Sophocles’ Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy and is the second of The Three Theban Plays. It follows the story of King Oedipus of Thebes as he realises that he has fulfilled a prophecy which made him unwittingly kill his own father, Laius, and marry his mother, Jacosta. ‘Hamartia’ is a personal error in the protagonist’s personality, which brings about their tragic downfall. It is often described as a tragic flaw, however it is more accurately translated as ‘an error in judgement’ or ‘mistake’. The hero who commits these so-called wrongdoings may not intentionally be doing so, which is the case when it comes to Oedipus the King. ‘Hubris’ is also something of importance when it comes to discussing Oedipus’ character. ‘Hubris’ is the excessive …show more content…
It is apparent throughout the play that Oedipus has an excessive amount of pride and a large ego, which is evident from the start of the play where in his introductory speech he declares “Here I am myself – you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (Sophocles, 1984, line 7-9). The fact that Oedipus introduces himself in this way displays to the audience exactly how highly he regards himself and how much importance he deems himself to have. This conceit, including his disrespect, recklessness and even stubbornness, is the root cause of the many tribulations he encounters and subsequently results in his downfall. The attitude flaunted by Oedipus resonates throughout the play. We see it in its entirety when no one confesses to the murder of Laius and Oedipus bursts into a rage at Tiresias, shouting “You scum of the earth, you’d enrage a heart of stone…out with it once and for all!” (Sophocles, 1984, line 381-383). This boldness displayed by Oedipus allows the audience to single-handedly see precisely how he behaves and how his ego overtakes him. When it comes to his downfall, as suggested by Dodds, “the hamartia of Oedipus did not lie in losing his temper with Tiresias; it lay quite simply in the parricide and incest” (Segal, 1984, pg.180), however it is impossible to disregard Oedipus’ hubris due to it being one of the main characteristics of his personality which led him to commit these heinous acts, whether it be in …show more content…
The moment Oedipus decided to ignore the power that the Gods possessed, he placed himself in a position of failure. From a young age Oedipus had wondered about his parentage, and when told about what had been prophesised for him, he consciously attempted to evade his fortune by convincing himself he was smart enough to outwit his destiny. By trying to escape the inevitable, Oedipus had in fact ran right into the fate that was meant for him. The audience deem the Gods, especially Apollo, to be evil due to the decision made about destroying Oedipus and his family for no apparent reason. In the play, we see that Oedipus and Jacosta discuss the level of trust that should be given to the Gods, and when the prophecies come true, it sparks a justification for the audience and for the Gods, due to the topic of the Gods and prophets being under attack at that time in fifth-century BC Athens. For the audience, it is evident that he “had one of those fatal hamartiai that all tragic heroes have, as we know from Aristotle. And since he had a hamartia he could of course expect no mercy” (Segal, 1984, pg.177). The concept of ‘no mercy’ also resonates when discussing the power of the Gods. Oedipus deliberately ignoring the ability of the Gods warrants the retaliation of them with no compassion for him. Oedipus discovers his fate in the worst way, and at the end of the play the audience are
Oedipus thinks his human powers can match anything put in front of him. He forces other characters to tell him things, which again creates his tragic ending. (O790) Oedipus by not knowing his identity seems to create his own tragedy. Throughout the entire play, he is blind to everything people are telling him. (O320) He continues to badger Teiresias to answer things that Oedipus does not believe is true. If he only stopped, asking questions his fate might have been different. (O385) Because of these answers, he begins to suspect that people are plotting against him. He feels that he is above such lowly deeds. His own conceit and blind confidence in himself helps him continue towards a tragic ending. (O452-460) While Teiresias was predicting the future of Oedipus, he should have been smart enough to listen. He should have started to change his ways before he ended up destroying himself. Oedipus' guilt was beginning to play tricks on his mind. At the beginning of the play, Oedipus was on the top of the mortal world. Now he is finding out the truth about his past and his world starts to crumble around him.
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...
