Sophocles Oedipus The King

Sophocles’ Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy and also a mystery. At the beginning of the play Thebes is suffering from a plague which leaves its fields and women barren. Oedipus, the king of Thebes, has sent his brother-in-law Creon to ask how to end this plague. Creon returns and tells Oedipus that once the killer of Laius is found Thebes will be cured of the plague. Laius was the predecessor of Oedipus. Oedipus vows to protect his land and people and to find the murderer of Laius. He then finds out the truth and he himself was the murder of Laius and that his marriage is sinful because he has married his birth mother. After learning this he sets off to kill Jocasta his wife and mother, once he arrives he finds that she has already hung

Oedipus, which means “Swell foot” in Greek, comes from his swollen feet. Oedipus stars off as a tragic character in the beginning due to the fact that his parents threw him away three days after his birth, because it was told that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Aristotle says that a tragic hero must be an important or influential man who commits error in judgement, and must suffer for his actions. To be a tragic hero he must learn a lesson from his error in judgement. Oedipus’s quest for truth is really what caused his downfall and that is the most tragic thing. He is also a morally good person. He is so great in this that he tries to avoid the unbearable fate that he hears of and still continues to do what is morally right. At the end our hero Oedipus surrenders to the power of fate at the end, and this is why I think Oedipus himself is tragic.

As the play unfolds we see the true side of Oedipus, he isn’t always arrogant at all. He means well in everything he does for his people. His misjudgment throughout the play is him trying to do what he really believes is right. He tries his hardest to make sure he saves his