ipl-logo

Oedipus Rex Research Paper

426 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis oedipus rex

Oedipus Rex is a play that brings tragedy to a whole new level. This play talks about a king that wants to help his people. He sends Kreon to the oracle of Delphi to figure out what Thebes must do to make everything better again. Oedipus was the man who destroyed the Sphinx that plagued the road between Thebes and neighboring city-states. At first, Oedipus seemed to be the good guy until Kreon came back with the horrific news. The oracle said that they must dispose of the person who slain King Laios years ago. When I heard this prophecy, I realized what the tragedy might be. Soon after that, the king went to people asking who did this to the former leader. Out of nowhere, a blind fortune teller came up to Oedipus and said that he was the person who killed …show more content…

Realizing what he has done, Oedipus blinds and exiles himself. There was a previous prophecy that Oedipus would kill his father and sleep with his mother. So he left Corinth, where his foster parents originated, so he could escape his destiny. He did not know that King Laios and Jocasta were his real parents. On the crossroads to Thebes, he completed the prophecy by killing his father. He showed up in Thebes and became king, where he slept with his mother. They actually made children, how awkward is that? All of this drama made Oedipus Rex a horrendous tragedy. The tragedy of drama is the fall or loss of the protagonist. Whenever I think of tragedy, I think about devastating endings. In the end, the main characters die or leave; however, the rest of the people in Thebes are happy again. Aristotle said, “A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action… with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.” (izquotes.com) I pity Oedipus because he must leave his home, and I fear that he will never be happy again. Catharsis is the cleansing of these emotions after a

Show More
Related
498 Words | 2 Pages

His parents chose to abandon him because of their fear of the oracle ’s foresight, he chose to leave because of his caution of it and he blinded himself because he’d driven himself to find the truth of his parentage. Oedipus’ situation caused him to do all

Read More
1051 Words | 5 Pages

One of the essential reasons that Oedipus Rex is an elegant example of tragedy is because it renders the suffering of the main character, (Oedipus), who is of noble rank in society. Oedipus begins the story as king of Thebes, but soon realizes after an appalling truth that he is the man who killed his own father, married his own mother, and conceived children with her. Once he discovers that his wife/mother Jocasta has hung herself, he takes her brooches and gouges his eyes out screaming: “What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy” (Lines 1471-1472). Oedipus speaks these words and elucidates the reason for why he gouged out his own eyes.

Read More
614 Words | 3 Pages

With the realization of his demise, Oedipus tries to protect himself from punishment and shame by gouging out his own eyes and exiling himself out to die in the place destiny prevented him from dying originally. After many years of luxurious living, Oedipus’s predestined fate tears his life apart and returns him to the place he should have died as an infant, the mountain. Through the use of, departure, initiation, and return, Sophocles displays the journey of Oedipus. Not only is Oedipus the King evidence of the use of the hero’s journey throughout many famous plays, movies, and books across all cultures and time periods, but it also seen as a perfect tragedy, in which the audience experiences both pity and fear for the main

Read More
1377 Words | 6 Pages

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:

Read More
863 Words | 4 Pages

What the Gods spoke was final, and trying to escape the fate handed to you would only make your face more dreadful. Oedipus learned this the hard way as he ended up with his fate, and then some. After finding out that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus immediately left Corinth where he lived, unbeknownst to him, with his adoptive parents. This was his first mistake and major character error, one of Aristotle’s characteristics of a tragic hero. By running away from his fate, Oedipus actually ran head first into it.

Read More
492 Words | 2 Pages

Oedipus Rex: An Athenian Play The newest from renowned playwright Sophocles made it’s premiere in Athens last night. The production follows King Oedipus, whose fate is set in stone by the Gods. Cursed by destiny, a prophecy proclaims Oedipus would become a kinslayer and endure incest in his lifetime. Every character tries to change their fate which only sets the prophecy in motion.

Read More
443 Words | 2 Pages

So, Oedipus consulted the oracle of Apollo, who told him he would sire children by his own mother and that he would kill his own father. So he left because he did not wish for it to happen. After he left Corinth, at a meeting place of three roads, Oedipus was offended by a man in a chariot. He killed the man and the others. From there he went on to Thebes, where he became the new king by answering the riddle of the Sphinx and won the hand of

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
1126 Words | 5 Pages

Oedipus Rex is without a doubt a masterful tragedy. While it would take an entire other essay to discuss why Oedipus Rex is such a good tragedy, the overarching reason why is that Oedipus is ultimately a well-intentioned ruler and good person. For example, when Oedipus first hears about the plague, he quickly demands a solution, stating that “The grief that burdens me/concerns these men more than it does my life” (1308). Oedipus was no tyrant who wished to mercilessly subjugate the people of Thebes. Rather, he was a ruler who always had the best interest of his citizens in mind, and who had already saved the people of Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx and was ready to save the Thebans again, this time by stopping the plague.

Read More
1956 Words | 8 Pages

As his definition suggests, ‘this action thus must be represented and not told to distinguished dramatic poetry from epic; but I hasten to the end or scope of tragedy, which is to rectify or purge our passions, fear and pity.’ His explanation for this concept of a drama to be a tragedy is; for the reader/ audience to evoke those elements of pity, fear and passion when watching or reading the play. In Oedipus Rex, however the play itself is a perfect example of the play that produces a tragic effect. The play greatly deepens our experience of human life and enhances our understanding of human nature. The drama produces in us feeling of pity and fear, pity for the suffering population of Thebes and fear of the future misfortune which might be the fall of the people.

Read More
739 Words | 3 Pages

Ordering their servant to take their son to dispose of him, went to go get rid of the baby, but instead of killing him he gave it away to the king and queen of Cornith. Oedipus grow up without realizing he is adopted until one day he is out with some friends drinking, one of his friend that night told him the truth. Finding out this. He travel to Delphi 's to search for the truth. But once he get their he told about a prophecy where he kills his father and marry his mother.

Read More
889 Words | 4 Pages

The story oedipus rex is one fatal tragic with lots of twists and turns. Oedipus rex is a story about a kid who is born in the world in the city thebes and is born to the world with a horrible prophet. The oracle tells oedipus father king laius that his son will grow up and kill his father and marry his mother. Being told this king laius casted oedipus to the be killed by being thrown in the river but the shepherd had pity on the kid and pierced his ankles giving him the name oedipus. The nature of human will versus fate is the most important theme in oedipus rex by sophocles.

Read More
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.

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 Rex Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document