ipl-logo

Oedipus Diary Entry Essay

687 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Critical analysis of oedipus the king

WT1, Part 3 – Oedipus Rex. By Cyriel van Velzen. Diary entry by Oedipus, after he arrived in Corinth. Rationale to be written. The last few weeks have been onerous. I have now reached Corinth after a long journey, which I hadn’t planned beforehand. I feel the urge to talk to someone, but I don’t feel comfortable telling this story to the locals here, yet. That’s why I decided to write it down, something I’ve never done before. Some guy who had enjoyed water touched by Dionysus revealed to me, with his drunken voice, something horrifying I had no clue of. He told me King Polybus and Queen Merope, who raised me like any other parent would do, are not my actual parents. He said I was found by a shepherd who gave me to them, after which they gratefully …show more content…

I was told I would murder my very own father and marry my mother. This was not the answer I was seeking, but it was far more horrid. What would that mean? Why would I do that, for Zeus’s sake. However, Pythia didn’t mention any adoption and she would have if I were actually not Polybus’s son. This made me take the awful decision to never return to Thebes. I care about my parents more that I care about my own happiness, so I chose to leave them in safety and build up a new life for myself elsewhere. I took off to Corinth, which should be remote enough. THIS PROFETION SHALL NOT BECOME …show more content…

The driver and the man in the carriage rudely assaulted me, probably thinking I was not important enough to ride the same road they were riding. This enraged me, as I was already in an inflammable mood. Firstly, I struck the driver and then I hit the old man, too. He hit me, but he was in a critical condition. He died of his wounds and them I killed the remaining men. I believe no one saw me. Thinking back, I have mixed feelings about this. Obviously, they started and they seemed capable of killing me if I were to show any rebellion. On the flipside, I am not a murderer, but I have committed a murderer’s act. I don’t feel very sorry for the folks, they provoked it themselves, but to have killed a man is a bad thing on its

Show More
Related
302 Words | 2 Pages

After Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, then revealed himself, Polyphemus screamed out, “Odysseus, raider of cities, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca, never reaches home”(9. 588-590), to Poseidon. He acted like an arrogant monster without thought, and then the monster unleashed the most monstrous revenge on him. By revealing himself he indirectly turned himself into even more of a monster. Then when his crew eats the cattle Zeuss rings out, “I’ll hit their racing ship with a white-hot bolt, I’ll tear it into splinters.

Read More
674 Words | 3 Pages

Though she promises eternal and continuous hospitality and care, Odysseus’ longing for his family overrides his duty to accept and respect Circe’s hospitality – as he had already been doing for a year. Odysseus misses his wife, son, and home too much, and almost in a form of gratitude for having her hospitality respected, Circe lets Odysseus leave. She also directs him to the Underworld to get directions to Ithaca. The Odyssey is more than just a story about the return of a veteran back home, it is also a story of a veteran understanding the importance of honouring a host. It is only once he learns this that Odysseus can come

Read More
236 Words | 1 Pages

The Odyssey is an epic pome that shows tragedy that Odysseus and Penelope had to endure. However, Penelope’s pain and suffering was not tantamount Odysseus’. After the completion of the Odyssey, it is evidently clear that Odysseus dealt with far worse struggles and experienced pain that far surpassed Penelope’s. One example of Odysseus’s great struggle is that he experienced the pain of losing his soldiers, which where some of his greatest friends and comrades. Penelope, on the other hand, lost some of her family but Odysseus also suffers through this because they were also his family.

Read More
192 Words | 1 Pages

“Xenia”, the Greek concept of hospitality, is both followed and rejected throughout Homer’s The Odyssey, and it causes significant results in the situations expressed throughout the book. For example, when Odysseus gets back to Ithaka, Eumaios, his swineherd, does not recognize his master but still welcomes him into his hut, resulting in Odysseus eventually reuniting with his son. Even though Eumaios does not know it is his master, he still allows Odysseus to come inside and make him feel comfortable. Eumaios’s actions prove the significance of the practice of xenia throughout Ancient Greece.

