##us's Overzealous : The Flaws Of Oedipus Downfall

This denial causes him to make decisions that only lead to his downfall and further deterioration. He himself leads to his own downfall through his foolish beliefs. To further, Oedipus makes more destructive decisions when he summons the Sheppard to reveal who the murderer of Laius is. Oedipus says, “I must pursue this trail to the end, till I have unraveled the mystery of my birth” (Sophocles, 113), illustrating his mental deterioration considering that this obsession to deny his position as the murderer is consuming his life. Oedipus forces the Sheppard to tell the ill-fated truth and is told: “I hadn’t the heart to destroy it, master” (Sophocles, 118), demonstrating that Oedipus was the cursed baby who was sent to his death, but as fate had planned, Oedipus lived. Not only did he live, he went on to accomplish each revelation the Oracle declared he would. At the end, once the truth has been revealed, Oedipus reaches his breaking point and cannot bear the truth. His mental deterioration from discovering the truth consequently influences him into literally blinding himself, resulting in his downfall. These examples establish how Oedipus’s internal madness played the role of influencing him into believing he could alter the will of the Oracle. He displayed madness when he continuously denied the truth despite the evidence that went against his beliefs. He was blinded by madness into

Oedipus’s tragic flaw is gained once he obtained his greatness and became king. Oedipus’s knowledge contained arrogance, and a metaphorical blindness that fosters his urge for the truth. Hence, Oedipus’s tragic flaw was his own intelligence, which later became curiosity for the all the burdens that is be fallen over his kingdom. He had a troubling obsession for learning the truth, so he could not sit aside so he went on a menacing quest for answers. Oedipus stated a message that reveled his flaw, “Then once more I must bring what is dark to light, but for my own sake to be rid of evil” ( Sophocles 134; 140). His pride and determination clouded his judgment to see the surface of the whole truth. The truth is Oedipus wanted to avoid his fate, but instead his own tragic flaw walked him into it. Even after Oedipus learned of the truth from the prophecy, his mind continued to deny what was the actual truth. The prophet spoke these words to Oedipus, “I say that you, with your eyes, are blind / you can not see the wretchedness of your life” (Sophocles 196-197). He still ventured on to find the alternative to his fate and he only became worse. Soon Oedipus’s pride corrupted his intelligence increasing his flaw. He now accused anyone who restated the prophecy and told all they were only after his crown.

The audience are fearful when more information comes out about Oedipus and his past as you can not believe that a strong, honest, good man would commit a murder in the first place but to hide that information for years. The audience can feel pity when he finds his wife/mother hanging and gouges his eyes out with her brooches so he can not longer see and enjoy life due to his sins as Oedipus always seemed to be attempting to do the right thing by breaking the plague. Oedipus misstep that changes the direction of the play is speaking to his wife Iokaste and stating that Kreon had murdered Laios and then hearing his wife tell about the death of her husband and the he was killed where "three highways meet" and this jolted a memory in Oedipus of him killing a man at that type of intersection. He then called for the household servant/Shepherd that had witnessed the murder to come to Thebes to speak to him and that is where he learned about his ankles being pierced and how he had given him to the Messanger as an infant and he learned that Polybos was not his father and that he indeed had killed his own father and married his

As the king of Thebes, Oedipus is very intent on discovering the truth of who murdered Laius, as he should be. The world these characters live in, however, is very reliant on prophecies. Knowing this, the physical danger of what may happen to the person Oedipus is wishing this fate upon and what that person may do doesn’t stop Oedipus from fiercely pursuing the truth. The audience knows that ironically, the person whom Oedipus has wished this fate upon is himself. As Oedipus digs deeper and deeper into the truth as the play progresses, the truth becomes more and more evident.

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.

Oedipus is strongly driven by the desire to right injustice. He sees this as helping and serving his people. When the plague devastates Thebes, he rushes to contact the priest at Delphi to bring an end to the city’s suffering. In fact, he acts even before the citizens come to him to ask. Swift action and retribution are the most important characteristics of Oedipus’ justice, mainly because they come back and cause his demise. He takes justice very seriously as well, pronouncing a dire curse on the murderer without hesitation. However, by this he immediately assumes the worst of the killer, when Oedipus himself had killed Laius and did not think twice about it because it was in self defense. Oedipus’ understanding of justice is that it must be carried out. Even when Jocasta has realized what has happened and begs him to stop while he can, he continues in his rush to find the truth. Because of his search for justice and blindness to how it will hurt him, the events of the play occur.

One of the ways we see this is how Oedipus shows hubris. When Teiresias tells Oedipus that he has fulfilled the prophecy Oedipus has excessive pride in himself and does not believe Teiresias. This excessive pride keeps him from seeing the error of his ways and does not allow him to fix the situation before it gets worse. Hubris being apart of Oedipus’s personality also keeps him from accepting his fate like he should. Him not accepting his fate is another reason Oedipus is to blame for his demise. Oedipus is told many time about his prophecy of sleeping with his mother and killing his father. Even after being told many times that he will do this he does not accept that it will happen. He is not as cautious as he needs to be about this fate. He married Jocasta without looking into who she is. If he was more cautious he would not have fulfilled the prophecy. Therefore leading to him to live a life without

