Anger In Oedipus The King

Siddhartha Gautama said, “holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned”. This is evident in the play Oedipus the King, as Oedipus’ tragic fault is his blind anger. Many times, he acted out of his anger so easily and it caused his demise to be worsened. He killed Laius because of his anger, which fulfilled the tragic prophecy, he wanted to kill both Creon and Tiresias, and chose to ignore the truth and use violence to solve the problem. I believe that this fault shows the tragic nature of human existence is inevitable - in times of desperation, humans will turn a blind eye to the world’s atrocities. No matter how much you try to fight against the truth, it still exists. He tried to, knowingly or not, snuff out those who knew the truth, but it still plagued Thebes.

Namely, one of the most staggering, is his altercation with Tiresias. He calls on Creon to find Tiresias, as he is a blind prophet who would be able to tell Oedipus how to cure the plague of Thebes. When the prophet arrives, he tells Oedipus that “[quote]”, and he refuses to tell him the murderer that has created his discord. This causes Oedipus to become enraged, as he accuses Tiresias of being “[quote]” (Citation). Tiresias, angered by these insults, turns on Oedipus to tell him the truth - Oedipus had killed Laius, and coupled with his own mother. The king hears this and will not even accept this truth, and instead accuses Creon of foisting a false prophet upon him so his brother-in-law could have the throne. He even says he will “[quote]”, threatening Tiresias. Only by the Chorus’ intervention, does Oedipus not strike against the blind man