Read More
1722 Words | 7 Pages

Both of these men are evil. Each of these men has killed before without remorse. Amazingly, both these men in their acts

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

Yet, Odysseus thinks hastily to stay with Circe and they become lovers. They live in luxury with her, “… feasting long… until a year grew fat” (179). This delays their arrival in Ithaca. Odysseus’s choices slow his journey, illuminating the problems of his

Read More
628 Words | 3 Pages

Oedipus discovers the body and is in so much grief he uses the golden pins that held Jocasta’s dress and “spears the pupils of his eyes” (93). This unbearable mishap is the last article of the proclamation that Oedipus carries out. Furthermore, in an attempt to keep his children, Creon advises him to “not be the master in everything. What you once won and held did not stay with you all your lifelong” (107). Oedipus was once a man that was not physically blind but in truth he was.

Read More
614 Words | 3 Pages

From the beginning Oedipus was destined to fulfill a terrible prophecy, but through particular events that follow the steps of the Hero’s Journey, Oedipus becomes a powerful king of Thebes, only to be destroyed by the prophecy that should have ended his life as a child. The Hero’s Journey typically leads to self-confidence and power, however; the Hero’s Journey of Oedipus leads to his tragic demise. The Hero’s Journey lays out the steps of Oedipus’s future actions, which create suspense, fear, pity, and other emotions that captivates the audience. Similar to many famous stories, Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles in 430 B.C., follows the Hero’s Journey path, which is evident in Oedipus’s departure, initiation, and return.

Read More
473 Words | 2 Pages

The story begins by Barbara Nevling Porter mentioning how powerful the tool of public rituals can be. Public rituals were used to shape political attitudes and promotes political change. The authors purpose was to discover the pitfalls of public speaking rituals. Barbara wanted to examine the potential of public speaking rituals, if used unwisely, to undermine very position they were meant to strengthen (Porter 273). Her two main focuses were about both a successful and unsuccessful use of a public ritual.

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

Like Odysseus, through out my journey known as high school, I have faced many “heavy losses” (841) due to bad behavior and heartbreaking

Read More
1008 Words | 5 Pages

The world of literature offers many different works; some may offer similarities while there are differences between others. There are more similarities than differences between Odysseus and Oedipus. Two great examples of literature is the tragic play “Oedipus the King”, written by Sophocles and “The Odyssey”, an epic poem written by Homer who were both Greek poets. Both poets’ work shows similar examples of life altering changes that were ultimately controlled by the Greek gods.

Read More
409 Words | 2 Pages

Critic Northrop Frye claims that tragic heroes “seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them… Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” A perfect example of this assertion would be King Oedipus in the classical tragic play “Oedipus Rex,” written by Sophocles, where Oedipus, himself, becomes the victim of his doomed fate. As someone who was born and raised of royal blood, he becomes too proud and ignorant, believing that he was too powerful for his fate. Using the metaphor “great trees [are] more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass,” Frye compares the heroic but unfortunate Oedipus to the great trees as they both are apt to experience victimization of tragic situations

Read More
577 Words | 3 Pages

Could one's own act of pride and anger be the result of their downfall? Throughout the play Oedipus is seen as a great hero and savior to the people of Thebes however, we soon start to learn that Oedipus has a tragic flaw. Oedipus’s tragic flaw lies in his pride and anger which blinds and leads him to his demise.       From the start of his journey to the end of it Oedipus was always blinded by both his pride and his anger. During a feast at Corinth a man taunted him for not being the son of Polybus and blinded by his pride he could not think of anything else.

Read More
1224 Words | 5 Pages

In the earlier years Oedipus visits Delphi and learns that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. He then planned to never return to Corinth. In the play "Oedipus the King", the author presents us with several

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

Brilliantly conceived and written, Oedipus Rex is a drama of self-discovery. Achieved by amazing compression and force by limiting the dramatic action to the day on which Oedipus learns the truth of his birth and his destiny is quite the thriller. The fact that the audience knows the dark secret that Oedipus unwittingly slew his true father and married his mother does nothing to destroy the suspense. Oedipus’s search for the truth has all the tautness of a detective tale, and yet because audiences already know the truth they are aware of all the ironies in which Oedipus is enmeshed. That knowledge enables them to fear the final revelation at the same time that they pity the man whose past is gradually and relentlessly uncovered to him.

Read More

More about Oedipus Diary Entry Essay

Related Topics

Open Document