The Responsibility Of Hubris In Oedipus The King

“Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” says the writer C.S lewis. Indeed this is evident in Sophocles’ Oedipus The King. The rather disturbing events that takes place during the play. The pride of Oedipus, the tragic hero of the play, sets off a chain reaction of events that could have been avoided if Oedipus kept his pride in check. However, he can not and his ego inflates to the point his persona can only be described as a mental disorder. Through analyzing Oedipus’ behaviour and his interactions with the other characters in the play, it can be concluded that he suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

“Oedipus you must stop. I beg you- stop!... I pray to god you never see who you are!... These are the last words I will ever speak, ever Oedipus.” (Sophocles|| 1344-45, 50,56,57). It was too painful for Jocasta to watch the truth slowly yet quickly unfold right in front of Oedipus, so she ran off. Jocasta was afraid to face her fate, and she was probably also ashamed since Oedipus would soon catch up to the truth… There was no running from fate, or more so the truth

In Greek mythology, hubris means to have excessive self confidence or pride. In The Odyssey, we often see Odysseus getting into trouble because of his hubris. There are many examples where this flaw is exhibited. These include when Odysseus defeats the cyclops Polyphemus, when he and his crew sail past the sirens, and when he got the bag of winds from Aeolus. Hubris leads him to disregard the Gods, and make unwise decisions because his pride blinds him of his ability to see the consequences in making those choices. Odysseus’ hubris also makes his trip home harder and longer than it had to be.

Even though he is given the truth about his past, he is unwilling to hear it because of his pride. Here, Oedipus is given the chance to stop and turn back this quest, because in the end the murderer he must face in the end is himself. Instead, he begins to have self doubts about himself, which damages his pride, and continues on his journey into his past to restore his hurt pride. His pride forces him not to believe the truth, and so it leads toward his own undoing. Oedipus pride pushes him forward, shedding some light on the grim truths of his dark past. Finally, when faced with his wife Jocasta, she begs him not to continue with this mad quest, knowing that there will be nothing good for them in the end. Jocasta states “For God’s love, let us have no more questioning! Is your life nothing to you? My own pain is enough to bear” (Sophocles 1003-1005), realizing that Oedipus may be the murderer of her husband Laius and that the prophecy that the oracle said many years ago may finally come to light and be true. Oedipus however refuses to listen to her insistent pleas, and so gives up the last chance for him to turn back. Oedipus could have easily stopped here and listened to Jocasta but as Arthur Miller states

Hubris is Oedipus's tragic flaw. He is now overly full of himself because: he rescued the city of Thebes from the Sphinx, people admire him, the citizens worship him as if he were an idol, the citizens think of him as their hero, and the Thebans have such a high esteem for him, that they made him King. One instance that proves he is filled with overbearing pride is when he proclaims, "I, Oedipus, a name that all men know." (8) This statement also brings about irony. It is ironic because his name will be remembered and well-known everywhere--as a polluter, the

Jocasta had killed herself. 9. What was Oedipus’ reaction?

In the establishment of the play, Jocasta and Oedipus seem as though they are a traditional royal husband and wife, with ordinary children. They love each other, unaware of the truth. Jocasta illustrates what she did to her son as a consequence of an incestual and sinful prophecy that her son would someday kill Laius and marry her, as told by an oracle. She reveals that she and Laius fastened their son’s ankles and left him on a mountain to die. She declares, “[...] My baby / no more murdered his father than Laius suffered -- / his wildest fear -- death at his own son’s hands” (794-796). While both

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.

Now it comes to his mind to figure out who really is his father, and that Oedipus should not be blamed and punished for what his real father did to him and cause him this fault. Oedipus, having not deserved his fate finds out the Jocasta has killed herself, “Spouse to her spouse, and children to her child” (Sophocles 47) Did Oedipus’ fate have something to do with this? No, in the end Laius was responsible for having Jocasta kill herself, after throwing baby Oedipus into the pasture.

Clearly, Oedipus’ actions are out of rage and confusion from the information he had been given; it is not out of hubris. His great curiosity shows through when Oedipus tells Jocasta, “With such clues I could not fail to bring my birth to light” (17). In addition, Oedipus chooses to ignore Jocasta when she said, “I beg of you-do not hunt this out-I beg you, if you have any care for your own life” (17). Oedipus blatantly ignores Jocasta because of his dire need to discover the

Oedipus possessed an excessive amount of pride, otherwise known to the Greeks as hubris. This was necessary for

In the scene where Oedipus sends for Tiresias, the blind prophet, Tiresias says to him, “So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. You with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life” (Oedipus Rex Line 468). It is pretty ironic actually, that a blind man can clearly see Oedipus’s corruption when, Oedipus himself is left unaware. In most cases of hubris behavior the individual believes they are so prideful, they actually believe they’re on the same level with God. It is clear that Oedipus has the same perspective of his life, and of his power. Hubris behavior is a tragic flaw, in which the individual is only setting themselves up in order to fall.

In addition, during this period female babies were much more likely to be abandoned at birth. Contrary to this, Oedipus was abandoned as an infant by Jocasta. In addition to the love that Oedipus has for the women in his life, in a monumental scene at the end of the play Oedipus cries out to his daughters and blindly embraces them. In this scene, Oedipus helplessly wails about the hardships that his daughters will soon face without once mentioning the fate of his two sons. Moreover, during this time men were known for having extramarital affairs by fulfilling their sexual desires while women were expected to remain faithful. In the play, there are no mentions of another lover of Oedipus. Additionally, it was not normal for men to socialize with their wives. Despite this being the norm, Oedipus finds comfort in talking to Jocasta. Oedipus confides in Jocasta, showing vulnerability towards a woman. Pietro Pucci states in his book Oedipus and the Fabrication of the Father, “Oedipus tells Jocasta how he was shaken by the rumor that he was illegitimate and how he secretly ran to Delphi to seek Apollo’s reassurance that he was the legitimate child of his parents, Polybus and Merope” (16). Scenes from the play reaffirm that Oedipus is humbled by the presence of Jocasta. Oedipus state, “I’ll tell you everything I fear. No one has more right than you do, to know the risks to which I’m now exposed” (Sophocles 898-890). Even after Oedipus finds Jocasta

Hubris is defined by the Webster-Miriam dictionary as “Exaggerated pride or confidence” (Miriam-Webster Dictionary) in Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, In Oedipus The King, by Sophocles, the onslaught of pain assailing the protagonist is a result of his tragic flaw. Sophocles often used a characters’ flaw to alter or influence the outcome or future of the hero. Oedipus' hubris influences him to fulfill the oracle and further intensify his punishment from the Gods.

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.