Oedipus Fate

(OR 329-330) Oedipus does not want to harm the people of Thebes; instead, he wants to help them. Although his actions may show he is rude and selfish, he can't really be blamed because he doesn't have the information that those around him have. He is so preoccupied with solving the crime that he loses touch with himself, as Dodds puts it: "Because he cannot rest content with a lie, he must remove the last veil from the illusion in which he has lived for so

After Oedipus realizes that he fulfilled his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother, Oedipus declares,”I have been saved for something great and terrible, something strange. Well let destiny come and take me on its way”(323). Then Oedipus gouges out his own eyes so that he cannot look upon his parents in the underworld, his children, or the city he once ruled. He then asks Creon to return him to the place he should have died as a young child, the mountain. The statement reveals that Oedipus fulfilled his fate and that Oedipus truly believes destiny set him on the path of destruction.

During the investigation of the murder of King Laius, Oedipus explains to Jocasta what’s happening and starts questioning his parents to her, “I knew there was talk; I could not rest… I went to the shrine at Delphi” (Sophocles 231). Oedipus made the poor decision to question his parents’ relationship with him, instead of listening to his parents telling him they are his parents he chose to listen to a random stranger. Going to Delphi, the gods gave Oedipus an unclear statement of who his parents are. However, they also reveal a horrifying fate that he will have to encounter. Oedipus later reveals to Jocasta, “I heard all of this, and fled” (Sophocles 232).

Sophocles dramatizes Oedipus’s blindness to himself through his denial of the truth, which is blatantly presented to him. Teiresias reveals to Oedipus that he is the one who has brought such turbulence and misery to his beloved city, although the words of this blind prophet have always come true, Oedipus refuses all statements and beliefs that blame him for being the source of any harm or misfortune (Sophocles 12). Oedipus convinced himself that he was taking every precaution necessary to avoid his unthinkable fate. He fled his home and rejected any circumstance that may have put him in the presence of one his adopted parents (Sophocles 12). However, Oedipus did not realize that in his attempts of proving his fate wrong, he was only driving himself in the direction of a tragic downfall.

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. Oedipus’s pride also was a large contribution to his downfall.

In the beginning Oedipus know very little, he came from corinth to thebes like a stranger he doesn't know the mess he is in and the mess about to occur. Other people know, and hide the truth from oedipus. Oedipus has killed his father, saved thebes from the sphinx and its riddle, and become king. The citizens believe that solving the Sphinx’s riddle makes Oedipus wise.

This personal tragedy for Oedipus was discovering the truth and becoming blind because of it. It completed the prophecy that Oedipus had received from Tiresias, the blind prophet. Tiresias told Oedipus that he had come into Thebes with his sight but would leave Thebes without it. The physical blindness that Oedipus had also left him with wrongs of his life, with nothing to look at Oedipus was forced to think about his life, wrongdoings, and what had happened. Essentially he was forced to deal with it.

Oedipus is at his prime during the beginning of the play because he absent in the knowledge of his past. As the plot progresses, Oedipus becomes driven by curiosity and increasingly agitated as more information regarding his mysterious past is uncovered. Consequently, Oedipus’ realizes that he alone is the source for the defilement in Thebes and cannot emotionally handle the consequences in a productive manner. It is proven that knowledge has the ability to remove the sense of blissful ignorance and replace the void with mental

The people of Thebes seeked aid from the true gods , the real protectors and deciders of one's fate , and he puts the cities problems on his shoulders, A gods duty is not a mortal mans job. Oedipus just didnt understand. “ As I should , to avenge the city and the

Blindness is also a motif recited numerously during the story, from times before the story right down to the end, reflecting the wise and ignorance in the characters of Oedipus Rex. Sophocles, interestingly, seems to have grouped the characters of the play into two distinctive groups, the ones who can “see” and the ones who can’t “see”. This contrast of seeing and not seeing is becomes overt when the prophet Tiresias enters the stage. Tiresias is literally blind, but he can see clearly of not only Oedipus ' past, present, but also the horror in his future. Oedipus ' eyes works fine, but he 's completely blind of the ugly fate that gods have placed upon him.

In the play Oedipus the King tragedy strikes the palace and the town of Thebes as the life of their new leader Oedipus begins to come crashing down around them. The plague disease suddenly hits the town and begins to take countless lives of the people of the town. The women of the city then begin to become barren and those who were pregnant had to suffer through labor pains but unlike a normal delivery no life was produced to compensate for all the pain that they had to endure. With a decrease in population beginning they begin to question why all of this was happening to their town and they come to find out that this is the result of their previous king being killed and tragedy will continue to occur if the murderer is still out there.

Oedipus’ blindness, figuratively speaking, was based on his perspective. He may not be entirely at fault for the reasons behind the plague on Thebes, but it was due to his ignorance which led him to his downfall. In Oedipus’ perspective, it was logical to leave Corinth after hearing about the prophecy due to the fact the he believed that his parents were the king and queen of Corinth. His blindness to the idea that they were not his

Thebes was suffering and Oedipus, as a king, was responsible of solving the problem to save his people from the burden they were carrying. Theiresias, the prophet, is then called to help solve the problem. The solution is given to Oedipus. Theiresias says the truth to Oedipus about his life, but he is malcontent of it and continue in his blindness, "I say that you have

And Oedipus replied ”you have got your wish if you don’t tell the truth” . He is not pushing them to speak, he forces them using the power of his position . In addition to the reason behind Oedipus’s escape is knowing his fate and that he is going to kill his father and marry his mother. So he ran from it, and he did not know that he is running towards it. His curiosity and insistence to revel the truth made him follow his passion and never listen to anybody, hence he made bad choices.

The Queen, Jacosta, Oedipus’ wife tells him not to believe in the prophet, because they’ve been wrong before, she then tells Oedipus about how she and King Laius had a son who was prophesied to kill Laius and sleep with her but since the child was supposedly dead the prophecy couldn’t be true. Oedipus becomes a bit weary because as a child an old man told him he was adopted and that one day he’d kill his real father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus did also kill a man at a crossroads which sounded like the way Laius died. Oedipus continued questioning the messenger and found out that he was the man everyone spoke of and Jacosta then comes to the realization that Oedipus is her son and kills herself.