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Theme Of Hubris In Oedipus

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Oedipus the king, a play written by Sophocles, is about a ruler who has no vision due to immense amount of Hubris. Oedipus had a destiny to kill his dad and marry his mom. Interestingly, Oedipus himself was unaware of his destiny, for he was a conceited man. When Oedipus finally realizes what he had done, he rakes out his own eyes, so that he can no longer perceive the misery he had caused. Two different characters: Tiresias and Oedipus best represent the relationship between vision and hubris, respectively.

Tiresias represents vision in the novel since he is a prophet who foresees Oedipus's fate. He is also aware of the oracle and what Oedipus did to his parents. Oedipus, on the other hand, represents hubris since he is self-confident and arrogant. When Tiresias explains the miserable oracle, Oedipus refuses to take it seriously, but rather takes it as an insult. He even tries to banish Tiresias for telling the truth, regarding him as a traitor. The primary reason Oedipus ignored Tiresias’ prophecy was because his of pride that he solved the riddle and saved the city had overwhelmed him. He couldn’t imagine himself involved in such a catastrophic incident.

The interesting aspect here, which leads to situational irony is that Tiresias is blind. Sophocles uses situational irony to describe the relationship between hubris and vision. Tiresias' blindness is an example of situational irony because he can prophesize the future while Oedipus, with good eyes, cannot. Therefore,
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