Oedipus the King by Sophocles is a play about a man who was sent to be killed as a baby.
Oedipus is the king of Thebes and considers the people of Thebes as his children. Thebes was cursed by a sphinx and the only way to cure it is to find the true killer of the previous king,
Laius. Earlier in the play the Oracle at Delphi told Oedipus the tragic story about his destiny, and
Oedipus makes it his mission to figure out if it was true. Oedipus was told that his fate was to kill his real father and marry his real birth mother. Since Oedipus was not raised by his real parents, and did not know, he believed that he did not do either of the things the Oracle has stated. More witnesses continued to surface proving that Oedipus, unknowingly, lived
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While he is escaping his fate he runs into his real father
Laius, who he does not know is his real father, and kills him. He arrives at Thebes where his birth mother lives and ends up marrying her, also believing it was just a random women. The
Oracle predicted all of these things to happen, while Oedipus thought he was winning, he never knew he was actually fulfilling his destiny. As he gathered more information about the truth, he uncovers that he did in fact marry his mother and kill his father. Disgusted with himself, he gauges his eyeballs out and exiles himself from Thebes, and his hometown, Corinth.
Thus, Oepidus the King is the true definition of a tragic hero, because of his excessive pride and self-righteousness that led him to fulfill his destiny. Oepidus the King is a very interesting play that I would definitely recommend to other people. The fact that it uses ancient tragedy really pulls it all together. Oepidus was just trying to do right by who believed was his father and mother but ended up making the gods mad. The Oracle told him it is not possible to
Johnson 3 escape his fate and although Oedipus believed he could, he was wrong in the long run. That goes to show karma will get you sooner or