In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, the reader finds Oedipus as an overzealous king, but one that cares deeply for the people who are under his rule. After solving the mystery of the Sphinx and under the belief that he has escaped the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother, Oedipus’ self-confidence goes into over drive. His compassion, for the pain and suffering his people are under, causes him to pronounce a curse on the murderer of Laius. Unknown to the king, he is condemning himself for the crime he committed years ago.
Initially, Oedipus is a confident leader who believes he is educated and knows the truth about himself and the land he presides over, Thebes. This is because he was proclaimed the most famous man alive as a result of his answering the Sphinx’s riddle to save Thebes from a tragic epidemic. However, at the beginning of the play there is another plague causing grief to the members of Thebes, and Oedipus goes so far as to say that he will stop at nothing to rid Thebes of this pollution. He states, "Each of you grieves for himself alone, while my heart must bear the strain of sorrow for all--myself and you and all our city’s people. No I am not blind to it," (p.4). Yet in essence he is blind to it because he is the indirect cause for the epidemic in Thebes. Oedipus finds out that the cause for the Epidemic is that nobody came forth as an avenger in the murder of King Laius. Oedipus then states, "I shall not cease until I bring the truth to light. Apollo has shown, and you have shown, the duty which we owe the dead," (p.5). This is ironic in that Oedipus vows to make the truth come to light so that everybody can see it, including himself. Moreover, th...
The ancient Greeks were fond believers of Fate. Fate, defined according to Webster’s, is “the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as the do.” The Greeks take on Fate was slightly modified. They believed that the gods determined Fate: “…fate, to which in a mysterious way the gods themselves were subject, was an impersonal force decreeing ultimate things only, and unconcerned with day by day affairs.” It was thought that these gods worked in subtle ways; this accounts for character flaws (called harmatia in Greek). Ancient Greeks thought the gods would alter a person’s character, in order for that person to suffer (or gain from) the appropriate outcome. Such was the case in Oedipus’s story.
Two of the minor tragic flaws that lead to Oedipus downfall were his arrogance and short temper. Trough out the book we are able to see how Oedipus humiliates and gets into arguments with the people that telling him the truth about his real parents and that are trying to help him to find the “unknown”
Oedipus' boastful ways were the initiation of his disastrous downfall. A few years before Oedipus took reign of king, he was requested to step aside while a group of men passed. His self-esteem felt intruded and he was so enraged he killed the crowd. Thinking that he already knew his true father Oedipus did not know that one of the members of the assembly that he had slaughtered was his own father, King Laius. Destroying his father meant destroying the city he was soon to befriend as their king. Oedipus felt as if this curse came from above, as he says in line 1285, "Apollo. Dear children the god was Apollo. He brought my sick, sick fate upon me." But he also believed his ignorance played quite the role in his fate, as in line 700 he says, "I think I may be accursed by my own ignorant edict."
In nearly every work of fiction, there are main characters and there are foils, whose existence is to amplify the traits of those main characters. In the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the title character of Oedipus has many interactions with characters in the play that aren’t only foils, but whose interactions with him highlight his traits. In this case, the traits that the characters bring out are his flaws, through both Oedipus’s words and his actions. Without characters such as Creon, Laius, and Tiresias, as well as many others, these flaws would have been very subtle and easy to miss. His interactions with them allow for his rage, ignorance, rashness, and his infamous hubris to show through, giving depth to his character and showcasing
Throughout the entire play, Oedipus is presented as a static character with many flaws. Because of his many flaws, this eventually results in his downfall as the king of Thebes. Not only did his flaws lead to his downfall, but it was also his fate to kill his father and later lose his position of king and caused him to be exiled. One of Oedipus’ main flaws was focusing on only himself as king and not listening to the advice that the people around him were trying to give him. When Oedipus asked Tiresias, the prophet of the god Apollo who killed the last king of Thebes, he would not listen when Tiresias told him that he killed King Laius. Oedipus would be in denial and to the fact that he killed Laius. This flaw and many more ultimately led to his downfall. In the end Oedipus loses his eyesight just like how he was blind to his flaws, it was ironic how Oedipus was emotionally blind and that led to his physical blindness.
