Theme Of Decisions In Oedipus Rex

Oedipus’ actions are all fated together. Jokasta, Oedipus’ wife, widow of King Laios, calms Oedipus and tells him not to worry about Tireasias’ prophecy. She tells Oedipus that prophecies are not always accurate and fate does not exist. Jokasta tells him, “A long time back, an oracle reached Laios- / … / It said that Laios was destined to die / at the hand of a son born to him and me.” She continues, “Laios pinned its ankle joints together, / … / That time Apollo failed to make Laios die” (726). Laios was fated to be killed by his own son; instead, he was killed by bandits where the three roads meet. So the prophecy was false. Jokasta’s words hits Oedipus. Oedipus’ ankles were injured since birth. At a young age, an oracle tells Oedipus that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother, he ran away to Thebes, without knowing his parents are not his biological parents. The intersection of the three paths was where he killed in self defense when he ran away from home. Oedipus’ choice was to run away thinking it’ll prevent the prophecy. But because of his actions, he killed his

The pursuit of justice is an endeavor that many find to be challenging and a quest itself, as one will come across various trials and complications that may stop them in their pursuit or may mislead them. As humans, we find moral correctness and righteousness a very appealing state to be in, as justice will act as a platform to satisfy the desire for this correctness. In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, we meet our miserable anti-hero, Oedipus, in his pursuit for truth and righting the wrong of the plague that is affecting his people of Thebes. As he makes efforts to solve this problem, he comes to find out that he is the source of the issue, thus exposing the tragic flaw of Oedipus and effectively making this play a very effective Greek tragedy. This pursuit of righteousness ends up being the downfall of Oedipus. In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, Oedipus pursues justice through his realization of his past, his interactions with various characters in the play, and comes to understand more of justice in his situation through his reactions to adversity in this play, in order to portray a questionably successful pursuit of justice.

Sometimes humans are incapable of making the right judgment or judge before we have our fact’s. This kind of judgment can do the damage we cannot reverse. In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is one of the prime examples of judging them without knowing facts. Oedipus Rex is a tragedy. A tragedy is a play that portrays a conflict between human beings and some superior, overwhelming force. It ends sorrowfully and disastrously, and the outcome seems inevitable. Oedipus the king, seem to be very quick to react and rage. Thebes is suffering a plague which leaves its fields and women barren. The king of Thebes has sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the house of Apollo to find how to end this plague. Creon returns, bearing good news: once the killer of the previous king, Laius, is found, Thebes will be cured of the plague. After hearing that Oedipus swears he will find the murderer and banish him. At the beginning of the play, Kreon inform’s Oedipus that they need to kill the man who had killed the king Laios in order to get rid of the deadly disease. Laios death will open so many facts that Oedipus isn’t expecting.

Many people believe that fate has planned out their lives and despite efforts on their part what was meant to happen, will eventually happen. This belief has been handed down over the centuries from some of the first civilizations, such as the Greeks. However, not all Greek citizens wanted destiny to take control of their lives. Some decided to choose freewill over the will of the gods. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles writes a cautionary tale meant to warn the doubters in Greek society that regardless of their beliefs in gods and prophecies, it is necessary to heed their warnings. Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius are Sophocles’ characters that prove that escaping one’s fate is not possible, as each of their predicted fates is realized despite extensive efforts to thwart them.

Ancient Greeks cared deeply about the pursuit of knowledge. Although the truth was often a terrifying concept, they still saw it as a critical virtue. The theater was one way in which the ideas of knowledge and truth were examined.

In Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, the idea of fate and destiny is brought to the forefront of the play. The idea of fate is incredibly prevalent in the play and drives a significant amount of the plot. The most important example of fate in the play is the prophecy that Oedipus is doomed to follow. The prophecy that Oedipus is supposed to fall victim to is revealed to the audience by Teiresias, a paraphrasing of the prophecy is “he’ll have no joy of the discovery: blindness for sight and beggary for the riches his exchange, he shall go journeying to a foreign country tapping his way before him with a stick. He shall be proved father and brother both to his own children in his house; to her that gave him birth, a son and husband both; a fellow sower in his father’s bed with that same father that he murdered” (Sophocles, 504-513). Even though, many of the seeds of this

Oedipus constantly tries to flee his fate and avoid the prophecy, if he had not been so determined to challenge the Gods, his fate could have been different. Perhaps, he was cursed and had to achieve the prophecy because he was trying to escape his destiny. He plays god throughout the play he curses himself without knowing and tries to run away from reality of knowing that he might not get far. Oedipus pushes his free-will to the next level by accusing Tiresias of treason, Oedipus and Jocasta are doubtful of his prophecy. Jocasta tells Oedipus that a previous prophecy that Tiresias revealed didn’t come true and what he was saying is false. They have made the Gods angry with them at that point because of the distrust they had for the almighty. When Oedipus learns the truth about his fate he gouges his eyes out, this act would be a curse from Tiresias because he was blind

Although they decided to get their son killed, Oedipus did survive and grow up to carry out the acts guided by his ill-fate. It can also be surmised that if Oedipus would have not been sent away, the confrontation of the crossroads would have never occurred years later with him not knowing that Laius was his father. Thus, one can very well understand that every event described in the play by Sophocles seems to be pointing to the fact that no matter what, the occurrences could not have been averted in any way.

