ipl-logo

Oedipus Rex Quotes Project

900 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character analysis in Antigone

Garett Miller
AP Literature
Ms. Cyr
2nd Period
Oedipus Rex Quotes Project
“Poor Children… take any action the god orders.” Line 60
This quote gives insight to the current plot of the story. This passage reveals that Thebes is currently suffering from a fatal plague, and Oedipus trying to be a good King, sent Kreon to visit the oracle. Sophocles uses this passage to start the plot of the story. The play isn’t really about the plague, it is about Oedipus. By using a plague, Sophocles gives Oedipus a reason to start investigating the murder of King Laios. This one of the most important passages in the play because it puts the whole play in motion. Everything that Oedipus learns later in the story occurs because of this moment.
Word Count: 107 …show more content…

Most people watching the play would probably laugh at this passage because they all know information that Oedipus doesn’t. Oedipus is completely oblivious to the possibility that he may be the son of Laios. Sophocles wrote this passage specifically to be ironic and keep the viewers entertained. The line “[Laios’] son would have been my children’s brother” is especially ironic, because not only would his son be his children’s brother, he would also be Oedipus’ brother. Sophocles also uses this passage to add to the plot of the story. Because Oedipus is so ignorant to the information that everyone knows, it is only a matter of time before it is …show more content…

He uses an abundance of imagery like “red hail” and his blood spattered beard to describe the process and the look of the scene that occurred off set. He has to have someone describe the scene because Oedipus does not blind himself on stage. Someone else explains what happens to add a sense of imagination, and to show just how terrifyingly memorable the moment was. Sophocles also uses this passage to show just how terrible Oedipus feels about what has happened. He is so disgusted by what he did, that he blinded himself, and therefore completed the tragedy of the

Show More
Related
697 Words | 3 Pages

He finds out that his mother is his wife and that he killed his father, The former king. Finding all of this out, Oedipus becomes his own prosecutor, and then his own judge and punisher. This story suggests that knowledge is vain and constrained in its capacity to convey happiness to the individuals who look for it. Sophocles certainly wasn’t timid about the symbol sight vs. blindness; words like

Read More
964 Words | 4 Pages

The privileges he is granted by his power blind him to the fact that he is still, no matter how much respect and glory he earns, a human. Aa the chorus states, "for all his power, Time, all seeing Time has dragged him to the light" (adapted from 1339-40). Not only does Oedipus's power do nothing to protect him from his eventual downfall, but it also makes Oedipus a worse leader and person. His pride leads him to do a plethora of horrible things, from torturing an innocent old man to dismissing his wife's desperate pleas to stop his search. Many people in positions of power do not deserve any of their privileges, and are much less honorable than the people they control.

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
711 Words | 3 Pages

The people of Thebes seeked aid from the true gods , the real protectors and deciders of one's fate , and he puts the cities problems on his shoulders, A gods duty is not a mortal mans job. Oedipus just didnt understand. “ As I should , to avenge the city and the

Read More
637 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1378 Words | 6 Pages

P.13 Oedipus questions Teiresias, curious to know what he knows. “Oh gruesomely clear it has all unraveled… I was bonded with the people I should have never killed.” P.40 Oedipus sees what he has done wrong and feels vulnerable and horror. The audience clearly sees that heroes are very human and how real their limitations. Most people would have felt that same vulnerability if the gods had made us their plaything and tormented us, writing a prophecy of our doom.

Read More
409 Words | 2 Pages

They ask him to be again the hero he once was when he saved Thebes from the Sphinx, however, in the end, Oedipus finds that he is the cause of this plague set upon his people. Frye’s quote “tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape” justifies the Theban’s acts of looking at Oedipus as the solution to end the plague. Oedipus is the definition of a tragic hero; he saved the city of Thebes, became king, sought to save the city again, but discovered that he was the cause of the city’s suffering and also his

Read More
686 Words | 3 Pages

Oedipus the King is a tragedy that was written by Sophocles that emphasizes the irony of an irony of a man who was determined to trace down, expose and punish an assassin who in turn became him. Oedipus the King is also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus. The art is an Athenian play that was performed in ages approximated to be 429 BC. Oedipus the King would later in the play fulfill the prophecy that he would kill his father and later on marry his mother. There is a twist of an event in the play where Oedipus is looking for the murderer of his father to bring to a halt the series of plagues that are befalling Thebes but only to find he is in search of himself (Rado, 1956).

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1252 Words | 6 Pages

This blindness towards doom is made even more ironic by the fact that he was made king by his knowledge and insight. Oedipus was known as the person who solved the famous riddle of the Sphinx, a monster which terrorized the citizens. As the play proceed, we can see how much of a contrast between the two groups of character there is, even the messengers knows stuff that the king doesn’t. Sentences like “My son, it is clear that you don’t know what you are doing” (Sophocles 55) salutes to the ignorance of the supposedly “wise” king. Using words like “son”, Sophocles gives an sign that even the messenger It illustrates the flaws that exist in Oedipus, amplifies it by comparing him to other who are supposedly

Read More
1597 Words | 7 Pages

The Freedom of Oedipus is the Freedom of Thebes: Why Oedipus Cannot be Free Until the Truth is Exposed In Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, the theme of human fate versus free will is explored in the age-old tale of the king of Thebes who inadvertently murdered his father and married his mother. The play opens with Oedipus, a strong man and compassionate leader whom the audience can easily admire. By the closing of the play, a journey of self-discovery has lead Oedipus to his fall from kingship and exile from the city he loves, as well as the suicide of his wife and his self-blinding.

Read More
1224 Words | 5 Pages

But, he was also a good man, father, husband, and king, and for this reason he is mourned over for his loss of fortune. One of the themes in Oedipus Rex is physical and metaphorical blindness. In Greek culture, those who were physically blind were said to have metaphorical "vision" and were messengers of the gods. For example, In the beginning, Oedipus is blind, not physically, but metaphorically because he does not know the

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

The plot is thoroughly integrated with the characterization of Oedipus, for it is he who impels the action forward in his concern for Thebes, his personal rashness, and his ignorance of his past. His flaws are a hot temper and impulsiveness, but without those traits his heroic course of self-discovery would never occur. Fate for Sophocles is not something essentially external to human beings but

Read More
1056 Words | 5 Pages

Everybody everywhere knows who I am: Oedipus. King” (Sophocles 23). His role as king defines him; this is not a mere title, but rather his entire identity. Oedipus is determined to continue being the perfect leader and he will do anything to end the suffering of his people. Thus, as soon as he learns that the presence of Laius’ killer in Thebes is the cause of the plague, he does

Read More

More about Oedipus Rex Quotes Project

Related Topics

Open Document