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The King's Responsibility In Socrates Oedipus The King

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In Socrates’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus tucks away his insecurities about his people giving up on him as king, rather, he performs the role as king to mask their fears because he knows the gods are the only ones that can save them from the plague. Oedipus reveals how powerless he is by approaching situation with rage rather than having a strategic plan, meanwhile still filled with fear of the unknown killer of the king. Tiresias delivers the prophecy that Oedipus is “the curse, the corruption of the land,” and asks, “who are your parents” (401, 473). Filled with doubt, Oedipus starts to deny the idea that he murderer of his father or married his mother. Therefore, Oedipus’ unwillingness to accept his past causes him to unknowingly fulfil his fate without accepting responsibility. …show more content…

Laius and Jocasta sent a Shepard to kill their son, prophesied to murder his father and sleep with his mother, bringing the punishment of the oracle before the sin occurred. Oedipus admits he knew the he was “fated to couple with [his] mother” and abandoned Corinth because he couldn’t accept his fated future (873). After Oedipus unknowingly murdered Laius, he summoned the Shepard to hear an altered truth, one that didn’t have him fulfilling the oracle. Oedipus, filled with fear that the gods cursed him, plays the victim claiming that Creon made up the prophecy to gain access to his “rightful” throne. He continues conspiring and raging instead of thinking through the prophecy, leading him to reveal he is a “man of agony”

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Similarities Between Oedipus And Willy

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Oedipus was cursed when he was a baby and found out his destiny when the god Apollo showed him a vision saying “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see- you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!” (Sophocles 873-875) However, Oedipus did not know that the ones who found him and raised him as his son were not his parents. After the prophecy, Oedipus decided to run away to try to change his fate even though it was already set to kill his father and sleep with his mother, unfortunately he couldn’t do anything about it. “Its mine alone, my destiny-I am Oedipus!”

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Should Child Soldiers Be Forgiven Analysis

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How would you feel if you lived in a country that made you fight in a war at the age of 12 and you'll either get forgiven or send to jail? You should be sent to jail if you joined for fun and liked killing. But if you joined to protect others and to do it for a good reason then you should be forgiven. I think kids should be forgiven because maybe they were forced to, they did it for protection, and they did it so they won’t hurt them or kill them, and because they needed a shelter, food and because they were poor. One reason I think child soldiers should be forgiven is because maybe they were forced to join and kill.

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Oedipus Rex And Hamlet: Which Character Showed Greater Resilience?

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Oedipus struggles with the truth and his fatal flaw comes in when he is determined to find out who his real parents are and who he really is, despite everyone telling him to avoid finding out, as it may be too tragic to discover. Oedipus was not able to handle the truth upon learning what he had done. This causes him and those around him to fall into despair, including his wife and mother Jocasta, who commits suicide due to the prophecy. Oedipus blinds himself so he no longer has to look at the damage he has caused. This was foreshadowed earlier with Tiresias, a blind prophet, who tells Oedipus that though he has his eyes, he can not see in what misery he stands.

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Sight And Blindness In Sophocles Oedipus The King

725 Words | 3 Pages

Because of this action it allowed for Oedipus to grow up to then become king and marry Jocasta thus setting the prophecy into motion to be fulfilled. This shows that no mortal can change the path that the gods have set for them. The God that Stated Oedipus’ fate was the son of Zeus, Apollo. This is found out through one of Oedipus’ messengers that read the oracle of the gods and when Oedipus found out he stated, “Apollo said though his prophet that I was the man who should marry his own mother, shed his father’s blood with his own hands” ( Sophocles 3. 945-947). Even when the prophet of a god tells Oedipus that he will do all these horrible acts he still denies it and continues to try and find out the truth of who his parents really are and who killed the late king Lausis while avoiding what the gods are saying will happen

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How Does Oedipus Deserve His Fate

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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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In Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, Oedipus continually attempts to change his fate. His actions, however, directly result in the outcome he has tried to escape. In accordance with a prophecy, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother. Upon discovering what he has done, in a dramatic act with many witnesses present, Oedipus gouges out his own eyes in despair. Despite all of his attempts at evasion, Oedipus finds that his fate is inevitable, and that he can never go against the gods’ intentions.

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Oedipus The King Research Paper

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The tragedy Oedipus, the King, explores the complications of fate and the influence of divine forces on human destiny. The protagonist is Oedipus, whose life is permanently shaped and controlled by the will of the gods. The tragedy written by Sophocles is about a king whose people are in despair because of a plague that is going around. The plague comes from the killing of the former king, Laius. Then, we find out that Oedipus is cursed to marry his mother and kill his father, King Laius.

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Oedipus’s Atonement In Sophocles's play Oedipus the Rex, he develops a tragic story of Oedipus, who had slain his own father and married his own mother without any knowledge of his own birth background. Oedipus’s story reflects the powerlessness of man against the inevitable power of fate determined by higher beings, which all of his actions were driven by fate and he couldn’t do anything to prevent tragedies from happening. In the end of the story, Oedipus realized he was the one that brought misfortune and disasters into the country because of the human taboo that “he” had violated. He then atones for his “sins and crimes” by blinding himself and asking for deportation from the country Thebes that he was ruling.

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Examples Of Blindness In Oedipus The King

694 Words | 3 Pages

“But as this charioteer lurched towards me I struck him in my rage” (Scene 2, lines 283-285). He killed the men, one of whom was his father, without a second thought. Lastly, Oedipus assumes that he knows who is parents are. It is only when questioned that he discovers that he has been living blindly. Oedipus asks, “Am I not my parent’s son?

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Oedipus Tragic Hero Essay

1853 Words | 8 Pages

All unknowing you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood…” (Sophocles 183). Tiresias outright exposes Oedipus lack of self-awareness, but the proud king refuses to acknowledge his ignorance and instead he discredits him, a man whose powers he once respected. This is not the first time Oedipus has heard that his parents are not who he thinks they are, but nonetheless his stupidity and lack of tact, combined with some rage, disallows him think rationally and asses the situation accordingly. Oedipus once again is introduced with more information that proves he has not escaped the prophecy, but once again his ignorance prevents him from seeing the

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What Is Oedipus Fatal Flaw

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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Tragic Mistakes In Oedipus The King By Sophocles

1043 Words | 5 Pages

In Oedipus the King by Sophocles a great king unknowingly makes tragic mistakes that ultimately cause him to blind himself and beg for his own exile. As his kingdom of Thebes starts to fall ill and suffer the king sends his brother Creon to ask the god Apollo what he can do to lift the curse. Oedipus learns that he must find and punish the man that killed Thebes’ previous king. When the king asks the prophet Teiresias who the killer could be, Oedipus discovers that he had killed the former king in an incident at the cities crossroads. While further investigating the issue Oedipus discovers that the people he thought to be his parents actually adopted him and that he was given up to a messenger by his parents.

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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).

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790 Words | 4 Pages

As more information is uncovered, Oedipus’ legacy is exponentially diminished as a childhood prophecy revolving around Oedipus, murdering his father and marrying his mother, is brought to light. Knowledge possesses the power to catalyse devastation in stages as demonstrated through Oedipus’ ignorance, his overwhelming curiosity, and his psychological anguish. From the beginning, Oedipus was raised in a legion of lies, believing Merope and Polybus to be his true parents. This cloak of ignorance not only shielded Oedipus from the knowledge of his biological parents, but allowed the prophecy to act as a catalyst for his fleeing of Corinth.

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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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