Arrogance In Oedipus The King

In the beginning of the book Odysseus is impulsive and arrogant. After Odysseus blinds and defeats the Cyclops, he cannot contain himself. Out of pure impulsiveness and the inability to be humble, Odysseus yells out to the Cyclops, “If any man on the face of the earth should ask you/ who blinded you, shamed you do so–say Odysseus,/raider of cities, he gouged out your eye,/Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!” (Homer 9.556-562). Odysseus is so impulsive he has to scream out his name to the gods and the Cyclops. Odysseus’ impulse overtakes his actions, and rather than waiting for the right time to do something, he cannot contain himself and must get it out. In the beginning of the Odyssey, Odysseus cannot control his impulses, which leads

Oedipus is a hero, but he represents most men at the same time. He has human characteristics and feelings, such as his curiosity towards the knowledge Teiresias possesses and his horror when he realizes his horrible actions. “If you know something about our pain tell us…Speak then! Tell us what will emerge.” P.13 Oedipus questions Teiresias, curious to know what he knows. “Oh gruesomely clear it has all unraveled… I was bonded with the people I should have never killed.” P.40 Oedipus sees what he has done wrong and feels vulnerable and horror. The audience clearly sees that heroes are very human and how real their limitations. Most people would have felt that same vulnerability if the gods had made us their plaything and tormented us, writing a prophecy of our doom.

Oedipus’ impetuous behavior is another trait that eventually leads him to his downfall. While having a rash and short-tempered manor it seemed to have caused him to make bad judgment calls. Including when he accused Tiresias of being a part of the murder. The reason why being because Tiresias would not answer the questions the Oedipus asked. Oedipus then goes on, over exaggerating his speech towards Tiresias saying, “Did you rise to the crisis? Not a word, you and your birds, your gods-nothing. No, but I came along Oedipus the ignorant, I stopped the sphinx! With no help from the birds, the flight of my own intelligence hit the mark” (Lines 449-453). Following this quote, Oedipus ignores Tiresias’ warnings to not pursue the killer; if he did he

Oedipus denies the truth and faces the consequences later on in the play. He gets furious when everyone is blaming him for killing Laius. As he is blaming others, hubris appears within his personality. Oedipus becomes blinder as hubris takes over him. If someone tells you a truth that you do not want to accept, gather evidence before blaming others and accept the truth whether it is hard or

The character Oedipus is a tragic hero because of his tragic flaw of having consistent, proper ambition to finding the murderer of Laius. In the second scene, Oedipus enters and addresses the chorus, as if addressing the entire city of Thebes. "To all of Thebes I make this proclamation: / if any one of you knows who murdered Laius, I order him to reveal / the whole truth to me . . . He will suffer no unbearable punishment, nothing worse than exile" (171) At this time, Oedipus is trying to convince the killer to come forward and confess the murder. Ironically, by announcing this he has cursed himself because he is, in fact, the murderer of Laius. Near the end of the play, Oedipus asks a Shepard from whom did he retrieve the baby from. "No— / god 's sake, no more questions! / You 're a dead man if I have to ask again" (230). After this threat, the Shepard confesses that the baby was from the house of Laius, confirming that Laius is Oedipus 's father. If Oedipus hadn 't been so determined to find the killer, he would have never discovered this information, and wouldn 't have ever his mutilated himself. Oedipus 's hamartia of ambition is the precise reason of why he is a

Oedipus certainly deserved his fate. Oedipus and his actions are clearly disrespect to the gods , he faces the fate he deserves. He was doing things that would eventually lead up to the unfortunate event of his death , he was even warned by the great and wise Teiresias , but he being himself was to stubborn and did not listen. All the things Teiresias said would happen became the truth. He killed his father, married his mother, yet he tempted his fate , he deserved everything that came his way . He did not want to believe any of it he didn't listen , he thought he knew what was correct , and being the way he was , got the worst part.

When Teiresias refuses to name the murderer, however, we see the other side of Oedipus, a hot-tempered man who cannot bear to be denied what he wants. He taunts Teiresias with his blindness and makes irrational accusations against both Teiresias and Creon. Later, when the old servant also tries to avoid answering Oedipus' questions, Oedipus threatens him with torture."Oedipus went so far as to accuse him of keeping silence because he himself taken part in the murder"(Hamilton271).Thats when Oedipus tells Jocasta that, on his way to Thebes, he killed a man who struck at him in the road. So it's clear what his tragic flaw is, and his impulsive,violent temper can even be seen as an

In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus wishes to avenge his city by finding and exiling the killer of the former king, Laios’s killer. Oedipus asks Teiresias who the killer was, or at least for a hint in the right direction. At first, Teiresias refused to tell him but after Oedipus insisted, he finally relented. Teiresias was a blind man but knew that Oedipus was actually the murderer, while the king’s arrogance blinded him from seeing the truth.

