Oedipus

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People's words can influence changes in our lives but ultimately one controls their own decisions. One's life can be in the hands of the gods but rather life can be in one's palms. Oedipus' downfall is entirely self-inflicted. He was given a second chance at life and his personality had really undone him as he brings misfortune on himself. He was given a choice, a crossroad, but the choices he makes were reflected on his personality. Through his hubristic and deterministic disposition, he led himself into a dark spiral of the consequences of bad choices by questioning unwilling people.

People with the greatest power will find the greatest downfall. Oedipus is guilty of hubris; he is a man of excessive pride. For a supposedly intelligent person, he made the choice of running away instead of confronting his "parents", thinking that he can outsmart the prophecy. From then on, he chose to kill a man that was old enough to be his father. Moreover he chose to solve the riddle of the Sphinx and accept the marriage to a woman that was old enough to be his mother. After saving Thebes, he thrived on the power he had acquired and his name is a triumph for him, as he puts it,"...Oedipus, whose name is greatest known and greatest feared."(Sophocles 185) As a king he wants people to fulfill his request and Teiresias wanted no truth to be told. Pride is his essence and when he was put into a negative light, he became really harsh. He chose to accuse Teiresias and Creon of plotting to dethrone him than accept the truth. It was actually Oedipus’ choice to invite the prophet because as he puts it, Teiresias,"...have harnessed all knowledge and all mysteries; you know what heaven hides..."(Sophocles 195). Evidently, Oedipus believes that this ...

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...ck in my soul, and there it dumbly clings; that cloud is my own spirit – that now wins its fiercest battle and turns back to trample me…” (Sophocles 237) He placed a dark loom on himself as many have tried to prevent him from going into the dark to search for light. This journey of truth has brought him into a full circle. He started as a murderer and ended back as a murderer and in the meanwhile losing his essence of life. His personality had made him self-centered and neglected the consequences of others for his desire to capture the truth. Determinism that he possessed only helped bring him closer to his determined ending. If he wasn't arrogant he could taken into account of the words of others rationally. Oedipus was not limited by his fate but rather the knowledge of it. For that, he cannot blame fate to be the cause of his downfall but can only blame himself.

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