Oedipus and Gilgamesh, both honorable and heroic men, were victims of tragic downfalls. In comparison, Sophocles, the playwright of Oedipus the King, and the author of Gilgamesh, were both significant writers of their respective generations and their legacy still continues today. These two stories made their masterpieces during different eras; Sophocles life concurred with the Golden Age of Greek tragedy and the epic of Gilgamesh took place sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC. Despite being born centuries apart, their works are similar in that they both describe and make the tragic downfalls of two distinguished men come to life. The demises of Gilgamesh and Oedipus can be compared and contrasted through their hunger for power and as well as

The argument on whether freewill or fate governs the destinies of human beings has been the center piece of many great writings, such as the story of Oedipus Rex written by Sophocles. Oedipus was on top of the world living a life full of luxury and thought to be worthy of praise however he had a past unknown to him. For the past he knew was a complete lie everything he thought to be true was false. When his prophecy was revealed it set off a chain reaction of events out of freewill leading to his tragic downfall that he was too blind and arrogant to see. However these attempts at preventing his fate through actions of freewill ultimately led to his tragic fate becoming reality.

There are definitely two arguments on whether or not Oedipus had fallen to fate or made his own decisions, but if you think about it, the prophecy stated literally everything that was going to happen, and maybe it would not had happened if Oedipus did not seek out everything because the prophecy only unfolded when he began to venture out and look for the problem trying to solve his own problems. Him doing this unraveled something much worse and is what led him to his banishment, so if you think about it, maybe fate did bring him to this terrible ending, but how can we be for sure because he did make these decisions himself. Jocasta and Laius were the two to blame for believing in such a thing and leaving their child to die a terrible death, only to come back and have the prophecy happen anyways.

As illustrated in the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, ancient Athenians were concerned over social, political, and the moral well-being of their land. The people looked to their ruler to help them in solving the issues that plagued their land, such as spoiled crops and the lack of fertility. The citizens were worried since their land had been “Stricken in the budding harvest of her soil, Stricken in her pastured hers, and barren travail Of women; and He, the God with spear of fire, Leaps on the city, a cruel pestilence… The blackness of the Grave made opulent” (2). Based on the words from the priest, it is evident that the people looked to their ruler in hopes of finding relief from the terrible plague; the citizens hoped that their king would guide them and show them a way out of the terrible situation that they were in. They begged the king to “...find some way to succour [them]” and to “... build the city in stability” (2-3). The citizens expected their almighty ruler to step up and defend them from any harm, as well as to bring prosperity to their glorious land. They saw their superiors in a god-like way, expecting them to solve any issue that arose within the land. The actions of the ancient Athenians show that they were faithful in the power of their rulers. The citizens of Athens saw their ruler Oedipus as their “... life’s establisher… the mightiest head” (2). The Athenians viewed Oedipus as their savior when he solved the Sphinx's riddle, freeing them from her claws.

In the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus unknowingly murders his father and marries his mother. When Oedipus discovers this he is disgusted with himself and decides to go into exile. The Misanthrope is a play about the self-exile of the main character Alceste. Challenged in court, he refuses to take back the criticism of a sonnet written by a powerful nobleman. Alceste and Oedipus are both convicted by their knowledge of the truth. Although, the United States grants asylum to more refuges than any other country, there is one man who has decided to self-exile.

Laius and Jocasta hear the fate that their son would kill Laius and marry Jocasta. In their free will, they decide to get him killed, and send a shepherd to send the baby on top of the mountain to have him killed. Although, fate overpowered and the baby survived, and the prophecy later became true. () Another part is when Oedipus leaves Corinth, a free will action in order to fall away from the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother. Although, what he did not know was that Merope and Polybus were not his blood parents, and he eventually does kill his blood father and marry his blood mother. This is showing how free will is limited, as characters did have the free will to do certain actions, but it is fate that truly conducts the play. “A son was born To us, but lived no more than three days. Yes, Laius pinned his ankles together and sent him Away to die on a distant, lonely mountain. Once he was there, no power could make him a murderer, Nor make Laius die at the hands of his son.” (95) Through free will, Jocasta thought that if her and Laius were to send Oedipus to the mountains through a servant to die, then the fate would be gone. Even though she could have killed Oedipus herself, she could not bare killing her own son. This ultimately lead to a change, and her free will action lead to fate, as Oedipus went on to survive and kill Laius and marry herself. This shows that even though Jocasta had the choice to kill Oedipus, fate in the end had the control of the action and free will was limited by

Sophocles Oedipus the King is a tragic play which discusses the tragic discovery of Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. The story of Oedipus was well-known to the Athenian's. Oedipus is the embodiment of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus' life and to further characterized him as a tragic man. The Sphinx posed the following riddle to all who came to obtain the rule of Thebes: “What is it that walks on 4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet and has only one voice, when it walks on most feet it is the weakest?” Oedipus correctly answered “Man” and became the king of Thebes. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus. As a child man crawls on his hands and knees this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers. Also, man is at his weakest as a small child. He depends solely on others for his nourishment and well-being. Oedipus was the child of Jocasta and King Laius who was taken to the mountain by a Shepard to be killed so the omen of the god Apollo that Laius' son would kill him and lay with Jocasta would not come true. Oedipus was the weakest of his life at this point.