Oedipus and his flaws
Oedipus's Inextinguishable Flaws Flaws plague every man and woman on this planet.
Flaws are what we have in common with each other, and all characteristics
that make us human. Sophocles's Oedipus, shows that sometimes the
combination of certain flaws and other human characteristics can have a
tragic outcome. The caring King Oedipus was paranoid and short tempered,
and these characteristics brought him to his downfall. From the beginning of
the story Oedipus is depicted as a noble caring man. He is greatly distressed
about the plague in Thebes. "My soul mourns the city..." (Sophocles 305) he
tells the priest and the suffering people of Thebes. If Oedipus did not care for
his kingdom, he never would have bothered to seek out Laius's murderer.
Oedipus also mourned the death of his wife. As well, Oedipus proves himself a
loving father towards his daughters, by asking Creon to take care of them.
One of the main reasons for Oedipus's exile is his short temper. Oedipus
loses his temper with Tireseas, because he will not tell Oedipus the truth.
After Tireseas speaks the truth, Oedipus grows even more short tempered, and
taunts Tireseas for being blind. Oedipus then accuses Creon of sending
Tireseas to make Oedipus think he is the murderer. After Oedipus accuses
Creon he tells him, "I do not desire your banishment-- but your death."
(Sophocles 313) The death of Laius would never have occurred if it was not
for Oedipus's short temper. Oedipus forced King Laius off the road because
his procession wouldn't make way for Oedipus and his group. If Oedipus had
thought things through he would have never have acted so irrationally and
killed King Laius. Oedipus's short temper is triggered by his paranoia.
While he meets with Tireseas, Oedipus believes that Creon, his own brother-in-law
and friend, is against him. "Was it Creon that planned this or yourself,"
(Sophocles 309) Oedipus says to Tireseas. Oedipus also thinks that his own
countrymen could be against him. Once Creon comes home and tells Oedipus
that he must find Laius's murderer he proclaims, "...whoever slew Laius might
turn a hand against me." (Sophocles 306) Oedipus has a certain paranoia
around himself as the truth is being unraveled. His wife, Jocasta tells him to
One of the first women introduced to the reader is Martha. Martha is Lt. Jimmy Cross's love interest, even though she has only ever considered him as a friend and nothing more. O'Brien's uses the story of him and his misguidedness to show how the soldiers were completely separated from the war. After the war is over, the soldiers returned home attempting to get back to their normal lives. But as was shown with Cross and Martha, it didn’t turn out that way. Trying to cope with all the death that he found in Vietnam, Cross does not believe that Martha isn't a virgin and believes that they still could have a life together. This was meant to be a comfort and safety mechanism when he was possibly faced with rejection and death all around him. It got to the point that it was all he thought about up to Ted lavenders death. Trying to rid himself of the guilt he “burned Martha’s letters. The he burned the two photographs… He realized it was only a gesture… you couldn’t burn away the blame” (O’Brien 23) This shows that he knew that his obsessions with Martha is what lead to the death of ted Lavender, and even when he reali...
Poetry and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 9nd ed. New York: Longman, 2005. Pgs 389-392
.... Jimmy was leader and should have been patrolling to make sure the platoon was safe. Instead he was dreaming about Martha and Lavender was shot and killed. Now Cross had a new motivation, he would forget about Martha and be a better leader. He didn’t want any more men to die because of his careless day dreaming. The other men had the motivation of fear to keep them working and in good health. The only thing they would all dream about would be the plane that would take them away from Vietnam.
Lieutenant Cross is a character who, until the death of a soldier, has been very loose and not taken the war seriously. He had let his soldiers throw away their supplies, take drugs, and sing happy songs in the middle of the serious war. He was only concerned with Martha; he dreamt about being with her, and he was delighted when he received letters from her. Tim O’Brien says, “Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men, checking the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin.” (p. 2) This shows how all he cared about was Martha; he was not paying attention to his real life and his surroundings. He was basically living in a world of fantasy because they lived in two separate worlds. Being unable to wake up from this dream made him potentially weak because his mind was always wandering elsewhere, never in the current situation. This made him an easy target for his enemies because if this had gone on, then he would start to fear death, fear fighting, and fear the war. He would become a coward because he would wish for the day when he could be with Martha again after the war. This would greatly weaken him and his army both, and they would most likely lose to the enemy.
In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is depicted as a morally ambiguous character; neither purely evil or purely good. Oedipus runs from his fate initially to prevent himself from pursuing what he believed was his fate; however, he is lead straight towards his real fate. He kills his biological father as he is headed to Thebes, where he takes the throne. Once he has taken the throne, he begins to try and save his city from the plague by looking for the murder of king Laius. However, what he does not know is that the prophet has told him who has slew the king; therefore, he presents his ignorance as a leader. Not only does his ignorance create the flawed character inside himself, but it also causes him to run from his fate. The significance of Oedipus being a morally ambiguous character is that he cannot run from his fate
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is not just a book about what soldiers carried during the Vietnam War, but a book about what they carried with them for the rest of their lives. The book also describes the traumatizing deaths which caused many soldiers to start to blame themselves.