Initially, he approaches Teiresias, the blind prophet, who has the quality of perceiving the truth. Sophocles cleverly uses irony to emphasize the idea that everything is not always what it seems. Although Teiresias is literally blind, he sees the surroundings far better than Oedipus; Sophocles created this character to foreshadow who the real murderer is. Teiresias hesitates to reveal the murderer, and assures “that way is best(37)” for both of them. His reluctance creates a sense of commotion, allows the readers to understand that Oedipus is the killer; this is also illustrated after he expresses that “[his] grief is [Oedipus’](38).” The grief he contains prepares the audience for the catastrophic tragedy. Nevertheless, Oedipus fails to comprehend Teiresias’ warning, and calls him “cold, stubborn, fool (38)” out of anger; he could no longer resist the need of unmasking the murderer. The diction he chooses demonstrates the way he scorns the prophet, considers him to be puny as he does not provide him with the answer he wants. Finally, Teiresias is fed up after Oedipus shunned him, and blurts out “the plague is [Oedipus](39).” He discloses, Oedipus is the root of the problem that arose in Thebes; Oedipus is shaken by the statement, and deems that he is a victim of conspiracy. He conjectured that his relative Kreon hired Teiresias to plot schemes against him because of the substantial amount of money and power he bores. However, he considers himself only capable of becoming the King. Since he solved the Sphinx’s riddle, he reckons to be self entitled as “no ordinary man could solve her riddle(41,)” “even the gods’ voice were useless” to free Thebes according to him. His complacent behaviour is evident, it is manifested that his talent of solving riddles contributes to a certain degree of pride for his accomplishment, but he has generated this self-righteous attitude to

Killing Laius and his men is an overreaction to his anger. This violent outburst shows that he has no self control and he does not show any remorse for what he has done. He also looses his temper with Tiresias when he is trying to explain the oracle to him. It is because of his anger that the oracle becomes true and in the end he looses everything good around him including his children and his sight. Oedipus constantly pushes people away that are only trying to help him, as if accepting help makes him seem

In achieving a set goal one may be overcome by pride, feeling as if they are superior. The self assurance of finally completing something boosts ones self righteousness. Homer presents this in The Odyssey, as the protagonist, Odysseus, becomes overwhelmed with pride on several occasions. His actions are ultimately the cause for the loss of his crew and his prolonged absence from Penelope. Odysseus displays hubris, which is excessive pride and self-confidence, upon landing on the island of the Cicones, his encounter with the Cyclops, and the way in which he looks down on his crew.

So when he starts telling him the truth Oedipus gets even more mad and taunts Tiresias about being blind. Then Oedipus accuses Ceron of being the murderer and that he is just trying to become king. If it was not for Oedipus’s temper he would not have killed king Laius and his men. Oedipus’s temper had a great contribution to his downfall and later his blindness.

Greek theatre was formed back in 500 BC by the Greek civilisation that used performing, miming and dancing as ways and means to tell stories, imitate others and for their rituals. They were two forms of plays that were showcased in the City of Dionysia; tragedy and satyr. The City of Dionysia was the festival celebrating the God Dionysus. Throughout this essay I will be describing the characteristics of Greek tragedy while using Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus the King’ as a reference.

Another tragedy of Oedipus as a tragic hero was that he was a proud man, who thinks he knew it all and would not listen to anyone. One of his greatest acts of hubris was that he denies his fate of the oracle and defy the prophecies of the gods that later came to reality, and despite his growing up in Corinth he was a son of the land of Thebes. Likewise, the prophecy was still to come into existence since he did not only overlooked his fate; he did whatever he wants to as the king of the

Oedipus the King is one of the most ironic plays ever written. Sophocles, the author, is a famous philosopher of the ancient times The Play is about Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who kills his father and marries his mother. An oracle warned Laius, the king of Thebes prior to Oedipus, that his son would murder him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta, had a son, he exposed the baby by first pinning his ankles together. The infant, who was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife was then brought up as their very own. In the earlier years Oedipus visits Delphi and learns that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. He then planned to never return to Corinth.