According to Collins English Dictionary, the definition of hubris is “an excess of ambition, pride”. Hubris is a person like Oedipus in this play who tricks himself. Throughout the story of Oedipus the king, Sophocles developed the story by building up the characteristic of each character from the start to made the story end as a tragedy. The protagonist, Oedipus, shows might and arrogance without acknowledging the truth. Oedipus’ hubris is responsible for the pollution that at the end leads to his downfall. His stubborn mind and blindness made him never thought himself as the murderer of Laius, a husband of his own mother, and are thirsting to find the truth later on.
First of all, Oedipus is determined to discover who he is, just like any person who is having problems. One explores the reason behind the problem to set their mind free and feel relief. They try to explore what is causing the problem and when it is discovered it is better left unknown. Oedipus can not accept things as they are and by investigating his past, he is his own worst enemy by destroying his relationships and himself. When he was a young man he heard that his parents were not his real paternal parents, from the oracle. He believed that his adopted parents were his real parents so he moved to Thebes so he would not fulfill what the oracle had predicted as his fate. Oedipus was a character that had a certain way of feeling sure about himself. Many people act this way, but this are the same kind of people that spend their time searching for the truth about themselves. I believe that his pride was his biggest character flaw and because of this, the conclusion of the play was tragic. He feels that he has to take responsibility for his actions even though he had no control over them and fate was to blame. Yet many aspects could have been avoiding with extensive research about his background from his adoptive parents, but because he avoided this, his circumstance determined his fate.
For Oedipus, prophecy is not the main source of his fall towards society; rather, his hubris blinds himself from recognizing his personal sin in the world, thus leading to his demise. Sophocles even skillfully uses a metaphor through the words “ as led by a guide” to further explain the “supernatural being” that ultimately decides the tragic fate of the family of Oedipus. In addition, through the death of Jocasta, the reader is immediately attuned of Oedipus’ raging moment of violence and will be petrified by the overwhelming power of the gods, thus realizing the importance of being cautious before making a final choice. Indeed, after an individual settles on a decision, the gods take control of the person’s fate, hurling numerous consequences to him if he makes the wrong decision. Moreover, as Oedipus suddenly becomes the unintended victim of the gods through his sinful decision to execute Laius, he is forced to relinquish his predominate impetus for pridefulness in exchange for a heart of deep realization and forgiveness. At the end of the play, Oedipus sacrifices everything in order to remove his guilt through the consequences of his atrocious actions witnessed by the gods. After Oedipus realizes the astringent fate he was destined to encounter through his sinful murder of Laius, he immediately attempts to take responsibility for his
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.
Unfortunately, as the play continues and Oedipus is told of his past that he did not know from a prophet, he begins his downfall due to his disrespect towards the prophet. In Hellenistic culture, the disrespect of gods and anyone associated with them would have been seen as one of the worst things that someone would be able to do. During the time where Oedipus and the prophet Tiresias confront, Oedipus becomes outraged on the accusations that Tiresias is accusing of Oedipus of, and because of this Oedipus begins to insult him, calling him a “sightless, witless, mad old man”(Sophocles Oedipus Rex, P.20). Throughout the rest of the play and as Oedipus learns more about the murder of King Laios and his early childhood, a thought appears that Oedipus may actually be a demi-god, or at the very least be favoured by them, “... of the nymphs that flower beyond the year, who bore you, royal child, To pan of the hills or the timberline of Apollo....” (Oedipus, P.58).
Oedipus and Tiresias, characters of Sophocles' play "Oedipus Tyrannus," are propelled to their individual destinies by their peculiar relationships with truth. Paranoid and quick to anger Oedipus, is markedly different from the confident and self-assured Tiresias. In the dialogue between the two men, Oedipus rapidly progresses from praise of Tiresias as a champion and protector of Thebes in line 304, to blatantly accusing the blind prophet of betraying the city in line 331, to angrily insulting him in line 334. Rather than be intimidated by the protagonist's title and temperament, Tiresias draws strength from what he knows is true and is able to stand his ground.