His love for Martha was unhealthy and almost obsessive. He still remembers clearly "touching that left knee" of Martha's. Even out in the field he still reminisces how her knee felt. During a mission to destroy some tunnels, Cross imagines the tunnel collapsing on him and Martha. He also wonders if she is still a virgin or not and wonders why her letter are signed "love". This distraction and incompetence of himself lead to the death of one of their fellow soldiers, Ted Lavender. He has been shot and killed, partly because of Cross' lack of focus on the situation. He keeps to himself as he blames the incident on only himself. Shockingly, as they were waiting for a chopper to take his body away, he digs a foxhole. While sitting in the hole, crying, he was also thinking of " Martha's smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men " at the same time. This abnormal love for Martha has defected his ability to perform his duties as a leader. Martha has possessed him so much that even "without willing it, he was thinking about Martha." This shows that he has lost control on where and when is the right time to think about things like that.
In the beginning of the story jimmy cross was a dreamer and dreams about dating Martha. The author writes, "He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire" (409) telling us about the small world of dreams jimmy has made in the surroundings of war. In the nights he holds the picture of Martha and rejoice every moment he spent with her. He keeps thinking about the little things which might have improved his chances with her. This is supported in the lines "He remembered kissing her good night. Right then, he should've done something brave. He should've carried her to her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that knee all night long." (411), this also supports his carelessness towards his duty and risking life of others with him.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross goes through a constant struggle between what he remembers about Martha and what he feels about Martha despite the fact he knows in his own mind that what he imagines is not true. Since Lieutenant Cross was the head of the unit, it was his job to lead his members. It was his job to maintain a leadership. However, Lieutenant Cross’s thoughts and feelings about Martha change as he goes through changes within himself throughout the narrative of this short story.
All Lieutenants have a heavy burden to carry during war. They hold the responsibility of keeping the men safe and being their leader. Lieutenant Cross is not able to fully perform his job being a Lieutenant due to the fact that he emotionally distracts himself with a girl back home named Martha. We see Cross’s obsession for her when the narrator says “It was a phantom jealousy, he knew, but he couldn’t help himself.
Her lack of interest in him as a romantic partner is clear, yet he continues to believe that she may love him one day. This intricate fantasy has caused his mind to wander from the important matters at hand. Throughout their many missions, he would remind his men to spread out and to be aware of their surroundings. Ironically, Lieutenant Cross would slip away from reality to think about Martha and what he could have done when he was next to her. In the midst of one of his many daydreams, a fellow soldier, Ted Lavender, dies. Lieutenant Cross is suddenly hit with the realization that it was his
In the first paragraph of the story, Jimmy Cross' rank is noted (First Lieutenant) along with the fact that he "carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey" (434). From the outset, the reader sees that Martha plays a pivotal role in his thoughts and actions. The fact that Jimmy Cross "would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire" after he marched the entire day and dug a foxhole indicates that he thinks often of Martha (434). While these thoughts of a lover back home provide some form of escape for Lt. Cross, they also burden him with the obsessive feelings of unrequited love. ...
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from the woman he loved who was still back at home. “They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack.” These letters Cross carried along with him give in an insight into his past, his present, and his character. Martha, his love, was a long distance from him, but he refused to let his memories of her be erased. It didn’t matter to Cross whether or not the love he had for Martha was mutual, but he would still “spend the last hour of light pretending.” Not only would they remind him of his past, these pictures would also give Cross something to at least hope for and have faith in. It didn’t matter that he would “pretend” that Martha loved him as much as he loved her; the photographs and letters of her that he carried were “suitable” to his personality. These things may have been meaningless to other men, but to Cross they were a sign of hope, his past, and gave him some...
In her excerpt, Baumrind discusses the potential dangers of the aftereffects on the participants of the experiment. On many occasions she suggests that these people are subjects of a cruel and unethical experiment, and suffer from harm to their self-image and emotional disruption (227). She also calls Milgram’s experiment a “game” (Baumrind 225); this illustrates her negative outtake on the experiment which is seen throughout the article. On the contrary, Parker discusses the aftereffects on Milgram himself. He expresses how the experiment, although it shows light to what extent of obedience a person may travel, ruined Milgram’s reputation. Parker also cites many notable authors and psychologists and their reactions to Milgram’s experiment. Despite their differences, Baumrind and Parker are able to find common ground on a few issues concerning the Milgr...
Two novels written before the nineteenth century were, Pride and Prejudice and The Three Musketeers. In the first novel, Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen, there is the Bennet family. They have five daughters and Mrs.Bennet is very eager to get them all married. At coincidental timing Mr.Bingley, a wealthy single man comes to Netherfield. After a social visit by Mr.Bennet to Mr.Bingley, the Bennets are invited to a ball. At the ball Jane immediately catches the attention of Mr.Bingley and they spend the entire evening dancing together, however for Mr.Bingley’s friend Darcy, the same cannot be told. Elizabeth was recommended to dance with him but he arrogantly and very rudely turned her down. Eventually after having many encounters with Elizabeth at other balls and such, he is attracted by her intelligence and charm. At the start of winter Mr.Bingley and Darcy leave Netherfield to go back home. Therefore Jane visits the city in hopes to see Mr.Bingley, but instead is scorned by Miss Bingley (Mr.Bingley sister) and sadly returns. A little bit after Elizabeth goes to visit her best friend Charlotte, who lives near Darcy’s aunt. Upon hearing this Darcy comes to the house and proposes to Elizabeth by confessing his love for her. But she rejects him immediately calling him arrogant and scolds him for steering Mr.Bingley away from Jane and disinheriting Wickham. Darcy does not respond and just leaves. Shortly after Darcy writes a letter to Elizabeth explaining that he steered Mr.Bingley away from Jane because he felt the relationship was not going anywhere. He also explains that the real cause of their disagreement was that Wickham (a man in the militia that the younger Bennet girls have fallen in love with) was attempting to ...