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Analyze oedipus the king
Summary analysis of oedipus the king essay
Summary analysis of oedipus the king essay
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In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, the protagonist Oedipus faces the realization of an ancient prophecy. Based on the prophecy, Oedipus is to kill his father and espouse his mother, Jocasta. Little to his knowledge, Oedipus has already fulfilled the prophecy. Initially, Oedipus’ emotions controlled him and his pride consumed him, only making him blind to the truth that he is the source of pollution in Thebes. Oedipus is a dynamic character who realizes his true fate. Once Oedipus fully becomes self-aware, he is no longer consumed by pride, and he no longer relies on his emotions. Oedipus’ relies on his emotions as opposed to reason. Oedipus is deathly afraid that the Oracle might come true, after learning about his prophecy. Oedipus also fears of being targeted. Oedipus’ fear of being targeted causes him to bully the public for answers (1532- 1533). The fear of being targeted then results in Oedipus to become fuming with anger. Oedipus becomes enraged by Teiresias’ refusal to speak …show more content…
Oedipus is no longer the prideful being he was at the start of Oedipus the King, and does not let his emotions control him. Oedipus fully recognizes the truth that he is the source of pollution. Oedipus then proceeds to blind himself with Jocasta’s pins (1561). Oedipus is now humble, no longer boasting about himself. An example of this is when Oedipus and Creon are conversing and Oedipus says that: “[he] shall speak for [Creon’s] own good, not for [his] own” (1563). At this moment, Oedipus seems to be a real person as opposed to a god he longed to be. Oedipus humbleness now leads him to claim that he is now hated by the gods (1565). Oedipus is a prime example of a dynamic character. As Oedipus the King progresses, Oedipus becomes humble and self-aware. Oedipus no longer lets both his emotions and his pride blind him to facing the facts. Analogous to most tragedies, the protagonist’s negative personality traits lead to their
As tragic hero Oedipus displays all of the usual canon; power, arrogance, and pride. Oedipus manifests himself in a position of confidence, which he derives from his success at solving the riddle of the Sphinx and marrying a queen.“It was you who came / and released Cadmus’ Town from the tribute / we paid to the cruel songstress…” (Sophocles, 33-35) , “CREON: Then tell me this - / are you not married to my sister?” (Sophocles, 696-697). In turn, it also enabled him to make rash decisions, such as slaying his father, without personal recompense. “I was to slay my father. And he dies, / And the grave hide...
Oedipus the King conveys many lessons that are relevant to people living today despite the fact that it was written by Sophocles twenty four centuries ago. Oedipus is a child destined to kill his father and marry his mother. During his life, he makes many mistakes trying to avoid his fate. These mistakes teach us about the nature of humans under certain circumstances. Oedipus possesses personality traits which causes him to make wrong decisions. Attributes like arrogance and his inability to make calm decisions in certain scenarios due to his anger causes his downfall. Oedipus’ excessive pride, like many people today, was an important factor that brought him grief. Oedipus’ lack of patience caused him to make hasty decisions which lead him to his greatest agony. Oedipus’ massive ego turned into excessive vanity, this was the first step to his downfall. Oedipus talks to Creon about the murderer of Laius. He declares, “Then I’ll go back and drag that shadowed past to light… but by myself and for myself I’ll break this plague” (Sophocles, 11). Oedipus is saying that he will be the on...
Another example of Oedipus’ presumptuous temperament is when he immediately assumes that Creon is trying to take his power from him. Creon sends Tiresias to Oedipus to help him solve the crime of the plague, and when Tiresias reveals that Oedipus must die in order to save the people of Thebes, Oedipus assumes Creon is trying to take his throne. Creon even tells Oedipus, “…if you think crude, mindless stubbornness such a gift, you’ve lost your sense of balance” (Meyer 1438). Oedipus’ impulsive nature leads him to discovering the truth and reveals that he has indeed fulfilled the prophecy he was running from.
Some perceive Oedipus, in Oedipus the King, to be an evil villain, while others a completely innocent man who is plagued by fate. Sophocles, however, desired to portray Oedipus as a mix between the two- as a tragic hero. According to Aristotle’s definition, Oedipus fits the criteria of a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, Oedipus is a tragic hero because he vigorously protests his situation, believes he has his own freedom and has supreme pride. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus continually protests the idea that he is subjected to a prophecy.
