Examples Of Atonement In Oedipus The King

Oedipus’s Atonement In Sophocles's play Oedipus the Rex, he develops a tragic story of Oedipus, who had slain his own father and married his own mother without any knowledge of his own birth background. Oedipus’s story reflects the powerlessness of man against the inevitable power of fate determined by higher beings, which all of his actions were driven by fate and he couldn’t do anything to prevent tragedies from happening. In the end of the story, Oedipus realized he was the one that brought misfortune and disasters into the country because of the human taboo that “he” had violated. He then atones for his “sins and crimes” by blinding himself and asking for deportation from the country Thebes that he was ruling. His atonement was fulfilled

In Oedipus the Rex, Oedipus did not feel an extremely strong guilt because he exceeded the most of his ability to fight against his fate. In the story, Oedipus asked, “Why not at once have slain me? Never then had I displayed before the face of men”(Sophocles 51). This reflects that Oedipus blamed the servant who was supposed to kill him for everything that happened later rather than blaming himself. He later addressed himself as a victim of fate by stating: “ But to Gods, above all men, I am a mark for hate”(Sophocles 55). However, despite that he does not feel guilty for his actions, he still felt sorry for his people as they suffered simply for his presence in Thebes. Thus, his atonement to blind himself and leave the country focuses on the pain of the people rather than the actions of murdering his own father and having children with his mother. By blinding himself, he aims to suffer pain with the people; by leaving the country, he aims to free the people from the curse as well as freeing himself. His atonement is achieved because the actions he took have a huge effect in improving the lives of the citizens of Thebes, therefore he successfully recovered his