intelligent man, who choose his fate and that led him to a tragedy later on throughout his years a king. A few factors that find their way into the