Oedipus was cursed when he was a baby and found out his destiny when the god Apollo showed him a vision saying “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see- you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!” (Sophocles 873-875) However, Oedipus did not know that the ones who found him and raised him as his son were not his parents. After the prophecy, Oedipus decided to run away to try to change his fate even though it was already set to kill his father and sleep with his mother, unfortunately he couldn’t do anything about it. “Its mine alone, my destiny-I am Oedipus!”
Oedipus’s selfishness leads to many conflicts that end up to his downfall in the story, many of the conflicts being him not admitting to things people say to him. One of the things he doesn’t admit to at the end of the story is that the murder of King Laius, or his father, is his fault. He instead blames the gods for all the problems that he caused. He also doesn’t admit the claims that Teiresias makes earlier in the book, and instead just says he is “making a fool of himself,” and that he is a “wicked old man.”
Oedipus fails to overcome the fate that has been set out for him by the gods. Though the case was different for him, as unlike Hamlet, Oedipus really couldn’t have done anything to avoid his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother. He believed that his real parents were in Corinth and the best way to avoid his fate was to flee the city. Unfortunately for Oedipus, what he had not known was that he was adopted, and his real parents lived in Thebes, the city he fled to. It was nearly impossible for him to have avoided his fate.
The prophet, Teiresias, reveals Oedipus’s curse of murdering his father and sleeping with his mother. “To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back / Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek. / But other grievous things he prophesied, / Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire; / To wit I should defile my mother’s bed / And raise up seed too loathsome to behold, / And slay the father from whose loins I sprang” (Oedipus, 791-797). This is Oedipus’s true reality, but his acerbic attitude denies the possibility of its legitimacy.
Guilty as Charged During the story “Oedipus Rex” Oedipus committed the crimes of killing his father and marrying his mother. During the Greek times it was believed that one’s future was determined by fate. The oracle had made a prophecy that this would happen to Oedipus and to his parents. The prophecy came true and Oedipus was devastated when he found out what he had actually done.
Niya Kebreab King Oedipus: Moral Ambiguity In the play King Oedipus, Sophocles depicts Oedipus’ inevitable downfall, which represents man’s struggle between free will and fate. In an attempt to use the audience’s knowledge to his advantage, Sophocles opens the play seventeen years after Oedipus murders his father, Laius and marries his mother, Jocasta. The sequence in which the story unravels reveals the strong psychological focus towards Oedipus’ character. In search of his identity, Oedipus’ enigmatic quality and moral ambiguity compels readers to question whether his ignorance renders him morally blameless.
Oedipus guilty of the act committed because, it was wrong for hi to commit such crime. There is no way some can be ignorant to killing especially ones own
As Oedipus rejects this statement and values himself over the Gods, the Gods, becoming angry, unleash the truth about him and his mother and father. After Oedipus discovers that he has murdered his father and married his mother, he is stricken with guilt that he explains by telling the citizens, “‘Now I’ve exposed my guilt, horrendous guilt... Oblivion-what a blessing’” (243). Oedipus is no longer a powerful king but is a guilty man, longing to be oblivious to the harsh truths of his life. This downfall shows the gods’ authority over humans, as they have ruined Oedipus’ reign and mental state by simply exposing the truth.
“But as this charioteer lurched towards me I struck him in my rage” (Scene 2, lines 283-285). He killed the men, one of whom was his father, without a second thought. Lastly, Oedipus assumes that he knows who is parents are. It is only when questioned that he discovers that he has been living blindly. Oedipus asks, “Am I not my parent’s son?
In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus, king of Thebes, is guilty of murdering the late king Laïos, despite the fact that he did not know he was his father. Oedipus was under a prophecy that said he would kill his father and sleep with his mother. Both came true, and he payed the price for it. He was banished from Thebes. Many have wondered if he really deserved this fate.
If someone commits a crime, but they were unaware that they did, are they considered guilty? Oedipus is born bearing a curse saying that he will marry his mother and kill his father. Fearing that the curse is true, his parents, Jocasta and Laios, leave him to die, unaware of the fact that he is picked up by a shepherd and given to a new couple, Polybus and Merope. In the greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, Oedipus is not guity of the crimes he commits because he does not know that Jocasta and Laios are his parents, he does not remember killing his father Laios, and because fate has determined the outcome of these events regardless of his actions. When the shepherd gives Oedipus to Polybus and Merope, the child is told that he is their
Both literary and informational texts, Oedipus the King(Sophocles) and “True Crime: The roots of an American obsession”(Mosley), use a central idea to develop a claim throughout the text. A central idea both authors use to support their text is guilt. Guilt builds up the foundation for the theme in both of these texts. The central idea of Oedipus the King is guilt.
When one considers that Oedipus’ actions involving his actual parents were unwitting it is easy to see that he is in fact innocent of a true crime and in classical scholar E. R. Dodds’ essay “On Misunderstanding the ‘Oedipus Rex’” he concludes that Oedipus is fundamentally innocent and states “I hope I have now disposed of the moralizing interpretation, which has been rightly abandoned by the great majority of contemporary scholars. To mention only recent works in English, the books of Whitman, Waldock, Letters, Ehrenberg, Knox, and Kirkwood, however much they differ on other points, all agree about the essential moral innocence of Oedipus.” and while details of these other scholars would take too long to explain in a simple essay it is agreeable that the thought of Oedipus’ misfortune being in punishment for unwittingly fulfilling his prophecy is false. However, the consideration that his misfortune is a result of his indifference is indeed a viable explanation and allows for the concept of Oedipus’ life being rectified if only he had listened to his
First, he was blind to the truth about his own life. Oedipus had no idea that his real parents were Laius and Jocasta, he was so blind that he got mad at anyone that would even suggest an idea such as that. As the story went on though, Oedipus could no longer run from the truth; he was forced to open his eyes to the reality and truth of his life. Oedipus killed his father and married his mother; he is the brother to his own kids and the son of his own mother. Oedipus was the one that was causing all of the downfall and bad times in Thebes.
He told Tiresias that he was lying and was just trying to help Ceron become ruler. Oedipus also had too much pride this also contributed to his downfall. He was telling the people that they would find the murderer and have him exiled. He was too blind to see that he killed the king.
