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

herself.
Oedipus then gouges his eyes out with brooches from her dress. After the beloved king finds out
the truth that has unfolded before him, his actions are what makes Oedipus the King a tragedy.
The term tragedy is derived, for reasons now lost, from the Greek words for goat and
song- referred to plays with plots that involved fierce conflict and characters that represented
powerful forces, both divine and human. Tragedies were written in verse and elevated, solemn
language and often based on stories about violent consequences of the interactions between
humans and gods. Tragic plots frequently were constructed from myths. Often the plot of a
tragedy ended with a resolution to the trouble, but only after the protagonists suffers great loss

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(Greek dictionary entry for tragoedia, Aristot.) Some of the best Greek literature were often
tragedies.
Oedipus being the main character in the play, He is a great king with a great personality
too. The play is tragic due to his flaws in his morals. This makes us as readers have tragic feeling
towards him when he fails due to his fight against bad. Oedipus would do anything for his people
we see this in the play when he says “You may count on me; I am ready to do anything to help”.
This is him being selfless and showing just how much he cares for his people. Oedipus also
thought highly of himself, we see this when he said “Here I am, myself, world-famous Oedipus”.

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

people
but also in doing this he loses in his battle with fate. We learn that no matter how good of a
person you are you cannot escape your fate. He never knew of what he had really done until it

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was too late, he had done everything his parents had been warned of and he never even knew.
After the beloved king finds out the truth that has unfolded before him, his actions are what
makes Oedipus the King a tragedy.