Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
Character analysis of Oedipus
Oedipus hero's journey
The tragedy of Oedipus
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Character analysis of Oedipus
Oedipus hero's journey
The tragedy of Oedipus
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Character analysis of Oedipus
Although he was ashamed of the life he had been living, he realized that the mistakes were his own, and no one can bear the weight but him. He even said it himself “No one but me can bear this weight.” The grave consequences which Oedipus suffered in the end consisted of the loss of his mother/ wife by suicide, as well as his grief becoming a threat to himself, as he stabbed his own eyes out, blinding him permanently. After suffering dreadful pain from these actions in grief, Oedipus went on to face the other consequences given by the gods and Creon. He cursed himself many times in the book saying that whoever killed Laius should be banished or killed, and he would even go on to be cursed by his wrongful actions of incest.
Background Information: In Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, Oedipus was told that he would kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. However, Oedipus doesn’t believe that he killed Laius but was blind to the truth for him accept it which led to his demise. 3.Thesis Statement:
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 killed the traveling company in self defense and without the knowledge that his birth father was included. Oedipus recounts to Iocaste his flight from Corinth to escape the oracle's prophecy. Traveling alone, Oedipus comes upon the three crossroads where a chariot approaches containing Laϊos. However, as the carriage approaches Oedipus is ordered unkindly off the road. “But as this charioteer lurches over towards me/I struck him in my rage.
Oedipus was a very prideful man that was sure of his past and of himself as a man, husband, father and a King. He looked after his country and over his people and made all attempts to take care of everyone in Thebes. Oedipus was the people's protector and wanted to rid Thebes of the plaque and vowed to find and deal with the murderer of Laios. Oedipus never hinter or acknowledged that he had a past where he murdered a man and seems to have put that out of his mind. Oedipus becomes more arrogant and becomes very defiant when Kreon, Teiresias and the Messanger try to talk to him about the prophecy and the oracle when attempting to find out the true murderer of King Laios.
He was unknowingly solving the puzzle to a murder done by his own hands. It is almost a bit ironic because at that point Oedipus did not know
I have also observed that whether the murder and incest is the primary cause of Oedipus’s fall or not, he was entirely aware of his actions to the reader’s knowledge for no suggestion of mental impairment is mentioned. If no influence causes Oedipus to commit the acts he did, What denial can Oedipus claim in his own responsibility? Beginning back with Tiresias, Oedipus forced him to speak, Knox states, “Tiresias delivers [the prophecy] only as a result of Oedipus’ actions in the first place. ”25 Much is the same with Oedipus’s insistence that the surviving witness comes, even when again advised against it, and even, “When Creon returns and asks if Oedipus wishes to hear the oracle’s reply in public or in private, Oedipus tells his to speak before all of them,” as Knox includes.26 I am left with certainty that the events of the play are entirely and consequently to the effect of Oedipus’s actions and none others, with the inclusion of Jocasta’s own involvement and guilt in the incestuous
Great point, the parents are ultimately responsible for the prophecy being fulfilled. Oedipus’ parents arranging to have their child to be killed as a means to save themselves from the prophecy, these sets mechanism that sets events in motion. Each member of the family having a fault that leads to their own suffering.
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.
Jocasta finds out that Oedipus is also her son. When she found out about Oedipus being her child, Jocasta “ ‘broken in through the gates, dashing past us, frantic, whipped to fury, ripping her hair out with both hands--straight to her rooms she rushed, flinging herself across the bridal-bed. . .’ “ (315). Jocasta dashes into her room because she is frighten to the fact that Oedipus is her son. Jocasta not accepting that Oedipus is her son and husband means that she is hiding from the truth.
Oedipus solved the riddle of the sphinx which ultimately saved the Kingdom of Thebes from the plague. This made Oedipus a respected ruler that was well liked in Thebes. His time as ruler eventually came to an unexpected end. Although Oedipus could not control his fate, his confidence in himself, determination and stubbornness to find out who killed Laius led to his downfall. Throughout the play Oedipus struggles with not being able to solve this murder.
In the play Oedipus the King tragedy strikes the palace and the town of Thebes as the life of their new leader Oedipus begins to come crashing down around them. The plague disease suddenly hits the town and begins to take countless lives of the people of the town. The women of the city then begin to become barren and those who were pregnant had to suffer through labor pains but unlike a normal delivery no life was produced to compensate for all the pain that they had to endure. With a decrease in population beginning they begin to question why all of this was happening to their town and they come to find out that this is the result of their previous king being killed and tragedy will continue to occur if the murderer is still out there.
He had so much that he became blind to things around around him and the things he was doing to himself and others. Everything that happens to him is brought onto him by him. He killed his father, he also married his mother. He chooses to ignore the warnings from Jocasta, he searches and searches for the killer, to soon find out it was himself. Just as Oedipus becomes king his pride and confidence in himself grows.
Once Oedipus found out about the killing of his father and marrying of his mother, everything goes downhill. Jocasta hangs herself after finding out about her son also being her husband and her son killing her past husband. Oedipus finds her and gouges his eyes out. These events led up to Creon taking over as king and exiling Oedipus soon after his request to be exiled. The few interactions led up to the expulsion of the main character, Oedipus.
So in the end, Oedipus no longer thinks of himself. Thinking of his children 's impending marriage, Oedipus begs for his children and no longer can think of himself as anything more than a creature that embodies what it means to be pathetic: “When you come to the age ripe for marriage, who will he be who will run the risk, children, to take for himself the reproaches that will be banes for my parents and offspring alike? What evil is absent? Your father slew his father; he ploughed his mother, where he himself was sown, and he sired you in the same fount where he himself was sired.