Oedipus is the son of the king and queen of Thebes. A prophet tells the king and queen that his son will kill him. This causes the king and queen to become worried of the possibilities so they decide to kill their son in order to prevent the predictions of the prophet from becoming true. However, Oedipus did not die and instead was rescued and eventually adopted. As time progresses Oedipus is told that he will kill his father and this frightens Oedipus so he decides to get as far as possible from his parents. During Oedipus’s journey he stumbles upon his biological father and he was unable to control his anger so he killed his father. As time goes on he eventually marries the queen of Thebes also known as his mom. He found out that her husband was killed a long time ago so Oedipus decided to investigate. A prophet tells Oedipus that he was the one that killed the king who was his father. Oedipus is angered and is told to stop trying to solve the mystery. Oedipus eventually discovers that what the prophet told him was true and is angered. He eventually meets his end. In this case Oedipus’s biggest flaw is his anger. His anger eventually causes him to face defeat. “Who would not feel his temper rise at words like these with which you shame our city” (Sophocles 1572). The quote comes directly from a conversation he was having with the prophet that told him he was
Oedipus was a victime of fate, his futur was foretold by an Oracle, he had no way of knowing that his wife was his mother nor that the stranger he killed was his father. Oedipus could not prevent his own downfall. Oedipus was the king of Thebes, he became king when he cured the city of a deadly plague. He cured the plague by solving the riddle of the mythical creature, the Sphinkx. Now the city is suffering from another plague and as king Oedipus must solve the riddle of this one.
In the beginning of Oedipus the King, he is concerned about the plague that has overridden the city, and summons Tiresias, the blind prophet. However, When Tiresias arrives in Thebes, their interactions allow us to see the extent of Oedipus’s pride. He says to the prophet, “I stopped the sphinx! With no help from the birds, the flight of my own intelligence hit the mark.” (lines 451-452). When met with his own made up assumption that Creon is after his throne, he begins to rant of his defeat of the sphinx, and how he did it single handedly and without help, especially from Creon. The prophet’s refusal to tell Oedipus as well drives out the hubris in Oedipus, forcing him to draw conclusions that do not exist, and blame his brother in law with no evidence. His hubris appears long before his encounter with Tiresias, as we see when he speaks with Jocasta, telling her about the prophecy he received from Apollo. He tells her, “I abandoned Corinth, and from that day on I gauged it’s landfall only by the stars, running,” (lines 876-878). Due to his pride, he believes that by simply leaving Corinth, he can outrun the prophecy, even though it came from a god. To the Greeks, this was the definition of hubris, believing that one could avoid their fate, which Oedipus tried his best to do and failed. Both Tiresias and Creon’s interactions with him magnify his hubris, showing his true
Oedipus is living in a dream from which he is only just beginning to awake. In this dream, he not only believes that he is in control of his own fate but that he is in control of his own identity. He assumes that he has three virtues: wisdom, reason, and self-control. When he attempts to use these virtues, however, he discovers that he is mistaken on all three counts. His first mistake is believing that he is wise. From this wisdom he hopes to maintain control over the events around him, but true wisdom is actually surrendering to the fact that control is an illusion, a "seeming." His second mistake is believing that he is a rational man. Indeed, Oedipus has great cognitive powers. He has insight, but this insight is quickly negated when it clashes with his own anger, which ultimately drives Oedipus to fly in the face of reason. His third mistake is believing that he is his own man, self-created. He believes that this makes him completely free, but, in fact, he is deeply tied to his roots. By rejecting his parentage, he attempts to avoid his fate. The chorus claims that no "man on Earth wins more of happiness than a seeming and after that turn[s] away" (Sophocles 64).1 Oedipus turns himself away from happiness because he believes that he is already happy. In his hubris, he becomes the agent of his own destruction. He serves as the paradigm for the self-deluding and self-destructive spirit of the human condition.
Sophocles wrote the play, “Oedipus the King,” about the ancient Greek King, Oedipus, and the tragic events of his life. Oedipus was the king of Thebes, and was dealt a series of unfortunate events throughout his life time. The choices that Oedipus made throughout his life lead to the horrific truth of the world around him. Oedipus ends up killing his father, and marrying his mother, however, he does not know that he does these things until his kingdom is about to collapse around him. Oedipus’ story is very tragic and odd but he is the reason that these events happened to him.
