Oedipus Rex Research Paper

688 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What does creon symbolize in oedipus the king

Oedipus the king had a prophecy told about him by Apollo. The Oracle informed Oedipus of his destined future, which is to eventually shed his own fathers' blood and marry, as well as conceive children with, his mother. As the story plays out, Oedipus comes to the realization that he has indeed fulfilled the prophecy given to him. While he has the honor to uphold as king of Thebes, he disgraces his people with his actions of murder and incest. Ultimately, Oedipus character flaws do not help this satiation, because his lack of self-control and anger, impulsive decision to marry Jocasta (his mother), makes the prophecy come true.

From the beginning of this tragedy, Oedipus took many actions leading to his own downfall.
Oedipus could have waited for the plague to end, but out of compassion for his suffering people, he had
Creon his mother’s brother go to Delphi. When he learned of Apollo’s word, he could have calmly investigated the murder of the former king Laius, but in his hastiness, he passionately curses the murderer, and in so, unknowingly cures himself. “Whoever the man is who did this crime, one unknown person acting on his own or with companions, the worst of agonies will wear out his wretched life. I pray, …show more content…

Jocasta tried to stop him from pursuing the truth. Take for example a part of the last conversation between Jocasta and Oedipus. After realizing that the prophecy had come true, Jocasta begs him to just let the mystery go unsolved for once. Jocasta begged of him not to do it because she wanted him to be careful of his own life. Oedipus was not persuaded to let the chance of finding out the whole truth down. He was unable to stop his quest for the truth, even under his wife’s pleading. For it is in his own vain that he must solve the final riddle, the riddle of his

Show More
Related

  • Sight And Blindness In Sophocles's 'Oedipus Rex'

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Creon comes back and Oedipus finally hears what the oracle has to say he is outraged. Creon says "By banishing a man, or by bloodshed in quittance, since it is the blood which belong which brings the tempest on our city." (Prologue) At which Oedipus exclaims "For whoever was the slayer of Laius might wish to take vengeance on me also with a hand as

    Read More

  • Oedipus the King by Sophocles

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Proactive or Paranoid?

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is told that he will marry his mother and murder his father. He is told by the Delphic oracle this information but he wants to change his fate so he banishes himself from what he believes is place of birth. As he is wondering, he stumbles across a caravan. After some arguing, due to his hubris, he kills all the men in the caravan. One of the men in the caravan turned out to be his father, King Laios. Oedipus at the time did not know this. He then entered the city of Thebes and broke the plague of the sphinx by solving its riddle. Because of this he was awarded the recently widowed Queen Iocaste, who is actually his mother. He married Iocaste and had children with her.

    Read More

  • Free Oedipus the King Essays: Oedipus as the Hero Archetype

    493 Words  | 1 Pages

    Oedipus goes through denial and then separates himself through self-examination. Although warned to refrain from the search by his wife/mother, Jocasta, Oedipus continues to seek out the truth. This truth seeking leads to the transformation where Oedipus realizes that he is responsible. He had killed his father (although at the time he did not know Laius was his father) and married his mother (he did not know this either), thereby causing the plague. This realization was too much for Jocasta to bear, and so she committed suicide.

    Read More

  • Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    He murders his father and marries his mother unknowingly. While it may seem to some that Oedipus was destined to carry out his fate, it is also true that Oedipus’ personality led him to his fate. It is clear to see that Oedipus is an impulsive and passionate man, which causes Oedipus to fulfill the prophecy that haunts him. He flees the kingdom of Corinthian in order to avoid his fate. Along his journey he comes to a crossroad that is blocked by a chariot, and “in a fit of anger” Oedipus kills the father he never knew (Meyer 1422).

