The Tragedy Of Oedipus The King

As is true with characters of many other works of literature, the protagonist of Oedipus the King, must contend with the horrible reality of his past. This protagonist, Oedipus, killed his father and married his mother, and what is worse, is that he is not aware of this. Throughout the entire play, his relationship with his past is one of ignorance. His ignorance of past events is what causes the play to unfold as it does. Unaware of his own reality, Oedipus leads himself to his own demise by becoming overly confident and prideful, and by distancing himself from his supporters. Through the main character’s relationship with the past, Sophocles develops his central themes of fate, sight, and pride.

Oedipus’ pride and a heightened sense of confidence is very conspicuous throughout the play Oedipus Rex. From the beginning of the play, Oedipus accepts the idea that he can avoid the prophecy given to him by the gods. Oedipus is also seen interrogating Creon and attempting to banish him with Tiresias towards the end of the play because they are saying facts corresponding to the prophecy. He tries to become like a god himself by thinking he could control his own fate. Although Oedipus’ pride can be justified by his accomplishments of being king; the tragedy of Oedipus is the pure result of his overwhelming pride because he killed his father, mocked Tiresias, and blinded himself.

He constantly tries to outwit the gods and their celestial will. At the beginning of the play, Oedipus does everything he can to help Thebes and its people. He sends Creon to the oracle to get advice from Apollo. Creon then brings back news that Apollo says to get rid of the chaos and products left behind from king Laius’ death, and because Oedipus honors the gods, he vows to find Laius's murderer and punish him for his doings (Fitts and Fitzgerald 6). The reason Oedipus leaves his home and comes to Thebes is to escape the prophecy made by the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He trusts and honors the gods until he is accused of being the man who does this terrible things. He becomes so focused with trying to find the man who killed the king that he stops listening and respecting the gods and all of the people trying to make him understand the truth. His relationship with the gods overall falters because like many others, he respects the gods, but eventually, he begins to try to figure this mystery out by himself instead of understanding his fate given to him by the gods (Fitts and Fitzgerald 34). All of these characteristics provide examples of how his fate is

Oedipus was a powerful man that had his life ruined by his excessive pride and selfishness. The same qualities that helped him to rise and become the king of Thebes also caused him to feel a lot of pain. He lost everything that he had gained in a short period of time. Oedipus learned that having power was not all that he thought it was. His life had been a lie and he actually didn’t know anything about the place he was born until he was instructed to save it. Oedipus himself caused his downfall with his selfishness and pride.

With his great knowledge and accomplishment establishing him as a man of insight and honor he is crowned King of Thebes. Oedipus, unwilling to hear or see truth, smites a blind man in the midst of his own ignorance and denial to reality. Teiresias, a blind prophet, is stood before Oedipus to reveal his visions about the identity of the murderer. “PAGE 11/40 TEIRESIAS thou hast not spared To twit me with my blindness--thou hast eyes, Yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen, Nor where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate. Dost know thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not, And all unwitting art a double foe...” Teiresias reveals Oedipus' fate to him. He reveals that Oedipus doesn't know who his true parents are, and is living a doubly bad fate. Oedipus becomes engaged and accusatory of Teiresias at the thought of someone threatening his preconceived reality. “PAGE 10/40 OEDIPUS There is strength where there is truth, but not in you Oedipus. You don't possess this quality, for you are blind in your ears, mind, and eyes.” Oedipus even goes as far as to suggest that Teiresias murdered King Laius. “PAGE 10/40 OEDIPUS Thou methinks thou art he, I think that you are he who planned this crime, and he who even committed it too..” Oedipus, self righteous and pompous, believes that he can do no wrong. His ego is so big that he tears down and slanders

In the popular Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, the plot shows how a single bad trait can lead to the fall of a once great man. The author Sophocles portrays the story of the titular where a hero rises to fame after solving the city of Thebes’ great riddle. The solution to the riddle frees Thebes of its curse from the Sphinx and relieves the city’s misery. Although Oedipus is praised and crowned king for freeing the city, he is not entirely a good man. Oedipus is very arrogant, which causes him to make several bad decisions. Through the story of Oedipus the King, Sophocles warns readers not to let arrogance blind them from reality, for it will eventually result in tremendous suffering.

Famed for his clear-sightedness and problem solving abilities, the great ruler of Thebes is unable to recognize the truth in the prophecy of the oracle. Oedipus’ fatal flaw is his hubris; he believes he can overpower the oracle and alter fate. The chorus asserts that “Pride is the germ of kings; Pride, when puffed up, vainly, with many things unseasonable, unfitting, mounts the wall, Only to hurry to that fatal fall” (31). The king’s ego is extremely puffed up, leading him to think that he could not be the culprit behind the unforgiving famine plaguing the city. Oedipus opts to live in a perfect world, believing that he is the savior of the people of Thebes for defeating the Sphinx, and that he has a god-like essence. The king is prideful and sees himself as almighty due to his misconception that he changed his fate. Oedipus does not recognize, however, that he indeed has fulfilled his prophecy by killing his father and marrying his mother; his will to live in an illusion led to the king’s fall after he realized his mistake in denying the prophecy. Since the truth is so unpleasant, Oedipus chooses to not recognize it and

When the priest says, “You came to Thebes, you freed us from the tax we paid with our lives to that rasping Singer...we need now the great power men everywhere know you possess. Find some way to protect us”(41-50), it exhibits how great of a leader and hero he was to the city. The deeper he searched for the man to end this plague, however, the more horrid it got. The more information he received, he began to connect the pieces from his past. Not only did he figure out the man he killed on the path was king Laios, but it was his biological father. His fear of the prophecy that the oracle told him was becoming true. play gets even more tragic as he realizes that the queen he had four children with was his mother, who kill herself before he finds the truth. Oedipus gauged his eyes outs after seeing her dead body. Oedipus was blinded from the truth his entire life. When he finally learned the truth about himself, it blinds him.

