The King's Downfall In Sophocles Oedipus The King

In the beginning of the play Oedipus meets Laios on a road. Both were driving chariots and neither would yield the right of way. Laios attempts to kill Oedipus’ horses but Oedipus reacts fast killing Laios attendants and his own father, Laios. Oedipus went to Thebes to help and destroy a monster and bless their town. Because of his heroic act, Thebes recalls him again to help and find the murderer who killed their king Laios and punish the man. Oedipus goes and does everything he can to get evidence and find the man who killed Laios the king: “Is this your prayer? It may be answered. Come, Listen to me, act as the crisis demands… Until now I was a stranger to this tale, As I had been a stranger to the crime. Could I track the murderer without a clue?” (Sophocles 1. 1. 204 - 209). Teiresias, a chorus of Theban, elders tells Oedipus he is the murder who killed his father and also mentions he married his own mother along with having children. Oedipus finds all of that to believe and what Oedipus does is find more people to tell him the truth. Jocaste, wife and mother of Oedipus, tells him through the play to not believe such a thing. In Act three Scene five, Shepherd the man, who took Oedipus to Corinth city’s reveals to him that everything is true. Oedipus makes the decision to gouge his eyes out making himself blind to not see the whole catastrophe. He begs Creon to send him away from Theban

Oedipus states, “ My fate was to be yoked in marriage with my mother and kill my father, Polybus who begot me and had reared me.” (46) In other words, those surprising facts leads to his downfall because he can’t escape what he did. He can’t repress the memories of what he has done that corrupted his whole lifestyle.

The tragic fall of Oedipus in Sophocles play “Oedipus Rex” is both self-inflicted and result of events drawn from his own destiny. First off early on in Oedipus’ life his first deadly mistake towards succeeding his self-inflicted downfall was the murder of his father the former king. In a blind rage without any motive, he kills Liaus and his men at a rode crossing. Fate may have had led him to that point but it was his own rage that resulted in his biggest mistake. Further evidence of his self-inflicted downfall Oedipus’ was at the hands of his own ignorance. This ignorance combined with his stubborn, determined attitude does not allow him foresight. This foresight would have led

In the beginning of the story, Oedipus is very taken back by the situation. He will not accept the truth of his fate and accuses Tiresias of lying to him so Oedipus’s bother- in- law, Creon, could take the throne. Oedipus is extremely dumbfounded by this news because he had no knowledge of killing his father or marrying his mother, but what he learns later is that who he thought were his parents were not his real parents. When he finally realizes that he did in fact marry his own mother and kill his father, he accepts it and punishes himself in order to uphold his promise to his people. By this point there is no way Oedipus can escape his fate. Tiresias says to Oedipus, “No man in the world can make the gods do more than the gods will” (811). Since he did kill his father, the previous king, Oedipus has to be shunned by all of Thebes. Because there is no way of changing his fate, he accepts his responsibilities by giving himself the punishment he assigned to the murderer of Laius.

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 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

Early on in the story, Oedipus is the proud and confident king of Thebes; he is a man that is not to be underestimated or degraded. This once undisputed fact becomes more debatable the longer the play continues, however. The conflict begins with Oedipus attempting to lift a curse that has been unleashed on the kingdom of Thebes. This curse was caused by the murder of the previous king, Laius, and the only way for it to be lifted is for the murderer to be exiled from Thebes. Oedipus works fervently to unravel the mystery behind who Laius’ killer was. However, each new discovery ends up incriminating Oedipus as the killer instead. Along the way Oedipus discovers that his supposed parents, the king and queen of Corinth, are not his true parents. This revelation pushes him to begin a new search for his biological parents, a search that eventually leads him to one of Lainus’ shepherds. It is this shepherd that reveals to King Oedipus that his mother is Jocasta, his current wife. Consequently, Oedipus falls into a fit of despair in which he stabs his own eyes out and confronts the consequences of his shameful existence. By the end of the play, Oedipus has not only lost his status as the king of Thebes, but has also been exiled from the kingdom and has become an outcast for all of society to hate. The transition Oedipus undergoes