    Read More

  • The Intention of Oedipus in Oedipus the King

    1161 Words  | 3 Pages

    Continuing on his way, Oedipus found Thebes plagued by the Sphinx, who put a riddle to all passersby and destroyed those who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself. In reward, he received the throne of Thebes and the hand of the widowed queen, his mother, Jocasta. They had four children: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene. Later, when the truth became known, Jocasta committed suicide, and Oedipus, after blinding himself, went into exile, leaving his brother-in-law Creon as regent. The central theme in this work is that one cannot control his/her fate, whether the intentions are good or bad. Oedipus, the main character in this play is motivated to find the truth, and his intentions are good. The motivation is always followed by the intentions, just as the truth is followed by goodness. There are three critical parts to Oedipus's motivation. There is the prophecy, the realization, and the revelation. They will be discussed consecutively.

    Read More

  • Oedipus the King

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the play, Oedipus is faced with the truth and fails to acknowledge it. He is first told by the drunk at the party, but he dismisses it as just something said by an ignorant drunk. He then visits the oracle and is told his fate determined by the gods and believes he can escape it by fleeing to Thebes. On his way he carries out the first part of the fate by killing his father. He then makes it to Thebes and marries Jocasta, unknowingly fulfilling the fate. Teiresias finally tells Oedipus the horrible truth, but Oedipus calls him a liar and fails to recognize the truth again. When Oedipus finally figures that what the oracle, drunk, and Teiresias was all true, he cannot handle it and blinds himself while Jocasta kills herself.

    Read More

  • tragoed Comparing Tragedy in Hamlet and Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex)

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oedipus is the main character in the play Oedipus the King. Oedipus is thought of as a tragic figure because he was doomed from birth. Tiresias, an old blind prophet, told Oedipus' parents about Oedipus' fate. He told them that Oedipus would kill his father and sleep with his mother. So, his parents decided to have him killed, only it did not happen that way. He was passed off by two shepherds and finally to the King and Queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope to raise him as their own. Oedipus finds his way back to Thebes and on the way kills his father, but Oedipus did not know that one of the men he killed was his real father. This is the beginning of the prophecy coming true. In short Oedipus obtains the throne, Marries his mother and has kids with her. Oedipus' fate has come together without him even realizing what is going on. Eventually he is told what has happened and asks to be banished by his uncle/brother-in-law Creon. The tragedy in Oedipus' life began with his birth and the realization by his parents that his whole life was doomed.

    Read More

  • Free Essays - The Themes of Oedipus the King (Rex)

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the very beginning, Oedipus was destined to fulfill Apollo's prophecy of killing his father. Even though King Lauis tries to kill Oedipus to stop the fulfillment of this shameful prophecy, fate drives the Corinthian messenger to save Oedipus. What the gods fortell will come true and no human can stop it from happening, not even the kings. Oedipus is once again controlled by this power when he leaves the place of his child hood after he hears that he is to kill his father and marry his mother. "I shall shrink from nothing...to find the the murderer of Laius...You are the murderer..." Oedipus tried to stop the prophecy from coming true by leaving Corinth and only fate can make Oedipus turn to the road where he kills his true father. Leaving Corinth makes Oedipus lose his childhood by making him worry of such issues young people should not have to worry about and becoming a king of a strange land. Last of all, Oedipus carries the last part of the prophecy out, marrying his mother. " I would... never have been known as my mother's husband. Oedipus has no control over the outcome of his life. Fate causes Oedipus to have known the answer to the Sphinx's riddle and win his marriage to his mother, Jocasta. Had fate not intervened, the chances of marrying Jocasta would have been small since there is an enourmous number of people and places to go. Oedipus loses his sense of dignity after he discovers he is not only a murderer, but also that he had committed incest.

    Read More

  • Free Oedipus the King Essays: The Downfall of Oedipus Rex

    427 Words  | 1 Pages

    The downfall of Oedipus transpired due to the tragic flaw of his character.  Oedipus was very temperamental and became easily angered. He was a prideful individual who desired to be a hero and avenge the death of Laius.  His devout need to know the truth, and have the proof that it indeed was the truth also led to his ruin.