Oedipus’ exaggerated sense of pride made him believe he could defy the prophecy set out for him. He believed he could control his own fate. Despite knowing his prophecy, Oedipus did not even think twice about killing the people on the road to Thebes. When he became king Oedipus referred to himself as, “I, Oedipus, a name that all men know” (Sophocles Prologue. 9). Oedipus knew he had great power and a reputation. Oedipus’ hubris had a domino effect in his life. One critic stated, “Oedipus starts as a supremely confident, masterful king, a beloved, caring savior-figure, a man of energy and proven intelligence, and ends as a shunned, polluted, self-blinded outcast, deprived of the most basic freedoms” (Gillett and Hankey 273). When Tiresias told Oedipus that he was the cause of the plague, Oedipus’ pride kicked in as he reminded Tiresias that he solved the riddle of the Sphinx so, the plague could not have possibly been his fault. This hubris was the cause of Oedipus’ ignorance and denial, ultimately leading to the King of Thebes and Jocasta’s
The myth of Oedipus is one of a man brought down by forces aligning against him. Over the years, different playwrights have interpreted his character in various fashions. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is a man who is blind to the path on which his questions take him and exemplifies the typical tyrannical leader in ancient times; in Senaca’s Oedipus, it is the fear of his questions that give Oedipus a greater depth of character, a depth he must overcome if he is to survive his ordeal.
Even though he was abandoned at birth and left for dead, his new life was one of royalty and prestige. However, when his fortunes shifted again, Oedipus the King of Thebes has become the world’s wretch. Even though Oedipus deserves this fate, as he determined it for himself, he blames a faceless god of the heavens. “He brought my sick, sick fate upon me.” pg 18, shows the true error in Oedipus’ beliefs, as the god that he has trusted to guide his life has turned into Oedipus’ object of anger. Oedipus has nothing to blame but himself for not knowing his true self. During the manifestation of the plague and decline of Thebes, Oedipus feels that he is most affected, even though a priest comes to plead for his help. “ Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I.” pg. 3, Oedipus’ statement is a direct victimization of himself over all of his subjects. The citizens of Thebes are directly confronted with death and destruction every day, however this barely concerns Oedipus as he fails to heal the city. By viewing himself as the victim, Oedipus fails again and again to develop humility and resolve, furthering Oedipus’ departure from who he truly is. Oedipus’ past has always been discoverable, but before he was forced to learn his past, he took no action to learn about himself. Oedipus’ past was accessible as soon as he became king of Thebes, but being the victim,
The impetus for the downfall of Oedipus, "Known far and wide by name" (Sophocles, 1), is his anger. Enraged he slew King Laius and in anger he hastily pursued his own ruination. From the aforementioned recriminations of Tiresias to the conflict with his brother-in-law Creon (his ill temper again displayed - "Tempers such as yours most grievous to their own selves to bear,... .(Sophocles, 25); through the revealing exchanges with his wife/mother Jocasta and her slave (whose pity saved the infant Oedipus), damming insight grows in a logical sequence, all the while fueled by the Oedipal rage. Realizing the heinous nature of his actions, Oedipus blinds himself in a fit of anger and remorse - now, as Tiresias, he can see.
This research essay will be about the myth Oedipus the King. Even Oedipus can possibly change his fate, but he still leads himself to the destruction due to his arrogant and stubbornness. There are so many things Oedipus can possibly do differently to avoid fulfilling the prophecy of the oracle. The story of Oedipus can apply to our everyday lives in many ways. Life is a long chess game and our opponent is the ruthless fate. Some of us think twice, maybe even three times more before we make our moves. Some of us make the moves without taking a look.
Pride like that of Oedipus has been the downfall of many great leaders. Oedipus is blinded by his arrogance and won't accept the fact that he can't avoid his fate. His pride first affects him when he is told about what his fate has in-store for him. Oedipus explains to Jocasta that he was told that he "was fated to lie with [his] mother and show to daylight an accursed breed, which men would not endure, and [he] was doomed to be murderer of the father that begot [him]. When [he] heard this [he] fled" (Sophocles 45, 1.792-4). Ironically the pride that caused him to attempt to avoid his fate, put him on a path to it.