Life went great for Oedipus, as he married Jocasta and started a family. No one ever mentioned the mass murder of the men where the three roads met. Although another plague throughout Thebes, and this is where Oedipus started having strong confidence. A blind prophet known as Tiresias at first refuses to speak, but comes out and tells Oedipus that he is the killer of Laius. Oedipus confidence comes out around this time he is sure that he isn't the killer, and gets angry that everyone is accusing him. His confidence here is so powerful when he tell that he would never do such a thing. His wife Jocasta tells him that her dead husband died where the three roads crossed. Oedipus lost all confidence and started get backlashes of the three

The characteristic of the tragic flaw has not only lead to the hero's demise, nevertheless may also persuade the reader to sympathize with the character. Consequently, it follows that in Oedipus the King, a Greek tragedy, the tragic hero Oedipus should have some sort of flaw. So, the question is does Oedipus really have a tragic flaw? The answer is yes. The Oedipus tragic flaw is pride and rage which remain Oedipus from obtaining his true fatal fate.
 What caused the tragic flaw because, he could not accept the predictions about his life. Oedipus can’t admit that he killed the king, his own father, Laius. Oedipus does not get that the stranger, he once killed was his father, and that he married his own mother Jocasta. Also, Oedipus announces to the Theban people, that if any man confesses, he will be banished, however, he will be punished as

Oedipus causes his own downfall through his arrogance. He thinks that Teiresias is falsely accusing him of murdering Laius when Teiresias says, “…you are the murderer whom you seek” (Sophocles 1264). Teiresias then tells Oedipus that the man who he seeks will be brother and father to his children and husband and son to his wife. Oedipus’s hubris is also a major cause of his downfall. Because he tries to escape what fate has in store for him, he ends up falling right into what was planned

Oedipus was a tragic hero. Sophocles, instead of killing Oedipus in the end of the novel, chose to give Oedipus a fate worse then death. Oedipus found out who he was and that he killed his father and slept with his mother. His tragic end was a result of his hamartia, hubris. His pride was what caused him to attack the carriage and kill his father, which led to him marrying his mother. He

15 years later, during Oedipus’ reign, he begins to take interest in the death of Former King Laius, for he was not aware that he was the one to murder him. Oedipus sends Creon to bring Tiresias to him and Tiresias basically sums up everything that Oedipus has done wrong, yet Oedipus, hardheaded as he is, clashes with Tiresias. Oedipus, while “stepping forward threateningly” (24), yells and spouts very serious allegations towards Tiresias and Creon. If at this time Oedipus had done anything but what he did he would have discovered much sooner his homicidal and incestuous

He almost instantaneously blames Creon for plotting to overthrow him and does not even think twice in accusing the great prophet Tiresias of being a traitor. Because of his judgmental personality, he refuses to consider Tiresias’ advice and warning of the horrific aftermath of his investigation. Oedipus is infatuated in solving this particular mystery. Finally, Oedipus stabs his own eyes out after seeing Jocasta hung herself as revenge to his sight that deceived him his whole life. After he stabs his eyes out he says, “What kind of eyes…my unhappy mother’s.”

Oedipus was certainly a tragic figure because he tried so hard to be a good man and ruler, but his

Just as the bond between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is strong, so does the bond between Oedipus and Jocasta in Oedipus the King. Oedipus has excessive pride in him and is known for his swift actions. It is Jocasta who tries to stop him from jumping into decisions without thinking about the outcome. For instance, when Oedipus accuses Creon and Tiresias for treachery, Jocasta tries to reason out with Oedipus. She tells him to not to believe in prophecies as they are not true. She narrates to Oedipus the tale of the prophecy of her son that he would one day kill his own father (Laius). She further tells him that the prophecy never came true because her son was killed when he was a child and that Laius was killed by a group of thieves. Similarly, when she comes to know part of the truth of Oedipus birth, she requests him to stop his search for the truth. She fears that his search for the truth about his birth and parents, would lead to his own destruction. This shows that