    Read More

  • Stock Tragic Hero: Oedipus: The Stock Tragic Hero

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Instead of blaming the gods or the fates or even the oracle, Oedipus instead does something which defines him as a tragic hero, he takes all of the blame and puts it on himself. Oedipus fully realizes that he murdered his father and slept with his mother after his long conversation with the blind prophet and shepherds (Sophocles, 465-479 1271-1310) However, it is when he sees his wife’s body hanging from the rope that he realizes fully what has happened, and that realization shakes Oedipus so much that he gouges his own eyes out in an attempt to both torture himself and accept his punishment as well as to no longer be able to see his once beautiful children, now turned into monstrosities in his eyes (Sophocles, 1395-1414) Oedipus accepts his fate completely near the end of the play, telling Creon to cast him out of Thebes with the words: “As for me, never condemn the city of my fathers to house my body, not while I’m alive, no, let me live on the mountains, on Cithaeron… let me die there, where they [Oedipus’s parents] tried to kill me” (Sophocles 1587-1594). It is with the accepting of his fate that Oedipus takes full responsibility for his own actions, despite the fact that he was unable to control his actions and he was ignorant of any crimes he was capable of. This is just another thing that makes him the epitome of a tragic hero, and it is the characteristic

    Read More

  • Pride, the Tragic Flaw of Oedipus the King

    513 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Aristotle, the protagonist in a tragedy must have a tragic flaw that ultimately becomes the cause of his ruin. Oedipus in Oedipus the King by Sophocles tragic flaw that caused his downfall was his pride. Three examples of when Oedipus’ pride got the better of him were: when he left his adopted parents in Cornith, the second is when he goes against Creon, and the third is when Oedipus is demanding that the messenger tell him all he knows about who his real parents are.

    Read More

  • Jocasta as the Victim of Oedipus the King

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    It seems that Jocasta suffers many tragedies, possibly more than Oedipus himself. Using our definition of a tragic hero, Jocasta’s fearful deed is that of giving up her son to death. That turns out to be her downfall and destroys her. However, she does not fit the criteria as a tragic hero. Jocasta did not do a good deed turning her into a hero. She goes through many tragedies, but this only categorizes her as a victim of tragedy. While Oedipus is still the “tragic hero,” he is no longer the main victim in the play.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Oedipus the King

    465 Words  | 1 Pages

    The priests of Thebes have come to Oedipus to stop the plague that is killing the people of Thebes. They revere him for his knowledge, since he solved the riddle of the Sphix many years before and became the king. As the reader is introduced to Oedipus, they are given many facts about his life so that they become familiar with this man who has done great things. But Oedipus learns from his brother-in-law, Creon who he had sent to Delphi, that Apollo has placed this plague upon Thebes until they "Drive the corruption from the land, don't harbor it any longer, past all cure, don't nurse it in your soil - root it out!" ¹ Oedipus swears an oath before the priests and the chorus (which represents all people of Thebes) that the murderer would be found and driven from the land.

    Read More

  • Oedipus Rex: One Of The Greatest Tragedy

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oedipus, Laius, and Jocasta believed they could cheat fate and that it was impossible for these prophecies to come to fruition. In their belief in what they had seen and observed, it was clearly shown they were always blind. They were unaware that they were ignorant and Apollo selectively gave them information, which guided them toward their demise. Once Jocasta realized that she married and had children with her son, she hung herself. Oedipus found out, which was the recognition in the tragedy, he ripped golden brooches from a gown and plunged them into his eyes, which was the reversal in the tragedy. This act of blinding himself was Oedipus’ catharsis. He was blind all along it was never luck guiding him to his rise in success. Oedipus was always guided by Apollo to reach great heights and then to plummet to the lowest of lows; making Oedipus the quintessential tragic

    Read More

More about Oedipus Rex Research Paper

Open Document