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Innocent Or Guilty In Oedipus The King

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The topic of Oedipus being innocent or guilty for his acts is contemplated amongst many. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is on a search to take revenge upon whoever murdered King Laios; however, throughout the course of the play, Oedipus discovers that the assassin is himself, fulfilling his destiny. Through my eyes, Oedipus is innocent because he committed such acts unknowingly. He proves himself innocent through his continuous honor to himself, the Gods, and his people by fleeing from Corinth because of the prophecy, performing self-defense when encountering the King, and by brutally punishing himself for his unknowing acts. Oedipus is innocent of killing who he believes is his biological father, Polybos, because he flees from Corinth to avoid …show more content…

Both the Messenger and Oedipus prove that Oedipus is innocent for not killing his father because it is clear he was nowhere near Polybos when the misfortune occurs. It is evident that Oedipus is innocent in this specific situation because he did what any innocent person would do; he flees Corinth because he wants to fight the prophecy and avoid killing his parents. Oedipus does not know any better, and trusts that he is running away from his biological parents, but is rather running right towards them because he is unaware that his true parents are in …show more content…

During Oedipus’s quest to “know thyself”, the Messenger from Corinth tells Oedipus that, “Polybos was not your father” (1333; 3.101). Next, the Shepherd becomes the last person to finally give Oedipus the last bit of honesty to complete his search of his origin. The Shepherd exposes that it is Oedipus wife, Jocasta that gave the baby to him and was told to get rid of it due to the oracle. In this moment, the world is set back in order. Although, ashamed for her dishonesty, Jocasta hangs herself and takes her own life away. On the other hand, Oedipus brutally punishes himself for his unknowingly wrong doings, proving that he is innocent because he simply did not know any better since the truth had been hidden from him all along. To punish himself, Oedipus rips the golden brooches from his wife’s clothing, “…and plunged them

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When it came to Oedipus finding the person who committed an injustice by killing the king before himself, he had so much anger, and he wanted to find the culprit as soon as possible. In his rage and anger, he put a curse upon the murderer. His response to injustice was anger as well as revenge. Although he meant to help the city of Thebes by putting the curse on the murderer, his response could have been a calmer one. Oedipus does not handle injustice well because he wants to prove to the people of Thebes that he is a good ruler, so when there is an injustice he tries to get rid of it right away by doing anything he must, even if it is not the proper or most reasonable thing to do.

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The accusations are not proven yet so Oedipus does not yet know this is a mistake. Oedipus clearly lays out the sins of his life after stabbing himself in the eyes. He screams ¨Oedipus who lay in that loathsome bed, made love there in that bed, his father’s and mother’s bed, the bed where he was born.¨(Oedipus: Page 86 line 1770) in anguish, with blood streaming from his eyes. This displays Oedipus doing bad things with good intentions because he slept with his mother without knowing it was incest. He was just trying to further the royal bloodline but then he accidentally slept with his

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People who are generally cocky and full of themselve tend to have a very horrible death and story that leads up to it. Oedipus is the king of Thebes, who can be full of himself sometimes, but it doesn't affect him in life. He has saved his city before by solving the riddle of the sphinx and he is trying to save it once again by finding out who killed the old king of Thebes, Laius. He has a way of finding out who killed him, but it to only lead to his tragic downfall. Many people think that it was hubris that caused his death but I just don't think that hubris is a logical explanation.

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509 Words | 3 Pages

Oedipus denies the truth and faces the consequences later on in the play. He gets furious when everyone is blaming him for killing Laius. As he is blaming others, hubris appears within his personality. Oedipus becomes blinder as hubris takes over him.

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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.

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Oedipus Rex essay Final draft Oedipus certainly deserved his fate. Oedipus and his actions are clearly disrespect to the gods , he faces the fate he deserves. He was doing things that would eventually lead up to the unfortunate event of his death , he was even warned by the great and wise Teiresias , but he being himself was to stubborn and did not listen. All the things Teiresias said would happen became the truth. He killed his father, married his mother, yet he tempted his fate , he deserved everything that came his way .

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637 Words | 3 Pages

Upon discovering his crimes, Oedipus states, “Apollo, friends, Apollo has laid this agony upon me; not by his hand; I did it. What should I do with eyes where all is ugliness?” (62). His powerful emotional reaction to this revelation again brings up the question of his moral

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Oedipus Rex: Guilty or…Guilty? Imagine the exact moment you realize your whole life has been a lie. Imagine the churning of your stomach as you discover you have done the unforgivable. Imagine realizing all the signs you ignored, all the clues you let pass by. Imagine when you realize it was all your fault.

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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

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

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

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448 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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852 Words | 4 Pages

It is ironic how he talks about what could possibly be his own consequences for his actions. While giving the speech Oedipus says “I pray, too, that, if he should become an honoured guest in my own home and with my knowledge, I may suffer all those things I’ve just called down upon the killers” (Sophocles). Oedipus explains how the suspect will face bad things, and that if the murderer was let into his own house, with his knowledge, he shall be punished for it. The reader can infer that Oedipus may be the culprit considering he may ironically be the “honored guest in his own home.” This can seem like a reasonable outcome considering the reader knows that the position of a king is honorable.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1224 Words | 5 Pages

Oedipus the King is one of the most ironic plays ever written. Sophocles, the author, is a famous philosopher of the ancient times The Play is about Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who kills his father and marries his mother. An oracle warned Laius, the king of Thebes prior to Oedipus, that his son would murder him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta, had a son, he exposed the baby by first pinning his ankles together. The infant, who was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife was then brought up as their very own.

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848 Words | 4 Pages

The Queen, Jacosta, Oedipus’ wife tells him not to believe in the prophet, because they’ve been wrong before, she then tells Oedipus about how she and King Laius had a son who was prophesied to kill Laius and sleep with her but since the child was supposedly dead the prophecy couldn’t be true. Oedipus becomes a bit weary because as a child an old man told him he was adopted and that one day he’d kill his real father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus did also kill a man at a crossroads which sounded like the way Laius died. Oedipus continued questioning the messenger and found out that he was the man everyone spoke of and Jacosta then comes to the realization that Oedipus is her son and kills herself.

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