His more significant flaw, his pride, fuels his quick temper which leads to a greater dilemma for the king. For instance, in the fourth episode as the shepherd from Corinth arrives, Oedipus shows his pride when he takes advantage of the old man. “Look, Elders, if I may play the prophet too, I’d say—although I’ve never met the man—there’s the herdsmen we’ve been searching for,” Oedipus declares pompously. Seconds before the shepherd enters, Oedipus compares himself to a prophet when he tells the elders his opinions about the man approaching. When the old man refuses to tell Oedipus the truth, Oedipus threatens to hurt and even to kill the poor man, demonstrating Oedipus’s hubris fueling his temper. Perhaps the most significant example of his vanity occurs when the messenger from Corinth delivers the news to Jocasta and Oedipus revealing the death of Oedipus’s father. Instead of mourning his father’s death, Oedipus celebrates thinking that he broke the curse and outwitted the gods since his

“And you, did you.../ buy me? Find me by accident?” Oedipus is now seeing this new reality for the first time, and is exploring this new realm as though his life depended on it. He desires to ascend from the darkness he has been living his whole life in, no matter what, even as his wife begs of him. “‘No, please-/ for your sake- I want the best for you!”/ “Your best is more than i can bear.”’ Oedipus is still hungry for information, believing that it will only fulfill him, he sees no other path. Not know that he has now fallen for natures purest trap, curiosity. It devours a man, forcing them to search for whatever pieces they can glue together. “Let it burst! Whatever will, whatever must!/ I must know my birth, no matter how common it may be- I must see my origin face-to-face.” He has no shame in whatever it is to come, so he thinks. The possibility that this information could destroy him has never crossed his brain, he wants to be set free from his bubble of safety, he wants, to see the truth, for the better, or worse.

Oedipus is a man of nimble response and great intuition. The opening of Oedipus the King, shows the qualities make him a distinguished ruler who prepares for his subjects’ needs. During the being of Oedipus the King, a plague disrupts the piece of Thebes, leaving the people to beg their king to act quickly to end the plague. Oedipus is naturally a step ahead of his people as he had sent his brother-in-law, Creon to the oracle located at Delphi for guidance on how to end said plague. It is seen continuously that Oedipus’s quirk of acting swiftly, also noting that this swift action has a dangerous side.

Oedipus: Proud, Productive, and Perfunctory In the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King by playwright Sophocles, the protagonist Oedipus struggles to find out his true identity. He is the king of Thebes, a city that has been burdened with a deadly plague. In order to find out why this plague is occuring and save his city, he must discover all of the details about his life and about who he really is. His characteristics change and become stronger throughout the play because of major plot events such as suicide and a mysterious murder.

     The heart of the story unravels when Oedipus apparently begins to suffer a reversal of fortunes. At the beginning of the play, Oedipus is referred to by the priest as the “king of the land, [the city of Thebes’] greatest power” (16). Through all of Thebes he is thought of as a hero, a man who saved the city from the Sphinx and in his bravery has promised to find the killer of King Laius in order to save the city from doom and death. However, at the climax of the story Oedipus learns that he has been “cursed in [his] birth, cursed in marriage / and cursed in

When he first speaks to the citizens of Thebes, he shows a side of himself that cares about the city and its people. “…my spirit / Groans for the city, for myself, for you…” (I. Prologue. 65-66), says Oedipus. He shows that he really does want what’s best for everyone. But then, he goes and insults the psychic, Teiresias, when Teiresias tells him that he is King Laius’ killer and the source of the plague. Says Oedipus, “You sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man!” (I. 1. 356). He refuses to believe that he is the source of his peoples’ troubles. As one A.E. Haigh said, “[Oedipus] catches at each hint, and pursues each clue, with a light and cheerful heart…” But unfortunately, he doesn’t stay so light and cheerful. He shows all sides of himself throughout the story, which really helps the reader stay intrigued with Oedipus and the story as a whole.

In Oedipus The King by Sophocles, Oedipus, the great king of Thebes, suffers a reversal of fortune when he attempts to change his fate. Oedipus is prophesied to kill his father and to marry his mother so he leaves Corinth to come to Thebes so this prophecy does not come true. As Thebes is being countered by a plague, Oedipus is trying everything he can to help the citizens. Throughout the play, Oedipus seeks knowledge about the plague later leading to his downfall. Oedipus is seen as a hero to his city due to his contributions, but he soon has a tragic ending when he seeks for knowledge.