Therefore, Oedipus’ strong desire to seek the truth is what leads him to his ironic downfall. Sir Tyrone Guthrie makes sure that everyone who has information belonging to the murder of King Laius or Oedipus true parents comes to Oedipus rather than him seeking the information. This shows how all the answers are being fed to Oedipus but he does not make any sense of it. Creon foreshadowed Oedipus downfall when he explained that “time alone shows a just man, though a day can show a name” which led to Oedipus gauging out his eyes for the wrong doing he did (Guthrie, Oedipus Rex, 33:13). Sigmund Freud would recall this from his patients having unresolved feelings for their parents that led them to get sick or self-inflict themselves, like Oedipus, as punishment. Though, Freud’s patients have also “…imagined themselves killing

Throughout the play Oedipus is given clues to his past and the fate that is to come, the moment that he gouges his eyes out shows these clues that he has missed. Jocasta says wildly, “In the name of heaven, don’t proceed! For your own life’s sake, stop! And I’ve been tortured long enough.” (59) This shows a moment of caution for Oedipus to not continue to seek the truth. The dramatic irony of this situation illuminates the horrors that are to come because of fate as well as Oedipus’ free will. Oedipus: “Laius was killed—I thought I caught the words—where three highways meet?” Jocasta: “So they said. That is how the story goes.” (41) Oedipus is first hearing the true story of the late king’s murder and seems to be beginning to realize that it was he who did the killing. Even though this could be his illuminating moment, Oedipus is unwilling to accept this fact and must hear

Furthermore, Oedipus has “Pride” which leads to identifying himself as a good character. Oedipus main downfall unwillingness leads to his faithfully fate. Many people don’t like him and accuse him of many things that he hasn’t done. Yet, many people support him like Jocasta they encourage him to keep going forward and keep being open-minded, not to measure himself, and to never give up. However, due to many things he has been accused of Jocasta comforts him by telling him that there are no truth in oracles prophets and she has plenty of proof.

In addition, to his irony of fate, shows that he has a fate of pride. His fate of pride forced him to murder his own father. The evidence of Oedipus’ efforts can be found certainly towards him leaving his parents who raised him in order to save them and to avoid fulfilling the prophecy. He fails in this effort, offering some strong proof that he is a “victim of fate.” Oedipus’s pride soon prevents him from seeing the truth. Oedipus is blinded by his pride because he cannot accept his fate due to the certainty that he tries to avoid his own fate. Had Oedipus not had so much pride, he would listened to Creon and Teiresias ideal belief of who had really killed King Laius, which was Oedipus. The evidence of Oedipus’ efforts can be found that he accuses his brother, Creon, of trying to

Oedipus, to the reader, carries the potential to act according to rational thought and inner sense of righteousness, but at the same time may very well deny his fate altogether in a move that serves as a sort of ultimatum, effectively ostensibly destroying any of its influence upon him. However, the audience knows that Oedipus cannot truly escape fate, for the prophecies will come true in one way or another - they have never proven false, and will never be proven false, for they descend directly from the heavens. In itself, the fact that Oedipus maintains the struggle against his inevitable fate - that which drastically alters his psyche and mental sanity throughout the play - is dramatically ironic, and adds to the suspense of the climax in that the reader is left to ponder whether the revelations Oedipus has undergone were earnest; whether they will amount to him finally coming to terms with his

The first quality of Oedipus that proves him as a tragic hero is in his pride which is the cause of his hamartia. “I thought it wrong, my children, to hear the truth from others, messengers. Here I am myself—you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus”- (Oedipus). Oedipus believes he can control his fate reveals his pride. Oedipus assume he can escape the prophecy of the gods. As Oedipus continuously aims to do the right thing. By running away from home, Oedipus has unintentionally begun the quest for his own downfall and setting the prophecy into action. Oedipus shows how prideful he really is when he kills an old man not knowing it is his (biological father).The peripeteia occurs when a messenger from Corinth reaches to inform Oedipus about the prophecy and the man he believes to be his father is not. Oedipus replies, “I will not be persuaded to let the chance of finding out the whole thing clearly” (pg. 461; 1166-1167). Oedipus is obsessed with finding the truth about who murdered the previous king, from this point he continues on fulfilling his destiny.

In the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles the protagonist Oedipus undergoes a series of events in life that ultimately lead to tragedy. Abandoned at first Oedipus raises to the occasion defeating the great Sphinx and winning over the city of Thebes for himself. Initially, he is a great king, but soon the city is troubled by a plague and reach out to Oedipus. When confronted by Tiresias and Creon his character turns dark. He becomes irrational, placing false accusations and opposing others his hostility becomes apparent. Likewise, he disregards Jocasta’s efforts to stop him from reaching his fate. Yet still Oedipus’s pride blinds him from truth and he continues on his search for fate. Although a morally good person, Oedipus’s rectitude is

In my first evaluation of Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles I was immediately intrigued by the sequence of events that produce the play. A King of Thebes by the name of Oedipus first seeks for a cure for the plague that is currently ruins Thebes but later gets consumed with his own identity. He eventually learns that he unknowingly fulfilled a prophecy that predicted he would kill his father and bed his mother. Oedipus is so horrified by his past actions that he gouges out his own eyes and wishes to be exiled from Thebes. His wife and mother, Jocasta, likewise kills herself when Oedipus learns of her identity, after warning him not to pry further. Because serval other characters predicted the truth and warned Oedipus of the horridness, I was surprised when Oedipus acted the way he did when finally accepting the truth. I intended to research how ignorance contributes to the downfall of Oedipus and his biological mother and wife Jocasta, in Sophocles’ Oedipus1.