'To Blame In Sophocles Oedipus The King'

In the play “Oedipus Rex”, also known as “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles focus on the Oedipus and his curse that lead to his downfall. Oedipus is known to be confident, prideful, and being one step ahead of everyone else. Oedipus sent Creon to an oracle in order to find a cure for the plague that has cursed the city of Thebes. Creon informs Oedipus that the god Apollo has spoking through the oracle that to get rid of the plague the murder of Laius, the previous king, must be driven out of the city. Oedipus driven to find the murder finds Tiresias a blind prophet in order to him where to find the murder. However, even though Tiresias knows who the killer is, he refuses to tell the citizens of Thebes, which infuriates Oedipus which led Oedipus

Oedipus was told by a drunken man at a dinner party that he was not Corinth. Out of anger he went to an oracle to search for answers his adopted parents did not give him. Dodds states “when Apollo’s word came back, he might still have left the murder of Laius uninvestigated; but piety and justice required him to act” (182-183). So, when the oracle revealed the prophecy and he was filled with so much anger and embarrassment he fled the town “yes, I fled to somewhere where I should not see fulfilled the infamies told in that dreadful oracle” (line 928-930). He did not pay attention to where he was going and ended up completing half of the prophecy. Dodd also says that “no oracle said that he must discover the truth” (183) and what lead to his destruction is “his own strength and courage, his loyalty to Thebes and the truth’(183). Oedipus did not have to go looking for the murder of Laius and when he started to realized that he was the murder he should have stopped looking for the truth. Instead, after Jocasta explained to him how Laius died and even though the story sounded familiar, he still didn’t not believe that he was the murderer. Oedipus should not have let his emotions from the reveal of the prophecy led him into killing the man [ Laius] that could be old enough to be his father. After entering the city of Thebes, he should not have accepted Jocasta as his wife since she was old enough to be his mother. Just like Jocasta and Laius, Oedipus is not thinking clearly. Had he not been ruled by his emotions he would not have married Jocasta and killed Laius After Polybius’s death Oedipus still believed that even though the prophecy was wrong about his father he would sleep with is mother. After the messenger tells him that Merope is not his mother he believed that the prophecy was avoided. Instead of thinking about how him and