The King In Oedipus The King

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

During his life time, Oedipus was blind to truth, at first, he did not know that Jocasta and Laius were his actual parents. He even rebelled against anyone that would not give him the reason or someone that would contradict him. After so many attempts to evade the truth, he ends up giving up about what is the actual truth. He agrees and accepts that Liaus and Jocasta were his parents, and he ended up killing his father and marrying his mother; he was the one causing hopelessness in Thebes. After he starts to realize all these truths, he decided to blind himself, and become in Teiresias same position. “ And since you have reproached me with my blindness, I say – you have your sight, and do not see what evils are about you, nor with whom, nor in what home you are dwelling.” In this quote, a theme such as blindness is shown through Teiresias’ words to Oedipus, to whom he is telling that even with his physical sight, in the inside he is blind because he is unwilling to know the truth about his life. He also tells Oedipus that since he does not see the truth about his life, he doesn’t see the anguish of his life either.

Throughout the tragedy by Sophocles, the king Oedipus relies on his personal glory to attain long lasting fame and balks when confronted with anything that might shatter this perception that he is the best. While both characters have done marvelous deeds in the past, their inherent arrogance, which is part of the tragic flaw of each of the characters,

When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.

The Greek play, Oedipus the King, shows how easy it is for a man to fall apart, while trying to make things right. Sophocles’ tragedy tells the story of Oedipus, a regular man turned king of Thebes. Throughout the tragedy, Oedipus searches for the cause of the chaos and havoc encompassing his land; however, he discovers that he is the one responsible for the hardships plaguing Thebes. As the tragedy continues, Sophocles’ exposes a dark side to power, fame, and ambition. Further, Sophocles’ exposes the fear that many have of the truth, and exposes the grave danger in hiding from it.

Oedipus intelligence could not see the truth, but the blind man, Teiresias, saw it plainly. Sophocles uses blindness as a theme in the play. Oedipus was uninformed and as a result blind to the truth about himself and his past. Yet, when Teiresias exposes the truth he is in denial. It is left to Oedipus to conquer his blindness, accept the truth, and realize fate. But instead Oedipus ridicules Terirsias blindness and accuses him of being on the side of Kreon and helping him become King. He accuses Teiresias for being paid to tell a fraudulent prophecy to him. Quickly Teiresias answers him back and tells him he is BLIND, and tells him about his past of who his actual mother and father was.

God help you! God keep you from the knowledge of who you are” (57 Sophocles). Jocasta pleads to Oedipus not to pursue any more knowledge because she fears the worst days of her son will soon arrive if he continues. Jocasta’s lunacy after she perceives the truth causes her to complete the truth because she commits suicide. Oedipus is held responsible for Jocasta’s death because his persistence to find out the truth about himself has caused his mother to become so wretched that she kills herself in misery. Oedipus’s ignorance is clearly evident throughout the novel because many people have known his life story, and as a result made gruesome decisions.

Oedipus has sight but lacks the ability to fully comprehend situations in multiple scenes. He is unable to interpret many clues given to him along the way, ultimately leading to his wife’s (and mother’s) death along with his own downfall as well. Oedipus requested Tiresias to help him stop the plague by figuring out who killed Laius, the past king of Thebes. When Tiresias was hesitant to tell Oedipus that he was the true murderer, he recanted all the praise he gave the prophet and said, “You will not explain / what you understand, but rather intend / to betray us and destroy the city. / … You worst of wicked men!” (Sophocles 348-350, 353). With this, the wise Tiresias said, “You have found fault with my anger, but your own, / living within you, you did not see, but blamed me” (Sophocles 356-357). His anger for not receiving what he asked of Tiresias was blinding, even though in the end it brings his Fate to the

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.

At the beginning of the story, Oedipus can physically see but is ignorant to the truth. While having a conversation Oedipus objects that he cannot be Laius’ murderer. Tiresias, a blind seer, is brought to Thebes on request by Oedipus to help find Laius’ killer, but he “sees” Oedipus’ fate and yells, “All of you are blind to the truth! You know nothing! You… you see nothing! (6) Tiresias’ literal blindness allows him to see the future whereas Oedipus’ figurative blindness doesn’t allow him to the truth. At the end of the conversation between the two men Tiresias declares, “ You

Evidence: “ How i weep for you -- I cannot see you now… just thinking of all your days to come, the bitterness, the life that rough mankind will thrust upon you… such disgrace and you must bear it all! Who will marry you then? Not a man on earth. Your doom is clear: you’ll wither away to nothing, single, without a child. (Line 1625-1645)

Blindness and sight appear all throughout “Oedipus the King”. Sophocles reveals the importance of blindness and sight through these lines, “...dashed them into his own eyeballs, shrieking out such things as: they will never see the crime they have committed or had done upon me.” After learning that he has fulfilled the prophecy given to him Oedipus no longer wants to see the world anymore. He maked a big deal about finding who is real parents are and the truth about his life, despite many warnings, because he

Oedipus enters the play with the belief that his life was great. He felt powerful and honored by all of the townspeople, as they were relying on him to save the town from the plague. As the play begins, the motif of blindness is introduced to Oedipus as he embarks on his journey of ups and downs, mystery, and recurring blindness. He thinks he has the ability to see everything in terms of the murder mystery of King Laois, but he was actually blind of the truth. The appearance of blindness continues as Oedipus accuses Teiresias, the old blind man, of being blind, not only in vision, but in knowledge. “You sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man” (Sophocles 19). This scene is where the motif of blindness emerges and begins to take action.

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.

King Oedipus’ problem is that he is too arrogant. His arrogance is what causes him to be “blind”. Not knowing he was the killer of Laius made him blind. He was also blind to the fact that Jocasta, his wife, who actually his mom, and Laius was his dad. Although people kept dropping hints to him, but his ignorance and his overbearing attitude didn’t allow him to see the truth. For instance, a blind prophet named Tiresias tried to point out to Oedipus who the killer was, hoping he’d catch on. While having a conversation about the killer with the seer Tiresias, Oedipus states, “All right King, you mock my blindness…You think you know your parents, but you are blind to the fact that you are their worst enemy!” (Oedipus the King 46). Even though the blind prophet basically told him everything, his arrogance got in his way. Therefore, Oedipus is torn when he finds out about his parents.