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Essay On Oedipus The King

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Challenges arise at some point in everyone 's lives, but the choices a person makes may be more difficult then the challenge itself. What makes a good leader? Sophocles, a greek author, wrote “Oedipus the King” and provides an example of an inadequate leader. It starts off describing the fate of the child of the king and queen of Thebes. To prevent their fate, they give to their child to a shepherd with instructions to let it die on the mountain. The shepherd does not let the child die and the boy grows up in a different kingdom. Eventually he returned home not knowing that he is the son of the king of Thebes. He solved the riddle of the sphinx and was quickly named the king of Thebes. Have his previous actions proved that he was a good leader? The answer can be seen through his impulsive actions, when he stopped thinking about his people, and when he was mercilessly searching for the killer of the previous king. As seen in the following quote Oedipus jumps to conclusions. “You are a clever speaker . . . I have found …show more content…

One cannot deny that Oedipus wanted to find the killer of Laius, and he did everything in his power to do so. That is where the problem lies. Although many believe Oedipus is relentlessly searching for the previous king’s killer, he is actually harming others in order to confirm his fate and wrongdoings. For instance, “One of you twist his arms behind his back quickly!”(Sophocles 85). “You are a dead man if I have to ask you again.”(Sophocles 87) is another prime example of Oedipus’s impudence. Oedipus is very close to figuring out who the killer is, and it shows his inability to show restraint. These quotes also show that Oedipus is willing to kill in order to find out the truth. This is when the audience should question his morality and justification. He was doing whatever he wanted, and no one stopped him. As a result, it can be seen that Oedipus is not fit to be the ruler of

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